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Judge Priscilla Owen Confirmed; Vote on Bolton Nomination Expected Soon; Pentagon Denies Rumsfeld Gave Order to Shoot Down Cessna

Aired May 25, 2005 - 13:00   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: So, just how close was this plane to being shot down over the skies of Washington? The U.S. Military says the "Washington Post" got the story wrong.
MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: Some funny numbers at the Pentagon. An audit uncovers a potential security risk at the Department of Defense.

PHILLIPS: The runaway bride cannot face the altar, but now she's facing criminal charges. We're live with details on the indictment.

O'BRIEN: Surviving a house fire. The family in this home got out alive. We'll show you what to do if you're caught in such a fire.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

One's a judge whose judgment is very much at issue. The other is a diplomat accused of being less than diplomatic. One was just confirmed by the U.S. Senate for a seat on the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The other is expected to be confirmed for the U.S. ambassadorship to the United Nations, maybe as soon as tomorrow, but it may be close.

The newest member of the federal bench saw her nomination benched by Democrats for four years. And if you've been watching CNN, you know it took an extraordinary showdown and extraordinary compromise to get what looked like a run of the mill vote last hour.

CNN's Joe Johns has been through the mill himself in this ordeal. He's been sorting it all out for us. He joins us live with the latest.

Hi, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's very true, Kyra. Priscilla Owen, this is a nomination that has been four years in the confirming, finally came just a few minutes ago.

Of course, Priscilla Owen is from the president's home state of Texas, got a lot of support from Republicans and a lot of opposition from Democrats, who said she was an activist judge.

The Republicans, of course, said she was exemplary, the perfect person to use in this battle over filibusters. And she, of course, is the first person to go through.

The vote was pretty partisan and fairly close: 56 yes, 43 no. Two Democrats did vote for Priscilla Owen, including, interestingly enough, Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia. He's one of the people who was very much involved in the negotiations and very much opposed to that rules change that Republicans were trying to push through.

Talked to his office just a couple of minutes ago. His office says Robert Byrd has always supported conservative judges. He was simply fighting for the right for Democrats to be able to filibuster if they wanted to. He never said he would vote with them on the merits.

Of course, earlier today, the majority leader, the minority leader, out on the floor, talking about the battle over that agreement and trying to move forward. Let's listen to what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: I've been involved in two filibusters during my career of almost 19 years in the Senate. That's two more than most people have been involved in. Filibusters don't happen very often.

And so I would -- I would think we should just move beyond this. Let's go on and get the business of the country done. Let's not talk about nuclear option anymore. Let's let the Senate work its will.

SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), MAJORITY LEADER: I was not a party to that agreement, nor was our Republican leadership. It stops far short of guaranteeing up or down votes on all nominees. It stops far short of the principle on which this leadership stands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: So if you think you've heard the last of federal judges, you probably haven't. The truth of the matter is, this battle that ended today with the vote on Priscilla Owen, perhaps you'll hear it again, especially when there's a nominee for the Supreme Court.

Back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Joe Johns. I know it's far from over. We'll be talking again -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Bolton's nomination hasn't languished nearly as long as Priscilla Owen's, of course, or several others. But it's no less divisive. It reached the Senate floor by the skin of its teeth and with no recommendation by the foreign relations panel. So what happens now?

CNN's Andrea Koppel is watching that from the State Department for us -- Andrea.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, debate has now started on the Bolton nomination. You've got the senior senator from Indiana, Richard Lugar, who was also the chairman of the foreign relations committee, which sent that nomination, the Bolton nomination, to the floor of the Senate. He is now speaking, the first one to take to the floor.

The expectation is that there could be -- and I emphasize could be -- because Democrat and Republicans haven't worked out a deal as yet, up to 40 hours of debate on the nomination: 20 hours for the Republicans, 20 hours for the Democrats.

If that is the case, then the expectation is that the vote would not happen until sometime late tomorrow. That would also include the idea that you wouldn't have each side taking their full 20 hours. Both Democrats and Republican want to get out of town for the Memorial Day holiday.

As things stand right now, there is only one Republican who has openly broken ranks and said that he's going to vote against the Bolton nomination, and that is Senator George Voinovich of Ohio, someone who, although he supported the nomination in committee, said he would make good on his word and would vote against the nomination once it got to the floor.

