Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

The Real Heroes; Images of War

Aired April 21, 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. We're back in Los Angeles tonight. It has been a difficult day in Iraq, and we'll deal with it at the top of the program tonight. Iraqi leaders are trying to finalize a slate of top Cabinet ministers to serve in the government that will take over. We hope to see an announcement on that tomorrow.
There are other developments to report in Iraq as well. A military court today has found Sergeant Hasan Akbar guilty of murder in a grenade attack that killed two other soldiers in a camp in Kuwait at the beginning of the war. He could be sentenced to death.

And we got our first look today at a new combat medal that honors bravery in combat for anyone who finds themselves in close combat, not just members of the infantry, as the current medal does.

Helicopter crashed in Iraq today, was shot down. Ten people died. We'll have more on that.

Cooks, engineers, truck drivers in this war. The front line in Iraq can be anywhere. It was that in the early days for Jessica Lynch and the members of the 507th Maintenance Unit. It made for a great story, but as it turned out, not a true one, as Private Lynch would later be one of the first to point out. But as time would show, another sort of bravery would emerge. Here are the details from CNN's Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Family photos document the 33 years of Army Sergeant Donald Walters' life, from beloved son to loving father to unsung hero.

ARLENE WALTERS, MOTHER OF DONALD WALTERS: This is his Silver Star and his citation.

MCINTYRE: His parents, Arlene and Norman, had hoped his job would keep their son from the front lines.

A. WALTERS: I said, well, Don, you're a cook. I just thought he'd be in some big tent cooking. And he said, mom, he says, that doesn't matter. He says, I've got a gun. If I have to use it, I'll have to use it.

MCINTYRE: There were no American witnesses to Walter's valor. After his supply truck was disabled early on, no one knows exactly how he got separated from the rest of the 507th. But now Army investigators have concluded he fought his way south and was only captured after expending all his ammunition and being stabbed several times.

NORMAN WALTERS, FATHER OF DONALD WALTERS: He had 230 rounds of ammunition with him. And to our knowledge, he used every last one of those rounds until he was no longer able to resist.

MCINTYRE: The circumstances mirror the heroics falsely attributed to Private Jessica Lynch, who never fired a shot. After almost a year and a legal request for information, the Army told the Walters family this new version of events.

A. WALTERS: The thing that upset me so much, and I could never understand was, well, then, who was this brave American soldier?

MCINTYRE (on camera): Empty shell casings found where Walters was captured, along with intercepted radio transmissions in which Iraqis were overheard talking about a blond soldier who fought bravely, are the main evidence that Walters was the real hero that day.

But he wasn't the only hero. A Silver Star was also awarded to a 23-year-old private who earned the affectionate nickname Redneck Rambo.

(voice-over): According to fellow soldier Shoshana Johnson, who was hit while taking cover, Private Patrick Miller dodged bullets fearlessly while rushing to protect his fellow soldiers. The Army thinks Miller killed as many as nine Iraqis before his sergeant decided further resistance was futile. Most of the soldiers' guns jammed that day, but Miller got his working, as he explained in a 2003 interview with CNN's Paula Zahn.

PATRICK MILLER: My round, it would fire but -- and it would eject the casing, but it wouldn't push the next round all the way into the chamber. So I had to push on the forward assist to get the bolt to push the round all the way into the chamber.

MCINTYRE: Miller made it home to tell his story, but Walters did not. Allegedly, a few days after his capture, Fedayeen fighters shot him twice in the back, in a case that remains under investigation as a war crime.

In Salem, Oregon, a yellow ribbon still hangs outside the Walters family home, and nearby a memorial is inscribed with his thoughts from a letter home.

A. WALTERS: "I would lay down my life for my family and nation if it is worth it, and this one is to let them appreciate the taste of their freedoms. Freedom isn't free, and someone must do what they must to preserve it. The Bible states, blessed is he who lays down his life for the sake of his friends. I fear not, and I'm motivated by the fear of the unknown and being a part of a bigger picture. Whatever doesn't kill you will make you stronger."

MCINTYRE: Sergeant Walters wrote those words one week before he died.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, the truth is there have been heroes in every war Americans have fought, but not all Americans have considered all of those wars heroic causes. Iraq is an example. Vietnam stands as the best example.

Hollywood often reflects the national mood on war, though perhaps some would argue Hollywood tries to shape that mood as well. Whichever you believe, there's no denying that the movies and TV too play a role in how we see the wars we fight. So from Hollywood tonight, CNN's Bill Schneider.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): In American popular culture, World War II was the good war. Vietnam was the bad war. World War II brought America together, literally, as cultural historian Leo Braudy explains.

LEO BRAUDY, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: People from all parts of the country, people from different ethnic backgrounds were all coming together to fight the common enemy.

SCHNEIDER: World War II movies like "Casablanca" evoked a deep community of purpose justifying personal sacrifice.

HUMPHREY BOGART, ACTOR: It doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.

SCHNEIDER: Vietnam evokes a different image.

BRAUDY: It's seen as almost as a kind of Gothic -- place of Gothic horror, a pit that we've gotten involved in and we're trying to get out of.

SCHNEIDER: As in "Apocalypse Now."

MARLON BRANDO, ACTOR: The horror. The horror.

SCHNEIDER: "M.A.S.H.," a movie and television series that captured the spirit of the Vietnam era wasn't even about Vietnam. It was about Korea, but the emotions were all Vietnam. "M.A.S.H." was filled with ridicule, the ridiculousness of war, and the military.

SALLY KELLERMAN, ACTRESS: I wonder how a degenerated person like that could have reached a position of responsibility in the Army Medical Corps.

RENE AUBERJONOIS, ACTOR: He was drafted.

SCHNEIDER: The United States is now fighting two wars, a war on terror and a war in Iraq. And they evoke competing popular images. Communications scholar Nancy Snow points out...

NANCY SNOW, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY: What did President Bush say right after 9/11? He said, this is our generation's Pearl Harbor.

SCHNEIDER: 9/11 produced clarity and unity of purpose, like World War II.

BRAUDY: After September 11th, there was a kind of a feeling of we're all in it together.

SCHNEIDER: That lasted a year, until the Iraq debate began in September, 2002.

Now, Iraq divides the country, much as Vietnam once did.

Iraq movies so far have been documentaries, aimed at capturing different perspectives on the war.

"Control Room" looks at the Arab TV network Al Jazeera and shows the Arab point of view.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, yes, OK, you are the most powerful nation on Earth. I agree. You can defeat everybody. I agree. You can crush everyone. I agree. But don't ask us to love it as well.

SCHNEIDER: "Gunner Palace," the U.S. soldiers' point of view.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lose-lose situation we face in anticipation they hate us. You don't need to like this, but please respect it. This is life.

SCHNEIDER: And, of course, Michael Moore's own point of view in "Fahrenheit 9/11."

MICHAEL MOORE, FILMMAKER: Of course, not a single member of Congress wanted to sacrifice their child for the war in Iraq. And who could blame them? Who would want to give up their child? Would you?

SCHNEIDER: Actually, about half a dozen congressmen have children in the military, but with no draft, Iraq and the war on terror have not transformed the lives of ordinary Americans the way World War II and Vietnam did. For most Americans, war today is not an experience, it's only an issue.

Bill Schneider, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And since we're in Hollywood, now to the second part of our double feature, if you will. The technology you're about to see was developed here in Los Angeles, where movie studios and defense contractors live and work and imagine the future side by side.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, what's coming? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Red bull, double homicide, one male, one female.

BROWN (voice-over): In the movie "Minority Report," the actor Tom Cruise plays a detective who can see into the future to prevent crimes. He stands before an elaborate video wall wearing futuristic gloves to coordinate vast amounts of information.

TOM CRUISE, ACTOR: Timeframe?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thirteen minutes.

BROWN: The entire film, of course, is pure fiction. But an essential part of that science fiction, those high-tech gloves, were based on scientific fact. Developed for the film by this man, John Underkoffer, a straight out of central casting wiz kid from MIT.

JOHN UNDERKOFFER, TREADLE & LOAM PROVISIONERS: You have to understand that none of this stuff worked for real in the movie. It was all special effects and composited in later.

