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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Southern California Hit by Rain Storms; Paris Hilton's Cell Phone Hacked
Aired February 22, 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, HOST: Good evening again, everyone.
And we do begin once again tonight in Southern California, where the forecast shows at least another three days of rain.
This is more than just academic for the thousands of people in the area. Their homes, quite literally tonight, are on a muddy brink.
We have two reports.
First, the big picture and CNN's Donna Tetreault.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, oh, oh!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, hey, it just went. Come back to our picture.
DONNA TETREAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This unbelievable picture on Fortune Place is a snapshot of the misfortune Southern Californians continue to weather. Dozens of homes have been red-tagged, too dangerous to live in.
This home slid off its foundation, only the flower boxes still intact.
LANCE VILTER, HOME RED-TAGGED: I was sitting at the desk with a computer on it, and the next thing I know, I heard something, and then it felt like an earthquake.
TETREAULT: The forces of nature are at work, and officials are scrambling to find answers for frightened and weary homeowners.
MAYOR JAMES HAHN, LOS ANGELES: We're going to do the best we can. We can't save every home. Mother Nature's got a lot more tools in her toolbox than we do.
TETREAULT: This latest storm in a series of weather systems is packing a knockout punch, leaving black-and-blue bruises across the region. Roofs are leaking, mud is flowing, and water is raging, not only through flood-control channels, but down driveways and anything on a slope.
Engineers have opened the floodgates at Lake Pyru (ph) Dam to relieve swollen waterways, but the rushing water is tearing up the Santa Paula Airport. Landing or taking off from here isn't going to be happening anytime soon.
Driving isn't any better. Roads around the region are flooded or otherwise impassable. Pacific Coast Highway had to be shut down today because of a massive rockslide.
So in normally sunny Southern California, the dark skies and rain are expected to remain. But already, people are beginning to think about how this kind of damage might be avoided next time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You look at this, and think before they start issuing all these permits for hillside building.
TETREAULT (on camera): And Southern California's on track to break more rainfall records.
Donna Tetreault for CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Those are the pieces of the story. Now the people and their homes.
Here's CNN's Ted Rowlands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD GOODPASTURE, HOMEOWNER: I mean, that was the first thing that came was fear and panic and...
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Richard Goodpasture owns one of the Highland Park homes that's in danger of sliding. In the middle of the night, Richard says he heard what he thought was his backyard fence rattling.
GOODPASTURE: We just came out and looked and saw the fence missing and decided it was probably a good idea to pack up some stuff and get, you know, get away from it.
ROWLANDS: A red tag is now on Richard's home of 28 years. The red tag means the city of Los Angeles has deemed his home uninhabitable. He, his wife and 15-year-old son are staying with relatives. The family piano is one of the few valuables they pulled out.
Richard's home is one of four in this close-knit neighborhood that was red-tagged after the slide.
ROBERT TROLE, HOMEOWNER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), my family's behind me. We got out OK. And let's, you know, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), that's the important thing.
PATRICIA TROLE, HOMEOWNER: It sounded like between an earthquake and thunder, and there was a very strong smell of wet earth.
ROWLANDS: Patricia and Robert Trole live around the corner from Richard.
PATRICIA TROLE: It was a horrible, horrible sound. And I looked out over the deck, and -- to see if we had lost any more land, and we realized we lost all the land.
ROBERT TROLE: You just wonder, you know, people say if you have 20 minutes to get out, what would you take? And now I know what you take. You take your pets and you take your family, you take your kids, you take some photographs off the wall, and you just get out.
ROWLANDS: The Lacanilao family, Mark, Gina, and 6-year-old Marina, were escorted into their home to get clothes and photos. Their backyard deck came crashing down with the slide.
MARK LACANILAO, HOMEOWNER: I just pray to God that nothing affects the house. Right now we have cracks all along the backside on the slabs, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) slab.
ROWLANDS: Richard says he's well aware that living on a hillside is a risk. It is one that he was willing to take almost 30 years ago when he moved in.
GOODPASTURE: Yes, I was thinking about it. I don't think there's anybody around here that's not thinking of it. We don't expect it to happen, but when it does, you know, it does. You try to deal with it. We're lucky, we're alive.
ROWLANDS: As rain continues to fall off and on around Southern California, not only this hillside but hillsides around the region become more saturated. Forecasters say they do expect a much-needed break in the weather by Thursday.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Thursday right now must seem like a long way away.
Now a story that lives where the political and the personal collide with the medically or scientifically possible, a story that forces some fairly painful questions.
What would you do for someone you love? What would you refuse to do, or refuse to permit, in spite of what might happen to someone you love?
Hard enough to answer when you're a parent or a spouse or a friend, harder still when you're the governor.
Here's CNN's Jason Carroll.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In these tiny cells lies a major controversy. Researchers see them as a possible path to medical progress, an answer for diseases that today cannot be cured.
The governor from Massachusetts sees it another way.
GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R), MASSACHUSETTS: I have this vision of an Orwellian laboratory.
CARROLL: At issue, embryonic stem cells, cells that can grow to become other cells -- skin cells, nerve cells, or these, heart cells.
But extracting them destroy the embryo, and that is something Governor Romney says he will not allow.
ROMNEY: Creating new life for purposes of experimentation and for research is something that I think Americans recoil at, and recognize that's a new boundary we're just not willing to cross.
CARROLL: Romney is one of the few governors nationwide speaking out on the issue. His position isn't just political. In 1998, his wife, Ann, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Scientists say embryonic stem cells could help people like her.
ROMNEY: She and I, my wife and I, care very deeply about finding the cure for her disease, and the cure for diseases of millions of other people in our country. But we don't believe for a minute that you have to cross ethical boundaries to find the cures for diseases. But she and I agree that you don't create new life to help cure our issues.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So how are you feeling?
ROBERT HARNDEN, STEM CELL PATIENT: I'm feeling great.
CARROLL: Robert Harnden says thanks to stem cell research, his lymphoma is in remission. In this case, the cells were from adults. But he believes embryonic cells could help even more.
HARNDEN: I just think it's so important for them just to continue.
CARROLL: They may not continue in his home state of Massachusetts. Scientists from prominent research institutions say Romney is preventing them from saving lives. Their dilemma, they can't get federal funding for new stem cell research, and the cells they can get funding for are tainted. They say they need to create new ones if research is to continue.
DR. DAVID SCADDEN, MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL: I come down on the side of relieving suffering. And I think these cells have great potential to do that.
CARROLL: However, Romney backs a bill prohibiting creation of new human embryos for research, even though his state ranks second only to California in the number of biotech companies, an industry essential to stem cell research and critical to the state's economy.
In contrast, California's governor backs embryonic research. GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: I'm very much interested in stem cell research and support it 100 percent.
ROMNEY: Look, we're not taking that next step. That is a line in the sand that cannot be crossed without crossing the boundary of ethical conduct.
CARROLL: For the governor, as for many Americans, a complex question of politics and personal ethics.
Jason Carroll, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Every word in the story we're about to tell provokes a sense of outrage. There is an accused serial rapist, a man with a history of assaults, a man sent away once, only to be let out.
Police maintain he struck again, and again, and again.
That alone seems bad enough, but it's only the beginning of the story.
So from Denver tonight, CNN's Sean Callebs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Brent Brents had already appeared in court once this week. Police say he's the man who brought terror and fear throughout Denver, accused of a series of rapes in the city in recent days.
District attorney Mitch Morrissey says Brents will be charged with sexually assaulting at least eight, perhaps nine people.
MITCH MORRISSEY, DENVER DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Based on the charges that we have in this case and the potential life sentences, if we get a conviction, he's going to spend an awful lot of time in the penitentiary...
CALLEBS: But people in the community feel that these most recent assaults should never have happened. Brents should have been stopped months ago. He had been released last July after more than 14 years in prison for raping a young boy and girl.
As a convicted sex offender, his DNA sample should have been in a state computer database and readily accessible. But it wasn't.
Denver police and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation admit there was a foul-up, a glitch, during the transfer of data from one computer system to another. And because of it, Brents was not matched to a DNA sample from a sexual assault in October. Had the data transfer been properly done, authorities admit police would have been able to identify Brents as a suspect earlier.
Rick Garcia is a Denver councilman on the Public Safety Commission.
