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Sandy Berger admits taking classified documents from National Archives

Aired July 20, 2004 - 14:00   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.


PHILLIPS: Live from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where President Bush takes his campaign to the heartland. We'll bring you some of his speech straight ahead. A former national security advisor says it was a mistake. Sources say he stuffed secret documents in his socks. We've got the details. Can the IRS keep a secret? A new report raises questions about your personal info at risk of going public.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now. We begin this hour with the secret files and the public flack, and the former national security adviser at the heart of it. Sandy Berger admits that he took some handwritten notes and classified documents from the National Archives while doing research on the Clinton era for the panel investigating September 11.

Well, those papers are tightly protected by law. But Berger insists his violation was accidental and inconsequential to the commission. Among papers still unaccounted for, a draft report on the thwarted millennium bombing written by ex-counter-terrorism chief Richard Clark. Berger's defenders wonder how this came to light now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LANNY DAVIS, EX-WHITE HOUSE SPECIAL COUNSEL: This highest classified document that was penned by Mr. Clark was widely circulated in the government, and since been widely reported on, and was not revealing any of the nation's secrets. So while we can use language like "highly classified," and we have some anonymous government source talking to the media about this on the day of the announcement of the 9/11 Commission, the FBI's been at this since last January. This seems very suspicious to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, speaking for himself, Berger says, quote, "I inadvertently took a few documents from the archives. I also took my notes on the documents reviewed. When I was informed by the archives there were documents missing, I immediately returned everything I had, except for a few documents that, apparently, I had accidentally discarded."

Well, if you think that's the end of it, you've forgotten this is an election year. And Sandy Berger is an informal advisor to the Kerry campaign. Joining me to factor in the politics of the Berger blunder, "CROSSFIRE" co-host, longtime political columnist, Bob Novak. Bob, if we were to define "informal advisor," does that mean non-paid?

ROBERT NOVAK, COHOST, CNN'S "CROSSFIRE": Yes, I would think so. But this is a very serious situation, Kyra, whether it's the coincidental timing, with the release of the 9/11 Commission report, makes it political or not. There seems to be no dispute, even by Mr. Berger, that what he did, that he took these very highly classified documents -- he was seen putting them in his pants, in his coat, and took them away from the place.

And either he really has lost it, because he was a very highly respected official who knows how to handle classified material, or he was trying to do away with some of this material. And what is incriminating is that, apparently, some of these documents have not been returned. They are missing.

PHILLIPS: Bob, is this out of character for Sandy Berger? This is someone with a great amount of integrity.

NOVAK: Absolutely. It's out of character from the standpoint of integrity, if this was a dastardly act, or it's out of character on the standpoint of just incompetent sloppiness, because he surely should have known that his colleague in the first term of the Clinton administration, the CIA director, John Deutsche, was fired and really unceremoniously drummed out of the government for taking home a computer from his home office with classified material.

That is a no-no. And, of course, he knows. That's why this is such a puzzling thing. And it's very difficult to say, OK, it was a matter of sloppiness, we're all sloppy at times. But there has to be a better explanation than that, I believe.

PHILLIPS: Well, Bob, a former Clinton administrative colleague coming forward saying this information's been kept confidential for months, so why is it coming out now? Also, the source saying he stuck these documents in his socks -- this person is not coming forward and giving a name. I mean, does it seem suspicious to you at all?

NOVAK: Well, the first thing is, putting it in the sock, I don't know if that has ever been substantiated as a rumor. What, apparently, officials say that they saw -- they saw him putting it in his coat pocket and his coat -- in his pants pocket and his coat. That's very, very odd to put material that way instead of in a briefcase.

As far as it's coming out now, that is the spin by Mr. Berger's defenders, that "why is it coming out now?" And it is suspicious it's coming out now. But even though it may be political and unfriendly to do so, you still have to look at the facts and say, is this what he did? And whether it comes out now or comes out nine months ago, if you had a criminal investigation, what is the state of that investigation? And some answers are really needed.

