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CNN Live Today

Jury Deliberates Scott Peterson's Fate; Homeland Security Lax on Creating Critical List; Correspondent Shares Inside View of Falluja Battle

Aired December 10, 2004 - 11:00   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.


RICK SANCHEZ, CO-HOST: Let's begin the hour with this: Sam Bodman, he's been nominated to take over at the Energy Department. President Bush made the announcement just about an hour ago.
Bodman's government experience includes senior positions at both commerce and treasury.

Also, just a short time ago, Attorney General John Ashcroft bid farewell to employees at the Justice Department. White House counsel Alberto Gonzales has been named as Mr. Ashcroft's replacement, pending a Senate confirmation, of course.

In Pakistan, at least 10 people were killed, 18 wounded by a bomb today in the city of Quetta. The blast destroyed an Army truck and three other vehicles. Sources say there has been no claim of responsibility for this bombing as yet.

And oil prices have been dropping steadily for weeks, but that may soon change. OPEC delegates meeting in Cairo say the cartel has agreed to trim production by one million barrels per day. Libya says it's going to curb exports immediately. Kuwait says it will begin turning down the tap by the end of January.

It is Friday, 11 a.m. on the East Coast, 8 a.m. out West. For those of you watching from California and other places, this is the CNN Center in Atlanta and I'm Rick Sanchez.

CAROL LIN, CO-HOST: And he's very excited. I'm Carol Lin in for Daryn Kagan.

SANCHEZ: Why not?

LIN: Yes, why not? We've got a lot of news to tell you about. So we're going to start this hour talking about Scott Peterson's sentence.

It is an agonizing decision for any 12 Americans to make, whether a fellow citizen will live or die for his crime. That's what gets under way this hour in the jury room of a California courthouse.

CNN's Ted Rowlands is following developments in Redwood City.

Ted, this is the first full day of deliberations for this jury?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol. They had about two hours yesterday before they were sent home to their hotel, where they are being sequestered for this deliberative process.

They just arrived here at the courthouse a few moments ago to begin their first full day of deliberations. As you said, a difficult decision for 12 men and women to make.

Before they went to start deliberating, they heard very passionate arguments from both sides. Mark Geragos, Scott Peterson's attorney, pled for his client's life, saying, "I beg you not to execute Scott Peterson."

He said, "Please end this cycle of death." He argued that the death penalty would do nothing to help the family of Laci Peterson and would not bring them closure. He said, quote, "It is my opinion it will haunt them."

On the other side, the prosecution was very passionate, as well, saying that Scott Peterson was a manipulative liar and that the image of Scott and Laci Peterson of being the perfect couple was just half the story.

And then on the other side, the not so honest, not so nice Scott Peterson was lurking among the family the entire time. He said that they waited -- he waited 116 days. He went to a candlelight vigil and talked to his girlfriend, Amber Frey, that same night while everyone else was looking for his wife.

He knew where she was for 116 days. He kept that information from the families and let his -- his wife's body rot. And then the prosecutor ended by saying that the only just punishment for Scott Peterson is death.

The jury has begun their first full day of deliberations, as we said. It has to be a unanimous vote, just like the penalty phase. This is the same jury that found him guilty of murder. They will have to be unanimous in their decision of whether or not he should live or die -- Carol.

LIN: Ted, you've been living and breathing this story for several months by now. Do you have a sense, just a sense, of how long you think it's going to take this jury to come to a decision?

ROWLANDS: Well, of course, it's a decision that is a very grave one. And I think that it's being taken very seriously.

But that said, from a practical matter, this jury has been here for five plus months. They get along well. They've already gone through the deliberative process in the guilt phase. And, quite frankly, have the weekend staring at them starting today. They are sequestered over the weekend. They cannot deliberate.

So if they're close to making a decision, I think they'll come up with one today.

LIN: Really, today? We might hear a verdict today?

ROWLANDS: Very, very possibly we'll hear a verdict today, possibly even late this morning, depending on where they are. If they're all pretty much in agreement, it should be just a matter of hashing it out. Remember, it only took them six hours to decide that Peterson was guilty.

LIN: Right. Wow. All right. Thanks very much for that, Ted.