COUNCILMAN RICK GARCIA, DENVER: That seems fairly routine. Why wasn't there a backup system in place to ensure that that kind of data was going to be retrieved and made available?
CALLEBS: Many in Denver, including the grandmother of an 8-year- old alleged victim, are upset that Brents was freed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would say to him, why would he take a life that was so young and so precious, and for no reason at all, destroy it, and make that person never be the same again? I don't understand.
GARCIA: I'm shocked and outraged, and I certainly feel the sense of frustration, and equal, I'm sure, from the families that this individual offended.
CALLEBS: On top of all of this, last November, Brents was actually brought in by police in Aurora, a Denver suburb, and he admitted, police say, sexually assaulting a young boy. Yet Aurora's mayor says, inexplicably, Brents wasn't arrested, he was actually let go.
MAYOR ED TAUER, AURORA, COLORADO: Well, I think people are very appropriately upset. This simply should not happen. And I think that that's really the undercurrent of our community right now is, all right, this happened, it wasn't right. Now we expect it fixed.
CALLEBS: When talking about Brents, authorities use phrases like "regrettable," "horrible result," and, "Our hearts go out to the victims," but admit it's probably little consolation.
Sean Callebs, CNN, Denver.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Seems there are no easy stories tonight. There are terms we sometimes use that frequently don't make a bit of sense. "Crime of passion" is one of them. It's kind of shorthand for passions that no one really understands, and, as is in this case, a crime of almost impossible to stomach.
The crime happened in Texas. The suspect's now in custody.
The story's reported by CNN's Ed Lavandera.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Late Friday night, Fort Worth investigators say, Stephen Barbee came to Lisa Underwood's home. According to an arrest warrant, the couple that had once been dating started fighting, because, as Barbee told police, he would not leave his wife.
LT. GENE JONES, FORT WORTH POLICE DEPARTMENT: We know that Mr. Barbee and Miss Underwood were at one time romantically involved. LAVANDERA: The warrant says Barbee is the father of Underwood's unborn child. According to investigators, as the argument escalated, Barbee punched the pregnant woman in the face, and then suffocated her to death. During the scuffle, 7-year-old Jayden walked into the room screaming. Barbee then suffocated and killed the boy.
Investigators say Barbee proceeded to load the bodies into Underwood's SUV and dumped them in a field.
JONES: A makeshift grave has been located in southwest Denton County. We were led to this location by Stephen Barbee after he provided a confession to our investigators.
LAVANDERA: Investigators say Barbee was arrested about 135 miles away in Tyler Tuesday morning. He was secretly taken to the crime scene.
SGT. J.D. THORNTON, FORT WORTH POLICE DEPARTMENT: He was transported back to Fort Worth from Tyler this morning, and before he was booked into the town county jail, he led us to the exact location of the grave.
LAVANDERA: Investigators continued working inside Lisa Underwood's home, using the front driveway to search for fingerprints on doors.
Neighbor James Wilson has known the Underwood family for several years. Their children played together. He's angered by what he calls a senseless murder.
JAMES WILSON, UNDERWOOD NEIGHBOR: If there was ever a time that the justice system needed to work, it'd be now.
LAVANDERA: Lisa Underwood was the co-owner of Boopa's Bagel Deli. Boopa was her son's nickname.
A memorial of flowers and letters grows in front of the store, where Underwood, who was seven months pregnant, was supposed to have enjoyed a baby shower in her honor on Saturday.
(on camera): Stephen Barbee is being held on $2 million bond and is charged with one count of capital murder, which means, if he's convicted, he could face the death penalty.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: More to come tonight, starting at home. In America's heartland, a long-awaited homecoming for soldiers changed by war. One National Guard company's story, one town's big day.
Also tonight, do you know where your data is? Why all the devices that keep us all connected are such easy targets for hackers.
And on his first day of spring training, one of baseball's greatest sluggers takes aim at reporters, Barry Bonds.
All that and more as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: we will soon add the name of the U.S. Marine who died today in Iraq in what the military calls a nonhostile vehicle accident.
And then there was the deadly violence yet again in Baghdad. Insurgents attacked a convoy of Iraqi special forces. At least three died, nearly three dozen injured.
On the political front, Ahmed Chalabi took his name out of the running for prime minister. That cleared the way for Ibrahim al- Jaafari to be chosen as the candidate of the large coalition of Shi'ite groups, though that does not mean he yet has a lock on the prime minister's job. He still needs additional support, and most likely, if it comes, it will come from the Kurds.
Now to Paris, the Paris that's just across the Indiana state line in southern Illinois. Paris is home to about 9,000 people and the 1544th Transportation Company of the Illinois National Guard.
While in Iraq, the 1544 drew risky duty running fuel convoys, and the unit paid a heavy price. And, of course, so did Paris, making today's homecoming a welcome relief for the soldiers who have served and the families that have waited and worried.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): They came home, marching literally up Main Street to the applause, and to the sirens, and especially to the tears of loved ones.
But these soldiers know that war changes everyone, those who fight, even those who stay behind.
JIM COOPER, FAMILY READINESS GROUP: It was very nerve-wracking, very nerve-wracking, because you're feeling good about everything, and all of a sudden you get a call from somebody, and they're worried, and then the next thing you know, you're just worried too.
BROWN: For the past year, while his son Matthew and the rest of the unit was in Iraq, Jim Cooper, an electrician by trade, has had one of the most difficult jobs a civilian can have. He's been the one who had to tell the families about the injuries or the deaths.
It changes you. It changes even the way you hear the phone ring.
COOPER: You didn't know whether it was your own son, you didn't know whether it was one of the kids that you knew like a son around you. It was just -- and when I got to the armory and they told me what happened, I just broke down. I mean, that was our first one. And not that it got easier over the time, but it just -- all of a sudden, everything come to reality. BROWN: Reality for the family of Specialist Charles Lamb of nearby Martinsville, the first member of the company to die in Iraq.
And later, for the family of Sergeant Shauna Morrison (ph) of Paris, the first woman ever to die in combat from Edgar County, Illinois.
Three others from the 1544 were also killed in combat. Fifteen were injured. A hundred and sixty went to war a year ago, 140 came back unharmed, though not unchanged.
COOPER: As far as the war ending, you talked about any of these families. As far as we're concerned, the war is not over yet, and it won't be over until the terrorist people are stopped.
BROWN: The parade was about emotions unleashed, a time for mothers to exhale, like Tammy Johns, whose daughter, Shelly, enlisted in the Guard while a high school student of 17 and turned 20 in Baghdad.
TAMMY JOHNS, MOTHER OF NATIONAL GUARD SOLDIER: We'll have her birthday party when she gets here. We're going to have Christmas when she gets here. Got our Christmas tree still up, Christmas decorations, the whole bit. I told her we'll have a party for every single holiday she missed, even St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day, the whole thing.
BROWN: Paris is a town that mostly backed the war. Ned Jenison publishes the local paper, "The Paris Beacon News," has lived here all his life.
NED JENISON, PUBLISHER, "PARIS BEACON NEWS": We've had a few letters saying that, you know, we shouldn't be there, that we should bring them home and everything. But for our people that were there, there's never any question but what, you know, the community was behind them.
BROWN: Never any question either that the town would empty out its schools and its businesses to welcome their soldiers back home.
The speeches were short. The homecomings and hugs lingered. Shelly Johns got roses and hugs. Matt Cooper got a huge embrace from his mom. And Jim Cooper, well, Jim Cooper finally had something good to preside over, something very good.
COOPER: As a parent, it just brings a tear to your eye, I'll tell you. It's just unbelievable. I knew there'd be a big crowd. This town won't let something like this go on without just everybody showing up. I just expected it. They've always been this way. They love these guys, and they're here to show it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Makes a reporter feel pretty good too.
Ahead on the program tonight, what you have in common with Paris Hilton. Her privacy was invaded. Yours might be next. A cell phone wakeup call coming.
And from hack to hacked off. We'll let Barry Bonds tell you a thing or two. But what did he say about steroids?
A break first from New York. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In the information age, it shouldn't surprise us there's big money to be made in gathering information. There's also big money in stealing it. That's, in short, what this story's about.
A company called ChoicePoint that gathers information on you, giving it away to thieves. They didn't know they were doing that, but they did it just the same, and now you, and in this case, that literally could be you, are at the risk of having your identity stolen.