PHILLIPS: All right, so Bob, let's say this did happen, OK. Let's say he took these documents -- documents here that a source is saying were drafts of a Clinton administration after-action report on efforts to thwart the millennium plot, a suspected Al Qaeda attack, around the New Year's holiday in late 1999. Why would he want to keep these?

NOVAK: I have no idea. That's all speculation. These are supposed to be secret codeword documents. Kyra, I was in security in the Army as an officer. I'd hate to tell you this -- about a half a century ago, and secret codeword was something all our knees shook and trembled at. I had a top-secret clearance, and I never got near any secret codeword material.

This is the real hot stuff. I don't know what's in it. And maybe we should never know what's in it. But I think what the public deserves to know is whether or not this was just sloppiness, as Mr. Berger says, or he was trying to get rid of some documents, in which case, that's a criminal act.

PHILLIPS: Absolutely. We'll follow it, as it could possibly face a federal probe. Bob Novak, thanks so much. Other news across America now begins with a breach of the security rules at Los Alamos National Lab. Well, Department of Energy investigators are looking into several incidents of classified information being sent via unclassified emails. The lab has been under increased scrutiny lately for missing sensitive weapons information.

Mother Nature's in their corner. Fire crews battling a wildfire in Los Angeles County are getting a little help from the weather, lower winds, cooler temperatures, higher humidity. It's helping them get the upper hand on a blaze that's charred almost 6,000 acres.

Now, another bizarre twist in the tale of Bobo the tiger. It just doesn't seem to go away. The slain cat's former home caught fire yesterday. A newly installed air conditioning unit sparked the blaze. Electrical fencing, iron gates, and Steve Sipek's other big cats delayed fire crews' efforts. Most of his home was ruined.

Martha Stewart's looking for a recipe out of the legal stew that's consumed her life for more than two years. Ahead of her now, two options: press on with her appeal or serve the time. She mulled over both with CNN's Larry King last night. Like many Americans, our Frank Buckley was tuned in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY: Martha Stewart, sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home detention, vowed an appeal. Stewart told Larry King she hasn't ruled out simply serving her sentence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTHA STEWART: On the one hand, business, Wall Street, advertising, they would like to see finality. They would like to see an end to all of this.

LARRY KING: Obviously.

STEWART: I, as a person, with rights, with a belief in the judicial system and fairness, think that an appeal is the way to go. So what do I do? (END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: Stewart, whose legal troubles over the past couple of years, provided cable TV and tabloid news with an endless source of stories, struck back at the pundits.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: Pundits are out there saying, "Oh, she should go in." Do they know what it's like to go to jail?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: She struck a softer chord toward those who described her as arrogant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: I wish I were perfect. I wish I were just, you know, the nicest, nicest, nicest person earth. But I'm a businessperson in addition to a creator of domestic arts, and it's an odd combination. No excuse -- but if I were a man, no one would say I was arrogant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: And in true Stewart style, she promised a new product would emerge from her legal troubles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: I think I'll write a book, because I think it could be helpful to other people, just about what lawyer to choose, how to behave, how to attend an interview. I mean, there's things that, you know, there's no how-to book about this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: The final chapter in Stewart's legal tome still to be written. Frank Buckley, CNN Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, it was the must-see TV of 1969. Thirty-five years ago today, millions of people watched grainy, black and white TV pictures of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon. Our Miles O'Brien is at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, where NASA's looking back and looking forward. And Miles remembers the moment so well.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra. It was 35 years ago -- as a matter of fact, about two hours from this moment, about 4 o'clock Eastern time when the eagle landed at Tranquility Base. And a few hours thereafter, a little before 11 PM Eastern time, Neil Armstrong first, and then Buzz Aldrin, set foot on the moon -- a moment of history that will be remembered throughout the ages. The journey began for them a quarter of a million miles away, four days before.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over) The wake-up call came at 4:15 on the morning of Wednesday, July 16, 1969. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins -- for precisely 25 minutes, they ate their breakfast... steak, eggs, toast, juice, and coffee. Collins called the atmosphere "studied casualness." Then it was time to suit up.