Now, at the half hour, we're going to be talking with former U.S. attorney Kendall Coffey. He's going to be talking about the Peterson sentencing right here on CNN. And a quick reminder: live breaking news coverage when we do get the word of a verdict.

I did not expect that he was going to say today.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

LIN: I thought it would be early next week.

SANCHEZ: It certainly won't be read during our time on the air, but it could possibly, at least, get the announcement that they're ready to go while it happens.

Meanwhile, here's another big story that we've been following for you. We're learning more now about the suspect in that deadly Ohio nightclub shooting that we were telling you so much about yesterday. Perhaps not why he rushed onto the stage of a heavy metal stage and shot four people to death.

Police identify the gunman as Nathan Gale, as you may remember. He's a 25-year-old man being describe as a heavy metal music fan, a semipro football player and a guy who liked to hang out at the tattoo parlors.

Police have released audiotapes from several 911 calls made during this shooting rampage.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nine-one-one emergency.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm at the Alrosa Villa, and there's a shooting. Someone is shooting the band on the stage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone's shooting the band on the stage?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On the stage at the Alrosa Villa. And they're screaming, "Call 911."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, stay on the line with me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, (expletive deleted), they're still shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're still shooting. The person is still moving with the gun. (END AUDIO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: This all ended when a police officer snuck in and shot Gale. He's really being called the hero in all of this. We're certainly going to bring you updates on the story as we get them, as well.

LIN: A big find now in Iraq. And these are some of just the headlines that we've got here.

U.S. Marines in Iraq are actually sorting through weapons halls discovered in the Sunni Triangle. And you're never going to guess where they found these weapons. They found them at a school and a playground in Ramadi. The Marines say the cache included an assortment of AK-47s, machine guns and mortar rounds.

SANCHEZ: The military is accusing Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun with desertion, which could, by the way, lead to a court-martial. He was reported kidnapped in Iraq last summer and even turned up on Al Jazeera television, blindfolded with a sword behind his head. Hassoun turned up in Lebanon, where it turns out he was born.

LIN: Also in Baghdad today, Staff Sergeant Johnny Horn Jr. pleaded guilty to murder at his court-martial. You might recall he was charged with killing a severely wounded Iraqi civilian in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. Horn's sentence should be announced later today.

SANCHEZ: There's new facts on the town hall meeting in which Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld came under, I suppose you could say, verbal fire from some of the troops.

We now know only troops were permitted to ask Rumsfeld any questions, but an embedded reporter from the "Chattanooga Times Free Press" apparently got around that restriction.

In an e-mail to his colleagues, the reporter says that he got two Guardsmen to ask his questions. One about the lack of armor for vehicles brought cheers from troops at the base in Kuwait.

The reporter's paper had this to say about the incident, quote, "In hindsight, information on how the question was framed should have been included in Thursday's story in the 'Times Free Press.' It was not. Mr. Pitts" -- the reporter -- "used the tools available to him as a journalist to report on a story that has been and remains important to members of the 278th and those back at home."

LIN: You know, just a little more than an hour ago we found out that President Bush is turning to an experienced Washington hand to head the Energy Department. Sam Bodman served as deputy secretary at both treasury and commerce. And he will succeed Spencer Abraham if confirmed as energy secretary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Sam Bodman has shown himself to be a problem solver who knows how to set goals, and he knows how to reach them. He will bring to the Department of Energy a great talent for management and the precise thinking of an engineer. I thank him for agreeing to serve once again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Now, this nomination still leaves one cabinet job unfilled. And that is Tommy Thompson's replacement at health and human services.

SANCHEZ: Airline pilots have been advised to alert -- or to be alert, I should say, to lasers pointed at their aircraft.

As unlikely as it seems, federal authorities are cautioning that terrorists have looked into using lasers, possibly to try to blind flight crews while they're in the cockpit, trying to land the planes.

Apparently, there was an incident in September in Salt Lake City, although it's not clear exactly what happened. A Delta pilot says he suffered some eye damage from a laser while he was bringing the plane in for a landing. The FBI is investigating whether it was deliberate or just happened to be an accident.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security today is without an inspector -- or inspector general. Clark Kent Irving was a recess appointment by President Bush. His tenure automatically expired at midnight Wednesday, and the president did not re-appoint him.

