CNN.com - Transcripts

Transcript Providers

Return to Transcripts main page

Paula Zahn Now

Defending America; America's Railways Vulnerable?

Aired January 17, 2005 - 20:00 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Welcome. Glad to have you with us tonight.
While this week's inauguration is not a first for President George W. Bush, it is the first since the war on terror began. And for that reason, security will be like nothing we have ever seen before. And for that reason, today is day one of our CNN series "Defending America." We sent dozens of reporters and producers out to answer one basic question: Is the nation really safer now than it was on 9/11? Much of what we found, both the strength and weaknesses, will surprise you.

Of course, tonight, we'll show you the unprecedented measures being taken to protect the 250,000 people expected at the inauguration on Thursday. We'll also take a critical look at our railways. Train systems have been targets of terrorists in other countries, too, as you know, with deadly results. Could it happen here and what can we learn from those attacks? We try to answer those questions tonight as well.

But we begin tonight in a city that has been aware of the terrorist threat and preparing for the worst since even before 9/11. Los Angeles was the target for a foiled bomb plot four years ago, just before the millennium. And in many ways, L.A. is just as much a symbol of America as New York and Washington.

So, our series "Defending America," starts with an L.A. story.

Here's Frank Buckley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been hit hard by fires and floods.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grab the rope. Grab it tight.

BUCKLEY: Earthquakes and riots. But it's the disaster Los Angeles hasn't experienced, a major terror attack, that keeps the LAPD's counterterrorism chief, John Miller, on full alert.

(on camera): Do you believe that we will be attacked here in Los Angeles?

JOHN MILLER, COMMANDING OFFICER, LAPD COUNTERTERRORISM BUREAU: I believe that Los Angeles is as high a threat of a city as New York or Washington. BUCKLEY (voice-over): Which is one reason why Los Angeles area agencies drill together on all manner of potential attacks, from dirty bomb drills like this one, to deadly chemicals released in a shopping mall, to a terrorist takeover at LAX, to a hijacking at L.A.'s port.

They've gamed out what could happen and how police and other agencies would respond. But Miller says it's the attack they haven't anticipated that robs him of his sleep.

MILLER: Three times a week, you know, I'll be laying in bed in the middle of the night and think of some version of some combination of attack that we hadn't thought of before, and we'll trot that in here to our hazmat people or to our intelligence people and say, what about this?

BUCKLEY: You might have seen his face before. He was anchor on ABC's "20/20." One of his biggest interviews, the man in the picture on the wall. Long before 9/11, Miller tracked down and interviewed Osama bin Laden.

MILLER: I feel I understand bin Laden, and perhaps understand him more than others who are in this role in other places. Los Angeles encompasses some things that, if you are Osama bin Laden, goes to the heart of what you don't like about America. We have some of our favorite things about ourselves, in a word, Hollywood.

BUCKLEY: Miller says bin Laden shapes his work. So, too, does this man, Ahmed Ressam, an al Qaeda-trained terrorist convicted of a plot to blow up parts of LAX as America celebrated the millennium. But Miller is quick to say he's not the only counterterror official in Los Angeles. And the LAPD is only one of the agencies charged with preventing or responding to the next potential plot.

In fact, it's L.A.'s multiple agencies, in a county of 88 cities, who have gained a national reputation for working together against terror.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Your efforts and example show the nation a level cooperation, coordination and communication that reflects the urgency of our challenge to prevent a terrorist attack and respond to any emergency.

BUCKLEY: The same multiagency approach L.A. brought to disasters, it is applying to terror.

SANDRA HUTCHENS, LOS ANGELES SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: We've had the fires, the floods, the earthquakes, the riots, and by necessity, we have worked together and as a result have a very strong relationship.

BUCKLEY: Potential rivals, like the FBI, the Sheriff's Department and the LAPD, work shoulder to shoulder. Intelligence is shared. Equipment is purchased in consultation with surrounding cities to reduce redundancy.

HUTCHENS: If we have an event, we're going to be responding as a region. BUCKLEY: It's not only L.A.'s cooperative approach against terror that's been recognized by national officials. It's the innovations.

(on camera): This LAPD bomb truck an example of that new technology. It's a total containment vessel that's been designed to handle chemical, biological or radiological devices. In older versions of this truck, in the event of explosion, the air would have vented out. You don't want that in a chemical, biological or radiological device, because that would contaminate the outside air. So, this truck has been modified.

Newer technology is used in combination with somewhat older technology, like this robot that can be remotely operated from a safe distance by bomb squad members. This robot can actually place the explosive device inside that truck.

BUCKLEY (voice-over): And there's this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the only remote-controlled forklift of its kind in the country. So if you had to go down range, it's capable of picking up a large vehicle bomb and driving off with it.

BUCKLEY: Another innovation, a microscope in a suitcase designed in response to the anthrax scares.

MILLER: Our hazmat people, using this microscope, can actually send pictures from the scene right back to the lab. They can assess what they're looking at through the microscope and say this is nondairy creamer, it's sugar, it's baking soda, it's definitely not anthrax or anything else hazardous, without blocking off any streets, evacuating any buildings or turning life upside-down, the way we used to have to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boomer, come.

BUCKLEY: The LAPD also has Boomer, a first of its kind, according to the department, a K-9 that works off leash at an airport. His handler demonstrating how Boomer is trained to find people with explosives strapped to their bodies.

SGT. BLAINE BLACKSTONE, LAPD: If a human being were packing explosives, like a suicide bomber, Boomer would alert to that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boomer, come.

BUCKLEY: Human officers, meanwhile...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're looking for major body count.

BUCKLEY: ... are focusing on a new joint effort with the Department of Homeland Security called Archangel, a program that will eventually be offered across the nation. Just last week, officers began training on how to inventory the hundreds of high-priority, high-risk potential targets in Los Angeles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're looking for the major, oh, my God locations on a large scale.

BUCKLEY: Eventually, an incident commander will be able to call up detailed tactical information on a threatened site, with the decision-maker, maybe even in the White House Situation Room, on the same page thousands of miles away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They can literally do it at the stroke of a key any time, any day, anywhere.

BUCKLEY: Which also happens to be when terror could strike again.

MILLER: The terrorists don't think in the terms that we think in. They don't think from year to year or fiscal year to fiscal year or election year to election year. They think in terms of a longtime battle.

BUCKLEY: It is a battle in which Miller, the former journalist, is now fully engaged as a combatant.

MILLER: It's not the critic who counts, according to Teddy Roosevelt. It's the person who is actually in the arena doing the job. I feel a lot better leaving the critic's desk and getting into the arena.

BUCKLEY: Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And when "Defending America" continues, the Bush inaugural, the most intense security operation ever. We'll show you what's in the works.

And mistakes made, lessons learned. Nearly a year after the Madrid train bombings, a survivor makes an emotional return to the scene of the attack.

Then, how safe are American trains?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREN CALLAHAN, SUBWAY RIDER: I feel like a sitting duck. That's what I feel. I feel like, every time I get on a train, it could happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: We put security to the test in the country's busiest rail terminal. We'll tell you what we found when our CNN "Security Watch," "Defending America," continues.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: And welcome back. On March 11 of last year, terrorists struck with deadly accuracy in Madrid, exploding bombs on commuter trains, killing 191 people. The attacks caused immediate concern is in this country because so many American cities are served by commuter train lines. And they are vulnerable.

With the Madrid investigation nearly a year old, we wondered what has been learned in Spain and what can that attack teach U.S. authorities?

Here's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is every time day Jesus Ramirez hates, physiotherapy, pushed, pulled and prodded to recovery, his back violent testament to the ferocity of the Madrid train bombing that rendered him unconscious for two weeks.

(on camera): And you won't get on the train now.

"I haven't come back," he explains. "It has bad memories."

Indeed, he has only come back to the platform where his life changed forever March 11 last year to help us understand. At a memorial in the station to the 191 killed and 1,800 injured, he explains he hasn't worked or played his favorite sport since.

JESUS RAMIREZ, MADRID BOMBING SURVIVOR (through translator): What you learn is that we are in the hands of assassins. There's nothing that assures us that tomorrow will be the same as today.

