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Did CIA-FBI Miscommunication Contribute to Terrorist Attacks?; Could `The Sum of All Fears' Really Happen?
Aired June 03, 2002 - 20:00 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Russia steps in to try to keep nuclear powers, India and Pakistan, from going to war. CNN takes you live to the scene of a key summit in central Asia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The FBI is changing and they're doing a better job of communicating with the CIA. They're now sharing intelligence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Did a lack of communication allow two of the September 11 hijackers entry into the U.S.? We'll go live to Capitol Hill on the eve of a major congressional hearing on missed terror clues.
A scary scenario at the movies this weekend, but could it really happen?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT BONNER, U.S. CUSTOMS COMMISSIONER: It's much, much, much less likely that could happen today than before 9/11.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: We'll look in depth at what the government's doing to stop terrorists from smuggling a nuclear bomb into the U.S.
CNN's on the front lines as American troops go on the attack against al Qaeda. We'll go live to Afghanistan for the latest on the war on terror.
She's the missing girl whose case has shocked the nation, but are there other Rilya Wilsons? The state of Florida says scores of children in foster care have fallen through the cracks. We'll go live to Miami.
CNN's live from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Capitol Hill, Miami, New York and other datelines around the world. Here now, Leon Harris.
HARRIS: Good evening. We are going to begin this evening in Washington, where there is a word that the CIA's warning the FBI about one of the September 11 hijackers nearly two years before the attacks. The development comes on the eve of congressional hearings and into apparent intelligence lapses. Let's get the latest now from CNN's national security correspondent David Ensor who broke this story -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good evening. CIA officials say their internal documents show that on January 5, 2000, the agency advised the FBI that one of the men who later rammed a plane into the Pentagon, Khalid al-Midhar should be the subject of further investigation by the FBI. The CIA told the FBI, officials say, that al-Midhar was expected at a meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, within days, a meeting, which was to include suspected terrorists. Officials say the FBI was also sent the original tip received late December '99 by the National Security Agency about the meeting in Kuala Lumpur.
These revelations come from CIA officials who have been stung by reports, suggesting they had withheld information from the FBI. But the CIA made mistakes, too, before September 11. It lost more than six critical months, officials now confirm, before putting al-Midhar and the other suspected terrorist, Nawaf al-Hazmi, on a watch list to be kept out of the United States. Not only were al-Midhar and al- Hazmi at the meeting in Kuala Lumpur in January 2000, in March of 2000, officials now confirm, another nation told the CIA that al-Hazmi had flown from the Malaysia meeting to Los Angeles, California.
In October 2000, of course, came the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. But then in January 2001, officials now say, the FBI identified a third man who had attended that meeting in Kuala Lumpur, a man named Tawfiq Attash Khallad as a suspect in the Cole bombing. Now, at that point, the CIA or the FBI for that matter could have put al-Midhar and al-Hazmi and all the others who attended that meeting in Malaysia on a watch list to be kept out of the United States, but it wasn't done.
And on July 4, al-Midhar was able to re-enter the U.S. from a trip outside the country. All of this will be getting close attention at this week's closed Intelligence Committee hearings on Capitol Hill. The new information suggests U.S. intelligence and law enforcement were talking, but not enough and that neither was able to connect the dots, neither moved quickly enough to exclude from this country two very dangerous men -- Leon.
HARRIS: Very serious implication here, David. Is anyone saying that if these two names had been acted upon that September 11 events wouldn't have happened?
ENSOR: There are suggestions that that could be the case. It's hindsight. It's hard to tell. But if the two names had been appropriately acted on by both FBI and CIA might they have then tracked other people among the 19? We just won't know.
HARRIS: Yes, I think it'd be impossible to find out too. Thanks very much. David Ensor in Washington. Well, tomorrow's House and Senate intelligence hearings that David just mentioned will be behind closed doors. Our Congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl is here now to fill us in on what we should expect to see and hear tomorrow.
Hello, John.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, not see or hear too much tomorrow. Leon, this hearing is actually going to take place in a very secure room right near the dome of the capitol. It's probably the most secure room in the entire capitol. It has no windows. It is completely soundproof. Only people with classified security clearance were allowed to go inside the room. That's where these initial hearings will take place.
