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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Eric Rudolph Pleads Guilty to 1996 Olympic Bombing; Interview with Emily Lyons; Lab Mails Deadly Virus Strain To 5,000 Labs Worldwide
Aired April 13, 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.
It was an explanation that many had waited nearly nine years to hear. In a statement today Eric Rudolph told the world why he carried out the deadly bombing at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. He did it he said, "To confound, anger and embarrass the Washington government in the eyes of the world for its abominable sanctioning of abortion on demand."
Earlier today Mr. Rudolph pleaded guilty to carrying out the bombing in Atlanta and three other attacks in the south, attacks that killed two people and wounded dozens of others. By pleading today, Rudolph avoids trial and the risk of the death penalty. But his statement says only little about the motives of a man who seemed destined to end up exactly where he did today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): The man who pled guilty today to four bombings which claimed two lives and changed forever dozens of others, was raised, it seems, on a steady diet of hate.
CHARLES STONE, FORMER AGENT, GEORGIA BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: His mother who had been a devout Catholic, got him involved with the Christian Identity Movement, which is basically a white supremacist, anti-semitic -- white supremacist group, for lack of a better description. That uses the bible and perverts it to their own use.
BROWN: Before the bombings and his years of hiding from the law, his only success had been in a unique form of agriculture.
DEBORAH RUDOLPH, ERIC RUDOLPH'S FORMER SISTER-IN-LAW: He became a pot farmer. I remember one trip where he took us and showed us where he had put little barb wire around these plants to keep from the rabbits from eating them.
BROWN: Over time his hatred began to grow. His identification with the Christian Identity Movement took over. There was hate for the government, hatred of Jew, hatred of gays. He became obsessed with abortion not because it was ending a life but, because it was ending the wrong lives.
D. RUDOLPH: He felt like if women continued to abort their white babies, that eventually the white race would become a minority instead of the majority. BROWN: Society all makes sense. He attacked the country's Olympic Games, he attacked a clinic where abortions were performed. He attacked a gay nightclub. He became the adult his mother raised him to be.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a high degree of paranoia, coupled with his being brought up in a culture of hate, coupled with the drug use that all converged together to turn out the individual that pled guilty today.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Eric Rudolph offered no apology or any other expression of remorse today to any of his victims, not a one. In a moment, you'll hear from a woman who life was profoundly changed by the injuries she sustained in one of the attacks. First, though, we go back to the beginning, which was a hot summer night in Atlanta in 1996. One of the biggest events in the world was under way. Many lives would change that night.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Atlanta G-A, baby.
BROWN (voice-over): They came to Atlanta from all over the world to celebrate the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is so Atlanta.
BROWN: The music was free, the crowd in good spirits in what was called Centennial Park in the heart of downtown Atlanta. Robert and Nancy Gee (ph) were here from California. Their video camera rolling to capture their Olympic moment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Folks were walking up to people they didn't know and just having a couple bits of conversation, and then moving on again and having a good time meeting different cultures.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just a great place to be.
BROWN: Fallon Stubbs drove in from Albany, Georgia, with her mother, Alice Hawthorne (ph). It was a last-minute birthday present for Fallon, just 13-years-old.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody was laughing and moving and dancing.
TOM DAVIS, GEORGIA BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION AGENT: The park was a good place to work. We didn't have a lot of problems here.
BROWN: Tom Davis (ph) was a veteran agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, part of the security team in the park that night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doing some line dancing out there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Big time.
BROWN: It was just minutes before 1:00 in the morning. On stage that night the band Jack Mack and The Heart Attack took a break. Davis was making his final round of the evening which meant walking by a sound tower used by NBC. That's when a private security guard named Richard Jewel stopped him and asked for help.
DAVIS: He told me that he was having some problems with drunks throwing beer cans into the tower and asked me if I minded coming over and help him straighten the situation out.
BROWN: As they walked around the front of the tower, the young men cleared out. But as they left, Jewel noticed something, a backpack under a bench in front of the tower. But they couldn't find the owner so Davis radioed for a bomb assessment team and a few minutes later two men arrived.
DAVIS: I asked them was there anything to it? They told me that they weren't sure. That they saw what appeared to be a pipe and some wires.
BROWN: Then at 12:58 in the morning, this 911 call came to the Atlanta Police Department.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a bomb in Centennial Park. You have 30 minutes.
BROWN: But the 911 operator couldn't find Centennial Park in her computer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just got this man called talking about there's a bomb set to go off in 30 minutes in Centennial Park.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, Lord, child. OK, wait a minute. Centennial Park, you put it in and it won't go in?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
BROWN: The warning never reached the park.
DAVIS: This time I'm still thinking there's really nothing to this bag, because during the two or three weeks prior to this time, we had a number of backpacks and suspicious packages. And of course, every time they turned up to be nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes. You having a good time?
BROWN: By now, it was about 10 minutes past 1:00. Davis began to move people, some of them drunk, away from the backpack. That's the backpack and the bench from a picture taken by KNBC TV and enhanced by the FBI.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got all of them off the hill. There was probably 75 to 100 people.
BROWN: Fallon Stubbs and her mother stopped by this statue to take a couple of pictures. They posed about 100 feet from the hillside. Fallon didn't notice the commotion around the backpack nearby. As Fallon snapped the photo, Robert and Nancy Gee are off to the left on the other side of the crowd. It's now about 1:20 in the morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't remember the sound and the light so much as I remember the asphalt shaking.
FALLON STUBBS, BOMBING VICTIM: I remember an explosion probably going off around the tower. I remember seeing my mother turn do a complete 360, which is probably going to be the most lasting memory out of all of that. I remember me falling. It was all kind of mostly like a movie. It was like this can't be happening. I mean, what was that? Then you know, you can get up and see people scared and running. I saw my mother on the ground. I got up and I ran. Just like the statue, I was running to try to find her help, try to find her anybody.
BROWN: Fallon was injured, her arm and leg cut by shrapnel, one finger nearly severed.
STUBBS: What happened was some people told me to lay down, get down, get down. And I was like, wait, my mother. And all I could remember was looking over and I saw her. And I saw like 20 people around her, a lot of people, I guess, trying to resuscitate her. And they put me in the ambulance about 10, 15 minutes later. I was like, my mother, my mom, mom, wait, wait. And somebody...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lets get out of the street everybody.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get back. Right now. Let's go.
DAVIS: I really don't remember a whole lot about it, except for just the force of it pushed me, pushed me down.
BROWN: Tom Davis was just feet away when the bomb went off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's move. Let's move. Let's go.
BROWN: The KNBC cameraman was nearby, and caught what happened next.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just knew that we had people down everywhere in this area. They were screaming and severely injured.
BROWN: Hours later when he was off duty and getting undressed, Davis realized that he, too, had been hit by shrapnel.
DAVIS: It was my left rear pocket.
BROWN: His GBI credentials in his back pocket had blocked the impact.
DAVIS: It was pieces of fragments. The Lord was looking after us is all I can say.
BROWN: Robert and Nancy Gee realized they caught the explosion on tape. They tried to give their footage to police without success. Then took it across the street to CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For about a second, I assumed it was part of the pyrotechnic effects of the band.
BROWN: Fallon Stubbs wound up in a local hospital room. After an operation, she wakes up her hospital bed surrounded by family, everyone except her mother.
STUBBS: And everybody was looking at me like, you know, you are the last one to know. You could tell that something wasn't right.
BROWN: That's when she learned her mother was dead. More than 100 others including Fallon were injured. But no one could tell her who the bomber was.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: 18 months later, after the bombing in Centennial Park, Eric Rudolph chose another target. This time it was a clinic in Alabama, a clinic that performed abortions. An off-duty police officer provided security there died in the explosion. Emily Lyons, a nurse at the clinic was terribly injured.
Ms. Lyons is at the courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama today when Mr. Rudolph entered a plea. And she joins us tonight.
It's good to see you. And it's good to see you looking well. I think people who recall how badly you were hurt and how unforgettable that press conference was after you were hurt will take particular pleasure in your recovery. Is there any sense of closure today?
EMILY LYONS, BOMB VICTIM: No. There will never be any closure because Rudolph lives with us every day. Every time I get up and look in the mirror, or have to clean my fake eye, or I feel the arthritis and the pain in my body, he's there. So he'll never go away. So there can't possibly be any closure.
BROWN: Would it have mattered in that sense if he had receive the death penalty?
