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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Terror Alert for NYC Transit System; Bush Speech on Iraq; Oil Company Culpable For Oil Slick in New Orleans?; Most Bodies Remain Unclaimed in Louisiana; Canadian Mystery Illness Legionnaire's Disease
Aired October 06, 2005 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone. It's 11:00 here in the East. For those of you just joining us, we come to you from New York City, a city on alert.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSNIGHT: And good evening, Aaron. I'm Anderson Cooper, live in Times Square. The A-train close by, the old IRT line right below us. Here's what's happening: a lot of cops keeping a lookout after their bosses went public today with a threat which may have started with intelligence out of Iraq.
But how credible is it? That's the question we'll look at tonight. Also, ahead the president's top political advisor heading back in front of the grand jury, without immunity. Does that mean he is now trying to talk his way out of being indicted.
Also, ahead tonight, a toxic neighborhood. Did negligence at an oil company poison during Hurricane Katrina. The controversy and the clean up. All that ahead over the course of the next hour.
First, the facts, such as they are, where the threat of New York's subway is concerned. Here's what we know at this hour. Sources say there are 15 to 20 people involved in the plot to mount a terrorist attack somewhere in the subway system of New York.
The plot is said to involve explosives, perhaps aboard buses, or perhaps hidden on baby carriages or strollers. Supposedly this attack is to be carried out within a week. All of this according to New York City officials. The information about the plot is said to have come out of Iraq.
We begin this evening, however, here in Times Square, in sight of the New York City subway, which is now being watched extra carefully by the city's police and probably by a lot of commuters as well.
Since it was announced just a few hours ago by the mayor and the police commissioner of New York, that there is reason to fear a terrorist attack, somewhere in this vast network of tunnels and trains, somewhere in the next few days.
Nearly 4.5 million people ride this city's subways everyday. CNN Deborah Feyerick has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): New York City subways have always been considered a target.
MAYOR MIKE BLOOMBERG (R), NEW YORK: This is the first time that we have had a threat with this level of specificity.
FEYERICK: This was the first threat and it was very specific.
COMMISSIONER RAY KELLY, NYPD: The New York City Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have received information which indicate that the city's subway system may be the target of a terrorist attack in the coming day.
FEYERICK: There were more details than ever before. Like the possibility that baby carriages might be used to hide or carry a bomb.
KELLY: Because of the heightened concerns, the police department will be paying particular attention to briefcases, baby strollers, luggage and other containers.
FEYERICK: Some of New York's top politicians said precautions are always a good idea, but that the threat had been overblown.
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D-NY): I've spoken with people at the highest levels. And as I understand it, the threat to the New York City subway system was specific but not corroborated and not of the highest credibility.
FEYERICK: But there is the specter of two successful attacks in Europe.
BLOOMBERG: As we have known since 9/11, and even more so since the Madrid and London attacks, our mass transit system is a potential terrorist target.
FEYERICK: So police say they will flood the subways and conduct even more bag searches. They are suggesting that the 4.5 million riders who take the subways everyday, leave their bags and baby carriages at home, warning to be on alert, but not afraid.
BLOOMBERG: Tonight, I'm going to take the subway going Uptown. And tomorrow morning I'm going do what I always do. Get on the train and go to work.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Deb Feyerick joins us now.
You've been working this story all day. The head of the FBI in New York says what, that it's not corroborated?
FEYERICK: He says it is uncorroborated, but he said the level of detail was so specific that it really raised a big concern. He called it "on point". And that is why they did this. But he also says he thinks it will be resolved in the next couple of days.
COOPER: There seems to be schism though, between what officials out of Washington, from Homeland Security, and New York officials. New York officials announced it today. They've had the information for a couple of days. But we're hearing out of Washington that they say it is not so credible.
FEYERICK: It's not the first time that the New York City police commissioner has gone with information that Washington didn't think was credible. However, his job is to really keep the city safe. He's taking all precautions.
COOPER: All right. Deb Feyerick, thanks very much.
You know, we mentioned earlier, that information about the plot we're talking about is said to have come from Iraq. CNN's Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre standing by live in Washington.
Tell us more about that angle, if you can. Jamie, what do you know?
JAMIE McINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, we're just piecing it together from various sources.
First or all, law enforcement sources tell CNN Kelly Arena that in fact the original intelligence about the threat against mass transit in New York City did come from Iraq, without being more specific than that. It indicated that between 15 and 20 people might involved in an attack and it might involve, in fact, explosives hidden in baby carriages or other means.
Meanwhile, a senior military official tells CNN that a raid conducted after that intelligence was developed and as a result of that intelligence was aimed at rounding up some Al Qaeda operatives in a city south of Baghdad. That was Wednesday night, Iraq time. And some people were brought into custody in an operation that involved both the CIA, the U.S. military, and we're told some FBI, as well.
Intelligence is being evaluated from that. Presumably, that's why the information about the threat was not made public. So that operation could continue, the people there wouldn't be warned. And presumably now that that operation is complete, that is why New York City has gone ahead and made the information public.