But what's going to happen in the very beginning here is the staff. There are 24 staffers, intelligence professionals, who are doing nothing and have been doing nothing since February but looking into the intelligence failure of September 11. They will come forward and talk to members of both the Senate and House Intelligence Committee and tell them what they have learned so far. They've interviewed more than 200 people. They have compiled about a 100,000 pages worth of documentation. And they are going to talk about what they are going to do and where to go with this hearing, what they want to find out. And what members of both parties not surprisingly are saying is this is not so much about finger-pointing and assigning blame for what happened on September 11, but trying to learn so the same mistakes aren't made again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. EVAN BAYH (D), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: What's the old saying? He who doesn't know history is doomed to repeat it. We can't let the American people go through this kind of calamity again because we haven't learned from previous mistakes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KARL: Leon, this is just the beginning of the process. They are expecting these hearings -- and they will go public by the end of the month -- will go on throughout the summer, into the fall and indeed into the winter of next year. This committee's operation -- they're not due to issue their final report until February of next year.
There will be fireworks though this week from another committee, the Judiciary Committee is holding hearings into the reorganization of the FBI. And they will be hearing on Thursday from Colleen Rowley in a public hearing. Colleen Rowley, of course, was that Minneapolis field age that wrote that memo that basically blamed the Washington headquarters of the FBI for bundling the investigation into Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker. So there will be some fireworks here on Capitol Hill, but initially, it's going to very quiet in these first couple of days of hearings.
HARRIS: All right then Jon give us an idea of the scope of these hearings. How broad will it be? KARL: Well, this is about the intelligence failure, but it's beyond just the intelligence failure of September 11. They actually are going to look back to 1986, that's when the CIA first identified terrorism as something it needed to do something about. They started the Counterterrorism Center in 1986. They're be looking at the intelligence records of four presidents going back to Ronald Reagan. They'll be looking at the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, also of course the embassy bombings in Africa in 1998, the bombing of the USS Cole and many others. So it's not just about 9/11. It goes much further, but it is limited to intelligence.
HARRIS: All right. Moments ago, you said the word fireworks. That brings to mind who will be bringing the heat, if you will. Who should we expect to see testifying this week?
KARL: Well, this week, primarily that Intelligence Committee is going to be staff, but eventually we are going to see is not only the current directors of the FBI and the CIA, George Tenet and Robert Mueller, but this committee plans to bring forward, I am told by staffers, also Louis Freeh, who for many years of course under Bill Clinton was the director of the FBI. They also will hear from Cofford Black. He's the name you'll probably be hearing a lot more about. He was the director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Unit on September 11. He has since been reassigned.
Now, the CIA says his reassignment was simply a matter of the normal reshuffling of assignments, but he's somebody this committee is also going to want to talk to. And of course, they'll also hear from Colleen Rowley. They'll also hear form Agent Williams, that agent in Phoenix that wrote that memo for the FBI warning about Middle Eastern students -- flight students at flight schools in the U.S. So there'll be a long, long list of witnesses that we'll be hearing in a couple -- in the coming months.
HARRIS: All right, good deal. Jonathan Karl, you'll be watching for us. We appreciate that.
Well, the FBI is now changing the way certain search warrant requests are being handled. It says that any terrorism related search warrant request rejected by a mid-level manager must now be reviewed by the FBI director. Last month, as you may recall, FBI agent Colleen Rowley that Jonathan Karl just mentioned, wrote a scathing letter complaining that her efforts to investigate a terrorism suspect were hampered by a middle manager who refused to sign off on a search warrant.
Well, some observers are saying that the FBI's culture might explain its many blunders now coming to light. Kris Kolesnik is one such observer. He's director of the National Whistleblower Center in Washington. He's also former director of investigations for a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee that has oversight of the FBI and CIA. And as you see here, he joins us this evening from Washington.
Good evening. Thank you for coming in.
KRIS KOLESNIK, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL WHISTLEBLOWER CENTER: Thanks for having me, Leon.
HARRIS: Let's begin with the report that we just heard on David Ensor -- bring to us. This word that there has actually been some communication between the CIA and FBI concerning some of these names that have been involved in September 11. What do you make of that?
KOLESNIK: Well, the problem is, you know, this is sort of very funny because you have a food fight going on. A lot of your viewers don't necessarily know whose fingerprints the food is on. The story that came out recently about the CIA's culpability had the FBI's fingerprints all over it. And that's essentially what's happening now. There's a blame game going on. Everyone's pointing fingers. And they're trying to determine in retrospect who was talking to whom about what.
And right now, until all the food has been thrown, we don't have a very clear picture of who was talking to whom about what and when.