LYONS: Yes. The crimes he committed warranted the worst punishment the government can give. And everybody assumes that the death sentence is the worst that is offered. Whether I was there that day or not, he would have got an life sentence anyway. So in essence, he got away with injures that he caused to my body and to the others in Atlanta.
BROWN: Is it no comfort at all that -- here's a guy who almost certainly will spend the rest of his life -- he'll die in prison.
LYONS: The only comfort is knowing that he cannot hurt anyone else. That he had at least some thought of right and wrong to agree to the plea and give up where the dynamite was buried.
BROWN: Yeah.
Do you remember the moment still?
LYONS: I don't remember -- you're talking about the bombing?
BROWN: Yes.
LYONS: No, I don't remember anything from that day or weeks before or weeks after.
BROWN: Is that right?
LYONS: Yes.
BROWN: What's your -- have you figured out what your first memory is after the bombing?
LYONS: They had taken my breathing tube out. And I was choking. And I had just wanted to be suctioned.
BROWN: And you were in the hospital obviously at the time this was going on.
LYONS: Right.
BROWN: Did someone come in and did your husband come in and someone come in and say, here's what happened?
LYONS: He would come in every day and tell me for several weeks, don't know. But as the drugs were changed and I was less sedated, I remember him telling me, he would say, this is what happened that day. You're in the hospital. You're hurt.
BROWN: When you were in court today, did you and Mr. Rudolph ever make eye contact?
LYONS: This morning, he never looked directly at me. When they mentioned the other people involved, Felicia and Diane and the prosecutors, he did look at them. But he never turned directly into my direction.
BROWN: What would you say to him?
LYONS: He failed. He was a failure that day and the other days in Atlanta for those bombings. He didn't accomplish anything. And until now, until today, nobody had a clue how he was going to connect all of the bombings.
BROWN: Ms. Lyons, good to see you.
LYONS: Thank you.
BROWN: You make your arguments clearly and well. We appreciate the time. Thank you, ma'am. LYONS: Thank you.
BROWN: Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, a mistake involving one of the deadliest flu viruses ever, a mistake that could have been disastrous. But first, almost a quarter past the hour, take a look at some of the other stories that have made news today. Erica Hill joins us from Atlanta again tonight. Erica, good evening.
ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Good evening to you, Aaron. A story we've been following for the past few days. An FDA advisory panel has voted to lift the ban on some silicone breast implants. The panel says the Medsor (ph) Corporation provided convincing research that its implants are more durable and will last longer than previous versions.
The FDA pulled silicone implants off the market 13 years ago over concerns they could leak or burst. Now, the FDA is not bound by the advisory panel's recommendation, but it does generally follow it. The advisory panel rejected a bid by another implant manufacturer yesterday saying it did not provide enough data on long-term safety.
And the House today voted to permanent eliminate federal estate taxes in five years. Those taxes are levied on inherited estates. Now, currently they only affect the estates more than $1.5 million. The estate tax is scheduled to make a one year disappearance in 2010. This new measure, however, would make that permanent. Similar efforts have failed repeatedly in the Senate.
The site is a familiar one: Marathon runners grabbing cups of water as they go by during a race. But a new study says athletes better be careful on how much they drink. It found one in eight runners in the 2002 Boston Marathon actually drank too much water. And that puts them at risk for a condition known as hyponutrimia, that's when blood salt levels are too low. One runner even died of it.
And Aaron, that is our latest from Headline News. We'll turn it back over to you.
BROWN: Thank you. We'll see you in about a half hour. More to come on the program tonight starting with a virus and a chill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's inexcusable that a strain that caused somewhere between 2 million and 4 million deaths in 1957 was mailed out to 5,000 labs around the world.
BROWN (voice-over): More than just your father's flu, how did it get out? Sent around the country. And what's being done to keep you from getting sick.
Also tonight, the Michael Jackson trial again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've had a lot of talk about whether Michael Jackson's emotional state is normal. I'm not certain that this witness's emotional state is normal.
BROWN: What happens to the case when the victim's mother ends up taking the fifth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has the thickest skin of any politician I've ever been involved with.
BROWN: And he may need it. The growing case of allegations against one of the most powerful men in Washington, Tom DeLay. They call him the hammer. They call this NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: As a rule, the words killer virus and oops ought not to appear together in the same story. As another rule, stuff happens.
The stuff in this case, a deadly strain of the flu. It was sent through the mail to labs across the country around the world. Also, some pretty iffy corners of the world, if you will, Lebanon, for one.
Tonight those same labs are scrambling to destroy their samples, authorities are scrambling to explain. Here's CNN's Elizabeth Cohen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the director for the Centers for Disease Control comes out to make a public statement, you know something's gone wrong.
DR. JULIE BERBERDING, CDC DIRECTOR: And we are doing everything we can to make sure that there's no threat to human health.
COHEN: The problem began behind these walls, when the this Cincinnati lab made the decision to send out samples of one of the most deadly flu viruses ever to thousands of labs around the world as part of a routine testing program.
LAURIE GARRETT, AUTHOR: It's inexcusable that a strain that caused somewhere between 2 million and 4 million deaths in 1957 and was a live virus was mailed out to 5,000 labs around the world. That's ridiculous.
COHEN: If anyone in any one of these nearly 5,000 labs had made a mistake handling this virus, it could have been disastrous because the virus spreads so easily from person to person.
Here's how it happened. Last fall, the College of American Pathologists in Chicago asked Meridian Bioscience, Inc., to send out samples of an influenza type-A virus to nearly 5,000 labs in 18 countries. It was part of a standard test to make sure the labs could accurately identify pathogens that make people sick. These labs generally handle specimens that doctors get from patients. So, why they choose to ship out a virus that once killed millions and that no one born after 1968 has immunity to? Because it was convenient, according to the CDC. DR. JULIE GERBERDING, CDC DIRECTOR: It was probably a situation where the advantages of using a strain that grows well and can be easily manipulated in the lab were the driving force.
COHEN: Now, the labs in question, like this one in Arizona, have been ordered to kill the virus.
DR. KAREN LEWIS, ARIZONA DEPT. OF HEALTH SERVICES: It's called autoclaving it. So you put it in an oven, and you zap it so hot it can't survive.
COHEN: The CDC says there have been no case of this flu reported and there's now little risk to the public.
GERBERDNIG: I think that the quantitative hazard posed here is very low, but we can't assume it's zero, again, and that's why we're erring on the side of caution.
COHEN: There's been no comment yet from the lab that sent out the viruses. The whole incident has raised questions about how potentially deadly microbes are chosen and shipped around the world.
Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On now to the Michael Jackson trial and the simple fact of lawyering: witnesses have back stories, in this case, enough to fill a library. Today, the mother of Michael Jackson's accuser took the witness stand, a woman, fair to say, with a back story. So much so that in addition to taking the stand, she also took the fifth.
Here's CNN's Ted Rowlands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The alleged victim's mother in the Michael Jackson case went through a range of emotions on the witness stand. She cried a number of times, pointed at Jackson repeatedly, and had a difficult time waiting for the prosecutor to finish his questions.
TRENT COPELAND, LEGAL ANALYST: We've had a lot of talk about whether Michael Jackson's emotional state is normal. I'm not certain that this witness' emotional state is normal.
ROWLANDS: At one point, the mother broke down and looked at the jury saying, quote, "please don't judge me." Still crying, she then demonstrated to them how she saw Michael Jackson licking her son's head on an airplane. She said she didn't tell anybody about it or stop it because she thought she was, quote, "seeing things." She later said that Jackson himself and his employees told her that, quote, "killers" were after her children. She also said that two Germans working for Jackson had threatened, if she didn't do what they said, that they could, quote, "erase" her and her children. JIM MORET, POOL REPORTER: We went from Neverland to fantasy land. I think that the jurors saw a woman who may believe what she's saying, but I don't think the jurors believe what she's saying.
ROWLANDS: Invoking her fifth amendment Constitutional rights to commit self-incrimination, the mother refused to answer any questions in alleged welfare fraud. Before she took the stand, the judge told the jury not to hold that against her.
Jackson's lawyers have yet to cross-examine the mother. She is expected to be back on the stand when court resumes.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, Santa Maria, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Which raises any number of questions, starting with this one -- when the judge tells you to ignore the elephant in the room, can you? Jeffrey Toobin is with us tonight.