BROWN: But the people at Raytheon, who, among other things, build spy satellites for the U.S. government, saw that movie and wondered. Could the fictional technology used to coordinate vast amounts of information with hand gestures, not a computer mouse, be real? The answer, said the wiz kid, was sure.

UNDERKOFFER: Because we'd gone to such pains to base the stuff in the movie on real existing technology, on real emerging technologies that we could extrapolate forward, people recognized that.

BROWN: So Underkoffer and his partner, Kevin Parent, created hardware they call "G-Speak," and created a new term "gestural technology."

Your hands, in other words, can direct images and information directly onto a computer or onto an array of screens. How it actually works is, for now, a secret. But these gloves can direct both static and video images with ease.

KEVIN PARENT, TREADLE & LOAM PROVISIONERS: If I strike a particular pose that might mean "move my cursor around the screen." Another pose might mean "click to select something on the screen," and then, beyond that, I can do all kinds of other things, like point with two fingers, point with my pinkie, say, make a thumbs up gesture, make an OK gesture -- all of which can have meaning at the same time.

BROWN: Which one day may mean a great deal to people whose business it is to gather and collate information and act on it.

RET. BRIG. GEN. GERALD PERRYMAN, RAYTHEON SPACE SYSTEMS: For example, we get a report in an operations center that, perhaps a terrorist has entered a place, entered a building, and we have to make certain that that bit of information is correct. With gestural technology, a commander could, perhaps, stand in front of a screen, point his finger to that location, and call up all of the information that's archived about it, maybe a map, a photograph, a history of who's been in and used that building.

BROWN: It may be five or 10 years before the military applications are realized, but other, more prosaic goals, are much closer.

UNDERKOFFER: You can certainly imagine -- and many have -- the idea that, you know, if I want to interact with a computer game and I can just strike a pose and do that and I can move through all those sorts of things instead of having my controller, that's a pretty exciting proposition for us, something we intend to pursue.

BROWN: For now this technology is untested in the real world, but not for long.

UNDERKOFFER: This stuff is ready to go, shall we say. This is -- we can imagine by the end of the year, you'll see all sorts of applications that involve the G-Speak technology.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: In the very near future, as in moments from now, we have much more ahead on the program, starting with an incredible story of survival.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(voice-over): The boy who beat the odds. He survived the Oklahoma City bombing in spite of his doctors' predictions, in spite of his horrible injuries.

P.J. ALLEN, OKLA. CITY BOMBING SURVIVOR: I spent ten years with the trach, and now I have my trach out. It was a whole new person in the mirror.

BROWN: P.J. Allen's remarkable story of recovery.

The book that claims to reveal the secrets of the conclave, but does it really?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a great read, and I enjoyed it thoroughly, but it contains enormous historical errors and fabrications.

BROWN: "Angels and Demons," sorting fact from fiction.

And finding truth in tango: they set out to make a film about kids learning to ballroom dance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But, once these kids started opening up, started revealing who they were, we were fascinated, and that was our story.

BROWN: What the children said will surprise you.

From Los Angeles, tonight, and around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In just a moment, fact versus fiction in Dan Brown's other book, "Angels and Demons."

Right now, at a quarter past the hour -- we finally hit this on time -- Erica Hill is in Atlanta with some of the other news of the day. Erica, good evening.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good to see you, Aaron. Only took us a couple of months, right?

We start off with a first for the United States, a director of national intelligence. Career diplomat John Negroponte was sworn in at the White House less than an hour after he won Senate confirmation today. His mission? To coordinate and improve the government's much- criticized spy agencies, all 15 of them.

The House of Representatives passed an energy bill today that would allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Similar bills have passed the House twice before, only to die in the Senate. The measure would extend daylight savings time by two months, who, as some experts say, could save 100,000 barrels of oil per day.

Speaking of oil, the high price of gas apparently starting to have an effect on Americans' lives. In an Associated Press/AOL poll, more than half of those questioned say they are cutting back on driving. Many plan to stay closer to home on their summer vacations; 51 percent say, if gas prices stay high for the next six months, it will cause a financial hardship.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he misspoke this week when he was talking about Mexican immigration. He said, quote, "California's border with Mexico should be closed." But, yesterday, Schwarzenegger apologized for the comment, saying, what he really meant to say was the border should be secured. Schwarzenegger blames the mix-up on his English and said, I should probably go back to school and maybe study the language a little more.

And the force can be found in Indianapolis: more than 30,000 "Star Wars" fans are expected there this weekend for Celebration Three. It is the largest official "Star Wars" convention ever held, and fans are in rare form, of course, with the release of "Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith," set for May 19th. Also, creator George Lucas will be on hand, another reason to get excited, since it's the first fan convention he's attended since 1987.

Aaron, that's the latest from Headline News. We'll turn it back to you in Los Angeles.

BROWN: Thank you, and I'm sure I'll be in Indianapolis for that. Perhaps not. We'll see.

HILL: I could see you there.

BROWN: Erica -- yes, right. See you in half an hour.

On the second full day as pope, Pope Benedict XVI made clear that continuity, and not swift change, is to his liking. He reappointed the entire Vatican hierarchy, the same church leaders chosen by John Paul II. The new pope also seemed to signal that he intends to follow John Paul in reaching out to other religions. He invited the chief rabbi of Rome to an outdoor mass on Sunday, during which he'll formally take the papal throne.

Meantime, details of the conclave, the chosen, continue to leak out, apparently, because cardinals continue to leak. Those are the facts. These, on the other hand, might be facts or not. They're contained in the novel "Angels and Demons," a novel by Dan Brown. Here's NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: "Angels and Demons" is full of references to real events, real people, real places. All the writing about works of art and architecture is said to be entirely factual. There are even accurate scale maps of Rome and Vatican City to help readers follow the novel's action. But for all that, the story is a weave of the real and the invented.

REV. JOHN COUGHLIN, UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME: This book sounds a lot like a "Da Vinci Code." It's a great read, and I enjoyed it thoroughly, but it contains enormous historical errors and fabrications.

NISSEN: "Angels and Demons" unfolds just after the death of a fictional pope. As is happening now in Rome, in the book, the cardinals have gathered for the conclave, to elect the next pope. Security is tight. The Sistine Chapel has been swept for listening devices.

COUGHLIN: There is actually an electronic sweeping of the chapel right before the cardinals go into the conclave.

NISSEN: When the fictional conclave begins, the cardinals are sealed into the chapel, under lock and key and heavy guard.

COUGHLIN: No. That's not true at all. While the voting is taking place, only the cardinals are present, and it is sealed in that sense.

NISSEN: In the book, four cardinals are discovered missing, the preferiti, the leading candidates to be pope. Do real conclaves have preferiti?

COUGHLIN: There are candidates. I think that the cardinals have certain members of their mind who they think would make a good pope.

NISSEN: Finding the missing cardinals and safeguarding the Vatican is the job in the book of the Swiss Guard. They are real. Although they aren't quite the special forces the book describes.

COUGHLIN: The Swiss Guard are a kind of quasi-military police force. They do carry weapons. There is an arsenal. And they are trained in security.

NISSEN: They would hardly be a match for the bad guys in the book, a shadowy underground organization known as the Illuminati with a centuries old vendetta against the Catholic Church. The book's author says the cult known as the Brotherhood of the Illuminati is factual. Some church historians aren't sure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a medieval group who were called the Illuminati. It refers to people who have a certain stage of development in their spiritual lives, where they've been Illuminated by the light of Christ.

NISSEN: And what of the weapon of mass destruction the Illuminati in the book to try to use to blow up Vatican City. An Illuminati agent has stolen it from CERN, a very real physics research center near Geneva, Switzerland that actually has an 18 mile long particle accelerator.

In the book, two physicists use that atom smasher for an alleged break through, the first creation of anti-matter in a laboratory.

STEVE LAUTENSCHALGER, PARTICLE PHYSICIST: This is one of the more major errors in the book is that one of the characters actually says, this is the first anti-matter. It's not the first anti-platter. It's been around for nearly 100 years.

NISSEN: The book describes anti-matter as 1,000 times more powerful than nuclear energy, true?

LAUTENSCHALGER: Somewhere around a millionth of a gram of anti- matter would be capable of powering a ship in the one year trip from Earth to Mars.

