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Singapore Army Aids Indonesia; Interview With Senator Frank Lautenberg
Aired January 07, 2005 - 15:00 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Topping the news this hour, an internal CIA report that is not kind to former director George Tenet. The report classified, but those who have read it tell it's a high- level recommendation that Tenet and several others be held accountable for failing to properly deal with the terror threat before 9/11. Tenet left the CIA under a cloud of controversy in June.
Still talking up tort reform. President Bush in Michigan today. He told an auto worker heavy crowd near Detroit there are just too many junk lawsuits in the system. Automakers are getting clobbered by asbestos-related illness lawsuits. The president hasn't endorsed a solution yet, but he does favor capping malpractice claims.
Skiers loving it. Everybody else, well, dealing with it. Another punch for the shovel-weary Northern Californians. Fresh snow already falling on Sacramento and points north. Another three to five feet expected in the Sierras. Best advice for the next four days? Stay home, hot chocolate, rinse and repeat.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Twelve days after the most horrendous natural disaster in modern history, the U.S. military says it can finally see the top of the crisis curve, which means the magnitude of the tsunami tragedy and the staggering needs of both the dead and the living are only now just coming into focus.
You've heard it said a definitive death toll may never be known, but the latest reports compiled by CNN approach 156,000. Thousands more remain and may forever be unaccounted for. Chopper by chopper, truck by truck, U.S. troops are now hand-delivering food and medicine in Sri Lanka, as well as here in northern Indonesia. One staff sergeant tells CNN his unit has only one objective -- quote -- They "want to do more."
In addition to global aid now pegged at roughly $4 billion in government pledges alone, the group of seven wealthy nations says it will suspend the ravaged nations' considerable debts.
Wrapping up almost a week in those nations, Secretary of State Colin Powell toured an aid distribution hub in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo. The U.N. says it expects to reach every single Sri Lankan in need by the weekend.
In an exclusive interview with CNN's John King, Powell says he can't wait to report back to President Bush.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: The first thing I'll say is that he should be very pleased with the way that U.S. government agencies, especially the U.S. agency for the national development, and the military have responded. And in all the countries that I visited, they were thankful of that. Now we have to move on to the recovery and reconstruction phase.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Well, it's not only the U.S. military that is committing time and resources to get people the help who need it. The tiny Singapore army is hitting the ground running with almost all of its resources.
CNN senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy has the story from Indonesia.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Doctor Kevin Teh and his colleagues from the Singapore's army mobile surgical team on their way to work along with other doctors, nurses, construction engineers and logistic and communication specialists, hitting the beaches at the devastated town of Meulaboh.
Following them come amphibious supply vehicles and bulldozers, all part of Singapore's effort to turn a debris-strewn shoreline into a hub for relief work all along the hard-hit western coast. The operation is being run from the helicopter landing ship Endurance.
COL. TAN CHUAN-JIN, SINGAPORE ARMY: The focus really is in terms of providing access. And I think that's important, because once the floodgate is open, hopefully other things will flow in.
CHINOY: As one of Indonesia's closest neighbors, with many of its people speaking the same language, Singapore has used its local knowledge and contacts with the Indonesian military to move rapidly here. Meulaboh, once a prosperous town of 50,000, desperately needs the help.
As we drove through its flattened center with the Singaporeans, residents were scavenging for the pieces of their lives. We found 12- year-old Uday (ph) and his 10-year-old brother, Anga (ph), looking for plastic pots and pans and the occasional toy.
"We used to live in a wooden house," says Uday. "It's gone now."
"And we don't have a grandma anymore," adds Anga.
Chaifal Bayir (ph) stops the Singaporean soldiers to guide them to what is left of his neighborhood. Outside the remains of his house, two corpses, one of a child. He pleads for help to remove them. The Singaporeans promise to inform the Indonesian army.
At a nearby refugee camp, the Singapore army has set up a clinic under a tent. They are treating more than 150 people a day.
(on camera): The people of Meulaboh were forced to survive with virtually no medical care for more than a week. By the time the Singaporeans arrived and set up this clinic, many relatively minor wounds has been dangerously infected.
(voice-over): Seventeen-year-old Nirwalia (ph) lived through the tsunami by clinging on to a refrigerator door. A 4-year-old with her fell off and died. She is cut and bruised. Her father, Lilee (ph), who was away when the tsunami hit, says that's the least of his worries.
"When I came back and she saw me for the first time," he says, "she was so traumatized, she didn't recognize me. She was terrified. She still can't recognize her friends and relatives. And she won't talk."
A Singapore army psychologist tries to draw her out, with little success. Finally, we caught up again with Doctor Teh at his mobile emergency room and surgical theater based in Meulaboh's damaged, but still functioning hospital, where many of the local doctors were killed. This woman's leg was fractured when she was thrown into a tree by the tsunami. It's taken 11 days for her to get help.
MAJ. KEVIN TEH, SINGAPORE ARMY DOCTOR: It feels damn good. This makes you feel -- reminds you why you became a doctor in the first place. The gratitude on the villagers' faces is so pure.