She takes the fifth on something that has nothing to do with the central issue in this, which is whether Michael Jackson abused her child. So why does it matter?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it matters because the entire theory of the defense case here is that the mother, this woman, is a professional grifter, and she steals money through fraud. She did it through welfare fraud, which is what she took the fifth about. She had what the defense regards as a fraudulent lawsuit against JC Penney. She made bogus accusations against the father. Now she found the ultimate mark, the richest mark, Michael Jackson. So, it's not really irrelevant to this case at all.
BROWN: Well, but -- look, if you believe the kid, this fairly sympathetic character, this boy with cancer, if you believe what he says, what difference does it make whether his mother's a whack job or not?
TOOBIN: It makes no difference, but the defense theory is she put him up to it, is that if -- the defense theory is, this is all cooked up by the mother and she talked her son into helping out with the conspiracy. But you're right. If the kid is believable, and he's very sympathetic, this is a kid with a 16-pound tumor removed from his stomach, who nearly died, who is, after all, still a child. He's sympathetic. The mother isn't.
BROWN: So why put her on the stand at all?
TOOBIN: Well, one of the counts against Jackson is this count of conspiracy, that Jackson along with these German assistants, among others, conspired to force -- essentially to kidnap the family after the Martin Bashir documentary ran and try to control their access to the press and that is why they need her on the stand to prove that part of the case.
BROWN: But they have -- I mean -- I don't know if you've been in quite this situation, in fact I'd like to believe you haven't. Because you're my friend. But you get in these situations where you have a witness who you know or you suspect is not going to play well. How do you mitigate that?
TOOBIN: I don't know. And why even bring the charge in the first place when this is a molestation case? That's not what this case is really about.
BROWN: Try and get the one -- I mean, my legal background as you know is minimal. But I covered Simpson, so I have some knowledge here. Just get the one you can get and get the heck out of dodge.
TOOBIN: I think prosecutors convinced themselves that it's -- you know, you have a bigger case than maybe you do. But they bought themselves a tremendous amount of problems. Remember all of these problems she's having, the fantasy land, the crying, the hysteria. She's on direct examination. She hasn't even begun cross-examination. Tom Mesereau, you'll notice, he did not object to anything. He just let her talk and talk and talk. But he'll have plenty of questions to ask.
BROWN: I'll sure she'll do fine. Thank you.
TOOBIN: Oh, you are?
BROWN: Thank you.
That's what I said about Mark Fuhrman, too.
Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, Republicans are closing ranks. Democrats sense a crack in the armor. The questions that could make or break Tom DeLay's career.
And, if you want to think twice before taking on too much debt, it is about to get harder than to get debt relief by declaring bankruptcy. We'll tell you about that, too, as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: All in all it's been a tough few weeks for Tom DeLay, the House majority leader. Today he said his comments about judges after the death of Terri Schiavo, he said they would pay, were unartful. And that he really does believe in the independent judiciary. Damage control, that.
He also said he really wants to explain allegations about ethics violations to the House Ethics Committee, a committee which admonished him three times last year, so he dumped the chairman and changed the rules making launching investigations harder.
In Washington tonight the game is on. DeLay's survival at stake, the allegations against him growing. And so from the Hill tonight, CNN's Ed Henry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The majority leader has a simple explanation for his troubles, telling CNN he's a victim of "just another seedy attempt by the liberal media to embarrass me."
REP. TOM DELAY (R-TX), HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: The liberals have a strategy of personal destruction.
HENRY: But liberal has never been used to describe the editorial page of "The Wall Street Journal" recently declared that DeLay has an odor problem, "an unsavory whiff, that could have GOP loyalists reaching for a political glade if it gets any worse." That's why Republicans like Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have started calling on DeLay to finally lay out his side of the story. Much of DeLay's trouble stems from his relationship with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who hit the jackpot when he raked in $82 million from the gambling operations of six Indian tribes. But the lobbyist known as "Casino" Jack is now under federal investigation. This scrutiny has resulted in collateral damage to DeLay. Two of DeLay's expensive overseas trips were reportedly bankrolled by Abramoff and other lobbyists, which is prohibited by House rules.
In 2000 DeLay was joined by Abramoff for a $70,000 to a trip to Britain, it including a round of golf at vaunted St. Andrews, where Abramoff has a membership.
In official documents obtained by CNN, DeLay listed the sponsor of the trip as the nonprofit National Center for Public Policy Research. Which would be permissible. But "The Washington Post" has report the trip was secretly financed by two Abramoff clients which would violate House rules. DeLay says he's unaware of any funding my lobbyists.
Also a $64,000 visit to Moscow with Abramoff. Records reviewed by CNN show DeLay again listed the nonprofit as the sponsor, but "The Washington Post" has cited four anonymous sources as claims the trip was secretly financed by Russian business lobbyists with ties to Abramoff. In an exclusive off camera interview with CNN DeLay said "No member can be responsible for going into the bowels of researching how such trips are funded." But ethics watchdogs counter he should be held to a higher standard.
MELANIE SLOAN, CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY & ETHICS: Tom DeLay now says, well, I didn't know. I thought just a charity was paying for this trip. Well there isn't a don't ask, don't tell policy for lobbyists and for members of Congress who don't want people to know how they're traveling.
HENRY: Three DeLay associates have been indicted in Texas on campaign finance charges. The prosecutor has not ruled out an indictment of DeLay who says the case is politically motivated. DeLay is also taking heat for having his wife and daughter on his campaign payroll to the tune of $500,000 over four years. Lawmakers in both parties also have relatives on their campaigns, which is not illegal. But the arrangement has helped fuel an impression that DeLay's activities are catching up to him. A perception the majority leader's allies are trying to shoot down. STUART ROY, FORMER DELAY AIDE: No ones a ever gotten rich by writing Tom DeLay's obituary.
HENRY (on camera): And why is that? Why is he so resilient?
ROY: He has the thickest skin of any politician I've ever been involved with.
HENRY (voice-over): DeLay says he wants to clear everything up with the House Ethics Committee, but a partisan standoff has effectively shut down the ethics panel, amid Democratic charges Republicans have changed the rules to shield DeLay.
REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD), HOUSE MINORITY WHIP: The Ethics Committee exercised its responsibility. What was the Republican response, fire them. Intimidate them.
HENRY: Democrats smell blood in the water and believe DeLay's troubles may help them take back control of Congress. But for DeLay to be forced out, it will take more criticism from conservatives, though many are circling the wagons. One conservative has e-mailed an urgent prayer alert to fellow activists. The alert says Satan is out to get DeLay, and it's time for Christians to spread the word about DeLay's prowess in shepherding Godly legislation. It's just the type of divine intervention DeLay may need.
Ed Henry, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Tomorrow Congress expected to approve a bill that make it significantly tougher to declare personal bankruptcy. You might imagine there are winners and losers in every piece of legislation. Rarely, though, do the winners and losers have so much at stake or, in the case of the winners, the credit card industry, banks, so much money to spend.
Here's CNN's Joe Johns.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTINEZ MAJORS, $26,000 IN DEBT: Well, I think I'm overextend.
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Martinez Majors never imagined he'd be in this position.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is your total debt. A little over $26,000. Right now the creditors want from you because you're late and behind...
JOHNS: At a credit counselor's office overwhelmed by debt.
MAJORS: One thing led to another. Before you know it, you're like, oh, my God, you owe all this money. What am I going to do?
JOHNS: Majors had been making good money at a computer company, but then the high tech bubble burst and he got laid off. He began using credit cards to keep his family afloat. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
MAJORS: They offer you the low fees, the transfer for, you know, fees for six months, the 5.9 percent interest. It's on the Internet. You know, it's on buses, billboards.
JOHNS: But when majors fell behind on payments he was hit with penalty fees and higher interest rates, a one-two punch.
MAJORS: Well, because you're now over the limit on everything, we're going to take it up now to 29 percent.
JOHNS: Majors hopes the credit counselor can help him come up with a payment plan as a last resort he's also considering bankruptcy.
MAJORS: Any time you talk about bankruptcy, people look at you well, you're a deadbeat, you don't want to pay your bills or you're a bad person. It's still taboo. You know, I have to do what I need to take care of my family.
JOHNS (on camera): But Congress is about to make it a lot harder to wipe out debt by filing bankruptcy. The tough new rules would force people even with modest incomes and savings into three to five- year repayment plans instead of allowing them to eliminate their debts outright and start over. Credit card companies have been aggressively pushing the bill.
WAYNE ABERNATHY, AMERICAN BANKERS ASSOCIATION: Not that we're making bankruptcy unavailable for folks but where you have somebody who is wealthy and still has significant income, maybe they ought to pay some of what they owe.