Once locked inside, they were in a cocoon. In a metal suitcase, they carried their air supply. They walked to the crew transfer van, seeing a group of NASA workers and photographers, but hearing only the sound of their breathing. They drove slowly to launch pad 39-A, about eight miles and 20 minutes away.

Their launch window would open at 9:32 and close 14 minutes later. The timing was precise, so four days later, they would arrive at the moon's Sea of Tranquility, with the sun behind the lunar module and low on the horizon for optimal visibility. Twenty thousand VIPs, 3,500 members of the media, a million people along the Florida coast, and millions more watching at home, all focused on this amazing spectacle.

In the launch control center, the father of the Saturn Five, Werner Von Braun, looked on as Launch Director Roco Patrone (ph) told his troops -- "Go," came the reply from every post, and from the crew. They were on their way. Their destination was destiny.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(on-camera) They landed in just the nick of time, Kyra, a little less than 30 seconds of fuel left in the tank. It was supposed to land on a computer-automated, you know, program. Of course, Neil Armstrong wasn't really going to let that happen. It turns out he really had to take the stick, because that computer was sending them to a boulder field, and a crater was not a very inviting landing spot.

Meanwhile, that computer was saturated with information. It was throwing out all kinds of alarms at them. Fortunately, they had gone through a simulation of that very crisis, if you will, about a week prior to their launch. And so they plowed on through based on the information and the go ahead from a twenty-something year old computer programmer sitting there in Houston's mission control, Steve Bails (ph). It was quite a heroic landing.

I don't know if you recall, but when they landed, they said, you know, "We're all turning blue here in Houston." I think the whole world, at that moment, was turning blue -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: We remember the film. All right, a little show and tell of what's behind you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. Well, that's the lunar module -- not "the" lunar module, of course, from Apollo 11. That one was destroyed as it de-orbited into the moon. But this was going to be used as a testing article in orbit. But Apollo 9, where they had built an identical lunar module, worked so well that they felt they didn't have to fly this particular one. And so, it was destined here.

So that top thing was actually designed to go into space -- not all the way to the moon, but to space, nonetheless. And when you look at it, if you look at the close-ups of it, it looks like it was just kind of cobbled together with leftover pieces of aluminum or something. And it really is an absolutely unlikely vehicle, isn't it?

And, of course, you don't have to worry about aerodynamics. It never had to fly through the air. And that's why it looks so gangly -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: In perfect condition. All right, Miles, thanks so much. We'll see you again in just a little bit. Well, it was a mistake that almost closed the Kobe Bryant case. We've got the details from court developments ahead. And inside the Green Zone -- amazing images of the dangerous streets of Baghdad.

And later, a cold Budweiser creates a hot controversy in Germany, where they're ready to dethrone the "king of beers." We're tapping that one later on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: A marine fighting in Al-Anmar (ph) province has become the 899th U.S. service member killed in the Iraq War. In other developments today in Iraq, a kidnapped Filipino truck driver is free and safe in his country's embassy in Baghdad. Philippine President Arroyo says that she has no regrets about withdrawing troops from Iraq to secure his release. But the U.S. says it's a bad precedent the nation has given into demands of hostage takers.

A Web site message believed to be from a group linked to Iraqi terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi warns that Muslims and Arab countries not send troops to Iraq. A second message threatens Japan, which has forces there.

Assassins have gunned down the third Iraqi public figure in as many days. The Basra provincial council coordinator and two other people died in a hail of bullets this morning. In a city where the threat of violent death is ever-present, Baghdad's Green Zone is an oasis of relative safety. Our Brian (ph) Todd spoke with Time magazine photographer Karen Ballard about her experiences capturing images of history-making events.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN REPORTER: Inside a dangerous, violent metropolis, a government must function. Amid mortar rounds, car bombs, gunfire, a nation must be built. In Baghdad, this mission, first of the Coalition Provisional Authority, and now of the interim Iraqi government, is carried out in an extraordinary place -- a place where photographer Karen Ballard spends more than a month on assignment for Time magazine.