Here's CNN's Gerri Willis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The last thing Elizabeth Rosen thought she'd find in her mailbox is news that she was a victim of an enormous scam to steal personal information.
ELIZABETH ROSEN: I picked up my mail, and there was a letter from ChoicePoint. I didn't know who ChoicePoint was, and I thought it was an ad, so I didn't really read it till I got upstairs. After I read the letter, I realized that it wasn't good.
WILLIS: What the California nurse learned was that this obscure Atlanta-area company had unwittingly shared her personal financial information with thieves. She has no idea if she's lost money along with her identity.
Just what is ChoicePoint? Experts say it's in the business of data brokering. ChoicePoint makes its profits, and healthy ones, at that, by compiling detailed information on, well, all of us, and selling it.
DANIEL J. SOLOVE, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: ChoicePoint has extensive personal information about you, about me, about practically every American citizen. This company has massive databases, and it has technology that can slice and dice this information in remarkable ways.
WILLIS (on camera): The market for this kind of information, employers trying to screen deadbeats, insurance companies checking for bad risks, and the federal government as it tries to protect us from terrorists.
(voice-over): For its part, ChoicePoint says it's a victim of fraud just as Elizabeth Rosen was, tricked by thieves who posed as legitimate customers. What kind of details did they have access to? The list is nearly endless, because ChoicePoint has 19 billion public records in its database. That includes everything from the value of your home to whether you have a hunting license, even boating records. The list goes on and on.
ChoicePoint's CEO, Derek Smith, told an Atlanta TV station...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will take a look at and see what it, what we can do to help those consumers as they come forward if, in fact, their days have been compromised.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIS: How is it that a company like ChoicePoint can know everything about you, while you probably know next to nothing about it? The multibillion-dollar data broker industry operates below the radar of many consumers. It's usually not until you're turned down for a loan or a credit card that you may become aware of these information traffickers.
For Elizabeth Rosen, this whole episode has made her anxious about whether she can keep any financial secrets.
ROSEN: They sold it. Nobody hacked into their database. They gave us away. And I'm going to be dealing with this for the next 10 years, because my personal identification is out there now.
WILLIS: The fears of just one of over 100,000 victims.
Gerri Willis, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Which bring us to Paris Hilton. And I'll admit, I'm as surprised as you that I've actually said those two words together.
Ms. Hilton, whose claim to fame is fame itself, has become a victim of information thieves, and it does seem her information is likely to be a lot more interesting than, well, let's say, mine.
And if it can happen to Paris Hilton, it can happen to anyone.
OK, on most things, that's not true. But on the hacking thing, it is.
Here's technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Paris Hilton is suffering from overexposure again.
PARIS HILTON, T-MOBILE USER: Let me get that phone. SIEBERG: The socialite-turned-reality-TV-star's digital details were stolen and posted online this week after her T-Mobile cell phone was compromised. It housed phone numbers for the likes of Christina Aguilera, Anna Kournikova and other celebs, along with some revealing photos. Maybe it's easy to scoff. But what about your phone of PDA? Do you know where your data is right now?
DAVID STEINBERG, CEO, INPHONIC: It's really people being careless. People have to understand that wireless phones, even regular wireless phones, are like little laptops.
SIEBERG: When you sync your phone, your BlackBerry or your PDA with your computer, the information is sometimes sent to the Web servers of your wireless provider. That way, you can access the information on another computer. But any computer attached to the Internet is vulnerable. If you can access it, so can someone else.
But there's also the idea of social engineering or tricking people into unwittingly handing over sensitive data. You might call that person a con man.
KEVIN MITNICK, SECURITY EXPERT: Hackers go after the weakest link in the chain. And, unfortunately, it's people like you and me. It's the human factor.
SIEBERG: Former hacker Kevin Mitnick, seen here during his release from federal primary fives years ago, is now a security consultant. He says an attacker is not always a shadowy figure crunching on a keyboard somewhere.
MITNICK: A social engineer is basically putting themselves into the role. They're either an actor or an actress. And they're creating a situation, and the object is to get compliance, to get a trusted person or the target to comply with the request.
SIEBERG: Mitnick thinks Paris Hilton may have been tricked into resetting her password by someone impersonating T-Mobile's service reporters and asking her to reveal it.
But there are even lower-tech means to get access, as in finders keepers. In a recent survey by security firm Pointsec, tens of thousands of portable devices were apparently left in the back seat of cabs around the world.
STEINBERG: I would say, more often than not, people who are having information problems or losing their data to other people is because they just leave their phone or their smart device or their PDA or their BlackBerry, they leave it somewhere and somebody else picks it up and has access to it.
SIEBERG (on camera): They can help you stay connected and organized, but they can easily come back to hurt you. Just because it's in your pocket or safely on your hip doesn't mean someone can't break in.
Daniel Sieberg, CNN, Atlanta. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: In a moment, the American man just released from a Saudi prison, he's finally back in the U.S., but it's hardly a warm welcome, as we'll explain. And later in the hour, morning papers.
From around the country and around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: On the CNN "Security Watch" tonight, an American is back in the country after spending nearly two years in a Saudi prison. If this sounds like welcome news for the man in question, it most certainly is not. He's coming home to charges he conspired to assassinate the president.
Reporting for us tonight from Washington, CNN's Kelli Arena.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Texas-born Ahmed Abu Ali is 23 years old. He just spent the last 20 months of his life in prison in Saudi Arabia but was never charged there.
Abu Ali says he was tortured in prison, and has the scars on his back to prove it, a claim the Saudi government denies.
He finally got home last night. His first stop, a U.S. courtroom. U.S. prosecutors say Abu Ali conspired to assassinate President Bush, that he supported al Qaeda, and was willing to set up a terror cell right here in the United States.
Abu Ali's parents say the government is lying to save embarrassment.
OMAR ABU ALI, AHMED'S FATHER: The government, they lied to us from the first day. They told the district court that this is a Saudi case, and we have nothing to do with this case. Now, they are cooking, they cooked a new thing, they changed the story about Ahmed.
ARENA (on camera): His family says he was held at the request of the United States and sued the U.S. government on behalf of their son. U.S. government officials have insisted the Saudis had their own interest in Abu Ali, having to do with the bombings in Riyadh in May of 2003.
The judge assured him he would not suffer any torture or humiliation while in U.S. custody. In the indictment against him, Abu Ali is charged with discussing two scenarios to assassinate President Bush, one in which he would get close enough to the president to shoot him on the street, and another in which Abu Ali would detonate a car bomb.
All the evidence against him remains under seal, the indictment, just the bare bones of what the government knows.
Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: There's a few other stories that made news around the country today.
The New York City Medical Examiner's Office has now decided to call a halt to the identification of human remains from the attack on 9/11, saying it has now exhausted all DNA technology that is currently available. About 10,000 fragments of those who died remain unidentified. The process could resume if new DNA technology comes along.
The hot tempers aimed at Harvard's president, Lawrence Summers, appears to have cooled down some, as have his calls for resignation. Mr. Summers met today with faculty members and pledged to be a better listener and to choose his words more carefully, something we could all learn from. He sparked an uproar when he wondered whether differences between men and women could be the result that fewer women -- rather, the differences between men and women could be the reason that fewer women hold high-level scientific positions.
Tomorrow in Little Rock, Arkansas, Bill Clinton's presidential library will open a trove of documents to the public. If you're in the area, stop by, 100,000 pages that detail the Clinton administration's handling of domestic policy, like health care and education.
Mixed news on teens and smoking tonight. "The American Journal of Public Health" says the number of teens who light up is down substantially. But a successful ad campaign that helped keep the teens from smoking is now running out of money. It's funded by the tobacco industry, which is now no longer required to contribute.
And one more item before we go to break, another chapter in the continuing saga of baseball and steroids and Barry Bonds. Reporting to training camp today, the San Francisco Giants superstar spoke publicly for the first time since his grand jury testimony in the BALCO case leaked out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARRY BONDS, SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS: You guys are like rerunning stories. This is just -- old stuff. It's like watching "Sanford and Son." you're just rerun after rerun after rerun. I mean, you guys, it's like -- what -- I mean, you can't -- it's almost comical, basically. I mean, we've got alcohol that's the No. 1 killer in America. We legalize that.