HARRIS: Will this picture get clearer with hearings that we're going to see beginning this week?
KOLESNIK: Well, I'll bet you -- now, I'm a veteran of a lot of these hearings over the years, for the past 10 years or so and my bet is that it's going to become clearer through the media rather than the hearings, and the hearings are going to be reactive to what comes out in the hearings.
HARRIS: Why is that?
KOLESNIK: Or rather in the press. Well, the reason is because they can't move as fast as the press and sometimes they don't have as good of sourcing as the press does. And the other thing is a lot of the -- a lot of the press people -- or rather a lot of the sources for the press want to preempt what's going to happen at the hearings. So there's really no control, and it becomes a food fight in public.
HARRIS: All right.
KOLESNIK: And some of us are sort of -- who are veterans -- are sort of forensic engineers in being able to sort out who's leaking what and for what reason.
HARRIS: OK. One of the things that I have heard said a number of times is that the Senate Intelligence Committee and amongst other committees here in Washington tend to be very soft on the CIA and soft on the FBI. Do you see that playing a role in the way these hearings are going to be conducted?
KOLESNIK: Everybody in the capital knows that, and every veteran of Washington, D.C. knows that the Senate Intelligence and House Intelligence Committees are very soft on the CIA. But they're no softer than the judiciary committees that have been on the FBI.
And one of the things you're going to see, I think there will be some senators who will be going after George Tenet and they'll be aggressive, trying to get information out about the CIA. On the other side, on the FBI, they unwittingly brought in somebody who was a former FBI person with a history of blocking investigations and they put him in charge of investigating the FBI's role. If you can imagine that. So it still remains to be seen what's going to come out and how biased it's going to be.
HARRIS: All right. We'll be watching to see how all that unfolds. Kris Kolesnik in Washington, thank you very much. We appreciate your time this evening.
KOLESNIK: A pleasure.
HARRIS: Well, the U.S. Customs is taking issue with the box- office thriller, "The Sum of All Fears." The movie's plot is based on the terrorists smuggling a nuclear device into the U.S. Well, today, the Customs Service set out to prove that that is a highly unlikely scenario. Here's CNN's Jeanne Meserve.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's Ryan! The bomb is in play!
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the new hit movie, "The Sum of All Fears," terrorists ship a nuclear device into the U.S. and use it. A Hollywood fantasy, but could it become reality?
BONNER: It's much, much, much less likely that that could happen today than before 9/11.
MESERVE: To support his argument, the Customs Service trotted out for the benefit of the press its latest detection technologies.
BONNER: I've got a small little piece of cesium in here that is setting off the alarm.
MESERVE: Four thousand of these radiation detectors have been distributed to Customs inspectors. Another 4,000 are in the pipeline. But there is another number that haunts and irks the Customs Service that only one to two percent of the 11 million containers coming into this country annually are ever inspected.
BONNER: We know we can't search a 100 percent or each and every cargo containers that enters this country. We don't have to.
MESERVE: Do not have to, Customs argues, because its computers shift through manifests and itineraries, separating out high-risk cargo. That cargo is given a closer look. Gamma ray detectors scan containers looking for anomalies. Cartons or boxes can be taken out for scrutiny by portable X-ray vans equipped with radiation detectors.
An array of other tools can be used to get a peak into otherwise inaccessible items and there are mobile laboratories, which can identify suspicious substances, nuclear, chemical or biological.
Ultimately, Customs is hoping to expand the number of countries that will allow U.S. inspection of cargo before it is shipped here. BONNER: So our strategies are designed, in short, to make the border -- make our border and our seaports the last line of defense, not the first line of defense.
MESERVE: Though the system may be better than it was before, even Commissioner Bonner concedes it is not foolproof, that the horrifying Hollywood scenario is not entirely beyond belief.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: And now to Miami where Florida's Child Welfare Agency remains under fire over missing children. Right now, a town hall meeting focusing on the problem is under way. In the spotlight there, the disappearance of 5-year-old Rilya Wilson, the girl who was under the care of the state's Child Welfare Agency disappeared 16 months ago. But her disappearance didn't come to light until last month and now, there's word that the agency cannot account for about 1,000 children in its system. We check in now with CNN's Susan Candiotti who has been on this story from the very beginning -- Susan.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello Leon. We are outside that town hall meeting that started just about a half hour ago. And the people inside the meeting and we'll take you there now, are again frustrated by the lack of movement in trying to find out what exactly happened to 5-year-old Rilya Wilson.