KAREN BALLARD, PHOTOGRAPHER, TIME MAGAZINE (voice-over): There's tons, and tons, and tons of security there. A lot of it's hidden, a lot of it, you know, you can't see it. There's high walls.

TODD: Ballard lives in the Green Zone during the days leading up to and immediately after the June 28 handover. She brings back images of bravery, dedication, sacrifice -- soldiers, administrators from so many nations working inside what often seems to be a fortified trailer park. One unforgettable day, she's there as the world's most famous prisoner is led to one of his former palaces to face justice -- appearing, she says, disheveled and confused.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALLARD: He probably had no idea what was getting ready to happen to him. And so, he was just checking it out minute by minute, you know -- "What's next, who's this, where are they taking me?"

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: One top U.S. commander later tells CNN Saddam Hussein first thought he was being brought there to be shot. Apparently realizing he won't, he smiles and exchanges words with his escorts. And in a haunting moment for Ballard, the man who sometimes needed just a look to inflict unspeakable harm stares her down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALLARD: Definitely stopped and looked at me like dead-on, like, "Who are you," you know, and "How did you get in this room, and why are you taking my picture?" I mean, I definitely felt a really serious vibe from him at that point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: She captures Saddam's courtroom theatrics, clicks away as he's escorted out, then turns her lens towards some other very fearsome men -- Saddam's former aids, as they line up for a perp walk. Winning access of a more sublime nature, Karen Ballard also is side by side with former U.S. Administrator Paul Bremer during his final week in Iraq.

Typically for Bremer, he's constantly on the move, meeting with Iraqis of various alliances, including a feast with a cousin of renegade cleric Muktada al-Sadr (ph). She describes a man who's focused, better-liked by Iraqis than public impression might indicate, with one characteristic that stays in Ballard's mind.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALLARD: His ability to not be afraid, to take a risk, to go out into Baghdad. He did it every day, unless he was on the road.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: Handover day -- events moving unexpectedly fast. Bremer and his team gather. With what appears to be lightning speed, Iraq becomes sovereign. Bremer gestures, "It's yours now." As he's shuttled out in an armada of security, one last reflective look at what he's leaving behind. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, which candidate is doing the best at wooing minority voters? The question could be the key to winning the race. The newest polls ahead on LIVE FROM...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Live to Cedar Rapids, Iowa now. The president of the United States -- what he's calling the "Ask President Bush Forum" at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids. Let's listen in...

(CAMPAIGN SPEECH)

Well, Iowa's attracting a lot of attention from the candidates. President Bush live there, trying to change his luck in this battleground state. He narrowly lost Iowa back in 2000, you may remember. Here with Democratic reaction to Bush's Iowa stop, Ann Louis, chairwoman of the DNC Women's Vote Center, and former counselor to President Clinton. Nice to have you with us, Ann.

ANN LOUIS, DNC WOMEN'S VOTE CENTER: Glad to be here.

PHILLIPS: Well, we touched a little bit there with the president. I guess, first of all, I should get you to respond. He made a little dig there to Edwards and Kerry with regard to Congress supporting more funds for those in uniform right now, fighting overseas. I'd better let you respond to that.

LEWIS: Well, it is interesting George Bush can't talk very long about his own policies without having to go negative and really attack his opponents. But look, the question before voters here is, is our country safer, is it stronger, are we as safe and secure as we should be?

John Kerry and John Edwards have a very different answer to that question. The 9/11 Commission that's going to come out Thursday, I think, is going to make some very strong comments on what we should be doing that we aren't, the fact that we haven't changed our intelligence, for example, for more than three years.

We really need some different systems. And if George Bush wants to go back and talk about that $87 billion, then we're going to go back and say, "You know what? When we have troops in the field, we ought to be putting our money forward to give those troops the equipment they need." That was the vote, as I recall, that also included more money for Halliburton.

