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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Medical First: Ovarian Transplant Leads to Healthy Birth; Whistleblower: Bush Administration Editing Scientific Reports for Political Reasons; Leaked British Memo Stirs Iraq Controversy; Dean's Remarks Create Debate; Suspected Terrorist Father, Son Arrested

Aired June 08, 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.


LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Right now, we go to New York. Just excited for you. Look at him. NEWSNIGHT's own Aaron Brown, who was paged this morning at Nedenhour's (ph) restaurant in Los Angeles, in Beverly Hills. For some reason, they thought you were there.
AARON BROWN, HOST: No, I'm one of those people who call places and ask for myself just to seem more important.

KING: It worked today.

BROWN: Thank you. Finally worked. Thank you, Larry.

Good evening again, everyone.

Anna Grace Yarber is not the world's first miracle baby, but she is most certainly the latest to take our breath away. Her birth two days ago marked a milestone in medicine, an impossibility made possible.

Like Louise Brown, the world's first test tube baby, born almost 27 years ago, Anna Yarber made history simply because she came into this world like no other baby before.

We begin tonight with CNN's Elizabeth Cohen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Anna Grace Yarber, you have no idea what your mother did to get you or what your aunt Melanie did or Doctor Sherman Silber. You're medical first, and your story began on the Internet.

Your mother Stephanie and her twin sister went to an infertility web site after in vitro fertilization didn't work twice.

Stephanie had always wanted to be a mom.

STEPHANIE YARBER, NEW MOTHER: When I was younger, I used to put pillows under my shirt and have it poked out like I was pregnant.

COHEN: But for some unknown reason, she went through menopause extremely early, at age 14. Doctor Silber runs the web site Stephanie visited, and he remembers getting the phone call from the sisters. DR. SHERMAN SILBER, INFERTILITY SPECIALIST: They called us up and asked, "Do you think, could you transplant an ovary?" Despite this very, very cute rural accent that makes you think that maybe they're naive, they're not naive at all. They had researched it extremely heavily, and they impressed me with their knowledge.

COHEN: The sisters knew ovarian transplants had worked in animals, and they volunteered to be the first human subjects.

Melanie's ovaries were fine. She has three children. So Dr. Silber took healthy ovarian tissue from her and implanted it onto Stephanie's ovaries. It was all done as an out-patient procedure.

And just six months later, Stephanie was pregnant. She and her husband Kevin conceived the old-fashioned way, no fertility drugs, no IVF. Her obstetrician called to give her the good news while she was at a work, at a bank in Mussel Shoals, Alabama.

SILBER: She started screaming on the phone. She was so excited, and everybody in the bank started screaming. And before you knew the whole town of Mussel Shoals, Alabama, was screaming.

COHEN: Months later in the delivery room, the reaction was pretty much the same. Her sister was right there with her.

YARBER: She cried. And she cried. I cried. Yes. It was emotional for everybody in that room with us.

COHEN: But would this have been a happy ending if the two sisters weren't identical twins? Dr. Silber thinks so. He says ovarian transplants should work for non-twins, but the mother would have to take drugs to suppress her immune system.

SILBER: We know that women that have had a kidney transplant successfully and are on immunosuppression get pregnant and deliver babies. So we know that can work.

COHEN: So a happy ending for mother, for aunt, for the doctor who some said is a dreamer.

SILBER: We're really thrilled to be vindicated.

COHEN: And for baby Anna Grace, named Anna for her grandmother and Grace...

YARBER: Grace, I mean, by the grace of God that she's here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: Now, donating that ovary was not risk-free for Melanie. Because she did that donation, she will likely go through menopause at an early age -- Aaron.

BROWN: Why had it never been tried before?

COHEN: Well, it had been tried on animals. And so they spent several decades testing it out, making sure that it worked. And testing out the principle, as it were. This was just the first doctor who decided to try it out on humans and, really, because this pair of sisters approached him first.

BROWN: And is there anything -- was there anything in the doctor's background that suggests that he would have been exactly the right doctor to pull this off? Was there a special skill involved, or was it a willingness to -- and I don't mean in any sense pejoratively -- roll the dice in the procedure?

COHEN: You know, it's interesting because some doctors just are bigger risk takers than others and are also more pioneering and more likely to try things that other people say won't work. And he really sort of is in that category.

He's in the category where he said, you know, a lot of people say that maybe this won't work, but I'm going to go ahead and try it. And I think it really helped that there were these two sisters who were so enthusiastic, who were so willing to do it.

He's now done it on two other pairs of identical twin sisters. He's done the ovarian transplants in the past couple of months.

BROWN: Elizabeth, thank you. It's a great story, and it's a great story well told. Thank you.

COHEN: Thanks.

BROWN: Thank you.

Now are scientific facts subject to change? Apparently, yes. That question and its answers at the core of a dispute raging in the scientific community that, for awhile now, has accused the administration of distorting or ignoring facts, because those facts didn't fit with the politics.

It surfaced again today with a report that a formal oil industry lobbyist is editing scientific work on global warming, which some, including a former administration official, see as the fox guarding the hen house.

From the White House tonight, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rick Piltz left the government three month ago, fed up with the Bush administration's approach to science.

RICK PILTZ, FORMER CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE PROGRAM OFFICIAL: I've been seeing what was clearly a process of politicization of the science program in a way that was undermining its credibility and its integrity.

MALVEAUX: For the last four years, Piltz worked on the White House Council on Environment Quality. Now, he is making public these internal documents he says show a top White House official editing government reports to downplay the scientific link between industrial emissions and global warming.

For example, this section on possible effects of global warming was edited out. In the margin, he said these were speculative findings.

That official, Philip Cooney, is currently the chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, a position that helps devise and promote the Bush administration's environmental policy. Before that, Cooney was a lobbyist for the oil industry. Some environmentalists say that industry's fingerprints are all over White House policy.

DAVID HAMILTON, SIERRA CLUB: I never saw the kind of attempt to change the facts and change the conclusions that we see now in the Bush administration.

MALVEAUX: Some scientists say their role in shaping public policy has been greatly diminished.

CNN asked to speak with Cooney, but a White House spokeswoman said he would not be made available to comment on this story. The White House says they have scientists and policymakers involved in editing the report.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is not based on any one individual. This is an interagency review process, where everybody who is involved in these issues should put into these reports. And that's all this is.

MALVEAUX: The administration also denies downplaying the effects of climate change. President Bush on Tuesday.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's a lot of the things we're doing in America, and I believe that not only can we solve a greenhouse gas, I believe we will.

MALVEAUX: Political observers point out that government reports often tend to reflect the positions of a party occupying the White House.

STUART ROTHENBERG, POLITICAL ANALYST: Who are the Republican experts? They're going to come from the business community and often from the energy industry. They're saying that they're analytical, that they're dispassionate, that that they're bringing balance to studies that the Democrats have done that were not balanced. It's politics.

MALVEAUX: But critics say the Bush administration, in particular, is out of step with much of the rest the world. In its refusal to sign the Kyoto climate treaty and also in its focus over questions about global warming.

Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: An American soldier died today when a roadside bomb went off near a military convoy outside Tikrit. The soldier, he or she, we don't yet know, was the 16th to die this month in Iraq and the 350th to die this year.

We don't imagine he or she spent much time thinking about how the war came to pass or why. Troops have more important things to worry about. But back home, a memo from Britain's intelligence service is once again raising those long-running questions. Questions also of why the memo isn't getting attention that some, some, believe it deserves.

Here's CNN's Jeff Greenfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): It was the question many of President Bush's critics have been waiting to hear for weeks: a question posed by Reuter's correspondent Steve Holland to the president and to British prime minister, Tony Blair.

STEVE HOLLAND, REUTER'S CORRESPONDENT: On Iraq, the so-called Downing Street memo from July 2002 says, "Intelligence and facts remain fixed around the policy of removing Saddam through military action." Is this an accurate reflection of what happened?

GREENFIELD: The so-called Downing Street memo has been a huge story in Great Britain ever since "The Times" of London published it on May 1, just four days before the British general election.

The memo says that the head of British intelligence told the British government that President Bush saw a war against Saddam as inevitable and that intelligence in Washington was, quote, "being fixed around the policy." That idea was adamantly denied by both leaders.

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: The facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at all.

BUSH: There's nothing farther from the truth. Both of us didn't want to use our military.

GREENFIELD (on camera): Two questions surround this memo. First, even if it is an accurate summary of how Bush was feeling in the summer of 2002, would it matter?

Second, why did it stir so much attention on one side of the Atlantic and hardly any at all in the United States?