CHINOY: Amidst misery and suffering on an unimaginable scale, at least one ray of hope.
Mike Chinoy, CNN, Meulaboh, Indonesia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Stay with CNN through the day for the latest news from the region. And be sure to tune in this evening for our prime-time special, "Turning the Tide," 7:00 Eastern right here on CNN.
PHILLIPS: To the fight for Iraq now, first Baquba.
Insurgents overnight ambushed a combined coalition-Iraqi military patrol, but this time did not get the upper hand. There was a firefight. One of the attackers was killed. More than 30 were captured. The soldiers were searching for hidden weapons north of Baghdad at the time. It follows as particularly deadly day for U.S. troops. Seven U.S. Army soldiers and two Marines were killed in separate incidents today, the soldiers when their vehicle struck a roadside explosive. Not details on the Marines, except that they were conducting operations in the rest of al-Anbar Province.
And the Pentagon is dispatching a retired four-star general to Iraq to assess the deployment and training of Iraqi troops. General Gary Luck is the former commander of all U.S. forces in South Korea and advised General Tommy Franks on the initial Iraq invasion. O'BRIEN: President Bush mentioned that military review mission today in the Oval Office, saying it is time to coincide with the looming Election Day and beyond.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know it's hard, but it's hard for a reason. And the reason it's hard is because there are a handful of folks who fear freedom. And the job of the world, those of us in the world who desire for there to be peace is to be aggressive in the spread of freedom, is to stand with those great citizens in Iraq who want to vote. And that's exactly what we will do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: That was President Bush in the Oval Office this morning.
Military officials telling CNN the training of Iraqi forces causing great concern at the Pentagon, about half the required number of troops reportedly trained to their standards.
Court-martial proceedings moved forward today for the soldier accused of leading a pattern of abuse at a Baghdad prison. Abu Ghraib, it was called, Charles Graner, an Army Reservist from Pennsylvania, charged with 10 counts that include assault and conspiracy. In accordance with the rules of military justice, a panel of officers and noncommissioned officers was seated today as his jury.
Graner, pictured here in the glasses and the cap, one of several soldiers who personified the much publicized case of alleged abuse at Abu Ghraib. If convicted, he could be sentenced to more than 17 years in prison. Opening statements set for Monday.
PHILLIPS: It happened more than 40 years ago on a dark highway in rural Mississippi. Three civil rights workers were fatally shot in a killing that would go unprosecuted by the state for four decades. But now one man is charged.
CNN's Eric Philips joins us live from Philadelphia, Mississippi, with more -- Eric.
ERIC PHILIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, good afternoon.
That one man is 79-year-old Edgar Ray Killen. Killen made his way into the Neshoba County courthouse this morning at about 11:00 a.m. local time. At this stage of life, Killen is looking somewhat frail, very cooperative where authorities were concerned, made his way into the courthouse without incident.
The arraignment itself went -- pretty much a procedural arraignment for the most part. The three murder charges were read against Killen. He simply responded, not guilty. But then after the arraignment was over, outside the courthouse, some of his family members, with emotions running very high, a man identified as his brother attacked one of the cameramen, one of the media cameramen who was attempting to interview him.
Of course, emotions have been running very high all the way around where this case is concerned, even stemming back more than 40 years to when those three civil rights workers were killed, the three of them making their way to Meridian when they were stopped by Ku Klux Klan members. They were beaten, shot, and their bodies were buried in a nearby earthen dam.
Although seven men were charged federally with the federal crime of conspiracy, no one was ever charged with the state crime of murder until now. And some are saying that this indictment of Edgar Ray Killen is a victory, but just a beginning. Some are hoping and calling and this community calling for others who were involved in these murders who are still alive to also be indicted, but the DA told me today, after the arraignment, that that is unlikely, unless some new evidence surfaces -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Eric, just quickly, that's what I was reading earlier today. Possibly seven other individuals could be alive, could be involved. But is he now telling you that, the DA, that that's definitely not possible?
PHILIPS: The Neshoba County DA, Mark Duncan, told me today that, although there are others who have been named in what happened against those three civil rights workers, what happened when they presented all of this evidence to the grand jury, those other people were involved in that evidence. Evidence was presented against them as well. They tried to present as inclusive a presentation as possible.
But the grand jury only returned a guilty indictment against Edgar Ray Killen. And he says, unless some new evidence surfaces, it's doubtful that those others will face indictments.
PHILLIPS: Well, at least one man is charged. Eric Philips, thank you so much -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: The Department of Education says it did nothing wrong when it paid a conservative talk show host more than $200,000 to promote the No Child Left Behind program. But should the host have told us?
Armstrong, why didn't you tell us? We'll talk about that straight ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ZAHI HAWASS, SUPREME COUNCIL OF ANTIQUITIES: When I opened the sarcophagus for the first time, I looked at his face. I felt the magic and the mystery of King Tut.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: What did he say?