There's other issues. And you guys are going to be the same people next week, if some tragedy happened, how we need to save our children and everything else. And then, next week, you're the same people sitting there coming, how we should be doing this and how we're evil people. Or -- you know, you guys, it's one thing after the other. Pick one side or other. Are you all going to be good people or are you all just going to be who you are and just make the game or sports what it is?
It's become "Hard Copy" all day long. Are you guys jealous? Are you upset? Disappointed? What?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: The question had to do with steroid use. Mr. Bonds said he can't answer questions directly because of the legal restrictions. He said he's not even focusing on surpassing Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron's home run records. He just wants to get out there and play ball.
Shy, Mr. Bonds is not. Nor is Bill Maher about anything. We should know. We talked about just about everything today. And we'll have the interview for you after the break.
This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Last Friday night, Bill Maher kicked off the new season of his HBO program "Real Time With Bill Maher." The panel included Senator Joe Biden and former Secretary of health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, oh, yes, and Robin Williams. Suffice it to say the senator and the former secretary didn't stand a chance. Neither did the president, the media, the food industry, drug companies and network TV.
Mr. Maher is first and foremost a comedian, but he's a political comedian at a time when the culture itself seems to have a fair amount of trouble laughing at itself.
We talked earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Someone suggested the other day that the only people in the country who really get to speak their minds are comedians and talk show hosts. Everybody else gets trampled. That seem to make sense to you?
BILL MAHER, HOST, "REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER": Well, I don't think all comedians and talk show hosts speak their mind. I think it's an even smaller club than that.
But, yes, we do live in much more politically correct times than when I started a show called "Politically Incorrect." I thought things would get me out of the business because they would get looser. But, actually, we were talking about this in a meeting the other day. If you look at old "All in the Family"s from 1972, you couldn't do that show today. That's kind of sad.
BROWN: And why do you think that is?
MAHER: The country has become much more conservative, partly because it's been taken over by the religious right. They certainly have taken over one of the major parties. And that has a big influence on what goes on in America.
You hear it all the time, you know, values and morals. I personally don't believe that what they're talking about are either values or morals, but, in their mind it is, and that's what seems to rule the day.
BROWN: But that's a little bit different, I think, than the political correctness part of it, because, in fact, I think both sides are -- there are things that neither side will say because they are, in fact, afraid to say them.
MAHER: Yes.
Well, I mean, I always define political correctness as the elevation of sensitivity over truth. And I think that's more going on today than ever. Certainly, what you see -- I saw it again on the news this week over and over again, what's going on at Harvard. And, again, here's a professor at a university -- should be the most open forum we have in the whole country -- throwing it out there and saying over and over again, look, I'm just trying to provoke you, first of all. Let's just start a debate here.
And the truth is that, in America, there are some subjects like that where you can't even ask a question. I can understand how an answer could be wrong. I still am never able to understand how a question can be wrong.
BROWN: The journalistic flavor of the month seem to be bloggers. They brought down Dan Rather. They involved in the Jeff Gannon thing. Do you read the blogs? Do you care about the blogs? Do you think it's a big deal, a good deal?
MAHER: Well, do I read them? No. I'm not going to say I do. Sometimes, I become aware of what they're saying, because they've become a player now.
And I think that's OK, because I think the media needs a watchdog, and maybe this is the one that they need. I don't see that, so far, they've gotten a lot of stuff wrong. They were kind of right about the Dan Rather situation. And I'm certainly glad that this Jeff Gannon situation has come to light. It's almost a win-win, because, if they have something, great. If they don't, they're just dismissed.
BROWN: Let me ask you one other thing. Do your friends on -- have your friends on the left been uncomfortable with -- I thought you were really eloquent the other night talking about the Iraqi elections.
MAHER: Oh, thank you.
BROWN: Does that make some of your friends on the left uncomfortable?
MAHER: Yes, very uncomfortable.
They don't know what to do with themselves, because their big issue the last three years has been Iraq and how wrong it was and so forth. I will never go back on what I said to begin with, which was, I didn't think it was a wise idea to attack a country that didn't directly attack us. But there's no denying that this election was a big, big thing.
I was glad to hear Joe Biden, Senator Biden, say the same thing, because, after all, when you're involved in a war, it should be a little bit about partisan politics. I just think that the left feels the need to be so jaded about something like Iraq...
BROWN: Yes.
MAHER: ... because the right is so sentimental. And they are. And they're still guilty of that.
The reason why there was such a poor amount of planning for this war is because, once again, that Republican penchant for sentimentality, to believe that freedom was all it took. That's why there was no armor on the vehicles, because they thought they were going to throw flowers at us and candy and chocolates.
I don't know if you saw the story, but we actually had little American flags...
BROWN: Yes.
MAHER: ... that were sent in by the CIA. And they were giving them out to the people, because they thought the people would want to wave them. Of course, the flags went over there like pork crucifixes in that part of the world.
But you know what? At the end of the day, they were right, about that election, anyway.
BROWN: Yes.
MAHER: And freedom is a powerful force. And we forget -- again, because they're so sentimental about it, we forget that there's a lot of truth to that, that people, even in a place like that, where religion, in my view, is even more important than freedom, yes, they still want freedom a lot and they still want to live in a decent country, a regular country.
And a city like Baghdad could be a semi-European city. It is a cafe society. It's not a bunch of people who are walking out of the Middle Ages, like Saudi Arabia. They're not desert dwellers there. They're middle-class, educated, intelligent people. And they want a real country. And that could hold true in Beirut, Damascus, Tehran, Cairo. The Middle East could be transformed.
And if it does, you know, you're going to have to give it up to President Bush. And I know I'll be at the head of the line who doesn't want to do that, but I keep saying, you got to have the facts before the hate.
BROWN: The -- are you glad to be back at work? MAHER: Yes. Yes. I had a good break. And I could always use more time off. But it is good to be back, because there's a lot going on. And somebody's got to get in trouble.
BROWN: Somebody will. We're glad you're back at work. It's good to see you again.
MAHER: All right, Aaron. Thank you.
BROWN: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Bill Maher -- we talked with him late this afternoon.
Morning papers after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world, many to like today, I think.
"The Washington Times" starts us off, for no particular reason than it's on top. "Bush Warns of China Arms Sales. Deep Concern About E.U." -- European Union -- "Lifting Embargo." So, just one day after making peace with the Europeans, we're back at it again. Anyway, somehow I think selling guns to China is not that smart. But, hey, I'm just the news anchor.
"The Times Herald Record," Upstate New York. "Tax Fight. State Lawmakers Cost Businesses Extra $150 Million." And "A Rough Day for Stocks," OK, "and Bonds." Get it? Barry Bonds. "Belligerent Barry Bails on Steroid Question."
Speaking of Barry, "Angry Barry Strikes Back on His Critics. 'All of you have lied. When your closet is clean, then come and clean someone else's.'" Barry, just answer the question. You don't have to yell at us, right? Of course.
"The Christian Science Monitor," over here. "Sanibel Rethinks Its Experiment in Gator Tolerance." I guess they were having be-kind- to-alligator year in Sanibel Island and they're thinking about that again.
I love this story down at the bottom. I mean, it will break your heart, but it's a wonderfully written piece by a columnist for "The Des Moines Register." "I Can Kick the Denial, Not the Disease." It's the story of his learning he has Lou Gehrig disease. And it's worth reading. So go online. Find "The Des Moines Register" and read Rob Borsellino's column. It's terrific.
Now, of other matters, "The Guardian," British. "Queen Decides to Stay Away From Charles' Town Hall Wedding." You know, pretty soon, that wedding is going to take place in one of those marriage chapels in Las Vegas.
How we doing on time? OK, that's just the right amount.
"The Chicago Sun-Times." We'll get to the weather in a moment. Calm down. "Robber Caught After Boast on Radio Show. Bank Employee Heard Suspect Bragging About Holdup, So She Called Authorities," proving again that you have to be really dumb to get caught, OK?
Weather tomorrow in Chicago, "chipper."
We'll wrap it up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: If your morning plan is still not complete yet, check out "AMERICAN MORNING" 7:00 a.m. Eastern time. Those folks are downstairs right now. I'm not kidding. They are the hardest-working people I have ever seen. And they put together a terrific program, so, 7:00 a.m. Eastern time.
"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" next for most of you.