ROBERTSON: These silent security camera pictures from the escalator in the central Atocha station captured one of the 10 blasts that day.

JORGE RODRIGUEZ, SPANISH JOURNALIST: I can't see the camera now, but it's over there.

ROBERTSON: Jorge Rodriguez, one of Spain's top investigative journalists, covered the bombings and is still trying to piece together what's been learned.

RODRIGUEZ: It was not a mistake, because, in Spain, the police and the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) have a lot of information about the possibilities of a terrorist attack, but they don't put in common this information.

ROBERTSON: Investigators concede that some of the attackers were Islamic radicals already under investigation for logistical support of al Qaeda. Part of how the terrorists stayed ahead, outsourcing to common criminals. Such loose networks, Rodriguez says, are still a problem for police trying to prevent further attacks.

RODRIGUEZ: Simple. You can find a terrorist in Spain without explosives, but maybe the explosive is in France. The telephone that you can use to initiate the explosive, maybe it's in Portugal.

RAMIREZ: Spanish authorities say they have tightened authorities at stations. But it appears as easy now to get on a train with a bag as it did before the attack.

ROBERTSON: On the line targeted by the bombers, the majority of passengers scared away by the attack have returned. Most we talk to doubt they are safer. But lessons are being learned.

JUDGE BALTASAR GARZON, INVESTIGATING MAGISTRATE (through translator): The intelligence service and the connections with the police service were not enough. There was a lack of coordination in other fields. And this is what now we are trying to solve.

ROBERTSON: Although not responsible for the 3/11 investigations, Judge Baltasar Garzon is Spain's best-known anti-Islamic terror investigator.

GARZON (through translator): The judicial and police action has to be in the ideological phase of the groups before the groups prepare their attacks.

ROBERTSON: Perceived wisdom is, much still needs to be done. In the meantime, terrorists have some advantages.

RODRIGUEZ: They can attack whenever they want, because to leave a bag, a bomb bag, in every place, in a mall, in a railway station, in an airport, is easy.

ROBERTSON: The lesson of the train attack, adding station security is not enough. The solution is finding the adversary before the attack.

GARZON (through translator): These types of groups can germinate in the United States, as they did in Spain or as is happening in Europe. Therefore, effective coordination of information and fluid international cooperation is important. No nation is exempt from this type of attack, especially the United States.

ROBERTSON: And for survivors like Jesus Ramirez, the lesson is simple.

RAMIREZ (through translator): We must not feel restricted by these people. That would be their greatest success.

ROBERTSON: "We must keep on living," he says, "the best as possible."

Nic Robertson, CNN, Madrid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And the Madrid train bombing immediately triggered concerns about the exposure of America's passenger trains. When we come back, what's being done to protect the rail system here? Is our security tough enough? "Defending America" continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: And welcome back.

Our look at the country's safety and security now focuses on a potential soft spot that runs through virtually every city, every town, every community. No matter where you live, you're near a railroad. More than 140,000-miles of tracks crisscross the nations, and that's only the major routes.

In any given week, freight trains haul more than three-quarters- of-a-million tons of food, 13 millions ton of coal, one million tons of scrap metal and waste and more than three million tons of chemicals. Just 11 days ago in South Carolina, a derailed tank car leaked chlorine gas, killing nine people, sending 250 others to the hospital and forcing 5,400 people out of their homes. It was a frightening reminder of the havoc that could be caused by a terrorist attack on our nation's railroads.

And we haven't even gotten to the most precious cargo trains carry, people. Consider this. Passengers take more than three billion rail trips every year.

More now from Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is one morning Karen Callahan can relax at home with her cup of coffee, a day off from work as a paralegal. She relishes days like this, no 30- minute train ride into Manhattan, no security worries.

CALLAHAN: I feel like a sitting duck. That's what I feel. I feel like, every time I get on a train, it could happen.

CARROLL: We joined Callahan on her commute home through the world's largest train station, New York's Grand Central. This is where security concerns her most.

(on camera): Do you think about it very often?

CALLAHAN: I do. Probably every day.

CARROLL (voice-over): This single mom of two sees the train as her only choice, so she tries to minimize her risk.

CALLAHAN: I tend to go in the very first car for a few reasons, one of them being that it seems it would be easier to get out.

CARROLL: Senator Joe Biden says Callahan's security worries are not unfounded.

SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D), DELAWARE: There's no basic security. It is bizarre, absolutely bizarre. CARROLL: Biden commutes every daily from Delaware to Washington.

BIDEN: It's been 3 1/2 years of this.

CARROLL: He's so angered by lapses in security, he introduced legislation.

(on camera): Do you see any things around here that you think could be improved?

BIDEN: Well, for example, what you can improve is people is just standing here with the dogs, just bomb-sniffing dogs. It's basic block-and-tackle stuff, basic stuff.

CARROLL: You're also talking about having someone just sort of walking through.

BIDEN: Yes. Just, for example, just the idea that one of these Amtrak policemen would be able to walk through with bomb-sniffing dogs. There's no sufficient cops. There's no sufficient fencing. There's no sufficient cameras. It's just -- it's criminal.

ASA HUTCHINSON, UNDERSECRETARY FOR HOMELAND SECURITY: We're grateful for that voice and that support for increased security.

CARROLL (voice-over): Asa Hutchinson is in charge of border and transportation security for the Department of Homeland Security. He says many lessons were learned from last year's terrorist bombing on a passenger train in Madrid; 191 people were killed. Hutchinson says 70 new workers were hired this year to work with 400 already in place, $150 million dedicated to rail security.

HUTCHINSON: You certainly have to worry that we're doing all that we can to protect those rails and also the whole system. And so you're concerned about it, but also you take steps every day to build upon that. Much has been done.

CARROLL: But critics insist, not enough. New York lawmakers gave train and subway security a D, citing unprotected tunnels, rail yards and, in particular, lack of surveillance. So, at a train station in Philadelphia and another in New York, we waited to see how long it would take for security to notice an abandoned bag left in clear view. After 10 minutes, nothing.

That wouldn't surprise Callahan, who takes upon herself to keep an eye out.

CALLAHAN: There was a man sitting behind me with a backpack, and he looked like one of the people that might have been on the airplane. And he got up and he looked around in just kind of a suspicious way to me. And then he walked off. And right then, a man wearing almost the same jacket, same backpack, sat in the very seat behind me. So you can't help it. And if there was a cop, a trooper on it, I think I might have said something.

CARROLL: Back to the bag; 20 minutes pass. In Philadelphia, an officer and his dog look over the bag. Our producer steps in and identifies it.

But, in New York, still nothing. Those who track terror tactics say the U.S. could learn from Great Britain's experience with his train system and threats by the Irish Republican Army.

BRIAN JENKINS, RAND CORPORATION: If people are admonished to notify authorities of suspicious activity or abandoned parcels, if you then have readily available communication systems for them to do that, telephones that are marked, and you provide rapid response when reports are made, then, in effect, you have closed the loop.

CARROLL: In New York, after 30 minutes, one person stopped, but is too rushed to report the bag. We conclude the experiment.

HUTCHINSON: We know there's some vulnerabilities that we need to continue to work on. And we are aggressively.

CARROLL: For example, this pilot program to test trained passengers and their luggage for explosives. But for now, it's just a test.

Amtrak says, since 9/11, it's added police, increase use of bomb- sniffing dogs and requires passengers to show I.D. But Karen Callahan believes even more should be done, but she's not holding her breath.

CALLAHAN: I think it all comes down to money. I think it's just probably too expensive to have security on all the trains at all times. Yes, it's money.

CARROLL: So she'll keep riding and keep watching who's sitting nearby.

Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And now we want you to weigh in. Are U.S. railways safe? Let us know what you think. Log on to CNN.com/Paula. The results at the end of the hour.

Coming up next, inaugural security in Washington, it will be at the highest levels when the president takes the oath of office for the second time. We'll show you what's being done to protect the nation's capital.

And here is what we're working on for tomorrow's edition of "Defending America."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN (voice-over): Meet a stay-at-home mom, an Internet spy doing her part in the war on terror, combing the Web for clues to plan terrorist attacks, and the man who stared into the eyes of evil on 9/11.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did I do? Why didn't I see that? I had the devil standing right in front of me. I didn't know it.

