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CNN Live Saturday

Mahmoud Abbas Certified As New Palestinian Leader; Charles Graner Testifies In Own Defense;

Aired January 15, 2005 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It is 12:00 p.m. here in Atlanta, 9:00 am in La Conchita, California. Hello. I'm Fredricka Whitfield at CNN's global headquarters in Atlanta. Ahead this hour:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to leave. Yeah, this is -- I'm not going to do this again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

They're free to return home, but some folks in La Conchita say "no way."

New hope amid new tensions in the Middle East: We'll take you live to Jerusalem for the latest on Palestinian's new president.

Also, historic pictures from 700 million miles away and why they may show what the earth looked like in the beginning, but first, a look at the top stories.

Dozens of firefighters and 30 fire trucks are on the scene of an oil company fire in Oklahoma City. The intensity of the blaze has kept fire crews from entering the facility. Fire officials say for now they're allowing the fire to burn itself out to prevent a hazardous run-off. They add that the B&M Oil Company is a distributor of kerosene, ethanol, and methanol.

The man convicted as the ringleader of the abuse at the Abu Ghraib Prison is set to testify for the first time in the penalty phase of court martial, Charles graner faces up to 15 years in prison. We'll have a live report in Ft. Hood, Texas in a moment.

Authorities in Utah are making a slow and meticulous search for five missing skiers following an avalanche. The sheriff in Park City says it would be a miracle to find anyone alive, he says the slide was so powerful that trees were torn down.

U.S. military aide forces are expected to leave Indonesia well before the end of March. That's according to Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, touring the hardest hit parts of Indonesia. The government is asking aide groups and military troops to leave the country by March 26.

An Army Reserve specialist takes the stand today to testify in the penalty phase of his court martial. Charles Graner was convicted by a military jury for his role in abusing detainees in Baghdad's now infamous Abu Ghraib Prison. National correspondent, Susan Candiotti, has been at Ft. Hood Texas and has been following the case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Accused Abu Ghraib ringleader, Charles Graner, said this as his trial began.

SPECIALIST CHARLES GRANER, U.S. ARMY: We're going to find out how much of a monster I am today and...

CANDIOTTI: The answer came late on a Friday afternoon, one year to the very day when the now notorious photos first surfaced and sparked the Army's investigation. Graner stood ramrod stiff, eyes straight ahead as the verdict was read: Guilty on nine of the ten major counts, guilty also on one reduced charge. For each of these photos: The naked human pyramid, the prisoner on a dog leash, the threat to punch another detainee, this scene of sexual humiliation -- guilty of each charge of abuse.

In closing arguments, the defense tried to explain away the photos with, well, a creative argument: The prisoner on the leash, it said, was not being dragged, he crawled out of his cell, quote, "It's not violent. It was done creatively. Mission accomplished." The prosecution response: "Yeah, it was creative. It was creative abuse."

The jury of combat veterans was only out five hours. The same jury is to decide Graner's sentence. Graner did not testify before the jury convicted him. He plans to take the stand Saturday, before the sentencing.

GRANER: Well, I'm going to start of with saying "I swear to god, this is the truth. "

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You'll have to hear.

GRANER: Then you're going to hear a story.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And Susan Candiotti is just now coming out of the courtroom. Susan, what's happening there now?

CANDIOTTI: Well, Fredricka, as promised, Charles Graner did take the stand and he is starting to tell his side of the story. He's been testifying for about an hour and a half now, making an unsworn statement. I'll get back to that and explain more about it in just a moment. But first, here are some of the things he is saying, so far, in regard to some of the activities he's now been convicted of.

He said, quote, "We were called to violate the Geneva Convention, in terms of how to treat prisoners." He said, quote, "We were asked to do certain things that I wasn't trained to do." Asked by his lawyer whether he was talking about use of force, and he called it "irregular treatment." He was asked whether this was contrary to the kind of training that he had received. His answer was that, prior to this investigation, he said, "I hadn't seen any Army training manuals on this."

And then he went on to be asked about some of the -- in some respects, some of the photos that we have seen time and again now, for example, of the naked prisoners. He talked about that by saying, quote, "A lot of the weird stuff came from civilian contractors." He was told to do it by them, he said. "Some of the crazy stuff," his words, he said, "came from M.I." military soldiers, military intelligence soldiers. For example, he said that he was told to go into some detainee's cells at night and scream at them, shining a flashlight on their face while they were trying to eat something. He said if they didn't get a chance to eat, wasn't his problem. All this being part of what the defense has contended was receiving orders to soften up detainees for interrogation.

Now, back to what all of this means, this is part, as I said, of an unsworn statement. That means that he did not, as he said last night, he didn't "swear to god" to tell the truth. He wasn't put under oath. It also means, and this is very important, that prosecutors will not have an opportunity to cross-examine him if he had been put under oath.

Now, again, listening very intently to this, Fredricka, is the same jury that convicted him is now deciding what his sentence will be, this jury of 10 combat veterans -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Susan, which still then begs the question, same jury, why would Guy Womack, the attorney, or Charles Graner believe that it would make more sense for him to testify during this phase and not before his conviction?

CANDIOTTI: Well, one must only guess at this stage, without having an opportunity to discuss that with him yet, we will, of course, afterwards, but I suspect it's because, look the jury here has already made up his mind about his guilt and now, they're, in effect, throwing themselves at the jury's mercy whether they believe, indeed, there might have been extenuating circumstances. After all, as his lawyer has said, who is an ex-Marine himself, they maintain he was just following orders, and so, he was doing what a soldier had to do under certain circumstances.

WHITFIELD: All right. Susan Candiotti, thanks so much from Ft. Hood, Texas.

An Army sergeant was convicted of murder, Friday, of a severely injured Iraqi teenager. Witnesses say U.S. troops found the teen in a burning truck. And investigator says the soldiers then determined the boys' wounds were so serious; they put him out of his misery. Staff Sergeant Cardenas Alvin (PH) was sentenced to a year in prison and dishonorable discharge. Another soldier was sentenced to three years, last December, in connection with the same killing. Palestinians are celebrating the beginning of a new era. Mahmoud Abbas is now serving his first day as Palestinian authority president. His swearing in took place just a few hours ago in Ramalla. But, amid the celebrations, more set backs for the troubled peace process. The latest from CNN's John Vause joing us from Jerusalem -- John.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. This new era is starting to look a lot like the old one, at least for the time being. As Mahmoud Abbas was being sworn in as the second president of the Palestinian authority and calling on the Israelis to return to the peace negotiating table, well that just won't happen. Israel has now severed all contacts with the Palestinian authority, what few contacts there were. The Israeli Prime Minister Sharon believing Mahmoud Abbas could have done more to stop an attack at a Gaza border crossing on Thursday which left six Israeli civilians dead.

And even as Mr. Abbas was being sworn in in Ramalla, Israeli forces were moving through Gaza City, an operation Israel says is necessary to try to stop mortars and rockets being fired at a nearby Jewish settlement. Palestinian medics say at least five Palestinians have been killed in Gaza City alone and according to residents there three of the dead are, in fact, militant.

And further to the south in the border town of Rafah, Palestinian authority officials say at least two people have been killed by an Israeli tank when it opened fire on the people as they approached an unmanned Israeli outpost there in Rafah.

Now, Mahmoud Abbas says he is still working on trying to secure a ceasefire with the militant groups. And is real says once the attacks stop, then talks can resume. But right now, Fredricka, everything's on hold including a hopeful meeting between Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, John Vause from Jerusalem, thanks so much for that update.

Well, how safe are railway tanker cars? You'll never guess what CNN's cameras found yards away from Capitol Hill. Terrorism expert, Jim Walsh joins us with some insight.