NISSEN: If the anti-matter could be collected and stored, which the fictional physicists have done, but real physicists can't yet do.

At least one physicist is forgiving of the errors in the book.

LAUTENSCHALGER: I would say any publicity for science or particle in general is good.

NISSEN: And the priest?

COUGHLIN: It doesn't take away from the enjoyment from reading the novel, but people shouldn't take it as a historical piece.

NISSEN: A novel idea.

Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: Coming up on the program tonight, what's shaping up to be a bench clearing brawl in the Senate over some of the president's nominees to the federal bench.

There's no fighting with the rooster. You couldn't win anyway. Brought morning papers to L.A., which is where we are tonight. And this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The state seems set now for an unprecedented showdown over the president's appointments of a small number of federal judges. Today the Judiciary Committee, in a strict party line vote, sent two controversial nominations to the full Senate for a vote.

It's the second time for both Janice Rogers Brown, who's on the left there, and Priscilla Owens, a Texan, on the right. They were approved by the committee, their nominations blocked in a filibuster by Democrats, who are threatening to filibuster them again.

Senator Chuck Schumer says of Judge Brown, a California state judge, that she does not deserve to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: I hope and pray we will reject her nomination, and I hope this nomination of all won't be used as a prelude to change a 200-year tradition of the Senate, of the government and of America.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY, (D) VERMONT: Justice Owens' record of judicial activism and ends oriented decision making leaves me with grave doubts about her ability to be a fair judge. The president says he opposes putting judicial activists on the federal bench, but Justice Owens is very much a judicial activist.

SEN. ELIZABETH DOLE, (R) NORTH CAROLINA: It is a fact that these nominees have been rated qualified and well qualified by the American Bar Association and that each has a majority of support in the United States Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Where this will all lead is at least to political acrimony and perhaps to chaos in the Senate as well. Senate Republicans are threatening to change the rules, deny Democrats the use of a filibuster on judges. Democrats counter they will bring most Senate business to a halt if that were to happen.

Whether the Republicans actually have the votes for the so-called nuclear option isn't certain tonight and may not be certain until the vote is taken, if it comes to that.

Our legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joins us tonight in New York.

Just to frame this for a second. 20 seconds on why there is a filibuster at all.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Because the Senate is supposed to be different from the House. In the House, the majority rules period. In the Senate, the framers decided that the minority, even if they don't have a majority of senators, they should have a voice in how the Senate is run. So they have the right, 40 senators have the right currently, to slow things down to a stop.

BROWN: And then 60 votes breaks the filibuster, but they don't -- the Republicans on this don't have the 60 votes.

One of the Republican arguments has been that the president is under the constitution entitled to an up or down vote, therefore, a filibuster is unconstitutional. Is there any validity to that?

TOOBIN: Well, certainly, it is true that the constitution says all judges need to be approved with the advice and consent of the Senate, which means a majority. So, yes, it is true that a majority of the Senate approves all judges.

However, the constitution doesn't say anything about how the Senate should be run. And traditionally for 200 years, the Senate has been run so that the majority -- the minority, the minority has the right to slow things down to a stop unless a filibuster can be overcome. So both sides are a little bit right on the history here.

BROWN: It is -- it's not an overstatement to say that, if this were to come to be, it would be an extraordinary action by the Republican majority in this case, an action that has even some Republicans and many conservatives saying, maybe that's not so smart.

TOOBIN: You know, Aaron, this all sounds boring and procedural, but this issue, the nuclear option, is the most important thing the Senate is going to do in 20 years. Because if the nuclear option passes and all that's needed is a majority for judicial appointments, the Democrats instantly become irrelevant on the issue of judges, including any possible appointments to the Supreme Court. So, if the nuclear option passes, it doesn't matter what Democrats think of President Bush's judicial appointments, including Supreme Court justices, because they have no power to stop it.

BROWN: Well, is it fair to say, too, then, that today, it's judicial appointments and tomorrow it could be an energy bill or a highway bill or a farm bill or a budget or anything else?

TOOBIN: Well, Majority Leader Frist says no, that's not the case. He's saying this is only about judicial appointments. The filibuster will be alive and well for everything relating to legislation. Democrats, of course, say, no, no, no, this is just the beginning of the end for the filibuster. We'll see how that turns out.

But, you're right to put your finger on that issue, because it's a big point of contention between the parties: does this apply just to judicial appointments or to legislation as well? BROWN: Well, I guess my point is more, if you make the argument that it's an appropriate thing to do -- and I won't get into whether I agree with it or don't agree with it -- but if you make the argument it's an appropriate thing to do for judges, it seems to me it's about this much distance to say it's an appropriate thing to do for anything.

TOOBIN: Well, that's what -- I mean, Democrats say that's the argument. Republicans reply, look, they say the filibuster is designed to bring about compromise, and you can always compromise legislation. You can always cut the amount of money in a bill. You can trim it. Judicial appointments are different. There's no way to compromise. It's just up and down. So that's why they say filibuster is OK for legislation, not okay for judicial appointments.

BROWN: Jeffrey, good to see you. Thank you.

TOOBIN: Good to see you.

BROWN: Jeffrey Toobin in New York tonight.

Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, doctors said he might not survive the injuries he sustained in the bombing in Oklahoma city a decade ago. Nice thing to know sometimes doctors aren't always right. This is an incredibly cool story. We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT from L.A.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "This Week in History," a 51-day standoff between a religious cult and law enforcement ends in flames, on April 19, 1993. The Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, burned to the ground, claiming the lives of some 80 cult members.

In 1995, a truck containing a bomb exploded at Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. One hundred sixty-eight people were killed, including 19 children.

And in Littleton, Colorado, two teenagers went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School on April 20th, 1999. The gunmen, wearing black trench coats, shot and killed 13 people before turning the guns on themselves. And that is "This Week in History."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: As we reported briefly at the top of the program tonight, insurgents shot down a civilian helicopter in Iraq today. They videotaped the aftermath. In the moments before we went to air, questions arose, not about the facts of the incident, but about the tape itself. This has been a very difficult night for our standards and practices people, trying to figure out if the footage had been edited or parts of it staged. We appreciate their hard work on this. The tape shows the crash site north of Baghdad, at least 10 people died. We're sure of that. Six of them American contractors, men who act as body guards for diplomats and others. The insurgents in their tape take us on a grisly tour of the wreckage and the incinerated bodies. The circumstances of what come next are in question. Unmistakably an injured man is first interrogated, then helped to his feet. Then after the camera zooms in to get a better view, the man is shot to death, something they wanted to show, but we will not. We won't, so we froze the tape before the fact.

Now, what remains uncertain is whether the victim seen on the tape was, in fact, one of the crash victims or if this was, in effect, two atrocities edited together for additional propaganda value, and on that point, despite a lot of work tonight, we are not absolutely certain.

Well, the nation took special note of Oklahoma City this week because of the bombing at the federal building there 10 years ago, April 19th, 1995. Survivors of that tragic attack don't need an anniversary to remember what they lost or to measure how far they've come. There are many good and wonderful stories we could tell you about how people have gone about rebuilding broken lives. We choose but one tonight, a small child with great courage and a great grandmother.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): P.J. Allen's carefree childhood ended when he was 18 months old, too young to remember what he now knows is true.

ALLEN: When they found me out, inside the building, I was on fire. I had third degree burns. My eyebrows were burned off, all my hair.

BROWN: Severely burned over 50 percent of his body, rocks and debris embedded in his head, lungs so badly burned he needed a tracheotomy to breathe -- doctors didn't give him much chance of living, warned of brain damage if he did, and doubted he could ever talk without that tube in his throat. But on January the 6th, 2004, a little more than a year ago, that tube came out.

ALLEN: I spent 10 years with the trach, and now I have my trach out. So, it's a whole new person in the mirror.

Hi, mama.

DELORIS WATSON, P.J.'S GRANDMOTHER: Hey, sweetie.

BROWN: P.J.'s grandmother, Deloris Watson, quit her job to care for him all these years. P.J. calls her mom.

ALLEN: She wouldn't let me out of her sight. She wanted to make sure that I pulled through. So, I describe her as strong, faithful, and just a great mom.