At the same time, there's a call for a statewide grand jury to look into ongoing problems with Florida's Department of Children and Families. This town hall meeting providing a backdrop for those new figures released today by the State of Florida, some of those that you called attention to just a moment ago.
And there are additional numbers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement this day saying that this -- from January through May, they reported 155 children missing, including runaway children. Only one of those children, they say, is in danger, that, of course, being 5-year-old Rilya Wilson.
Compare that to numbers being released tonight by the Florida Department of Children and Families, which says that more than 1,200 children had to be seen this month alone. Of those, 400 children are runaways that they haven't been able to find, 135 children who have been taken by one family or another, unaccounted for and 265 children that have not been seen, but that state authorities promise to locate by the end of this week.
They were supposed to make a report to Florida's governor by this day. However, the State Department of Children and Families failed to meet that deadline. So all of this again, a backdrop for this town hall meeting.
One of the people here is a Florida representative who says that she herself is frustrated by what she perceives as a general lack of outrage throughout the state about the case of Rilya Wilson.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FREDERICA WILSON, FLORIDA STATE HOUSE: This case is affecting this entire state. We're being looked upon as an unfeeling state who cares nothing about African-American children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: Now, currently, there is a $50,000 reward for information leading to information that could find Rilya Wilson, but so far, police tell us they have no promising leads about what happened to the little girl -- Leon.
HARRIS: Well, Susan, can you tell us more about what the state is actually doing right now to go out and find some of these children? Are they -- they admit now are missing in their system.
CANDIOTTI: Well, in fact, the State of Florida, this child welfare agency, has put a lot of people to work who generally don't do this. They've rallied their forces to track down all of these children who are in the state's care. They are making phone calls. Some of these children who were out of state, they have contacted other people outside the state of Florida to try to locate these children. And above and beyond that, there might be so children they simply cannot account for because, unfortunately, too much time has passed. In some cases, caseworkers, as we know, haven't been able to keep up with their workload. Children disappear and they don't know what happened to them.
HARRIS: Well, it is possible that if they do find many of these children, Susan, that perhaps Rilya Wilson's disappearance might actually have a silver lining for some of these children.
Thank you very much, reporting in Miami this evening. Susan Candiotti in Miami.
We're back in a moment after a break.
ANNOUNCER: Next, nuclear neighbors on a path toward war take a small step toward peace.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): Diplomats say that closed meetings between the various countries represented here and India and Pakistan separately for the real opportunity to put pressure on both sides to step back from the brink.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: We'll go live to central Asia, where the leaders of India and Pakistan are gathered.
Plus, American troops on the attack in Afghanistan. We'll go live to the front lines in the war on terror. And later, it's party time in London as Britain celebrate their queen's golden jubilee.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947. Two of their wars were over Kashmir. Both nations claim their Himalayan province as their own territory.
Pakistan was carved out of India by Britain to create an Islamic nation.
India and Pakistan join the small club of nuclear-armed nations by testing their own nuclear weapons in 1998.
HARRIS: And there may yet be another war over this region. India and Pakistan are facing growing diplomatic pressure to step back from the brink of war. Kashmir is at the center of this dispute between the two nuclear foes. And now, China is joining the U.S. and Russia in trying to persuade both sides to remove troops from their border to avert war.
But as the world watches and waits, the tensions remain red hot. Today, the two sides exchanged heavy artillery and machine gunfire along the line that separates Indian and Pakistani administered Kashmir.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage leaves tomorrow on a diplomatic mission to both Pakistan and India.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD ARMITAGE, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: The stopping of a military confrontation belongs to the two parties, India and Pakistan. But I think the United States joined by our international parties, right now, joined by President Putin in Al Maty, is trying to do our best to bring reason and logic to bear on what's a very difficult situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Armitage is scheduled to visit Pakistan on Thursday and he'll be stopping in India on Friday.
Now, ending the bitter confrontation over Kashmir is the key goal of Asian security summit that's about to get underway in Al Maty, Kazakhstan. CNN's Matthew Chance is covering the story for us in Al Maty, where it's now Tuesday morning.
Matthew, what's on tap for today there?
CHANCE: Well, everybody is looking for the possibility of a face-to-face meeting between the Indian and Pakistani leaders. Certainly, that's what the international community is looking for and it's what many people here at the summit say they are hoping, at least some kind of evidence that the two countries are prepared to sit down and at least begin a process of trying to de-escalate the mounting tensions between them over Kashmir.