He circulated a letter earlier this week to other senators explaining why he was opposed to the nomination. And he said, quote, "It is my concern that John Bolton's nomination sends a negative message to the world community and contradict the president's efforts. In these dangerous time, we cannot afford to put at risk our nation's ability to wage the war on terror with a controversial and ineffective ambassador to the United Nations."

But as things stand now, even Democrats are not holding out much hope that the Voinovich letter will be able to sway Republicans to vote against him, barring the idea that there would be a filibuster. And no Democrat is talking about that right now, Miles.

The expectation is that you would only need a simple majority, 51 votes. Republicans have 55 in the Senate. I've done a survey of those moderate swing vote Republicans, and their staffers telling CNN at this point there doesn't look to be a single other senator, Republican, out there who's prepared to vote against this nomination -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Andrea, so interesting, no threats of filibuster, no concern that this one -- now that we're so familiar with Robert's Rules of Order -- this one will pas the cloture test, 60 votes in order to go to a vote.

Is it possible this was part of that deal we just witnessed on Capitol Hill? Was there a wink and nod saying, OK, stay away from Bolton?

KOPPEL: I have not heard that, but then that's sort of out of my bailiwick, per se. I've been focusing strictly on the Bolton nomination.

And I can tell you right now that I think that there had been so much blood-letting, and there was so much emotion -- so many emotions vented over Priscilla Owen, that when it came down to the way that Democrats were going to push on the Bolton nomination, the sense that you get is there was enough blood that had been spilled in the committee, in Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and hours -- as we heard the chairman of that committee, who's still on the floor right now -- telling senators hours of witness testimony and whatnot that they really feel enough is enough. They've laid it out there, their reasons as to why Bolton should not get the nod.

O'BRIEN: All right. A little parliamentary battle fatigue, perhaps. All right. Andrea Koppel, the State Department, thanks.

PHILLIPS: Well, the Pentagon is shooting down a "Washington Post" report that Donald Rumsfeld authorized the shooting down of the tiny plane that violated D.C. airspace just two weeks ago.

CNN senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has been working this story. He gives us the details now -- Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, a very strong denial from the Pentagon today to a "Washington Post" story that was on the front pages of the paper this morning, quoting two federal officials as saying Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld gave the military authority to shoot down that small Cessna plane when it violated airspace over the nation's capital on May 11.

The Pentagon spokesman, Larry DiRita, says it just didn't happen. He says Rumsfeld was nearby, available for consultation, but that it never got to the point where he was brought on the line and asked for authority to shoot down the plane.

"The Post" said, quoted officials said their sources were corroborated by federal law enforcement source and said that the plane was as little as 15 seconds away from being shot down.

Again, the Pentagon disputed that account. Larry DiRita told CNN, quote, "The secretary was not asked to provide any authority." He says, "As such there is a zero percent chance that the next 15 seconds would have been any different than they turned out to be. Low level or disconnected sources are speculating, according to a theoretical timeline."

According to DiRita, "It is wrong, ill informed and misleading the public."

An unusually strong denial of this front page story by the Pentagon. And sources say that the Pentagon may ask "The Post" for a retraction. At the very least, they would like a correction of this story -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Jamie McIntyre, live from the Pentagon, thank you so much -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Well, by the end of the summer corporate and chartered airplanes may be buzzing over Washington with some regularity but nothing like they did pre-9/11. Later today, the fed's expected to announce a limited reopening of Reagan National Airport to what is known as general aviation, charter flights, for the first time in almost four years. But don't pack your bags just yet. Let me vector you through the myriad of restrictions.

Operations will be capped at 48 takeoffs and landings a day. That's two dozen of each. Flights will have to originate at one of a dozen gateway airports, where passengers, crew and aircraft will be screened and sanitized.

Crew and passenger manifests will have to be submitted to the TSA 24 hours in advance. Pilots and crew will have to have undergone and passed criminal background checks. And armed officers, a single armed officer will have to be on board.

Some in Congress, where everyone's a frequent flyer, of course, call this great news. But D.C. delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton calls the restrictions needlessly cumbersome.

PHILLIPS: Now to the security part of Social Security. Government auditors have found thousands of cases of federal workers using bogus or borrowed Social Security numbers, thereby blurring their true identities. And we're not talking bureaucrats here. These are Defense Department workers, civilian and military.