Mama! WATSON: Yes?

ALLEN: Can you unlock the car?

BROWN: What P.J. never saw was his mom's fatigue, or her fear.

WATSON: Following the bombing, it was very difficult. For two years, P.J. was not allowed to go outside in the sun.

They did not want him being sunburned or exposed to the UV rays from the sunlight. So we became what I refer to as children of the night. About 7:00 at night, I would take P.J. out to play, and we would play in the evening. And then I'd be up half the night giving him breathing treatments every two hours. So I was totally sleep- deprived for a number of years.

BROWN: There is little anger in this young boy, but there does seem to be a fair amount of what if.

ALLEN: I'm not angry about what happened. It's just that sometimes I just wonder what my life would be like if I wasn't in the bombing.

BROWN: The boy who lived with the trach now sings in the church choir.

The kid too frail to go to school for years has now entered the sixth grade. And the boy some gave up on is planning a future.

ALLEN: My goal and my dream is to become a great engineer, to be able to let my mom rest when I grow up. The reason I'm proud is because my mom never gave up. I never gave up. And God never gave up on me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Go get 'em, kid.

Tomorrow night, we'll have much more on the Oklahoma City bombing, a look back 10 years later at a day that changed the country. Stories of survival and courage, heroism, stories of hope. Our special coverage starts at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time.

Ahead on the program, can the tango change a fifth grader's life? What about the foxtrot? Two filmmakers made it their mission to find out. Their story when we return. From Los Angeles, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In a moment, reading, writing, and the rumba, or perhaps the tango. First, at quarter until the hour, time to check with Erica Hill in Atlanta, other news of the day. Erica, we hit it twice in one night.

HILL: Not bad, Aaron. Are you going to be tangoing later? BROWN: Not likely.

HILL: OK. Just checking.

We start off tonight with the man whose job it is to make sure another 9/11 does not happen. John Negroponte is the nation's first national intelligence director, and he was sworn in today less than an hour after the Senate approved his nomination. Negroponte will coordinate the work of all 15 U.S. spy agencies.

President Bush may soon be getting much of the money he's requested for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate approved $81 billion for the missions today. The Pentagon says it needs that money by the end of -- by the first week of May, rather. House and Senate negotiators still must work out some differences there.

Lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require states to keep closer tabs on convicted sex offenders. The federal act would be called the Jessica Lunsford Act, named after the 9-year-old Florida girl who was kidnapped from her home and allegedly killed by a convicted sex offender last month. The bill would require sex offenders to verify their locations twice a year or face penalties, including time or a fine.

The death rate on U.S. highways has dropped now to its lowest point in recorded history. Overall, 42,800 people died on the nation's highways in 2004. And while the number is actually slightly more than 2003, the rate of deaths decreased, because there were more drivers on the road overall. The government says 56 percent of those killed were not wearing seatbelts.

Two former New York City police detectives pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, drug distribution and money laundering. Police say they moonlighted for the Mafia for more than 20 years. According to an indictment from a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, the two routinely passed out law enforcement information to the mob and killed rival gangsters.

And that is the latest from HEADLINE NEWS at this hour. Aaron, back to you.

BROWN: Erica, thank you.

Now it's time to dance. Tango, foxtrot and fifth graders may seem an unlikely combination. Unlikely, and it turns out, fascinating. A year ago, two filmmakers began shooting a documentary about a program that teaches ballroom dancing to 11-year-olds in New York City schools. "Mad Hot Ballroom" opens nationwide next month. It shows what kids on the cusp of adolescence can discover on the dance floor and how they see and talk about their world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five, six, five, six, here we go. MARILYN AGRELO, CO-PRODUCER, "MAD HOT BALLROOM": We started shooting in mid-February of 2004. And we shot until the final competition. We started out with the aim of doing a story about the ballroom dance program.

AMY SEWELL, CO-PRODUCER, "MAD HOT BALLROOM": But it became about 11-year-olds growing up in New York City and revealing pieces of themselves along this journey.

AGRELO: Our aim was to create a film that was super intimate, and so that the viewer is almost like a kid. So the whole film is at their eye level, and so that we move seamlessly in and out while they're dancing, while they're talking, while they're hanging out, to create this very intimate, invisible presence with them.

We were able to contrast so many different groups and cultures and backgrounds. The Bensonhurst school is essentially a very mixed bag -- Asian, Italian American and Muslim. And they are pretty much working-class kids. In some ways, we always thought of them as a very pure group of little kids who were more representative, I think, of American kids.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like this sport hasn't been invented before.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My favorite dance is the merengue. Isn't it (INAUDIBLE)?

SEWELL: The Washington Heights school was a school that is has an immigrant population, a little bit economically disadvantaged. And, you know, facing challenges that were not present in the other neighborhoods. But what they do is have is this amazing, amazing affinity and ability to dance, and it's just part of their culture.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's tough because everybody wants to compete. But you want to have a sturdy team not only to make me proud, but for themselves, and to represent the school and to represent their country.

SEWELL: We love that group, and we loved their teacher, who was so passionate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very nice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The swing.

AGRELO: And the Tribeca kids were so fascinating and so interesting because, again, another really mixed bag. Culturally, very diverse. But with such a verbal ability. They were the ones that astonished us with a lot of the things they said and a lot of the things they revealed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do know that boys think about girls.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I'm dancing with Emma, she tries to lead me because... UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dancing with Emma? OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is ballroom dancing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ballroom dancing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

SEWELL: One of the things the program emphasizes besides dancing, learning how to social dance is manage respect and courtesy. I think what we saw was a transformation from 11-year-olds acting like kids to little ladies and gentlemen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five, six, ready, go.

AGRELO: I was always thinking of course, we're not going to have the winning team. This isn't a story about winning or losing. This is a story about the journey.

The day of the final competition at the Winter Garden was a big, big, big day for us, because it was the culmination and the climax of our story. There were nine teams competing for the gold and competing then for the giant trophy.

SEWELL: When you look at these three schools, they had strong teachers and strong principals who were willing to guide these children and lead them into areas where they hadn't been before. Everybody dance now

AGRELO: I still don't consider it really a story about winning or losing or a story about competition or necessarily a story about dance, for that matter. You know, for us, it's a story about getting into the intimate minds of kids.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, I don't know if morning papers can top that, but we'll give it a whirl. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Hard to believe it's already that time, but it's time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. We'll start with the International Herald Tribune, published by the New York Times in Paris.

Middle of the page, if you will. A cardinal's visit put boy on path to the Vatican. More biography and background on the new pope in the Herald Tribune, and perhaps that will be in the New York Times and other papers too.

The Washington Times, Bush Scolds Senate About Bolton Delay. That's John Bolton. Urges Politics Be Cast Aside For U.N. Nominee.

So, here's the deal, both sides do this, have you ever noticed it's always the other side that plays politics. It's never your side that plays politics. Maybe the guy's actually not qualified. Not that I have an opinion on that.

Last Flight From Saigon Still Vivid After 30 Years: Pan-Am Crew Orphans Reunite This Weekend. That is a terrific story. 30 years ago.

Christian Science Monitor, Moussaoui, A Window On Terror Trials: Suspect Scheduled to Plead Guilty Today -- today being Friday, of course, -- in bizarre case seeing how justice system handles terror.

I have not gotten that case from the get-go.

The Des Moines Register -- I get this. Lockdown Mode in Wake of School Shootings in Colorado and Minnesota. Many Iowa students now practice taking cover in school.

That's unfortunate, isn't it? But the kids -- a young woman here, young girl says, I moved from a school in Illinois and we didn't do anything like that. And we do it here, and I feel safe.

Feeling safe counts.

30 seconds, my goodness. Let's do this one then. Newsday. I like the headline a lot. Generation Rx. One in five teens uses prescription drugs to get high. We're talking serious drugs here -- OxyContin and that sort of stuff. One in five? Doesn't that seem high?

Chicago Tribune, just a great headline up here. No more Garciaparra? As in Nomar Garciaparra, right, the baseball player.

The weather tomorrow, in Chicago, by the way -- thank you, devalued.