Again, officials did not believe that the threat was eminent, however, they did think it was -- it had some level of credibility. The question now is with the roundup of some of these Al Qaeda suspects, with the information they've received now, are they confident that the threat is either been thwarted or passed? And that is something I don't think we're going to know for a couple of days -- Anderson?
COOPER: So, is the operation in Iraq ongoing? Or is it wrapped up with whatever the operation occurred last night?
McINTYRE: Well, that operation that occurred last night is over. Those people have been taken into custody. Several people, I'm told. I don't exactly know many, but the question is are they the only people? And also are they the right people. It is not unprecedented for intelligence to result in the wrong people being brought into custody sometimes.
So, until they question them, until they evaluate everything that they've done, they're not going to have a real degree of confidence that they've really gotten to the heart of the matter.
COOPER: A lot of questions still to be answered. Jamie McIntyre, thanks, from Washington.
Tonight's terror warning comes on the heels of President Bush's speech today, about of all things, the war on terror. Talk about a bizarre coincidence. And this wasn't the type of address the president usually gives. As CNN White House Correspondent Dana Bash reports the speech marked a definite change in the president's tone.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): With support for Iraq at an all-time low, the president cast his unmistakably familiar stay-the-course refrain in new stark terms.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're facing a radical ideology with inalterable objectives, to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world.
BASH: In this latest of several speeches bill as "major", Mr. Bush slapped back at critics calling for withdrawal.
BUSH: There is always a temptation, in the middle of a long struggle, to seek the quiet life.
BASH: He tried to urge patience in Iraq by saying insurgents there and attackers in Bali and London are all part one ideological struggle, a fight against terrorism he now compares to battles against Communism and Fascism.
BUSH: Enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia.
BASH: And he chided Osama bin Laden as a hypocritical son of priviledge, duping less fortunate Muslims into become suicide bombers.
BUSH: He assures them that his -- that this is the road to paradise, though he never offers to go along for the ride.
BASH: To critics who say war in Iraq created more radical terrorism, this rebuttal.
BUSH: I would remind them that we were not Iraq on September 11, 2001. And Al Qaeda attacked us anyway.
BASH: But Democrats emboldened by Mr. Bush's political struggles, hit back.
SEN. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER (D) WEST VIRGINIA: I think the president is wrong about that. I think what is going on in Iraq has enormously fueled the war on terrorism.
BASH: Aside from the new rhetoric, the sole new nugget of hard information about the fight against terrorism was boasting of 10 thwarted attacks, three inside the U.S.
BUSH: The enemy is wounded. But the enemy is still capable of global operations.
BASH: But he did not elaborate and it was not on this fact sheet released with the speech. Aides pointed to a 2003 plot to blow up a New York and bridge, and one involving Jose Padilla, accused of planning a dirty bomb attack. They were not prepared to back up the rest.
SCOTT McCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: Those are two off the top of my head. I'll be glad to see what additional information we can get you.
BASH: At the end of the day the White House did release this list of 10 plots they say backs up the president's claim, ranging from a West Coast airliner plot in 2002, to one on the East Coast in 2003, to several attacks the U.S. helped stop abroad. The list is quite vague, but the message the president tried to send was not. It's not just luck there hasn't been an attack on the U.S. in four years. Dana Bash, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: It is always fascinating, Aaron, to hear people talking about the president's speeches. You know, it all depends on which side of the political aisle you are on, what you want to hear, what you want see from the president's speech.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSNIGHT: One thing I hope, I hope it is not just luck, that we haven't been attacked, given all we've done and all we've been through. I hope some of it is paying off.
Anderson, a lot more happening around the country and the world tonight. Here's a quick run down.
Authorities in Toronto now say the bug that killed 16 people in nursing home was the bug that causes Legionnaires disease. Knowledge in this case is power, because Legionnaires disease can be treated with antibiotics. Not clear to us why it took so long to figure it out.
No kind words for his old boss from Louis Freeh, the former director of the FBI. In his upcoming memoirs Mr. Freeh slams former President Clinton, for bungling portions of the war on terror and poisoning their relationship with his personal indiscretions. A closet full of skeletons, says the former FBI director.
Riverside, California fires, now 40 percent under control. Farther south, thought, the wildfire that crossed over the U.S. Mexican border has now destroyed more than 2,600 acres. And across the Northern Plains, snow. It does happen around this time of year, though, it is painful to report it. In Montana, North Dakota, winds up to 50 miles an hour and about two feet of the white stuff. Oh, my.
Just ahead, Karl Rove heading back into the hot seat. It seems too early for that, doesn't it? We'll updating that story. Jeffrey Toobin joins us later.