We're all back tomorrow. Until then, 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 February 22, 2005 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, HOST: Good evening again, everyone.
And we do begin once again tonight in Southern California, where the forecast shows at least another three days of rain.
This is more than just academic for the thousands of people in the area. Their homes, quite literally tonight, are on a muddy brink.
We have two reports.
First, the big picture and CNN's Donna Tetreault.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, oh, oh!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, hey, it just went. Come back to our picture.
DONNA TETREAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This unbelievable picture on Fortune Place is a snapshot of the misfortune Southern Californians continue to weather. Dozens of homes have been red-tagged, too dangerous to live in.
This home slid off its foundation, only the flower boxes still intact.
LANCE VILTER, HOME RED-TAGGED: I was sitting at the desk with a computer on it, and the next thing I know, I heard something, and then it felt like an earthquake.
TETREAULT: The forces of nature are at work, and officials are scrambling to find answers for frightened and weary homeowners.
MAYOR JAMES HAHN, LOS ANGELES: We're going to do the best we can. We can't save every home. Mother Nature's got a lot more tools in her toolbox than we do.
TETREAULT: This latest storm in a series of weather systems is packing a knockout punch, leaving black-and-blue bruises across the region. Roofs are leaking, mud is flowing, and water is raging, not only through flood-control channels, but down driveways and anything on a slope.
Engineers have opened the floodgates at Lake Pyru (ph) Dam to relieve swollen waterways, but the rushing water is tearing up the Santa Paula Airport. Landing or taking off from here isn't going to be happening anytime soon.
Driving isn't any better. Roads around the region are flooded or otherwise impassable. Pacific Coast Highway had to be shut down today because of a massive rockslide.
So in normally sunny Southern California, the dark skies and rain are expected to remain. But already, people are beginning to think about how this kind of damage might be avoided next time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You look at this, and think before they start issuing all these permits for hillside building.
TETREAULT (on camera): And Southern California's on track to break more rainfall records.
Donna Tetreault for CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Those are the pieces of the story. Now the people and their homes.
Here's CNN's Ted Rowlands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD GOODPASTURE, HOMEOWNER: I mean, that was the first thing that came was fear and panic and...
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Richard Goodpasture owns one of the Highland Park homes that's in danger of sliding. In the middle of the night, Richard says he heard what he thought was his backyard fence rattling.
GOODPASTURE: We just came out and looked and saw the fence missing and decided it was probably a good idea to pack up some stuff and get, you know, get away from it.
ROWLANDS: A red tag is now on Richard's home of 28 years. The red tag means the city of Los Angeles has deemed his home uninhabitable. He, his wife and 15-year-old son are staying with relatives. The family piano is one of the few valuables they pulled out.
Richard's home is one of four in this close-knit neighborhood that was red-tagged after the slide.
ROBERT TROLE, HOMEOWNER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), my family's behind me. We got out OK. And let's, you know, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), that's the important thing.
PATRICIA TROLE, HOMEOWNER: It sounded like between an earthquake and thunder, and there was a very strong smell of wet earth.
ROWLANDS: Patricia and Robert Trole live around the corner from Richard.
PATRICIA TROLE: It was a horrible, horrible sound. And I looked out over the deck, and -- to see if we had lost any more land, and we realized we lost all the land.
ROBERT TROLE: You just wonder, you know, people say if you have 20 minutes to get out, what would you take? And now I know what you take. You take your pets and you take your family, you take your kids, you take some photographs off the wall, and you just get out.
ROWLANDS: The Lacanilao family, Mark, Gina, and 6-year-old Marina, were escorted into their home to get clothes and photos. Their backyard deck came crashing down with the slide.
MARK LACANILAO, HOMEOWNER: I just pray to God that nothing affects the house. Right now we have cracks all along the backside on the slabs, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) slab.
ROWLANDS: Richard says he's well aware that living on a hillside is a risk. It is one that he was willing to take almost 30 years ago when he moved in.
GOODPASTURE: Yes, I was thinking about it. I don't think there's anybody around here that's not thinking of it. We don't expect it to happen, but when it does, you know, it does. You try to deal with it. We're lucky, we're alive.
ROWLANDS: As rain continues to fall off and on around Southern California, not only this hillside but hillsides around the region become more saturated. Forecasters say they do expect a much-needed break in the weather by Thursday.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Thursday right now must seem like a long way away.
Now a story that lives where the political and the personal collide with the medically or scientifically possible, a story that forces some fairly painful questions.
What would you do for someone you love? What would you refuse to do, or refuse to permit, in spite of what might happen to someone you love?
Hard enough to answer when you're a parent or a spouse or a friend, harder still when you're the governor.
Here's CNN's Jason Carroll.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In these tiny cells lies a major controversy. Researchers see them as a possible path to medical progress, an answer for diseases that today cannot be cured.
The governor from Massachusetts sees it another way.
GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R), MASSACHUSETTS: I have this vision of an Orwellian laboratory.
CARROLL: At issue, embryonic stem cells, cells that can grow to become other cells -- skin cells, nerve cells, or these, heart cells.
But extracting them destroy the embryo, and that is something Governor Romney says he will not allow.
ROMNEY: Creating new life for purposes of experimentation and for research is something that I think Americans recoil at, and recognize that's a new boundary we're just not willing to cross.
CARROLL: Romney is one of the few governors nationwide speaking out on the issue. His position isn't just political. In 1998, his wife, Ann, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Scientists say embryonic stem cells could help people like her.
ROMNEY: She and I, my wife and I, care very deeply about finding the cure for her disease, and the cure for diseases of millions of other people in our country. But we don't believe for a minute that you have to cross ethical boundaries to find the cures for diseases. But she and I agree that you don't create new life to help cure our issues.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So how are you feeling?
ROBERT HARNDEN, STEM CELL PATIENT: I'm feeling great.
CARROLL: Robert Harnden says thanks to stem cell research, his lymphoma is in remission. In this case, the cells were from adults. But he believes embryonic cells could help even more.
HARNDEN: I just think it's so important for them just to continue.
CARROLL: They may not continue in his home state of Massachusetts. Scientists from prominent research institutions say Romney is preventing them from saving lives. Their dilemma, they can't get federal funding for new stem cell research, and the cells they can get funding for are tainted. They say they need to create new ones if research is to continue.
DR. DAVID SCADDEN, MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL: I come down on the side of relieving suffering. And I think these cells have great potential to do that.
CARROLL: However, Romney backs a bill prohibiting creation of new human embryos for research, even though his state ranks second only to California in the number of biotech companies, an industry essential to stem cell research and critical to the state's economy.
In contrast, California's governor backs embryonic research. GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: I'm very much interested in stem cell research and support it 100 percent.
ROMNEY: Look, we're not taking that next step. That is a line in the sand that cannot be crossed without crossing the boundary of ethical conduct.
CARROLL: For the governor, as for many Americans, a complex question of politics and personal ethics.
Jason Carroll, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Every word in the story we're about to tell provokes a sense of outrage. There is an accused serial rapist, a man with a history of assaults, a man sent away once, only to be let out.
Police maintain he struck again, and again, and again.
That alone seems bad enough, but it's only the beginning of the story.
So from Denver tonight, CNN's Sean Callebs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Brent Brents had already appeared in court once this week. Police say he's the man who brought terror and fear throughout Denver, accused of a series of rapes in the city in recent days.
District attorney Mitch Morrissey says Brents will be charged with sexually assaulting at least eight, perhaps nine people.
MITCH MORRISSEY, DENVER DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Based on the charges that we have in this case and the potential life sentences, if we get a conviction, he's going to spend an awful lot of time in the penitentiary...
CALLEBS: But people in the community feel that these most recent assaults should never have happened. Brents should have been stopped months ago. He had been released last July after more than 14 years in prison for raping a young boy and girl.
As a convicted sex offender, his DNA sample should have been in a state computer database and readily accessible. But it wasn't.
Denver police and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation admit there was a foul-up, a glitch, during the transfer of data from one computer system to another. And because of it, Brents was not matched to a DNA sample from a sexual assault in October. Had the data transfer been properly done, authorities admit police would have been able to identify Brents as a suspect earlier.
Rick Garcia is a Denver councilman on the Public Safety Commission.
COUNCILMAN RICK GARCIA, DENVER: That seems fairly routine. Why wasn't there a backup system in place to ensure that that kind of data was going to be retrieved and made available?