We'll wrap it up from L.A. in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: An Oklahoma City bombing anniversary special 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 21, 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. We're back in Los Angeles tonight. It has been a difficult day in Iraq, and we'll deal with it at the top of the program tonight. Iraqi leaders are trying to finalize a slate of top Cabinet ministers to serve in the government that will take over. We hope to see an announcement on that tomorrow.
There are other developments to report in Iraq as well. A military court today has found Sergeant Hasan Akbar guilty of murder in a grenade attack that killed two other soldiers in a camp in Kuwait at the beginning of the war. He could be sentenced to death.

And we got our first look today at a new combat medal that honors bravery in combat for anyone who finds themselves in close combat, not just members of the infantry, as the current medal does.

Helicopter crashed in Iraq today, was shot down. Ten people died. We'll have more on that.

Cooks, engineers, truck drivers in this war. The front line in Iraq can be anywhere. It was that in the early days for Jessica Lynch and the members of the 507th Maintenance Unit. It made for a great story, but as it turned out, not a true one, as Private Lynch would later be one of the first to point out. But as time would show, another sort of bravery would emerge. Here are the details from CNN's Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Family photos document the 33 years of Army Sergeant Donald Walters' life, from beloved son to loving father to unsung hero.

ARLENE WALTERS, MOTHER OF DONALD WALTERS: This is his Silver Star and his citation.

MCINTYRE: His parents, Arlene and Norman, had hoped his job would keep their son from the front lines.

A. WALTERS: I said, well, Don, you're a cook. I just thought he'd be in some big tent cooking. And he said, mom, he says, that doesn't matter. He says, I've got a gun. If I have to use it, I'll have to use it.

MCINTYRE: There were no American witnesses to Walter's valor. After his supply truck was disabled early on, no one knows exactly how he got separated from the rest of the 507th. But now Army investigators have concluded he fought his way south and was only captured after expending all his ammunition and being stabbed several times.

NORMAN WALTERS, FATHER OF DONALD WALTERS: He had 230 rounds of ammunition with him. And to our knowledge, he used every last one of those rounds until he was no longer able to resist.

MCINTYRE: The circumstances mirror the heroics falsely attributed to Private Jessica Lynch, who never fired a shot. After almost a year and a legal request for information, the Army told the Walters family this new version of events.

A. WALTERS: The thing that upset me so much, and I could never understand was, well, then, who was this brave American soldier?

MCINTYRE (on camera): Empty shell casings found where Walters was captured, along with intercepted radio transmissions in which Iraqis were overheard talking about a blond soldier who fought bravely, are the main evidence that Walters was the real hero that day.

But he wasn't the only hero. A Silver Star was also awarded to a 23-year-old private who earned the affectionate nickname Redneck Rambo.

(voice-over): According to fellow soldier Shoshana Johnson, who was hit while taking cover, Private Patrick Miller dodged bullets fearlessly while rushing to protect his fellow soldiers. The Army thinks Miller killed as many as nine Iraqis before his sergeant decided further resistance was futile. Most of the soldiers' guns jammed that day, but Miller got his working, as he explained in a 2003 interview with CNN's Paula Zahn.

PATRICK MILLER: My round, it would fire but -- and it would eject the casing, but it wouldn't push the next round all the way into the chamber. So I had to push on the forward assist to get the bolt to push the round all the way into the chamber.

MCINTYRE: Miller made it home to tell his story, but Walters did not. Allegedly, a few days after his capture, Fedayeen fighters shot him twice in the back, in a case that remains under investigation as a war crime.

In Salem, Oregon, a yellow ribbon still hangs outside the Walters family home, and nearby a memorial is inscribed with his thoughts from a letter home.

A. WALTERS: "I would lay down my life for my family and nation if it is worth it, and this one is to let them appreciate the taste of their freedoms. Freedom isn't free, and someone must do what they must to preserve it. The Bible states, blessed is he who lays down his life for the sake of his friends. I fear not, and I'm motivated by the fear of the unknown and being a part of a bigger picture. Whatever doesn't kill you will make you stronger."

MCINTYRE: Sergeant Walters wrote those words one week before he died.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, the truth is there have been heroes in every war Americans have fought, but not all Americans have considered all of those wars heroic causes. Iraq is an example. Vietnam stands as the best example.

Hollywood often reflects the national mood on war, though perhaps some would argue Hollywood tries to shape that mood as well. Whichever you believe, there's no denying that the movies and TV too play a role in how we see the wars we fight. So from Hollywood tonight, CNN's Bill Schneider.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): In American popular culture, World War II was the good war. Vietnam was the bad war. World War II brought America together, literally, as cultural historian Leo Braudy explains.

LEO BRAUDY, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: People from all parts of the country, people from different ethnic backgrounds were all coming together to fight the common enemy.

SCHNEIDER: World War II movies like "Casablanca" evoked a deep community of purpose justifying personal sacrifice.

HUMPHREY BOGART, ACTOR: It doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.

SCHNEIDER: Vietnam evokes a different image.

BRAUDY: It's seen as almost as a kind of Gothic -- place of Gothic horror, a pit that we've gotten involved in and we're trying to get out of.

SCHNEIDER: As in "Apocalypse Now."

MARLON BRANDO, ACTOR: The horror. The horror.

SCHNEIDER: "M.A.S.H.," a movie and television series that captured the spirit of the Vietnam era wasn't even about Vietnam. It was about Korea, but the emotions were all Vietnam. "M.A.S.H." was filled with ridicule, the ridiculousness of war, and the military.

SALLY KELLERMAN, ACTRESS: I wonder how a degenerated person like that could have reached a position of responsibility in the Army Medical Corps.

RENE AUBERJONOIS, ACTOR: He was drafted.

SCHNEIDER: The United States is now fighting two wars, a war on terror and a war in Iraq. And they evoke competing popular images. Communications scholar Nancy Snow points out...

NANCY SNOW, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY: What did President Bush say right after 9/11? He said, this is our generation's Pearl Harbor.

SCHNEIDER: 9/11 produced clarity and unity of purpose, like World War II.

BRAUDY: After September 11th, there was a kind of a feeling of we're all in it together.

SCHNEIDER: That lasted a year, until the Iraq debate began in September, 2002.

Now, Iraq divides the country, much as Vietnam once did.

Iraq movies so far have been documentaries, aimed at capturing different perspectives on the war.

"Control Room" looks at the Arab TV network Al Jazeera and shows the Arab point of view.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, yes, OK, you are the most powerful nation on Earth. I agree. You can defeat everybody. I agree. You can crush everyone. I agree. But don't ask us to love it as well.

SCHNEIDER: "Gunner Palace," the U.S. soldiers' point of view.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lose-lose situation we face in anticipation they hate us. You don't need to like this, but please respect it. This is life.

SCHNEIDER: And, of course, Michael Moore's own point of view in "Fahrenheit 9/11."

MICHAEL MOORE, FILMMAKER: Of course, not a single member of Congress wanted to sacrifice their child for the war in Iraq. And who could blame them? Who would want to give up their child? Would you?

SCHNEIDER: Actually, about half a dozen congressmen have children in the military, but with no draft, Iraq and the war on terror have not transformed the lives of ordinary Americans the way World War II and Vietnam did. For most Americans, war today is not an experience, it's only an issue.

Bill Schneider, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And since we're in Hollywood, now to the second part of our double feature, if you will. The technology you're about to see was developed here in Los Angeles, where movie studios and defense contractors live and work and imagine the future side by side.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, what's coming? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Red bull, double homicide, one male, one female.

BROWN (voice-over): In the movie "Minority Report," the actor Tom Cruise plays a detective who can see into the future to prevent crimes. He stands before an elaborate video wall wearing futuristic gloves to coordinate vast amounts of information.

TOM CRUISE, ACTOR: Timeframe?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thirteen minutes.

BROWN: The entire film, of course, is pure fiction. But an essential part of that science fiction, those high-tech gloves, were based on scientific fact. Developed for the film by this man, John Underkoffer, a straight out of central casting wiz kid from MIT.

JOHN UNDERKOFFER, TREADLE & LOAM PROVISIONERS: You have to understand that none of this stuff worked for real in the movie. It was all special effects and composited in later.