The shot in the arm that could prevent a deadly form of cancer. A break first, from New York, inside and out, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KARL ROVE, W.H. DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF: I didn't know her name; I didn't leak her name. This is at the Justice Department. I'm confident that the U.S. attorney, the prosecutor who is involved in looking at this is going to do a very thorough job of doing a very substantial and conclusive investigation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: That was Karl Rove in August 2003, shortly after Valerie Plame was named as a covert CIA operative and suspicion fell on the president's top political advisor and now his deputy chief of staff as the source of the leak. We wonder now how his confidence is faring a week after one reporter agreed to break her silence about her conversations in the case, though not conversations with him.
The case appears to be winding up in a manner that could have serious consequences for Mr. Rove and the White House. Here's our National Correspondent Bob Franken.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Karl Rove, one of the central figures in this investigation, and a central figure in the political career of George W. Bush, will be testifying for at least the fourth time before this grand jury. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, according to sources, has not given Rove any assurance that he will not face indictment as this probe continues into the public disclose of Valerie Plame's identity.
Plame, who was an undercover operative for the CIA, is the wife of Joseph Wilson, who had become a harsh critic of the administration's claims about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. After an uproar following the disclosure of Plame's identity in July 2003, Fitzgerald began his investigation.
Under pressure, including in one celebrated case of jail time, several reporters testified. Some, including "Time" magazine's Matthew Cooper said they had discussed the matter with Rove.
Rove's lawyer has repeatedly insisted that his client did not identify Plame as a secret agent, did not know she was one. He also contends Rove is appearing voluntarily. That he is not a so-called target letter which would identify him as a person the grand jury was likely to indict. Also named as a source for reporters is the vice president's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
As Fitzgerald's prolonged investigation seems to be entering its final phases, the president continues to dodge questions about whether he will remove anyone from his administration who might be indicted.
BUSH: I'm not going to talk about it 'til the investigation is complete. And it is important that the investigation run its course.
FRANKEN (on camera): According to Rove's lawyer, he has been assured by the prosecutor that no decision has been made about charges, who or whether. Bob Franken, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: No word yet on when Mr. Rove will testify, also unclear whether anyone else on the White House staff will go back before the grand jury. We need a lawyer now, and we've got one, our Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin.
Just put some pieces together for me here. Does it sound to you like they have narrowed the focus down to at least Mr. Rove? Does it sound that way.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: It does. But you have to -- one thing about this investigation is it is incredibly unusual. You know, you can argue about nomenclature, whether he's a target or a subject. But obviously, the grand jury is considering his conduct. Any normal suspect in a situation like that would be given the advice by the lawyer, shut up.
BROWN: Yes.
TOOBIN: Take the Fifth. Don't talk to the grand jury, under any circumstances. But Rove can't do that. Because the president has said everybody is going to cooperate and he would be in trouble with his boss if he took the Fifth.
BROWN: We were talking to Larry O'Donnell, in the earlier hour, and he said his suspicion, sometimes he has more than suspicion frankly, is that he is trying to talk his way out of a perjury charge. Does that make sense to you as a former prosecutor?
TOOBIN: I think, not a lot.
BROWN: OK.
TOOBIN: A perjury charge, you almost always get in worse trouble by talking more.
BROWN: I didn't say he could successfully do it.
TOOBIN: Well, but the problem is Fitzgerald really has a tremendous advantage here, because when you're a prosecutor, usually, you can't get at your suspects. You can't get them to talk under oath and risk a perjury charge and lay out all their possible defenses, because they take the Fifth. They don't talk.
He has essentially free shots at Rove. Rove is going into the grand jury next week for the fourth time. That is extremely unusual to be in the grand jury that often.
BROWN: Yes, I didn't -- in a sense, don't quite understand why it takes -- that suggests -- doesn't it -- that there is new information that has developed since time number three?
TOOBIN: Yes. It does. And obviously there have been many parts of the investigation going forward, but the part we know best is, you know, Matt Cooper has testified in the grand jury. And Judy Miller just testified last week in the grand jury.
BROWN: And we know that Mr. Cooper said that Mr. Rove was his source and we believe that what Ms. Miller said was that it was not Mr. Rove, it is Scooter Libby.
TOOBIN: Correct. But one big advantage that Karl Rove has, is this statute on leaking secret information is very unusual. There has never been a criminal trial where someone has been convicted of this statute. However, he could be under investigation for perjury or obstruction of justice. But the core case is very difficult to prove.
BROWN: Do you agree that merely being indicted in this case is, for Mr. Rove and I suppose the White House, is bad enough. I mean, that -- the political damage and the personal damage comes in the indictment.
TOOBIN: Politically its bad. I mean, you don't go to jail if you're indicted.
BROWN: Yes.
TOOBIN: I mean, let's keep our eyes on the ball. But I think he cannot continue as deputy chief of staff -- he's -- indictment. I mean, the president cannot be seen day after day with someone who is out on bail. I mean, I just don't think that is realistic. The president hasn't answered that question directly.
But we also can't get ahead of ourselves and assume he's going to get indicted. Because that is by no means clear to me based on what's going on here.
BROWN: But it does seem like the end game is coming?