ZAHN: He was the first to confront the mastermind of the 9/11 hijackings. For the first time, he tells his story tomorrow on our "Security Watch," "Defending America."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Thursday, of course, is President Bush's big day. He officially begins his second term at the stroke of noon. And that's when he'll raise his right hand and recite the oath of office on Capitol Hill.

And, earlier, we talked about security on the nation's railroads. Well, this week, Union Station will be heavily patrolled, as it is only five blocks from where the president will be sworn in. And all week long in our "Security Watch," we'll keep you up to date on developments concerning security for the ceremony, which lies at the very heart of our democracy.

Tonight, an overview from homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On Washington's subway system, metro, the inauguration will mean heavy ridership and heavy security. Two stations near the festivities will be shut down altogether. There will be more K-9 teams, more police, and authorities are asking for more eyes.

POLLY HANSEN, METRO TRANSIT POLICE CHIEF: I am pleading, begging, directing, demanding that our passengers be engaged with us. I'm not suggesting that we can do it by ourselves.

MESERVE: An FBI and Department of Homeland Security inauguration threat assessment mentions other modes of transportation which are potential targets or potential weapons. Limousines, for instance, which al Qaeda has explored using as bombs because of their large capacity and the access they sometimes have to restricted areas. The FBI warned limo operators months ago to be on the lookout.

RICHARD KANE, INTERNATIONAL LIMOUSINE SERVICE: The questions that they were concerned about for us is do we have anybody who is asking the capacity, size, the weight capacity of our vehicles. And fortunately, it's not been our case here.

MESERVE: A wide web of street closings is intended to keep limos and all vehicles away from inaugural activities. Officials are hoping to avoid anything like this, the chaotic evacuation of the Capitol during the funeral of President Reagan, triggered when a plane carrying the governor of Kentucky entered restricted air space.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you don't have to fly, don't fly on that particular day. MESERVE: Officials are briefing pilots on expanded flight restrictions being imposed over the national Capitol region, warning them that violators will be met by fighter jets or Blackhawk helicopters. If they don't respond to radio calls, signals or flares, they risk being shot down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody likes to be told that they can't go somewhere or can't do something, but we understand that these safety procedures are in place for a reason.

MESERVE: As a precaution, general aviation at Reagan National Airport will be shut down altogether, and the entire region is being monitored by the military's North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado.

COL. THOMAS MOIR, NORAD: The experts across the front row will monitor events on the week prior to the inauguration to the week after inauguration. You can see up on our wall of knowledge, we like to call it, where we're able to provide real-time situational awareness.

MESERVE: Armed Coast Guard vessels are already patrolling a security zone established on the Potomac, checking out more than boat traffic.

LT. FRANK DEL ROSSO, U.S. COAST GUARD: We're keeping an eye on the bridges as well, underneath the bridges, and also on the bridges, like broken down trucks, cars that have been there for a while. We'll call them into local law enforcement so they can go out and check them out.

MESERVE: The Coast Guard will also eyeball bordering park land and roads, on the lookout for suspicious vehicles or people.

The capital city and the inauguration it will host are emblems of the nation and its democratic traditions. But authorities say they have no credible information that terrorists are targeting the ceremony or celebrations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Jeanne Meserve now joins us from Washington. What else should we know about the threat assessment in D.C., Jeanne?

MESERVE: The threat assessment, which is seven pages long, if you include the cover sheet, includes a lot of things. It says al Qaeda operatives have explored the possibility of using helicopters, because they are maneuverable and may not be noticeable in an urban environment. That they might be interested in unmanned aerial vehicles, because they have a low radar signature. That they probably have some capability to us CBRM -- that is chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear -- agents and devices.

But all that said, the bottom line is, officials say they have no credible information that al Qaeda will deploy any of this against the inauguration. ZAHN: And even though this limousine threat that you mentioned has been hinted at before, is it just because we are getting our hands on some of the documents people are talking more openly about this possibility?

MESERVE: I'm told no, that they have had this material since last summer. They've been well aware of it. Limousines were mentioned when they heightened the threat level around some financial institutions in New York and New Jersey last summer. Also mentioned around the time of the political conventions this summer. So this is something they've been aware of. That limousine agency operator who we spoke to today said it was several months ago that the Secret Service and FBI spoke to him. He has not been approached recently by them.

ZAHN: So we know the big deterrent maybe to keeping some of the crowds down on Thursday will be the cold weather, but what will be the impact for the hardy folks who decide to line the parade route?

MESERVE: Well, there is going to be, of course, a lot of security, many layers of security, and they will have to go through magnetometers. They'll have their bags searched. They're being told to leave certain kind of items at home, like aerosols, like backpacks and other big packages. Probably one of the bigger downsides in this cold weather is that some of the street vendors in D.C. have been told they cannot use propane. That means you won't be able to get hot food and drink if you're on the parade route.

ZAHN: I'll bring my own, Jeanne.

MESERVE: You bet.

ZAHN: OK, thanks so much. And please stay with CNN Thursday for complete live coverage of the second inauguration of President Bush. That starts at 7:00 a.m. Eastern. And then Thursday night, Anderson Cooper and I will bring you live prime-time coverage from one of the many inaugural balls. Be sure to join us at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

Coming up next, with just about two weeks to go before the elections in Iraq, we're going to show you some new ideas for beefing up the Iraqi police force, courtesy of the U.S. Marines and the LAPD. Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: In just 13 days, national elections will be held in Iraq, but insurgents want to sabotage the vote. Today, kidnappers seized a Catholic archbishop outside his church in Mosul. The Vatican called it an act of terrorism and demanded his immediate release. Insurgents also launched two attacks, killing eight Iraqi National Guard soldiers and seven police officers. Also, two more U.S. soldiers were killed.

Meanwhile, a new CNN/"USA Today" Gallup poll shows that 52 percent of Americans think it was a mistake to send U.S. troops to Iraq. That is up from 44 percent in October. Do the math: 47 percent, however, do not think it was a mistake. Iraqi police officers will play a big role in election day security, but many have been hesitant to enforce the law, a situation the U.S. military is trying to change. Chris Lawrence reports from Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On election day, Iraqi police are expected to be the guards standing closest to the ballot boxes. But in reality, they're often much closer to their own tribe. Which means any changes in their training have to start there.

MAJOR P.K. EWING, U.S. MARINE CORPS: You have to go to the tribe's elders. You have to go to the sheik.

LAWRENCE: U.S. Marine Major P.K. Ewing recognizes where Iraq's real power lies. The tribes are like huge extended families, with ties that go back hundreds of years.

(on camera) American officers say one of the biggest challenges of winning over the Iraqi people is working around the bonds of tribal loyalty.

(voice-over) Especially when it comes to encouraging Iraqi officers to crack down on local criminals.

LEN STERMOLLE, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: They're hesitant to arrest -- make an arrest or a detention from a member of their same tribe.

LAWRENCE: Leon Stermolle came from the Los Angeles Police Department to help train police officers here. That training is now being adapted to work within the tribal system, including pairing up officers from different tribes.

STERMOLLE: This way if they -- if they have to make the arrest, one of the officers can make the arrest and the other can just not interfere.

LAWRENCE: In some cases, Iraqi officials have gone a step further.

EWING: A good example would be that if you're from this area, you don't become a cop in this area. You become a cop in another area.

LAWRENCE: That way tribal alliances don't conflict with their most important mission: protecting all Iraqi voters on election day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Once again, that was Chris Lawrence reporting from Baghdad.

From the struggle to nurture elections in Iraq, we move onto the peaceful transfer of power here in America and the path of the next secretary of state. The remarkable career of Condoleezza Rice when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Americans pause today to remember a man who lived and died for the cause of freedom, the Reverend Martin Luther King. Many cities held parades. Denver's "marade," a combination march and parade, is now into its 20th year and drew a crowd estimated into the tens of thousands.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN LUTHER KING III, MARTIN LUTHER KING'S SON: Today we gather to commemorate the 76th birthday anniversary of my father, Martin Luther King Jr.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: There was also a service at Reverend King's old church in Atlanta. Martin Luther King III asked the congregation, as you just heard, to remember his father's legacy of compassion by reaching out to victims of the Asian tsunami.