And the "Motor City Madman" comes to the aid of Texas kids. Find out what's up when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Just five days from now, President Bush takes the oath of office to begin his second term. He has a lot on his plate as he gets ready for Thursday's inauguration. There is Social Security reform and, of course, this month's elections in Iraq, just to name a few. We check in now with CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi Fredricka. Well, President Bush is spending a rare weekend at the White House. He went for a bike ride this morning. Aides say he is putting the finishing touches on his inaugural address and he, himself, said the theme of that address will be "liberty is powerful, freedom is peace." One of the traits, Fredricka, as you know that, really defined the president personally in his first term, was the fact that he didn't necessarily want to, in one case, or another case perhaps was unable to, admit any mistakes or regrets from his first term. Something he was criticized for in the campaign. But in the series of interviews leading up to the inauguration he is now coming up with a few examples of errors where he says he used perhaps the wrong words and phrases. He said both the infamous "Dead or Alive" quote in getting Osama bin Laden in the days after 9/11, and also, on ABC's "20-20" he talked about that, quote, "bring it on," when talking about the Iraqi insurgency and said perhaps that was a poor choice of words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I do think, you know, when I said some things in the first term that were probably a little blunt. "Bring it on" was a little blunt. And I was really speaking to our troops, but it came out and had a different connotation, different meaning for others and so, I've got to -- I'll be -- I'll be more disciplined in how I say things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, that's a line that is used as a propaganda tool by some anti-American forces in Iraq and elsewhere. Mr. Bush also admitted that his administration perhaps is not doing such a great job in public diplomacy, to try to boost the U.S. image in areas around the world where it is not very good, particularly the Muslim world.

But, one area Mr. Bush did not express regret or any mistake is the issue, the area that has really come to define his presidency that is the war in Iraq. He still says that that was the right approach, despite the fact that there is a new report out saying that it is now a place where insurgents are training. The White House, the Bush administration says that they still feel the war was just and their strategy for, as they put it, "staying on the offensive is the right approach" -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Well Dana, is the White House elaborating any further on their concerns, however, about Iraq leading up to the elections and the fact that the insurgent attack may not be increasing in number, but they are in intensity, thereby being much more deadly?

BASH: Well what we heard all week, Fredricka, from the White House, was and escalation in rhetoric in an attempt to communicate to the American people and to the world that they want a sort of lower expectations for, perhaps, what to expect in the Iraq elections, particularly because of the violence they were trying to explain that they do believe that there will be attacks, both from the military standpoint, we heard that the Pentagon and here at the White House, and they also prepared people for understand that some Iraqis will not vote because they're intimidated. So, we are hearing very much from the White House with that election just 15 days away, that they are trying to lower expectations for exactly what those elections mean, trying to explain also this is just the first of three this year. WHITFIELD: All right. Dana Bash at the White House. Thanks so much.

Well, among those focusing on the planned inauguration activities this week, the high school band from Crawford, Texas, will be marching down Pennsylvania Avenue on Thursday, thanks in part to Ted Nugent. The rock star is performing at a benefit tonight at the school's gym to help raise money for the band's trip to President Bush's inauguration. It will cost the 26 band members and 10 sponsors nearly $50,000 to travel to Washington. The Nugent just recently moved to Crawford from a city Michigan. He says he volunteered to help after hearing through the grapevine that the band needed some money.

Well, now to our CNN "Security Watch." There are increasing concerns about security gaps on railroad tanker cars. This follows the train wreck that leaked deadly chlorine gas in South Carolina. CNN's Joe Johns found rail security less than perfect, just a few blocks away from the nation's capitol.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An accidental release of chlorine gas from a train going through Washington, D.C., potentially deadly to thousands and crippling to the government is for now not much of a concern. We invited former railroad administration official, George Gavalla, to the nation's capitol to help assess railroad security just days before the inauguration, the big fear that terrorists could blow up a tank car full of deadly chemicals. A security gap was easy to find.

(on camera): This is the extent of security here?

JOHNS (voice-over): A gate next to the track just blocks from the capitol, wide open.

(on camera): Is there, by your estimation, any sign at all that this place is being policed by railway employees?

GEORGE GAVALLA, FMR. RAILROAD ADMIN. OFFICIAL: Well, at the moment, no. I guess it depends on how long we actually stay here.

JOHNS (voice-over): After a citizen call to report us, police showed up, 40 minutes after we arrived, they kicked us out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys really can't be here.

JOHNS (voice-over): The rail company, CSX, won't comment on what substances it transports and which route so as not to tip off terrorists, but after Madrid train bombings, pressure from local officials let CSX to voluntarily reroute the most dangerous chemicals around Washington, according to D.C. council member Carol Schwartz.

Schwartz tried to make the rerouting a law, but says for now the volunteer action is working.

CAROL SCHWARTZ, D.C. COUNCIL MEMBER: Of course I would prefer it be a mandate, but as long as it's being done, I feel like the intent of the legislation is being accomplished.

JOHNS: Good news for Washington, says Gavalla.

GAVALLA: Some of the most dangerous commodities are being rerouted away from the district. That's certainly the safest course to be taken.

JOHNS: But rerouting means higher risk for surrounding communities, a hard fact. When it comes to protecting urban populations from railway disasters, one city's safety can end up putting others in more danger.

Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And our "Security Watch" segment continues with more on the risks involving railroad tanker cars and their potential vulnerabilities to terror attacks. Let's go now to Jim Walsh, a terrorist analyst at Harvard University. He joins us from Boston.

Good to see you, Jim.

JIM WALSH, TERRORISM EXPERT: Good to see you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Well, did the South Carolina train crash in anyway highlight vulnerabilities when it comes to tanker cars, in your view?

WALSH: Well sure. I think all of us are paying a little more attention because of that incident. But, when you step back and look at the numbers, we ship about 80 million tons of hazardous material every year on our nation's railways, and usually, on average, there's about one serious incident per million tons of material shipped. So, that's about 80 incidents a year.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: And usually those incidents have something...

WALSH: When you talk about real safety, though...

WHITFIELD: And usually those...

WALSH: I think most of the focus of the folks-- I'm sorry.

WHITFIELD: And usually those incidents, though, that you're talking about really have something to do with the aging cars, however, right?

WALSH: Exactly. It's accidents, that's what we're talking about, not an intentional act by terrorists. And as I was about to say, when you talk about rail security, there are really two different issues. One is passenger rails, the trains that carry people to work everyday, and the other is freight, carrying hazardous and other materials. So far, I think, the focus from a security standpoint has been on passenger rails, particularly after the Madrid bombing in Spain, and less attention has been paid to this issue of hazardous waste and other material transported.

WHITFIELD: Is that a big mistake, in your view?

WALSH: Well, you have to set priorities and there's only so much money. I think it was right for the Department of Homeland Security to focus first on airline security that has traditionally been an al- Qaeda concern and terrorist target. So, I think it makes sense to focus on airports first, but the reality is that rails carrying more people than airplanes do every year and there are these hazardous materials. Now, it's a tough job. You know, it's inherently more difficult to secure rails than it is an airport or airplane. So, it's hard business, and even at its best, there are going to be vulnerabilities. But, it's clear we've not done a fraction of what we should be doing so far.

WHITFIELD: So, what might be some of the suggestion on what could be done so that these freight trains, these tanker cars, are more secure and less vulnerable to any kind of potential terrorism attacks?

WALSH: Well Fredricka, earlier this year, in May, the government accounting office, the GAO, went and looked at that very issue and they came up with a series of recommendations. One of the recommendations they had was to secure those hazardous materials in that railcar more securely, particularly when they're waiting to be shipped from point A to point B. There is a point of vulnerability and that's something that we can probably improve on. The second is, your report so, I think, vidly illustrated, is there's clearly not sufficient security at these sites, at these rail yards. If it took 40 minutes for the cops to show up. I can guarantee you that al-Qaeda or some other group of Jihadists can certainly get done what they wanted to get done in the 40 minutes those gentlemen had.

WHITFIELD: So, perhaps because a surveillance may not be that visible doesn't necessarily mean that the surveillance is not taking place, however? In particularly, in some of these smaller, kind of, communities or rail stations that might be near some smaller communities?

WALSH: Sure. I mean, there are lots of ways to handle this problem. You don't have to have a person for every railcar. You can, for example, be using -- make greater use of videotape or video monitoring or other types of censors that sense when people entered an area. There are some technological fixes that we can apply here, and technological fixes that we can use make the railcars safer, more difficult to be used or penetrated by unauthorized people. So, there are some areas where technology, not just people, can make a difference.

WHITFIELD: Jim Walsh of Harvard University, thanks for joing us from Boston.

WALSH: Thank you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: In our next half hour, our CNN "Security Watch" looks at the special training for U.S. allies. Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

And continue to watch CNN for a special series of reports on "Defending America." With so many potential threats around us, find out what's being done to keep America safe, beginning Monday night at 7:00 Eastern.