(CROSSTALK) O'BRIEN: Anyway, scientists are hoping that an up-close look at King Tut will solve the mystery. Did he have a condo made of stone-a? How was the boy king? Was he murdered? Could be.
PHILLIPS: We're going to tell you.
O'BRIEN: We're calling it "CSI: Cairo" and it will be coming up shortly.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: if you can't trust a pundit, whom can you trust? Love them or hate them, you probably assume, even in these jaded times, the opinions they espouse are their own and their only mission is the intellectual gratification of winning over the rest of us.
Well, maybe not. Today, we learn the well-known conservative commentator Armstrong Williams, a frequent visitor to CNN, accepted $240,000 from the Education Department to talk up the administration's No Child Left Behind program in his myriad media appearances. William says that the program is -- quote -- "something I believe in," but critics in Washington and beyond say the deal smacks of a legal government propaganda.
O'BRIEN: Now, one of those critics sought a congressional investigation last October into the government contract at the heart of the controversy.
He is Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg, that chamber's Governmental Affairs Committee. And he joins us today from New York City.
Senator, good to have you with us.
SEN. FRANK LAUTENBERG (D), NEW JERSEY: Nice to be here.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the publicity and propaganda law. I suspect a lot of people don't know there is such a thing. I've got a brief excerpt of what it says. I just want to read it really quickly here.
It says: "No part of any appropriation contained in this or any other act shall be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofore authorized by Congress." These are attached to appropriation bills, which is the money that is dolled out. And the idea here is that, if there's any public relations work done on the part of the administration or the federal government, it has to be out front, has to be quite clear where that all is coming from. Correct?
LAUTENBERG: Yes. Well, and it shouldn't be introduced through fake news releases that this administration has done so skillfully, because this isn't the first time we have seen this. It's about the third time with different departments of government, where they issue something that looks like a news report, often with a reporter that has no credibility, but is rather an actor. And they come on the air and they say, well, this bill, No Children Left Behind, or the Medicare bill, different than what is really there, according to the propaganda tapes of the government.
O'BRIEN: All right, and what you are talking about are these so- called video news releases, which are made to look like real news packages, as we call them in our businesses. And I guess you could say Armstrong Williams in that context really a similar kind of thing.
LAUTENBERG: Yes, but you know something? He's certainly at fault, because, as a commentator, he ought to be looking for objectivity. That's usually the trademark.
But how about the government's responsibility, the administration's responsibility for doing these things, for participating in what amounts to constituent fraud? They give out government money without having authorization to do so.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about Armstrong Williams for a minute. He said this to Bill Hemmer this morning. Let's listen briefly to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I made it clear because it's something that really believed in as a commentator, something I wrote often about -- that I would use my contacts with people that I knew in different media outlets from time to time to get them to talk about No Child Left Behind.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: OK. Stop there. A couple of questions here.
Did you disclose to your readers, did you disclose to your viewers about the transaction?
WILLIAMS: Listen, I disclosed to different people whose airwaves that we use. I disclosed it to different commentators. I don't -- I can't recall whether I disclosed it to the audience or not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: I think another way of saying that is, no, he didn't disclose. Now, if he had disclosed it, would it have been any different?
LAUTENBERG: Well, I think it would have been a lot different, because people are induced or, forgive me, but seduced to believe that these programs have a lot more value than they have.
And what a coincidence that these ads were running primarily before the last election. The same thing with Medicare, which goes into place in 2006. There was a fine assessed in Medicare news manipulation to collect back $80,000 from an employee who had managed the manipulation of the news. This is the type of thing that you see in nondemocratic societies, al a Soviet Union. That shouldn't be happening.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: That's an explosive charge there.
A couple of statements from the administration I want to get across here. Scott McClellan, White House spokesman, on Air Force One had this to say: "That was a decision by the Department of Education, a contracting matter. You ought to direct those questions to the Department of Education," big sidestep there.
Then the Department of Education had this: "The contract paid to provide the straightforward distribution of information about the department's mission and the No Child Left Behind, a permissible use of taxpayer funds under legal government contracting procedures."
Clearly, you have a dispute on that last point there.
LAUTENBERG: Well, the Government Accountability Office doesn't agree with them.
And if that was supposed to be a message from the government, then it should have said paid for by the federal government. But they don't say anything like that. And it is impermissible to use taxpayers' money to promote the campaign, elections campaigns in particular of a particular person. It should not happen.
O'BRIEN: All right, you wrote a letter to the president.
LAUTENBERG: We did.
O'BRIEN: I have it right here. Obviously, folks can read at home. But, basically, what he says is, get the money back, get the $240,000 back.
LAUTENBERG: Right.
O'BRIEN: We have talked to Armstrong Williams. Ed Henry on Capitol Hill spoke to him just a little while ago. He said, no, I'm not giving the money back, but I'm not going to take another contract like this again. What does that tell you?
LAUTENBERG: Well, it tells me that there are two sides to Williams' estimate of the truth. One is that, well, I have taken the money to do something inappropriate, to say the least. But, OK, I'm not going to do it in the future.