And then in Washington, President Bush marked the holiday by presenting an award to outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife, Alma.

Martin Luther King's legacy has touched countless lives, opening doors that were closed shut, creating opportunities where none existed before. That is especially true of the woman who goes to Capitol Hill tomorrow for hearings, some of them expected to be contentious, on her nomination to replace Colin Powell as secretary of state.

Bruce Burkhardt looks back at what it was like when Condoleezza Rice grew up in Birmingham, Alabama.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two kids playing "Chopsticks" on a church piano. One of them is a nominee for U.S. secretary of state.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She and Michael were playing "Chopsticks" together, and Michael was just so enthused that he could keep up with Condoleezza with "Chopsticks." So he finished, and then all of a sudden, Condoleezza looked at him and then started with Beethoven. And it was amazing that this small child at her age could do Beethoven.

BURKHARDT: Eva Carter and Cora Williams were teenagers in the early '60s, members of the youth group of the church here at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

Julia Emma Smith was the no nonsense youth director in charge of the group.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, the good cop, bad cop? She was the bad cop.

BURKHARDT: Good cop was Reverend John Rice, Condoleezza's father.

The wonderful memories these women have of Birmingham and the Rice family co-exist with other memories, not so wonderful. Images that still haunt Birmingham: Bill Conner, and the dogs, the fire hoses and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE NOMINEE: I did not see the incident, but I heard it and I felt it at my father's church just blocks away. It was a sound that will be forever reverberating in my ears.

BURKHARDT: Among the four little girls killed in the bombing was Condoleezza's childhood friend Denise McNair, seen here with Condoleezza's father, John Rice, as she graduates from kindergarten. The photo was taken by Denise's father, Chris McNair.

CHRIS MCNAIR, FATHER, DENISE MCNAIR: I can't help but think and wonder many days what would Denise have been doing at this point in her life?

RICE: The crime was calculated. It was not random. It was meant to suck the hope out of young lives, to bury their aspirations and to ensure that all fears were propelled forward into the next generation.

BURKHARDT: The bomb didn't do any of that. And at least part of the reason had to do with men like Condoleezza's father.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He stressed education because he wanted us and he taught that that was the only way that we could really flourish was to have an education. And he loved us dearly. Now I can only imagine the type of love that he gave Condoleezza, because the love that he gave to us was just -- it was just magnificent.

BURKHARDT: John Rice is revered by these women and many others around here, as a man who lifted everyone around them and calmed them during troubled times.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But the calming way that Reverend Rice had of talking to people, of making you feel like, I mean, I know everything is going to be all right because he said it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He took us to the different temples, Temple Emmanuel and Temple Bethel, so that we could see a different culture and know a different kind of religion.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But her favorite thing was to play the piano. She played that thing for hours. And as I said, in the summertime, we could sit out here and listen to her. And she was wonderful! It was just great! And she would, as I said, raise the windows, and we could hear everything. It was our first exposure, I think, to classical music.

BURKHARDT: Carol Smitherton (ph) used to live across the street from Condoleezza. She's now on the Birmingham city council.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then she'd come out and she'd say, "Well, did you like that? Did you know that that was a piece by Beethoven or Bach or whatever?"

And we'd say, "Yes, yes, come on, let's play ball."

BURKHARDT: Carol was with Condoleezza in church that Sunday morning when the bomb went off across town. It's been written that Condoleezza Rice was kept insulated from all the troubles in Birmingham. Insulated maybe but certainly not unaware.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Condoleezza would call me on the telephone, and you had to read the newspaper because she could read so well and she would say, "Ms. Smith, did you see what Bull Conner did today?"

BURKHARDT: Julia Emma Smith goes way back with the Rices.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's Julia Emma Smith.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's me.

BURKHARDT (on camera): Let me see. Mercy!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mercy! A little girl.

BURKHARDT (voice-over): She was a college classmate of Condoleezza's mother, Angelina, both very attractive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. Calm down.

BURKHARDT: As for Condoleezza turning Republican while coming from a neighborhood and a race that is largely Democratic, no one is especially bothered by that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, clearly, I may not agree with some of her ideologies or her perspectives of certain things, but without a doubt, she can handle what she's doing, without a doubt.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't any of us are holding that against her, because we're proud of what she has done.

BURKHARDT: Proud, but not terribly surprised.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But Reverend Rice taught us that we could do anything we wanted to do. So having -- not having self-confidence, that never crossed our paths, never.

BURKHARDT: Sadly, Reverend Rice never got to see his daughter as national security adviser. He died on Christmas Eve, 2000, just a few weeks before she took her oath of office.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And now she finds another round of questions, this one coming tomorrow when she's expected to be asked very tough questions as she is vetted to become the next secretary of state. That gets underway at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. CNN will be covering it live.

Time to check in with my colleague, Aaron Brown, right now to find out what's ahead on "NEWSNIGHT."

Hi, Aaron. How are you doing tonight?

AARON BROWN, HOST, "NEWSNIGHT": I'm fine. How are you?

On this Martin Luther King Day, we take a look at race in America. We'll talk about leadership in the African-American communities and moves from the grievance era to the opportunity era and the speech everyone thinks they heard but didn't. We'll play in its entirety Dr. King's speech in the Washington mall back in August of 1963.

That and more on "NEWSNIGHT," coming up tonight.

ZAHN: We'll be there. And thanks.

And coming up next, we return to the epic struggle for civil rights. Some young people took some extraordinary risks in the '60s. When we come back, you'll meet one woman who finally got justice all these years later. A real story of inspiration, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Dr. King's legacy reminds us of some of the heroism displayed by so many Americans four decades ago, people who bravely stood up to injustice because simply it was wrong.

Some paid with their lives, others, like a woman named Betty Claiborne (ph), were branded as criminals. Today, she finally got justice.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETTY CLAIBORNE, PARDONED BY LOUISIANA GOVERNOR: Today is a magnificent day on the face of this earth.

ZAHN (voice-over): The pews were filled at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as Betty Claiborne was granted a pardon by Governor Kathleen Blanco.

GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO (D), LOUISIANA: It is an honor for me to sign this pardon.

ZAHN: Claiborne's crime: trying to integrate a public swimming pool in the summer of 1963.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): We shall overcome.

ZAHN: By that time, the civil rights movement was well underway. The city of Birmingham, Alabama, was a hotbed of civil rights demonstration.

Nineteen sixty-three was also the year that Medgar Evers was killed in his driveway by white supremacists, the year the four little girls attending Sunday school at a Birmingham Baptist church were killed by a bomb planted by segregationists.

And the year that 260,000 people converged on the nation's capital for the march on Washington.

Today, almost 42 years later, crowds have gathered again to march, this tonight in celebration for a woman who took a stand. At the time of her arrest, Betty Claiborne was a 20-year-old college student and part of a fledgling civil rights movement at Southern University in Baton Rouge.

On July 23, 1963, Claiborne went and four others went to a whites only city park pool. She knew she'd be arrested.

CLAIBORNE: The arrest for me stood for a badge of honor that would give hope to the children coming after me that you, too, have to take a stand.

ZAHN: Claiborne was charged with simple battery, a misdemeanor. She spent 10 days in jail.

One year later, nine public swimming pools in Baton Rouge were closed after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation of park facilities was unconstitutional, but Betty Claiborne's arrest record remained until today.

CLAIBORNE: To us who march, and we can say free at last, free at last, free at last! Free at last!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: I think Betty Claiborne is going to have a good night's sleep tonight.

Now it's time to move onto the reading from tonight's "PZN Meter" question. We asked you this earlier on in the hour: "Are U.S. railways safe?" Twenty-two percent of you say yes; 78 percent say no. Remember, this is not a scientific poll, just a sampling of those of you who logged onto our web site.

That wraps it up for all of us here this evening. Our "Defending America" series continues tomorrow with a story of one woman, a mom by day, a cyber spy by night, tracking down terrorists, taking the war on terror into her own hands. That's tomorrow night.

Coming up next, "LARRY KING LIVE" is next and the courage of living with multiple sclerosis. Again, thanks for joining us tonight. We'll be back same time, same place tomorrow night. Good night.