JOHNS (voice-over): The industry says too many people are spending too much money they don't have. But consumer advocates say the credit card companies are partially to blame.
TRAVIS PLUNKETT, CONSUMER FEDERATION OF AMERICA: They sent credit card applications to, it seemed like, every man, woman and child in the U.S. at about 5 billion a year. So what happened in the 1990s was the credit card industries started becoming more reckless in their lending. And lo and behold, more people used those cards and ended up in bankruptcy.
JOHNS: Over the last decade, according to industry analyst, credit card company profits rose almost 150 percent. And in the last 15 years according to the Center for Responsive Politics, the industry has gone on a spending spree of its own, making $40 million in political contributions to federal candidates, Democrats and Republicans alike.
LARRY NOBLE, CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS: It seems to all be coming together for them right now, the bankruptcy bill. They've wanted this for a long time, their contributions and the lobbying seems to have worked.
JOHNS: For the credit card companies it's about personal responsibility.
ABERNATHY: When people are borrowing money so they can live beyond their means, that's when they get into credit difficulty. Credit cards weren't designed for that. People still have the responsibility to manage their finances.
JOHNS: But critics argue the government is being asked to give a break to the industry at the expense of people in desperate financial shape.
ROBERT WEED, BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEY: For the average guy, though, instead of a new start, the new rule is if life knocks you down, the government's going to hold you down for five years so the credit cards can keep stomping on.
JOHNS: Martinez Majors faces a hard decision and a tough deadline. The new rules will kick in six months after the president signs the bill.
Joe Johns, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Just ahead on the program, scarred by war in different parts of the world, how two youngsters found friendship and respect. From around the world this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: We don't say this lightly. There is something unforgettable about this story. It revolves around two boys from very different lands and a common experience, both victims of war. It's about generosity in learning and having the courage to start over, when starting over means exactly that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): They are improbable friends united by war and loss. Two years ago during the American bombing of Baghdad, Ali Abbas lost his entire world. He lost both arms. He lost both parents. He lost 14 close relatives. All gone.
ALI ABBAS, IRAQI AMPUTEE (through translator): I will never forget the day when I lost my family. I feel the pain of losing them and I miss them terribly, but I just can't cry over them in front of people because I'm really crying inside my heart for them.
BROWN: Which brings us to Kenan Malkic.
KENAN MALKIC, BOSNIAN AMPUTEE: I saw him late at night. How horrible that all is, he lost his whole family and he got hurt with some very bad injuries. I was remembering about my accident and how it could happen. I kind of knew what Ali was going through.
BROWN: Kenan does know what Ali was going through, he'd stepped on a land mine near his Bosnian home losing both arms and a leg. MALKIC: I remember that time at the hospital, how depressed I was and how dark everything looked. I mean, I really didn't see any way out. And actually those thoughts is what drew me to make that tape for Ali. I said, you know, let me make him a video of what I can do around the house and send it to him. At least, to give him some brightness in his life.
BROWN: The tape has had its desired effect.
ABBAS (through translator): What I saw was how he was using his arms. And I thought well maybe he can train me to do that.
BROWN: This week, he got his wish, the aid group that had sponsored Kenan's treatment arranged for Ali and three other Iraqi children to come to the United States, to come for medical attention, to come to meet a role model.
ELISSA MONTANTI, FOUNDER, GLOBAL RELIEF FUND: Ken is an inspiration. So when the children come, they see him. And they see how he manipulates his own limbs and his prosthetics. And they say, if he can do it, I can do it.
BROWN: While Elissa Montanti arranges surgeries, artificial limbs, rehabilitation, Kenan works on spirit.
MALKIC: That sense of that you can help yourself. It gives you such freedom. I just feel like, at least, if they see me getting myself dressed or eating something, that would get them to do something by themselves.
BROWN: And he has.
ABBAS (through translator): I feel I can do exactly what he does or what he is doing now. And I feel I can depend on myself exactly just like he depends on himself.
BROWN: Ali has come a long way. He can run now, play soccer, even Nintendo. More than he ever imagined. For Keenan, it is confirmation that there can be purpose, even in tragedy.
MALKIC: I think every tragedy has a reason behind it. And you just have to see that and know that, in order for that tragedy to turn into something good. Because I never thought I'd be doing this, not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine I'd be in the United States, you know, helping kids, all the way from Iraq. There is nothing that a living person can't do. So that's what I keep in my head.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still to come, a look at some of the other headlines of the day and a look at tomorrow's news. Morning papers still ahead as well. A break first from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In just a moment, the man who investigated President Clinton. Now it is about a quarter to the hour, Erica Hill from Atlanta with another look at the day's headlines -- Erica.
HILL: Hi again to you, Aaron.
We're learning more tonight about the man kidnapped in Baghdad on Monday. Arab network al Jazeera has released video revealing the identity of an American businessman taken hostage in Iraq. Jeffrey Ache was kidnapped just outside Baghdad on Monday. The video shows him holding a U.S. passport, his Indiana driver's license and a family photo.
Flanked by armed men, he reads a statement asking his family to urge the U.S. government to save his life by opening talks with Iraqi insurgents and removing U.S. troops from Iraq.
The Senate is promising to crack down on data brokers whose lax security has put hundreds of thousands of Americans at risk for identity theft. Executives from LexisNexis and Choicepoint were among those testifying on Capitol Hill today. Both companies have reported recent security breaches.
And don't bother bringing that cigarette lighter to the airport tomorrow, because you can't keep it. That's when a new rule goes into effect which bans all lighters from all flights. If one is seized, you're not getting it back.
That is a look at the latest from Headline News at this hour. Right now CNN's anniversary series Then & Now takes a look back at the role of Ken Starr in American political history and where he is today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You swear that the testimony you are about to give before this committee will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?
KENNETH STARR, PROSECUTOR: I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Special prosecutor Ken Starr spent five years and $50 million investigating President Clinton. What started as a probe into the Whitewater land deal culminated in the 445-page Starr report detailing a salacious relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and other allegations.
STARR: The president chose deception, a pattern of calculated behavior your over a span of months.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Clinton survived the resulting impeachment. Starr stepped into private life and out of the Beltway.
He and his wife Alice now live in southern California. They have three children. Starr is the dean of the Pepperdine University Law School and practices law in L.A.
He says very little about the Clinton investigation, but in a recent interview he called it challenging times that made his faith deeper.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: OK. Time to check morning papers from around the country, around the world. And honestly, this may be the weirdest one of all time. It comes from the Moscow Times a Siberian method for beating alcoholism. stay with me here guys. "Patients are required to undergo at least one session of 300 blows to the buttocks per week with a flexible rod during the first three weeks of treatment. After that, they receive beatings at their own request, but no less than one per month."
Said the person administering this treatment, "patients bruise but do not bleed. It's cheap, effective, it's serious and the most important thing, they are cured."
In other words, it hurts, it's painful, but nobody died.
Christian Science Monitor -- is that -- Christian Science Monitor, "Conservatives Near Lock On U.S. Courts" senators will consider new traditional nominees today. GOP appointed judges already control 10 of 13 appeals courts.
300 blows! I wouldn't drink either.
DeLay Sees Democrats Crushing Panel. It's the Democrats' fault. So what important government business exactly was it they were discussing at St. Andrews?
Welcome Home Nationals: Baseball Comes Back to Washington, D.C. That's also the lead in the Washington Post. The Old Ball Game in a New City is the headline. And son of a gun, it's the lead in the Examiner of Washington. We can do this whole segment in Washington. Game On.
I told you -- how are we doing on time? OK. I'll slow down in that case, Aaron. Get so excited doing that drunk thing.
Philadelphia Inquirer. A Whale of a Tale -- we told you a little about this yesterday, we'll tell you a little about it tonight -- researchers think beluga has a history in Canada. Why is that -- how do they know that? Did it say eh?
Also, a couple days away from the conclave now in Rome. Fewer Priests, Growing Questions: Some in U.S. Want Pope to Consider Female and Married Clerics.
Actually, I think if you're an Episcopalian priest or minister and you are married you can become a Catholic priest and stay married.
Motel From Hell, the Rocky Mountain News. "Out of control, Ian thrived on drugs, prostitution, 14 indicted, murder suspect at large." Nothing amusing there.
The weather in Chicago tomorrow -- not unlike the Siberian method for treating alcoholism, is robust.