(voice-over) The second question is relatively easy to answer. The memo surfaced just before Britons went to the polls in an election where Blair's support for the Iraq war was a major issue. The war's unpopularity in Britain was one reason why Blair's Labour Party won with a sharply reduced majority in Parliament.

In the United States, by contrast, the high-voltage presidential campaign ended months ago.

RICHARD WOLFFE, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "NEWSWEEK": I think there's a certain amount of Iraq fatigue, at least among the media, which is hard to kind of fathom in some way. It goes in cycle.

GREENFIELD: Richard Wolffe is "Newsweek's" senior White House correspondent.

WOLFFE: I think there is an appetite to rerun this historical debate. The question is, is it worth still being there? What was the reason for being there? And is it still worth defending and fighting for?

GREENFIELD: Further, the idea that Bush has been committed to the removal of Saddam for a very long time has been raised before. Among others, by former treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill and by former White House terrorism chief, Richard Clarke.

But what about the substance? It is true that all through the last months of 2002 and the first months of 2003, the president was publicly insisting that war was not inevitable, that he was looking for a way to pressure Saddam peacefully.

BUSH: I think a lot of people are saying, you know, gosh, I hope we don't have war. I feel the same way.

War's not my first choice.

I made the decision to go to the United Nations because I wanted to try to do this peacefully.

WOLFFE: We had no idea that he had really decided to go to war, which is what this memo says. All of the public comments were that the president had no war plans on his desk.

GREENFIELD: But the memo's account of the past is not the biggest Iraq dilemma facing the president. It's what's happening now: the continuing violence, the absence of any near-term likelihood of a conclusion, and the financial drain.

Iraq and Afghanistan will now cost some $400 billion. And a just released ABC News/"Washington Post" poll shows a clear public shift. For the first time, more than half believe the Iraq war has not made America safer. Two thirds say the United States is bogged down and nearly six in 10 say the war was not worth fighting. More than 40 percent now see Iraq as something like another Vietnam.

(on camera) The real power of this memo, then, is its potential to reinforce beliefs that flow from current events. The more worried Americans are about the present, the more pessimistic they become about the future, the more likely they are to have doubts about what really happened in the past.

Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: More politics here. The thing we like most about Howard Dean, the head of the Democratic Party, these days is that he's good copy. It's a selfish thing, I know. But every honest reporter will tell you, good copy beats bad copy in a heartbeat.

Over the last couple of weeks, Dr. Dean has been especially good copy, which may or may not be good politics.

Here's CNN's Bill Schneider.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): In February 2003, Howard Dean made this controversial statement.

HOWARD DEAN, DNC CHAIR: White folks in the south who drive pick- up trucks with Confederate flag decals in back, ought to be voting with us and not them.

SCHNEIDER: Winning the southern vote was critical, and a lot of Democrats thought Dean was right. But he was roundly criticized.

In December 2003, Howard Dean made this controversial statement.

DEAN: But the capture of Saddam has not made America safer.

SCHNEIDER: Again, a lot of people thought Dean was correct. But he was criticized for saying it at the moment when the country was celebrating Saddam's capture.

This week, Dean made this controversial statement.

DEAN: The Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people. They're a pretty monolithic party. Pretty much -- they all behave the same. They all look the same. And they all, you know, it's pretty much a white Christian party.

SCHNEIDER: Technically, once again, Dean may have been right. Among all of the self-described Republicans interviewed by the CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll this year, a whopping 82 percent are white Christians.

But once again, it was politically foolish, because the majority of Democrats also are white Christians, including Dean himself. Two thirds of the American people are white Christians. It doesn't make much sense to tick off 150 million potential voters.

Or the 1-in-4 Bush voters last November who were not white Christians. White Republican Party chairman Ken Mehlman, who said, "A lot of folks who attended my bar mitzvah would be surprised" to find out he heads a white Christian party.

Those Dean bombs put his fellow Democrats in an awkward position.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: And I do not agree with the statement that was made by Governor Dean -- Chairman Dean in relate -- in characterizing Republicans.

SCHNEIDER: Although, they do seem to think that Dean's us versus them rhetoric has its effect.

PELOSI: He has energized the base of the party.

SCHNEIDER: Democrats energized their base brilliantly in 2004. They gained eight million new votes, but Republicans beat them with a gain of 12 million. The lesson of 2004 is Democrats are unlikely to win simply by rallying their base.

It's a good way to raise money from small donors over the Internet. But it could turn off high dollar donors who want to see a winning political strategy.

Last year, the Democratic National Committee raised more money than the Republican National Committee. Dean became chairman in February 2005. Over the next three months, the Republicans raised more than twice as much money as the Democrats.

To be fair, the Republicans regained their fund-raising lead after President Bush was re-elected last year, before Dean took over the party. But so far, he has not been able to reverse the trend.

Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still ahead on the program tonight, in a California neighborhood, a father and son arrested. The FBI says they have links to al Qaeda.

The problem of General Motors, why it isn't selling enough cars and what happens when it can't.

And they're strangers in a very strange land. Why the international press can't get enough of Michael Jackson.

Far from the courtroom and the deliberations, thankfully, safely in New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Hot and steamy in the city tonight. In a moment, authorities say they believe a California man may have been planning a terrorist attack.

But first, near a quarter past the hour, we go to Atlanta. Erica Hill joins us again tonight with the night's headlines -- Erica.

ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS: Hi, Aaron.

A report today by the Transportation Department's inspector general criticizes oversighted aviation safety. Now the audit says the Federal Aviation Administration isn't doing enough to adapt its safety and inspection plans to the rapidly changing airline industry. While oversight has increased in some big airlines facing financial troubles, there's just not enough on the smaller, faster growing carriers.

The Pentagon is expected to report this week the Army did not find enough recruits in May. The initial goal? Eight thousand new troops. That was lowered to 6,700 recruits, but the Army has failed to meet even that. This will be the fourth straight month recruiting targets have been missed.

In Miami, two former pilots from America West Airlines found guilty of being drunk while operating a jetliner. Thomas Cloyd and Christopher Hughes face up to five years behind bars. In 2002, their planes were ordered back to the gate after an airport screener told authorities he smelled alcohol on them. Prosecutors say Cloyd and Hughes had been out drinking out all night before their flight.

And in Waco, Texas, a guilty plea from former Baylor University basketball player Carl Dotson. That guilty plea for the 2003 murder of his teammate, Patrick Dennehey. In a jailhouse interview, Dotson has said he acted in self-defense. He faces five years to life in prison.

And that's the latest from Headline News at this hour. Aaron, we'll hand it back over to you in steamy New York.

BROWN: You'd like to think, wouldn't you, that the guy or gal flying the airplane was not hammered?

HILL: I would be more comfortable if they hadn't hit the minibar, yes.

BROWN: Yes, I think so, too. Thank you, Ms. Hill.

On the "Security Watch" tonight -- that's an incredible story, when you think about it -- on the "Security Watch" tonight, two men here in jail, the ice cream man and his son. That much we know for sure. They may also be a pair of al Qaeda sympathizers with designs on killing their neighbors and a lot of others, as well. That much the government may eventually have to prove.

Authorities say they have already confessed, sort of. So reporting from Lodi, California, tonight, here's CNN's Peter Viles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Federal agents searched houses in rural northern California after an alarming disclosure. A 22-year-old born in California allegedly admitted he was trained to kill Americans at an al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan.

Twenty-two-year-old Hamid Hayat and his father, Umer, are being held in Sacramento County jail on charges they lied about the son's activities. KEITH SLOTTER, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: We believe through our investigation that various individuals connected to al Qaeda have been operating in the Lodi area in various capacities, including individuals who have received terrorist training abroad with the specific intent to initiate a terror attack in the United States and to harm Americans and our institutions.

VILES: In an affidavit, the government says the younger Hayat admitted the following. That he spent six months at an al Qaeda-run training camp in Pakistan, that during weapons training, photos of president Bush were used as targets. And that he specifically requested to come back to the United States to carry out his jihadi mission, with potential targets that included hospitals and large food stores.

Two other men, leaders at a mosque in Lodi, are being held on immigration violations.

Hayat's lawyer warns against jumping to conclusions.

JOHNNY GRIFFIN III, UMER HAYAT'S ATTORNEY: I think it's important for everyone to push the pause button here. He's only charged with making a false statement.

VILES: But already, attorney Johnny Griffin is receiving angry e-mails.

GRIFFIN: "Understand how appalled I am at the fact that you chose to represent al Qaeda operatives who confessed taking training courses to kill Americans."

VILES: In the working class neighborhood of Lodi, where the elder Hayat lived and drove an ice cream truck, neighbors were stunned.

KARINA MURILLO, NEIGHBOR: He's very friendly with the kids. He never did anything to led us to believe he would be planning something like this.