John Kerry and John Edwards...

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Aired July 20, 2004 - 14:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PHILLIPS: Live from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where President Bush takes his campaign to the heartland. We'll bring you some of his speech straight ahead. A former national security advisor says it was a mistake. Sources say he stuffed secret documents in his socks. We've got the details. Can the IRS keep a secret? A new report raises questions about your personal info at risk of going public.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now. We begin this hour with the secret files and the public flack, and the former national security adviser at the heart of it. Sandy Berger admits that he took some handwritten notes and classified documents from the National Archives while doing research on the Clinton era for the panel investigating September 11.

Well, those papers are tightly protected by law. But Berger insists his violation was accidental and inconsequential to the commission. Among papers still unaccounted for, a draft report on the thwarted millennium bombing written by ex-counter-terrorism chief Richard Clark. Berger's defenders wonder how this came to light now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LANNY DAVIS, EX-WHITE HOUSE SPECIAL COUNSEL: This highest classified document that was penned by Mr. Clark was widely circulated in the government, and since been widely reported on, and was not revealing any of the nation's secrets. So while we can use language like "highly classified," and we have some anonymous government source talking to the media about this on the day of the announcement of the 9/11 Commission, the FBI's been at this since last January. This seems very suspicious to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, speaking for himself, Berger says, quote, "I inadvertently took a few documents from the archives. I also took my notes on the documents reviewed. When I was informed by the archives there were documents missing, I immediately returned everything I had, except for a few documents that, apparently, I had accidentally discarded."

Well, if you think that's the end of it, you've forgotten this is an election year. And Sandy Berger is an informal advisor to the Kerry campaign. Joining me to factor in the politics of the Berger blunder, "CROSSFIRE" co-host, longtime political columnist, Bob Novak. Bob, if we were to define "informal advisor," does that mean non-paid?

ROBERT NOVAK, COHOST, CNN'S "CROSSFIRE": Yes, I would think so. But this is a very serious situation, Kyra, whether it's the coincidental timing, with the release of the 9/11 Commission report, makes it political or not. There seems to be no dispute, even by Mr. Berger, that what he did, that he took these very highly classified documents -- he was seen putting them in his pants, in his coat, and took them away from the place.

And either he really has lost it, because he was a very highly respected official who knows how to handle classified material, or he was trying to do away with some of this material. And what is incriminating is that, apparently, some of these documents have not been returned. They are missing.

PHILLIPS: Bob, is this out of character for Sandy Berger? This is someone with a great amount of integrity.

NOVAK: Absolutely. It's out of character from the standpoint of integrity, if this was a dastardly act, or it's out of character on the standpoint of just incompetent sloppiness, because he surely should have known that his colleague in the first term of the Clinton administration, the CIA director, John Deutsche, was fired and really unceremoniously drummed out of the government for taking home a computer from his home office with classified material.

That is a no-no. And, of course, he knows. That's why this is such a puzzling thing. And it's very difficult to say, OK, it was a matter of sloppiness, we're all sloppy at times. But there has to be a better explanation than that, I believe.

PHILLIPS: Well, Bob, a former Clinton administrative colleague coming forward saying this information's been kept confidential for months, so why is it coming out now? Also, the source saying he stuck these documents in his socks -- this person is not coming forward and giving a name. I mean, does it seem suspicious to you at all?

NOVAK: Well, the first thing is, putting it in the sock, I don't know if that has ever been substantiated as a rumor. What, apparently, officials say that they saw -- they saw him putting it in his coat pocket and his coat -- in his pants pocket and his coat. That's very, very odd to put material that way instead of in a briefcase.

As far as it's coming out now, that is the spin by Mr. Berger's defenders, that "why is it coming out now?" And it is suspicious it's coming out now. But even though it may be political and unfriendly to do so, you still have to look at the facts and say, is this what he did? And whether it comes out now or comes out nine months ago, if you had a criminal investigation, what is the state of that investigation? And some answers are really needed.