Irving, who has longtime ties to the Bush family, has been very critical of some of the spending he saw at the agency. One of Irving's reports complained that an awards banquet by the Transportation Security Administration was excessively lavish, for example.

LIN: Yes. Excessively lavish. All right.

Well, one of homeland's primary jobs is to protect the nation's most critical infrastructure from a terrorist attack. Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge had promised to come up with a list of top priorities.

Now there is a list, but as CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve reports, what's on it and what is not is going to surprise you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Apart from when presidents play, miniature golf courses are not generally regarded as critical infrastructure, but at least one is included on a national database of vital assets compiled by the Department of Homeland Security.

REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D), CALIFORNIA: You can't list every, you know, miniature golf site in America. What you need to do is the -- the spine of the American economy and the lifeblood of America that is vulnerable to attack. MESERVE: But some important infrastructure is omitted from the list, according to some who have seen it.

The database of potential terrorist targets is intended to identify and prioritize points of vulnerability to improve security and response plans. Compiled with input from state and local officials, it is enormous, with 80,000 entries.

MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTE: There's no way you can use this sort of a list for practical efforts of protection. It's just too much.

MESERVE: DHS says vulnerability and risk assessments have produced a smaller list that contains, quote, "One hundred percent of those sites we deem most critical and at highest risk, including nuclear plants and some chemical facilities."

But DHS concedes a comprehensive list is not done, despite these words from Secretary Ridge last February.

TOM RIDGE, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: By December of this year, together with our partners, we will create a unified national critical infrastructure database.

MESERVE (on camera): Some in Congress are fed up. As one lawmaker put it, "How can you plan when you don't know what to protect?"

Jean Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: We've got a picture there we can share with you. It looks like he's about to wear a cap. That's homeland security chief Tom Ridge. He's in New York today, meeting with the faculty of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. And we're going to be following this for you, in case there's any news that comes out of you. We'll bring it to you right away.

LIN: That's right. It might be one of the last times we see him, now that he's going to be leaving.

SANCHEZ: Look, he's not going to put the cap on.

LIN: He's not. Well, a big thank you to the gift givers.

SANCHEZ: The old cap test.

LIN: In the meantime, plenty of testing in the -- in the war on terror. The fight for Falluja, for example. CNN's Jane Arraf, we saw her amazing reporting from the front lines throughout much of that battle in that city. She's going to actually join us right here on set live with her experiences.

SANCHEZ: Also, military troops say from the wrath of the battlefield, what is being done so that they can lead productive lives at home when they return.

LIN: Also, we're talking about safety at home. This time of year is one of the most dangerous for injuries. In today's "Daily Dose," how to stay safe this holiday season.

All of that straight ahead in this hour on CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: That is still the scene in Falluja, heavy gunfire ripping across the streets of Falluja as U.S. forces clear the Sunni Triangle city of insurgents. At least that is what they have been trying to do.

And one of the most familiar faces that you saw on our CNN air was CNN's Jane Arraf, who spent many dangerous days, if not weeks, in Falluja with American G.I.s.

She's now our senior Baghdad correspondent, and she is here, in town, at the global headquarters to talk to us about the situation in Iraq.

It's such a pleasure to have you.

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you. It's great to be here.

SANCHEZ: We should probably share something with our viewers. Last night we had a CNN event, and Jane was introduced, and they brought her up on stage. And the place really went crazy. You know, it's nice to see your peers all stand up and give you a standing ovation like that.

ARRAF: That was remarkably nice. I think that applause was for my team, all of the people behind me back there.

SANCHEZ: Well, they were, but you know, we should share with you that we've gotten, like, tons of e-mails from people. While you were doing your coverage, we were answering phones and getting e-mails here from people who essentially wanted to know, "Is she OK? I'm concerned for her."

ARRAF: Well, that was just my parents, right?

LIN: Over and over again. Yes.

SANCHEZ: Were you concerned for your life over there?

ARRAF: A couple of occasions. I mean, you sort of -- we did see some pretty horrible things. But generally, you take the risk that if you're going to be there, if you're going to show people what's happening out there, you've got to take the same risks that soldiers do and the Marines do.