VILES: federal officials say they have been tracking Hamid Hayat for some time. He had been on a no-fly list, but after questioning by the FBI was allowed to reenter the United States in late May. Days later, he was brought in for further questions, and a lie detector test, that led to his arrest.

Peter Viles for CNN, Lodi, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still ahead on the program tonight, General Motors in trouble. What it could mean for your company, even your job.

And it's not exactly a gathering of the United Nations, although it could be. Where are all of those reporters covering Michael Jackson coming from? We know where we're coming from; we're coming from New York. And this is NEWSNIGHT. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The news this week that GM will lay off 20 percent of its blue-collar work force, 25,000 people, is when you think about it, mind-boggling. In some report, GM's problem, and Ford isn't that far behind, are problems pf a simple math.

GM workers are older. They get paid more, get better benefits, when they work. And after they retire. So every vehicle made in this country made by GM costs more to make than Toyota or Nissan spends to build cars, even in places like Tennessee and Kentucky.

But it's more than just a math problem. It's about marketing and vision, and perhaps even arrogance.

Here's CNN's Chris Huntington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): David Champion is in charge of automotive testing for "Consumer Reports."

(on camera) It makes a nice sound, I guess.

DAVID CHAMPION, AUTOMOTIVE TESTER, "CONSUMER REPORTS": It's not too bad. If you take it from where GM was to where they are in this car, they have come a long way.

HUNTINGTON (voice-over): Champion invited us to test drive the new Chevrolet Malibu, GM's challenger to the No. 1 spot.

(on camera) Who has the better horn?

CHAMPION: It is a bit feeble.

HUNTINGTON: Yes. And that's it?

(voice-over) Then we drove the top-selling car in America.

(on camera) We're sitting in the Toyota Camry, which is the best selling car, sedan, in the United States.

CHAMPION: In 2004, yes it was the best selling sedan. It's been close to the Honda Accord for many years. But it's excellently built. It's quiet. It's comfortable, and above all, it's got bulletproof reliability.

HUNTINGTON: And its reliability perhaps more than any other feature that keeps American buyers coming back to the Japanese cars, leaving American cars in the dust.

"Consumer Reports" and J.D. Power Associates, as well as several auto industry experts agree that American cars are made better now than they were 20 or 30 years ago and in many cases have moved ahead of European imports in quality.

But Detroit's best efforts still trail Toyota and Honda.

(on camera) But it's been a couple of decades. How could they still not get it?

CHAMPION: It's a matter of motivation, I think in many ways.

HUNTINGTON (voice-over): You'd think that General Motor's current troubles would be sufficient motivation. GM lost more than $1 billion in just the first three months of this year and announced it needs to cut 25,000 jobs, more than a fifth of its U.S. work force.

RICK WAGONER, PRESIDENT GENERAL MOTORS: We absolutely have to compete. We have to do with it great product, great marketing and cost efficiency.

HUNTINGTON: General Motors has not been competing. It's been losing market shares for three decades. In the '70s, GM had half of the American auto market and 600,000 U.S. Employees. Today its market share is half of what it once was. And soon its work force will be less than $1,000. In 20 years, will there even be a General Motors?

KEITH CRAIN, AUTOMOTIVE NEWS: Oh, absolutely. I think the question is -- General Motors will probably not be number one. I think that if you take a look at the global power of Toyota, it's almost inevitable that they're going to pass, and in fact, have passed Ford and they are on the coattails of General Motors, but GM is always going to be a powerhouse and they'll be up there in the top five in 25 years. They will no longer be the world's largest carmaker probably, however.

HUNTINGTON: The reasons are many, but one, analysts say, is a mindset that simply cannot adapt to a new global market of constant innovation and corporate reinvention.

JERRY FLINT, FORBES MAGAZINE: The aim of the Toyota leaders is to build the best product that they can, to spend every extra dollar on developing technology, to build a better vehicle. The aim of a company like General Motors is to keep Wall Street happy.

HUNTINGTON: Perhaps desperation could force the managers at GM to change, but the other issue they face is not a matter of mindset, it's simple economics, and it's facing all of the American automakers.

Years of monopolizing the American car market and years of union contracts being passed down to the consumer are catching up.

WALTER MCMANUS, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: The big difference in costs is coming in the fixed cost, the health care for retirees. GM and Ford and Chrysler have many more retirees in the U.S. than the Japanese do, and those retirees are getting health care benefits that far exceed what the average American gets from their employers. So, those costs -- the Japanese factories that are here don't have retirees yet, or don't have significant numbers of retirees, so that's another advantage that they have.

HUNTINGTON: Every car that leaves a GM plant has if $1500 in added costs to cover pension and retiree health care benefits. With a competitive price disadvantage, even though the U.S. carmakers are catching up in quality and innovation, it may well not be fast enough. Despite all of the price cuts, low interests, and sales incentives, Americans don't seem to be buying cars they simply don't like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're going to produce a world-class car, you need to be better know that the competition. Not only in how the car performs, but also in terms of reliability. They've made strides in terms of making their cars more reliable, but they don't seem to have made the similar strides in designing world-class cars.

HUNTINGTON: Chris Huntington, CNN, East Haddem (ph), Connecticut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Just to give you an idea of how tough it may be for anyone to get their arms around the difficulties at GM, consider this: the last time that any rival company sold more cars in this country than GM, Herbert Hoover was president. Today, there is no living employee who worked at GM when GM was number two. The backdrop to our discussion earlier tonight with Micheline Maynard who writes about the auto industry for "The New York Times."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Yes, I'm smart enough to know that there's not one here thing that's caused GM or the American auto industry its problems. There's lots of things. Let's try and talk about a few them.

Does it cost the Japanese companies, even for the cars they build in the United States -- and they build a lot of cars in the United States -- does it cost them less to build them?

MICHELINE MAYNARD, AUTHOR "THE END OF DETROIT": It basically does. They have new factories. They have more efficient production methods and they also don't pay the same raise the benefits that the Detroit companies have. I mean, the Detroit companies -- General Motors in particular -- have always been known for extremely generous benefits and the Japanese, and German and European companies, just don't have to pay those rates.

BROWN: How much of GM's problems have to do with what it pays -- the cost of health insurance and benefits for retirees as opposed to people who are actually building cars today?

MAYNARD: Well, they basically pay benefits for 2.5 people for every person working on their assembly line, because those benefits extend to retirees. They extend to spouses, and you know, they always call General Motors "Generous Motors" or "Mother Motors" and it was a very paternalistic company and it wanted to be that way. But it certainly isn't that way in other parts of corporate America.

BROWN: And is it realistic for the UAW, which -- very powerful union -- is it realistic for the UAW to expect that it will be generous in that way in the future? MAYNARD: No, I don't think so. I mean, if you look at what's happened to unions across the country, especially at the airlines, union members in this country are losing those kinds of benefits right and left. I know the UAW has a policy that they never give up anything that they gained in bargaining. But this could end up being a life-or-death measure. This could be the kind of thing that makes or breaks these big auto companies in a few years. And at some point, they're going to have to make some tough decisions.

BROWN: Is it conceivable a GM could go bankrupt?

MAYNARD: I don't think they will short-term, but there is the possibility down the road. I mean, any company can go bankrupt. Airlines have gone bankrupt. K-Mart has gone bankrupt. Look at the steel companies.

What'll happen to General Motors is that it's going to need money -- generate money to build new cars and trucks, to invest in new product programs. It also has an enormous amount of debt that it has to pay interest on and some point, push comes to shove, and the money could just run out. It isn't that they're not taking in money from car sales, it's that they have all of this overhang that they have to take care of.

BROWN: I was talking to someone today who said, one of the many problems that GM -- and they were talking about GM in particular -- is that in many respects, it is a far too risk-adverse company that, from the design point of view, in lot of ways, they've just been slow to take chances.

MAYNARD: Well, you can't blame them in one respect. You have to think back 40 years and General Motors had almost 60 percent of the American car market. If you fast forward to today, that's level that GM, Ford and Chrysler have together. This is a company that's long believed in its dominance in the auto industry. It long believed that if it put it out there and said, you know, this is what you want, that Americans could buy it.

Well, what's happened to GM is that the car market is kind of fractured into different directions and there've been all of these opportunities for companies like Toyota and Honda and BMW to come in and be successful on far fewer car sales and GM just doesn't have that sort of fingertip feel for the car market anymore. They're trying to do in bulk what's now take sort of a specialized approach.

BROWN: Is there a fix-it here?

MAYNARD: Well, it'll take a long time. It'll take determination. It'll take real focus, and from what I heard from General Motors this week, I don't think that they have the real plan that it will take. You know, look at what Nissan had to do. They had to go in and basically redo an entire car company. Come up with new vehicles, come up with a new operating approach, set financial targets and it's taken them six years but now they're one of the most successful companies in the auto industry.