On the question, though, of a one-on-one meeting between Indian and Pakistani delegations, at them moment, that's been ruled out by Indian officials who say they will not sit down with their Pakistani counterparts until such time that hey have firm evidence that Pakistan is cracking down on militants who they say are infiltrating Indian- administered Kashmir from Pakistani-controlled territory.
So on the face of it, the prospects for a meeting look pretty grim at this stage. But a lot of the progress, if there is to be progress here in Al Maty, are likely, according to a diplomas, is likely to come during the small side meetings between the various small countries represented here and India and Pakistan individually. That's the real opportunities countries like Russia, China and like all the other 16 countries represented here will have to place their own diplomatic pressure on India and Pakistan to stay back from the brink, on India to change its position on talks with Pakistan and on Pakistan to do more to crack down on militants.
So there is a window of opportunity here in Kazakhstan, which closes on Wednesday when the summit comes to an end. And the general hope here is that that window of opportunity will be open and the opportunity to be seized -- Leon.
HARRIS: Well, Matthew, let's talk briefly about these side meetings, you're talking about, that can go on where people are going to be putting pressure as much as they can at least on these two sides here. How about Russian President Putin? What kind of pressure can he bring to bear on both sides here?
CHANCE: Well, I mean, all the delegations here are going to be able to bring some form of diplomatic pressure, but Vladimir Putin is the man who has perhaps made this a personal mission. He was the leader, who -- remember during the summit in Moscow last month with President Bush, invited the leaders of India and Pakistan to meet here in Kazakhstan in the first place. So he has a real personal interest in trying to make it happen.
China, too, will be applying diplomatic pressure of its own to both India and Pakistan to get around the negotiating table. So at the bear minimum, all the countries at this regional summit are going to be able to bring a certain pressure to bare on both parties to step back from the brink, to sit at least -- and try to meet and try to de- escalate the tensions. Whether that translates into anything else, though, into a process to de-escalating Kashmir is still the big question here, Leon.
HARRIS: Matthew Chance live from Al Maty, Kazakhstan. Thank you very much.
We're going to take a break right now. We're back with in just a moment.
ANNOUNCER: Next, the testimony's over. The arguments completed. It's now time for the jury to decide if Kennedy cousin, Michael Skakel, is guilty of murder. We'll go live to the courthouse in Connecticut.
And later, a mission accomplished, but what's the next assignment for U.S. troops hunting terrorists in Afghanistan? We'll go live to the front lines.
But first, time for your opinion. Are you concerned about the possibility of war between India and Pakistan? To take the quick vote, head to CNN.com. The AOL keyword is CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Welcome back. The murder trial of Kennedy cousin, Michael Skakel, is now in the hands of the jury. We'll go live to the courthouse in just a moment for a report, but first, here's a quick look at our top stories.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Welcome back. The murder trial of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel is now in the hands of the jury. We'll go live to the courthouse in just a moment for a report, but first here's a quick look at our top stories.
What intelligence agencies knew about some September 11 hijackers and when they knew it is once again raising concern. Sources tell CNN National Security Correspondent David Ensor that back in January of 2000, the CIA advised the FBI to keep its eyes on Khalid al-Midhar. He turned out to be one of the September 11 hijackers who flew a plane into the Pentagon. Now this report contradicts a "NEWSWEEK" report that the CIA tracked al-Midhar and another of the eventual hijackers but never told anyone.
House and Senate Intelligence Committees take up the issue of terror lapses tomorrow with closed door hearings on Capitol Hill. They're aimed at determining what the government knew about the hijackers, as well as other possible clues in advance of the September 11 attacks.
More cross-border shelling in Kashmir, along the line of control separating India and Pakistan, this as the countries' two leaders are attending an Asian security summit in Kazakhstan. A face-to-face meeting between the two is unlikely despite intense international pressure urging such talks.
In Norwalk, Connecticut a jury begins deliberations tomorrow on whether Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel is a murderer. In closing arguments today, the jurors heard starkly different descriptions of the man accused of killing Martha Moxley. CNN's Deborah Feyerick is covering the trial. She joins us live from outside the courthouse in Connecticut. Deb.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Leon. Well, when this case first started, many people just didn't think that prosecutors had any case against Michael Skakel. Now it turns out that the most damaging evidence were Michael Skakel's own words. Still, the defense maintaining there's still no case.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK (voice over): In closing arguments, Michael Skakel's lawyer had a strong message for the jury.