CNN's Lisa Sylvester has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The audit by the Social Security Administration's inspector general found more than 6,400 Department of Defense employees between 1997 and 2002 were working with bogus Social Security number. Nearly a third of those were using a deceased person's Social Security number or the Social Security number of a child.

DAN STEIN, FEDERATION FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM: If one government agency is hiring someone whose identity is not really known, whose paying on a Social Security number that was never issued or that belonged to someone else, it really represents a potential security threat.

SYLVESTER: The Social Security Administration matched W-2 forms against the information in its database. Sixty-four percent of those with invalid Social Security numbers were either active duty or reserve status. Thirty-six percent were civilian DOD employees.

According to the report, while the Social Security Administration offers all employers a verification service to screen potential employees, the inspector general could not find evidence that the Air Force or Coast Guard were verifying their employees' names and Social Security numbers.

MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: It uncovers a sloppy practice that has no justification, that's hard to really understand why it would be allowed to occur and that must be immediately fixed.

SYLVESTER: A Pentagon spokesperson said the DOD inspector general is in the process of reviewing the report and will take appropriate action as required.

The Coast Guard went even further, saying, "The Coast Guard investigates every employee, both military and civilian, at hiring, using a much more rigorous standard than a simple Social Security number verification."

But questions have also been raised over the lack of screening of private DOD contractor employees. Illegal aliens have been arrested working in restricted areas of the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

(on camera) Congressman John Hostettler, chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, sent the Department of Defense a letter, saying, "It is very disturbing to me that the DOD employs persons with unknown or unconfirmed identities who may take up positions with access to dangerous weapons or access to sensitive information." He is now demanding that the Pentagon provide proof that it is screening Social Security numbers.

Lisa Sylvester, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information, day and night.

O'BRIEN: Michael Jackson's defense team expected to wrap up the case today. Why isn't the man at the center of your screen there taking the stand? We'll have several reports from the courthouse throughout the afternoon.

SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The runaway bride is facing fines and possibly even prison time. I'm Sara Dorsey. I'll have a live report from Gwinnett County, Georgia, coming up.

O'BRIEN: And the smackdown. Burt Reynolds gets physical with a member of the media. The actor's spokesman says he was just kidding. See what you think when we show you what happened, ahead on LIVE FROM.

ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Defendant Michael Jackson arriving at Santa Maria, California, courthouse. Today's testimony could be the last in his child molestation trial. We're told the defense will rest after actor Chris Tucker leaves the stand today.

CNN's Ted Rowlands is covering it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The last defense witness, comedian Chris Tucker, is on the stand. He is finished direct testimony and now is being cross examined. It is expected that sometime this morning he will be done, and the defense will rest its case.

We understand that the prosecution will have a possible two-day rebuttal case, meaning that final arguments will be early next week and the jury will begin deliberating Michael Jackson's fate by mid- to the end of next week.

Now Chris Tucker, the comedian, spent considerable time with the accuser in this case and the accuser's family. And today on the stand, he has testified that the accuser himself, the young boy, was cunning, in his words, and had asked him for money on repeated occasions.

He also says that he was warned by his brother, in Las Vegas, about this family. And then he says he later warned Michael Jackson about the family. He said at one point he thought the mother was crazy, and after that, he pulled Michael Jackson aside and warned him about this family and warned him to stay away.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Santa Maria, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: All right. It's runaway bride update time. Since the night Jennifer Wilbanks traded her wedding veil for a beach towel and flew back from her not so excellent adventure, we have wondered what crime, if any at all, she'll be charged with.

Today, we wonder no long person. A Georgia district attorney asked for charges -- asked if he has charges for Wilbanks said, "I do."

CNN's Sara Dorsey, outside Atlanta's -- outside Atlanta, in Lawrenceville, Georgia, with more on that -- Sara.

DORSEY: Well, Miles, Jennifer Wilbanks, as you said, the woman known as the runaway bride, is in some serious hot water at this point, facing fines and possibly prison time for faking her own abduction and making up that story about being sexually assaulted.

Today a Gwinnett County grand jury charged Wilbanks with making a false statement, a felony that carries one to five years in prison, and also up to $10,000 in fines.

She's also charged with a misdemeanor of making a false report. That charge carries -- that charge, rather, carries up to 12 months in jail and up to $1,000 in fines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANNY PORTER, DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The decision to bring these charges before the grand jury was based on review of all the evidence that's been obtained to date, including the evidence that was obtained after the return of Jennifer Wilbanks. We believe that this -- this is a reasonable next step in the case, and we believe that the grand jury made the appropriate decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORSEY: On top of all that, the city of Duluth is asking the runaway bride for $43,000 to cover the cost of man hours used for her search.