For GM, it could take longer to that -- than that and it may never happen.

BROWN: Good to see you. Thank you for your time today.

MAYNARD: Thanks, it's my pleasure.

BROWN: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Micheline Maynard of "The New York Times."

It's not only the automakers and auto workers grappling with new reality, today a federal judge in Washington turned down a bid by the flight attendants at the bankrupt United airlines. They were trying to block the government from assuming control of United's pension plan. United, they say, violated the law, when the company walked away from its pension obligations. Under government receivership, flight attendants will lose a large percentage of their pension benefits.

Still to come tonight on NEWSNIGHT, an oddity here,an obsession overseas: why the international press cannot resist the trial of Michael Jackson. Take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, now, the jurors didn't reach a verdict today in the Michael Jackson case. But the Jackson Case, the circus, if you will, did provide a new side show: a tussle among his representatives over who's allowed to speak for him, while assuring everyone they're not violating the judge's gag order. No, not that.

They're only tried to feed a ravenous international press. Because despite Jackson's protracted absence from the pop charts, he commands an enduring fascination around the world. Here's CNN's Ted Rowlands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Frederica Dupuis has been covering the Jackson trial for SRC Television in Canada. She says the day that Michael Jackson showed up in his pajamas was the day her bosses told her to stick around until end.

FREDERICA DUPUIS, SRC TELEVISION: Been a star for years so there is an interest, specifically, that he's become so weird over the years.

ROWLANDS: Dupuis is one of international journalists covering the trial.

According to the reporters from 32 countries covering this trial, Michael Jackson's fate is an international obsession.

SALVADOR DURAN, TELEMUNDO: With Spain, they have a huge fan base here for Michael Jackson. In Latin American, Mexico certainly has a lot -- you know, he gives them a lot of support. I see fans over here. El Salvador has a lot of support.

ROWLANDS: One thing they do seem interested in is the American legal system.

MAREK WALKUSKI, POLISH NATIONAL RADIO: There's no jury in Poland. You don't have 12 regular people who decide about the future of the star of anybody.

PETER SHAPLAN, JACKSON MEDIA POLL PRODUCER: There is a Canadian journalist who asked when getting up in order to leave, should they stand in the aisle and bow to the judge?

ROWLANDS: Dupuis is one the few internationalist journalists has covered the trial. She says, when the case is at its most bizarre, the interest back home is at its highest. She thinks the best is yet to come.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Santa Maria, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the rest of the day's headlines and the ordeal that changed American fighter pilot's life -- almost cost him his life as well. Where is Scott O'Grady today? An answer there as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Six days that changed a life forever, that story's coming up. But first, almost a quarter to the hour. Time in to check in with Erica Hill who is in Atlanta and has some of the day's other headlines -- Erica.

HILL: Thanks, Aaron.

A tornado, lightning fires, giant hailstorm, thunderstorms and floods, it's all in a day's weather in the Upper Midwest. In Minnesota, 47-year-old man meantime is missing after a creek surges to banks, his empty pick-up truck was found in a ditch.

In South Dakota, 92 mile-an-hour winds destroyed the town of Onaca's city hall.

In the Minneapolis area, storms knocked out power to 200,000 people. and In Edgley, North Dakota, dozens of people were forced out of their homes during a tornado spewing hail storms as big as three inches in diameter.

Voting almost entirely along party lines, the Senate today confirmed judge Janice Rogers Brown to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. She is the second of three judges whose long delayed confirmation hearings were pushed through thanks to the recent bipartisan compromise on filibusters. Just before the vote, members of the congressional black caucus made an appearance to show opposition to Brown who they have labeled as a conservative ideologue. Only one Democratic senator, Nebraska's Ben Nelson, voted in her favor.

Sex offenders have been effectively banned from moving to the city of Miami Beach. A new ordinance passed unanimously by the city commission on Wednesday is among the toughest in the nation. Offenders whose victims were under 16 are prohibited from moving within 2500 feet of schools, school bus stops, day care centers, parks or play grounds. And that effectively means almost anywhere in the city. Children's advocates warn residency requirement alone cannot guarantee protection.

Also in Florida, an Orlando jury has decided that Lear jet was not responsible for the 1999 death of golfer Payne Stewart in of its planes. Stewart's widow and children had sued the manufacturer for $200 million, claiming a cracked piece of equipment caused the cabin air to escape. The twin-engine jet crashed in South Dakota after flying halfway across the country on auto pilot with Stewart and four others unconscious on board. Lear blamed Sunjet, an out of (INAUDIBLE) company that operated the doomed charter flight.

And Aaron, that is the latest from Headline News at this hour. Back on over to you.

BROWN: Erica, thank you very much. See you tomorrow.

Ten years ago, this month, the country was mesmerized when we learned the story of Captain Scott O'Grady, a fighter pilot shot down over Bosnia. A look back now at his ordeal and where he is today as we continue our anniversary series, "Then and Now."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT O'GRADY, PILOT: As soon as the missile hit, the only thing I saw was the cockpit disintegrating in front of me.

BROWN (voice-over): Captain Scott O'Grady spent six days struggling to survive after being shot down in Bosnia 1995.

O'GRADY: My heart started racing, and then I heard dasher one, one up on the radio.

I'm alive. I'm alive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Copy that. You're alive.

BROWN: Little did he know those six days would change his life forever.

O'GRADY: I just want to have a normal life and just continue on.

BROWN: O'Grady immediately found himself thrust into the spotlight recounting his story before millions. And he continues to do so today, ten years later.

He has published two book, "Return with Honor," and "Basher 5,2" a children's edition of his story.

After 12 years serving his country, O'Grady is now pursuing a Masters at Dallas's Theological Seminary.

O'GRADY: I believe that you shouldn't be ignorant as to what you believe. You should understand why you it believe.

BROWN: Once graduated, Scott O'Grady says he wants to dedicate his life to giving back to both his community and his country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: This "Anniversary Series" were taking a look back at the people and the stories that have shaped our world over these past 25 years since CNN went on the air.

"Morning Papers," after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country, and around the world.

A lot of good things in the papers today. A tale of two newspapers in the same town. "The Washington Times" writes a lot -- in the front pages a lot -- stories about illegal aliens, which it strongly opposes.

So, down at the bottom: 11 illegals found in Virginia amid search for 11 others. Keep that in mind, OK?

We'll come back to that paper in a second, I think. "The Examiner," in Washington -- that's Washington, D.C., also, the pre- paper there. Also's interested in illegals but takes a more sympathetic view of their plight.

OK? So they front page this story: "Foreign flood needed, but often scorned." A kind of sympathetic look at the problems that illegals face when they illegally enter the country.

I guess you could buy your newspaper in Washington based on their attitude on those two -- on that subject.

"Stars and Stripes," this is a good story. Divorce rate rising fast to active duty soldiers as deployments persist. Splits jump 78 percent among Army officers. For some reason, it's higher among officers than enlisted men.

I like this story also, "Bearing His Burden: Diabetic Soldier Becomes Example, Inspiration for Others Like Him." Good for him.

"The daily News" weighs in on many heavy things here in New York. Russell Crowe again, "Eating Crowe." Russell says, "Sorry I hit you, mate, I was jet lagged." And they have a picture here of the hotel clerk and the little bruise he got, or maybe it's not so little.

I guess if you got hit by a phone you wouldn't think it was so swell. Anyway, Russell said he was sorry. He was jet lagged. I have been jet lagged and tempted to throw phones many times. Also, they review the movie, "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" and they advise Jen, that would be Jennifer Aniston, "Don't see it."

OK! "Great White Attacks Jersey Surfer," yikes. There goes my plan to surf on the Jersey coast this weekend. "The Detroit News," amid the economic gloom, "Pistons lift Detroit's spirits." It's been a tough week for Detroit, but the piston are in the NBA finals again. They're the defending champs and they'll go at it again, so the "Detroit News" puts that on the front page.

"Feds: Car Cell Phone Fix Fails." Turns out hand's free cell phone use doesn't really make you that much safer -- shocked to hear that.

"San Antonio Express News:" "Lucky Charms." The Spurs will be in the NBA finals as well, playing the Pistons. That's how it works, as the NBA season wraps up.

In June -- winter sport -- "Feds Bust Cameron's Ex-sheriff." Though, we're not too sure why, it doesn't say. Apparently, it has something to do with drugs. By the way, speaking of drugs, "The Chicago Sun-Times:" "Water Department Heroin Bust," politically connected employee. Two other, city workers, arrested.

Yikes.

The weather tomorrow, in Chicago, if you're there --thank you, hot and heavy.