PHILLIPS: All right, so Bob, let's say this did happen, OK. Let's say he took these documents -- documents here that a source is saying were drafts of a Clinton administration after-action report on efforts to thwart the millennium plot, a suspected Al Qaeda attack, around the New Year's holiday in late 1999. Why would he want to keep these?

NOVAK: I have no idea. That's all speculation. These are supposed to be secret codeword documents. Kyra, I was in security in the Army as an officer. I'd hate to tell you this -- about a half a century ago, and secret codeword was something all our knees shook and trembled at. I had a top-secret clearance, and I never got near any secret codeword material.

This is the real hot stuff. I don't know what's in it. And maybe we should never know what's in it. But I think what the public deserves to know is whether or not this was just sloppiness, as Mr. Berger says, or he was trying to get rid of some documents, in which case, that's a criminal act.

PHILLIPS: Absolutely. We'll follow it, as it could possibly face a federal probe. Bob Novak, thanks so much. Other news across America now begins with a breach of the security rules at Los Alamos National Lab. Well, Department of Energy investigators are looking into several incidents of classified information being sent via unclassified emails. The lab has been under increased scrutiny lately for missing sensitive weapons information.

Mother Nature's in their corner. Fire crews battling a wildfire in Los Angeles County are getting a little help from the weather, lower winds, cooler temperatures, higher humidity. It's helping them get the upper hand on a blaze that's charred almost 6,000 acres.

Now, another bizarre twist in the tale of Bobo the tiger. It just doesn't seem to go away. The slain cat's former home caught fire yesterday. A newly installed air conditioning unit sparked the blaze. Electrical fencing, iron gates, and Steve Sipek's other big cats delayed fire crews' efforts. Most of his home was ruined.

Martha Stewart's looking for a recipe out of the legal stew that's consumed her life for more than two years. Ahead of her now, two options: press on with her appeal or serve the time. She mulled over both with CNN's Larry King last night. Like many Americans, our Frank Buckley was tuned in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY: Martha Stewart, sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home detention, vowed an appeal. Stewart told Larry King she hasn't ruled out simply serving her sentence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTHA STEWART: On the one hand, business, Wall Street, advertising, they would like to see finality. They would like to see an end to all of this.

LARRY KING: Obviously.

STEWART: I, as a person, with rights, with a belief in the judicial system and fairness, think that an appeal is the way to go. So what do I do? (END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: Stewart, whose legal troubles over the past couple of years, provided cable TV and tabloid news with an endless source of stories, struck back at the pundits.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: Pundits are out there saying, "Oh, she should go in." Do they know what it's like to go to jail?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: She struck a softer chord toward those who described her as arrogant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: I wish I were perfect. I wish I were just, you know, the nicest, nicest, nicest person earth. But I'm a businessperson in addition to a creator of domestic arts, and it's an odd combination. No excuse -- but if I were a man, no one would say I was arrogant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: And in true Stewart style, she promised a new product would emerge from her legal troubles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: I think I'll write a book, because I think it could be helpful to other people, just about what lawyer to choose, how to behave, how to attend an interview. I mean, there's things that, you know, there's no how-to book about this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: The final chapter in Stewart's legal tome still to be written. Frank Buckley, CNN Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, it was the must-see TV of 1969. Thirty-five years ago today, millions of people watched grainy, black and white TV pictures of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon. Our Miles O'Brien is at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, where NASA's looking back and looking forward. And Miles remembers the moment so well.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra. It was 35 years ago -- as a matter of fact, about two hours from this moment, about 4 o'clock Eastern time when the eagle landed at Tranquility Base. And a few hours thereafter, a little before 11 PM Eastern time, Neil Armstrong first, and then Buzz Aldrin, set foot on the moon -- a moment of history that will be remembered throughout the ages. The journey began for them a quarter of a million miles away, four days before.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over) The wake-up call came at 4:15 on the morning of Wednesday, July 16, 1969. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins -- for precisely 25 minutes, they ate their breakfast... steak, eggs, toast, juice, and coffee. Collins called the atmosphere "studied casualness." Then it was time to suit up.