Wilbanks' attorney is not commenting on today's charges, but in the past she says she does not believe Wilbanks committed a crime. And now, according to the mayor of Duluth, the attorney, along with Wilbanks, is willing to offer nearly $13,000 in restitution. Of course, that is nearly $30,000 less than what the city had asked for.

So far there is no agreement set in stone at this time. From here, according to the D.A., a bench warrant will be issued for Wilbanks' arrest. However, the D.A. says he's willing to work with her attorneys so she can turn herself in -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Sara, there is an issue of jurisdiction here. She was in New Mexico when she made that call. And yet these charges are in Gwinnett County, outside of Atlanta. What are her attorneys saying about that?

DORSEY: Her attorneys have basically just issued some blanket statements in the past. They're not speaking today. But I can tell you that Gwinnett County authorities here say the reason why they believe that they have jurisdiction and can go ahead and file charges is because Wilbanks made a call from New Mexico to authorities here in Gwinnett County, continuing that lie, continuing the story she was abducted by an Hispanic man and white woman and also she was sexually assaulted. They say that phone call gave them the right to make charges here in Gwinnett County.

O'BRIEN: Sara Dorsey, thank you very much.

DORSEY: Thank you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM, who's the next Karl Rove? The inside scoop on five future power brokers influencing how you'll vote.

Later on LIVE FROM, your house fills with smoke. Flames begin to rage. What do you do?

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can't even see more than a couple feet in front of me.

PHILLIPS: We take you inside surviving a fire.

Ahead on LIVE FROM... UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to hurt him, not kill him.

PHILLIPS: Bill Goldberg puts a smackdown on Hollywood. He's in the remake of "The Longest Yard," and he's telling us why he's no match for the U.S. Navy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Remember that book a few years ago, "The Millionaire Next Door"? Well, apparently it's pretty apt. There are a lot more of them out there, right, Susan Lisovicz?

(STOCK REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired May 25, 2005 - 13:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: So, just how close was this plane to being shot down over the skies of Washington? The U.S. Military says the "Washington Post" got the story wrong.
MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: Some funny numbers at the Pentagon. An audit uncovers a potential security risk at the Department of Defense.

PHILLIPS: The runaway bride cannot face the altar, but now she's facing criminal charges. We're live with details on the indictment.

O'BRIEN: Surviving a house fire. The family in this home got out alive. We'll show you what to do if you're caught in such a fire.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

One's a judge whose judgment is very much at issue. The other is a diplomat accused of being less than diplomatic. One was just confirmed by the U.S. Senate for a seat on the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The other is expected to be confirmed for the U.S. ambassadorship to the United Nations, maybe as soon as tomorrow, but it may be close.

The newest member of the federal bench saw her nomination benched by Democrats for four years. And if you've been watching CNN, you know it took an extraordinary showdown and extraordinary compromise to get what looked like a run of the mill vote last hour.

CNN's Joe Johns has been through the mill himself in this ordeal. He's been sorting it all out for us. He joins us live with the latest.

Hi, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's very true, Kyra. Priscilla Owen, this is a nomination that has been four years in the confirming, finally came just a few minutes ago.

Of course, Priscilla Owen is from the president's home state of Texas, got a lot of support from Republicans and a lot of opposition from Democrats, who said she was an activist judge.

The Republicans, of course, said she was exemplary, the perfect person to use in this battle over filibusters. And she, of course, is the first person to go through.

The vote was pretty partisan and fairly close: 56 yes, 43 no. Two Democrats did vote for Priscilla Owen, including, interestingly enough, Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia. He's one of the people who was very much involved in the negotiations and very much opposed to that rules change that Republicans were trying to push through.

Talked to his office just a couple of minutes ago. His office says Robert Byrd has always supported conservative judges. He was simply fighting for the right for Democrats to be able to filibuster if they wanted to. He never said he would vote with them on the merits.

Of course, earlier today, the majority leader, the minority leader, out on the floor, talking about the battle over that agreement and trying to move forward. Let's listen to what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: I've been involved in two filibusters during my career of almost 19 years in the Senate. That's two more than most people have been involved in. Filibusters don't happen very often.

