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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Civil Rights Icon Rosa Parks Dies; Florida Hit Hard By Hurricane Wilma; Insurgents Kill 10, injure 22 in Baghdad; CIA Leak Probe Makes Life In White House Stressful; Wilma Tears Path Of Destruction Through South Florida; Wilma To Link Up With Two Other Storm Fronts To Form Major Nor'easter
Aired October 24, 2005 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...races across the state. Left behind: Death, destruction and millions without power.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was just rocking the whole house back and forth, back and forth.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We take it all into account. On the ground, all across Florida and now what next?
Making weather personal -- or at least private. Find out how some companies use private forecasting services to pinpoint storm changes. So unlike a lot of us, they're never surprised.
Iraq -- the price we all pay. Insurgents kill 10, injure 22 in Baghdad. Meanwhile, the U.S. military is close to reaching another milestone, but not a happy one -- 2,000 troops killed in Iraq.
Live, from Hollywood, Florida, Anderson Cooper; and from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, Aaron Brown. This is NEWSNIGHT.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Well good evening again. We'll get to the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma in just a moment. But first, some late breaking news tonight.
The death of a civil rights icon, the mother of the Civil Rights Movement in America -- Rosa Parks died at her home in East Detroit, Michigan today. We all know her legacy by now. We certainly all should. She inspired the American Civil Rights movement when she refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955. A gentle seamstress, she's often described as. I don't know how gentle her action was. It was an act of courage at the time. And that refusal -- that refusal to get up out of that bus seat became the catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.
Rosa Parks was 92 years old. She had been sick, Anderson, for some years; but her death will be one of those milestones that will have us all talking about what went on in that period from the mid-50s through certainly the mid-60s and in many ways beyond, for many days to come.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, I think also what a lot of people don't remember about Rosa Parks and don't realize is that she had been doing work in the Civil Rights Movement long before that day on December 1, 1955. Twelve years before, she had actually been kicked off a bus because she entered through the front door of the bus instead of through the back door. The bus driver kicked her off.
Twelve years later, it would be that same bus driver who called the police to have her arrested; and when her brother, Sylvester, served admirably and honorably and was awarded medals in World War II, fighting in Europe, fighting in the Pacific, and when he was returned home, and when he was treated badly by bigots in Alabama, it was that event which started her working in the Civil Rights Movement, working with the NAACP and working with veterans and cataloging how African American veterans were being treated when they returned home from World War II. So a remarkable history, even before that day which changed us all, December 1, 1955. We'll have a lot more about Rosa Parks on the program tonight.
I'm standing in the marina here in Hollywood, a community in eastern Florida that has been swamped by Hurricane Wilma. The flood waters at least in this area have already receded. It has been hours now since the storm hit. It's going to be days before the area can be cleaned up and the electricity turned back on; maybe years before this state can recover. Florida lost at least six lives to Hurricane Wilma. Insurers say the damage is in the billions and while the storm wasn't of the same scale of Katrina's or Florida's hurricanes last year, it certainly made its mark.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): It was the 21st hurricane of the season and the eighth to hit Florida in just under a year and a half. Wilma hit the West Coast just before daybreak. By the time it had moved out to sea, more than 3 million homes and businesses were without power; 36,000 were in shelters. Water was everywhere.
R. DAVID PAULISON, ACTING DIRECTOR, FEMA: They're reporting a lot of power outages, a lot of coastal flooding, a lot of broken windows in high-rise buildings. A lot of roofs that are going to need a lot of repair.
COOPER: The hurricane surge hit especially hard here in Everglade City. And in Key West, flooding left some parts of the city three feet under water. By the time it reached Florida's heavily populated East Coast, cars were lifted off the roadway by gales and so was a crane from a high-rise building.
ROBERT GLASS, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: It just was eerie and the neighbors are like, oh my God, look, and it was just spinning and spinning and it spun too much.
COOPER: The big cities -- Miami, Fort Lauderdale were pummeled. Damage estimates ran from $2 to as high as $9 billion dollars. Meaning in terms of loss, Wilma will be bad, but not quite as bad as those storms that raked the state a year ago.
MICHAEL FINE, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: First the winds were going east to west. And then about an hour and a half later, they turned when the big push came.
COOPER: People in Fort Lauderdale said they hadn't seen anything like it in half a century. But to official Washington, still smarting from all that criticism over Hurricane Katrina, it meant more of the same.
PAULISON: Our teams on the ground in the field are moving very quickly and are rested and ready to go. So yes, we're tired of hurricanes and yes, we're all stressed out a little bit, but we're prepared to handle this one also.
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COOPER: What a day it was. East Coast, West Coast, even while inland -- it didn't matter where you lived. If south Florida is your home, you felt Hurricane Wilma. It entered strong, it left strong. CNN's Jeanne Meserve saw some of the worst of it from the state's West Coast in Naples. This is how it looked.