And well, you do get concerned and occasionally you think, what am I doing out there, but generally no. You're just out there, and I think it's really important to be out there.

LIN: Jane, what was it for, really? I mean, here, heavy gunfire still in Falluja, the insurgents still operating, maybe not at will, but still much more. So give us exactly what's going on there. Has -- was the battle for naught?

ARRAF: I think what it really did do was it destroyed, according to the military, and it seems to be correct, a lot of the command and control center.

As the Army rolled through and as we when the with the Army and then later with the Marines, what we saw were block upon block of houses where they were making bombs, where they were making suicide bombs, where they were possibly mixing chemicals, where they were holding hostages.

I saw a room with chains in it where they had chained people up. There were no civilians. They had basically evacuated, kicked out all the civilians to turn major parts of the city into, essentially, a terror network.

So it's destroying most of that. It hasn't ended the insurgency, obviously, but it has eliminated that safe haven that existed.

SANCHEZ: We got a sense of the big picture. Share with us the little picture. Because you were there with these soldiers, with these Marines. What's going on in their heads? What were their concerns? What are they like at this point, in that particular battle that you were with them during that time?

ARRAF: It was a fascinating process to watch, because we were with them from the start. We were with them as they were rehearsing for the battle. We were with them as they were being given this pep talk, basically saying this is a battle for good and evil. It is going to be the most intense battle we have seen, anyone has seen since Vietnam.

And they looked around. And you knew that they were thinking, not everyone is going to come back from this, and not everyone did.

And then, when the battle started, it really was the most intense thing they'd ever seen. More mortars fired, more gunshots fired, than they had fired since Vietnam. Incredibly intense.

They were very focused, and they were -- they really had a sense of purpose, that they were fighting for something. Not clear whether that lasts after they come out of it, but that was the feeling then.

LIN: Right. The privileges of youth, because when we see the lists of dead and wounded, it always amazes me that these are, in my mind, kids. You know, they're 20 years old; they're 19 years old.

ARRAF: They are being given extraordinary responsibilities. You're absolutely right. They're very, heartbreakingly young.

SANCHEZ: Jane, you did us proud. Thank you so much.

ARRAF: Thank you so much.

LIN: Good to see you stateside, if only for a few days.

ARRAF: Thanks very much.

SANCHEZ: We told you about the Tom Ridge news conference that was going on. He's at a college. He's talking to some folks there. Let's go ahead and dip into that just a little bit, listen to what Mr. Ridge has to say.

RIDGE: ... these corporate headquarters. They have invested more in hardening of those targets, making them less vulnerable to attack. It is permanently embedded. It's a permanent part of their security infrastructure.

We can reduce the threat because the level of security at those facilities in those three regions is higher today and will permanently be higher today than it was when we announced the threat.

There's public sector in this, and there's a lot of private sector investment. And in this instance, we went back and looked at the banks, looked at the institutions. They had done things differently with barriers, entrances and exits to their underground garages and ingress and egress into their corporate facilities. They made a lot of improvement and changes. We could break it down, and by and large, they absorbed most of the expense.

Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

RIDGE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think there's any conflict of interest (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

RIDGE: I don't know enough about it to comment, but I, you know, I think that having talked about it -- Bernie and I talked since his announcement. I know that he was going through the same rigorous process of filling out disclosure forms that everybody who seeks to serve their country is required to fill out.

And I firmly believe that if there is a conflict of interest standing between my successor and his ability to serve his country, that he'll do his best to resolve it.

So I'm going to let the ethics folks make that decision. And I'm confident that they, along with Bernie, will.

I mean, I don't know that much about it he. All I know is that when you try to serve the president of the United States as the cabinet secretary, you've got to lay out your entire life, your financial holdings and everything else. And some of this was not a problem.

SANCHEZ: Tom Ridge talking about, interestingly enough, Bernie Kerik, the man who's been chosen to possibly replace him. And a potential conflict that has now come up. It's a story in today's "New York Times" that we've been checking on, and the possibility that the company that Mr. Kerik helped form could create a conflict for him in his new position as Mr. Ridge's replacement. We'll be checking on that for you, as well, right here on CNN.