And so I would -- I would think we should just move beyond this. Let's go on and get the business of the country done. Let's not talk about nuclear option anymore. Let's let the Senate work its will.

SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), MAJORITY LEADER: I was not a party to that agreement, nor was our Republican leadership. It stops far short of guaranteeing up or down votes on all nominees. It stops far short of the principle on which this leadership stands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: So if you think you've heard the last of federal judges, you probably haven't. The truth of the matter is, this battle that ended today with the vote on Priscilla Owen, perhaps you'll hear it again, especially when there's a nominee for the Supreme Court.

Back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Joe Johns. I know it's far from over. We'll be talking again -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Bolton's nomination hasn't languished nearly as long as Priscilla Owen's, of course, or several others. But it's no less divisive. It reached the Senate floor by the skin of its teeth and with no recommendation by the foreign relations panel. So what happens now?

CNN's Andrea Koppel is watching that from the State Department for us -- Andrea.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, debate has now started on the Bolton nomination. You've got the senior senator from Indiana, Richard Lugar, who was also the chairman of the foreign relations committee, which sent that nomination, the Bolton nomination, to the floor of the Senate. He is now speaking, the first one to take to the floor.

The expectation is that there could be -- and I emphasize could be -- because Democrat and Republicans haven't worked out a deal as yet, up to 40 hours of debate on the nomination: 20 hours for the Republicans, 20 hours for the Democrats.

If that is the case, then the expectation is that the vote would not happen until sometime late tomorrow. That would also include the idea that you wouldn't have each side taking their full 20 hours. Both Democrats and Republican want to get out of town for the Memorial Day holiday.

As things stand right now, there is only one Republican who has openly broken ranks and said that he's going to vote against the Bolton nomination, and that is Senator George Voinovich of Ohio, someone who, although he supported the nomination in committee, said he would make good on his word and would vote against the nomination once it got to the floor.

He circulated a letter earlier this week to other senators explaining why he was opposed to the nomination. And he said, quote, "It is my concern that John Bolton's nomination sends a negative message to the world community and contradict the president's efforts. In these dangerous time, we cannot afford to put at risk our nation's ability to wage the war on terror with a controversial and ineffective ambassador to the United Nations."

But as things stand now, even Democrats are not holding out much hope that the Voinovich letter will be able to sway Republicans to vote against him, barring the idea that there would be a filibuster. And no Democrat is talking about that right now, Miles.

The expectation is that you would only need a simple majority, 51 votes. Republicans have 55 in the Senate. I've done a survey of those moderate swing vote Republicans, and their staffers telling CNN at this point there doesn't look to be a single other senator, Republican, out there who's prepared to vote against this nomination -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Andrea, so interesting, no threats of filibuster, no concern that this one -- now that we're so familiar with Robert's Rules of Order -- this one will pas the cloture test, 60 votes in order to go to a vote.

Is it possible this was part of that deal we just witnessed on Capitol Hill? Was there a wink and nod saying, OK, stay away from Bolton?

KOPPEL: I have not heard that, but then that's sort of out of my bailiwick, per se. I've been focusing strictly on the Bolton nomination.

And I can tell you right now that I think that there had been so much blood-letting, and there was so much emotion -- so many emotions vented over Priscilla Owen, that when it came down to the way that Democrats were going to push on the Bolton nomination, the sense that you get is there was enough blood that had been spilled in the committee, in Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and hours -- as we heard the chairman of that committee, who's still on the floor right now -- telling senators hours of witness testimony and whatnot that they really feel enough is enough. They've laid it out there, their reasons as to why Bolton should not get the nod.

O'BRIEN: All right. A little parliamentary battle fatigue, perhaps. All right. Andrea Koppel, the State Department, thanks.

PHILLIPS: Well, the Pentagon is shooting down a "Washington Post" report that Donald Rumsfeld authorized the shooting down of the tiny plane that violated D.C. airspace just two weeks ago.

CNN senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has been working this story. He gives us the details now -- Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, a very strong denial from the Pentagon today to a "Washington Post" story that was on the front pages of the paper this morning, quoting two federal officials as saying Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld gave the military authority to shoot down that small Cessna plane when it violated airspace over the nation's capital on May 11.

The Pentagon spokesman, Larry DiRita, says it just didn't happen. He says Rumsfeld was nearby, available for consultation, but that it never got to the point where he was brought on the line and asked for authority to shoot down the plane.