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JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're at the Admiralty. It's a condominium in Naples, Florida. We've been holed up here for about three and a half hours while Wilma has been whipping this area.
I want to show you from this vantage point what she's been doing. Look at all this water. This down here was driveways and roadways and now it is a river. You know, you've heard the term rushing like a river, well this is it. This is really it. And look at these trees -- just collapsing under this wind. They're down all over the place. There's a big one over there, another one right here. You can just see how the whole root system has come right up out of the ground. Just the pressure of the wind and the moisture in the soil conspiring to bring these gigantic and old trees right down.
Underneath us down here is a parking garage. It was empty just a couple of hours ago, except for some cars, of course. And water is just flowing around this corner and right down into the parking garage. It's now about chest deep down there. Absolutely incredible.
And now we look around at some of the other buildings in the area, and you know, they don't look all that damaged. This white one over here, I see what looks to be a window out and something flying out. I've seen a couple of awnings down, but the physical structures actually seem to be fairly intact. It is the vegetation that is really suffering in this wind and in this rain that Wilma has produced.
This is that same area, but here from ground level. You can see this water and how the wind is just beating it, just beating it, whipping it along. And you also get a better sense of the debris that's coming down. Look at this huge limb, huge limbs. And we're really getting battered here. Still, three and half hours after Wilma really made her force known here.
Let me show you something in here. I told you earlier about the parking lot downstairs that was flooded. Well, look down here. Look at the water. Look at that door. It's up past the door knob. It's filthy. Really reminds me of New Orleans and what we saw there.
This is sand. What makes this unusual is that the beach is on the other side of the building. But this sand has been blown over here by the wind, through these portals on the first floor of this building.
This is the beach where we were earlier. Come out here now, it's pretty amazing. You look down here, you can see how the waves have totally eroded this beachfront. This was a nice smooth decline before. The waters way offshore. I'm not sure if that's (INAUDIBLE) incredible winds. For awhile out here, it looked like Moses parting the Red Sea. There was just a wall of water out here. And the sand really hurts, let me tell you. We're being sandblasted, all of us. Let's go.
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COOPER: Quite a day for Jeanne Meserve. Ever wonder what it's like to drive into the eye of a hurricane? Today, in Florida, you could do it just by heading north on I-95. CNN's David Mattingly did just that.
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DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hours after Wilma crashed Florida's west coast, the hurricane was slashing its way east for a violent exit into the Atlantic. And we hit the road heading north, attempting to rendezvous with the eye of the storm.
Yes, I can't see too well. I can't feel the road. And the wind has actually got a little more control of the car than we do right now.
Driving through sheets of rain in near whiteout conditions, we made our way up I-95 where outside Boca Raton, we came across a tractor trailer rig, blown over on its side.
The relentless winds almost knocked me over as well. Fortunately, the driver was not there. As the storm bored down on us, we exited into Boca Raton, headed for the beach. Some streets we founds were blocked. By now trees, signs and power lines were down everywhere. I made the mistake of rolling down the window for a better look.
(on camera): Oh, man. The window's going back up.
(voice-over): There are still occasional gusts of hurricane strength wind as we reach the beach. But as the eye approached, there was an abrupt calm, enough of a lull for local residents to run out for a peek at the pounding surf.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some really good waves -- real big. It never gets this big here.
MATTINGLY: But as quickly as the calm arrived, it was gone. Wilma hit the Atlantic with a roar.
(on camera): It hits you almost exactly like a punch in the face. And in textbook fashion, as the eye passes through here, the wall on the back side is definitely stronger than the leading edge. It's time to get out of here.
(voice-over): Even back on the road, we found Wilma was far from done. The real hazard are these lights. Heading south, fallen light poles blocked up to five lanes on I-95. Near the beaches of Fort Lauderdale, streets of entire neighborhoods were flooded.
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MATTINGLY: The biggest surprise Wilma had for the east coast of Florida was how powerfully it exited out into the Atlantic Ocean. The backside of that eye wall, Anderson, was truly something to experience.
COOPER: Yes, it was a remarkable day. David, thanks very much. I'm glad you weathered it safely with us. Now, Cameron Benson -- he's the city manager of Hollywood, Florida. Mr. Benson, thanks very much for being with us.
CAMERON BENSON, HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA, CITY MANAGER: Sure, no problem.
COOPER: How is Hollywood doing tonight?
BENSON: We're struggling right now. Right now most of our city is without power. Most of our city in a situation where the water to our city is very low; so in order for us to provide water to our residents, we're struggling with that.
COOPER: Do you need power to get the water to --
BENSON: We need power to get water to the people's homes. In some areas we have water and things are okay. In other areas we are struggling with the fact -- and particularly, on our beach area, our major hotels are struggling with the water pressure, in order to receive the water and distribute the water throughout their --
COOPER: It's up to the power company to get the electricity back on?