Well, he shouldn't have done it in the first place. And this is simply part of the cover-up mechanism that they did, put the money in your pocket and go away with the truth.
O'BRIEN: All right, final thought here. Money makes the beltway go 'round. And you and everybody else in Congress has received money from various lobbyists and special interests over the years. And that, of course, can affect the way one thinks about a vote and isn't always evident when votes are taken. Is that any different than what we're seeing here with Armstrong Williams?
LAUTENBERG: That's quite an assertion that you are making, Miles, that, when do you that, you automatically are tied into promoting their cause.
No, what happens in most cases is when someone makes a contribution, they have a right to present a case, just as someone who is an ordinary constituent does. But that doesn't mean that you have to agree or go along with their requests. We do that very cautiously. If someone brings something of interest, something of knowledge to us about a particular program or something, I'm not hesitant at all to say there's a new kind of telephone in the works, new kind of communications link, there's a new drug, there's a new product, but it's not intended to promote the company or promote the product.
It's intended to make the people aware. And if it's my judgment and someone hasn't been lurking in the back ready to give a check to my campaign, I feel conscience clear to do it. That is not what happened here. This was a deliberate, you'll forgive me, payoff to manipulate and skew the news.
O'BRIEN: All right, Senator Frank Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, thanks for coming in. We appreciate it.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: All right.
You can hear from Armstrong Williams live just a little over an hour from now. He'll be joining the crew at CROSSFIRE. That's at 4:30 Eastern, 1:30 Pacific.
PHILLIPS: He was one of the biggest celebrities of his time, a young royal with a vast empire. And this is the first time in recent memory the world is getting to see his face. Scientists are hoping a closer look at Egypt's ancient King Tut will unravel a mystery -- that story straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER UPDATE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(STEVE MARTIN SINGS "KING TUT")
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIPS: I was wondering if we were going to do that. Miles has been singing it all day.
Now, contrary to the scholarly findings of one Steve Martin, King Tut was neither born in Arizona, Miles, nor moved to Babylonia. But genuine researchers have now popped the top on the boy king's stone coffin to apply modern technology to his ancient remains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HAWASS: When I opened the sarcophagus for the first time, I looked at his face. I felt the magic.
PHILLIPS: Doctor Zahi Hawass is Egypt's secretary general of Supreme Council of Antiquities and is proud to be leading the first all-Egyptian study of his country's most famous pharaoh.
But others have gone before and, in Dr. Hawass' opinion, left the body in pretty sorry shape trying to pry off Tut's mask. Still, his head is in remarkable condition for someone who lived in 1300 B.C.
HAWASS: I really feel great, looking at this mummy now, seeing the face of King Tut that I always saw in pictures, even bad pictures. I have never seen a good photograph of Tutankhamen.
PHILLIPS: Never mind that King Tut predated photography by a good 3,000 years or so. He's ready for his closeup now; 1,700 images were taken during the 15-minute CAT scan, providing the first virtual image of the king's face. In addition to getting an idea of what Tut looked like before his extreme pyramid makeover, the study is also a little bit "CSI: Cairo."
HAWASS: The purpose of this examination is really to look inside King Tut to find out the cause of his death, why he died, to find out the age when he died and also any health diseases or anything happened to this great king.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Now, Thursday morning was the first time King Tut's mummy case was opened since a British mission examined it in 1986. And today, Dr. Hawass may be reconsidering his examine of King Tut. He says he can't dismiss legends of the mummy's curse after almost having a car accident and having the CAT scan computer completely stop for two hours.
O'BRIEN: King Tut got in a car accident, then, huh? Is that what you said? I'm sorry. I'm confused.
All right, somewhere, a closet slacker is snickering. Someone with a job at the Census Bureau in Washington state apparently spent a little bit too much time watching MTV in the '90s, specifically "Beavis and Butt-Head" cartoons. Remember that? Fire. Fire.
Bureau records show that an unknown person decided to alter the name of a Seattle area body of water from Lake Bevis, its legitimate name, to Lake Butt-Head. Now, that is clearly an homage to the animated anarchists who enjoyed conflagrations. Now, Tennessee officials would do well to make sure that no one in their census unit renames a certain city Johnny Knoxville. That's the host of "Jackass" for you demographically challenged folks.
PHILLIPS: "Jackass." O'BRIEN: I didn't know it. And we're not even going to touch the ski resort in Wyoming, Jackson...
PHILLIPS: You know, can I just tell you that Judy Woodruff is going to shoot us both?
O'BRIEN: Yes, Jackson -- yes, yes. I feel bad that we just leave it at that. But Judy has learned to endure us and press on to more important matters.
She's much...
(CROSSTALK)
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: I just want to find Lake Kyra and Mountain Miles, or Miles Mountain, whatever it is. OK.
PHILLIPS: It's a very serene place, Judy. I know it's hard to believe.
O'BRIEN: Deep in the Woodruff, you will find it.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: All right, we'll see you.