We'll wrap it up in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Good to have you with us tonight. We'll see you tomorrow, 10:00 Eastern time.

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 June 8, 2005 - 22:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Right now, we go to New York. Just excited for you. Look at him. NEWSNIGHT's own Aaron Brown, who was paged this morning at Nedenhour's (ph) restaurant in Los Angeles, in Beverly Hills. For some reason, they thought you were there.
AARON BROWN, HOST: No, I'm one of those people who call places and ask for myself just to seem more important.

KING: It worked today.

BROWN: Thank you. Finally worked. Thank you, Larry.

Good evening again, everyone.

Anna Grace Yarber is not the world's first miracle baby, but she is most certainly the latest to take our breath away. Her birth two days ago marked a milestone in medicine, an impossibility made possible.

Like Louise Brown, the world's first test tube baby, born almost 27 years ago, Anna Yarber made history simply because she came into this world like no other baby before.

We begin tonight with CNN's Elizabeth Cohen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Anna Grace Yarber, you have no idea what your mother did to get you or what your aunt Melanie did or Doctor Sherman Silber. You're medical first, and your story began on the Internet.

Your mother Stephanie and her twin sister went to an infertility web site after in vitro fertilization didn't work twice.

Stephanie had always wanted to be a mom.

STEPHANIE YARBER, NEW MOTHER: When I was younger, I used to put pillows under my shirt and have it poked out like I was pregnant.

COHEN: But for some unknown reason, she went through menopause extremely early, at age 14. Doctor Silber runs the web site Stephanie visited, and he remembers getting the phone call from the sisters. DR. SHERMAN SILBER, INFERTILITY SPECIALIST: They called us up and asked, "Do you think, could you transplant an ovary?" Despite this very, very cute rural accent that makes you think that maybe they're naive, they're not naive at all. They had researched it extremely heavily, and they impressed me with their knowledge.

COHEN: The sisters knew ovarian transplants had worked in animals, and they volunteered to be the first human subjects.

Melanie's ovaries were fine. She has three children. So Dr. Silber took healthy ovarian tissue from her and implanted it onto Stephanie's ovaries. It was all done as an out-patient procedure.

And just six months later, Stephanie was pregnant. She and her husband Kevin conceived the old-fashioned way, no fertility drugs, no IVF. Her obstetrician called to give her the good news while she was at a work, at a bank in Mussel Shoals, Alabama.

SILBER: She started screaming on the phone. She was so excited, and everybody in the bank started screaming. And before you knew the whole town of Mussel Shoals, Alabama, was screaming.

COHEN: Months later in the delivery room, the reaction was pretty much the same. Her sister was right there with her.

YARBER: She cried. And she cried. I cried. Yes. It was emotional for everybody in that room with us.

COHEN: But would this have been a happy ending if the two sisters weren't identical twins? Dr. Silber thinks so. He says ovarian transplants should work for non-twins, but the mother would have to take drugs to suppress her immune system.

SILBER: We know that women that have had a kidney transplant successfully and are on immunosuppression get pregnant and deliver babies. So we know that can work.

COHEN: So a happy ending for mother, for aunt, for the doctor who some said is a dreamer.

SILBER: We're really thrilled to be vindicated.

COHEN: And for baby Anna Grace, named Anna for her grandmother and Grace...

YARBER: Grace, I mean, by the grace of God that she's here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: Now, donating that ovary was not risk-free for Melanie. Because she did that donation, she will likely go through menopause at an early age -- Aaron.

BROWN: Why had it never been tried before?

COHEN: Well, it had been tried on animals. And so they spent several decades testing it out, making sure that it worked. And testing out the principle, as it were. This was just the first doctor who decided to try it out on humans and, really, because this pair of sisters approached him first.

BROWN: And is there anything -- was there anything in the doctor's background that suggests that he would have been exactly the right doctor to pull this off? Was there a special skill involved, or was it a willingness to -- and I don't mean in any sense pejoratively -- roll the dice in the procedure?

COHEN: You know, it's interesting because some doctors just are bigger risk takers than others and are also more pioneering and more likely to try things that other people say won't work. And he really sort of is in that category.

He's in the category where he said, you know, a lot of people say that maybe this won't work, but I'm going to go ahead and try it. And I think it really helped that there were these two sisters who were so enthusiastic, who were so willing to do it.

He's now done it on two other pairs of identical twin sisters. He's done the ovarian transplants in the past couple of months.

BROWN: Elizabeth, thank you. It's a great story, and it's a great story well told. Thank you.

COHEN: Thanks.

BROWN: Thank you.

Now are scientific facts subject to change? Apparently, yes. That question and its answers at the core of a dispute raging in the scientific community that, for awhile now, has accused the administration of distorting or ignoring facts, because those facts didn't fit with the politics.

It surfaced again today with a report that a formal oil industry lobbyist is editing scientific work on global warming, which some, including a former administration official, see as the fox guarding the hen house.

From the White House tonight, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rick Piltz left the government three month ago, fed up with the Bush administration's approach to science.

RICK PILTZ, FORMER CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE PROGRAM OFFICIAL: I've been seeing what was clearly a process of politicization of the science program in a way that was undermining its credibility and its integrity.

MALVEAUX: For the last four years, Piltz worked on the White House Council on Environment Quality. Now, he is making public these internal documents he says show a top White House official editing government reports to downplay the scientific link between industrial emissions and global warming.

For example, this section on possible effects of global warming was edited out. In the margin, he said these were speculative findings.

That official, Philip Cooney, is currently the chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, a position that helps devise and promote the Bush administration's environmental policy. Before that, Cooney was a lobbyist for the oil industry. Some environmentalists say that industry's fingerprints are all over White House policy.

DAVID HAMILTON, SIERRA CLUB: I never saw the kind of attempt to change the facts and change the conclusions that we see now in the Bush administration.

MALVEAUX: Some scientists say their role in shaping public policy has been greatly diminished.

CNN asked to speak with Cooney, but a White House spokeswoman said he would not be made available to comment on this story. The White House says they have scientists and policymakers involved in editing the report.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is not based on any one individual. This is an interagency review process, where everybody who is involved in these issues should put into these reports. And that's all this is.

MALVEAUX: The administration also denies downplaying the effects of climate change. President Bush on Tuesday.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's a lot of the things we're doing in America, and I believe that not only can we solve a greenhouse gas, I believe we will.

MALVEAUX: Political observers point out that government reports often tend to reflect the positions of a party occupying the White House.

STUART ROTHENBERG, POLITICAL ANALYST: Who are the Republican experts? They're going to come from the business community and often from the energy industry. They're saying that they're analytical, that they're dispassionate, that that they're bringing balance to studies that the Democrats have done that were not balanced. It's politics.

MALVEAUX: But critics say the Bush administration, in particular, is out of step with much of the rest the world. In its refusal to sign the Kyoto climate treaty and also in its focus over questions about global warming.

Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: An American soldier died today when a roadside bomb went off near a military convoy outside Tikrit. The soldier, he or she, we don't yet know, was the 16th to die this month in Iraq and the 350th to die this year.

We don't imagine he or she spent much time thinking about how the war came to pass or why. Troops have more important things to worry about. But back home, a memo from Britain's intelligence service is once again raising those long-running questions. Questions also of why the memo isn't getting attention that some, some, believe it deserves.

Here's CNN's Jeff Greenfield.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): It was the question many of President Bush's critics have been waiting to hear for weeks: a question posed by Reuter's correspondent Steve Holland to the president and to British prime minister, Tony Blair.

STEVE HOLLAND, REUTER'S CORRESPONDENT: On Iraq, the so-called Downing Street memo from July 2002 says, "Intelligence and facts remain fixed around the policy of removing Saddam through military action." Is this an accurate reflection of what happened?

GREENFIELD: The so-called Downing Street memo has been a huge story in Great Britain ever since "The Times" of London published it on May 1, just four days before the British general election.

The memo says that the head of British intelligence told the British government that President Bush saw a war against Saddam as inevitable and that intelligence in Washington was, quote, "being fixed around the policy." That idea was adamantly denied by both leaders.

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: The facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at all.

BUSH: There's nothing farther from the truth. Both of us didn't want to use our military.

GREENFIELD (on camera): Two questions surround this memo. First, even if it is an accurate summary of how Bush was feeling in the summer of 2002, would it matter?

Second, why did it stir so much attention on one side of the Atlantic and hardly any at all in the United States?

(voice-over) The second question is relatively easy to answer. The memo surfaced just before Britons went to the polls in an election where Blair's support for the Iraq war was a major issue. The war's unpopularity in Britain was one reason why Blair's Labour Party won with a sharply reduced majority in Parliament.

In the United States, by contrast, the high-voltage presidential campaign ended months ago.