We'll wrap it up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Good to have you with us tonight. "AMERICAN MORNING" 7:00 am Eastern time. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" next for most of you. We'll see you tomorrow. 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 April 13, 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.
It was an explanation that many had waited nearly nine years to hear. In a statement today Eric Rudolph told the world why he carried out the deadly bombing at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. He did it he said, "To confound, anger and embarrass the Washington government in the eyes of the world for its abominable sanctioning of abortion on demand."
Earlier today Mr. Rudolph pleaded guilty to carrying out the bombing in Atlanta and three other attacks in the south, attacks that killed two people and wounded dozens of others. By pleading today, Rudolph avoids trial and the risk of the death penalty. But his statement says only little about the motives of a man who seemed destined to end up exactly where he did today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): The man who pled guilty today to four bombings which claimed two lives and changed forever dozens of others, was raised, it seems, on a steady diet of hate.
CHARLES STONE, FORMER AGENT, GEORGIA BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: His mother who had been a devout Catholic, got him involved with the Christian Identity Movement, which is basically a white supremacist, anti-semitic -- white supremacist group, for lack of a better description. That uses the bible and perverts it to their own use.
BROWN: Before the bombings and his years of hiding from the law, his only success had been in a unique form of agriculture.
DEBORAH RUDOLPH, ERIC RUDOLPH'S FORMER SISTER-IN-LAW: He became a pot farmer. I remember one trip where he took us and showed us where he had put little barb wire around these plants to keep from the rabbits from eating them.
BROWN: Over time his hatred began to grow. His identification with the Christian Identity Movement took over. There was hate for the government, hatred of Jew, hatred of gays. He became obsessed with abortion not because it was ending a life but, because it was ending the wrong lives.
D. RUDOLPH: He felt like if women continued to abort their white babies, that eventually the white race would become a minority instead of the majority. BROWN: Society all makes sense. He attacked the country's Olympic Games, he attacked a clinic where abortions were performed. He attacked a gay nightclub. He became the adult his mother raised him to be.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a high degree of paranoia, coupled with his being brought up in a culture of hate, coupled with the drug use that all converged together to turn out the individual that pled guilty today.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Eric Rudolph offered no apology or any other expression of remorse today to any of his victims, not a one. In a moment, you'll hear from a woman who life was profoundly changed by the injuries she sustained in one of the attacks. First, though, we go back to the beginning, which was a hot summer night in Atlanta in 1996. One of the biggest events in the world was under way. Many lives would change that night.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Atlanta G-A, baby.
BROWN (voice-over): They came to Atlanta from all over the world to celebrate the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is so Atlanta.
BROWN: The music was free, the crowd in good spirits in what was called Centennial Park in the heart of downtown Atlanta. Robert and Nancy Gee (ph) were here from California. Their video camera rolling to capture their Olympic moment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Folks were walking up to people they didn't know and just having a couple bits of conversation, and then moving on again and having a good time meeting different cultures.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just a great place to be.
BROWN: Fallon Stubbs drove in from Albany, Georgia, with her mother, Alice Hawthorne (ph). It was a last-minute birthday present for Fallon, just 13-years-old.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody was laughing and moving and dancing.
TOM DAVIS, GEORGIA BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION AGENT: The park was a good place to work. We didn't have a lot of problems here.
BROWN: Tom Davis (ph) was a veteran agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, part of the security team in the park that night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doing some line dancing out there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Big time.
BROWN: It was just minutes before 1:00 in the morning. On stage that night the band Jack Mack and The Heart Attack took a break. Davis was making his final round of the evening which meant walking by a sound tower used by NBC. That's when a private security guard named Richard Jewel stopped him and asked for help.
DAVIS: He told me that he was having some problems with drunks throwing beer cans into the tower and asked me if I minded coming over and help him straighten the situation out.
BROWN: As they walked around the front of the tower, the young men cleared out. But as they left, Jewel noticed something, a backpack under a bench in front of the tower. But they couldn't find the owner so Davis radioed for a bomb assessment team and a few minutes later two men arrived.
DAVIS: I asked them was there anything to it? They told me that they weren't sure. That they saw what appeared to be a pipe and some wires.
BROWN: Then at 12:58 in the morning, this 911 call came to the Atlanta Police Department.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a bomb in Centennial Park. You have 30 minutes.
BROWN: But the 911 operator couldn't find Centennial Park in her computer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just got this man called talking about there's a bomb set to go off in 30 minutes in Centennial Park.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, Lord, child. OK, wait a minute. Centennial Park, you put it in and it won't go in?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
BROWN: The warning never reached the park.
DAVIS: This time I'm still thinking there's really nothing to this bag, because during the two or three weeks prior to this time, we had a number of backpacks and suspicious packages. And of course, every time they turned up to be nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes. You having a good time?
BROWN: By now, it was about 10 minutes past 1:00. Davis began to move people, some of them drunk, away from the backpack. That's the backpack and the bench from a picture taken by KNBC TV and enhanced by the FBI.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got all of them off the hill. There was probably 75 to 100 people.
BROWN: Fallon Stubbs and her mother stopped by this statue to take a couple of pictures. They posed about 100 feet from the hillside. Fallon didn't notice the commotion around the backpack nearby. As Fallon snapped the photo, Robert and Nancy Gee are off to the left on the other side of the crowd. It's now about 1:20 in the morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't remember the sound and the light so much as I remember the asphalt shaking.
FALLON STUBBS, BOMBING VICTIM: I remember an explosion probably going off around the tower. I remember seeing my mother turn do a complete 360, which is probably going to be the most lasting memory out of all of that. I remember me falling. It was all kind of mostly like a movie. It was like this can't be happening. I mean, what was that? Then you know, you can get up and see people scared and running. I saw my mother on the ground. I got up and I ran. Just like the statue, I was running to try to find her help, try to find her anybody.
BROWN: Fallon was injured, her arm and leg cut by shrapnel, one finger nearly severed.
STUBBS: What happened was some people told me to lay down, get down, get down. And I was like, wait, my mother. And all I could remember was looking over and I saw her. And I saw like 20 people around her, a lot of people, I guess, trying to resuscitate her. And they put me in the ambulance about 10, 15 minutes later. I was like, my mother, my mom, mom, wait, wait. And somebody...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lets get out of the street everybody.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get back. Right now. Let's go.
DAVIS: I really don't remember a whole lot about it, except for just the force of it pushed me, pushed me down.
BROWN: Tom Davis was just feet away when the bomb went off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's move. Let's move. Let's go.
BROWN: The KNBC cameraman was nearby, and caught what happened next.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just knew that we had people down everywhere in this area. They were screaming and severely injured.
BROWN: Hours later when he was off duty and getting undressed, Davis realized that he, too, had been hit by shrapnel.
DAVIS: It was my left rear pocket.
BROWN: His GBI credentials in his back pocket had blocked the impact.
DAVIS: It was pieces of fragments. The Lord was looking after us is all I can say.
BROWN: Robert and Nancy Gee realized they caught the explosion on tape. They tried to give their footage to police without success. Then took it across the street to CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For about a second, I assumed it was part of the pyrotechnic effects of the band.
BROWN: Fallon Stubbs wound up in a local hospital room. After an operation, she wakes up her hospital bed surrounded by family, everyone except her mother.
STUBBS: And everybody was looking at me like, you know, you are the last one to know. You could tell that something wasn't right.
BROWN: That's when she learned her mother was dead. More than 100 others including Fallon were injured. But no one could tell her who the bomber was.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: 18 months later, after the bombing in Centennial Park, Eric Rudolph chose another target. This time it was a clinic in Alabama, a clinic that performed abortions. An off-duty police officer provided security there died in the explosion. Emily Lyons, a nurse at the clinic was terribly injured.
Ms. Lyons is at the courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama today when Mr. Rudolph entered a plea. And she joins us tonight.
It's good to see you. And it's good to see you looking well. I think people who recall how badly you were hurt and how unforgettable that press conference was after you were hurt will take particular pleasure in your recovery. Is there any sense of closure today?
EMILY LYONS, BOMB VICTIM: No. There will never be any closure because Rudolph lives with us every day. Every time I get up and look in the mirror, or have to clean my fake eye, or I feel the arthritis and the pain in my body, he's there. So he'll never go away. So there can't possibly be any closure.
BROWN: Would it have mattered in that sense if he had receive the death penalty?
LYONS: Yes. The crimes he committed warranted the worst punishment the government can give. And everybody assumes that the death sentence is the worst that is offered. Whether I was there that day or not, he would have got an life sentence anyway. So in essence, he got away with injures that he caused to my body and to the others in Atlanta.