WOODRUFF: Time for the weekend. OK. Thank you both.
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 7, 2005 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Topping the news this hour, an internal CIA report that is not kind to former director George Tenet. The report classified, but those who have read it tell it's a high- level recommendation that Tenet and several others be held accountable for failing to properly deal with the terror threat before 9/11. Tenet left the CIA under a cloud of controversy in June.
Still talking up tort reform. President Bush in Michigan today. He told an auto worker heavy crowd near Detroit there are just too many junk lawsuits in the system. Automakers are getting clobbered by asbestos-related illness lawsuits. The president hasn't endorsed a solution yet, but he does favor capping malpractice claims.
Skiers loving it. Everybody else, well, dealing with it. Another punch for the shovel-weary Northern Californians. Fresh snow already falling on Sacramento and points north. Another three to five feet expected in the Sierras. Best advice for the next four days? Stay home, hot chocolate, rinse and repeat.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Twelve days after the most horrendous natural disaster in modern history, the U.S. military says it can finally see the top of the crisis curve, which means the magnitude of the tsunami tragedy and the staggering needs of both the dead and the living are only now just coming into focus.
You've heard it said a definitive death toll may never be known, but the latest reports compiled by CNN approach 156,000. Thousands more remain and may forever be unaccounted for. Chopper by chopper, truck by truck, U.S. troops are now hand-delivering food and medicine in Sri Lanka, as well as here in northern Indonesia. One staff sergeant tells CNN his unit has only one objective -- quote -- They "want to do more."
In addition to global aid now pegged at roughly $4 billion in government pledges alone, the group of seven wealthy nations says it will suspend the ravaged nations' considerable debts.
Wrapping up almost a week in those nations, Secretary of State Colin Powell toured an aid distribution hub in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo. The U.N. says it expects to reach every single Sri Lankan in need by the weekend.
In an exclusive interview with CNN's John King, Powell says he can't wait to report back to President Bush.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: The first thing I'll say is that he should be very pleased with the way that U.S. government agencies, especially the U.S. agency for the national development, and the military have responded. And in all the countries that I visited, they were thankful of that. Now we have to move on to the recovery and reconstruction phase.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Well, it's not only the U.S. military that is committing time and resources to get people the help who need it. The tiny Singapore army is hitting the ground running with almost all of its resources.
CNN senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy has the story from Indonesia.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Doctor Kevin Teh and his colleagues from the Singapore's army mobile surgical team on their way to work along with other doctors, nurses, construction engineers and logistic and communication specialists, hitting the beaches at the devastated town of Meulaboh.
Following them come amphibious supply vehicles and bulldozers, all part of Singapore's effort to turn a debris-strewn shoreline into a hub for relief work all along the hard-hit western coast. The operation is being run from the helicopter landing ship Endurance.
COL. TAN CHUAN-JIN, SINGAPORE ARMY: The focus really is in terms of providing access. And I think that's important, because once the floodgate is open, hopefully other things will flow in.
CHINOY: As one of Indonesia's closest neighbors, with many of its people speaking the same language, Singapore has used its local knowledge and contacts with the Indonesian military to move rapidly here. Meulaboh, once a prosperous town of 50,000, desperately needs the help.
As we drove through its flattened center with the Singaporeans, residents were scavenging for the pieces of their lives. We found 12- year-old Uday (ph) and his 10-year-old brother, Anga (ph), looking for plastic pots and pans and the occasional toy.
"We used to live in a wooden house," says Uday. "It's gone now."
"And we don't have a grandma anymore," adds Anga.
Chaifal Bayir (ph) stops the Singaporean soldiers to guide them to what is left of his neighborhood. Outside the remains of his house, two corpses, one of a child. He pleads for help to remove them. The Singaporeans promise to inform the Indonesian army.
At a nearby refugee camp, the Singapore army has set up a clinic under a tent. They are treating more than 150 people a day.
(on camera): The people of Meulaboh were forced to survive with virtually no medical care for more than a week. By the time the Singaporeans arrived and set up this clinic, many relatively minor wounds has been dangerously infected.
(voice-over): Seventeen-year-old Nirwalia (ph) lived through the tsunami by clinging on to a refrigerator door. A 4-year-old with her fell off and died. She is cut and bruised. Her father, Lilee (ph), who was away when the tsunami hit, says that's the least of his worries.
"When I came back and she saw me for the first time," he says, "she was so traumatized, she didn't recognize me. She was terrified. She still can't recognize her friends and relatives. And she won't talk."
A Singapore army psychologist tries to draw her out, with little success. Finally, we caught up again with Doctor Teh at his mobile emergency room and surgical theater based in Meulaboh's damaged, but still functioning hospital, where many of the local doctors were killed. This woman's leg was fractured when she was thrown into a tree by the tsunami. It's taken 11 days for her to get help.
MAJ. KEVIN TEH, SINGAPORE ARMY DOCTOR: It feels damn good. This makes you feel -- reminds you why you became a doctor in the first place. The gratitude on the villagers' faces is so pure.