LIN: Also, life and death matters out in California. We're going to be talking about Scott Peterson's fate, now in the hands of a jury. We're going to talk about that process, what Peterson is up against, with legal analyst Kendall Coffey, when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired December 10, 2004 - 11:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CO-HOST: Let's begin the hour with this: Sam Bodman, he's been nominated to take over at the Energy Department. President Bush made the announcement just about an hour ago.
Bodman's government experience includes senior positions at both commerce and treasury.

Also, just a short time ago, Attorney General John Ashcroft bid farewell to employees at the Justice Department. White House counsel Alberto Gonzales has been named as Mr. Ashcroft's replacement, pending a Senate confirmation, of course.

In Pakistan, at least 10 people were killed, 18 wounded by a bomb today in the city of Quetta. The blast destroyed an Army truck and three other vehicles. Sources say there has been no claim of responsibility for this bombing as yet.

And oil prices have been dropping steadily for weeks, but that may soon change. OPEC delegates meeting in Cairo say the cartel has agreed to trim production by one million barrels per day. Libya says it's going to curb exports immediately. Kuwait says it will begin turning down the tap by the end of January.

It is Friday, 11 a.m. on the East Coast, 8 a.m. out West. For those of you watching from California and other places, this is the CNN Center in Atlanta and I'm Rick Sanchez.

CAROL LIN, CO-HOST: And he's very excited. I'm Carol Lin in for Daryn Kagan.

SANCHEZ: Why not?

LIN: Yes, why not? We've got a lot of news to tell you about. So we're going to start this hour talking about Scott Peterson's sentence.

It is an agonizing decision for any 12 Americans to make, whether a fellow citizen will live or die for his crime. That's what gets under way this hour in the jury room of a California courthouse.

CNN's Ted Rowlands is following developments in Redwood City.

Ted, this is the first full day of deliberations for this jury?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol. They had about two hours yesterday before they were sent home to their hotel, where they are being sequestered for this deliberative process.

They just arrived here at the courthouse a few moments ago to begin their first full day of deliberations. As you said, a difficult decision for 12 men and women to make.

Before they went to start deliberating, they heard very passionate arguments from both sides. Mark Geragos, Scott Peterson's attorney, pled for his client's life, saying, "I beg you not to execute Scott Peterson."

He said, "Please end this cycle of death." He argued that the death penalty would do nothing to help the family of Laci Peterson and would not bring them closure. He said, quote, "It is my opinion it will haunt them."

On the other side, the prosecution was very passionate, as well, saying that Scott Peterson was a manipulative liar and that the image of Scott and Laci Peterson of being the perfect couple was just half the story.

And then on the other side, the not so honest, not so nice Scott Peterson was lurking among the family the entire time. He said that they waited -- he waited 116 days. He went to a candlelight vigil and talked to his girlfriend, Amber Frey, that same night while everyone else was looking for his wife.

He knew where she was for 116 days. He kept that information from the families and let his -- his wife's body rot. And then the prosecutor ended by saying that the only just punishment for Scott Peterson is death.

The jury has begun their first full day of deliberations, as we said. It has to be a unanimous vote, just like the penalty phase. This is the same jury that found him guilty of murder. They will have to be unanimous in their decision of whether or not he should live or die -- Carol.

LIN: Ted, you've been living and breathing this story for several months by now. Do you have a sense, just a sense, of how long you think it's going to take this jury to come to a decision?

ROWLANDS: Well, of course, it's a decision that is a very grave one. And I think that it's being taken very seriously.

But that said, from a practical matter, this jury has been here for five plus months. They get along well. They've already gone through the deliberative process in the guilt phase. And, quite frankly, have the weekend staring at them starting today. They are sequestered over the weekend. They cannot deliberate.

So if they're close to making a decision, I think they'll come up with one today.

LIN: Really, today? We might hear a verdict today?

ROWLANDS: Very, very possibly we'll hear a verdict today, possibly even late this morning, depending on where they are. If they're all pretty much in agreement, it should be just a matter of hashing it out. Remember, it only took them six hours to decide that Peterson was guilty.

LIN: Right. Wow. All right. Thanks very much for that, Ted.

Now, at the half hour, we're going to be talking with former U.S. attorney Kendall Coffey. He's going to be talking about the Peterson sentencing right here on CNN. And a quick reminder: live breaking news coverage when we do get the word of a verdict.