BROWN: Is it no comfort at all that -- here's a guy who almost certainly will spend the rest of his life -- he'll die in prison.
LYONS: The only comfort is knowing that he cannot hurt anyone else. That he had at least some thought of right and wrong to agree to the plea and give up where the dynamite was buried.
BROWN: Yeah.
Do you remember the moment still?
LYONS: I don't remember -- you're talking about the bombing?
BROWN: Yes.
LYONS: No, I don't remember anything from that day or weeks before or weeks after.
BROWN: Is that right?
LYONS: Yes.
BROWN: What's your -- have you figured out what your first memory is after the bombing?
LYONS: They had taken my breathing tube out. And I was choking. And I had just wanted to be suctioned.
BROWN: And you were in the hospital obviously at the time this was going on.
LYONS: Right.
BROWN: Did someone come in and did your husband come in and someone come in and say, here's what happened?
LYONS: He would come in every day and tell me for several weeks, don't know. But as the drugs were changed and I was less sedated, I remember him telling me, he would say, this is what happened that day. You're in the hospital. You're hurt.
BROWN: When you were in court today, did you and Mr. Rudolph ever make eye contact?
LYONS: This morning, he never looked directly at me. When they mentioned the other people involved, Felicia and Diane and the prosecutors, he did look at them. But he never turned directly into my direction.
BROWN: What would you say to him?
LYONS: He failed. He was a failure that day and the other days in Atlanta for those bombings. He didn't accomplish anything. And until now, until today, nobody had a clue how he was going to connect all of the bombings.
BROWN: Ms. Lyons, good to see you.
LYONS: Thank you.
BROWN: You make your arguments clearly and well. We appreciate the time. Thank you, ma'am. LYONS: Thank you.
BROWN: Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, a mistake involving one of the deadliest flu viruses ever, a mistake that could have been disastrous. But first, almost a quarter past the hour, take a look at some of the other stories that have made news today. Erica Hill joins us from Atlanta again tonight. Erica, good evening.
ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Good evening to you, Aaron. A story we've been following for the past few days. An FDA advisory panel has voted to lift the ban on some silicone breast implants. The panel says the Medsor (ph) Corporation provided convincing research that its implants are more durable and will last longer than previous versions.
The FDA pulled silicone implants off the market 13 years ago over concerns they could leak or burst. Now, the FDA is not bound by the advisory panel's recommendation, but it does generally follow it. The advisory panel rejected a bid by another implant manufacturer yesterday saying it did not provide enough data on long-term safety.
And the House today voted to permanent eliminate federal estate taxes in five years. Those taxes are levied on inherited estates. Now, currently they only affect the estates more than $1.5 million. The estate tax is scheduled to make a one year disappearance in 2010. This new measure, however, would make that permanent. Similar efforts have failed repeatedly in the Senate.
The site is a familiar one: Marathon runners grabbing cups of water as they go by during a race. But a new study says athletes better be careful on how much they drink. It found one in eight runners in the 2002 Boston Marathon actually drank too much water. And that puts them at risk for a condition known as hyponutrimia, that's when blood salt levels are too low. One runner even died of it.
And Aaron, that is our latest from Headline News. We'll turn it back over to you.
BROWN: Thank you. We'll see you in about a half hour. More to come on the program tonight starting with a virus and a chill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's inexcusable that a strain that caused somewhere between 2 million and 4 million deaths in 1957 was mailed out to 5,000 labs around the world.
BROWN (voice-over): More than just your father's flu, how did it get out? Sent around the country. And what's being done to keep you from getting sick.
Also tonight, the Michael Jackson trial again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've had a lot of talk about whether Michael Jackson's emotional state is normal. I'm not certain that this witness's emotional state is normal.
BROWN: What happens to the case when the victim's mother ends up taking the fifth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has the thickest skin of any politician I've ever been involved with.
BROWN: And he may need it. The growing case of allegations against one of the most powerful men in Washington, Tom DeLay. They call him the hammer. They call this NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: As a rule, the words killer virus and oops ought not to appear together in the same story. As another rule, stuff happens.
The stuff in this case, a deadly strain of the flu. It was sent through the mail to labs across the country around the world. Also, some pretty iffy corners of the world, if you will, Lebanon, for one.
Tonight those same labs are scrambling to destroy their samples, authorities are scrambling to explain. Here's CNN's Elizabeth Cohen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the director for the Centers for Disease Control comes out to make a public statement, you know something's gone wrong.
DR. JULIE BERBERDING, CDC DIRECTOR: And we are doing everything we can to make sure that there's no threat to human health.
COHEN: The problem began behind these walls, when the this Cincinnati lab made the decision to send out samples of one of the most deadly flu viruses ever to thousands of labs around the world as part of a routine testing program.
LAURIE GARRETT, AUTHOR: It's inexcusable that a strain that caused somewhere between 2 million and 4 million deaths in 1957 and was a live virus was mailed out to 5,000 labs around the world. That's ridiculous.
COHEN: If anyone in any one of these nearly 5,000 labs had made a mistake handling this virus, it could have been disastrous because the virus spreads so easily from person to person.
Here's how it happened. Last fall, the College of American Pathologists in Chicago asked Meridian Bioscience, Inc., to send out samples of an influenza type-A virus to nearly 5,000 labs in 18 countries. It was part of a standard test to make sure the labs could accurately identify pathogens that make people sick. These labs generally handle specimens that doctors get from patients. So, why they choose to ship out a virus that once killed millions and that no one born after 1968 has immunity to? Because it was convenient, according to the CDC. DR. JULIE GERBERDING, CDC DIRECTOR: It was probably a situation where the advantages of using a strain that grows well and can be easily manipulated in the lab were the driving force.
COHEN: Now, the labs in question, like this one in Arizona, have been ordered to kill the virus.
DR. KAREN LEWIS, ARIZONA DEPT. OF HEALTH SERVICES: It's called autoclaving it. So you put it in an oven, and you zap it so hot it can't survive.
COHEN: The CDC says there have been no case of this flu reported and there's now little risk to the public.
GERBERDNIG: I think that the quantitative hazard posed here is very low, but we can't assume it's zero, again, and that's why we're erring on the side of caution.
COHEN: There's been no comment yet from the lab that sent out the viruses. The whole incident has raised questions about how potentially deadly microbes are chosen and shipped around the world.
Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: On now to the Michael Jackson trial and the simple fact of lawyering: witnesses have back stories, in this case, enough to fill a library. Today, the mother of Michael Jackson's accuser took the witness stand, a woman, fair to say, with a back story. So much so that in addition to taking the stand, she also took the fifth.
Here's CNN's Ted Rowlands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The alleged victim's mother in the Michael Jackson case went through a range of emotions on the witness stand. She cried a number of times, pointed at Jackson repeatedly, and had a difficult time waiting for the prosecutor to finish his questions.
TRENT COPELAND, LEGAL ANALYST: We've had a lot of talk about whether Michael Jackson's emotional state is normal. I'm not certain that this witness' emotional state is normal.
ROWLANDS: At one point, the mother broke down and looked at the jury saying, quote, "please don't judge me." Still crying, she then demonstrated to them how she saw Michael Jackson licking her son's head on an airplane. She said she didn't tell anybody about it or stop it because she thought she was, quote, "seeing things." She later said that Jackson himself and his employees told her that, quote, "killers" were after her children. She also said that two Germans working for Jackson had threatened, if she didn't do what they said, that they could, quote, "erase" her and her children. JIM MORET, POOL REPORTER: We went from Neverland to fantasy land. I think that the jurors saw a woman who may believe what she's saying, but I don't think the jurors believe what she's saying.
ROWLANDS: Invoking her fifth amendment Constitutional rights to commit self-incrimination, the mother refused to answer any questions in alleged welfare fraud. Before she took the stand, the judge told the jury not to hold that against her.
Jackson's lawyers have yet to cross-examine the mother. She is expected to be back on the stand when court resumes.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, Santa Maria, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Which raises any number of questions, starting with this one -- when the judge tells you to ignore the elephant in the room, can you? Jeffrey Toobin is with us tonight.
She takes the fifth on something that has nothing to do with the central issue in this, which is whether Michael Jackson abused her child. So why does it matter?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it matters because the entire theory of the defense case here is that the mother, this woman, is a professional grifter, and she steals money through fraud. She did it through welfare fraud, which is what she took the fifth about. She had what the defense regards as a fraudulent lawsuit against JC Penney. She made bogus accusations against the father. Now she found the ultimate mark, the richest mark, Michael Jackson. So, it's not really irrelevant to this case at all.