RICHARD WOLFFE, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "NEWSWEEK": I think there's a certain amount of Iraq fatigue, at least among the media, which is hard to kind of fathom in some way. It goes in cycle.

GREENFIELD: Richard Wolffe is "Newsweek's" senior White House correspondent.

WOLFFE: I think there is an appetite to rerun this historical debate. The question is, is it worth still being there? What was the reason for being there? And is it still worth defending and fighting for?

GREENFIELD: Further, the idea that Bush has been committed to the removal of Saddam for a very long time has been raised before. Among others, by former treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill and by former White House terrorism chief, Richard Clarke.

But what about the substance? It is true that all through the last months of 2002 and the first months of 2003, the president was publicly insisting that war was not inevitable, that he was looking for a way to pressure Saddam peacefully.

BUSH: I think a lot of people are saying, you know, gosh, I hope we don't have war. I feel the same way.

War's not my first choice.

I made the decision to go to the United Nations because I wanted to try to do this peacefully.

WOLFFE: We had no idea that he had really decided to go to war, which is what this memo says. All of the public comments were that the president had no war plans on his desk.

GREENFIELD: But the memo's account of the past is not the biggest Iraq dilemma facing the president. It's what's happening now: the continuing violence, the absence of any near-term likelihood of a conclusion, and the financial drain.

Iraq and Afghanistan will now cost some $400 billion. And a just released ABC News/"Washington Post" poll shows a clear public shift. For the first time, more than half believe the Iraq war has not made America safer. Two thirds say the United States is bogged down and nearly six in 10 say the war was not worth fighting. More than 40 percent now see Iraq as something like another Vietnam.

(on camera) The real power of this memo, then, is its potential to reinforce beliefs that flow from current events. The more worried Americans are about the present, the more pessimistic they become about the future, the more likely they are to have doubts about what really happened in the past.

Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: More politics here. The thing we like most about Howard Dean, the head of the Democratic Party, these days is that he's good copy. It's a selfish thing, I know. But every honest reporter will tell you, good copy beats bad copy in a heartbeat.

Over the last couple of weeks, Dr. Dean has been especially good copy, which may or may not be good politics.

Here's CNN's Bill Schneider.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): In February 2003, Howard Dean made this controversial statement.

HOWARD DEAN, DNC CHAIR: White folks in the south who drive pick- up trucks with Confederate flag decals in back, ought to be voting with us and not them.

SCHNEIDER: Winning the southern vote was critical, and a lot of Democrats thought Dean was right. But he was roundly criticized.

In December 2003, Howard Dean made this controversial statement.

DEAN: But the capture of Saddam has not made America safer.

SCHNEIDER: Again, a lot of people thought Dean was correct. But he was criticized for saying it at the moment when the country was celebrating Saddam's capture.

This week, Dean made this controversial statement.

DEAN: The Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people. They're a pretty monolithic party. Pretty much -- they all behave the same. They all look the same. And they all, you know, it's pretty much a white Christian party.

SCHNEIDER: Technically, once again, Dean may have been right. Among all of the self-described Republicans interviewed by the CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll this year, a whopping 82 percent are white Christians.

But once again, it was politically foolish, because the majority of Democrats also are white Christians, including Dean himself. Two thirds of the American people are white Christians. It doesn't make much sense to tick off 150 million potential voters.

Or the 1-in-4 Bush voters last November who were not white Christians. White Republican Party chairman Ken Mehlman, who said, "A lot of folks who attended my bar mitzvah would be surprised" to find out he heads a white Christian party.

Those Dean bombs put his fellow Democrats in an awkward position.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: And I do not agree with the statement that was made by Governor Dean -- Chairman Dean in relate -- in characterizing Republicans.

SCHNEIDER: Although, they do seem to think that Dean's us versus them rhetoric has its effect.

PELOSI: He has energized the base of the party.

SCHNEIDER: Democrats energized their base brilliantly in 2004. They gained eight million new votes, but Republicans beat them with a gain of 12 million. The lesson of 2004 is Democrats are unlikely to win simply by rallying their base.

It's a good way to raise money from small donors over the Internet. But it could turn off high dollar donors who want to see a winning political strategy.

Last year, the Democratic National Committee raised more money than the Republican National Committee. Dean became chairman in February 2005. Over the next three months, the Republicans raised more than twice as much money as the Democrats.

To be fair, the Republicans regained their fund-raising lead after President Bush was re-elected last year, before Dean took over the party. But so far, he has not been able to reverse the trend.

Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still ahead on the program tonight, in a California neighborhood, a father and son arrested. The FBI says they have links to al Qaeda.

The problem of General Motors, why it isn't selling enough cars and what happens when it can't.

And they're strangers in a very strange land. Why the international press can't get enough of Michael Jackson.

Far from the courtroom and the deliberations, thankfully, safely in New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Hot and steamy in the city tonight. In a moment, authorities say they believe a California man may have been planning a terrorist attack.

But first, near a quarter past the hour, we go to Atlanta. Erica Hill joins us again tonight with the night's headlines -- Erica.

ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS: Hi, Aaron.

A report today by the Transportation Department's inspector general criticizes oversighted aviation safety. Now the audit says the Federal Aviation Administration isn't doing enough to adapt its safety and inspection plans to the rapidly changing airline industry. While oversight has increased in some big airlines facing financial troubles, there's just not enough on the smaller, faster growing carriers.

The Pentagon is expected to report this week the Army did not find enough recruits in May. The initial goal? Eight thousand new troops. That was lowered to 6,700 recruits, but the Army has failed to meet even that. This will be the fourth straight month recruiting targets have been missed.

In Miami, two former pilots from America West Airlines found guilty of being drunk while operating a jetliner. Thomas Cloyd and Christopher Hughes face up to five years behind bars. In 2002, their planes were ordered back to the gate after an airport screener told authorities he smelled alcohol on them. Prosecutors say Cloyd and Hughes had been out drinking out all night before their flight.

And in Waco, Texas, a guilty plea from former Baylor University basketball player Carl Dotson. That guilty plea for the 2003 murder of his teammate, Patrick Dennehey. In a jailhouse interview, Dotson has said he acted in self-defense. He faces five years to life in prison.

And that's the latest from Headline News at this hour. Aaron, we'll hand it back over to you in steamy New York.

BROWN: You'd like to think, wouldn't you, that the guy or gal flying the airplane was not hammered?

HILL: I would be more comfortable if they hadn't hit the minibar, yes.

BROWN: Yes, I think so, too. Thank you, Ms. Hill.

On the "Security Watch" tonight -- that's an incredible story, when you think about it -- on the "Security Watch" tonight, two men here in jail, the ice cream man and his son. That much we know for sure. They may also be a pair of al Qaeda sympathizers with designs on killing their neighbors and a lot of others, as well. That much the government may eventually have to prove.

Authorities say they have already confessed, sort of. So reporting from Lodi, California, tonight, here's CNN's Peter Viles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Federal agents searched houses in rural northern California after an alarming disclosure. A 22-year-old born in California allegedly admitted he was trained to kill Americans at an al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan.

Twenty-two-year-old Hamid Hayat and his father, Umer, are being held in Sacramento County jail on charges they lied about the son's activities. KEITH SLOTTER, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: We believe through our investigation that various individuals connected to al Qaeda have been operating in the Lodi area in various capacities, including individuals who have received terrorist training abroad with the specific intent to initiate a terror attack in the United States and to harm Americans and our institutions.

VILES: In an affidavit, the government says the younger Hayat admitted the following. That he spent six months at an al Qaeda-run training camp in Pakistan, that during weapons training, photos of president Bush were used as targets. And that he specifically requested to come back to the United States to carry out his jihadi mission, with potential targets that included hospitals and large food stores.

Two other men, leaders at a mosque in Lodi, are being held on immigration violations.

Hayat's lawyer warns against jumping to conclusions.

JOHNNY GRIFFIN III, UMER HAYAT'S ATTORNEY: I think it's important for everyone to push the pause button here. He's only charged with making a false statement.

VILES: But already, attorney Johnny Griffin is receiving angry e-mails.

GRIFFIN: "Understand how appalled I am at the fact that you chose to represent al Qaeda operatives who confessed taking training courses to kill Americans."

VILES: In the working class neighborhood of Lodi, where the elder Hayat lived and drove an ice cream truck, neighbors were stunned.

KARINA MURILLO, NEIGHBOR: He's very friendly with the kids. He never did anything to led us to believe he would be planning something like this.

VILES: federal officials say they have been tracking Hamid Hayat for some time. He had been on a no-fly list, but after questioning by the FBI was allowed to reenter the United States in late May. Days later, he was brought in for further questions, and a lie detector test, that led to his arrest.