"The Post" said, quoted officials said their sources were corroborated by federal law enforcement source and said that the plane was as little as 15 seconds away from being shot down.

Again, the Pentagon disputed that account. Larry DiRita told CNN, quote, "The secretary was not asked to provide any authority." He says, "As such there is a zero percent chance that the next 15 seconds would have been any different than they turned out to be. Low level or disconnected sources are speculating, according to a theoretical timeline."

According to DiRita, "It is wrong, ill informed and misleading the public."

An unusually strong denial of this front page story by the Pentagon. And sources say that the Pentagon may ask "The Post" for a retraction. At the very least, they would like a correction of this story -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Jamie McIntyre, live from the Pentagon, thank you so much -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Well, by the end of the summer corporate and chartered airplanes may be buzzing over Washington with some regularity but nothing like they did pre-9/11. Later today, the fed's expected to announce a limited reopening of Reagan National Airport to what is known as general aviation, charter flights, for the first time in almost four years. But don't pack your bags just yet. Let me vector you through the myriad of restrictions.

Operations will be capped at 48 takeoffs and landings a day. That's two dozen of each. Flights will have to originate at one of a dozen gateway airports, where passengers, crew and aircraft will be screened and sanitized.

Crew and passenger manifests will have to be submitted to the TSA 24 hours in advance. Pilots and crew will have to have undergone and passed criminal background checks. And armed officers, a single armed officer will have to be on board.

Some in Congress, where everyone's a frequent flyer, of course, call this great news. But D.C. delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton calls the restrictions needlessly cumbersome.

PHILLIPS: Now to the security part of Social Security. Government auditors have found thousands of cases of federal workers using bogus or borrowed Social Security numbers, thereby blurring their true identities. And we're not talking bureaucrats here. These are Defense Department workers, civilian and military.

CNN's Lisa Sylvester has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The audit by the Social Security Administration's inspector general found more than 6,400 Department of Defense employees between 1997 and 2002 were working with bogus Social Security number. Nearly a third of those were using a deceased person's Social Security number or the Social Security number of a child.

DAN STEIN, FEDERATION FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM: If one government agency is hiring someone whose identity is not really known, whose paying on a Social Security number that was never issued or that belonged to someone else, it really represents a potential security threat.

SYLVESTER: The Social Security Administration matched W-2 forms against the information in its database. Sixty-four percent of those with invalid Social Security numbers were either active duty or reserve status. Thirty-six percent were civilian DOD employees.

According to the report, while the Social Security Administration offers all employers a verification service to screen potential employees, the inspector general could not find evidence that the Air Force or Coast Guard were verifying their employees' names and Social Security numbers.

MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: It uncovers a sloppy practice that has no justification, that's hard to really understand why it would be allowed to occur and that must be immediately fixed.

SYLVESTER: A Pentagon spokesperson said the DOD inspector general is in the process of reviewing the report and will take appropriate action as required.

The Coast Guard went even further, saying, "The Coast Guard investigates every employee, both military and civilian, at hiring, using a much more rigorous standard than a simple Social Security number verification."

But questions have also been raised over the lack of screening of private DOD contractor employees. Illegal aliens have been arrested working in restricted areas of the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

(on camera) Congressman John Hostettler, chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, sent the Department of Defense a letter, saying, "It is very disturbing to me that the DOD employs persons with unknown or unconfirmed identities who may take up positions with access to dangerous weapons or access to sensitive information." He is now demanding that the Pentagon provide proof that it is screening Social Security numbers.

Lisa Sylvester, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: CNN is committed to providing the most reliable coverage of news that affects your security. Stay tuned to CNN for the latest information, day and night.

O'BRIEN: Michael Jackson's defense team expected to wrap up the case today. Why isn't the man at the center of your screen there taking the stand? We'll have several reports from the courthouse throughout the afternoon.

SARA DORSEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The runaway bride is facing fines and possibly even prison time. I'm Sara Dorsey. I'll have a live report from Gwinnett County, Georgia, coming up.

O'BRIEN: And the smackdown. Burt Reynolds gets physical with a member of the media. The actor's spokesman says he was just kidding. See what you think when we show you what happened, ahead on LIVE FROM.

ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

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PHILLIPS: Defendant Michael Jackson arriving at Santa Maria, California, courthouse. Today's testimony could be the last in his child molestation trial. We're told the defense will rest after actor Chris Tucker leaves the stand today.

CNN's Ted Rowlands is covering it.

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TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The last defense witness, comedian Chris Tucker, is on the stand. He is finished direct testimony and now is being cross examined. It is expected that sometime this morning he will be done, and the defense will rest its case.

We understand that the prosecution will have a possible two-day rebuttal case, meaning that final arguments will be early next week and the jury will begin deliberating Michael Jackson's fate by mid- to the end of next week.

Now Chris Tucker, the comedian, spent considerable time with the accuser in this case and the accuser's family. And today on the stand, he has testified that the accuser himself, the young boy, was cunning, in his words, and had asked him for money on repeated occasions.

He also says that he was warned by his brother, in Las Vegas, about this family. And then he says he later warned Michael Jackson about the family. He said at one point he thought the mother was crazy, and after that, he pulled Michael Jackson aside and warned him about this family and warned him to stay away.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Santa Maria, California.

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O'BRIEN: All right. It's runaway bride update time. Since the night Jennifer Wilbanks traded her wedding veil for a beach towel and flew back from her not so excellent adventure, we have wondered what crime, if any at all, she'll be charged with.

Today, we wonder no long person. A Georgia district attorney asked for charges -- asked if he has charges for Wilbanks said, "I do."

CNN's Sara Dorsey, outside Atlanta's -- outside Atlanta, in Lawrenceville, Georgia, with more on that -- Sara.

DORSEY: Well, Miles, Jennifer Wilbanks, as you said, the woman known as the runaway bride, is in some serious hot water at this point, facing fines and possibly prison time for faking her own abduction and making up that story about being sexually assaulted.

Today a Gwinnett County grand jury charged Wilbanks with making a false statement, a felony that carries one to five years in prison, and also up to $10,000 in fines.

She's also charged with a misdemeanor of making a false report. That charge carries -- that charge, rather, carries up to 12 months in jail and up to $1,000 in fines.

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DANNY PORTER, DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The decision to bring these charges before the grand jury was based on review of all the evidence that's been obtained to date, including the evidence that was obtained after the return of Jennifer Wilbanks. We believe that this -- this is a reasonable next step in the case, and we believe that the grand jury made the appropriate decision.

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DORSEY: On top of all that, the city of Duluth is asking the runaway bride for $43,000 to cover the cost of man hours used for her search.

Wilbanks' attorney is not commenting on today's charges, but in the past she says she does not believe Wilbanks committed a crime. And now, according to the mayor of Duluth, the attorney, along with Wilbanks, is willing to offer nearly $13,000 in restitution. Of course, that is nearly $30,000 less than what the city had asked for.

So far there is no agreement set in stone at this time. From here, according to the D.A., a bench warrant will be issued for Wilbanks' arrest. However, the D.A. says he's willing to work with her attorneys so she can turn herself in -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Sara, there is an issue of jurisdiction here. She was in New Mexico when she made that call. And yet these charges are in Gwinnett County, outside of Atlanta. What are her attorneys saying about that?

DORSEY: Her attorneys have basically just issued some blanket statements in the past. They're not speaking today. But I can tell you that Gwinnett County authorities here say the reason why they believe that they have jurisdiction and can go ahead and file charges is because Wilbanks made a call from New Mexico to authorities here in Gwinnett County, continuing that lie, continuing the story she was abducted by an Hispanic man and white woman and also she was sexually assaulted. They say that phone call gave them the right to make charges here in Gwinnett County.

O'BRIEN: Sara Dorsey, thank you very much.

DORSEY: Thank you.

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PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM, who's the next Karl Rove? The inside scoop on five future power brokers influencing how you'll vote.

Later on LIVE FROM, your house fills with smoke. Flames begin to rage. What do you do?

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can't even see more than a couple feet in front of me.

PHILLIPS: We take you inside surviving a fire.

Ahead on LIVE FROM... UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to hurt him, not kill him.

PHILLIPS: Bill Goldberg puts a smackdown on Hollywood. He's in the remake of "The Longest Yard," and he's telling us why he's no match for the U.S. Navy.

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O'BRIEN: Remember that book a few years ago, "The Millionaire Next Door"? Well, apparently it's pretty apt. There are a lot more of them out there, right, Susan Lisovicz?

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