BENSON: That's correct.
COOPER: And what have they told you? How long is it going to take?
BENSON: The range has been several days or up to four weeks.
COOPER: Anywhere from several days to four weeks to get the power -- wow. BENSON: Correct. Correct. So, not knowing when the power will be back on is going to be a struggle for us. It'll deal with us as far as moving brush off the streets and dealing with those types of things.
COOPER: As city manager, what have you done today? Or as soon as this storm is done, what do you do?
BENSON: Once the storm was done, we went out and did a rapid assessment of our city. We looked to make sure that we didn't have any damage to the buildings in the area, and we looked at the fallen trees. We did get some trucks through to open up the roadways so that our public safety units could get through if we had any problems with those types of things.
COOPER: And you're able to communicate with all the people that work for the city, so that's not a problem at least.
BENSON: Communication is not a problem. It's really the power and the water situation that we need to deal with.
COOPER: And in the hours ahead, as city manager, what do you do?
BENSON: Well, we'll continue to work closely with Broward County, our local county government. We'll continue to work with our state government and obviously FEMA. We have a meeting tomorrow with FEMA reps to begin the process of dealing out other things that we need to do to bring the city back into some sort of state of control. And then hopefully the power over the next several days and over the next several weeks will come back on and then we'll hopefully be back up to standards where we need to do to run the city.
COOPER: I don't envy your job today or tonight, but thank you. I'm glad you're doing it.
BENSON: Thank you. And I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you.
COOPER: All right, thanks. Good luck.
Coming up, we're going to continue to track Hurricane Wilma and its destruction.
Also ahead tonight, remembering Rosa Parks. The Civil Rights icon has died after a remarkable life and a remarkable achievement that has helped us all. We'll talk to the Reverend Jesse Jackson about her legacy.
Plus, three explosions in Baghdad today -- the targets, two places that should be under tight security.
This is NEWSNIGHT.
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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BROWN (voice-over): The insurgents trying to make a statement. Today in Iraq, a terrifying moment in Baghdad.
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BROWN: One of several, like so many, the aim was to kill Americans and other foreigners. Like most, the victims were by and large Iraqis themselves.
Since the beginning of the year, close to 500 truck or car bombs have gone off in Iraq. Reporting on this one and two others today, CNN's Nic Robertson.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Massive, spectacular and caught on camera -- a bomb hidden in a cement truck detonates. The third and by far the largest of three explosions targeting to heavily guarded hotels used by international journalists or western workers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB REID, A.P., CHIEF EDITOR: At just about sunset, as I was sitting at my work station, you know, preparing to do the night's work, heard this very, very loud explosion, and even could feel the blast. So I knew something had exploded very close to the hotel.
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ROBERTSON: It all began moments earlier with two smaller car bombs. The first car, captured on this security camera, detonates next to a concrete security barrier, blowing a hole in the hotel's defenses. The second car bomb approaches the bridge, but is driven back by gunfire and explodes about 100 meters from the hotel. Seconds later, the cement mixer drives through the gap in the security barrier, exploding as it approaches the hotel lobby.
Inside, stores were ripped apart. Hotel workers and some journalists among the walking wounded. Others faired far worse.
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REID: Why they chose to it at this time, we really don't know. What the purpose of it was, we really don't know. We can only guess that they knew this hotel was the target of international press and there probably journalists were the targets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Police said all three of the vehicles were driven by suicide bombers. The pattern of the attack, targeting international journalists, almost guaranteeing big media coverage; mirroring what U.S. and Iraqi officials believe, that insurgents want maximum publicity to instill fear in Iraqis and the international community.
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ROBERTSON: Now witnesses say that gunmen on the Iraqi propelled grenades also joined in the assault. Security experts were told to describe it as a complex attack. But they also note that the insurgents seem to have chosen a softer target; and rather than go after perhaps more prestigious for them, higher value targets, such as the U.S. Embassy, that its inside is secure and very highly forded (ph) by a green zone -- Aaron.
BROWN: Just, Nick, let me run a theory by you and you tell me if it makes sense. They blow off this first truck bomb and that gets every camera to the window to look out at what's going on. And that guarantees that the world will see is what the world has been seeing, which is this enormous explosion, which says something about the insurgency itself.
ROBERTSON: Absolutely. And that's an analysis that is very prevalent in Baghdad. U.S. commanders behind the scenes, security forces here and as well, the Iraqi government all believe that the insurgency is tailoring what it's doing to cause these spectacular type of attacks. They've been fearing something big like this to happen right in front of the cameras. And just that, the very nature as you say, drawing the cameras on and making sure that the biggest of all the explosions was captured on the videotape.
BROWN: Well you couldn't get it more in front of the cameras than that one. Nick, thank you. Stay safe. Nic Robertson in Baghdad.