Peter Viles for CNN, Lodi, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still ahead on the program tonight, General Motors in trouble. What it could mean for your company, even your job.

And it's not exactly a gathering of the United Nations, although it could be. Where are all of those reporters covering Michael Jackson coming from? We know where we're coming from; we're coming from New York. And this is NEWSNIGHT. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The news this week that GM will lay off 20 percent of its blue-collar work force, 25,000 people, is when you think about it, mind-boggling. In some report, GM's problem, and Ford isn't that far behind, are problems pf a simple math.

GM workers are older. They get paid more, get better benefits, when they work. And after they retire. So every vehicle made in this country made by GM costs more to make than Toyota or Nissan spends to build cars, even in places like Tennessee and Kentucky.

But it's more than just a math problem. It's about marketing and vision, and perhaps even arrogance.

Here's CNN's Chris Huntington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): David Champion is in charge of automotive testing for "Consumer Reports."

(on camera) It makes a nice sound, I guess.

DAVID CHAMPION, AUTOMOTIVE TESTER, "CONSUMER REPORTS": It's not too bad. If you take it from where GM was to where they are in this car, they have come a long way.

HUNTINGTON (voice-over): Champion invited us to test drive the new Chevrolet Malibu, GM's challenger to the No. 1 spot.

(on camera) Who has the better horn?

CHAMPION: It is a bit feeble.

HUNTINGTON: Yes. And that's it?

(voice-over) Then we drove the top-selling car in America.

(on camera) We're sitting in the Toyota Camry, which is the best selling car, sedan, in the United States.

CHAMPION: In 2004, yes it was the best selling sedan. It's been close to the Honda Accord for many years. But it's excellently built. It's quiet. It's comfortable, and above all, it's got bulletproof reliability.

HUNTINGTON: And its reliability perhaps more than any other feature that keeps American buyers coming back to the Japanese cars, leaving American cars in the dust.

"Consumer Reports" and J.D. Power Associates, as well as several auto industry experts agree that American cars are made better now than they were 20 or 30 years ago and in many cases have moved ahead of European imports in quality.

But Detroit's best efforts still trail Toyota and Honda.

(on camera) But it's been a couple of decades. How could they still not get it?

CHAMPION: It's a matter of motivation, I think in many ways.

HUNTINGTON (voice-over): You'd think that General Motor's current troubles would be sufficient motivation. GM lost more than $1 billion in just the first three months of this year and announced it needs to cut 25,000 jobs, more than a fifth of its U.S. work force.

RICK WAGONER, PRESIDENT GENERAL MOTORS: We absolutely have to compete. We have to do with it great product, great marketing and cost efficiency.

HUNTINGTON: General Motors has not been competing. It's been losing market shares for three decades. In the '70s, GM had half of the American auto market and 600,000 U.S. Employees. Today its market share is half of what it once was. And soon its work force will be less than $1,000. In 20 years, will there even be a General Motors?

KEITH CRAIN, AUTOMOTIVE NEWS: Oh, absolutely. I think the question is -- General Motors will probably not be number one. I think that if you take a look at the global power of Toyota, it's almost inevitable that they're going to pass, and in fact, have passed Ford and they are on the coattails of General Motors, but GM is always going to be a powerhouse and they'll be up there in the top five in 25 years. They will no longer be the world's largest carmaker probably, however.

HUNTINGTON: The reasons are many, but one, analysts say, is a mindset that simply cannot adapt to a new global market of constant innovation and corporate reinvention.

JERRY FLINT, FORBES MAGAZINE: The aim of the Toyota leaders is to build the best product that they can, to spend every extra dollar on developing technology, to build a better vehicle. The aim of a company like General Motors is to keep Wall Street happy.

HUNTINGTON: Perhaps desperation could force the managers at GM to change, but the other issue they face is not a matter of mindset, it's simple economics, and it's facing all of the American automakers.

Years of monopolizing the American car market and years of union contracts being passed down to the consumer are catching up.

WALTER MCMANUS, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: The big difference in costs is coming in the fixed cost, the health care for retirees. GM and Ford and Chrysler have many more retirees in the U.S. than the Japanese do, and those retirees are getting health care benefits that far exceed what the average American gets from their employers. So, those costs -- the Japanese factories that are here don't have retirees yet, or don't have significant numbers of retirees, so that's another advantage that they have.

HUNTINGTON: Every car that leaves a GM plant has if $1500 in added costs to cover pension and retiree health care benefits. With a competitive price disadvantage, even though the U.S. carmakers are catching up in quality and innovation, it may well not be fast enough. Despite all of the price cuts, low interests, and sales incentives, Americans don't seem to be buying cars they simply don't like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're going to produce a world-class car, you need to be better know that the competition. Not only in how the car performs, but also in terms of reliability. They've made strides in terms of making their cars more reliable, but they don't seem to have made the similar strides in designing world-class cars.

HUNTINGTON: Chris Huntington, CNN, East Haddem (ph), Connecticut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Just to give you an idea of how tough it may be for anyone to get their arms around the difficulties at GM, consider this: the last time that any rival company sold more cars in this country than GM, Herbert Hoover was president. Today, there is no living employee who worked at GM when GM was number two. The backdrop to our discussion earlier tonight with Micheline Maynard who writes about the auto industry for "The New York Times."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Yes, I'm smart enough to know that there's not one here thing that's caused GM or the American auto industry its problems. There's lots of things. Let's try and talk about a few them.

Does it cost the Japanese companies, even for the cars they build in the United States -- and they build a lot of cars in the United States -- does it cost them less to build them?

MICHELINE MAYNARD, AUTHOR "THE END OF DETROIT": It basically does. They have new factories. They have more efficient production methods and they also don't pay the same raise the benefits that the Detroit companies have. I mean, the Detroit companies -- General Motors in particular -- have always been known for extremely generous benefits and the Japanese, and German and European companies, just don't have to pay those rates.

BROWN: How much of GM's problems have to do with what it pays -- the cost of health insurance and benefits for retirees as opposed to people who are actually building cars today?

MAYNARD: Well, they basically pay benefits for 2.5 people for every person working on their assembly line, because those benefits extend to retirees. They extend to spouses, and you know, they always call General Motors "Generous Motors" or "Mother Motors" and it was a very paternalistic company and it wanted to be that way. But it certainly isn't that way in other parts of corporate America.

BROWN: And is it realistic for the UAW, which -- very powerful union -- is it realistic for the UAW to expect that it will be generous in that way in the future? MAYNARD: No, I don't think so. I mean, if you look at what's happened to unions across the country, especially at the airlines, union members in this country are losing those kinds of benefits right and left. I know the UAW has a policy that they never give up anything that they gained in bargaining. But this could end up being a life-or-death measure. This could be the kind of thing that makes or breaks these big auto companies in a few years. And at some point, they're going to have to make some tough decisions.

BROWN: Is it conceivable a GM could go bankrupt?

MAYNARD: I don't think they will short-term, but there is the possibility down the road. I mean, any company can go bankrupt. Airlines have gone bankrupt. K-Mart has gone bankrupt. Look at the steel companies.

What'll happen to General Motors is that it's going to need money -- generate money to build new cars and trucks, to invest in new product programs. It also has an enormous amount of debt that it has to pay interest on and some point, push comes to shove, and the money could just run out. It isn't that they're not taking in money from car sales, it's that they have all of this overhang that they have to take care of.

BROWN: I was talking to someone today who said, one of the many problems that GM -- and they were talking about GM in particular -- is that in many respects, it is a far too risk-adverse company that, from the design point of view, in lot of ways, they've just been slow to take chances.

MAYNARD: Well, you can't blame them in one respect. You have to think back 40 years and General Motors had almost 60 percent of the American car market. If you fast forward to today, that's level that GM, Ford and Chrysler have together. This is a company that's long believed in its dominance in the auto industry. It long believed that if it put it out there and said, you know, this is what you want, that Americans could buy it.

Well, what's happened to GM is that the car market is kind of fractured into different directions and there've been all of these opportunities for companies like Toyota and Honda and BMW to come in and be successful on far fewer car sales and GM just doesn't have that sort of fingertip feel for the car market anymore. They're trying to do in bulk what's now take sort of a specialized approach.

BROWN: Is there a fix-it here?

MAYNARD: Well, it'll take a long time. It'll take determination. It'll take real focus, and from what I heard from General Motors this week, I don't think that they have the real plan that it will take. You know, look at what Nissan had to do. They had to go in and basically redo an entire car company. Come up with new vehicles, come up with a new operating approach, set financial targets and it's taken them six years but now they're one of the most successful companies in the auto industry.

For GM, it could take longer to that -- than that and it may never happen.