BROWN: But the people at Raytheon, who, among other things, build spy satellites for the U.S. government, saw that movie and wondered. Could the fictional technology used to coordinate vast amounts of information with hand gestures, not a computer mouse, be real? The answer, said the wiz kid, was sure.

UNDERKOFFER: Because we'd gone to such pains to base the stuff in the movie on real existing technology, on real emerging technologies that we could extrapolate forward, people recognized that.

BROWN: So Underkoffer and his partner, Kevin Parent, created hardware they call "G-Speak," and created a new term "gestural technology."

Your hands, in other words, can direct images and information directly onto a computer or onto an array of screens. How it actually works is, for now, a secret. But these gloves can direct both static and video images with ease.

KEVIN PARENT, TREADLE & LOAM PROVISIONERS: If I strike a particular pose that might mean "move my cursor around the screen." Another pose might mean "click to select something on the screen," and then, beyond that, I can do all kinds of other things, like point with two fingers, point with my pinkie, say, make a thumbs up gesture, make an OK gesture -- all of which can have meaning at the same time.

BROWN: Which one day may mean a great deal to people whose business it is to gather and collate information and act on it.

RET. BRIG. GEN. GERALD PERRYMAN, RAYTHEON SPACE SYSTEMS: For example, we get a report in an operations center that, perhaps a terrorist has entered a place, entered a building, and we have to make certain that that bit of information is correct. With gestural technology, a commander could, perhaps, stand in front of a screen, point his finger to that location, and call up all of the information that's archived about it, maybe a map, a photograph, a history of who's been in and used that building.

BROWN: It may be five or 10 years before the military applications are realized, but other, more prosaic goals, are much closer.

UNDERKOFFER: You can certainly imagine -- and many have -- the idea that, you know, if I want to interact with a computer game and I can just strike a pose and do that and I can move through all those sorts of things instead of having my controller, that's a pretty exciting proposition for us, something we intend to pursue.

BROWN: For now this technology is untested in the real world, but not for long.

UNDERKOFFER: This stuff is ready to go, shall we say. This is -- we can imagine by the end of the year, you'll see all sorts of applications that involve the G-Speak technology.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: In the very near future, as in moments from now, we have much more ahead on the program, starting with an incredible story of survival.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(voice-over): The boy who beat the odds. He survived the Oklahoma City bombing in spite of his doctors' predictions, in spite of his horrible injuries.

P.J. ALLEN, OKLA. CITY BOMBING SURVIVOR: I spent ten years with the trach, and now I have my trach out. It was a whole new person in the mirror.

BROWN: P.J. Allen's remarkable story of recovery.

The book that claims to reveal the secrets of the conclave, but does it really?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a great read, and I enjoyed it thoroughly, but it contains enormous historical errors and fabrications.

BROWN: "Angels and Demons," sorting fact from fiction.

And finding truth in tango: they set out to make a film about kids learning to ballroom dance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But, once these kids started opening up, started revealing who they were, we were fascinated, and that was our story.

BROWN: What the children said will surprise you.

From Los Angeles, tonight, and around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In just a moment, fact versus fiction in Dan Brown's other book, "Angels and Demons."

Right now, at a quarter past the hour -- we finally hit this on time -- Erica Hill is in Atlanta with some of the other news of the day. Erica, good evening.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good to see you, Aaron. Only took us a couple of months, right?

We start off with a first for the United States, a director of national intelligence. Career diplomat John Negroponte was sworn in at the White House less than an hour after he won Senate confirmation today. His mission? To coordinate and improve the government's much- criticized spy agencies, all 15 of them.

The House of Representatives passed an energy bill today that would allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Similar bills have passed the House twice before, only to die in the Senate. The measure would extend daylight savings time by two months, who, as some experts say, could save 100,000 barrels of oil per day.

Speaking of oil, the high price of gas apparently starting to have an effect on Americans' lives. In an Associated Press/AOL poll, more than half of those questioned say they are cutting back on driving. Many plan to stay closer to home on their summer vacations; 51 percent say, if gas prices stay high for the next six months, it will cause a financial hardship.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he misspoke this week when he was talking about Mexican immigration. He said, quote, "California's border with Mexico should be closed." But, yesterday, Schwarzenegger apologized for the comment, saying, what he really meant to say was the border should be secured. Schwarzenegger blames the mix-up on his English and said, I should probably go back to school and maybe study the language a little more.

And the force can be found in Indianapolis: more than 30,000 "Star Wars" fans are expected there this weekend for Celebration Three. It is the largest official "Star Wars" convention ever held, and fans are in rare form, of course, with the release of "Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith," set for May 19th. Also, creator George Lucas will be on hand, another reason to get excited, since it's the first fan convention he's attended since 1987.

Aaron, that's the latest from Headline News. We'll turn it back to you in Los Angeles.

BROWN: Thank you, and I'm sure I'll be in Indianapolis for that. Perhaps not. We'll see.

HILL: I could see you there.

BROWN: Erica -- yes, right. See you in half an hour.

On the second full day as pope, Pope Benedict XVI made clear that continuity, and not swift change, is to his liking. He reappointed the entire Vatican hierarchy, the same church leaders chosen by John Paul II. The new pope also seemed to signal that he intends to follow John Paul in reaching out to other religions. He invited the chief rabbi of Rome to an outdoor mass on Sunday, during which he'll formally take the papal throne.

Meantime, details of the conclave, the chosen, continue to leak out, apparently, because cardinals continue to leak. Those are the facts. These, on the other hand, might be facts or not. They're contained in the novel "Angels and Demons," a novel by Dan Brown. Here's NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: "Angels and Demons" is full of references to real events, real people, real places. All the writing about works of art and architecture is said to be entirely factual. There are even accurate scale maps of Rome and Vatican City to help readers follow the novel's action. But for all that, the story is a weave of the real and the invented.

REV. JOHN COUGHLIN, UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME: This book sounds a lot like a "Da Vinci Code." It's a great read, and I enjoyed it thoroughly, but it contains enormous historical errors and fabrications.

NISSEN: "Angels and Demons" unfolds just after the death of a fictional pope. As is happening now in Rome, in the book, the cardinals have gathered for the conclave, to elect the next pope. Security is tight. The Sistine Chapel has been swept for listening devices.

COUGHLIN: There is actually an electronic sweeping of the chapel right before the cardinals go into the conclave.

NISSEN: When the fictional conclave begins, the cardinals are sealed into the chapel, under lock and key and heavy guard.

COUGHLIN: No. That's not true at all. While the voting is taking place, only the cardinals are present, and it is sealed in that sense.

NISSEN: In the book, four cardinals are discovered missing, the preferiti, the leading candidates to be pope. Do real conclaves have preferiti?

COUGHLIN: There are candidates. I think that the cardinals have certain members of their mind who they think would make a good pope.

NISSEN: Finding the missing cardinals and safeguarding the Vatican is the job in the book of the Swiss Guard. They are real. Although they aren't quite the special forces the book describes.

COUGHLIN: The Swiss Guard are a kind of quasi-military police force. They do carry weapons. There is an arsenal. And they are trained in security.

NISSEN: They would hardly be a match for the bad guys in the book, a shadowy underground organization known as the Illuminati with a centuries old vendetta against the Catholic Church. The book's author says the cult known as the Brotherhood of the Illuminati is factual. Some church historians aren't sure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a medieval group who were called the Illuminati. It refers to people who have a certain stage of development in their spiritual lives, where they've been Illuminated by the light of Christ.

NISSEN: And what of the weapon of mass destruction the Illuminati in the book to try to use to blow up Vatican City. An Illuminati agent has stolen it from CERN, a very real physics research center near Geneva, Switzerland that actually has an 18 mile long particle accelerator.

In the book, two physicists use that atom smasher for an alleged break through, the first creation of anti-matter in a laboratory.

STEVE LAUTENSCHALGER, PARTICLE PHYSICIST: This is one of the more major errors in the book is that one of the characters actually says, this is the first anti-matter. It's not the first anti-platter. It's been around for nearly 100 years.

NISSEN: The book describes anti-matter as 1,000 times more powerful than nuclear energy, true?

LAUTENSCHALGER: Somewhere around a millionth of a gram of anti- matter would be capable of powering a ship in the one year trip from Earth to Mars.