Well, they're free to return to their homes. The question is, do they want to? Coming up, you'll hear one family's emphatic answer as they try to pick up the pieces from this week's deadly mudslide.

Also, so simple and so touching. How one group of children is learning about the human cost of the tsunamis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Bottom of the hour now. In our top stories, a military jury at Ft. Hood, Texas is considering the fate of Army Reserve Specialist Charles Graner. As the penalty phase got under way, Graner took the stand to provide unsworn testimony. He faces 15 years in prison after being convicted yesterday at abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib Prison. They say Graner was the ringleader in the scandal. He is the first soldier to be tried in a case.

Today marks the beginning of a new era for Palestinians. Just hours ago Mahmoud Abbas too the oath of office as the new president of the Palestinian authority. He succeeds the late Yasser Arafat. His swearing in comes a day after Israel suspended contact with the Palestinian leadership after a deadly attack on Israelis earlier in the week.

Fifteen days ahead of Iraq's elections, officials in Baghdad say they're considering new measures to protect voters. As the voting draws closer, insurgent attacks continue in Baghdad and other areas. In the January 30 elections, Iraqis will choose a new 272-member legislature.

People from La Conchita, California, are heading back to their homes, seeing what's left of them, after a deadly mudslide earlier in the week. In all, 10 people died. Our Sean Callebs says some residents are now convinced the risks of seaside living far out weigh the rewards.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the sound of a sickening fracture, Mark McColm life changed in an instantly.

(on camera): Where were you when this happened?

MARK MCCOLM, LA CONCHITA RESIDENT: I was talking on to my sister on the phone.

CALLEBS: In the house?

MCCOLM: In the house. Yeah, yeah.

CALLEBS: Did you hear a loud noise? Snap? Crack?

MCCOLM: Yeah, it sounded like a jet liner crashing into the side of the mountain and the noise only lasted about four or five seconds.

CALLEBS (voice-over): This is McColm's first chance to return without an official escort. He's here to get important items and then get out.

MCCOLM: I don't even know what to take.

CALLEBS: One thing is certain. The 45-year-old contractor says he and his wife will never live here again.

MCCOLM: Oh, we're going to leave. Yeah. I won't -- this is -- I'm not going to do this again. I went through the first one, I don't a -- second one's a charm you know. That's it. I'm out of here.

CALLEBS: After the first slide in 1995, McColm says he convinced himself that it could never happen again, but this time, the mountain killed people and he knew every one of them. He counted two of the victims as dear friends.

(on camera): McColm has lived on Ojai for eleven years. A native to this state, he's California to the bone. During the time he lived her, he spent as much time as he could down the road surfing. He also dabbled in Hollywood stunt work and played in a band.

(voice-over): Houses all around McColm's have been red tagged, meaning the authorities believe it's too unsafe for residents to go home. No one is making McColm move. He says he doesn't want to become another victim of the mountain.

McColm says he was lured by the price, $179,000 a decade ago. Now...

MCCOLM: They'll drop them down to zero if they don't eventually condemn the whole area.

CALLEBS: There's no electricity, no gas, and restoring water service could take weeks. The county is telling residnnts what they already know, this hillside is unstable. The whole ordeal has been especially hard on McColm's wife.

MCCOLM: She just gets in periods where she just starts crying and you know, that she misses the house and...

CALLEBS: So, McColm takes his photos, his memories, and says he has no choice but to move on.

Sean Callebs, CNN La Conchita, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Be sure to watch CNN TONIGHT, at 10 Eastern, when we talk to Diane Heart (ph). She talks for the first time about how she survived the mudslide, hunkered down in the closet of her home. The enormity of the December 26 tsunami is hard to comprehend. At least 160,000 people perished. Families were destroyed, millions of lives were tossed into chaos. Millions of Americans have been inspired to aid the victims there. They include a group of students in Whitwell, Tennessee, with a real class act.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANDRA ROBERTS, TEACHER: If you wiped out everybody in this valley, you would not equal the number estimated dead in Indonesia. Think about that.

I think it's important for children to try to get a grasp on such enormous numbers. I think we have to teach them to look at this and say what can I do to assist? What can I do to make their life a little better?

Taylor, what's the worst for you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All the families ripped apart by not having a sister anymore, or not having a brother anymore.

ROBERTS: They're just children. And they see just children in need. I think it's real crucial that they help them get just a little bit of hope back.

After the holocaust, the United States said never again will we let anybody suffer. They're suffering. We're not going to stand for that.

We're going to do posters. I want some posters around this school taking up money for the tsunami relief victims. We're going to paper this school, literally.

LINDA HOOPER, PRINCIPAL: Our goal right now is to raise at least one penny for every victim that we are aware of.

ROBERTS: Let's see, Tim. What have you got? Give a donation to tsunami victims. Good.

TIMMY SMITH, STUDENT: They don't have anything. They don't have family, friends or anything. We got everything we need, food, shelter and everything.

HOOPER: Think how blessed you are. Now, you go out and bless somebody else. That's the lesson we want to leave them with.

If you see a tragedy occurring, do something about it. Whether it's in Thailand or Whitwell, or wherever it is, look for something that needs to be done and do it.

CHASE GREEN, STUDENT: Does anybody have any money for the tsunami relief fund?

I hope the money we're raising provides enough food for the children and just helps get them back with their families and to help them live a long life and prosperous life.

TYLER SMITH, STUDENT: I think it's important, because if the tsunami would have hit us, we would want the people over there to give us money.

ROBERTS: I'm not surprised by anything these children do. They are the most amazing, loving children. There are children all across this country who are doing great things, just like my kids. They're raising money. They're selling water. They're doing everything they can to help these children, because they want them to be kids again. They want to give them 10 minutes, five minutes, of being a kid.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Earlier in the show, we looked at security around railcars carrying hazardous chemicals near the nation's capitol. As we continue our "CNN Security Watch" today, we turn our focus on special training for U.S. allies.

Philippine police are in the United States learning how to handle the growing tide of terrorism in that country. For security reasons, we have been asked by the State Department not to say where the training is actually taking place. Here is CNN State Department Correspondent Andrea Koppel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At 14:00 today, there is going to be a take- over of a city bus. We have two terrorists. The people on board are rigged and ready to go up to the city hall and use the bus to ram through the security at city hall.

We'll need a cover team, assault team, diversion team, rescue team.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It may look and sound like a terrorist high jacking, but it's not. The terrorists and the SWAT team in this highly choreographed training exercise are all senior officers in the Philippine national police.

For six weeks, these men, and a few women, have been getting hands on experience in and out of the classroom here in the Southern United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have two teams on stand by.

KOPPEL: As they learn new skills to help them fight terrorism back in the Philippines.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning. This is going to be a long, quick day.

KOPPEL: Run by the U.S. State Department since 1983, this internationally focused Anti-Terrorism Assistance program, also known as ATA, took on a new urgency after September 11, 2001. Congress more than tripled its budget to $100 million a year. Whereas only two U.S.-based training facilities existed before 9/11, now there are full-fledged programs in frontline states like Indonesia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is the first line of defense we have for any aircraft or any ship coming into the United States, the best line of defense is there in that country.

KOPPEL (on camera): With courses in everything from surveillance detection to explosives and WMD to how to handle potential terrorists lurking behind any corner, this course has, over the years, wracked up some impressive statistics, training 36,000 law enforcement personnel from 130 countries.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I, Martin Burnham, and my wife, Gracia, both U.S. citizens, were taken captive...

KOPPEL (voice over): Months before the 9/11 attacks in the U.S., terrorism in the Philippines hit home for Americans when Abu Saife (ph) guerrillas took two American missionaries hostage. The saga lasted over a year and only ended when U.S.-trained Philippine police helped the Philippine military to launch a daring rescue operation. Martin Burnham was killed during the effort, but his wife survived.

Senior police superintendent, Alex Monchugudu (ph), was among those involved in coordinating the rescue operation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Always make very difficult decisions, which there is always an element of risk, but as we do training, these become calculated risks, calculated decisions.

KOPPEL: The highlight of this advance crisis response team training is a two-day, real-time hostage situation with sharp shooters hiding in nearby woods...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you need to give me more information.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

KOPPEL: ... a command center and hostage negotiators.

(on camera): What did you learn over the last couple of days that you didn't know before?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For example, some communications get lost in the process and this information is vital. And it was very important and led to the death -- to the injury of an individual.