MICKEY SHERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: He didn't do it. He doesn't know who did. He wasn't there. He never confessed.
FEYERICK: As he has throughout the month-long trial, Mickey Sherman again pointed out there's no physical, no forensic evidence and that the alleged motive, jealousy over his brother's relationship with Martha Moxley, was sketchy at best.
SHERMAN: They played investigative musical chairs. First they tried to see if that chair fit Tommy Skakel. They brought an arrest warrant for him. Then they went to Ken Littleton. God knows who else they want and when the music stopped, Michael Skakel was sitting in the defendant's chair.
FEYERICK: Skakel's lawyer warned jurors they may feel somehow to help the Moxley family get closure, but he repeated, Michael Skakel didn't do it. Prosecutors in their closing arguments relied on Michael Skakel's own words, placing him at the crime scene, tape recordings taken for his book proposal.
In it, Skakel himself seems to undermine his own alibi, saying he remembers that his sister's friend had gone home, something which happened after he supposedly left to go to his cousin's house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He would not have known that Andrea had been taken home yet, because the alibi (UNINTELLIGIBLE) had left before Andrea Shakespeare or Julie Skakel had gone on their little journey across town.
FEYERICK: Though Skakel never linked himself to the Moxley Murder, prosecutors show Skakel seems to describe taking a path, placing him at the major points of the crime scene.
From the front of the Moxley home where she was first hit to the trees toward which Skakel said he was throwing rocks after hearing a noise. The motions, said the prosecutor, like someone hitting another person with a golf club. The prosecutor argues Skakel concocted this story fearing he may have left DNA evidence behind, or that someone may have seen him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: Prosecutors even insinuated that the tape showed that Michael Skakel took the broken piece of the golf club, the murder weapon, to bed with him that night and then the next morning when he panicked, when Mrs. Moxley showed up at his door saying, where's Martha, the prosecutor pointed out that the only person that would have panicked when that woman showed up was the person who saw Martha's body dead. Leon.
HARRIS: Deborah, one question. I heard tell of some tapes that may actually play a big role here.
FEYERICK: Absolutely, and these tapes for the book proposal were sort of slipped in very casually during the course of the trial, but they ended up being a critical piece of prosecution's closing argument because they are Michael Skakel's own words.
He basically says that, you know, he was panicking, that he was worried because of something that had happened the night before, and sort of taken as the words on paper, they are extremely powerful and tie Michael Skakel directly to what happened that night.
HARRIS: All right, well for now at least, it's all over but the waiting. Deborah Feyerick, thank you very much.
All right, still ahead this evening, battling terrorists requires training. Well now, one country is asking the U.S. to send American soldiers into battle with its troops to help them train, details of this unique proposal coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: The Loya Jirga, the traditional Afghan council of tribal elders meets in one week, its mission to choose a transitional government for Afghanistan. The new leadership would replace the U.N. installed interim leadership.
HARRIS: U.S. forces are searching for al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. The terrain there is rugged and the mission is very dangerous. CNN's Mike Boettcher has gotten an exclusive look at it and he joins us now live from the Bagram, Afghanistan Air Base there and he's going to show us quite a bit of what he's seen today. Quite an interesting day you've had, Mike.
MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, quite interesting. Two days very difficult for the U.S. troops and us, but they all came back from the mission.
As you heard, in about a week, the Loya Jirga, the tribal council to try to select a new government, coalition commanders believe that al Qaeda and Taliban are trying to infiltrate into this country to disrupt that election. CNN was given that exclusive opportunity to go the front lines with U.S. troops as they hunted for the al Qaeda and Taliban.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): More than 150 Airborne troops made the surprise assault at sunrise Sunday morning, their objective, a suspected al Qaeda camp located in eastern Afghanistan, less than a mile from Pakistan.
Cautiously, soldiers from Bravo Company of the 101st Airborne's 2nd Battalion, 187th Infantry, approached the suspected al Qaeda camp. Intelligence reports indicated more than a dozen al Qaeda were using the base, known as the Gorko (ph) Camp. But if the al Qaeda were here, they had left before Bravo Company arrived.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: Nobody's getting shot at so it's good.
BOETTCHER: However, a complex of caves loomed above them. There was only one choice for Bravo Company.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: There's only one way to find out, sir.
BOETTCHER: Conduct a dangerous search. One squad fired grappling hooks inside the cave complex, then pulled it back out the entrance, a technique used to detonate any booby traps.