CHINOY: Amidst misery and suffering on an unimaginable scale, at least one ray of hope.
Mike Chinoy, CNN, Meulaboh, Indonesia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Stay with CNN through the day for the latest news from the region. And be sure to tune in this evening for our prime-time special, "Turning the Tide," 7:00 Eastern right here on CNN.
PHILLIPS: To the fight for Iraq now, first Baquba.
Insurgents overnight ambushed a combined coalition-Iraqi military patrol, but this time did not get the upper hand. There was a firefight. One of the attackers was killed. More than 30 were captured. The soldiers were searching for hidden weapons north of Baghdad at the time. It follows as particularly deadly day for U.S. troops. Seven U.S. Army soldiers and two Marines were killed in separate incidents today, the soldiers when their vehicle struck a roadside explosive. Not details on the Marines, except that they were conducting operations in the rest of al-Anbar Province.
And the Pentagon is dispatching a retired four-star general to Iraq to assess the deployment and training of Iraqi troops. General Gary Luck is the former commander of all U.S. forces in South Korea and advised General Tommy Franks on the initial Iraq invasion. O'BRIEN: President Bush mentioned that military review mission today in the Oval Office, saying it is time to coincide with the looming Election Day and beyond.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know it's hard, but it's hard for a reason. And the reason it's hard is because there are a handful of folks who fear freedom. And the job of the world, those of us in the world who desire for there to be peace is to be aggressive in the spread of freedom, is to stand with those great citizens in Iraq who want to vote. And that's exactly what we will do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: That was President Bush in the Oval Office this morning.
Military officials telling CNN the training of Iraqi forces causing great concern at the Pentagon, about half the required number of troops reportedly trained to their standards.
Court-martial proceedings moved forward today for the soldier accused of leading a pattern of abuse at a Baghdad prison. Abu Ghraib, it was called, Charles Graner, an Army Reservist from Pennsylvania, charged with 10 counts that include assault and conspiracy. In accordance with the rules of military justice, a panel of officers and noncommissioned officers was seated today as his jury.
Graner, pictured here in the glasses and the cap, one of several soldiers who personified the much publicized case of alleged abuse at Abu Ghraib. If convicted, he could be sentenced to more than 17 years in prison. Opening statements set for Monday.
PHILLIPS: It happened more than 40 years ago on a dark highway in rural Mississippi. Three civil rights workers were fatally shot in a killing that would go unprosecuted by the state for four decades. But now one man is charged.
CNN's Eric Philips joins us live from Philadelphia, Mississippi, with more -- Eric.
ERIC PHILIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, good afternoon.
That one man is 79-year-old Edgar Ray Killen. Killen made his way into the Neshoba County courthouse this morning at about 11:00 a.m. local time. At this stage of life, Killen is looking somewhat frail, very cooperative where authorities were concerned, made his way into the courthouse without incident.
The arraignment itself went -- pretty much a procedural arraignment for the most part. The three murder charges were read against Killen. He simply responded, not guilty. But then after the arraignment was over, outside the courthouse, some of his family members, with emotions running very high, a man identified as his brother attacked one of the cameramen, one of the media cameramen who was attempting to interview him.
Of course, emotions have been running very high all the way around where this case is concerned, even stemming back more than 40 years to when those three civil rights workers were killed, the three of them making their way to Meridian when they were stopped by Ku Klux Klan members. They were beaten, shot, and their bodies were buried in a nearby earthen dam.
Although seven men were charged federally with the federal crime of conspiracy, no one was ever charged with the state crime of murder until now. And some are saying that this indictment of Edgar Ray Killen is a victory, but just a beginning. Some are hoping and calling and this community calling for others who were involved in these murders who are still alive to also be indicted, but the DA told me today, after the arraignment, that that is unlikely, unless some new evidence surfaces -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Eric, just quickly, that's what I was reading earlier today. Possibly seven other individuals could be alive, could be involved. But is he now telling you that, the DA, that that's definitely not possible?
PHILIPS: The Neshoba County DA, Mark Duncan, told me today that, although there are others who have been named in what happened against those three civil rights workers, what happened when they presented all of this evidence to the grand jury, those other people were involved in that evidence. Evidence was presented against them as well. They tried to present as inclusive a presentation as possible.
But the grand jury only returned a guilty indictment against Edgar Ray Killen. And he says, unless some new evidence surfaces, it's doubtful that those others will face indictments.
PHILLIPS: Well, at least one man is charged. Eric Philips, thank you so much -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: The Department of Education says it did nothing wrong when it paid a conservative talk show host more than $200,000 to promote the No Child Left Behind program. But should the host have told us?
Armstrong, why didn't you tell us? We'll talk about that straight ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ZAHI HAWASS, SUPREME COUNCIL OF ANTIQUITIES: When I opened the sarcophagus for the first time, I looked at his face. I felt the magic and the mystery of King Tut.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: What did he say?