TOOBIN: Absolutely. And the grand jury expires October 28. They can be extended, but it sounds like -- I mean, this investigation has been pushing two years. That Fitzgerald, who has a lot on his plate --
BROWN: Yes.
TOOBIN: is going to wrap this up by the end of the month.
BROWN: Thank you. Nice to see you.
TOOBIN: Nice to see you.
BROWN: Thank you, Jeffrey Toobin.
More to come tonight, starting in a neighborhood that found itself swimming in a poisonous soup after Hurricane Katrina. Who is to blame? And how to clean it up?
Also, the new battle for Iraq as seen from a pretty rough patch of ground. We take a break, this is NEWSNIGHT from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We are live in New York's Times Square. A specific threat made against the New York City subway station. We'll have more on that coming up tonight, ahead on NEWSNIGHT.
Want to go back, though, to New Orleans. In particular what has been happening with the remains of people who have been found in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. So, 972 people died in Louisiana. And even now, even five weeks after the hurricane, guess how many of them have actually been publicly identified? Only 32, the rest are nameless.
But of course, we know that is not really true. Every one of them has a name, just have to ask their families. CNN's Soledad O'Brien investigates.
We'll have that report in just a minute. Aaron, we're having a little bit of a technical problem here. We'll have Soledad's report and well, let's take it back to you in the studio.
BROWN: Thank you, we can get the signal out of Times Square, we can't roll the machine, but we will.
Before the flooding and beyond the flattened house, beyond the ruined lives, Hurricane Katrina also left more than 40 oil spills in its wake. One of the biggest happened at the Murphy Oil refinery in St. Bernard's Parish, near New Orleans. A storage tank ruptured and the oil that leaked out soaked the surrounding neighborhood in what someone described as a toxic gumbo.
Just how toxic, is one question? Whether the spill could have been prevented is another. Here's CNN's Elizabeth Cohen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That oil down there, and mud?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Uh-huh. The oil is what I'm stuck in. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Imagine walking into an oil spill in your living room. That's what happened to some 1,500 families living near the Murphy Oil refinery 10 miles southeast of New Orleans.
(on camera): What's it like to come to your house and see not just this disarray but things coated in black?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's unbelievable.
COHEN (voice over): More than a million gallons of oil spilled from the Murphy storage tank, coating streets and houses in this neighborhood.
Now returning residents here are left wondering who is fault is this, if anyone's? And what health dangers might lurk in the mess the oil left behind?
KEVIN ROUSSEL, MURPHY OIL: We came from the back --
COHEN: Murphy oil spokesman Kevin Roussel, shows us the storage tank that leaked when it was hit by storm surge.
ROUSSEL: When that wall of water hit our tank, it moved it 30 feet. But when the tank settled back down on the ground, it bent, and in the crease of the bend, there was a leak.
COHEN: The sheen stretched for miles.
(on camera): The oil spill, was it completely, 100 percent an act of God?
ROUSSEL: I think it is. Yes, I do.
COHEN: Murphy couldn't have done anything to prevent it?
ROUSSEL: I don't think we could have done anything.
(voice over): But five refinery safety experts have told CNN there was something Murphy could have done. They say it is standard operating procedure to make sure storage tanks are full when a hurricane is on the way, with oil or with water pumped in.
MARK LEVITAN, LSU HURRICAN RESEARCH CNTR.: If the tank is full it has much more resistance to wind damage. It has much more resistance to flood forces, in terms of buoyancy and sliding.
COHEN: But according to Murphy, when the storm hit, this tank was only one-third full of oil.
(on camera): We had heard that it was not completely full. Is that accurate?
ROUSSEL: That is probably true, yes.
COHEN (voice over): One of the experts we consulted is Gerold Poji, he has served on government panels and testified before Congress.
GEROLD POJI, SAFETY EXPERT: I'm hoping that we're going to have an independent governmental body investigating this problem.
COHEN: And yet, the oil company says it did what it was supposed to do.
ROUSSEL: We used all the precautions that the industry standards use.
COHEN: So what does that standard say to do? When a hurricane is coming what does that standard say to do.
ROUSSEL: Uh, I can't answer that. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that question.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have nothing. We lost everything.
COHEN (voice over): Residents here say they want answers. Already government tests show high level of the hazardous chemical benzene in air. And also high levels of petroleum products in the ground and water.
ANNE ROLFES, LOUISIANA BUCKET BRIGADE: The government is not going to protect us. We have to protect ourselves.
COHEN: But one citizen's group isn't relying on the government and is doing its own testing.
Murphy Oil is paying to clean up the streets and canals and last week pledged another $5 million to the community. But at this point, Murphy is not spending any money to clean up the oil in these houses. The company says it is waiting for the local government to decide whether they houses can even be saved.
(on camera): Would you want to live in a house that had lots of oily muck in it?
ROUSSEL: Yes. I wouldn't -- once it is cleaned up, I would not have a problem living in a house like that. Not at all.
COHEN: You wouldn't mind breathing the air?