Another team made a silent assault into an even larger cave complex. Inside, they found scattered documents, which were immediately analyzed by a special Arabic-speaking document exploitation team.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This looks like a periodic table of the elements. Oh no, it's a calendar.
BOETTCHER: At first glance, however, it didn't appear they had discovered any important al Qaeda secrets.
CAPTAIN BRET TECKLENBERG, BRAVO COMPANY COMMANDER: This one looks like it's current or like someone has been here very recently.
BOETTCHER: After the search, the caves were blown by Bravo Company's demolition team.
BOETTCHER (on camera): Bravo Company believes it accomplished its mission here. Every boot that came on the ground left, safely, and although the al Qaeda believed hiding here disappeared when Bravo Company arrived, they believe they did send an important message to the al Qaeda and Taliban.
LIEUTENANT COLONEL CHIP PREYSLER, BATTALION COMMANDER: Well, the message is that you can't just come back in this country and do the things you were doing before. There's no sanctuary here.
BOETTCHER (voice over): Bravo Company left the al Qaeda camp, knowing their job is not done. When al Qaeda returns, they say so will they.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOETTCHER (on camera): Bravo Company is resting right now, but in this place, in this war, there will not be much rest for Bravo Company and all the other soldiers here, fighting against the Taliban and al Qaeda. Leon.
HARRIS: Mike, I'm wondering as you sat there and talked with these men who were out there searching for al Qaeda, and finding these traces of them left behind, do they give you any sense that they believe they may be getting closer to finding them or are they farther behind or are they staying so far ahead of these search parties that they may never be caught or what? BOETTCHER: They believe they'll catch up with them. It's very difficult terrain up there and when you go into it, you know you are in the middle of al Qaeda and Taliban country, right up on the border.
We were less than a mile away from that border, and those are the areas they're hiding out and they believe that eventually, they will get them but not in the large groups we saw in Operation Anaconda. These will be smaller groups, a dozen, 20, three or four even, and it's going to be a difficult hunt, Leon.
HARRIS: Well can they share with you or did they give you any hint at all what might be next for them?
BOETTCHER: Well before the Loya Jirga in this coming week, I would expect to see other operations of this sort. I mean they are determined to try to stop this infiltration that they believe is occurring and all along the border, I would expect to see operations like the one we went on.
HARRIS: Mike Boettcher reporting live from the base in Bagram, Afghanistan, thank you very much.
U.S. troops helping the Philippine military may be staying a little longer than they expected going in. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz has paid a visit to the U.S. forces in the southern Philippines after meeting the nation's president and defense officials.
The Philippine defense secretary says a request for the U.S. troops to stay beyond the six-month deadline, which ends on July 31, is in his words "under consideration." There are right now about 1,000 American troops there. That includes some 160 Special Forces.
Coming up, find out what Ted Turner, the personal computer, and the Queen of England all have in common, a look at an enduring tradition. It's coming up next. But first, here's this Wall Street update.
LOU DOBBS, "MONEYLINE": I'm Lou Dobbs with this MONEYLINE update. A steep sell off today on Wall Street, the Dow plunged 215 points, the NASDAQ fell 53 points, losing three percent. TYCO shares fell more than 25 percent, after CEO Dennis Kozlowski resigned that amid an investigation into personal tax evasion. Watch MONEYLINE weeknights, 6:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN; LIVE FROM with Leon Harris will return in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: "TIME" magazine started naming its Man of the Year back in 1927. The nod that year went to Charles Lindbergh.
HARRIS: And you may note back then it was Man of the Year. Well times have changed. "TIME" magazine is observing the 75th anniversary of what it's not calling its Person of the Year. A celebration is underway in New York, and for that let's check in with CNNFN's Susan Lisovicz who's got more on all that for us. Hello, Susan. SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon and over the past eight decades, there have been some towering figures in history associated with that title, names like Churchill, Gandhi, Roosevelt, King and Sadat.
But there have also been some controversial choices as well, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and even the Ayatollah Khomeini were chosen in their time as Men of the Year.