As we said, nearly 500 bombings so far this year. And this weekend, the death of a Marine in Ramadi brings another milestone in to view -- 2,000 Americans killed since the war began. We are almost there. Here's CNN Tom Foreman.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two years and seven months -- that's how long American soldiers have been dying in Iraq, at a rate of two a day. The worst times have seen 90 insurgent attacks every 24 hours.
Now, the death toll is 1,998, two short of 2,000. A sobering mark for a public growing weary of war.
MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: But I think in the scheme of things, they're going to be much less worried about this number and much more worried about whether they have a strategy to produce success in Iraq. And frankly, that's the one we should all be nervous about, because it's not yet clear that they do.
(SINGING)
FOREMAN: Public dissatisfaction has assuredly risen with the body count. Last month polls showed support for the war at its lowest point. So the Pentagon is now talking more about the number of deaths among the enemy. Military leaders suggest there is no political strategy behind that, but the White House is making open maneuvers to boost morale.
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GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That so long as I'm the president, we're never going to back down. We're never going to give in.
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FOREMAN: War protestors are carefully saying the 2,000 dead should not be played for political advantage. But public impatience with the war is encouraging their movement.
KEVIN MARTIN, PEACE ACTION: Translating that into effective political action, that was the most important thing and we think that the target has to be Congress for that.
FOREMAN (on camera): So how do you do that?
MARTIN: Every single candidate for Congress next year has to be made to tell what they're going to do to get the troops home and get us out of Iraq.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Of course, they've been trying to make that happen from the start. They thought when the death toll reached 1,000 a year ago, the public would cry out. It didn't happen.
(on camera): So, will this milestone in fatalities be a tipping point? Will it change the course of the war? Hard to say. It's difficult to contemplate the idea of 2,000 young Americans dead. But it really could be so much worse.
(voice-over): In World War II, in the Battle of the Bulge alone, 10,000 Americans died -- 10,000. Still, there are signs. Many Americans have supported the effort in Iraq and believed in its causes. But polls say most want out of it now. After all, 147 members of the U.S. military died in the first Gulf War; 13 times as many have already died in the second. Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: That's just the number who died. If you consider the number of thousands of men and women who have been wounded as well.
Still to come on the program -- the White House at center of a storm now over the CIA leak case and there are new developments there.
And later, the center of the storm. A view from the ground as the sky turned nasty -- very nasty.
We'll take a break first. From south Florida and New York City, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Returning to the breaking news of this night. The death of Rosa Parks, a woman who with a simple act -- a courageous one on the 1st of December, 1955 -- refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. And the American Civil Rights Movement was born. She died at her home in the Detroit area. She was 92 years old.
No doubt you'll hear a lot about her in the days to come. We hope you will. She had an extraordinary impact on the lives of so many people -- young people of the time, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who was a young man back there in 1955. He is on the phone with us now from Johannesburg.
Reverend Jackson, good to talk to you. What do you remember about that day?
REVEREND JESSE JACKSON: Was saddened by the passing of Rosa Parks. We rejoice in her legacy, which will not die. In many ways, the history is before and after Rosa Parks. She was not just a kind of lucky lady who made history. She was a freedom fighter, and an NAACP member. She sat down in order that we might stand up, Aaron.
BROWN: Reverend Jackson, was it a spontaneous act or was there a plan?
JACKSON: Aaron?
BROWN: Yes, sir.
JACKSON: A voice cut across us.
BROWN: I'm sorry. Was it a spontaneous act or was it a plan?
JACKSON: Well, it was a spontaneous act in one sense. On the other hand, she was a member of the NAACP at the time when it was in many states illegal to be a member. So she had the sense of courage in this fight back in her. So history knocked on her door and with a quiet courage, she asked the kind of non-negotiable dignity.
And when she illuminated the darkness after three centuries of prayers and longings, it opened the door for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who's majestic leadership along with her changed the course of perhaps our -- I'm here in South Africa, preparing to meet with Mandela -- Nelson Mandela; and these three, Rosa Parks and Dr. King and Mandela showed that without using a gun, a bomb, or great wealth -- the awesome power of right over might in this long trek to peace and freedom.
BROWN: Reverend Jackson, talk for a moment just about how Rosa Parks affected you in the course of your life and the things that you did.
JACKSON: As a 14-year old child, we had already begun to sense the indignity of getting on the bus and (INAUDIBLE) here the signs read, Color Seats in the Rear, Whites in the Front. Those who Violate it will be Punished by Law. That humiliation was a daily humiliation to ride on the bus. This was within the context now. This is nine years before the public or culmination built. That's 10 years before the Voting Rights Act. Before we knew about the Martin Luther King Jr., we emerged kind of the next day. And it was a great risk. I mean for that act, she could have been killed. After all, (INAUDIBLE) 1955. She set bounties of a first (INAUDIBLE). I remember one time asking her why did she sit down and knowing the risk. She said, I thought about (INAUDIBLE) and I couldn't go back. She saw this (INAUDIBLE) connected to the kind -- the (INAUDIBLE) mentioned inspired her. And her sitting down, inspired the rest of the world to stand up.