KOPPEL (on camera): Of a hostage?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, of the hostage.

KOPPEL (voice over): A real mistake, but without real consequences. The primary goal of this program, to arm U.S. allies around the world with the necessary tools to catch the terrorists where they live -- Andrea Koppel, CNN, in the Southern United States.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Find out more about other efforts under way to secure the nation and the world against terrorism in CNN's special report, "Defending America". It's airing every night, this coming week, beginning at 7:00 pm Eastern.

Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

And what might the world look like in about 15 years? Intelligence experts took a long-term look at global trends to try to make some predictions. National Security Correspondent David Ensor says technology, terrorism, and what happens in Asia could make for some very big changes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The headline from the U.S. intelligence community's report about the world in 2020, the rise of Asia, and especially China. "The likely emergence of China and India, as well as others, as new major global players," says the report, "...will transform the geopolitical landscape with impacts potentially as dramatic as those in the previous two centuries."

JOHN GANNON, FMR. CHMN., NATIONAL INTEL. COUNCIL: We are moving from the century of, you know, the United States domination, to one where it is going to have to share the stage with some very powerful actors, and China being the principle one.

ENSOR: The key to who thrives and who suffers, says the report, could be how well each nation's people use new technologies, nano technologies, genetically modified organisms and the like. The report warns in 2020 the world will still be grappling with terrorism, though maybe not Al Qaeda.

ELLEN LAIPSON, FMR. VICE CHMN., INTEL COUNCIL: There will be some kind of a loose network of terrorists groups that are very spread geographically.

ENSOR: The greatest new terrorist danger in 2020, the report says, could be bio-terror attacks that could kill millions.

GANNON: It is relatively easy, again, for a terrorist group to get access to capabilities to build bioweapons.

ENSOR: The report contains imaginary scenarios, including one with this text message exchange between two arms dealers, working together despite their different motivations.

"Yeah, I know you're committed," says one, "I'm in it for the money. Doesn't matter too much who pays, just as long as they do."

"I want my people and faith to be respected," says the other, "The bomb is important."

While the report says globalization should mean greater prosperity in 2020, worldwide, and in the U.S., it warns that two developments could prevent that, a global pandemic, or epidemic of major disease, or what it calls a cycle of fear, caused by multiple, large-scale terrorist attacks that could lead governments to clamp down on personal liberties, travel and trade to a degree unimaginable today.

(On camera): The authors were careful not to predict the future of Iraq. At a briefing at the CIA, they said Iraq is too political a topic and there are just too many variables. It could go either way -- David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: When we come back, space history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLYN PORCO, CASSINI SCIENTISTS: Frankly, I cannot believe what I am seeing. This is just -- I just -- I really didn't think we would have this kind of view.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Just look at these first pictures of Saturn's moon. Details straight ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Dave Hennen. We are looking at some very cold temperatures through the Midwest and some ice in the Pacific Northwest. Complete forecast is coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The first photos of Saturn's moon, Titan, show a pale orange surface covered by a thin haze of methane, and what could be a methane sea. In a landing straight out of science fiction, the Huygen space probe has been astounding scientists with spectacular pictures of the mysterious moon. Our own Space Correspondent Miles O'Brien is following this historic mission.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Beneath the haze, there was plenty to gaze at the on the surface of Saturn's moon, Titan, gullies, rivers and sea, all filled with methane. A strange place, but an oddly familiar, too.

A day to remember, more than 20 years in the making.

CAROLYN PORCO, CASSINI SCIENTISTS: Frankly, I cannot believe what I am seeing. This is just -- I really didn't think we would have this kind of a view.

O'BRIEN: The astounding view came courtesy of a nine-foot space craft that looked like a cheesy prop from a grade B sci-fi movie. But it was a flying saucer for real, named for the Earthling who discovered Titan in 1665. The Huygens probe parachuted, as planned, to the Titanic surface, sampling the atmosphere, measuring the winds, and snapping hundreds of pictures.

JEAN-JACQUES DORDAIN, ESA DIRECTOR GENERAL: So, we are the first visitors of Titan and scientific data that we are collecting now shall unveil the secrets of this new world.

O'BRIEN: Huygens heroes gathered at the European Space Agency Control Center in Germany, out of this world with joy as the improbable dissent unfolded and the space craft phoned home on time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like we heard the baby crying.

O'BRIEN: The baby was handy with its cameras, offering up an image no one predicted. A rock-strewn landscape that looks like Mars -- or Arizona, for that matter.

PORCO: We just didn't expect it to look this way, but there we are on the surface and there are boulders of some sort. We will be working out how they came to be.

O'BRIEN: Scientists are fascinated by Titan, because they believe it's like looking at Earth 4 billion years ago, before life started simmering on the evolutionary range.

DAVID SOUTHWOOD, ESA, DIRECTOR OF SCIENCE: I always think of Titan as the cooking pot that is like the early Earth, and you want to know whether it's really cooking. Once you see this, you see liquid on the surface, I believe we are cooking.

O'BRIEN: Miles O'Brien, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All week, we have been seeing some remarkable pictures of different proportions coming out of the Western half of this country. Our Dave Hennen is in the Weather Center. However, many of those pictures haven't been worth celebrating over.

(WEATHER FORECAST)

WHITFIELD: Defending the nation takes creativity. One idea talked around seems to take the cake. Details when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: You've probably heard of weapons like the Stealth Bomber or the Abrhams tank, but what about the "gay bomb" or the "halitosis inducer"? Jeanne Moos reports on weapons that made it into the headlines, even though they didn't make it off the drawing board.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Don't ask. Don't tell. Don't breathe. You'll turn gay. Imagine firing a shell filled with an aphrodisiac chemical weapon that would make enemy soldiers sexually irresistible to each other. Previously straight soldiers would be theoretically be chasing each other around in the trenches, checking out one another, instead of American forces.

LAWRENCE GOSTEN, GEORGETOWN UNIV. LAW CENTER: My very first thought was how bizarre and indecent.

MOOS: Bio-ethicists might be appalled, but journalists gleefully dubbed it the gay bomb. A salute to a 10-year-old plan that only got far enough to be made fun of.

The U.S. Air Force Wright Laboratory in Ohio says it was just a proposal. That's our job, dreaming up creative, non-lethal tactics.

Other ideas included chemical weapons that attract swarms of angry wasps or enraged rats. Then there was this jaw dropper, a chemical that would cause severe and lasting halitosis, breath so bad, it would reveal bad guys trying to blend in with civilians.

If you think getting groped by airport security is bad, wait until they start testing your breath before take-off.

Some off the wall techniques have been successfully used by the military.

COL. JOHN GARRETT (RET.), MILITARY ANALYST: In Somalia, there was such a thing as sticky foam where people going across an area where it had been applied wouldn't be able to walk. They would stick right to it. We called it human flypaper.

MOOS: But when it comes to the gay/rats/bad breath plans, the Pentagon says, literally hundreds of proposals for lethal weapons have been received by the Department of Defense. None of the systems described in that proposal have been developed.

The gay bomb sort of reminds us of Q Cologne, specially formulated to appeal to gay guys. It was a woodsy spicy scent made from the minty patchouli plant.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you are androgynous, like I am...

MOOS: Speaking of gay bomb, that's what the cologne did.

"The Weekly World News" was almost prophetic months ago, when it published this spoof, saying Al Qaeda was developing a bomb that turns anyone within a 30-mile radius of the blast gay. Planes carrying the weapons will drop them on all major U.S. cities except, of course, San Francisco. Little did the "Weekly World News" know that a military lab had really suggested something similar. This time, it was the military's turn to say, make love, not war.

CROWD CHANTING: All you need is love.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Still much more ahead on CNN SATURDAY. In moments, "In The Money". This week's surprising U.S. Supreme Court ruling on sentencing guidelines. At 3:00, "Next@CNN.

First, Jack Cafferty with a preview of "In The Money".

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR, IN THE MONEY: Coming up on "In The Money," force versus choice, as Iraq gets ready for elections, we'll look how factions on a rampage could put the vote and maybe that country at risk.

And thinking the unthinkable, we'll meet a teacher who helps his students understand terrorism by having them dream up their own attack plans.