NISSEN: If the anti-matter could be collected and stored, which the fictional physicists have done, but real physicists can't yet do.

At least one physicist is forgiving of the errors in the book.

LAUTENSCHALGER: I would say any publicity for science or particle in general is good.

NISSEN: And the priest?

COUGHLIN: It doesn't take away from the enjoyment from reading the novel, but people shouldn't take it as a historical piece.

NISSEN: A novel idea.

Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: Coming up on the program tonight, what's shaping up to be a bench clearing brawl in the Senate over some of the president's nominees to the federal bench.

There's no fighting with the rooster. You couldn't win anyway. Brought morning papers to L.A., which is where we are tonight. And this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The state seems set now for an unprecedented showdown over the president's appointments of a small number of federal judges. Today the Judiciary Committee, in a strict party line vote, sent two controversial nominations to the full Senate for a vote.

It's the second time for both Janice Rogers Brown, who's on the left there, and Priscilla Owens, a Texan, on the right. They were approved by the committee, their nominations blocked in a filibuster by Democrats, who are threatening to filibuster them again.

Senator Chuck Schumer says of Judge Brown, a California state judge, that she does not deserve to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: I hope and pray we will reject her nomination, and I hope this nomination of all won't be used as a prelude to change a 200-year tradition of the Senate, of the government and of America.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY, (D) VERMONT: Justice Owens' record of judicial activism and ends oriented decision making leaves me with grave doubts about her ability to be a fair judge. The president says he opposes putting judicial activists on the federal bench, but Justice Owens is very much a judicial activist.

SEN. ELIZABETH DOLE, (R) NORTH CAROLINA: It is a fact that these nominees have been rated qualified and well qualified by the American Bar Association and that each has a majority of support in the United States Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Where this will all lead is at least to political acrimony and perhaps to chaos in the Senate as well. Senate Republicans are threatening to change the rules, deny Democrats the use of a filibuster on judges. Democrats counter they will bring most Senate business to a halt if that were to happen.

Whether the Republicans actually have the votes for the so-called nuclear option isn't certain tonight and may not be certain until the vote is taken, if it comes to that.

Our legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joins us tonight in New York.

Just to frame this for a second. 20 seconds on why there is a filibuster at all.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Because the Senate is supposed to be different from the House. In the House, the majority rules period. In the Senate, the framers decided that the minority, even if they don't have a majority of senators, they should have a voice in how the Senate is run. So they have the right, 40 senators have the right currently, to slow things down to a stop.

BROWN: And then 60 votes breaks the filibuster, but they don't -- the Republicans on this don't have the 60 votes.

One of the Republican arguments has been that the president is under the constitution entitled to an up or down vote, therefore, a filibuster is unconstitutional. Is there any validity to that?

TOOBIN: Well, certainly, it is true that the constitution says all judges need to be approved with the advice and consent of the Senate, which means a majority. So, yes, it is true that a majority of the Senate approves all judges.

However, the constitution doesn't say anything about how the Senate should be run. And traditionally for 200 years, the Senate has been run so that the majority -- the minority, the minority has the right to slow things down to a stop unless a filibuster can be overcome. So both sides are a little bit right on the history here.

BROWN: It is -- it's not an overstatement to say that, if this were to come to be, it would be an extraordinary action by the Republican majority in this case, an action that has even some Republicans and many conservatives saying, maybe that's not so smart.

TOOBIN: You know, Aaron, this all sounds boring and procedural, but this issue, the nuclear option, is the most important thing the Senate is going to do in 20 years. Because if the nuclear option passes and all that's needed is a majority for judicial appointments, the Democrats instantly become irrelevant on the issue of judges, including any possible appointments to the Supreme Court. So, if the nuclear option passes, it doesn't matter what Democrats think of President Bush's judicial appointments, including Supreme Court justices, because they have no power to stop it.

BROWN: Well, is it fair to say, too, then, that today, it's judicial appointments and tomorrow it could be an energy bill or a highway bill or a farm bill or a budget or anything else?

TOOBIN: Well, Majority Leader Frist says no, that's not the case. He's saying this is only about judicial appointments. The filibuster will be alive and well for everything relating to legislation. Democrats, of course, say, no, no, no, this is just the beginning of the end for the filibuster. We'll see how that turns out.

But, you're right to put your finger on that issue, because it's a big point of contention between the parties: does this apply just to judicial appointments or to legislation as well? BROWN: Well, I guess my point is more, if you make the argument that it's an appropriate thing to do -- and I won't get into whether I agree with it or don't agree with it -- but if you make the argument it's an appropriate thing to do for judges, it seems to me it's about this much distance to say it's an appropriate thing to do for anything.

TOOBIN: Well, that's what -- I mean, Democrats say that's the argument. Republicans reply, look, they say the filibuster is designed to bring about compromise, and you can always compromise legislation. You can always cut the amount of money in a bill. You can trim it. Judicial appointments are different. There's no way to compromise. It's just up and down. So that's why they say filibuster is OK for legislation, not okay for judicial appointments.

BROWN: Jeffrey, good to see you. Thank you.

TOOBIN: Good to see you.

BROWN: Jeffrey Toobin in New York tonight.

Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, doctors said he might not survive the injuries he sustained in the bombing in Oklahoma city a decade ago. Nice thing to know sometimes doctors aren't always right. This is an incredibly cool story. We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT from L.A.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "This Week in History," a 51-day standoff between a religious cult and law enforcement ends in flames, on April 19, 1993. The Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, burned to the ground, claiming the lives of some 80 cult members.

In 1995, a truck containing a bomb exploded at Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. One hundred sixty-eight people were killed, including 19 children.

And in Littleton, Colorado, two teenagers went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School on April 20th, 1999. The gunmen, wearing black trench coats, shot and killed 13 people before turning the guns on themselves. And that is "This Week in History."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: As we reported briefly at the top of the program tonight, insurgents shot down a civilian helicopter in Iraq today. They videotaped the aftermath. In the moments before we went to air, questions arose, not about the facts of the incident, but about the tape itself. This has been a very difficult night for our standards and practices people, trying to figure out if the footage had been edited or parts of it staged. We appreciate their hard work on this. The tape shows the crash site north of Baghdad, at least 10 people died. We're sure of that. Six of them American contractors, men who act as body guards for diplomats and others. The insurgents in their tape take us on a grisly tour of the wreckage and the incinerated bodies. The circumstances of what come next are in question. Unmistakably an injured man is first interrogated, then helped to his feet. Then after the camera zooms in to get a better view, the man is shot to death, something they wanted to show, but we will not. We won't, so we froze the tape before the fact.

Now, what remains uncertain is whether the victim seen on the tape was, in fact, one of the crash victims or if this was, in effect, two atrocities edited together for additional propaganda value, and on that point, despite a lot of work tonight, we are not absolutely certain.

Well, the nation took special note of Oklahoma City this week because of the bombing at the federal building there 10 years ago, April 19th, 1995. Survivors of that tragic attack don't need an anniversary to remember what they lost or to measure how far they've come. There are many good and wonderful stories we could tell you about how people have gone about rebuilding broken lives. We choose but one tonight, a small child with great courage and a great grandmother.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): P.J. Allen's carefree childhood ended when he was 18 months old, too young to remember what he now knows is true.

ALLEN: When they found me out, inside the building, I was on fire. I had third degree burns. My eyebrows were burned off, all my hair.

BROWN: Severely burned over 50 percent of his body, rocks and debris embedded in his head, lungs so badly burned he needed a tracheotomy to breathe -- doctors didn't give him much chance of living, warned of brain damage if he did, and doubted he could ever talk without that tube in his throat. But on January the 6th, 2004, a little more than a year ago, that tube came out.

ALLEN: I spent 10 years with the trach, and now I have my trach out. So, it's a whole new person in the mirror.

Hi, mama.

DELORIS WATSON, P.J.'S GRANDMOTHER: Hey, sweetie.

BROWN: P.J.'s grandmother, Deloris Watson, quit her job to care for him all these years. P.J. calls her mom.

ALLEN: She wouldn't let me out of her sight. She wanted to make sure that I pulled through. So, I describe her as strong, faithful, and just a great mom.