BROWN: Reverend Jackson, we appreciate your being able to talk to us from South Africa today. Good luck with your meetings with Mr. Mandela. Thank you, sir.
Reverend Jesse Jackson, on the death of Rosa Parks. Ms. Parks was 92 years old when she died today or this evening, just outside of Detroit.
Erica Hill joins us in Atlanta with some of the other stories that made news today. Hello, Erica.
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello Aaron. In Germany, bird flue concern. Veterinarians will examine about 25 geese and ducks found dead at a leak in western Germany. Now it's unclear whether bird flu killed them. In the meantime, European union officials are preparing for an outbreak of the deadly disease. They've imposed a temporary ban on poultry imported from Croatia after that country reported a positive test for Avian flu.
In Nigeria, a call for help. Investigators are asking the U.S. for expert assistance to determine what caused a passenger plane to crash after takeoff on Saturday. All 117 people on board the Bellview Airlines Boeing were killed, including an American.
Unlike last year's shortage problem, there should be plenty of flu shots to go around this year. The CDC says at least 70 million doses of the influenza vaccine will be available. And that means everybody who wants a flu shot, can get one.
And finally, a sour lawsuit for Apple. Consumers in San Jose, California, filing a class-action lawsuit which alleges the small popular iPod Nano -- that's the newest one -- they say it scratches easily and excessively during normal usage. The lawsuit clams Apple Computer released the music player knowing it was defective.
And that's the latest from Headlines News at this hour. We'll hand it back over to you guys.
BROWN: Thank you, Erica. Back down to the CIA leak affair and how it must look from inside the White House. We're learning a bit because after years of running the tightest ship in recent memory, the ship of state, if you will is leaking some. And to mix navy and army metaphors, a siege mentality appears to be setting in. We're joined tonight by John Dean, who once found himself famously at the center of scandal, Watergate. He was the White House counsel at the time.
It's always good to see you, John. Thank you.
One of the things that does happen in moments like this, the closer we get to the end game, is that the leaks do become profuse. It happened during Watergate, it seems to be happening now.
JOHN DEAN, NIXON WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: Well, I haven't seen any leaks other than from the lawyers who are representing various people, who seem to be somehow pulled into the investigation of Mr. Fitzgerald. There certainly have been no sign of a leak coming out of his office, which is really the way a prosecutor should run an investigation. And everybody should appreciate how difficult that is and what he's done.
BROWN: The lawyers seem to be -- not the prosecutor, but the lawyer -- seem to be trying to position their clients -- put their clients in the most favorable light and if it means making somebody else's client look bad, tough!
DEAN: That's right. And they're communicating with each other, too. You can use the newspapers to do this, it happens all the time in these types of investigations. So this is why we're seeing the Saran wrap come off the tightly wrapped Washington we once knew.
BROWN: In moments like this in the White House, itself, with the air of scandal, if you will, there and sort of waiting for a shoe to drop, do people walk in each day with a knot in their stomach?
DEAN: Well, you know, what happens in these situations is often the staff never really gets advised of what's happening. And there is a grapevine in the White House. There always has been, there always will be, regardless of who is there. And it is really not the inner core and those people that are closest to the bubble. It's those that are on the outside who really are having difficulty at this point.
Those who have been in the investigation, have been down to that bleak grand jury room, those who are even subjects and targets, they have pretty well narrowed down what their problems are. And it's the other people who really don't know what's going to happen. Are they going to lose a boss? Are they going to lose a position? So there is a lot of confusion. There is a lot anger. There is a lot of distress, because this is a very unique office.
BROWN: Does work get done?
DEAN: Oh, it does. It has to. In fact, one of the things that you have to say about a White House is it really is a crisis center. Things don't get to the White House unless they've not been able to solve them someplace else in the government. And it's a pretty big government, Aaron. So, they typically do get solved. It's really the tough ones that come into the White House. So people are accustomed to crisis atmosphere.
BROWN: And just finally, what do you make of the story, this "New York Times" story that is going to be out -- that is out tonight, in the paper tomorrow. That it was apparently, Mr. Cheney, Vice President Cheney, who told his Chief of Staff Scooter Libby about Ms. Plame and who she was and what she did?
DEAN: Well, I read the story, and of course, if George Tenet, the director of the CIA, gave him the information, that was certainly proper -- or not improper -- in anyway to get it. And what he did with it, we don't know. In fact, we don't even have a solid confirmation that that is how indeed he got it. But it is a big story. It does put Cheney in a lot of difficulty with some of his public remarks.
I can recall, after reading the story, I read that this happened in June of 2003. I can recall in September, when he was on television talking about how he had no idea who sent Joe Wilson anywhere. He didn't know anything about the man. So this could be some implications politically, for the vice president as well.