Plus, think fast. We'll speak to an author who is finding out why off the cuff beats slow and steady, when it comes to making decisions. All that and more and after this after a quick check of the headlines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired January 15, 2005 - 12:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It is 12:00 p.m. here in Atlanta, 9:00 am in La Conchita, California. Hello. I'm Fredricka Whitfield at CNN's global headquarters in Atlanta. Ahead this hour:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to leave. Yeah, this is -- I'm not going to do this again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

They're free to return home, but some folks in La Conchita say "no way."

New hope amid new tensions in the Middle East: We'll take you live to Jerusalem for the latest on Palestinian's new president.

Also, historic pictures from 700 million miles away and why they may show what the earth looked like in the beginning, but first, a look at the top stories.

Dozens of firefighters and 30 fire trucks are on the scene of an oil company fire in Oklahoma City. The intensity of the blaze has kept fire crews from entering the facility. Fire officials say for now they're allowing the fire to burn itself out to prevent a hazardous run-off. They add that the B&M Oil Company is a distributor of kerosene, ethanol, and methanol.

The man convicted as the ringleader of the abuse at the Abu Ghraib Prison is set to testify for the first time in the penalty phase of court martial, Charles graner faces up to 15 years in prison. We'll have a live report in Ft. Hood, Texas in a moment.

Authorities in Utah are making a slow and meticulous search for five missing skiers following an avalanche. The sheriff in Park City says it would be a miracle to find anyone alive, he says the slide was so powerful that trees were torn down.

U.S. military aide forces are expected to leave Indonesia well before the end of March. That's according to Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, touring the hardest hit parts of Indonesia. The government is asking aide groups and military troops to leave the country by March 26.

An Army Reserve specialist takes the stand today to testify in the penalty phase of his court martial. Charles Graner was convicted by a military jury for his role in abusing detainees in Baghdad's now infamous Abu Ghraib Prison. National correspondent, Susan Candiotti, has been at Ft. Hood Texas and has been following the case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Accused Abu Ghraib ringleader, Charles Graner, said this as his trial began.

SPECIALIST CHARLES GRANER, U.S. ARMY: We're going to find out how much of a monster I am today and...

CANDIOTTI: The answer came late on a Friday afternoon, one year to the very day when the now notorious photos first surfaced and sparked the Army's investigation. Graner stood ramrod stiff, eyes straight ahead as the verdict was read: Guilty on nine of the ten major counts, guilty also on one reduced charge. For each of these photos: The naked human pyramid, the prisoner on a dog leash, the threat to punch another detainee, this scene of sexual humiliation -- guilty of each charge of abuse.

In closing arguments, the defense tried to explain away the photos with, well, a creative argument: The prisoner on the leash, it said, was not being dragged, he crawled out of his cell, quote, "It's not violent. It was done creatively. Mission accomplished." The prosecution response: "Yeah, it was creative. It was creative abuse."

The jury of combat veterans was only out five hours. The same jury is to decide Graner's sentence. Graner did not testify before the jury convicted him. He plans to take the stand Saturday, before the sentencing.

GRANER: Well, I'm going to start of with saying "I swear to god, this is the truth. "

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You'll have to hear.

GRANER: Then you're going to hear a story.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And Susan Candiotti is just now coming out of the courtroom. Susan, what's happening there now?

CANDIOTTI: Well, Fredricka, as promised, Charles Graner did take the stand and he is starting to tell his side of the story. He's been testifying for about an hour and a half now, making an unsworn statement. I'll get back to that and explain more about it in just a moment. But first, here are some of the things he is saying, so far, in regard to some of the activities he's now been convicted of.

He said, quote, "We were called to violate the Geneva Convention, in terms of how to treat prisoners." He said, quote, "We were asked to do certain things that I wasn't trained to do." Asked by his lawyer whether he was talking about use of force, and he called it "irregular treatment." He was asked whether this was contrary to the kind of training that he had received. His answer was that, prior to this investigation, he said, "I hadn't seen any Army training manuals on this."

And then he went on to be asked about some of the -- in some respects, some of the photos that we have seen time and again now, for example, of the naked prisoners. He talked about that by saying, quote, "A lot of the weird stuff came from civilian contractors." He was told to do it by them, he said. "Some of the crazy stuff," his words, he said, "came from M.I." military soldiers, military intelligence soldiers. For example, he said that he was told to go into some detainee's cells at night and scream at them, shining a flashlight on their face while they were trying to eat something. He said if they didn't get a chance to eat, wasn't his problem. All this being part of what the defense has contended was receiving orders to soften up detainees for interrogation.

Now, back to what all of this means, this is part, as I said, of an unsworn statement. That means that he did not, as he said last night, he didn't "swear to god" to tell the truth. He wasn't put under oath. It also means, and this is very important, that prosecutors will not have an opportunity to cross-examine him if he had been put under oath.

Now, again, listening very intently to this, Fredricka, is the same jury that convicted him is now deciding what his sentence will be, this jury of 10 combat veterans -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Susan, which still then begs the question, same jury, why would Guy Womack, the attorney, or Charles Graner believe that it would make more sense for him to testify during this phase and not before his conviction?

CANDIOTTI: Well, one must only guess at this stage, without having an opportunity to discuss that with him yet, we will, of course, afterwards, but I suspect it's because, look the jury here has already made up his mind about his guilt and now, they're, in effect, throwing themselves at the jury's mercy whether they believe, indeed, there might have been extenuating circumstances. After all, as his lawyer has said, who is an ex-Marine himself, they maintain he was just following orders, and so, he was doing what a soldier had to do under certain circumstances.

WHITFIELD: All right. Susan Candiotti, thanks so much from Ft. Hood, Texas.

An Army sergeant was convicted of murder, Friday, of a severely injured Iraqi teenager. Witnesses say U.S. troops found the teen in a burning truck. And investigator says the soldiers then determined the boys' wounds were so serious; they put him out of his misery. Staff Sergeant Cardenas Alvin (PH) was sentenced to a year in prison and dishonorable discharge. Another soldier was sentenced to three years, last December, in connection with the same killing. Palestinians are celebrating the beginning of a new era. Mahmoud Abbas is now serving his first day as Palestinian authority president. His swearing in took place just a few hours ago in Ramalla. But, amid the celebrations, more set backs for the troubled peace process. The latest from CNN's John Vause joing us from Jerusalem -- John.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. This new era is starting to look a lot like the old one, at least for the time being. As Mahmoud Abbas was being sworn in as the second president of the Palestinian authority and calling on the Israelis to return to the peace negotiating table, well that just won't happen. Israel has now severed all contacts with the Palestinian authority, what few contacts there were. The Israeli Prime Minister Sharon believing Mahmoud Abbas could have done more to stop an attack at a Gaza border crossing on Thursday which left six Israeli civilians dead.

And even as Mr. Abbas was being sworn in in Ramalla, Israeli forces were moving through Gaza City, an operation Israel says is necessary to try to stop mortars and rockets being fired at a nearby Jewish settlement. Palestinian medics say at least five Palestinians have been killed in Gaza City alone and according to residents there three of the dead are, in fact, militant.

And further to the south in the border town of Rafah, Palestinian authority officials say at least two people have been killed by an Israeli tank when it opened fire on the people as they approached an unmanned Israeli outpost there in Rafah.

Now, Mahmoud Abbas says he is still working on trying to secure a ceasefire with the militant groups. And is real says once the attacks stop, then talks can resume. But right now, Fredricka, everything's on hold including a hopeful meeting between Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, John Vause from Jerusalem, thanks so much for that update.

Well, how safe are railway tanker cars? You'll never guess what CNN's cameras found yards away from Capitol Hill. Terrorism expert, Jim Walsh joins us with some insight.