(CROSSTALK) O'BRIEN: Anyway, scientists are hoping that an up-close look at King Tut will solve the mystery. Did he have a condo made of stone-a? How was the boy king? Was he murdered? Could be.
PHILLIPS: We're going to tell you.
O'BRIEN: We're calling it "CSI: Cairo" and it will be coming up shortly.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: if you can't trust a pundit, whom can you trust? Love them or hate them, you probably assume, even in these jaded times, the opinions they espouse are their own and their only mission is the intellectual gratification of winning over the rest of us.
Well, maybe not. Today, we learn the well-known conservative commentator Armstrong Williams, a frequent visitor to CNN, accepted $240,000 from the Education Department to talk up the administration's No Child Left Behind program in his myriad media appearances. William says that the program is -- quote -- "something I believe in," but critics in Washington and beyond say the deal smacks of a legal government propaganda.
O'BRIEN: Now, one of those critics sought a congressional investigation last October into the government contract at the heart of the controversy.
He is Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg, that chamber's Governmental Affairs Committee. And he joins us today from New York City.
Senator, good to have you with us.
SEN. FRANK LAUTENBERG (D), NEW JERSEY: Nice to be here.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the publicity and propaganda law. I suspect a lot of people don't know there is such a thing. I've got a brief excerpt of what it says. I just want to read it really quickly here.
It says: "No part of any appropriation contained in this or any other act shall be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofore authorized by Congress." These are attached to appropriation bills, which is the money that is dolled out. And the idea here is that, if there's any public relations work done on the part of the administration or the federal government, it has to be out front, has to be quite clear where that all is coming from. Correct?
LAUTENBERG: Yes. Well, and it shouldn't be introduced through fake news releases that this administration has done so skillfully, because this isn't the first time we have seen this. It's about the third time with different departments of government, where they issue something that looks like a news report, often with a reporter that has no credibility, but is rather an actor. And they come on the air and they say, well, this bill, No Children Left Behind, or the Medicare bill, different than what is really there, according to the propaganda tapes of the government.
O'BRIEN: All right, and what you are talking about are these so- called video news releases, which are made to look like real news packages, as we call them in our businesses. And I guess you could say Armstrong Williams in that context really a similar kind of thing.
LAUTENBERG: Yes, but you know something? He's certainly at fault, because, as a commentator, he ought to be looking for objectivity. That's usually the trademark.
But how about the government's responsibility, the administration's responsibility for doing these things, for participating in what amounts to constituent fraud? They give out government money without having authorization to do so.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about Armstrong Williams for a minute. He said this to Bill Hemmer this morning. Let's listen briefly to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I made it clear because it's something that really believed in as a commentator, something I wrote often about -- that I would use my contacts with people that I knew in different media outlets from time to time to get them to talk about No Child Left Behind.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: OK. Stop there. A couple of questions here.
Did you disclose to your readers, did you disclose to your viewers about the transaction?
WILLIAMS: Listen, I disclosed to different people whose airwaves that we use. I disclosed it to different commentators. I don't -- I can't recall whether I disclosed it to the audience or not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: I think another way of saying that is, no, he didn't disclose. Now, if he had disclosed it, would it have been any different?
LAUTENBERG: Well, I think it would have been a lot different, because people are induced or, forgive me, but seduced to believe that these programs have a lot more value than they have.
And what a coincidence that these ads were running primarily before the last election. The same thing with Medicare, which goes into place in 2006. There was a fine assessed in Medicare news manipulation to collect back $80,000 from an employee who had managed the manipulation of the news. This is the type of thing that you see in nondemocratic societies, al a Soviet Union. That shouldn't be happening.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: That's an explosive charge there.
A couple of statements from the administration I want to get across here. Scott McClellan, White House spokesman, on Air Force One had this to say: "That was a decision by the Department of Education, a contracting matter. You ought to direct those questions to the Department of Education," big sidestep there.
Then the Department of Education had this: "The contract paid to provide the straightforward distribution of information about the department's mission and the No Child Left Behind, a permissible use of taxpayer funds under legal government contracting procedures."
Clearly, you have a dispute on that last point there.
LAUTENBERG: Well, the Government Accountability Office doesn't agree with them.
And if that was supposed to be a message from the government, then it should have said paid for by the federal government. But they don't say anything like that. And it is impermissible to use taxpayers' money to promote the campaign, elections campaigns in particular of a particular person. It should not happen.
O'BRIEN: All right, you wrote a letter to the president.
LAUTENBERG: We did.
O'BRIEN: I have it right here. Obviously, folks can read at home. But, basically, what he says is, get the money back, get the $240,000 back.
LAUTENBERG: Right.
O'BRIEN: We have talked to Armstrong Williams. Ed Henry on Capitol Hill spoke to him just a little while ago. He said, no, I'm not giving the money back, but I'm not going to take another contract like this again. What does that tell you?
LAUTENBERG: Well, it tells me that there are two sides to Williams' estimate of the truth. One is that, well, I have taken the money to do something inappropriate, to say the least. But, OK, I'm not going to do it in the future.