BROWN: John, it is good to see you.
DEAN: Good to see you.
BROWN: Thank you. John Dean, out in California tonight.
Still ahead, the worse that nature dishes out, Wilma, surviving the storm. And later, climbing through the debris you once called home. The mesmerizing images and gut wrenching decisions in the storm. NEWSNIGHT continues in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Well, the breaking news for tonight, is the death of Rosa Parks. The mother of the American civil rights movement, Ms. Parks has died at her home in Detroit. Fifty years ago, on the 1st of December, 1955, on a bus in segregated Montgomery, Alabama, she said, no. Quietly and respectfully, to a white man who demanded her seat.
That touched off a boycott that lasted more than a year, and ultimately ended up at the U.S. Supreme Court. It also changed the country. Civil Rights law would pass in 1964, changing public accommodations, voting rights, and much of everything else in America. Rosa Parks was there at the beginning. She was 92, when she died today, Anderson.
COOPER: It is a remarkable lesson in how one person's actions can change the world. This is something, in a much smaller way, we saw in Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath of it wasn't government coming in, and fixing things, it was individuals standing up and doing -- you know, grabbing a gun, or rake or a stethoscope and doing what needed to be done.
Fifty years ago today, on that bus one woman decided to make a stand by sitting down and changed everything after that. We'll have a lot more about Rosa Parks tonight and in the days and weeks ahead.
Let's take a quick check of the other stories that we're following right now, at this moment.
Wilma is spinning in the Atlantic, poised to join forces with two other storms, Tropical Depression Alpha, and a weather system coming from the west. The result, a powerful nor'easter, expected to dump rain and snow over parts of New England, tomorrow.
This man, is President Bush's pick to control the economic well- being of the United States. He's Ben Bernanke, an economist with leanings similar to Federal Reserve Chairman Allan Greenspan, and the man the Oval Office hopes will fill Greenspan's shoes when he retires in January.
And Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide is at the heart of the federal investigation about who said what to whom about the identity of a CIA officer. Now "The New York Times" reports that notes of Lewis Scooter Libby indicate he got his information from his boss, the vice president. No word on how it will affect the investigation, but it is certain to cause new worries for the White House. No doubt about that.
If the weather forecasters are right, the people here in Hollywood, Florida, will wake up tomorrow to mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-70s. Quite a contrast to what happened here today, as Wilma barreled through. It's rains flooding the streets. It's winds tearing at buildings and homes. Here is a look at what it was like inside the storm.
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COOPER: This is probably the worst that we have seen, really in the last minute or so. The wind is -- this is really bad.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This sand will really, just peel the skin off you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is just a wall of water out here. And the sand really hurts, let me tell you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Certainly not as bad as Charlie, and as soon as I say that, up pops a gust that almost knocked me over.
No, still not as bad as Charlie and it is probably not as bad as Ivan, but if you are going to get 80 mile an hour wind gusts in Polk County or Hardee Country or Hendry (ph), then yes. It's pretty bad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I think that'd put the scare in some people who are sticking around with us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, boy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watching us through our reports, they ended up going home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Huge limbs, huge limbs. And we're really getting battered here.
COOPER: I just want to show you that what is left of the beach. Chris, if you can come over here. This whole walkway, we were on earlier, but it is completely covered in water. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: It was fast. And it was powerful. And in a matter of hours Wilma dashed across southern Florida, leaving mess in its path. CNN's Jason Carroll chased Wilma from Naples to Miami in Hurricane One.
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JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Our goal, follow Hurricane Wilma as she tears across southern Florida.
RADIO ANNOUNCER: Of course, another big thing this morning is Wilma.
CARROLL: We begin in Naples, early Monday morning. Wind topping 100 miles per hour, slow our progress. Uprooted trees and downed power lines block nearly every streets.
(on camera): So, we decide to pull over here.
(Voice over): Pockets of flooding here, too. Six inches of rain have fallen in hours.
(on camera): So, right now we're just outside, just to show you a little bit of the minor flooding that we've experienced out here. This is downtown Naples. And you can see this is a strip mall and how far the water has come here.
Walter, I don't know if you can hear me, but get a shot at the newsstand over there. You can see the newsstand is partially submerged. That gives you a sense of just how deep the water has gotten at this part.
(on camera): Moments later, it takes CNN Photographer Walter Enperado (ph), one frustrating minute of fighting the wind, just to shut the door again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on! Hold on! Hold on! (ph)
CARROLL: Once back on the road, we track Wilma as she heads east, toward Miami. Across the 130-mile stretch of Interstate 75, known as Alligator Alley. Finally, visibility improves. As Wilma heads into the Atlantic, we head to a community of houseboats north of Miami Beach. Several are destroyed.
And we find an 80-year-old man being rescued.
CAPT. KEVIN MARTIN, MIAMI-DADE FIRE RESCUE: Right there, in the middle of all that, we cut in, you see that three-by-six hole that we cut in the roof.