ROUSSEL: It will be cleaned up. Once it's cleaned up, it will be healthy.
COHEN (voice over): But many wonder whether they'll ever be able to live here again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just total devastation. It's no hope. It's no hope for this.
COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Chalmette, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Just to repeat what that guy said. It's a remarkable piece of sound.
"We did everything the oil standards require us to do."
"What are those standards," he was asked. "I don't know," he said.
That gives you comfort, doesn't it?
COOPER: You know, I feel like we heard that just about everyday at some point, talking to different officials in New Orleans, and throughout the region. It is so frustrating.
It is also frustrating, Aaron, for a lot of families out there who, you know, 972 people died in Louisiana and only 32 of them have been publicly identified. Only some 60 bodies have actually been returned to their families. And there are so many families out there, hundreds of them, who are just waiting and demanding answers. When are their loved ones coming home? We asked CNN's Soledad O'Brien to investigate.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the swing set we had as children.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Charles Rathsmusen (ph), back at his childhood home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My mother was a natural pack rat.
O'BRIEN: In the Gentily (ph) neighborhood of New Orleans. Now it is full of mold and muck.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is one of the greatest stoves.
O'BRIEN: It is the place where his mother lived for nearly 60 years and where she died. Muriel Rathsmusen (ph) was 90 years old and fiercely independent. She decided to ride our Hurricane Katrina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She didn't think the storm was really for real.
O'BRIEN: But as the storm approached, Muriel changed her mind and told Charles she was ready to go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She said, I'm stuck in the room, the front room. I said, why mother? She says the lights are off and I'm scared to walk in the dark.
O'BRIEN: It was too late. Nine days later a member of the search and rescue team informed Charles they found the body of his mother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He came to me and he says, your mother didn't make it. And they were extremely supportive.
O'BRIEN: For Charles it was the end of hoping and praying and the beginning of a painful journey for answers. The markings on the house show his mother's body was removed on September 18.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have something for me?
O'BRIEN: For days Charles worked the phones and searched for clues about where his mother's body was taken.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any recommendations for me as to what I could do to, kind of like put a handle or put a lid on this?
O'BRIEN: Charles' story is not unique. Manned by hundreds of volunteers the states' family call center in Baton Rouge has logged more than 7,000 calls from people who are looking for their loved ones whom they fear did not survive the storm.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know her maiden name?
O'BRIEN: It can be a slow and frustrating process. And officials acknowledge it is not perfect.
After five weeks almost 1,000 bodies have been recovered. Most lie at the morgue in St. Gabriel, near Baton Rouge. According to the state's most recent figures, fewer than 100 of those bodies have been released to family members. Mostly hospital patients and nursing home residents wearing IDs on their wrists. The rest will be far more difficult to identify.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's horrible. It would be horrible -- if I had a child in that morgue, it'd be horrible. Absolutely. I don't know any way to make it faster.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: For some of the dead, they've simply matched addresses to bodies. The State says it's presumptively identified about 270 bodies. They need more ID, like DNA or dental records before a positive identification can be made. Those records, though, are mostly lost or destroyed in the flooding, slowing a time-consuming process even more.
Last week, Charles traveled to Baton Rouge to give a DNA sample -- just a simple swab from his cheek. There is a body the coroner thinks might be his mother's. It will take three weeks to know for certain, but there's a good chance his difficult search is finally coming to a close.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you see someone alive and you don't have a chance to close with them like, you know, if they died of cancer, which is a slow death.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): When they just disappear, then you have a hard time getting closure until you at least get a body, be cremated, have a memorial service, then the healing process can begin. Right now, I'm -- still an open wound.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Soledad O'Brien, CNN, New Orleans.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CO-ANCHOR: You might be saying, well why can't people just visually identify their loved one. As we saw in Sri Lanka, the water does some horrible things to people and it is often very hard, even for a closest relative to identify the person that they've spent their life with.
In a moment, what happens tomorrow? What happens when millions of people head back into work here in New York. Will they be taking the subway? In other words, will New Yorkers act like New Yorkers? Somehow I think they will.
And later, the vaccine that could make one form of cancer a thing of the past. Truly some remarkably good news.
From Times Square and around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome back. At roughly half past the hour, time for the "Reset" (ph). Another look at this evening's top stories.
President Bush made a major speech this afternoon on the subject of terrorism, saying among other things, that Iraq has become a base for what some call Islamofacism and a war on humanity. Mr. Bush said moreover that the U.S. has thwarted ten Al Qaida plots in recent years; three of them inside this country.
Meantime, Karl Rove, the president's deputy chief of staff will be making yet another appearance before a grand jury, investigating whether the name of a CIA operative was leaked as a matter of political retribution. This will be Rove's fourth appearance before the grand jury.
Canada's mystery illness is no longer a mystery. Authorities today identified the illness that killed 16 residents of a Toronto nursing home, hospitalized 30 others, as Legionnaire's Disease, a bacterial pneumonia-like ailment first diagnosed at an American Legion convention in Philadelphia, back in 1976.