Well, he shouldn't have done it in the first place. And this is simply part of the cover-up mechanism that they did, put the money in your pocket and go away with the truth.
O'BRIEN: All right, final thought here. Money makes the beltway go 'round. And you and everybody else in Congress has received money from various lobbyists and special interests over the years. And that, of course, can affect the way one thinks about a vote and isn't always evident when votes are taken. Is that any different than what we're seeing here with Armstrong Williams?
LAUTENBERG: That's quite an assertion that you are making, Miles, that, when do you that, you automatically are tied into promoting their cause.
No, what happens in most cases is when someone makes a contribution, they have a right to present a case, just as someone who is an ordinary constituent does. But that doesn't mean that you have to agree or go along with their requests. We do that very cautiously. If someone brings something of interest, something of knowledge to us about a particular program or something, I'm not hesitant at all to say there's a new kind of telephone in the works, new kind of communications link, there's a new drug, there's a new product, but it's not intended to promote the company or promote the product.
It's intended to make the people aware. And if it's my judgment and someone hasn't been lurking in the back ready to give a check to my campaign, I feel conscience clear to do it. That is not what happened here. This was a deliberate, you'll forgive me, payoff to manipulate and skew the news.
O'BRIEN: All right, Senator Frank Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, thanks for coming in. We appreciate it.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: All right.
You can hear from Armstrong Williams live just a little over an hour from now. He'll be joining the crew at CROSSFIRE. That's at 4:30 Eastern, 1:30 Pacific.
PHILLIPS: He was one of the biggest celebrities of his time, a young royal with a vast empire. And this is the first time in recent memory the world is getting to see his face. Scientists are hoping a closer look at Egypt's ancient King Tut will unravel a mystery -- that story straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER UPDATE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(STEVE MARTIN SINGS "KING TUT")
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIPS: I was wondering if we were going to do that. Miles has been singing it all day.
Now, contrary to the scholarly findings of one Steve Martin, King Tut was neither born in Arizona, Miles, nor moved to Babylonia. But genuine researchers have now popped the top on the boy king's stone coffin to apply modern technology to his ancient remains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HAWASS: When I opened the sarcophagus for the first time, I looked at his face. I felt the magic.
PHILLIPS: Doctor Zahi Hawass is Egypt's secretary general of Supreme Council of Antiquities and is proud to be leading the first all-Egyptian study of his country's most famous pharaoh.
But others have gone before and, in Dr. Hawass' opinion, left the body in pretty sorry shape trying to pry off Tut's mask. Still, his head is in remarkable condition for someone who lived in 1300 B.C.
HAWASS: I really feel great, looking at this mummy now, seeing the face of King Tut that I always saw in pictures, even bad pictures. I have never seen a good photograph of Tutankhamen.
PHILLIPS: Never mind that King Tut predated photography by a good 3,000 years or so. He's ready for his closeup now; 1,700 images were taken during the 15-minute CAT scan, providing the first virtual image of the king's face. In addition to getting an idea of what Tut looked like before his extreme pyramid makeover, the study is also a little bit "CSI: Cairo."
HAWASS: The purpose of this examination is really to look inside King Tut to find out the cause of his death, why he died, to find out the age when he died and also any health diseases or anything happened to this great king.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Now, Thursday morning was the first time King Tut's mummy case was opened since a British mission examined it in 1986. And today, Dr. Hawass may be reconsidering his examine of King Tut. He says he can't dismiss legends of the mummy's curse after almost having a car accident and having the CAT scan computer completely stop for two hours.
O'BRIEN: King Tut got in a car accident, then, huh? Is that what you said? I'm sorry. I'm confused.
All right, somewhere, a closet slacker is snickering. Someone with a job at the Census Bureau in Washington state apparently spent a little bit too much time watching MTV in the '90s, specifically "Beavis and Butt-Head" cartoons. Remember that? Fire. Fire.
Bureau records show that an unknown person decided to alter the name of a Seattle area body of water from Lake Bevis, its legitimate name, to Lake Butt-Head. Now, that is clearly an homage to the animated anarchists who enjoyed conflagrations. Now, Tennessee officials would do well to make sure that no one in their census unit renames a certain city Johnny Knoxville. That's the host of "Jackass" for you demographically challenged folks.
PHILLIPS: "Jackass." O'BRIEN: I didn't know it. And we're not even going to touch the ski resort in Wyoming, Jackson...
PHILLIPS: You know, can I just tell you that Judy Woodruff is going to shoot us both?
O'BRIEN: Yes, Jackson -- yes, yes. I feel bad that we just leave it at that. But Judy has learned to endure us and press on to more important matters.
She's much...
(CROSSTALK)
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: I just want to find Lake Kyra and Mountain Miles, or Miles Mountain, whatever it is. OK.
PHILLIPS: It's a very serene place, Judy. I know it's hard to believe.
O'BRIEN: Deep in the Woodruff, you will find it.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: All right, we'll see you.
WOODRUFF: Time for the weekend. OK. Thank you both.
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