I did not expect that he was going to say today.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

LIN: I thought it would be early next week.

SANCHEZ: It certainly won't be read during our time on the air, but it could possibly, at least, get the announcement that they're ready to go while it happens.

Meanwhile, here's another big story that we've been following for you. We're learning more now about the suspect in that deadly Ohio nightclub shooting that we were telling you so much about yesterday. Perhaps not why he rushed onto the stage of a heavy metal stage and shot four people to death.

Police identify the gunman as Nathan Gale, as you may remember. He's a 25-year-old man being describe as a heavy metal music fan, a semipro football player and a guy who liked to hang out at the tattoo parlors.

Police have released audiotapes from several 911 calls made during this shooting rampage.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nine-one-one emergency.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm at the Alrosa Villa, and there's a shooting. Someone is shooting the band on the stage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone's shooting the band on the stage?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On the stage at the Alrosa Villa. And they're screaming, "Call 911."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, stay on the line with me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, (expletive deleted), they're still shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're still shooting. The person is still moving with the gun. (END AUDIO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: This all ended when a police officer snuck in and shot Gale. He's really being called the hero in all of this. We're certainly going to bring you updates on the story as we get them, as well.

LIN: A big find now in Iraq. And these are some of just the headlines that we've got here.

U.S. Marines in Iraq are actually sorting through weapons halls discovered in the Sunni Triangle. And you're never going to guess where they found these weapons. They found them at a school and a playground in Ramadi. The Marines say the cache included an assortment of AK-47s, machine guns and mortar rounds.

SANCHEZ: The military is accusing Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun with desertion, which could, by the way, lead to a court-martial. He was reported kidnapped in Iraq last summer and even turned up on Al Jazeera television, blindfolded with a sword behind his head. Hassoun turned up in Lebanon, where it turns out he was born.

LIN: Also in Baghdad today, Staff Sergeant Johnny Horn Jr. pleaded guilty to murder at his court-martial. You might recall he was charged with killing a severely wounded Iraqi civilian in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. Horn's sentence should be announced later today.

SANCHEZ: There's new facts on the town hall meeting in which Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld came under, I suppose you could say, verbal fire from some of the troops.

We now know only troops were permitted to ask Rumsfeld any questions, but an embedded reporter from the "Chattanooga Times Free Press" apparently got around that restriction.

In an e-mail to his colleagues, the reporter says that he got two Guardsmen to ask his questions. One about the lack of armor for vehicles brought cheers from troops at the base in Kuwait.

The reporter's paper had this to say about the incident, quote, "In hindsight, information on how the question was framed should have been included in Thursday's story in the 'Times Free Press.' It was not. Mr. Pitts" -- the reporter -- "used the tools available to him as a journalist to report on a story that has been and remains important to members of the 278th and those back at home."

LIN: You know, just a little more than an hour ago we found out that President Bush is turning to an experienced Washington hand to head the Energy Department. Sam Bodman served as deputy secretary at both treasury and commerce. And he will succeed Spencer Abraham if confirmed as energy secretary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Sam Bodman has shown himself to be a problem solver who knows how to set goals, and he knows how to reach them. He will bring to the Department of Energy a great talent for management and the precise thinking of an engineer. I thank him for agreeing to serve once again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Now, this nomination still leaves one cabinet job unfilled. And that is Tommy Thompson's replacement at health and human services.

SANCHEZ: Airline pilots have been advised to alert -- or to be alert, I should say, to lasers pointed at their aircraft.

As unlikely as it seems, federal authorities are cautioning that terrorists have looked into using lasers, possibly to try to blind flight crews while they're in the cockpit, trying to land the planes.

Apparently, there was an incident in September in Salt Lake City, although it's not clear exactly what happened. A Delta pilot says he suffered some eye damage from a laser while he was bringing the plane in for a landing. The FBI is investigating whether it was deliberate or just happened to be an accident.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security today is without an inspector -- or inspector general. Clark Kent Irving was a recess appointment by President Bush. His tenure automatically expired at midnight Wednesday, and the president did not re-appoint him.

Irving, who has longtime ties to the Bush family, has been very critical of some of the spending he saw at the agency. One of Irving's reports complained that an awards banquet by the Transportation Security Administration was excessively lavish, for example.