And the "Motor City Madman" comes to the aid of Texas kids. Find out what's up when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Just five days from now, President Bush takes the oath of office to begin his second term. He has a lot on his plate as he gets ready for Thursday's inauguration. There is Social Security reform and, of course, this month's elections in Iraq, just to name a few. We check in now with CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi Fredricka. Well, President Bush is spending a rare weekend at the White House. He went for a bike ride this morning. Aides say he is putting the finishing touches on his inaugural address and he, himself, said the theme of that address will be "liberty is powerful, freedom is peace." One of the traits, Fredricka, as you know that, really defined the president personally in his first term, was the fact that he didn't necessarily want to, in one case, or another case perhaps was unable to, admit any mistakes or regrets from his first term. Something he was criticized for in the campaign. But in the series of interviews leading up to the inauguration he is now coming up with a few examples of errors where he says he used perhaps the wrong words and phrases. He said both the infamous "Dead or Alive" quote in getting Osama bin Laden in the days after 9/11, and also, on ABC's "20-20" he talked about that, quote, "bring it on," when talking about the Iraqi insurgency and said perhaps that was a poor choice of words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I do think, you know, when I said some things in the first term that were probably a little blunt. "Bring it on" was a little blunt. And I was really speaking to our troops, but it came out and had a different connotation, different meaning for others and so, I've got to -- I'll be -- I'll be more disciplined in how I say things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, that's a line that is used as a propaganda tool by some anti-American forces in Iraq and elsewhere. Mr. Bush also admitted that his administration perhaps is not doing such a great job in public diplomacy, to try to boost the U.S. image in areas around the world where it is not very good, particularly the Muslim world.

But, one area Mr. Bush did not express regret or any mistake is the issue, the area that has really come to define his presidency that is the war in Iraq. He still says that that was the right approach, despite the fact that there is a new report out saying that it is now a place where insurgents are training. The White House, the Bush administration says that they still feel the war was just and their strategy for, as they put it, "staying on the offensive is the right approach" -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Well Dana, is the White House elaborating any further on their concerns, however, about Iraq leading up to the elections and the fact that the insurgent attack may not be increasing in number, but they are in intensity, thereby being much more deadly?

BASH: Well what we heard all week, Fredricka, from the White House, was and escalation in rhetoric in an attempt to communicate to the American people and to the world that they want a sort of lower expectations for, perhaps, what to expect in the Iraq elections, particularly because of the violence they were trying to explain that they do believe that there will be attacks, both from the military standpoint, we heard that the Pentagon and here at the White House, and they also prepared people for understand that some Iraqis will not vote because they're intimidated. So, we are hearing very much from the White House with that election just 15 days away, that they are trying to lower expectations for exactly what those elections mean, trying to explain also this is just the first of three this year. WHITFIELD: All right. Dana Bash at the White House. Thanks so much.

Well, among those focusing on the planned inauguration activities this week, the high school band from Crawford, Texas, will be marching down Pennsylvania Avenue on Thursday, thanks in part to Ted Nugent. The rock star is performing at a benefit tonight at the school's gym to help raise money for the band's trip to President Bush's inauguration. It will cost the 26 band members and 10 sponsors nearly $50,000 to travel to Washington. The Nugent just recently moved to Crawford from a city Michigan. He says he volunteered to help after hearing through the grapevine that the band needed some money.

Well, now to our CNN "Security Watch." There are increasing concerns about security gaps on railroad tanker cars. This follows the train wreck that leaked deadly chlorine gas in South Carolina. CNN's Joe Johns found rail security less than perfect, just a few blocks away from the nation's capitol.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An accidental release of chlorine gas from a train going through Washington, D.C., potentially deadly to thousands and crippling to the government is for now not much of a concern. We invited former railroad administration official, George Gavalla, to the nation's capitol to help assess railroad security just days before the inauguration, the big fear that terrorists could blow up a tank car full of deadly chemicals. A security gap was easy to find.

(on camera): This is the extent of security here?

JOHNS (voice-over): A gate next to the track just blocks from the capitol, wide open.

(on camera): Is there, by your estimation, any sign at all that this place is being policed by railway employees?

GEORGE GAVALLA, FMR. RAILROAD ADMIN. OFFICIAL: Well, at the moment, no. I guess it depends on how long we actually stay here.

JOHNS (voice-over): After a citizen call to report us, police showed up, 40 minutes after we arrived, they kicked us out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys really can't be here.

JOHNS (voice-over): The rail company, CSX, won't comment on what substances it transports and which route so as not to tip off terrorists, but after Madrid train bombings, pressure from local officials let CSX to voluntarily reroute the most dangerous chemicals around Washington, according to D.C. council member Carol Schwartz.

Schwartz tried to make the rerouting a law, but says for now the volunteer action is working.

CAROL SCHWARTZ, D.C. COUNCIL MEMBER: Of course I would prefer it be a mandate, but as long as it's being done, I feel like the intent of the legislation is being accomplished.

JOHNS: Good news for Washington, says Gavalla.

GAVALLA: Some of the most dangerous commodities are being rerouted away from the district. That's certainly the safest course to be taken.

JOHNS: But rerouting means higher risk for surrounding communities, a hard fact. When it comes to protecting urban populations from railway disasters, one city's safety can end up putting others in more danger.

Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And our "Security Watch" segment continues with more on the risks involving railroad tanker cars and their potential vulnerabilities to terror attacks. Let's go now to Jim Walsh, a terrorist analyst at Harvard University. He joins us from Boston.

Good to see you, Jim.

JIM WALSH, TERRORISM EXPERT: Good to see you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Well, did the South Carolina train crash in anyway highlight vulnerabilities when it comes to tanker cars, in your view?

WALSH: Well sure. I think all of us are paying a little more attention because of that incident. But, when you step back and look at the numbers, we ship about 80 million tons of hazardous material every year on our nation's railways, and usually, on average, there's about one serious incident per million tons of material shipped. So, that's about 80 incidents a year.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: And usually those incidents have something...

WALSH: When you talk about real safety, though...

WHITFIELD: And usually those...

WALSH: I think most of the focus of the folks-- I'm sorry.

WHITFIELD: And usually those incidents, though, that you're talking about really have something to do with the aging cars, however, right?

WALSH: Exactly. It's accidents, that's what we're talking about, not an intentional act by terrorists. And as I was about to say, when you talk about rail security, there are really two different issues. One is passenger rails, the trains that carry people to work everyday, and the other is freight, carrying hazardous and other materials. So far, I think, the focus from a security standpoint has been on passenger rails, particularly after the Madrid bombing in Spain, and less attention has been paid to this issue of hazardous waste and other material transported.

WHITFIELD: Is that a big mistake, in your view?

WALSH: Well, you have to set priorities and there's only so much money. I think it was right for the Department of Homeland Security to focus first on airline security that has traditionally been an al- Qaeda concern and terrorist target. So, I think it makes sense to focus on airports first, but the reality is that rails carrying more people than airplanes do every year and there are these hazardous materials. Now, it's a tough job. You know, it's inherently more difficult to secure rails than it is an airport or airplane. So, it's hard business, and even at its best, there are going to be vulnerabilities. But, it's clear we've not done a fraction of what we should be doing so far.

WHITFIELD: So, what might be some of the suggestion on what could be done so that these freight trains, these tanker cars, are more secure and less vulnerable to any kind of potential terrorism attacks?

WALSH: Well Fredricka, earlier this year, in May, the government accounting office, the GAO, went and looked at that very issue and they came up with a series of recommendations. One of the recommendations they had was to secure those hazardous materials in that railcar more securely, particularly when they're waiting to be shipped from point A to point B. There is a point of vulnerability and that's something that we can probably improve on. The second is, your report so, I think, vidly illustrated, is there's clearly not sufficient security at these sites, at these rail yards. If it took 40 minutes for the cops to show up. I can guarantee you that al-Qaeda or some other group of Jihadists can certainly get done what they wanted to get done in the 40 minutes those gentlemen had.

WHITFIELD: So, perhaps because a surveillance may not be that visible doesn't necessarily mean that the surveillance is not taking place, however? In particularly, in some of these smaller, kind of, communities or rail stations that might be near some smaller communities?

WALSH: Sure. I mean, there are lots of ways to handle this problem. You don't have to have a person for every railcar. You can, for example, be using -- make greater use of videotape or video monitoring or other types of censors that sense when people entered an area. There are some technological fixes that we can apply here, and technological fixes that we can use make the railcars safer, more difficult to be used or penetrated by unauthorized people. So, there are some areas where technology, not just people, can make a difference.

WHITFIELD: Jim Walsh of Harvard University, thanks for joing us from Boston.

WALSH: Thank you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: In our next half hour, our CNN "Security Watch" looks at the special training for U.S. allies. Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

And continue to watch CNN for a special series of reports on "Defending America." With so many potential threats around us, find out what's being done to keep America safe, beginning Monday night at 7:00 Eastern.

Well, they're free to return to their homes. The question is, do they want to? Coming up, you'll hear one family's emphatic answer as they try to pick up the pieces from this week's deadly mudslide.