BROWN: Well, but -- look, if you believe the kid, this fairly sympathetic character, this boy with cancer, if you believe what he says, what difference does it make whether his mother's a whack job or not?
TOOBIN: It makes no difference, but the defense theory is she put him up to it, is that if -- the defense theory is, this is all cooked up by the mother and she talked her son into helping out with the conspiracy. But you're right. If the kid is believable, and he's very sympathetic, this is a kid with a 16-pound tumor removed from his stomach, who nearly died, who is, after all, still a child. He's sympathetic. The mother isn't.
BROWN: So why put her on the stand at all?
TOOBIN: Well, one of the counts against Jackson is this count of conspiracy, that Jackson along with these German assistants, among others, conspired to force -- essentially to kidnap the family after the Martin Bashir documentary ran and try to control their access to the press and that is why they need her on the stand to prove that part of the case.
BROWN: But they have -- I mean -- I don't know if you've been in quite this situation, in fact I'd like to believe you haven't. Because you're my friend. But you get in these situations where you have a witness who you know or you suspect is not going to play well. How do you mitigate that?
TOOBIN: I don't know. And why even bring the charge in the first place when this is a molestation case? That's not what this case is really about.
BROWN: Try and get the one -- I mean, my legal background as you know is minimal. But I covered Simpson, so I have some knowledge here. Just get the one you can get and get the heck out of dodge.
TOOBIN: I think prosecutors convinced themselves that it's -- you know, you have a bigger case than maybe you do. But they bought themselves a tremendous amount of problems. Remember all of these problems she's having, the fantasy land, the crying, the hysteria. She's on direct examination. She hasn't even begun cross-examination. Tom Mesereau, you'll notice, he did not object to anything. He just let her talk and talk and talk. But he'll have plenty of questions to ask.
BROWN: I'll sure she'll do fine. Thank you.
TOOBIN: Oh, you are?
BROWN: Thank you.
That's what I said about Mark Fuhrman, too.
Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, Republicans are closing ranks. Democrats sense a crack in the armor. The questions that could make or break Tom DeLay's career.
And, if you want to think twice before taking on too much debt, it is about to get harder than to get debt relief by declaring bankruptcy. We'll tell you about that, too, as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: All in all it's been a tough few weeks for Tom DeLay, the House majority leader. Today he said his comments about judges after the death of Terri Schiavo, he said they would pay, were unartful. And that he really does believe in the independent judiciary. Damage control, that.
He also said he really wants to explain allegations about ethics violations to the House Ethics Committee, a committee which admonished him three times last year, so he dumped the chairman and changed the rules making launching investigations harder.
In Washington tonight the game is on. DeLay's survival at stake, the allegations against him growing. And so from the Hill tonight, CNN's Ed Henry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The majority leader has a simple explanation for his troubles, telling CNN he's a victim of "just another seedy attempt by the liberal media to embarrass me."
REP. TOM DELAY (R-TX), HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: The liberals have a strategy of personal destruction.
HENRY: But liberal has never been used to describe the editorial page of "The Wall Street Journal" recently declared that DeLay has an odor problem, "an unsavory whiff, that could have GOP loyalists reaching for a political glade if it gets any worse." That's why Republicans like Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have started calling on DeLay to finally lay out his side of the story. Much of DeLay's trouble stems from his relationship with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who hit the jackpot when he raked in $82 million from the gambling operations of six Indian tribes. But the lobbyist known as "Casino" Jack is now under federal investigation. This scrutiny has resulted in collateral damage to DeLay. Two of DeLay's expensive overseas trips were reportedly bankrolled by Abramoff and other lobbyists, which is prohibited by House rules.
In 2000 DeLay was joined by Abramoff for a $70,000 to a trip to Britain, it including a round of golf at vaunted St. Andrews, where Abramoff has a membership.
In official documents obtained by CNN, DeLay listed the sponsor of the trip as the nonprofit National Center for Public Policy Research. Which would be permissible. But "The Washington Post" has report the trip was secretly financed by two Abramoff clients which would violate House rules. DeLay says he's unaware of any funding my lobbyists.
Also a $64,000 visit to Moscow with Abramoff. Records reviewed by CNN show DeLay again listed the nonprofit as the sponsor, but "The Washington Post" has cited four anonymous sources as claims the trip was secretly financed by Russian business lobbyists with ties to Abramoff. In an exclusive off camera interview with CNN DeLay said "No member can be responsible for going into the bowels of researching how such trips are funded." But ethics watchdogs counter he should be held to a higher standard.
MELANIE SLOAN, CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY & ETHICS: Tom DeLay now says, well, I didn't know. I thought just a charity was paying for this trip. Well there isn't a don't ask, don't tell policy for lobbyists and for members of Congress who don't want people to know how they're traveling.
HENRY: Three DeLay associates have been indicted in Texas on campaign finance charges. The prosecutor has not ruled out an indictment of DeLay who says the case is politically motivated. DeLay is also taking heat for having his wife and daughter on his campaign payroll to the tune of $500,000 over four years. Lawmakers in both parties also have relatives on their campaigns, which is not illegal. But the arrangement has helped fuel an impression that DeLay's activities are catching up to him. A perception the majority leader's allies are trying to shoot down. STUART ROY, FORMER DELAY AIDE: No ones a ever gotten rich by writing Tom DeLay's obituary.
HENRY (on camera): And why is that? Why is he so resilient?
ROY: He has the thickest skin of any politician I've ever been involved with.
HENRY (voice-over): DeLay says he wants to clear everything up with the House Ethics Committee, but a partisan standoff has effectively shut down the ethics panel, amid Democratic charges Republicans have changed the rules to shield DeLay.
REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD), HOUSE MINORITY WHIP: The Ethics Committee exercised its responsibility. What was the Republican response, fire them. Intimidate them.
HENRY: Democrats smell blood in the water and believe DeLay's troubles may help them take back control of Congress. But for DeLay to be forced out, it will take more criticism from conservatives, though many are circling the wagons. One conservative has e-mailed an urgent prayer alert to fellow activists. The alert says Satan is out to get DeLay, and it's time for Christians to spread the word about DeLay's prowess in shepherding Godly legislation. It's just the type of divine intervention DeLay may need.
Ed Henry, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Tomorrow Congress expected to approve a bill that make it significantly tougher to declare personal bankruptcy. You might imagine there are winners and losers in every piece of legislation. Rarely, though, do the winners and losers have so much at stake or, in the case of the winners, the credit card industry, banks, so much money to spend.
Here's CNN's Joe Johns.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTINEZ MAJORS, $26,000 IN DEBT: Well, I think I'm overextend.
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Martinez Majors never imagined he'd be in this position.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is your total debt. A little over $26,000. Right now the creditors want from you because you're late and behind...
JOHNS: At a credit counselor's office overwhelmed by debt.
MAJORS: One thing led to another. Before you know it, you're like, oh, my God, you owe all this money. What am I going to do?
JOHNS: Majors had been making good money at a computer company, but then the high tech bubble burst and he got laid off. He began using credit cards to keep his family afloat. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
MAJORS: They offer you the low fees, the transfer for, you know, fees for six months, the 5.9 percent interest. It's on the Internet. You know, it's on buses, billboards.
JOHNS: But when majors fell behind on payments he was hit with penalty fees and higher interest rates, a one-two punch.
MAJORS: Well, because you're now over the limit on everything, we're going to take it up now to 29 percent.
JOHNS: Majors hopes the credit counselor can help him come up with a payment plan as a last resort he's also considering bankruptcy.
MAJORS: Any time you talk about bankruptcy, people look at you well, you're a deadbeat, you don't want to pay your bills or you're a bad person. It's still taboo. You know, I have to do what I need to take care of my family.
JOHNS (on camera): But Congress is about to make it a lot harder to wipe out debt by filing bankruptcy. The tough new rules would force people even with modest incomes and savings into three to five- year repayment plans instead of allowing them to eliminate their debts outright and start over. Credit card companies have been aggressively pushing the bill.
WAYNE ABERNATHY, AMERICAN BANKERS ASSOCIATION: Not that we're making bankruptcy unavailable for folks but where you have somebody who is wealthy and still has significant income, maybe they ought to pay some of what they owe.
JOHNS (voice-over): The industry says too many people are spending too much money they don't have. But consumer advocates say the credit card companies are partially to blame.