Mama! WATSON: Yes?

ALLEN: Can you unlock the car?

BROWN: What P.J. never saw was his mom's fatigue, or her fear.

WATSON: Following the bombing, it was very difficult. For two years, P.J. was not allowed to go outside in the sun.

They did not want him being sunburned or exposed to the UV rays from the sunlight. So we became what I refer to as children of the night. About 7:00 at night, I would take P.J. out to play, and we would play in the evening. And then I'd be up half the night giving him breathing treatments every two hours. So I was totally sleep- deprived for a number of years.

BROWN: There is little anger in this young boy, but there does seem to be a fair amount of what if.

ALLEN: I'm not angry about what happened. It's just that sometimes I just wonder what my life would be like if I wasn't in the bombing.

BROWN: The boy who lived with the trach now sings in the church choir.

The kid too frail to go to school for years has now entered the sixth grade. And the boy some gave up on is planning a future.

ALLEN: My goal and my dream is to become a great engineer, to be able to let my mom rest when I grow up. The reason I'm proud is because my mom never gave up. I never gave up. And God never gave up on me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Go get 'em, kid.

Tomorrow night, we'll have much more on the Oklahoma City bombing, a look back 10 years later at a day that changed the country. Stories of survival and courage, heroism, stories of hope. Our special coverage starts at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time.

Ahead on the program, can the tango change a fifth grader's life? What about the foxtrot? Two filmmakers made it their mission to find out. Their story when we return. From Los Angeles, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In a moment, reading, writing, and the rumba, or perhaps the tango. First, at quarter until the hour, time to check with Erica Hill in Atlanta, other news of the day. Erica, we hit it twice in one night.

HILL: Not bad, Aaron. Are you going to be tangoing later? BROWN: Not likely.

HILL: OK. Just checking.

We start off tonight with the man whose job it is to make sure another 9/11 does not happen. John Negroponte is the nation's first national intelligence director, and he was sworn in today less than an hour after the Senate approved his nomination. Negroponte will coordinate the work of all 15 U.S. spy agencies.

President Bush may soon be getting much of the money he's requested for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate approved $81 billion for the missions today. The Pentagon says it needs that money by the end of -- by the first week of May, rather. House and Senate negotiators still must work out some differences there.

Lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require states to keep closer tabs on convicted sex offenders. The federal act would be called the Jessica Lunsford Act, named after the 9-year-old Florida girl who was kidnapped from her home and allegedly killed by a convicted sex offender last month. The bill would require sex offenders to verify their locations twice a year or face penalties, including time or a fine.

The death rate on U.S. highways has dropped now to its lowest point in recorded history. Overall, 42,800 people died on the nation's highways in 2004. And while the number is actually slightly more than 2003, the rate of deaths decreased, because there were more drivers on the road overall. The government says 56 percent of those killed were not wearing seatbelts.

Two former New York City police detectives pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, drug distribution and money laundering. Police say they moonlighted for the Mafia for more than 20 years. According to an indictment from a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, the two routinely passed out law enforcement information to the mob and killed rival gangsters.

And that is the latest from HEADLINE NEWS at this hour. Aaron, back to you.

BROWN: Erica, thank you.

Now it's time to dance. Tango, foxtrot and fifth graders may seem an unlikely combination. Unlikely, and it turns out, fascinating. A year ago, two filmmakers began shooting a documentary about a program that teaches ballroom dancing to 11-year-olds in New York City schools. "Mad Hot Ballroom" opens nationwide next month. It shows what kids on the cusp of adolescence can discover on the dance floor and how they see and talk about their world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five, six, five, six, here we go. MARILYN AGRELO, CO-PRODUCER, "MAD HOT BALLROOM": We started shooting in mid-February of 2004. And we shot until the final competition. We started out with the aim of doing a story about the ballroom dance program.

AMY SEWELL, CO-PRODUCER, "MAD HOT BALLROOM": But it became about 11-year-olds growing up in New York City and revealing pieces of themselves along this journey.

AGRELO: Our aim was to create a film that was super intimate, and so that the viewer is almost like a kid. So the whole film is at their eye level, and so that we move seamlessly in and out while they're dancing, while they're talking, while they're hanging out, to create this very intimate, invisible presence with them.

We were able to contrast so many different groups and cultures and backgrounds. The Bensonhurst school is essentially a very mixed bag -- Asian, Italian American and Muslim. And they are pretty much working-class kids. In some ways, we always thought of them as a very pure group of little kids who were more representative, I think, of American kids.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like this sport hasn't been invented before.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My favorite dance is the merengue. Isn't it (INAUDIBLE)?

SEWELL: The Washington Heights school was a school that is has an immigrant population, a little bit economically disadvantaged. And, you know, facing challenges that were not present in the other neighborhoods. But what they do is have is this amazing, amazing affinity and ability to dance, and it's just part of their culture.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's tough because everybody wants to compete. But you want to have a sturdy team not only to make me proud, but for themselves, and to represent the school and to represent their country.

SEWELL: We love that group, and we loved their teacher, who was so passionate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very nice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The swing.

AGRELO: And the Tribeca kids were so fascinating and so interesting because, again, another really mixed bag. Culturally, very diverse. But with such a verbal ability. They were the ones that astonished us with a lot of the things they said and a lot of the things they revealed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do know that boys think about girls.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I'm dancing with Emma, she tries to lead me because... UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dancing with Emma? OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is ballroom dancing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ballroom dancing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

SEWELL: One of the things the program emphasizes besides dancing, learning how to social dance is manage respect and courtesy. I think what we saw was a transformation from 11-year-olds acting like kids to little ladies and gentlemen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five, six, ready, go.

AGRELO: I was always thinking of course, we're not going to have the winning team. This isn't a story about winning or losing. This is a story about the journey.

The day of the final competition at the Winter Garden was a big, big, big day for us, because it was the culmination and the climax of our story. There were nine teams competing for the gold and competing then for the giant trophy.

SEWELL: When you look at these three schools, they had strong teachers and strong principals who were willing to guide these children and lead them into areas where they hadn't been before. Everybody dance now

AGRELO: I still don't consider it really a story about winning or losing or a story about competition or necessarily a story about dance, for that matter. You know, for us, it's a story about getting into the intimate minds of kids.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, I don't know if morning papers can top that, but we'll give it a whirl. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Hard to believe it's already that time, but it's time to check morning papers from around the country and around the world. We'll start with the International Herald Tribune, published by the New York Times in Paris.

Middle of the page, if you will. A cardinal's visit put boy on path to the Vatican. More biography and background on the new pope in the Herald Tribune, and perhaps that will be in the New York Times and other papers too.

The Washington Times, Bush Scolds Senate About Bolton Delay. That's John Bolton. Urges Politics Be Cast Aside For U.N. Nominee.

So, here's the deal, both sides do this, have you ever noticed it's always the other side that plays politics. It's never your side that plays politics. Maybe the guy's actually not qualified. Not that I have an opinion on that.

Last Flight From Saigon Still Vivid After 30 Years: Pan-Am Crew Orphans Reunite This Weekend. That is a terrific story. 30 years ago.

Christian Science Monitor, Moussaoui, A Window On Terror Trials: Suspect Scheduled to Plead Guilty Today -- today being Friday, of course, -- in bizarre case seeing how justice system handles terror.

I have not gotten that case from the get-go.

The Des Moines Register -- I get this. Lockdown Mode in Wake of School Shootings in Colorado and Minnesota. Many Iowa students now practice taking cover in school.

That's unfortunate, isn't it? But the kids -- a young woman here, young girl says, I moved from a school in Illinois and we didn't do anything like that. And we do it here, and I feel safe.

Feeling safe counts.

30 seconds, my goodness. Let's do this one then. Newsday. I like the headline a lot. Generation Rx. One in five teens uses prescription drugs to get high. We're talking serious drugs here -- OxyContin and that sort of stuff. One in five? Doesn't that seem high?

Chicago Tribune, just a great headline up here. No more Garciaparra? As in Nomar Garciaparra, right, the baseball player.

The weather tomorrow, in Chicago, by the way -- thank you, devalued.

We'll wrap it up from L.A. in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: An Oklahoma City bombing anniversary special 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