CALLEBS: Many in Denver, including the grandmother of an 8-year- old alleged victim, are upset that Brents was freed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would say to him, why would he take a life that was so young and so precious, and for no reason at all, destroy it, and make that person never be the same again? I don't understand.
GARCIA: I'm shocked and outraged, and I certainly feel the sense of frustration, and equal, I'm sure, from the families that this individual offended.
CALLEBS: On top of all of this, last November, Brents was actually brought in by police in Aurora, a Denver suburb, and he admitted, police say, sexually assaulting a young boy. Yet Aurora's mayor says, inexplicably, Brents wasn't arrested, he was actually let go.
MAYOR ED TAUER, AURORA, COLORADO: Well, I think people are very appropriately upset. This simply should not happen. And I think that that's really the undercurrent of our community right now is, all right, this happened, it wasn't right. Now we expect it fixed.
CALLEBS: When talking about Brents, authorities use phrases like "regrettable," "horrible result," and, "Our hearts go out to the victims," but admit it's probably little consolation.
Sean Callebs, CNN, Denver.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Seems there are no easy stories tonight. There are terms we sometimes use that frequently don't make a bit of sense. "Crime of passion" is one of them. It's kind of shorthand for passions that no one really understands, and, as is in this case, a crime of almost impossible to stomach.
The crime happened in Texas. The suspect's now in custody.
The story's reported by CNN's Ed Lavandera.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Late Friday night, Fort Worth investigators say, Stephen Barbee came to Lisa Underwood's home. According to an arrest warrant, the couple that had once been dating started fighting, because, as Barbee told police, he would not leave his wife.
LT. GENE JONES, FORT WORTH POLICE DEPARTMENT: We know that Mr. Barbee and Miss Underwood were at one time romantically involved. LAVANDERA: The warrant says Barbee is the father of Underwood's unborn child. According to investigators, as the argument escalated, Barbee punched the pregnant woman in the face, and then suffocated her to death. During the scuffle, 7-year-old Jayden walked into the room screaming. Barbee then suffocated and killed the boy.
Investigators say Barbee proceeded to load the bodies into Underwood's SUV and dumped them in a field.
JONES: A makeshift grave has been located in southwest Denton County. We were led to this location by Stephen Barbee after he provided a confession to our investigators.
LAVANDERA: Investigators say Barbee was arrested about 135 miles away in Tyler Tuesday morning. He was secretly taken to the crime scene.
SGT. J.D. THORNTON, FORT WORTH POLICE DEPARTMENT: He was transported back to Fort Worth from Tyler this morning, and before he was booked into the town county jail, he led us to the exact location of the grave.
LAVANDERA: Investigators continued working inside Lisa Underwood's home, using the front driveway to search for fingerprints on doors.
Neighbor James Wilson has known the Underwood family for several years. Their children played together. He's angered by what he calls a senseless murder.
JAMES WILSON, UNDERWOOD NEIGHBOR: If there was ever a time that the justice system needed to work, it'd be now.
LAVANDERA: Lisa Underwood was the co-owner of Boopa's Bagel Deli. Boopa was her son's nickname.
A memorial of flowers and letters grows in front of the store, where Underwood, who was seven months pregnant, was supposed to have enjoyed a baby shower in her honor on Saturday.
(on camera): Stephen Barbee is being held on $2 million bond and is charged with one count of capital murder, which means, if he's convicted, he could face the death penalty.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: More to come tonight, starting at home. In America's heartland, a long-awaited homecoming for soldiers changed by war. One National Guard company's story, one town's big day.
Also tonight, do you know where your data is? Why all the devices that keep us all connected are such easy targets for hackers.
And on his first day of spring training, one of baseball's greatest sluggers takes aim at reporters, Barry Bonds.
All that and more as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: we will soon add the name of the U.S. Marine who died today in Iraq in what the military calls a nonhostile vehicle accident.
And then there was the deadly violence yet again in Baghdad. Insurgents attacked a convoy of Iraqi special forces. At least three died, nearly three dozen injured.
On the political front, Ahmed Chalabi took his name out of the running for prime minister. That cleared the way for Ibrahim al- Jaafari to be chosen as the candidate of the large coalition of Shi'ite groups, though that does not mean he yet has a lock on the prime minister's job. He still needs additional support, and most likely, if it comes, it will come from the Kurds.
Now to Paris, the Paris that's just across the Indiana state line in southern Illinois. Paris is home to about 9,000 people and the 1544th Transportation Company of the Illinois National Guard.
While in Iraq, the 1544 drew risky duty running fuel convoys, and the unit paid a heavy price. And, of course, so did Paris, making today's homecoming a welcome relief for the soldiers who have served and the families that have waited and worried.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): They came home, marching literally up Main Street to the applause, and to the sirens, and especially to the tears of loved ones.
But these soldiers know that war changes everyone, those who fight, even those who stay behind.
JIM COOPER, FAMILY READINESS GROUP: It was very nerve-wracking, very nerve-wracking, because you're feeling good about everything, and all of a sudden you get a call from somebody, and they're worried, and then the next thing you know, you're just worried too.
BROWN: For the past year, while his son Matthew and the rest of the unit was in Iraq, Jim Cooper, an electrician by trade, has had one of the most difficult jobs a civilian can have. He's been the one who had to tell the families about the injuries or the deaths.
It changes you. It changes even the way you hear the phone ring.
COOPER: You didn't know whether it was your own son, you didn't know whether it was one of the kids that you knew like a son around you. It was just -- and when I got to the armory and they told me what happened, I just broke down. I mean, that was our first one. And not that it got easier over the time, but it just -- all of a sudden, everything come to reality. BROWN: Reality for the family of Specialist Charles Lamb of nearby Martinsville, the first member of the company to die in Iraq.
And later, for the family of Sergeant Shauna Morrison (ph) of Paris, the first woman ever to die in combat from Edgar County, Illinois.
Three others from the 1544 were also killed in combat. Fifteen were injured. A hundred and sixty went to war a year ago, 140 came back unharmed, though not unchanged.
COOPER: As far as the war ending, you talked about any of these families. As far as we're concerned, the war is not over yet, and it won't be over until the terrorist people are stopped.
BROWN: The parade was about emotions unleashed, a time for mothers to exhale, like Tammy Johns, whose daughter, Shelly, enlisted in the Guard while a high school student of 17 and turned 20 in Baghdad.
TAMMY JOHNS, MOTHER OF NATIONAL GUARD SOLDIER: We'll have her birthday party when she gets here. We're going to have Christmas when she gets here. Got our Christmas tree still up, Christmas decorations, the whole bit. I told her we'll have a party for every single holiday she missed, even St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day, the whole thing.
BROWN: Paris is a town that mostly backed the war. Ned Jenison publishes the local paper, "The Paris Beacon News," has lived here all his life.
NED JENISON, PUBLISHER, "PARIS BEACON NEWS": We've had a few letters saying that, you know, we shouldn't be there, that we should bring them home and everything. But for our people that were there, there's never any question but what, you know, the community was behind them.
BROWN: Never any question either that the town would empty out its schools and its businesses to welcome their soldiers back home.
The speeches were short. The homecomings and hugs lingered. Shelly Johns got roses and hugs. Matt Cooper got a huge embrace from his mom. And Jim Cooper, well, Jim Cooper finally had something good to preside over, something very good.
COOPER: As a parent, it just brings a tear to your eye, I'll tell you. It's just unbelievable. I knew there'd be a big crowd. This town won't let something like this go on without just everybody showing up. I just expected it. They've always been this way. They love these guys, and they're here to show it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Makes a reporter feel pretty good too.
Ahead on the program tonight, what you have in common with Paris Hilton. Her privacy was invaded. Yours might be next. A cell phone wakeup call coming.
And from hack to hacked off. We'll let Barry Bonds tell you a thing or two. But what did he say about steroids?
A break first from New York. This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In the information age, it shouldn't surprise us there's big money to be made in gathering information. There's also big money in stealing it. That's, in short, what this story's about.
A company called ChoicePoint that gathers information on you, giving it away to thieves. They didn't know they were doing that, but they did it just the same, and now you, and in this case, that literally could be you, are at the risk of having your identity stolen.