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 17, 2005 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Welcome. Glad to have you with us tonight.
While this week's inauguration is not a first for President George W. Bush, it is the first since the war on terror began. And for that reason, security will be like nothing we have ever seen before. And for that reason, today is day one of our CNN series "Defending America." We sent dozens of reporters and producers out to answer one basic question: Is the nation really safer now than it was on 9/11? Much of what we found, both the strength and weaknesses, will surprise you.

Of course, tonight, we'll show you the unprecedented measures being taken to protect the 250,000 people expected at the inauguration on Thursday. We'll also take a critical look at our railways. Train systems have been targets of terrorists in other countries, too, as you know, with deadly results. Could it happen here and what can we learn from those attacks? We try to answer those questions tonight as well.

But we begin tonight in a city that has been aware of the terrorist threat and preparing for the worst since even before 9/11. Los Angeles was the target for a foiled bomb plot four years ago, just before the millennium. And in many ways, L.A. is just as much a symbol of America as New York and Washington.

So, our series "Defending America," starts with an L.A. story.

Here's Frank Buckley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been hit hard by fires and floods.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grab the rope. Grab it tight.

BUCKLEY: Earthquakes and riots. But it's the disaster Los Angeles hasn't experienced, a major terror attack, that keeps the LAPD's counterterrorism chief, John Miller, on full alert.

(on camera): Do you believe that we will be attacked here in Los Angeles?

JOHN MILLER, COMMANDING OFFICER, LAPD COUNTERTERRORISM BUREAU: I believe that Los Angeles is as high a threat of a city as New York or Washington. BUCKLEY (voice-over): Which is one reason why Los Angeles area agencies drill together on all manner of potential attacks, from dirty bomb drills like this one, to deadly chemicals released in a shopping mall, to a terrorist takeover at LAX, to a hijacking at L.A.'s port.

They've gamed out what could happen and how police and other agencies would respond. But Miller says it's the attack they haven't anticipated that robs him of his sleep.

MILLER: Three times a week, you know, I'll be laying in bed in the middle of the night and think of some version of some combination of attack that we hadn't thought of before, and we'll trot that in here to our hazmat people or to our intelligence people and say, what about this?

BUCKLEY: You might have seen his face before. He was anchor on ABC's "20/20." One of his biggest interviews, the man in the picture on the wall. Long before 9/11, Miller tracked down and interviewed Osama bin Laden.

MILLER: I feel I understand bin Laden, and perhaps understand him more than others who are in this role in other places. Los Angeles encompasses some things that, if you are Osama bin Laden, goes to the heart of what you don't like about America. We have some of our favorite things about ourselves, in a word, Hollywood.

BUCKLEY: Miller says bin Laden shapes his work. So, too, does this man, Ahmed Ressam, an al Qaeda-trained terrorist convicted of a plot to blow up parts of LAX as America celebrated the millennium. But Miller is quick to say he's not the only counterterror official in Los Angeles. And the LAPD is only one of the agencies charged with preventing or responding to the next potential plot.

In fact, it's L.A.'s multiple agencies, in a county of 88 cities, who have gained a national reputation for working together against terror.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Your efforts and example show the nation a level cooperation, coordination and communication that reflects the urgency of our challenge to prevent a terrorist attack and respond to any emergency.

BUCKLEY: The same multiagency approach L.A. brought to disasters, it is applying to terror.

SANDRA HUTCHENS, LOS ANGELES SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: We've had the fires, the floods, the earthquakes, the riots, and by necessity, we have worked together and as a result have a very strong relationship.

BUCKLEY: Potential rivals, like the FBI, the Sheriff's Department and the LAPD, work shoulder to shoulder. Intelligence is shared. Equipment is purchased in consultation with surrounding cities to reduce redundancy.

HUTCHENS: If we have an event, we're going to be responding as a region. BUCKLEY: It's not only L.A.'s cooperative approach against terror that's been recognized by national officials. It's the innovations.

(on camera): This LAPD bomb truck an example of that new technology. It's a total containment vessel that's been designed to handle chemical, biological or radiological devices. In older versions of this truck, in the event of explosion, the air would have vented out. You don't want that in a chemical, biological or radiological device, because that would contaminate the outside air. So, this truck has been modified.

Newer technology is used in combination with somewhat older technology, like this robot that can be remotely operated from a safe distance by bomb squad members. This robot can actually place the explosive device inside that truck.

BUCKLEY (voice-over): And there's this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the only remote-controlled forklift of its kind in the country. So if you had to go down range, it's capable of picking up a large vehicle bomb and driving off with it.

BUCKLEY: Another innovation, a microscope in a suitcase designed in response to the anthrax scares.

MILLER: Our hazmat people, using this microscope, can actually send pictures from the scene right back to the lab. They can assess what they're looking at through the microscope and say this is nondairy creamer, it's sugar, it's baking soda, it's definitely not anthrax or anything else hazardous, without blocking off any streets, evacuating any buildings or turning life upside-down, the way we used to have to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boomer, come.

BUCKLEY: The LAPD also has Boomer, a first of its kind, according to the department, a K-9 that works off leash at an airport. His handler demonstrating how Boomer is trained to find people with explosives strapped to their bodies.

SGT. BLAINE BLACKSTONE, LAPD: If a human being were packing explosives, like a suicide bomber, Boomer would alert to that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boomer, come.

BUCKLEY: Human officers, meanwhile...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're looking for major body count.

BUCKLEY: ... are focusing on a new joint effort with the Department of Homeland Security called Archangel, a program that will eventually be offered across the nation. Just last week, officers began training on how to inventory the hundreds of high-priority, high-risk potential targets in Los Angeles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're looking for the major, oh, my God locations on a large scale.

BUCKLEY: Eventually, an incident commander will be able to call up detailed tactical information on a threatened site, with the decision-maker, maybe even in the White House Situation Room, on the same page thousands of miles away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They can literally do it at the stroke of a key any time, any day, anywhere.

BUCKLEY: Which also happens to be when terror could strike again.

MILLER: The terrorists don't think in the terms that we think in. They don't think from year to year or fiscal year to fiscal year or election year to election year. They think in terms of a longtime battle.

BUCKLEY: It is a battle in which Miller, the former journalist, is now fully engaged as a combatant.

MILLER: It's not the critic who counts, according to Teddy Roosevelt. It's the person who is actually in the arena doing the job. I feel a lot better leaving the critic's desk and getting into the arena.

BUCKLEY: Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And when "Defending America" continues, the Bush inaugural, the most intense security operation ever. We'll show you what's in the works.

And mistakes made, lessons learned. Nearly a year after the Madrid train bombings, a survivor makes an emotional return to the scene of the attack.

Then, how safe are American trains?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREN CALLAHAN, SUBWAY RIDER: I feel like a sitting duck. That's what I feel. I feel like, every time I get on a train, it could happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: We put security to the test in the country's busiest rail terminal. We'll tell you what we found when our CNN "Security Watch," "Defending America," continues.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: And welcome back. On March 11 of last year, terrorists struck with deadly accuracy in Madrid, exploding bombs on commuter trains, killing 191 people. The attacks caused immediate concern is in this country because so many American cities are served by commuter train lines. And they are vulnerable.

With the Madrid investigation nearly a year old, we wondered what has been learned in Spain and what can that attack teach U.S. authorities?

Here's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is every time day Jesus Ramirez hates, physiotherapy, pushed, pulled and prodded to recovery, his back violent testament to the ferocity of the Madrid train bombing that rendered him unconscious for two weeks.

(on camera): And you won't get on the train now.

"I haven't come back," he explains. "It has bad memories."

Indeed, he has only come back to the platform where his life changed forever March 11 last year to help us understand. At a memorial in the station to the 191 killed and 1,800 injured, he explains he hasn't worked or played his favorite sport since.

JESUS RAMIREZ, MADRID BOMBING SURVIVOR (through translator): What you learn is that we are in the hands of assassins. There's nothing that assures us that tomorrow will be the same as today.

ROBERTSON: These silent security camera pictures from the escalator in the central Atocha station captured one of the 10 blasts that day.