In California wildfire called Border Number 50, fire has burned 2,648 acres so far; 1,640 on the U.S. side of the border; and 1,000 on the Mexican side. Several hundred homes have so far been evacuated.
A few subway stops away from where I am, here at Times Square, just a few minutes, travel by Express Train, is another great subway hub, Pennsylvania Station, where commuters connect to above-ground railroads out of suburbs of Long Island and New Jersey. To say the least, Penn Station is a very busy place throughout the day, even at this late hour. And as of earlier this evening, probably a rather more nervous place.
CNN's Jason Caroll was there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rush hour at New York's Penn Station. Heightened security as police check a commuter's bag. Riders can expect more police and more random checks now that there is a new threat against mass transit in the city, one that has some subway riders feeling uneasy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Reality is it could happen. I really -- I -- I feel like there's a 100 -- I don't feel 100 percent safe, to be honest.
CARROLL: After the London bombings, three months ago, New York City increased spot checks of trains and the use of National Guardsmen. The police department's specially trained Hercules Anti- Terrorism Team has been out in force. Some commuters say they have no choice, but to take subways, despite the new threat, but do so with caution.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a huge amount of trepidation and a huge amount of concern, looking over my shoulder. And, and hoping and praying that something that is inevitable doesn't happen today.
UNTIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You become a little apprehensive, but I think in time we're kind of conditioned to expect some sort of, of stress or threat level. And you just move on with what you have to do.
CARROLL: And the people that you saw speaking there in that piece, all of them took the subway home tonight. All of them say they will take a subway again tomorrow morning. They are grateful for the added security measures, but say they are doubtful it will do much to change that, that feeling, that New York City is some sort of a target.
Anderson?
COOPER: All right, Jason, thanks very much. Easier said than done. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Department -- Brooke Meyer (ph) -- Michael Bloomberg and New York's police commissioner, Ray Kelly, urged the people of the city to remain calm, go about their daily lives as normal, as we've seen here tonight on the street. People seem to be doing just that. The question is, how exactly do you do that with a sort of damocles (ph) hanging over your head, if that is in fact what's happening.
We're hoping that Former U.N. Security Chief Michael McCann, now head of McCann Protective Services, can help us with some advice. Michael, thanks very much for being with us.
COOPER: What is your advice for New Yorkers? Just go about their business?
MCCANN: Absolutely. I think New Yorkers should continue to go about Philadelphia business, take the subway, commute it back and forth to work like they have in the past.
COOPER: When you hear, you know a specific threat against the New York subway system announced today. What do you think? How credible do you think it is?
MCCANN: Well, I think it is credible. I think the source has been proven in the past. It's been passed to law enforcement people here. Both the New York director of the FBI and the police commissioner have access to the information. They reviewed it and both of them have said that it is credible. It's something that they should take seriously and react accordingly.
COOPER: There's some officials in Washington that CNN has been talking to from Homeland Security, saying, you know, they've looked at it. They don't think it's quite as credible. I guess anytime you have a threat against the transit system in New York, officials have to debate whether or not to go public with it or not.
MCCANN: Yes, but this particular threat is more specific and based on where it's coming from and looking at the nature of the threat, the source of the threat and the information has deemed it more credible than other threats that they've received.
COOPER: New York City's subway lines -- I mean hundreds of miles of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) against some 400 million commuters every day riding the rails, I ride in the morning. I'm sure you ride it as well. How do you go about protecting you?
MCCANN: Well, it's a question of the resources. One issue which many people have heard, is the fact that New York City is not receiving the federal funding that they should. If they were able to get the federal funding, they could put more people on the subways. They can prove the technology, get the camera system that they should have in the subway, similar to what was done in London.
So, it's a question of doing that. In the interim, the Mayor and the Police commissioner, they're putting additional resources, both in uniform and in plain clothes to ensure the safety of the public.
COOPER: The threat that the word we had received was baby carriages filled with explosives. That was one possible venue
FORMER U.N. SECURITY CHIEF MICHAEL MCCANN: Thank you. It seems a pretty hard thing to protect against. I mean, I guess the key is for New Yorkers just to be vigilant and keep their eyes open.
MCCANN: Oh, I think it's both. I think it's a question of what the law enforcement people are dong. The additional searches, the additional personnel that they are putting into the subways tomorrow. And then for anyone that's traveling. If you see something that's suspicious, make sure you report it to the law enforcement people.
You're like a long New Yorker. I am too. Are you going to ride the subways tomorrow?
COOPER: Absolutely. MCCANN: All right, me too. All right, Michael, thanks very much. I appreciate it. Nice to meat you.
Aaron, I think jut about all New Yorkers are still going to ride the subways, and even if you don't to at some point, there's a certain amount of pride that just evolves as you, you know, this is our city. We're going to get on the train.
AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, if you ride them tomorrow, you might ride them a bit confused because on the one hand, honestly, I am -- you've got people in the city saying we have this threat and it's something to be concerned about. And you have people in Washington saying I don't think it's actually a credible threat. And so it makes it, honestly, as someone who honestly doesn't ride the subway, but lives in town, it makes you a little confused about it doesn't go where I do. It makes you a little confused about what it is we're being warned about.
COOPER: Yes.
BROWN: Yeas.
COOPER: Yes, it's one of those things. I mean, you're sort of damned if you do, damned if you don't I suppose. City officials -- you know the word was leaking out I guess today and I guess there was this operating in Iraq last night. So city officials decided to come forward. But that -- as you're right. I mean we've got the word from Washington that it's not so credible. It's one of those things, you know, it's hard to figure out exactly what to do except go about your business.
BROWN: I guess that's what we'll do. We'll go about our business for a while.
Still to come, hope in a vaccine. We'll tell you about a possible breakthrough in the fight against cancer. Plus, what it's like to be in the middle of a battle in Iraq, armed with just a camera. We'll show you that as well.
Break first, be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Keep those numbers in mind; some 4,000 women die every year in this country from cervical cancer. Tens of thousands more die around the world. Tonight we tell you about a new tool in the fight against that cancer; one that could prevent it before onset.
Our Senior Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta reports on a most encouraging medical breakthrough.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANJAY GUPTA, SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESONDENT (voice-over): A few years ago, Rose Dennis, a 53-year old healthy woman went in for a routine pap smear, one of the most common procedures done in the world. As she felt fine, she really thought nothing of it until she got a life-altering call from her doctor. She had cervical cancer.
ROSE DENNIS: During that time, it was -- I don't want to really remember it. It was just horrible.
GUPTA: Dennis is one of thousands of women in this country to suffer from cervical cancer, which is actually caused by a virus, called human papiloma virus, or HPV. It is often transmitted sexually.
Now this cancer is curable if treated early. But now there may be a way to prevent the disease from every occurring the first place, a vaccine. It wasn't easy to develop such a vaccine, as there are more than 70 different types of HPV. But researchers honed in on two of them, number 16 and 18, because those are the most dangerous types.
DR. KEVIN AULT: In this particular type of vaccine, there are four types of human papiloma viruses that are covered. They're probably the four most common types; 16 and 18 are responsible for about 70 percent of cervical cancer.
Best news of all, the vaccine prevented 100 percent of those two strains. We don't think of most vaccines as being 100 percent effective. So, I think that's good news overall. And certainly a pleasant surprise to those of us who have been doing this research for a number of years.
GUPTA: The vaccine is called Gardisil. And Merck and Company, Inc., the manufacture, says it plans to apply for a license before the end of the year.
Now if approved, this vaccine may become extremely common, recommended to all women in their teenage years, before they become sexually active.
Rose Dennis had no such option. She had to endure a hysterectomy, chemotherapy and radiation to become cancer free. For her, and possibly thousands of others, a vaccine would make all the difference.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Just again, it doesn't cure cancer, it prevents it from happening in the first place, in that every young girl in this country and at some point perhaps around the world, if we're lucky, will get this shot in the same way that they get a tetanus shot or a mumps shot, or a measles shot when they're 16, 17, 18 years old. And you can eliminate 70 percent of cervical cancers in the world.
COOPER: Yeah, it's incredible. They say it's going to take what, about a year to get the vaccine up and running, if in fact it passes all the tests. So, I mean, that's no time at all really.
BROWN: Not in the scheme of things.
COOPER: All right, thanks very much.
Here's a look at what's happening around the world tonight in the "Up-Ling." Let's get you up-to-date.
In Guatemala tonight, rescue workers are have pulled out at least 40 bodies from a massive mud slide, triggered after Hurricane Stan, another 20 bodies were found in a swollen river today, brining the total number of people killed in the heavy rains to 231.
There is good news, if it pans out, Al Qaida's second in command has something to complain about. It comes in a letter believed to be authentic from Aiman Alzar Waheri (ph), to Abu Mosobul Zarquay (ph) in Iraq. In it, Alzar Waheri (ph) say the terror network is short on cash and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in Afghanistan and warns against suicide bombings in Iraq, alienating what he calls the Muslim masses.
In Iraq, the number of US troops has been boosted t 152 thousand -- that's up 12,000 from just this summer. Military's concerned that violence in the region's going to rise as a vote on Iraq's constitution nears. The Pentagon said the troop increase is only temporary.
And this increased violence is going to make the job much more difficult for brave people fighting in Iraq, as well as those who are in the battlefield with a little more than a notepad and a camera, the journalists were talking about.
CNN Jennifer Eccleston is embedded with troops on a mission in western Iraq. She tells us about her experience.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's day 10 of our (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and Producer Arwa Damon, Photographer Gabe Ramirez and I find ourselves running through the middle of what Marines call IED Alley.
They, they think there is an IED buried where? In the actual pavement or?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's in the rubble over there.