LIN: Yes. Excessively lavish. All right.

Well, one of homeland's primary jobs is to protect the nation's most critical infrastructure from a terrorist attack. Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge had promised to come up with a list of top priorities.

Now there is a list, but as CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve reports, what's on it and what is not is going to surprise you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Apart from when presidents play, miniature golf courses are not generally regarded as critical infrastructure, but at least one is included on a national database of vital assets compiled by the Department of Homeland Security.

REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D), CALIFORNIA: You can't list every, you know, miniature golf site in America. What you need to do is the -- the spine of the American economy and the lifeblood of America that is vulnerable to attack. MESERVE: But some important infrastructure is omitted from the list, according to some who have seen it.

The database of potential terrorist targets is intended to identify and prioritize points of vulnerability to improve security and response plans. Compiled with input from state and local officials, it is enormous, with 80,000 entries.

MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTE: There's no way you can use this sort of a list for practical efforts of protection. It's just too much.

MESERVE: DHS says vulnerability and risk assessments have produced a smaller list that contains, quote, "One hundred percent of those sites we deem most critical and at highest risk, including nuclear plants and some chemical facilities."

But DHS concedes a comprehensive list is not done, despite these words from Secretary Ridge last February.

TOM RIDGE, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: By December of this year, together with our partners, we will create a unified national critical infrastructure database.

MESERVE (on camera): Some in Congress are fed up. As one lawmaker put it, "How can you plan when you don't know what to protect?"

Jean Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: We've got a picture there we can share with you. It looks like he's about to wear a cap. That's homeland security chief Tom Ridge. He's in New York today, meeting with the faculty of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. And we're going to be following this for you, in case there's any news that comes out of you. We'll bring it to you right away.

LIN: That's right. It might be one of the last times we see him, now that he's going to be leaving.

SANCHEZ: Look, he's not going to put the cap on.

LIN: He's not. Well, a big thank you to the gift givers.

SANCHEZ: The old cap test.

LIN: In the meantime, plenty of testing in the -- in the war on terror. The fight for Falluja, for example. CNN's Jane Arraf, we saw her amazing reporting from the front lines throughout much of that battle in that city. She's going to actually join us right here on set live with her experiences.

SANCHEZ: Also, military troops say from the wrath of the battlefield, what is being done so that they can lead productive lives at home when they return.

LIN: Also, we're talking about safety at home. This time of year is one of the most dangerous for injuries. In today's "Daily Dose," how to stay safe this holiday season.

All of that straight ahead in this hour on CNN LIVE TODAY.

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LIN: That is still the scene in Falluja, heavy gunfire ripping across the streets of Falluja as U.S. forces clear the Sunni Triangle city of insurgents. At least that is what they have been trying to do.

And one of the most familiar faces that you saw on our CNN air was CNN's Jane Arraf, who spent many dangerous days, if not weeks, in Falluja with American G.I.s.

She's now our senior Baghdad correspondent, and she is here, in town, at the global headquarters to talk to us about the situation in Iraq.

It's such a pleasure to have you.

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you. It's great to be here.

SANCHEZ: We should probably share something with our viewers. Last night we had a CNN event, and Jane was introduced, and they brought her up on stage. And the place really went crazy. You know, it's nice to see your peers all stand up and give you a standing ovation like that.

ARRAF: That was remarkably nice. I think that applause was for my team, all of the people behind me back there.

SANCHEZ: Well, they were, but you know, we should share with you that we've gotten, like, tons of e-mails from people. While you were doing your coverage, we were answering phones and getting e-mails here from people who essentially wanted to know, "Is she OK? I'm concerned for her."

ARRAF: Well, that was just my parents, right?

LIN: Over and over again. Yes.

SANCHEZ: Were you concerned for your life over there?

ARRAF: A couple of occasions. I mean, you sort of -- we did see some pretty horrible things. But generally, you take the risk that if you're going to be there, if you're going to show people what's happening out there, you've got to take the same risks that soldiers do and the Marines do.

And well, you do get concerned and occasionally you think, what am I doing out there, but generally no. You're just out there, and I think it's really important to be out there.