JORGE RODRIGUEZ, SPANISH JOURNALIST: I can't see the camera now, but it's over there.

ROBERTSON: Jorge Rodriguez, one of Spain's top investigative journalists, covered the bombings and is still trying to piece together what's been learned.

RODRIGUEZ: It was not a mistake, because, in Spain, the police and the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) have a lot of information about the possibilities of a terrorist attack, but they don't put in common this information.

ROBERTSON: Investigators concede that some of the attackers were Islamic radicals already under investigation for logistical support of al Qaeda. Part of how the terrorists stayed ahead, outsourcing to common criminals. Such loose networks, Rodriguez says, are still a problem for police trying to prevent further attacks.

RODRIGUEZ: Simple. You can find a terrorist in Spain without explosives, but maybe the explosive is in France. The telephone that you can use to initiate the explosive, maybe it's in Portugal.

RAMIREZ: Spanish authorities say they have tightened authorities at stations. But it appears as easy now to get on a train with a bag as it did before the attack.

ROBERTSON: On the line targeted by the bombers, the majority of passengers scared away by the attack have returned. Most we talk to doubt they are safer. But lessons are being learned.

JUDGE BALTASAR GARZON, INVESTIGATING MAGISTRATE (through translator): The intelligence service and the connections with the police service were not enough. There was a lack of coordination in other fields. And this is what now we are trying to solve.

ROBERTSON: Although not responsible for the 3/11 investigations, Judge Baltasar Garzon is Spain's best-known anti-Islamic terror investigator.

GARZON (through translator): The judicial and police action has to be in the ideological phase of the groups before the groups prepare their attacks.

ROBERTSON: Perceived wisdom is, much still needs to be done. In the meantime, terrorists have some advantages.

RODRIGUEZ: They can attack whenever they want, because to leave a bag, a bomb bag, in every place, in a mall, in a railway station, in an airport, is easy.

ROBERTSON: The lesson of the train attack, adding station security is not enough. The solution is finding the adversary before the attack.

GARZON (through translator): These types of groups can germinate in the United States, as they did in Spain or as is happening in Europe. Therefore, effective coordination of information and fluid international cooperation is important. No nation is exempt from this type of attack, especially the United States.

ROBERTSON: And for survivors like Jesus Ramirez, the lesson is simple.

RAMIREZ (through translator): We must not feel restricted by these people. That would be their greatest success.

ROBERTSON: "We must keep on living," he says, "the best as possible."

Nic Robertson, CNN, Madrid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And the Madrid train bombing immediately triggered concerns about the exposure of America's passenger trains. When we come back, what's being done to protect the rail system here? Is our security tough enough? "Defending America" continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: And welcome back.

Our look at the country's safety and security now focuses on a potential soft spot that runs through virtually every city, every town, every community. No matter where you live, you're near a railroad. More than 140,000-miles of tracks crisscross the nations, and that's only the major routes.

In any given week, freight trains haul more than three-quarters- of-a-million tons of food, 13 millions ton of coal, one million tons of scrap metal and waste and more than three million tons of chemicals. Just 11 days ago in South Carolina, a derailed tank car leaked chlorine gas, killing nine people, sending 250 others to the hospital and forcing 5,400 people out of their homes. It was a frightening reminder of the havoc that could be caused by a terrorist attack on our nation's railroads.

And we haven't even gotten to the most precious cargo trains carry, people. Consider this. Passengers take more than three billion rail trips every year.

More now from Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is one morning Karen Callahan can relax at home with her cup of coffee, a day off from work as a paralegal. She relishes days like this, no 30- minute train ride into Manhattan, no security worries.

CALLAHAN: I feel like a sitting duck. That's what I feel. I feel like, every time I get on a train, it could happen.

CARROLL: We joined Callahan on her commute home through the world's largest train station, New York's Grand Central. This is where security concerns her most.

(on camera): Do you think about it very often?

CALLAHAN: I do. Probably every day.

CARROLL (voice-over): This single mom of two sees the train as her only choice, so she tries to minimize her risk.

CALLAHAN: I tend to go in the very first car for a few reasons, one of them being that it seems it would be easier to get out.

CARROLL: Senator Joe Biden says Callahan's security worries are not unfounded.

SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D), DELAWARE: There's no basic security. It is bizarre, absolutely bizarre. CARROLL: Biden commutes every daily from Delaware to Washington.

BIDEN: It's been 3 1/2 years of this.

CARROLL: He's so angered by lapses in security, he introduced legislation.

(on camera): Do you see any things around here that you think could be improved?

BIDEN: Well, for example, what you can improve is people is just standing here with the dogs, just bomb-sniffing dogs. It's basic block-and-tackle stuff, basic stuff.

CARROLL: You're also talking about having someone just sort of walking through.

BIDEN: Yes. Just, for example, just the idea that one of these Amtrak policemen would be able to walk through with bomb-sniffing dogs. There's no sufficient cops. There's no sufficient fencing. There's no sufficient cameras. It's just -- it's criminal.

ASA HUTCHINSON, UNDERSECRETARY FOR HOMELAND SECURITY: We're grateful for that voice and that support for increased security.

CARROLL (voice-over): Asa Hutchinson is in charge of border and transportation security for the Department of Homeland Security. He says many lessons were learned from last year's terrorist bombing on a passenger train in Madrid; 191 people were killed. Hutchinson says 70 new workers were hired this year to work with 400 already in place, $150 million dedicated to rail security.

HUTCHINSON: You certainly have to worry that we're doing all that we can to protect those rails and also the whole system. And so you're concerned about it, but also you take steps every day to build upon that. Much has been done.

CARROLL: But critics insist, not enough. New York lawmakers gave train and subway security a D, citing unprotected tunnels, rail yards and, in particular, lack of surveillance. So, at a train station in Philadelphia and another in New York, we waited to see how long it would take for security to notice an abandoned bag left in clear view. After 10 minutes, nothing.

That wouldn't surprise Callahan, who takes upon herself to keep an eye out.

CALLAHAN: There was a man sitting behind me with a backpack, and he looked like one of the people that might have been on the airplane. And he got up and he looked around in just kind of a suspicious way to me. And then he walked off. And right then, a man wearing almost the same jacket, same backpack, sat in the very seat behind me. So you can't help it. And if there was a cop, a trooper on it, I think I might have said something.

CARROLL: Back to the bag; 20 minutes pass. In Philadelphia, an officer and his dog look over the bag. Our producer steps in and identifies it.

But, in New York, still nothing. Those who track terror tactics say the U.S. could learn from Great Britain's experience with his train system and threats by the Irish Republican Army.

BRIAN JENKINS, RAND CORPORATION: If people are admonished to notify authorities of suspicious activity or abandoned parcels, if you then have readily available communication systems for them to do that, telephones that are marked, and you provide rapid response when reports are made, then, in effect, you have closed the loop.

CARROLL: In New York, after 30 minutes, one person stopped, but is too rushed to report the bag. We conclude the experiment.

HUTCHINSON: We know there's some vulnerabilities that we need to continue to work on. And we are aggressively.

CARROLL: For example, this pilot program to test trained passengers and their luggage for explosives. But for now, it's just a test.

Amtrak says, since 9/11, it's added police, increase use of bomb- sniffing dogs and requires passengers to show I.D. But Karen Callahan believes even more should be done, but she's not holding her breath.

CALLAHAN: I think it all comes down to money. I think it's just probably too expensive to have security on all the trains at all times. Yes, it's money.

CARROLL: So she'll keep riding and keep watching who's sitting nearby.

Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And now we want you to weigh in. Are U.S. railways safe? Let us know what you think. Log on to CNN.com/Paula. The results at the end of the hour.

Coming up next, inaugural security in Washington, it will be at the highest levels when the president takes the oath of office for the second time. We'll show you what's being done to protect the nation's capital.

And here is what we're working on for tomorrow's edition of "Defending America."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN (voice-over): Meet a stay-at-home mom, an Internet spy doing her part in the war on terror, combing the Web for clues to plan terrorist attacks, and the man who stared into the eyes of evil on 9/11.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did I do? Why didn't I see that? I had the devil standing right in front of me. I didn't know it.