LT. ERIC VAUM, MIAMI-DADE FIRE RESCUE: We had to use a lounge chair, so we had to improvise out here. We put the gentleman on the lounge chair and a backboard and pulled him out to safety.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got them. We got them.
CARROLL: Carl Benz sees it all happen. He and his wife used to live next door.
CARL BENZ, MIAMI RESIDENT: We're watching all the devastation here. You see that. We're watching docks ripped out. We're watching boats sinking. This is our community, our friends, and we've lost it all. It's all gone.
CAROLYN BENZ, MIAMI RESIDENT: It's very surreal to us, at this moment, because -- you know, I can't even think.
CARROLL: Yet again, weather weary Floridians begin cleaning up after a hurricane. They will not soon forget the hurricane season of 2005.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: And millions of people tonight, still without power. And of course, Anderson, that is a minor inconvenience when you compare that to those people who lost everything today.
COOPER: Yes, what surprised you most about the storm?
CARROLL: You know, for me it was the wind. Because I've seen people like you out there in that wind before, but being out there in that at one point, it was so strong it literally at one point took my breath away.
I mean, it was that strong. I mean, it was so difficult just to stand up had to hold on to a door at one point just to sort of maintain my balance. It's really the wind. That was so surprising.
COOPER: Yes, I like your windbreaker, by the way.
CARROLL: Yours, too.
COOPER: Thanks. Jason Carroll.
Coming up tonight, lucky survivors, imagine weathering Wilma in a trailer park. We'll show you some people who did.
And seaman who may owe their lives to private weather forecasters. This is NEWSNIGHT.
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COOPER: It is just incredible the power of the storm, a man, there, trying to walk down a hotel corridor in Marco Island, Florida, when Wilma hit. Thousands of Floridians have found paradise in their mobile homes. But too often in recent years, hurricanes have tracked them down. Wilma was no different. Here's CNN's Cameraman Mark Biello.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MARK BIELLO, CNN CAMERAMAN (voice over): We traveled the width of Florida Monday just as Wilma did. We found some of the places she left her mark. One of them was a small town on the edge of Lake Okeechobee called Clewiston.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had a shed here. It is flattened.
BIELLO: Gina and Jessie live in this mobile home park, right in the central portion of southern Florida. Seventy miles from the ocean, they decided not to evacuate hoping the storm would loose power before it reached them.
It turned out to be the wrong decision.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was so scared. I thought my life was over. We were in the bathroom just holding on to one another. I was crying the whole night.
BIELLO: Gina was scared, but she was also lucky. As we walked around their neighborhood, we saw dozens of trailers flipped over on their sides, totaled.
Shortly after we arrived, and before the storm was fully past, FEMA was on the scene to look for some of Jesse and Gina's less fortunate neighbors.
This home is mangled. The search for survivors treacherous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Johnny, you want to get a chainsaw.
BIELLO: Luckily, no victims were pulled from this wreckage. But these teams have hundreds of homes to search.
As for Gina and Jessie, they're safe, but will not forget the experience in a hurry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to move, really! I want to get out of here!
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: What's amazing about those two people, is they actually tied themselves together.
BIELLO: Yes, they tried to wait out the storm and ride the storm out. And they took shelter within the bathroom of their mobile home. And by taking these sheets and tying these strips together, they thought for safety they could hang on. I think what a lot of people don't realize though, the winds that picked up, did toss a lot of these mobile homes off on their sides.
COOPER: Right.
BIELLO: Or flipped them completely over or destroy them completely.
COOPER: They were incredibly lucky just to get through that.
BIELLO: Yes, very, very lucky.
COOPER: Photojournalist Mark Biello, appreciate it. Thanks.
Still to come tonight, the weather service that isn't the Weather Service. We'll explain that ahead. Private forecasting, a break first, from Florida and New York, and around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
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COOPER: Extraordinary images out of Naples, Florida, from earlier this morning. We are in Hollywood, Florida tonight. Where we, like many of you, were glued to the latest updates from our meteorologists today on Wilma's movements.
There are forecasts were dead on the money. But what if you could get a customized, private forecast and updates any minute of the day, whenever you want it. We're not talking about the lifestyles of the rich and famous, but a growing service. The details now from CNN's Rob Marciano.
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ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice over): For tugboat Captain Robert Johnson, Hurricane Katrina was a high-stakes gamble. Call it a bet, a smart, but gutsy bet. The prize, worth more than $100 million, winner takes all.
CAPT. ROBERT JOHNSON, E.N. BISSO, TUGBOAT OPERATORS: I've been on the river for 31 years and I've never seen a storm like that.
MARCIANO: As Hurricane Katrina churned toward the Gulf Coast, and most people ran from the water, Johnson climbed into the captain's chair of his tugboat. And he and his crew of six, in New Orleans, chartered a course, into the storm.