LIN: Jane, what was it for, really? I mean, here, heavy gunfire still in Falluja, the insurgents still operating, maybe not at will, but still much more. So give us exactly what's going on there. Has -- was the battle for naught?

ARRAF: I think what it really did do was it destroyed, according to the military, and it seems to be correct, a lot of the command and control center.

As the Army rolled through and as we when the with the Army and then later with the Marines, what we saw were block upon block of houses where they were making bombs, where they were making suicide bombs, where they were possibly mixing chemicals, where they were holding hostages.

I saw a room with chains in it where they had chained people up. There were no civilians. They had basically evacuated, kicked out all the civilians to turn major parts of the city into, essentially, a terror network.

So it's destroying most of that. It hasn't ended the insurgency, obviously, but it has eliminated that safe haven that existed.

SANCHEZ: We got a sense of the big picture. Share with us the little picture. Because you were there with these soldiers, with these Marines. What's going on in their heads? What were their concerns? What are they like at this point, in that particular battle that you were with them during that time?

ARRAF: It was a fascinating process to watch, because we were with them from the start. We were with them as they were rehearsing for the battle. We were with them as they were being given this pep talk, basically saying this is a battle for good and evil. It is going to be the most intense battle we have seen, anyone has seen since Vietnam.

And they looked around. And you knew that they were thinking, not everyone is going to come back from this, and not everyone did.

And then, when the battle started, it really was the most intense thing they'd ever seen. More mortars fired, more gunshots fired, than they had fired since Vietnam. Incredibly intense.

They were very focused, and they were -- they really had a sense of purpose, that they were fighting for something. Not clear whether that lasts after they come out of it, but that was the feeling then.

LIN: Right. The privileges of youth, because when we see the lists of dead and wounded, it always amazes me that these are, in my mind, kids. You know, they're 20 years old; they're 19 years old.

ARRAF: They are being given extraordinary responsibilities. You're absolutely right. They're very, heartbreakingly young.

SANCHEZ: Jane, you did us proud. Thank you so much.

ARRAF: Thank you so much.

LIN: Good to see you stateside, if only for a few days.

ARRAF: Thanks very much.

SANCHEZ: We told you about the Tom Ridge news conference that was going on. He's at a college. He's talking to some folks there. Let's go ahead and dip into that just a little bit, listen to what Mr. Ridge has to say.

RIDGE: ... these corporate headquarters. They have invested more in hardening of those targets, making them less vulnerable to attack. It is permanently embedded. It's a permanent part of their security infrastructure.

We can reduce the threat because the level of security at those facilities in those three regions is higher today and will permanently be higher today than it was when we announced the threat.

There's public sector in this, and there's a lot of private sector investment. And in this instance, we went back and looked at the banks, looked at the institutions. They had done things differently with barriers, entrances and exits to their underground garages and ingress and egress into their corporate facilities. They made a lot of improvement and changes. We could break it down, and by and large, they absorbed most of the expense.

Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

RIDGE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think there's any conflict of interest (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

RIDGE: I don't know enough about it to comment, but I, you know, I think that having talked about it -- Bernie and I talked since his announcement. I know that he was going through the same rigorous process of filling out disclosure forms that everybody who seeks to serve their country is required to fill out.

And I firmly believe that if there is a conflict of interest standing between my successor and his ability to serve his country, that he'll do his best to resolve it.

So I'm going to let the ethics folks make that decision. And I'm confident that they, along with Bernie, will.

I mean, I don't know that much about it he. All I know is that when you try to serve the president of the United States as the cabinet secretary, you've got to lay out your entire life, your financial holdings and everything else. And some of this was not a problem.

SANCHEZ: Tom Ridge talking about, interestingly enough, Bernie Kerik, the man who's been chosen to possibly replace him. And a potential conflict that has now come up. It's a story in today's "New York Times" that we've been checking on, and the possibility that the company that Mr. Kerik helped form could create a conflict for him in his new position as Mr. Ridge's replacement. We'll be checking on that for you, as well, right here on CNN.

LIN: Also, life and death matters out in California. We're going to be talking about Scott Peterson's fate, now in the hands of a jury. We're going to talk about that process, what Peterson is up against, with legal analyst Kendall Coffey, when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

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