ZAHN: He was the first to confront the mastermind of the 9/11 hijackings. For the first time, he tells his story tomorrow on our "Security Watch," "Defending America."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Thursday, of course, is President Bush's big day. He officially begins his second term at the stroke of noon. And that's when he'll raise his right hand and recite the oath of office on Capitol Hill.

And, earlier, we talked about security on the nation's railroads. Well, this week, Union Station will be heavily patrolled, as it is only five blocks from where the president will be sworn in. And all week long in our "Security Watch," we'll keep you up to date on developments concerning security for the ceremony, which lies at the very heart of our democracy.

Tonight, an overview from homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On Washington's subway system, metro, the inauguration will mean heavy ridership and heavy security. Two stations near the festivities will be shut down altogether. There will be more K-9 teams, more police, and authorities are asking for more eyes.

POLLY HANSEN, METRO TRANSIT POLICE CHIEF: I am pleading, begging, directing, demanding that our passengers be engaged with us. I'm not suggesting that we can do it by ourselves.

MESERVE: An FBI and Department of Homeland Security inauguration threat assessment mentions other modes of transportation which are potential targets or potential weapons. Limousines, for instance, which al Qaeda has explored using as bombs because of their large capacity and the access they sometimes have to restricted areas. The FBI warned limo operators months ago to be on the lookout.

RICHARD KANE, INTERNATIONAL LIMOUSINE SERVICE: The questions that they were concerned about for us is do we have anybody who is asking the capacity, size, the weight capacity of our vehicles. And fortunately, it's not been our case here.

MESERVE: A wide web of street closings is intended to keep limos and all vehicles away from inaugural activities. Officials are hoping to avoid anything like this, the chaotic evacuation of the Capitol during the funeral of President Reagan, triggered when a plane carrying the governor of Kentucky entered restricted air space.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you don't have to fly, don't fly on that particular day. MESERVE: Officials are briefing pilots on expanded flight restrictions being imposed over the national Capitol region, warning them that violators will be met by fighter jets or Blackhawk helicopters. If they don't respond to radio calls, signals or flares, they risk being shot down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody likes to be told that they can't go somewhere or can't do something, but we understand that these safety procedures are in place for a reason.

MESERVE: As a precaution, general aviation at Reagan National Airport will be shut down altogether, and the entire region is being monitored by the military's North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado.

COL. THOMAS MOIR, NORAD: The experts across the front row will monitor events on the week prior to the inauguration to the week after inauguration. You can see up on our wall of knowledge, we like to call it, where we're able to provide real-time situational awareness.

MESERVE: Armed Coast Guard vessels are already patrolling a security zone established on the Potomac, checking out more than boat traffic.

LT. FRANK DEL ROSSO, U.S. COAST GUARD: We're keeping an eye on the bridges as well, underneath the bridges, and also on the bridges, like broken down trucks, cars that have been there for a while. We'll call them into local law enforcement so they can go out and check them out.

MESERVE: The Coast Guard will also eyeball bordering park land and roads, on the lookout for suspicious vehicles or people.

The capital city and the inauguration it will host are emblems of the nation and its democratic traditions. But authorities say they have no credible information that terrorists are targeting the ceremony or celebrations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Jeanne Meserve now joins us from Washington. What else should we know about the threat assessment in D.C., Jeanne?

MESERVE: The threat assessment, which is seven pages long, if you include the cover sheet, includes a lot of things. It says al Qaeda operatives have explored the possibility of using helicopters, because they are maneuverable and may not be noticeable in an urban environment. That they might be interested in unmanned aerial vehicles, because they have a low radar signature. That they probably have some capability to us CBRM -- that is chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear -- agents and devices.

But all that said, the bottom line is, officials say they have no credible information that al Qaeda will deploy any of this against the inauguration. ZAHN: And even though this limousine threat that you mentioned has been hinted at before, is it just because we are getting our hands on some of the documents people are talking more openly about this possibility?

MESERVE: I'm told no, that they have had this material since last summer. They've been well aware of it. Limousines were mentioned when they heightened the threat level around some financial institutions in New York and New Jersey last summer. Also mentioned around the time of the political conventions this summer. So this is something they've been aware of. That limousine agency operator who we spoke to today said it was several months ago that the Secret Service and FBI spoke to him. He has not been approached recently by them.

ZAHN: So we know the big deterrent maybe to keeping some of the crowds down on Thursday will be the cold weather, but what will be the impact for the hardy folks who decide to line the parade route?

MESERVE: Well, there is going to be, of course, a lot of security, many layers of security, and they will have to go through magnetometers. They'll have their bags searched. They're being told to leave certain kind of items at home, like aerosols, like backpacks and other big packages. Probably one of the bigger downsides in this cold weather is that some of the street vendors in D.C. have been told they cannot use propane. That means you won't be able to get hot food and drink if you're on the parade route.

ZAHN: I'll bring my own, Jeanne.

MESERVE: You bet.

ZAHN: OK, thanks so much. And please stay with CNN Thursday for complete live coverage of the second inauguration of President Bush. That starts at 7:00 a.m. Eastern. And then Thursday night, Anderson Cooper and I will bring you live prime-time coverage from one of the many inaugural balls. Be sure to join us at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

Coming up next, with just about two weeks to go before the elections in Iraq, we're going to show you some new ideas for beefing up the Iraqi police force, courtesy of the U.S. Marines and the LAPD. Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: In just 13 days, national elections will be held in Iraq, but insurgents want to sabotage the vote. Today, kidnappers seized a Catholic archbishop outside his church in Mosul. The Vatican called it an act of terrorism and demanded his immediate release. Insurgents also launched two attacks, killing eight Iraqi National Guard soldiers and seven police officers. Also, two more U.S. soldiers were killed.

Meanwhile, a new CNN/"USA Today" Gallup poll shows that 52 percent of Americans think it was a mistake to send U.S. troops to Iraq. That is up from 44 percent in October. Do the math: 47 percent, however, do not think it was a mistake. Iraqi police officers will play a big role in election day security, but many have been hesitant to enforce the law, a situation the U.S. military is trying to change. Chris Lawrence reports from Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On election day, Iraqi police are expected to be the guards standing closest to the ballot boxes. But in reality, they're often much closer to their own tribe. Which means any changes in their training have to start there.

MAJOR P.K. EWING, U.S. MARINE CORPS: You have to go to the tribe's elders. You have to go to the sheik.

LAWRENCE: U.S. Marine Major P.K. Ewing recognizes where Iraq's real power lies. The tribes are like huge extended families, with ties that go back hundreds of years.

(on camera) American officers say one of the biggest challenges of winning over the Iraqi people is working around the bonds of tribal loyalty.

(voice-over) Especially when it comes to encouraging Iraqi officers to crack down on local criminals.

LEN STERMOLLE, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: They're hesitant to arrest -- make an arrest or a detention from a member of their same tribe.

LAWRENCE: Leon Stermolle came from the Los Angeles Police Department to help train police officers here. That training is now being adapted to work within the tribal system, including pairing up officers from different tribes.

STERMOLLE: This way if they -- if they have to make the arrest, one of the officers can make the arrest and the other can just not interfere.

LAWRENCE: In some cases, Iraqi officials have gone a step further.

EWING: A good example would be that if you're from this area, you don't become a cop in this area. You become a cop in another area.

LAWRENCE: That way tribal alliances don't conflict with their most important mission: protecting all Iraqi voters on election day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Once again, that was Chris Lawrence reporting from Baghdad.

From the struggle to nurture elections in Iraq, we move onto the peaceful transfer of power here in America and the path of the next secretary of state. The remarkable career of Condoleezza Rice when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Americans pause today to remember a man who lived and died for the cause of freedom, the Reverend Martin Luther King. Many cities held parades. Denver's "marade," a combination march and parade, is now into its 20th year and drew a crowd estimated into the tens of thousands.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN LUTHER KING III, MARTIN LUTHER KING'S SON: Today we gather to commemorate the 76th birthday anniversary of my father, Martin Luther King Jr.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: There was also a service at Reverend King's old church in Atlanta. Martin Luther King III asked the congregation, as you just heard, to remember his father's legacy of compassion by reaching out to victims of the Asian tsunami.