JOHNSON: Wind was raging from 150 to 170 miles an hour. And this one, like I said, it goes up to 100 and it was buried for at least three hours at a time.
MARCIANO: Imagine, Johnson, as well as other tugs in the E.N. Bisso Fleet, was on his way to try to protect and 800-foot long oil tanker, loaded up with 300,000 barrels of crude -- and three other huge ships.
(on camera): But remember, it was a smart bet. The National Weather Service had no doubt, I mean, Katrina was coming. But Johnson had much, much more. He had minute-by-minute reports from Impact Weather, one of dozens of private weather forecasting companies that sift through all the data from the National Weather Service, use that data in some of their own computer models to help them forecast.
You can ask a private weather forecaster and they can tell you what the weather is going to be like right down to the city block. (Voice over): Not a single crewmember on Johnson's tug, or in his fleet was injured. All the ships they were protecting remained safe.
JOHNSON: I still get a movement right now, at about 292 degrees.
MARCIANO: Long before Katrina hit, planners for E.N. Bisso Fleet received proprietary forecasts from ImpactWeather; 33 meteorologists working around the clock, in Houston.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Still, this is strictly, of course, the model, but we're still looking at long period swells for our LA leases, Louisiana Leases. Significant sea heights in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Such a tiny eye. Unusual storm.
MARCIANO: Impact Weather plotted conditions, winds, storm surge, waves, precisely where those tankers were sitting ducks.
JOHNSON: They were projecting our course of speed and what the waves and seas were going to be out there at that particular time. So we monitor the weather the whole time that a vessel is offshore.
MARCIANO: But with it's pinpoint forecast, Johnson's crew knew precisely when the storm surge would hit this mile marker on the Mississippi. So they could adjust, bring in, or let out their tether lines to save the ships.
Senior Meteorologist George Harvey:
GEORGE HARVEY, SR. METEOROLOGIST, IMPACTWEATHER: Our clients want to know, what's it going to do and how is it going to affect me?
MARCIANO: Private weather forecasting is big business. Nearly 400 produced custom forecasts for railroads, schools, golf tournaments, even retailers.
E.N. Bisso President Walter Kristiansen:
WALTER KRISTIANSEN, PRES., E.N. BISSO: The weather, which is the environment in which we work, is very, very important, that we know what's going on. So that we can be prepared for the contingencies and what we might encounter.
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MARCIANO: Well, with hurricane pushing through the Gulf of Mexico, you can bet those big waves may have easily been around their tugs, you can also bet that their company's operations center was monitoring the storm, making adjustments with the added confidence of having just a little extra knowledge, a little extra detailed forecast to help keep their tugs, and the ships they protect, safe -- Anderson.
COOPER: Rob, thanks very much. Rob Marciano, reporting tonight.
Aaron, how would you like your own private weather service, huh?
BROWN: It's the only thing I don't have. It is certainly something I need.
A quick check -- I do my own private newspaper reading, though, and I will now. Here's a quick look at the morning headlines.
Everybody leads with the hurricane, and everyone will remake their front page, to put Rosa Parks in it, OK? So this is really a drill.
"The Washington Post" down at the corner, "Cheney Plan Exempts CIA From Bill Barring Abuse of Detainees". So the military can't abuse detainees, under this bill that is before the Congress, but the CIA could, if it wanted to and if it felt it was necessary. And if that isn't the subject of a great debate, and I think it is, I don't know what is.
"The Washington Times", "Leaders on right call for new pick", "acute dismay over Miers nod". Man, has she not had a single good day. Not one, since she was nominated. She will never make it, I do not believe.
"Florida endures Wilma's rampage", the lead in "The Dallas Morning News". But that newspaper will be remade, too, I suspect, before it hits the streets.
And we'll do "The Daily News" and then we'll get to the weather. "The Daily News" in Chicago, "Tycoon Dies A Hero". They probably won't change the front page. They'll put something like up here, Rosa Parks died. Something like that, but that is the one that sells newspapers.
If you're in Chicago, which is on its way to winning the World Series, the weather tomorrow. "Looks like reign", as in R-E-I-G-N. Series continues tomorrow, right? Yes.
NEWSNIGHT continues in a moment.
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COOPER: We've been talking a lot tonight, Aaron, about Rosa Parks. And a lot of people think, you know, they focus on that day, December 1, 1955, understandably. Of course, Rosa Parks had a long history of civil rights work before that.
And there is a quote that I just wanted to read, that I just found. She said, "It was not that I was fed up in 1955, I'd been fed up my whole life, as far back as I can remember, of being treated as less than a free person."
It wasn't just that day that she decided to stand up for her rights.
BROWN: When we right the history of our time, she will get a prominent page in that. She already has because of what she did 50 years ago.
"LARRY KING LIVE" coming up next. We'll see you all tomorrow. Good to have you with us. Good night.
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