TRAVIS PLUNKETT, CONSUMER FEDERATION OF AMERICA: They sent credit card applications to, it seemed like, every man, woman and child in the U.S. at about 5 billion a year. So what happened in the 1990s was the credit card industries started becoming more reckless in their lending. And lo and behold, more people used those cards and ended up in bankruptcy.
JOHNS: Over the last decade, according to industry analyst, credit card company profits rose almost 150 percent. And in the last 15 years according to the Center for Responsive Politics, the industry has gone on a spending spree of its own, making $40 million in political contributions to federal candidates, Democrats and Republicans alike.
LARRY NOBLE, CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS: It seems to all be coming together for them right now, the bankruptcy bill. They've wanted this for a long time, their contributions and the lobbying seems to have worked.
JOHNS: For the credit card companies it's about personal responsibility.
ABERNATHY: When people are borrowing money so they can live beyond their means, that's when they get into credit difficulty. Credit cards weren't designed for that. People still have the responsibility to manage their finances.
JOHNS: But critics argue the government is being asked to give a break to the industry at the expense of people in desperate financial shape.
ROBERT WEED, BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEY: For the average guy, though, instead of a new start, the new rule is if life knocks you down, the government's going to hold you down for five years so the credit cards can keep stomping on.
JOHNS: Martinez Majors faces a hard decision and a tough deadline. The new rules will kick in six months after the president signs the bill.
Joe Johns, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Just ahead on the program, scarred by war in different parts of the world, how two youngsters found friendship and respect. From around the world this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: We don't say this lightly. There is something unforgettable about this story. It revolves around two boys from very different lands and a common experience, both victims of war. It's about generosity in learning and having the courage to start over, when starting over means exactly that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): They are improbable friends united by war and loss. Two years ago during the American bombing of Baghdad, Ali Abbas lost his entire world. He lost both arms. He lost both parents. He lost 14 close relatives. All gone.
ALI ABBAS, IRAQI AMPUTEE (through translator): I will never forget the day when I lost my family. I feel the pain of losing them and I miss them terribly, but I just can't cry over them in front of people because I'm really crying inside my heart for them.
BROWN: Which brings us to Kenan Malkic.
KENAN MALKIC, BOSNIAN AMPUTEE: I saw him late at night. How horrible that all is, he lost his whole family and he got hurt with some very bad injuries. I was remembering about my accident and how it could happen. I kind of knew what Ali was going through.
BROWN: Kenan does know what Ali was going through, he'd stepped on a land mine near his Bosnian home losing both arms and a leg. MALKIC: I remember that time at the hospital, how depressed I was and how dark everything looked. I mean, I really didn't see any way out. And actually those thoughts is what drew me to make that tape for Ali. I said, you know, let me make him a video of what I can do around the house and send it to him. At least, to give him some brightness in his life.
BROWN: The tape has had its desired effect.
ABBAS (through translator): What I saw was how he was using his arms. And I thought well maybe he can train me to do that.
BROWN: This week, he got his wish, the aid group that had sponsored Kenan's treatment arranged for Ali and three other Iraqi children to come to the United States, to come for medical attention, to come to meet a role model.
ELISSA MONTANTI, FOUNDER, GLOBAL RELIEF FUND: Ken is an inspiration. So when the children come, they see him. And they see how he manipulates his own limbs and his prosthetics. And they say, if he can do it, I can do it.
BROWN: While Elissa Montanti arranges surgeries, artificial limbs, rehabilitation, Kenan works on spirit.
MALKIC: That sense of that you can help yourself. It gives you such freedom. I just feel like, at least, if they see me getting myself dressed or eating something, that would get them to do something by themselves.
BROWN: And he has.
ABBAS (through translator): I feel I can do exactly what he does or what he is doing now. And I feel I can depend on myself exactly just like he depends on himself.
BROWN: Ali has come a long way. He can run now, play soccer, even Nintendo. More than he ever imagined. For Keenan, it is confirmation that there can be purpose, even in tragedy.
MALKIC: I think every tragedy has a reason behind it. And you just have to see that and know that, in order for that tragedy to turn into something good. Because I never thought I'd be doing this, not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine I'd be in the United States, you know, helping kids, all the way from Iraq. There is nothing that a living person can't do. So that's what I keep in my head.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still to come, a look at some of the other headlines of the day and a look at tomorrow's news. Morning papers still ahead as well. A break first from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In just a moment, the man who investigated President Clinton. Now it is about a quarter to the hour, Erica Hill from Atlanta with another look at the day's headlines -- Erica.
HILL: Hi again to you, Aaron.
We're learning more tonight about the man kidnapped in Baghdad on Monday. Arab network al Jazeera has released video revealing the identity of an American businessman taken hostage in Iraq. Jeffrey Ache was kidnapped just outside Baghdad on Monday. The video shows him holding a U.S. passport, his Indiana driver's license and a family photo.
Flanked by armed men, he reads a statement asking his family to urge the U.S. government to save his life by opening talks with Iraqi insurgents and removing U.S. troops from Iraq.
The Senate is promising to crack down on data brokers whose lax security has put hundreds of thousands of Americans at risk for identity theft. Executives from LexisNexis and Choicepoint were among those testifying on Capitol Hill today. Both companies have reported recent security breaches.
And don't bother bringing that cigarette lighter to the airport tomorrow, because you can't keep it. That's when a new rule goes into effect which bans all lighters from all flights. If one is seized, you're not getting it back.
That is a look at the latest from Headline News at this hour. Right now CNN's anniversary series Then & Now takes a look back at the role of Ken Starr in American political history and where he is today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You swear that the testimony you are about to give before this committee will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?
KENNETH STARR, PROSECUTOR: I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Special prosecutor Ken Starr spent five years and $50 million investigating President Clinton. What started as a probe into the Whitewater land deal culminated in the 445-page Starr report detailing a salacious relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and other allegations.
STARR: The president chose deception, a pattern of calculated behavior your over a span of months.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Clinton survived the resulting impeachment. Starr stepped into private life and out of the Beltway.
He and his wife Alice now live in southern California. They have three children. Starr is the dean of the Pepperdine University Law School and practices law in L.A.
He says very little about the Clinton investigation, but in a recent interview he called it challenging times that made his faith deeper.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: OK. Time to check morning papers from around the country, around the world. And honestly, this may be the weirdest one of all time. It comes from the Moscow Times a Siberian method for beating alcoholism. stay with me here guys. "Patients are required to undergo at least one session of 300 blows to the buttocks per week with a flexible rod during the first three weeks of treatment. After that, they receive beatings at their own request, but no less than one per month."
Said the person administering this treatment, "patients bruise but do not bleed. It's cheap, effective, it's serious and the most important thing, they are cured."
In other words, it hurts, it's painful, but nobody died.
Christian Science Monitor -- is that -- Christian Science Monitor, "Conservatives Near Lock On U.S. Courts" senators will consider new traditional nominees today. GOP appointed judges already control 10 of 13 appeals courts.
300 blows! I wouldn't drink either.
DeLay Sees Democrats Crushing Panel. It's the Democrats' fault. So what important government business exactly was it they were discussing at St. Andrews?
Welcome Home Nationals: Baseball Comes Back to Washington, D.C. That's also the lead in the Washington Post. The Old Ball Game in a New City is the headline. And son of a gun, it's the lead in the Examiner of Washington. We can do this whole segment in Washington. Game On.
I told you -- how are we doing on time? OK. I'll slow down in that case, Aaron. Get so excited doing that drunk thing.
Philadelphia Inquirer. A Whale of a Tale -- we told you a little about this yesterday, we'll tell you a little about it tonight -- researchers think beluga has a history in Canada. Why is that -- how do they know that? Did it say eh?
Also, a couple days away from the conclave now in Rome. Fewer Priests, Growing Questions: Some in U.S. Want Pope to Consider Female and Married Clerics.
Actually, I think if you're an Episcopalian priest or minister and you are married you can become a Catholic priest and stay married.
Motel From Hell, the Rocky Mountain News. "Out of control, Ian thrived on drugs, prostitution, 14 indicted, murder suspect at large." Nothing amusing there.
The weather in Chicago tomorrow -- not unlike the Siberian method for treating alcoholism, is robust.
We'll wrap it up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Good to have you with us tonight. "AMERICAN MORNING" 7:00 am Eastern time. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" next for most of you. We'll see you tomorrow. Until then, good night for all of us.
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