And then in Washington, President Bush marked the holiday by presenting an award to outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife, Alma.

Martin Luther King's legacy has touched countless lives, opening doors that were closed shut, creating opportunities where none existed before. That is especially true of the woman who goes to Capitol Hill tomorrow for hearings, some of them expected to be contentious, on her nomination to replace Colin Powell as secretary of state.

Bruce Burkhardt looks back at what it was like when Condoleezza Rice grew up in Birmingham, Alabama.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two kids playing "Chopsticks" on a church piano. One of them is a nominee for U.S. secretary of state.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She and Michael were playing "Chopsticks" together, and Michael was just so enthused that he could keep up with Condoleezza with "Chopsticks." So he finished, and then all of a sudden, Condoleezza looked at him and then started with Beethoven. And it was amazing that this small child at her age could do Beethoven.

BURKHARDT: Eva Carter and Cora Williams were teenagers in the early '60s, members of the youth group of the church here at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

Julia Emma Smith was the no nonsense youth director in charge of the group.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, the good cop, bad cop? She was the bad cop.

BURKHARDT: Good cop was Reverend John Rice, Condoleezza's father.

The wonderful memories these women have of Birmingham and the Rice family co-exist with other memories, not so wonderful. Images that still haunt Birmingham: Bill Conner, and the dogs, the fire hoses and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE NOMINEE: I did not see the incident, but I heard it and I felt it at my father's church just blocks away. It was a sound that will be forever reverberating in my ears.

BURKHARDT: Among the four little girls killed in the bombing was Condoleezza's childhood friend Denise McNair, seen here with Condoleezza's father, John Rice, as she graduates from kindergarten. The photo was taken by Denise's father, Chris McNair.

CHRIS MCNAIR, FATHER, DENISE MCNAIR: I can't help but think and wonder many days what would Denise have been doing at this point in her life?

RICE: The crime was calculated. It was not random. It was meant to suck the hope out of young lives, to bury their aspirations and to ensure that all fears were propelled forward into the next generation.

BURKHARDT: The bomb didn't do any of that. And at least part of the reason had to do with men like Condoleezza's father.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He stressed education because he wanted us and he taught that that was the only way that we could really flourish was to have an education. And he loved us dearly. Now I can only imagine the type of love that he gave Condoleezza, because the love that he gave to us was just -- it was just magnificent.

BURKHARDT: John Rice is revered by these women and many others around here, as a man who lifted everyone around them and calmed them during troubled times.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But the calming way that Reverend Rice had of talking to people, of making you feel like, I mean, I know everything is going to be all right because he said it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He took us to the different temples, Temple Emmanuel and Temple Bethel, so that we could see a different culture and know a different kind of religion.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But her favorite thing was to play the piano. She played that thing for hours. And as I said, in the summertime, we could sit out here and listen to her. And she was wonderful! It was just great! And she would, as I said, raise the windows, and we could hear everything. It was our first exposure, I think, to classical music.

BURKHARDT: Carol Smitherton (ph) used to live across the street from Condoleezza. She's now on the Birmingham city council.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then she'd come out and she'd say, "Well, did you like that? Did you know that that was a piece by Beethoven or Bach or whatever?"

And we'd say, "Yes, yes, come on, let's play ball."

BURKHARDT: Carol was with Condoleezza in church that Sunday morning when the bomb went off across town. It's been written that Condoleezza Rice was kept insulated from all the troubles in Birmingham. Insulated maybe but certainly not unaware.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Condoleezza would call me on the telephone, and you had to read the newspaper because she could read so well and she would say, "Ms. Smith, did you see what Bull Conner did today?"

BURKHARDT: Julia Emma Smith goes way back with the Rices.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's Julia Emma Smith.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's me.

BURKHARDT (on camera): Let me see. Mercy!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mercy! A little girl.

BURKHARDT (voice-over): She was a college classmate of Condoleezza's mother, Angelina, both very attractive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. Calm down.

BURKHARDT: As for Condoleezza turning Republican while coming from a neighborhood and a race that is largely Democratic, no one is especially bothered by that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, clearly, I may not agree with some of her ideologies or her perspectives of certain things, but without a doubt, she can handle what she's doing, without a doubt.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't any of us are holding that against her, because we're proud of what she has done.

BURKHARDT: Proud, but not terribly surprised.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But Reverend Rice taught us that we could do anything we wanted to do. So having -- not having self-confidence, that never crossed our paths, never.

BURKHARDT: Sadly, Reverend Rice never got to see his daughter as national security adviser. He died on Christmas Eve, 2000, just a few weeks before she took her oath of office.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And now she finds another round of questions, this one coming tomorrow when she's expected to be asked very tough questions as she is vetted to become the next secretary of state. That gets underway at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. CNN will be covering it live.

Time to check in with my colleague, Aaron Brown, right now to find out what's ahead on "NEWSNIGHT."

Hi, Aaron. How are you doing tonight?

AARON BROWN, HOST, "NEWSNIGHT": I'm fine. How are you?

On this Martin Luther King Day, we take a look at race in America. We'll talk about leadership in the African-American communities and moves from the grievance era to the opportunity era and the speech everyone thinks they heard but didn't. We'll play in its entirety Dr. King's speech in the Washington mall back in August of 1963.

That and more on "NEWSNIGHT," coming up tonight.

ZAHN: We'll be there. And thanks.

And coming up next, we return to the epic struggle for civil rights. Some young people took some extraordinary risks in the '60s. When we come back, you'll meet one woman who finally got justice all these years later. A real story of inspiration, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Dr. King's legacy reminds us of some of the heroism displayed by so many Americans four decades ago, people who bravely stood up to injustice because simply it was wrong.

Some paid with their lives, others, like a woman named Betty Claiborne (ph), were branded as criminals. Today, she finally got justice.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETTY CLAIBORNE, PARDONED BY LOUISIANA GOVERNOR: Today is a magnificent day on the face of this earth.

ZAHN (voice-over): The pews were filled at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as Betty Claiborne was granted a pardon by Governor Kathleen Blanco.

GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO (D), LOUISIANA: It is an honor for me to sign this pardon.

ZAHN: Claiborne's crime: trying to integrate a public swimming pool in the summer of 1963.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): We shall overcome.

ZAHN: By that time, the civil rights movement was well underway. The city of Birmingham, Alabama, was a hotbed of civil rights demonstration.

Nineteen sixty-three was also the year that Medgar Evers was killed in his driveway by white supremacists, the year the four little girls attending Sunday school at a Birmingham Baptist church were killed by a bomb planted by segregationists.

And the year that 260,000 people converged on the nation's capital for the march on Washington.

Today, almost 42 years later, crowds have gathered again to march, this tonight in celebration for a woman who took a stand. At the time of her arrest, Betty Claiborne was a 20-year-old college student and part of a fledgling civil rights movement at Southern University in Baton Rouge.

On July 23, 1963, Claiborne went and four others went to a whites only city park pool. She knew she'd be arrested.

CLAIBORNE: The arrest for me stood for a badge of honor that would give hope to the children coming after me that you, too, have to take a stand.

ZAHN: Claiborne was charged with simple battery, a misdemeanor. She spent 10 days in jail.

One year later, nine public swimming pools in Baton Rouge were closed after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation of park facilities was unconstitutional, but Betty Claiborne's arrest record remained until today.

CLAIBORNE: To us who march, and we can say free at last, free at last, free at last! Free at last!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: I think Betty Claiborne is going to have a good night's sleep tonight.

Now it's time to move onto the reading from tonight's "PZN Meter" question. We asked you this earlier on in the hour: "Are U.S. railways safe?" Twenty-two percent of you say yes; 78 percent say no. Remember, this is not a scientific poll, just a sampling of those of you who logged onto our web site.

That wraps it up for all of us here this evening. Our "Defending America" series continues tomorrow with a story of one woman, a mom by day, a cyber spy by night, tracking down terrorists, taking the war on terror into her own hands. That's tomorrow night.

Coming up next, "LARRY KING LIVE" is next and the courage of living with multiple sclerosis. Again, thanks for joining us tonight. We'll be back same time, same place tomorrow night. Good night.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com