Here's CNN's Gerri Willis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The last thing Elizabeth Rosen thought she'd find in her mailbox is news that she was a victim of an enormous scam to steal personal information.
ELIZABETH ROSEN: I picked up my mail, and there was a letter from ChoicePoint. I didn't know who ChoicePoint was, and I thought it was an ad, so I didn't really read it till I got upstairs. After I read the letter, I realized that it wasn't good.
WILLIS: What the California nurse learned was that this obscure Atlanta-area company had unwittingly shared her personal financial information with thieves. She has no idea if she's lost money along with her identity.
Just what is ChoicePoint? Experts say it's in the business of data brokering. ChoicePoint makes its profits, and healthy ones, at that, by compiling detailed information on, well, all of us, and selling it.
DANIEL J. SOLOVE, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: ChoicePoint has extensive personal information about you, about me, about practically every American citizen. This company has massive databases, and it has technology that can slice and dice this information in remarkable ways.
WILLIS (on camera): The market for this kind of information, employers trying to screen deadbeats, insurance companies checking for bad risks, and the federal government as it tries to protect us from terrorists.
(voice-over): For its part, ChoicePoint says it's a victim of fraud just as Elizabeth Rosen was, tricked by thieves who posed as legitimate customers. What kind of details did they have access to? The list is nearly endless, because ChoicePoint has 19 billion public records in its database. That includes everything from the value of your home to whether you have a hunting license, even boating records. The list goes on and on.
ChoicePoint's CEO, Derek Smith, told an Atlanta TV station...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will take a look at and see what it, what we can do to help those consumers as they come forward if, in fact, their days have been compromised.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIS: How is it that a company like ChoicePoint can know everything about you, while you probably know next to nothing about it? The multibillion-dollar data broker industry operates below the radar of many consumers. It's usually not until you're turned down for a loan or a credit card that you may become aware of these information traffickers.
For Elizabeth Rosen, this whole episode has made her anxious about whether she can keep any financial secrets.
ROSEN: They sold it. Nobody hacked into their database. They gave us away. And I'm going to be dealing with this for the next 10 years, because my personal identification is out there now.
WILLIS: The fears of just one of over 100,000 victims.
Gerri Willis, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Which bring us to Paris Hilton. And I'll admit, I'm as surprised as you that I've actually said those two words together.
Ms. Hilton, whose claim to fame is fame itself, has become a victim of information thieves, and it does seem her information is likely to be a lot more interesting than, well, let's say, mine.
And if it can happen to Paris Hilton, it can happen to anyone.
OK, on most things, that's not true. But on the hacking thing, it is.
Here's technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Paris Hilton is suffering from overexposure again.
PARIS HILTON, T-MOBILE USER: Let me get that phone. SIEBERG: The socialite-turned-reality-TV-star's digital details were stolen and posted online this week after her T-Mobile cell phone was compromised. It housed phone numbers for the likes of Christina Aguilera, Anna Kournikova and other celebs, along with some revealing photos. Maybe it's easy to scoff. But what about your phone of PDA? Do you know where your data is right now?
DAVID STEINBERG, CEO, INPHONIC: It's really people being careless. People have to understand that wireless phones, even regular wireless phones, are like little laptops.
SIEBERG: When you sync your phone, your BlackBerry or your PDA with your computer, the information is sometimes sent to the Web servers of your wireless provider. That way, you can access the information on another computer. But any computer attached to the Internet is vulnerable. If you can access it, so can someone else.
But there's also the idea of social engineering or tricking people into unwittingly handing over sensitive data. You might call that person a con man.
KEVIN MITNICK, SECURITY EXPERT: Hackers go after the weakest link in the chain. And, unfortunately, it's people like you and me. It's the human factor.
SIEBERG: Former hacker Kevin Mitnick, seen here during his release from federal primary fives years ago, is now a security consultant. He says an attacker is not always a shadowy figure crunching on a keyboard somewhere.
MITNICK: A social engineer is basically putting themselves into the role. They're either an actor or an actress. And they're creating a situation, and the object is to get compliance, to get a trusted person or the target to comply with the request.
SIEBERG: Mitnick thinks Paris Hilton may have been tricked into resetting her password by someone impersonating T-Mobile's service reporters and asking her to reveal it.
But there are even lower-tech means to get access, as in finders keepers. In a recent survey by security firm Pointsec, tens of thousands of portable devices were apparently left in the back seat of cabs around the world.
STEINBERG: I would say, more often than not, people who are having information problems or losing their data to other people is because they just leave their phone or their smart device or their PDA or their BlackBerry, they leave it somewhere and somebody else picks it up and has access to it.
SIEBERG (on camera): They can help you stay connected and organized, but they can easily come back to hurt you. Just because it's in your pocket or safely on your hip doesn't mean someone can't break in.
Daniel Sieberg, CNN, Atlanta. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: In a moment, the American man just released from a Saudi prison, he's finally back in the U.S., but it's hardly a warm welcome, as we'll explain. And later in the hour, morning papers.
From around the country and around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: On the CNN "Security Watch" tonight, an American is back in the country after spending nearly two years in a Saudi prison. If this sounds like welcome news for the man in question, it most certainly is not. He's coming home to charges he conspired to assassinate the president.
Reporting for us tonight from Washington, CNN's Kelli Arena.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Texas-born Ahmed Abu Ali is 23 years old. He just spent the last 20 months of his life in prison in Saudi Arabia but was never charged there.
Abu Ali says he was tortured in prison, and has the scars on his back to prove it, a claim the Saudi government denies.
He finally got home last night. His first stop, a U.S. courtroom. U.S. prosecutors say Abu Ali conspired to assassinate President Bush, that he supported al Qaeda, and was willing to set up a terror cell right here in the United States.
Abu Ali's parents say the government is lying to save embarrassment.
OMAR ABU ALI, AHMED'S FATHER: The government, they lied to us from the first day. They told the district court that this is a Saudi case, and we have nothing to do with this case. Now, they are cooking, they cooked a new thing, they changed the story about Ahmed.
ARENA (on camera): His family says he was held at the request of the United States and sued the U.S. government on behalf of their son. U.S. government officials have insisted the Saudis had their own interest in Abu Ali, having to do with the bombings in Riyadh in May of 2003.
The judge assured him he would not suffer any torture or humiliation while in U.S. custody. In the indictment against him, Abu Ali is charged with discussing two scenarios to assassinate President Bush, one in which he would get close enough to the president to shoot him on the street, and another in which Abu Ali would detonate a car bomb.
All the evidence against him remains under seal, the indictment, just the bare bones of what the government knows.
Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: There's a few other stories that made news around the country today.
The New York City Medical Examiner's Office has now decided to call a halt to the identification of human remains from the attack on 9/11, saying it has now exhausted all DNA technology that is currently available. About 10,000 fragments of those who died remain unidentified. The process could resume if new DNA technology comes along.
The hot tempers aimed at Harvard's president, Lawrence Summers, appears to have cooled down some, as have his calls for resignation. Mr. Summers met today with faculty members and pledged to be a better listener and to choose his words more carefully, something we could all learn from. He sparked an uproar when he wondered whether differences between men and women could be the result that fewer women -- rather, the differences between men and women could be the reason that fewer women hold high-level scientific positions.
Tomorrow in Little Rock, Arkansas, Bill Clinton's presidential library will open a trove of documents to the public. If you're in the area, stop by, 100,000 pages that detail the Clinton administration's handling of domestic policy, like health care and education.
Mixed news on teens and smoking tonight. "The American Journal of Public Health" says the number of teens who light up is down substantially. But a successful ad campaign that helped keep the teens from smoking is now running out of money. It's funded by the tobacco industry, which is now no longer required to contribute.
And one more item before we go to break, another chapter in the continuing saga of baseball and steroids and Barry Bonds. Reporting to training camp today, the San Francisco Giants superstar spoke publicly for the first time since his grand jury testimony in the BALCO case leaked out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARRY BONDS, SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS: You guys are like rerunning stories. This is just -- old stuff. It's like watching "Sanford and Son." you're just rerun after rerun after rerun. I mean, you guys, it's like -- what -- I mean, you can't -- it's almost comical, basically. I mean, we've got alcohol that's the No. 1 killer in America. We legalize that.