BROWN: Good to see you. Thank you for your time today.

MAYNARD: Thanks, it's my pleasure.

BROWN: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Micheline Maynard of "The New York Times."

It's not only the automakers and auto workers grappling with new reality, today a federal judge in Washington turned down a bid by the flight attendants at the bankrupt United airlines. They were trying to block the government from assuming control of United's pension plan. United, they say, violated the law, when the company walked away from its pension obligations. Under government receivership, flight attendants will lose a large percentage of their pension benefits.

Still to come tonight on NEWSNIGHT, an oddity here,an obsession overseas: why the international press cannot resist the trial of Michael Jackson. Take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, now, the jurors didn't reach a verdict today in the Michael Jackson case. But the Jackson Case, the circus, if you will, did provide a new side show: a tussle among his representatives over who's allowed to speak for him, while assuring everyone they're not violating the judge's gag order. No, not that.

They're only tried to feed a ravenous international press. Because despite Jackson's protracted absence from the pop charts, he commands an enduring fascination around the world. Here's CNN's Ted Rowlands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Frederica Dupuis has been covering the Jackson trial for SRC Television in Canada. She says the day that Michael Jackson showed up in his pajamas was the day her bosses told her to stick around until end.

FREDERICA DUPUIS, SRC TELEVISION: Been a star for years so there is an interest, specifically, that he's become so weird over the years.

ROWLANDS: Dupuis is one of international journalists covering the trial.

According to the reporters from 32 countries covering this trial, Michael Jackson's fate is an international obsession.

SALVADOR DURAN, TELEMUNDO: With Spain, they have a huge fan base here for Michael Jackson. In Latin American, Mexico certainly has a lot -- you know, he gives them a lot of support. I see fans over here. El Salvador has a lot of support.

ROWLANDS: One thing they do seem interested in is the American legal system.

MAREK WALKUSKI, POLISH NATIONAL RADIO: There's no jury in Poland. You don't have 12 regular people who decide about the future of the star of anybody.

PETER SHAPLAN, JACKSON MEDIA POLL PRODUCER: There is a Canadian journalist who asked when getting up in order to leave, should they stand in the aisle and bow to the judge?

ROWLANDS: Dupuis is one the few internationalist journalists has covered the trial. She says, when the case is at its most bizarre, the interest back home is at its highest. She thinks the best is yet to come.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Santa Maria, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, the rest of the day's headlines and the ordeal that changed American fighter pilot's life -- almost cost him his life as well. Where is Scott O'Grady today? An answer there as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Six days that changed a life forever, that story's coming up. But first, almost a quarter to the hour. Time in to check in with Erica Hill who is in Atlanta and has some of the day's other headlines -- Erica.

HILL: Thanks, Aaron.

A tornado, lightning fires, giant hailstorm, thunderstorms and floods, it's all in a day's weather in the Upper Midwest. In Minnesota, 47-year-old man meantime is missing after a creek surges to banks, his empty pick-up truck was found in a ditch.

In South Dakota, 92 mile-an-hour winds destroyed the town of Onaca's city hall.

In the Minneapolis area, storms knocked out power to 200,000 people. and In Edgley, North Dakota, dozens of people were forced out of their homes during a tornado spewing hail storms as big as three inches in diameter.

Voting almost entirely along party lines, the Senate today confirmed judge Janice Rogers Brown to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. She is the second of three judges whose long delayed confirmation hearings were pushed through thanks to the recent bipartisan compromise on filibusters. Just before the vote, members of the congressional black caucus made an appearance to show opposition to Brown who they have labeled as a conservative ideologue. Only one Democratic senator, Nebraska's Ben Nelson, voted in her favor.

Sex offenders have been effectively banned from moving to the city of Miami Beach. A new ordinance passed unanimously by the city commission on Wednesday is among the toughest in the nation. Offenders whose victims were under 16 are prohibited from moving within 2500 feet of schools, school bus stops, day care centers, parks or play grounds. And that effectively means almost anywhere in the city. Children's advocates warn residency requirement alone cannot guarantee protection.

Also in Florida, an Orlando jury has decided that Lear jet was not responsible for the 1999 death of golfer Payne Stewart in of its planes. Stewart's widow and children had sued the manufacturer for $200 million, claiming a cracked piece of equipment caused the cabin air to escape. The twin-engine jet crashed in South Dakota after flying halfway across the country on auto pilot with Stewart and four others unconscious on board. Lear blamed Sunjet, an out of (INAUDIBLE) company that operated the doomed charter flight.

And Aaron, that is the latest from Headline News at this hour. Back on over to you.

BROWN: Erica, thank you very much. See you tomorrow.

Ten years ago, this month, the country was mesmerized when we learned the story of Captain Scott O'Grady, a fighter pilot shot down over Bosnia. A look back now at his ordeal and where he is today as we continue our anniversary series, "Then and Now."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT O'GRADY, PILOT: As soon as the missile hit, the only thing I saw was the cockpit disintegrating in front of me.

BROWN (voice-over): Captain Scott O'Grady spent six days struggling to survive after being shot down in Bosnia 1995.

O'GRADY: My heart started racing, and then I heard dasher one, one up on the radio.

I'm alive. I'm alive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Copy that. You're alive.

BROWN: Little did he know those six days would change his life forever.

O'GRADY: I just want to have a normal life and just continue on.

BROWN: O'Grady immediately found himself thrust into the spotlight recounting his story before millions. And he continues to do so today, ten years later.

He has published two book, "Return with Honor," and "Basher 5,2" a children's edition of his story.

After 12 years serving his country, O'Grady is now pursuing a Masters at Dallas's Theological Seminary.

O'GRADY: I believe that you shouldn't be ignorant as to what you believe. You should understand why you it believe.

BROWN: Once graduated, Scott O'Grady says he wants to dedicate his life to giving back to both his community and his country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: This "Anniversary Series" were taking a look back at the people and the stories that have shaped our world over these past 25 years since CNN went on the air.

"Morning Papers," after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: OK, time to check morning papers from around the country, and around the world.

A lot of good things in the papers today. A tale of two newspapers in the same town. "The Washington Times" writes a lot -- in the front pages a lot -- stories about illegal aliens, which it strongly opposes.

So, down at the bottom: 11 illegals found in Virginia amid search for 11 others. Keep that in mind, OK?

We'll come back to that paper in a second, I think. "The Examiner," in Washington -- that's Washington, D.C., also, the pre- paper there. Also's interested in illegals but takes a more sympathetic view of their plight.

OK? So they front page this story: "Foreign flood needed, but often scorned." A kind of sympathetic look at the problems that illegals face when they illegally enter the country.

I guess you could buy your newspaper in Washington based on their attitude on those two -- on that subject.

"Stars and Stripes," this is a good story. Divorce rate rising fast to active duty soldiers as deployments persist. Splits jump 78 percent among Army officers. For some reason, it's higher among officers than enlisted men.

I like this story also, "Bearing His Burden: Diabetic Soldier Becomes Example, Inspiration for Others Like Him." Good for him.

"The daily News" weighs in on many heavy things here in New York. Russell Crowe again, "Eating Crowe." Russell says, "Sorry I hit you, mate, I was jet lagged." And they have a picture here of the hotel clerk and the little bruise he got, or maybe it's not so little.

I guess if you got hit by a phone you wouldn't think it was so swell. Anyway, Russell said he was sorry. He was jet lagged. I have been jet lagged and tempted to throw phones many times. Also, they review the movie, "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" and they advise Jen, that would be Jennifer Aniston, "Don't see it."

OK! "Great White Attacks Jersey Surfer," yikes. There goes my plan to surf on the Jersey coast this weekend. "The Detroit News," amid the economic gloom, "Pistons lift Detroit's spirits." It's been a tough week for Detroit, but the piston are in the NBA finals again. They're the defending champs and they'll go at it again, so the "Detroit News" puts that on the front page.

"Feds: Car Cell Phone Fix Fails." Turns out hand's free cell phone use doesn't really make you that much safer -- shocked to hear that.

"San Antonio Express News:" "Lucky Charms." The Spurs will be in the NBA finals as well, playing the Pistons. That's how it works, as the NBA season wraps up.

In June -- winter sport -- "Feds Bust Cameron's Ex-sheriff." Though, we're not too sure why, it doesn't say. Apparently, it has something to do with drugs. By the way, speaking of drugs, "The Chicago Sun-Times:" "Water Department Heroin Bust," politically connected employee. Two other, city workers, arrested.

Yikes.

The weather tomorrow, in Chicago, if you're there --thank you, hot and heavy.

We'll wrap it up in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Good to have you with us tonight. We'll see you tomorrow, 10:00 Eastern time.

Until then, good night for all of us.

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