Whether the choice is popular or not, over the last three- quarters of a century, it's given viewers and readers a quick glimpse of world history and it's given TIME, Inc. the opportunity to launch a nine-city multimedia tour, beginning at the U.S. Customs House behind me and it is here in the heart of Wall Street, just a few blocks from Ground Zero they gave the last recipient of the title, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a reason to reflect.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDOLPH GIULIANI, 2001 PERSON OF THE YEAR: Thank you very much. It's really with mixed emotions that I stand here today. I thank you very, very much for the very warm reception, and I thank TIME magazine for selecting me. But I can't help thinking being down in this part of Manhattan that I wish the circumstances had never taken place that brought that all about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LISOVICZ: The former mayor says that the definition of courage is not not being afraid, but really the management of fear. Afterwards, he posed with other previous recipients, including amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, as well as descendants of the Roosevelt family and the Lindbergh family.
As you just mentioned, Charles Lindbergh being the first recipient in 1927, because editors at the time realized they had missed a number of opportunities to put Mr. Lindbergh on the cover and felt they needed to do something special, and thus the tradition was born. Leon.
HARRIS: Well, Susan, did the editors say anything at all about the standards for making this particular edition's cover, whether the standards have changed in the past 75 years or what?
LISOVICZ: No they haven't really changed at all, Leon, since the legendary Henry Luce first devised the Man of the Year and that is the person who has most affected the news for good or for bad in that given year.
And that's been one of the reasons why there has been such controversy and why there was so much debate as to whether the mayor or the firefighters, the rescue workers of 9/11, or Osama bin Laden would have been on the last cover. But that particular mandate has stayed true over the last eight decades. HARRIS: Interesting, well in this business sometimes you have to give the devil his due, I suppose. Susan Lisovicz reporting for us live this evening from Wall Street. All right, coming up, an out of control fire at an apartment building, what happens next caught everyone off guard. We'll show you this dramatic conclusion straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Here's a look at some of this evening's other top stories now in our news alert.
Investigators in Russia are trying to determine what caused this building to collapse in St. Petersburg. At least one man was killed and four others were injured when this nine-story apartment building came crashing down, leaving 400 people homeless.
An outbreak of wildfires causing problems from coast to coast, both in the East and in the West as well as in the middle of the country. Fires are burning right now. Among the hardest hit areas, southern Colorado. Three major wildfires there have destroyed more than 100 homes.
The Colorado fires are among more than two dozen big fires burning across the U.S. This spectacular fire is one of three major blazes right now in southern California, and in New Jersey, a forest fire that destroyed at least one home is now about 90 percent contained.
In Beverly Hills, a judge put actress Winona Ryder's preliminary hearing on shoplifting and drug possession charges on hold today, after a TV camera hit her in the head. She and the bailiff were whisked away for medical treatment. Prosecutors say the Oscar nominated actress stole $4,800 worth of merchandise from a store last December.
Figure skater Tonya Harding found out today when her drunken driving trial will begin. She showed up for a court hearing this morning in Vancouver, Washington, where the judge set trial for August 20. Harding failed a sobriety test in April when she crashed her pickup into a ditch.
Still to come this evening celebrating 50 years on the throne, Britain's Royal Family gets loose with some royal rockers, the party at the palace when we return.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: Great Britain is celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee, marking her 50 years on the throne. A poll out this past weekend shows that 81 percent of Britons want the monarchy to stay, but 41 percent say reform is needed.
HARRIS: Fifty years and counting, it was a once in a lifetime party and judging from the size and the mood of the crowd there, it appears to have been a huge success. Thousands of British subjects turned out for the party at the palace, a huge pop concert at London's Buckingham Palace, celebrating Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee. Brian May kicked things off with a performance of "God Save the Queen" and a long list of entertainers followed. The Queen's son, Prince Charles, led the praise for his mother's 50 years on the throne.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE CHARLES, HEIR TO BRITISH THRONE: You have embodied something vital in our lives, continuity. You have been a beacon of tradition and stability in the midst of profound, sometimes perilous change.
Fifty years ago, at nearly four years of age, I would probably have been playing in the sand pits in the garden, just behind this stage. But now, you have generously invited everyone in here for a thoroughly memorable party.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: And with cheers in the air and her husband Prince Philip looking on, the Queen lit the Jubilee Beacon, similar to the beacons that are being lit all over the British Commonwealth in her honor.
The climax of the evening was a 14-minute long fireworks display, three tons of fireworks launched from the roof of the palace. The Jubilee continues tomorrow with a royal visit to St. Paul's Cathedral. There no doubt will be quite a scene there as well.
But that's going to do it for us tonight. Thanks for staying with us. I'm Leon Harris. Stay tuned. "LARRY KING LIVE" is coming up next.
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