There's other issues. And you guys are going to be the same people next week, if some tragedy happened, how we need to save our children and everything else. And then, next week, you're the same people sitting there coming, how we should be doing this and how we're evil people. Or -- you know, you guys, it's one thing after the other. Pick one side or other. Are you all going to be good people or are you all just going to be who you are and just make the game or sports what it is?
It's become "Hard Copy" all day long. Are you guys jealous? Are you upset? Disappointed? What?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: The question had to do with steroid use. Mr. Bonds said he can't answer questions directly because of the legal restrictions. He said he's not even focusing on surpassing Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron's home run records. He just wants to get out there and play ball.
Shy, Mr. Bonds is not. Nor is Bill Maher about anything. We should know. We talked about just about everything today. And we'll have the interview for you after the break.
This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Last Friday night, Bill Maher kicked off the new season of his HBO program "Real Time With Bill Maher." The panel included Senator Joe Biden and former Secretary of health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, oh, yes, and Robin Williams. Suffice it to say the senator and the former secretary didn't stand a chance. Neither did the president, the media, the food industry, drug companies and network TV.
Mr. Maher is first and foremost a comedian, but he's a political comedian at a time when the culture itself seems to have a fair amount of trouble laughing at itself.
We talked earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Someone suggested the other day that the only people in the country who really get to speak their minds are comedians and talk show hosts. Everybody else gets trampled. That seem to make sense to you?
BILL MAHER, HOST, "REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER": Well, I don't think all comedians and talk show hosts speak their mind. I think it's an even smaller club than that.
But, yes, we do live in much more politically correct times than when I started a show called "Politically Incorrect." I thought things would get me out of the business because they would get looser. But, actually, we were talking about this in a meeting the other day. If you look at old "All in the Family"s from 1972, you couldn't do that show today. That's kind of sad.
BROWN: And why do you think that is?
MAHER: The country has become much more conservative, partly because it's been taken over by the religious right. They certainly have taken over one of the major parties. And that has a big influence on what goes on in America.
You hear it all the time, you know, values and morals. I personally don't believe that what they're talking about are either values or morals, but, in their mind it is, and that's what seems to rule the day.
BROWN: But that's a little bit different, I think, than the political correctness part of it, because, in fact, I think both sides are -- there are things that neither side will say because they are, in fact, afraid to say them.
MAHER: Yes.
Well, I mean, I always define political correctness as the elevation of sensitivity over truth. And I think that's more going on today than ever. Certainly, what you see -- I saw it again on the news this week over and over again, what's going on at Harvard. And, again, here's a professor at a university -- should be the most open forum we have in the whole country -- throwing it out there and saying over and over again, look, I'm just trying to provoke you, first of all. Let's just start a debate here.
And the truth is that, in America, there are some subjects like that where you can't even ask a question. I can understand how an answer could be wrong. I still am never able to understand how a question can be wrong.
BROWN: The journalistic flavor of the month seem to be bloggers. They brought down Dan Rather. They involved in the Jeff Gannon thing. Do you read the blogs? Do you care about the blogs? Do you think it's a big deal, a good deal?
MAHER: Well, do I read them? No. I'm not going to say I do. Sometimes, I become aware of what they're saying, because they've become a player now.
And I think that's OK, because I think the media needs a watchdog, and maybe this is the one that they need. I don't see that, so far, they've gotten a lot of stuff wrong. They were kind of right about the Dan Rather situation. And I'm certainly glad that this Jeff Gannon situation has come to light. It's almost a win-win, because, if they have something, great. If they don't, they're just dismissed.
BROWN: Let me ask you one other thing. Do your friends on -- have your friends on the left been uncomfortable with -- I thought you were really eloquent the other night talking about the Iraqi elections.
MAHER: Oh, thank you.
BROWN: Does that make some of your friends on the left uncomfortable?
MAHER: Yes, very uncomfortable.
They don't know what to do with themselves, because their big issue the last three years has been Iraq and how wrong it was and so forth. I will never go back on what I said to begin with, which was, I didn't think it was a wise idea to attack a country that didn't directly attack us. But there's no denying that this election was a big, big thing.
I was glad to hear Joe Biden, Senator Biden, say the same thing, because, after all, when you're involved in a war, it should be a little bit about partisan politics. I just think that the left feels the need to be so jaded about something like Iraq...
BROWN: Yes.
MAHER: ... because the right is so sentimental. And they are. And they're still guilty of that.
The reason why there was such a poor amount of planning for this war is because, once again, that Republican penchant for sentimentality, to believe that freedom was all it took. That's why there was no armor on the vehicles, because they thought they were going to throw flowers at us and candy and chocolates.
I don't know if you saw the story, but we actually had little American flags...
BROWN: Yes.
MAHER: ... that were sent in by the CIA. And they were giving them out to the people, because they thought the people would want to wave them. Of course, the flags went over there like pork crucifixes in that part of the world.
But you know what? At the end of the day, they were right, about that election, anyway.
BROWN: Yes.
MAHER: And freedom is a powerful force. And we forget -- again, because they're so sentimental about it, we forget that there's a lot of truth to that, that people, even in a place like that, where religion, in my view, is even more important than freedom, yes, they still want freedom a lot and they still want to live in a decent country, a regular country.
And a city like Baghdad could be a semi-European city. It is a cafe society. It's not a bunch of people who are walking out of the Middle Ages, like Saudi Arabia. They're not desert dwellers there. They're middle-class, educated, intelligent people. And they want a real country. And that could hold true in Beirut, Damascus, Tehran, Cairo. The Middle East could be transformed.
And if it does, you know, you're going to have to give it up to President Bush. And I know I'll be at the head of the line who doesn't want to do that, but I keep saying, you got to have the facts before the hate.
BROWN: The -- are you glad to be back at work? MAHER: Yes. Yes. I had a good break. And I could always use more time off. But it is good to be back, because there's a lot going on. And somebody's got to get in trouble.
BROWN: Somebody will. We're glad you're back at work. It's good to see you again.
MAHER: All right, Aaron. Thank you.
BROWN: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Bill Maher -- we talked with him late this afternoon.
Morning papers after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(ROOSTER CROWING)
BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world, many to like today, I think.
"The Washington Times" starts us off, for no particular reason than it's on top. "Bush Warns of China Arms Sales. Deep Concern About E.U." -- European Union -- "Lifting Embargo." So, just one day after making peace with the Europeans, we're back at it again. Anyway, somehow I think selling guns to China is not that smart. But, hey, I'm just the news anchor.
"The Times Herald Record," Upstate New York. "Tax Fight. State Lawmakers Cost Businesses Extra $150 Million." And "A Rough Day for Stocks," OK, "and Bonds." Get it? Barry Bonds. "Belligerent Barry Bails on Steroid Question."
Speaking of Barry, "Angry Barry Strikes Back on His Critics. 'All of you have lied. When your closet is clean, then come and clean someone else's.'" Barry, just answer the question. You don't have to yell at us, right? Of course.
"The Christian Science Monitor," over here. "Sanibel Rethinks Its Experiment in Gator Tolerance." I guess they were having be-kind- to-alligator year in Sanibel Island and they're thinking about that again.
I love this story down at the bottom. I mean, it will break your heart, but it's a wonderfully written piece by a columnist for "The Des Moines Register." "I Can Kick the Denial, Not the Disease." It's the story of his learning he has Lou Gehrig disease. And it's worth reading. So go online. Find "The Des Moines Register" and read Rob Borsellino's column. It's terrific.
Now, of other matters, "The Guardian," British. "Queen Decides to Stay Away From Charles' Town Hall Wedding." You know, pretty soon, that wedding is going to take place in one of those marriage chapels in Las Vegas.
How we doing on time? OK, that's just the right amount.
"The Chicago Sun-Times." We'll get to the weather in a moment. Calm down. "Robber Caught After Boast on Radio Show. Bank Employee Heard Suspect Bragging About Holdup, So She Called Authorities," proving again that you have to be really dumb to get caught, OK?
Weather tomorrow in Chicago, "chipper."
We'll wrap it up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: If your morning plan is still not complete yet, check out "AMERICAN MORNING" 7:00 a.m. Eastern time. Those folks are downstairs right now. I'm not kidding. They are the hardest-working people I have ever seen. And they put together a terrific program, so, 7:00 a.m. Eastern time.
"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" next for most of you.
We're all back tomorrow. Until then, good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.
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