Once locked inside, they were in a cocoon. In a metal suitcase, they carried their air supply. They walked to the crew transfer van, seeing a group of NASA workers and photographers, but hearing only the sound of their breathing. They drove slowly to launch pad 39-A, about eight miles and 20 minutes away.

Their launch window would open at 9:32 and close 14 minutes later. The timing was precise, so four days later, they would arrive at the moon's Sea of Tranquility, with the sun behind the lunar module and low on the horizon for optimal visibility. Twenty thousand VIPs, 3,500 members of the media, a million people along the Florida coast, and millions more watching at home, all focused on this amazing spectacle.

In the launch control center, the father of the Saturn Five, Werner Von Braun, looked on as Launch Director Roco Patrone (ph) told his troops -- "Go," came the reply from every post, and from the crew. They were on their way. Their destination was destiny.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(on-camera) They landed in just the nick of time, Kyra, a little less than 30 seconds of fuel left in the tank. It was supposed to land on a computer-automated, you know, program. Of course, Neil Armstrong wasn't really going to let that happen. It turns out he really had to take the stick, because that computer was sending them to a boulder field, and a crater was not a very inviting landing spot.

Meanwhile, that computer was saturated with information. It was throwing out all kinds of alarms at them. Fortunately, they had gone through a simulation of that very crisis, if you will, about a week prior to their launch. And so they plowed on through based on the information and the go ahead from a twenty-something year old computer programmer sitting there in Houston's mission control, Steve Bails (ph). It was quite a heroic landing.

I don't know if you recall, but when they landed, they said, you know, "We're all turning blue here in Houston." I think the whole world, at that moment, was turning blue -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: We remember the film. All right, a little show and tell of what's behind you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right. Well, that's the lunar module -- not "the" lunar module, of course, from Apollo 11. That one was destroyed as it de-orbited into the moon. But this was going to be used as a testing article in orbit. But Apollo 9, where they had built an identical lunar module, worked so well that they felt they didn't have to fly this particular one. And so, it was destined here.

So that top thing was actually designed to go into space -- not all the way to the moon, but to space, nonetheless. And when you look at it, if you look at the close-ups of it, it looks like it was just kind of cobbled together with leftover pieces of aluminum or something. And it really is an absolutely unlikely vehicle, isn't it?

And, of course, you don't have to worry about aerodynamics. It never had to fly through the air. And that's why it looks so gangly -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: In perfect condition. All right, Miles, thanks so much. We'll see you again in just a little bit. Well, it was a mistake that almost closed the Kobe Bryant case. We've got the details from court developments ahead. And inside the Green Zone -- amazing images of the dangerous streets of Baghdad.

And later, a cold Budweiser creates a hot controversy in Germany, where they're ready to dethrone the "king of beers." We're tapping that one later on LIVE FROM.

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PHILLIPS: A marine fighting in Al-Anmar (ph) province has become the 899th U.S. service member killed in the Iraq War. In other developments today in Iraq, a kidnapped Filipino truck driver is free and safe in his country's embassy in Baghdad. Philippine President Arroyo says that she has no regrets about withdrawing troops from Iraq to secure his release. But the U.S. says it's a bad precedent the nation has given into demands of hostage takers.

A Web site message believed to be from a group linked to Iraqi terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi warns that Muslims and Arab countries not send troops to Iraq. A second message threatens Japan, which has forces there.

Assassins have gunned down the third Iraqi public figure in as many days. The Basra provincial council coordinator and two other people died in a hail of bullets this morning. In a city where the threat of violent death is ever-present, Baghdad's Green Zone is an oasis of relative safety. Our Brian (ph) Todd spoke with Time magazine photographer Karen Ballard about her experiences capturing images of history-making events.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN REPORTER: Inside a dangerous, violent metropolis, a government must function. Amid mortar rounds, car bombs, gunfire, a nation must be built. In Baghdad, this mission, first of the Coalition Provisional Authority, and now of the interim Iraqi government, is carried out in an extraordinary place -- a place where photographer Karen Ballard spends more than a month on assignment for Time magazine.