Also, so simple and so touching. How one group of children is learning about the human cost of the tsunamis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Bottom of the hour now. In our top stories, a military jury at Ft. Hood, Texas is considering the fate of Army Reserve Specialist Charles Graner. As the penalty phase got under way, Graner took the stand to provide unsworn testimony. He faces 15 years in prison after being convicted yesterday at abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib Prison. They say Graner was the ringleader in the scandal. He is the first soldier to be tried in a case.

Today marks the beginning of a new era for Palestinians. Just hours ago Mahmoud Abbas too the oath of office as the new president of the Palestinian authority. He succeeds the late Yasser Arafat. His swearing in comes a day after Israel suspended contact with the Palestinian leadership after a deadly attack on Israelis earlier in the week.

Fifteen days ahead of Iraq's elections, officials in Baghdad say they're considering new measures to protect voters. As the voting draws closer, insurgent attacks continue in Baghdad and other areas. In the January 30 elections, Iraqis will choose a new 272-member legislature.

People from La Conchita, California, are heading back to their homes, seeing what's left of them, after a deadly mudslide earlier in the week. In all, 10 people died. Our Sean Callebs says some residents are now convinced the risks of seaside living far out weigh the rewards.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the sound of a sickening fracture, Mark McColm life changed in an instantly.

(on camera): Where were you when this happened?

MARK MCCOLM, LA CONCHITA RESIDENT: I was talking on to my sister on the phone.

CALLEBS: In the house?

MCCOLM: In the house. Yeah, yeah.

CALLEBS: Did you hear a loud noise? Snap? Crack?

MCCOLM: Yeah, it sounded like a jet liner crashing into the side of the mountain and the noise only lasted about four or five seconds.

CALLEBS (voice-over): This is McColm's first chance to return without an official escort. He's here to get important items and then get out.

MCCOLM: I don't even know what to take.

CALLEBS: One thing is certain. The 45-year-old contractor says he and his wife will never live here again.

MCCOLM: Oh, we're going to leave. Yeah. I won't -- this is -- I'm not going to do this again. I went through the first one, I don't a -- second one's a charm you know. That's it. I'm out of here.

CALLEBS: After the first slide in 1995, McColm says he convinced himself that it could never happen again, but this time, the mountain killed people and he knew every one of them. He counted two of the victims as dear friends.

(on camera): McColm has lived on Ojai for eleven years. A native to this state, he's California to the bone. During the time he lived her, he spent as much time as he could down the road surfing. He also dabbled in Hollywood stunt work and played in a band.

(voice-over): Houses all around McColm's have been red tagged, meaning the authorities believe it's too unsafe for residents to go home. No one is making McColm move. He says he doesn't want to become another victim of the mountain.

McColm says he was lured by the price, $179,000 a decade ago. Now...

MCCOLM: They'll drop them down to zero if they don't eventually condemn the whole area.

CALLEBS: There's no electricity, no gas, and restoring water service could take weeks. The county is telling residnnts what they already know, this hillside is unstable. The whole ordeal has been especially hard on McColm's wife.

MCCOLM: She just gets in periods where she just starts crying and you know, that she misses the house and...

CALLEBS: So, McColm takes his photos, his memories, and says he has no choice but to move on.

Sean Callebs, CNN La Conchita, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Be sure to watch CNN TONIGHT, at 10 Eastern, when we talk to Diane Heart (ph). She talks for the first time about how she survived the mudslide, hunkered down in the closet of her home. The enormity of the December 26 tsunami is hard to comprehend. At least 160,000 people perished. Families were destroyed, millions of lives were tossed into chaos. Millions of Americans have been inspired to aid the victims there. They include a group of students in Whitwell, Tennessee, with a real class act.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANDRA ROBERTS, TEACHER: If you wiped out everybody in this valley, you would not equal the number estimated dead in Indonesia. Think about that.

I think it's important for children to try to get a grasp on such enormous numbers. I think we have to teach them to look at this and say what can I do to assist? What can I do to make their life a little better?

Taylor, what's the worst for you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All the families ripped apart by not having a sister anymore, or not having a brother anymore.

ROBERTS: They're just children. And they see just children in need. I think it's real crucial that they help them get just a little bit of hope back.

After the holocaust, the United States said never again will we let anybody suffer. They're suffering. We're not going to stand for that.

We're going to do posters. I want some posters around this school taking up money for the tsunami relief victims. We're going to paper this school, literally.

LINDA HOOPER, PRINCIPAL: Our goal right now is to raise at least one penny for every victim that we are aware of.

ROBERTS: Let's see, Tim. What have you got? Give a donation to tsunami victims. Good.

TIMMY SMITH, STUDENT: They don't have anything. They don't have family, friends or anything. We got everything we need, food, shelter and everything.

HOOPER: Think how blessed you are. Now, you go out and bless somebody else. That's the lesson we want to leave them with.

If you see a tragedy occurring, do something about it. Whether it's in Thailand or Whitwell, or wherever it is, look for something that needs to be done and do it.

CHASE GREEN, STUDENT: Does anybody have any money for the tsunami relief fund?

I hope the money we're raising provides enough food for the children and just helps get them back with their families and to help them live a long life and prosperous life.

TYLER SMITH, STUDENT: I think it's important, because if the tsunami would have hit us, we would want the people over there to give us money.

ROBERTS: I'm not surprised by anything these children do. They are the most amazing, loving children. There are children all across this country who are doing great things, just like my kids. They're raising money. They're selling water. They're doing everything they can to help these children, because they want them to be kids again. They want to give them 10 minutes, five minutes, of being a kid.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Earlier in the show, we looked at security around railcars carrying hazardous chemicals near the nation's capitol. As we continue our "CNN Security Watch" today, we turn our focus on special training for U.S. allies.

Philippine police are in the United States learning how to handle the growing tide of terrorism in that country. For security reasons, we have been asked by the State Department not to say where the training is actually taking place. Here is CNN State Department Correspondent Andrea Koppel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At 14:00 today, there is going to be a take- over of a city bus. We have two terrorists. The people on board are rigged and ready to go up to the city hall and use the bus to ram through the security at city hall.

We'll need a cover team, assault team, diversion team, rescue team.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It may look and sound like a terrorist high jacking, but it's not. The terrorists and the SWAT team in this highly choreographed training exercise are all senior officers in the Philippine national police.

For six weeks, these men, and a few women, have been getting hands on experience in and out of the classroom here in the Southern United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have two teams on stand by.

KOPPEL: As they learn new skills to help them fight terrorism back in the Philippines.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning. This is going to be a long, quick day.

KOPPEL: Run by the U.S. State Department since 1983, this internationally focused Anti-Terrorism Assistance program, also known as ATA, took on a new urgency after September 11, 2001. Congress more than tripled its budget to $100 million a year. Whereas only two U.S.-based training facilities existed before 9/11, now there are full-fledged programs in frontline states like Indonesia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is the first line of defense we have for any aircraft or any ship coming into the United States, the best line of defense is there in that country.

KOPPEL (on camera): With courses in everything from surveillance detection to explosives and WMD to how to handle potential terrorists lurking behind any corner, this course has, over the years, wracked up some impressive statistics, training 36,000 law enforcement personnel from 130 countries.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I, Martin Burnham, and my wife, Gracia, both U.S. citizens, were taken captive...

KOPPEL (voice over): Months before the 9/11 attacks in the U.S., terrorism in the Philippines hit home for Americans when Abu Saife (ph) guerrillas took two American missionaries hostage. The saga lasted over a year and only ended when U.S.-trained Philippine police helped the Philippine military to launch a daring rescue operation. Martin Burnham was killed during the effort, but his wife survived.

Senior police superintendent, Alex Monchugudu (ph), was among those involved in coordinating the rescue operation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Always make very difficult decisions, which there is always an element of risk, but as we do training, these become calculated risks, calculated decisions.

KOPPEL: The highlight of this advance crisis response team training is a two-day, real-time hostage situation with sharp shooters hiding in nearby woods...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you need to give me more information.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

KOPPEL: ... a command center and hostage negotiators.

(on camera): What did you learn over the last couple of days that you didn't know before?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For example, some communications get lost in the process and this information is vital. And it was very important and led to the death -- to the injury of an individual.