ECCLESTON: In that rubble?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Eccleston: So you're going to put some C4 --
ECCLESTON (voice-over): And every town we went to, Marines detonated and exploded these IEDs along the very same road where we had just walked minutes before. I have to say that at that stage, it did bring a question to mind of what am I doing here? Why are we doing this? And then we'd look at each other and we'd shrug it off and laugh a little and move on. ECCLESTON (voice-over): it's my fifth trip to Iraq since the American Invasion. After so many close calls, I'm beginning to wonder if the odds will inevitably work against us. It almost happened a few days ago. This simple triggering device, made of household items, rigged to an artillery device nearly killed Arwa. Our vehicle is totaled. My heart stopped.
ARWA DAMON, CNN PRODUCER: And it was insanely frustrating to have had such a near death experience, to have seen the orange flames jump up in front of the vehicle, to hear the detonation and not have it on camera.
So the first thought in my head when I saw you, was damn, I don't have night scope on the camera. I missed that shot, which might seem completely and totally absurd to anyone else.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNDIENTIFIED MALE: Hey, we're taking incoming rockets.
UNDIENTIFIED MALE: Yankee four to Yankee six. What's going on? Roger. Anybody under -- anybody know what that machine gun fire was?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ECCLESTON: The tension in the air was suffocating. We needed to find a way to tape the action that we could hear in other areas, but we could not see. So when Captain Conlin Carabine (ph) made the decision to fire a tank round into a suspected insurgent hideout, we scrambled to get that shot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ECCLESTON: But what came out of the dust was traumatic, surreal. Young women, young children with their hands up in the air in submission. Their faces caked with dust and blood, wailing, crying, some in a state of shock.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ECCLESTON: Why do we run to danger instead of doing what normal people do -- run away? This is a story that has value. This is story that needs to be told. And that's what we do. We're story tellers. We bring people a slice of life, a slice of reality. And is it worth getting blown up? That's something I think about all the time. Probably not, but until such time, I think there's a -- this is important. There is value to what we do, so that's why I keep doing it.
Jennifer Eccleston, CNN, Western Al Anbar Province, Iraq.
COOPER: That was CNN's Jennifer Eccleston, one of the many hard- working reporters in Iraq, risking their lives every day.
A look at the top stories for tomorrow. "Morning Papers" is next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Oke doke, time to check "Morning Papers." Stories that you'll be seeing. There you are, when you wake up in the morning. If you wake up in the morning to "Washington Post," leads with the president and U.S. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) U.S. foil ten plots by Al Qaida. This is, to me, I think the story of the moment. Though right, the political right sees Miers as a threat to a dream. Harriet Miers is up on the Hill again today, courting conservatives. There's just a lot of angst among conservatives about her and what she might do and, you just start to get the feeling that this might end badly for the president.
It's -- not since 1930, has the president nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court been voted down when his party controlled the Senate. Didn't think I knew that, did you?
The "San Antonio Express" news, evacuee -- thank you Meg -- evacuee has 1.6 million reasons to be happy. Depressed after fleeing Katrina, woman hits the slot machine jackpot. Yes, good for her.
The "Daily News" here in New York, bombs in strollers. That'll get your attention when you're walking towards the subway tomorrow morning, won't it? So will this, on top of it, okay? Body nnatchers! Bones and tissues stolen from corpses in city funeral homes. Yikes.
Yikes to this one too, I think. The "Guardian," a British paper. George Bush: "God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq." This is a report from Palestinians who said the president said that. I mean, I don't know that the president said that, but that's their claim.
The "Detroit News," it's a bad day for autoworkers, Delphi demand: Brutal cuts; 50 percent cut in wages, among other things. Autoworkers' lives go from bad to worse.
Tough time for the American Auto Industry. If you're in Chicago tomorrow, bring an overcoat. The weather shall be melancholy. We'll wrap it up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We're looking at a live shot at New York City subways. We are live in Times Square. The subways, of course, still running this evening, will be running all night long and early tomorrow. Four and a half million Americans commute on the New York City subway system every day. There's a specific threat against the system, but the system is still open for business and Aaron and I anticipate tomorrow a lot of New Yorkers, probably looking around maybe a little bit more than they usually do, you know. On the subway, we try not to look at people too much, look them in the eye, but probably tomorrow a lot of people will be looking around there.
BROWN: Well, if they're not looking them in the eyes, they're looking at their briefcases or their strollers or whatever. It's just, it's just hard to know what to make of it. And we appreciate the dilemma, honestly for city officials who want to take no chances, protect everyone. And we appreciate the dilemma of federal officials who don't want to be seen as crying wolf.
COOPER: Absolutely. And what do you do with the New York official that decided to come today and said, look it's our subway system, there is this threat, go about your business as normal. Tomorrow we'll see that people will be doing just that, Aaron.
BROWN: All right, good to have you all with us tonight. We'll all be back or both be back tomorrow. Hope you will too. Until then, good night, from all of us.
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