KAREN BALLARD, PHOTOGRAPHER, TIME MAGAZINE (voice-over): There's tons, and tons, and tons of security there. A lot of it's hidden, a lot of it, you know, you can't see it. There's high walls.

TODD: Ballard lives in the Green Zone during the days leading up to and immediately after the June 28 handover. She brings back images of bravery, dedication, sacrifice -- soldiers, administrators from so many nations working inside what often seems to be a fortified trailer park. One unforgettable day, she's there as the world's most famous prisoner is led to one of his former palaces to face justice -- appearing, she says, disheveled and confused.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALLARD: He probably had no idea what was getting ready to happen to him. And so, he was just checking it out minute by minute, you know -- "What's next, who's this, where are they taking me?"

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: One top U.S. commander later tells CNN Saddam Hussein first thought he was being brought there to be shot. Apparently realizing he won't, he smiles and exchanges words with his escorts. And in a haunting moment for Ballard, the man who sometimes needed just a look to inflict unspeakable harm stares her down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALLARD: Definitely stopped and looked at me like dead-on, like, "Who are you," you know, and "How did you get in this room, and why are you taking my picture?" I mean, I definitely felt a really serious vibe from him at that point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: She captures Saddam's courtroom theatrics, clicks away as he's escorted out, then turns her lens towards some other very fearsome men -- Saddam's former aids, as they line up for a perp walk. Winning access of a more sublime nature, Karen Ballard also is side by side with former U.S. Administrator Paul Bremer during his final week in Iraq.

Typically for Bremer, he's constantly on the move, meeting with Iraqis of various alliances, including a feast with a cousin of renegade cleric Muktada al-Sadr (ph). She describes a man who's focused, better-liked by Iraqis than public impression might indicate, with one characteristic that stays in Ballard's mind.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALLARD: His ability to not be afraid, to take a risk, to go out into Baghdad. He did it every day, unless he was on the road.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: Handover day -- events moving unexpectedly fast. Bremer and his team gather. With what appears to be lightning speed, Iraq becomes sovereign. Bremer gestures, "It's yours now." As he's shuttled out in an armada of security, one last reflective look at what he's leaving behind. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, which candidate is doing the best at wooing minority voters? The question could be the key to winning the race. The newest polls ahead on LIVE FROM...

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PHILLIPS: Live to Cedar Rapids, Iowa now. The president of the United States -- what he's calling the "Ask President Bush Forum" at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids. Let's listen in...

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Well, Iowa's attracting a lot of attention from the candidates. President Bush live there, trying to change his luck in this battleground state. He narrowly lost Iowa back in 2000, you may remember. Here with Democratic reaction to Bush's Iowa stop, Ann Louis, chairwoman of the DNC Women's Vote Center, and former counselor to President Clinton. Nice to have you with us, Ann.

ANN LOUIS, DNC WOMEN'S VOTE CENTER: Glad to be here.

PHILLIPS: Well, we touched a little bit there with the president. I guess, first of all, I should get you to respond. He made a little dig there to Edwards and Kerry with regard to Congress supporting more funds for those in uniform right now, fighting overseas. I'd better let you respond to that.

LEWIS: Well, it is interesting George Bush can't talk very long about his own policies without having to go negative and really attack his opponents. But look, the question before voters here is, is our country safer, is it stronger, are we as safe and secure as we should be?

John Kerry and John Edwards have a very different answer to that question. The 9/11 Commission that's going to come out Thursday, I think, is going to make some very strong comments on what we should be doing that we aren't, the fact that we haven't changed our intelligence, for example, for more than three years.

We really need some different systems. And if George Bush wants to go back and talk about that $87 billion, then we're going to go back and say, "You know what? When we have troops in the field, we ought to be putting our money forward to give those troops the equipment they need." That was the vote, as I recall, that also included more money for Halliburton.

John Kerry and John Edwards...

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