KOPPEL (on camera): Of a hostage?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, of the hostage.

KOPPEL (voice over): A real mistake, but without real consequences. The primary goal of this program, to arm U.S. allies around the world with the necessary tools to catch the terrorists where they live -- Andrea Koppel, CNN, in the Southern United States.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Find out more about other efforts under way to secure the nation and the world against terrorism in CNN's special report, "Defending America". It's airing every night, this coming week, beginning at 7:00 pm Eastern.

Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

And what might the world look like in about 15 years? Intelligence experts took a long-term look at global trends to try to make some predictions. National Security Correspondent David Ensor says technology, terrorism, and what happens in Asia could make for some very big changes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The headline from the U.S. intelligence community's report about the world in 2020, the rise of Asia, and especially China. "The likely emergence of China and India, as well as others, as new major global players," says the report, "...will transform the geopolitical landscape with impacts potentially as dramatic as those in the previous two centuries."

JOHN GANNON, FMR. CHMN., NATIONAL INTEL. COUNCIL: We are moving from the century of, you know, the United States domination, to one where it is going to have to share the stage with some very powerful actors, and China being the principle one.

ENSOR: The key to who thrives and who suffers, says the report, could be how well each nation's people use new technologies, nano technologies, genetically modified organisms and the like. The report warns in 2020 the world will still be grappling with terrorism, though maybe not Al Qaeda.

ELLEN LAIPSON, FMR. VICE CHMN., INTEL COUNCIL: There will be some kind of a loose network of terrorists groups that are very spread geographically.

ENSOR: The greatest new terrorist danger in 2020, the report says, could be bio-terror attacks that could kill millions.

GANNON: It is relatively easy, again, for a terrorist group to get access to capabilities to build bioweapons.

ENSOR: The report contains imaginary scenarios, including one with this text message exchange between two arms dealers, working together despite their different motivations.

"Yeah, I know you're committed," says one, "I'm in it for the money. Doesn't matter too much who pays, just as long as they do."

"I want my people and faith to be respected," says the other, "The bomb is important."

While the report says globalization should mean greater prosperity in 2020, worldwide, and in the U.S., it warns that two developments could prevent that, a global pandemic, or epidemic of major disease, or what it calls a cycle of fear, caused by multiple, large-scale terrorist attacks that could lead governments to clamp down on personal liberties, travel and trade to a degree unimaginable today.

(On camera): The authors were careful not to predict the future of Iraq. At a briefing at the CIA, they said Iraq is too political a topic and there are just too many variables. It could go either way -- David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: When we come back, space history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLYN PORCO, CASSINI SCIENTISTS: Frankly, I cannot believe what I am seeing. This is just -- I just -- I really didn't think we would have this kind of view.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Just look at these first pictures of Saturn's moon. Details straight ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Dave Hennen. We are looking at some very cold temperatures through the Midwest and some ice in the Pacific Northwest. Complete forecast is coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The first photos of Saturn's moon, Titan, show a pale orange surface covered by a thin haze of methane, and what could be a methane sea. In a landing straight out of science fiction, the Huygen space probe has been astounding scientists with spectacular pictures of the mysterious moon. Our own Space Correspondent Miles O'Brien is following this historic mission.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Beneath the haze, there was plenty to gaze at the on the surface of Saturn's moon, Titan, gullies, rivers and sea, all filled with methane. A strange place, but an oddly familiar, too.

A day to remember, more than 20 years in the making.

CAROLYN PORCO, CASSINI SCIENTISTS: Frankly, I cannot believe what I am seeing. This is just -- I really didn't think we would have this kind of a view.

O'BRIEN: The astounding view came courtesy of a nine-foot space craft that looked like a cheesy prop from a grade B sci-fi movie. But it was a flying saucer for real, named for the Earthling who discovered Titan in 1665. The Huygens probe parachuted, as planned, to the Titanic surface, sampling the atmosphere, measuring the winds, and snapping hundreds of pictures.

JEAN-JACQUES DORDAIN, ESA DIRECTOR GENERAL: So, we are the first visitors of Titan and scientific data that we are collecting now shall unveil the secrets of this new world.

O'BRIEN: Huygens heroes gathered at the European Space Agency Control Center in Germany, out of this world with joy as the improbable dissent unfolded and the space craft phoned home on time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like we heard the baby crying.

O'BRIEN: The baby was handy with its cameras, offering up an image no one predicted. A rock-strewn landscape that looks like Mars -- or Arizona, for that matter.

PORCO: We just didn't expect it to look this way, but there we are on the surface and there are boulders of some sort. We will be working out how they came to be.

O'BRIEN: Scientists are fascinated by Titan, because they believe it's like looking at Earth 4 billion years ago, before life started simmering on the evolutionary range.

DAVID SOUTHWOOD, ESA, DIRECTOR OF SCIENCE: I always think of Titan as the cooking pot that is like the early Earth, and you want to know whether it's really cooking. Once you see this, you see liquid on the surface, I believe we are cooking.

O'BRIEN: Miles O'Brien, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All week, we have been seeing some remarkable pictures of different proportions coming out of the Western half of this country. Our Dave Hennen is in the Weather Center. However, many of those pictures haven't been worth celebrating over.

(WEATHER FORECAST)

WHITFIELD: Defending the nation takes creativity. One idea talked around seems to take the cake. Details when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: You've probably heard of weapons like the Stealth Bomber or the Abrhams tank, but what about the "gay bomb" or the "halitosis inducer"? Jeanne Moos reports on weapons that made it into the headlines, even though they didn't make it off the drawing board.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Don't ask. Don't tell. Don't breathe. You'll turn gay. Imagine firing a shell filled with an aphrodisiac chemical weapon that would make enemy soldiers sexually irresistible to each other. Previously straight soldiers would be theoretically be chasing each other around in the trenches, checking out one another, instead of American forces.

LAWRENCE GOSTEN, GEORGETOWN UNIV. LAW CENTER: My very first thought was how bizarre and indecent.

MOOS: Bio-ethicists might be appalled, but journalists gleefully dubbed it the gay bomb. A salute to a 10-year-old plan that only got far enough to be made fun of.

The U.S. Air Force Wright Laboratory in Ohio says it was just a proposal. That's our job, dreaming up creative, non-lethal tactics.

Other ideas included chemical weapons that attract swarms of angry wasps or enraged rats. Then there was this jaw dropper, a chemical that would cause severe and lasting halitosis, breath so bad, it would reveal bad guys trying to blend in with civilians.

If you think getting groped by airport security is bad, wait until they start testing your breath before take-off.

Some off the wall techniques have been successfully used by the military.

COL. JOHN GARRETT (RET.), MILITARY ANALYST: In Somalia, there was such a thing as sticky foam where people going across an area where it had been applied wouldn't be able to walk. They would stick right to it. We called it human flypaper.

MOOS: But when it comes to the gay/rats/bad breath plans, the Pentagon says, literally hundreds of proposals for lethal weapons have been received by the Department of Defense. None of the systems described in that proposal have been developed.

The gay bomb sort of reminds us of Q Cologne, specially formulated to appeal to gay guys. It was a woodsy spicy scent made from the minty patchouli plant.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you are androgynous, like I am...

MOOS: Speaking of gay bomb, that's what the cologne did.

"The Weekly World News" was almost prophetic months ago, when it published this spoof, saying Al Qaeda was developing a bomb that turns anyone within a 30-mile radius of the blast gay. Planes carrying the weapons will drop them on all major U.S. cities except, of course, San Francisco. Little did the "Weekly World News" know that a military lab had really suggested something similar. This time, it was the military's turn to say, make love, not war.

CROWD CHANTING: All you need is love.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Still much more ahead on CNN SATURDAY. In moments, "In The Money". This week's surprising U.S. Supreme Court ruling on sentencing guidelines. At 3:00, "Next@CNN.

First, Jack Cafferty with a preview of "In The Money".

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR, IN THE MONEY: Coming up on "In The Money," force versus choice, as Iraq gets ready for elections, we'll look how factions on a rampage could put the vote and maybe that country at risk.

And thinking the unthinkable, we'll meet a teacher who helps his students understand terrorism by having them dream up their own attack plans.

Plus, think fast. We'll speak to an author who is finding out why off the cuff beats slow and steady, when it comes to making decisions. All that and more and after this after a quick check of the headlines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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