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Paula Zahn Now
War of Words Escalates Over North Korean Crisis; Diaries of Columbine Shooters Released
Aired July 06, 2006 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, everyone. Paula is off tonight.
We start on the CNN "Security Watch" and new word that North Korea's long-range missile test was a bigger failure than we first thought. A senior U.S. official with direct access to U.S. intelligence tells CNN that the Taepodong-2 malfunctioned almost from the start, spinning out of control just seconds after leaving its launchpad, and crashing after less than a minute in flight.
The same intelligence suggests that North Korea does not have another long-range missile ready to fly. For their part, the North Koreans today called this week's missile tests a success. They fired off a total of six short- or medium-range missiles, plus the single long-range one. North Korea says any country that dares to interfere with future missile tests will provoke -- quote -- "stronger physical actions."
A flurry of activity at the White House, where President Bush says the United States wants to resolve the missile crisis through diplomacy. Today, he met with Canada's prime minister and phoned the leaders of Russia and China.
The United Nations Security Council is busy crafting a resolution to condemn the launches. But the Russians and Chinese oppose any kind of sanctions or punishment.
Also tonight, the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise is heading from the Persian Gulf to the Pacific Ocean. The Pentagon says it's just a coincidence, but the Navy will soon have five carriers -- that's half its carrier fleet -- in the Pacific.
The most important calls the president made today were to the leaders of Russia and China. Without their support, there's no way the United Nations will impose tough sanctions on North Korea.
Here's White House correspondent Ed Henry.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the first time, President Bush described how he learned about North Korea firing missiles, as he visited troops at Fort Bragg on Independence Day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE") GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Don Rumsfeld called me and said, look, he's -- he's fired, you know, rockets, some of them Scuds that went in the Sea of Japan. It looks like he fired his long-range rocket that tumbled out of the sky.
But the -- but we responded very quickly. We had a plan in place to respond, if he were to fire these things.
LARRY KING, HOST: Were you prepared to shoot it down?
BUSH: If it headed to the United States, we -- we have got a missile defense system that will defend our country
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: In his exclusive interview with CNN's Larry King, the president also rejected calls to sit down for direct talks with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
BUSH: I think the best way to solve this problem diplomatically is for there to be a -- other nations around the table with us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: A point the president made earlier with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at his side.
BUSH: We're dealing with a person who was asked not to fire a rocket by the Chinese, the South Koreans, the United States, the Japanese and the Russians. And he fired seven of them, Which then caused the secretary of state and myself to get on the phone with our partners and reminded them of the importance of speaking with one voice.
HENRY: But the truth is, the president is having difficulty getting those key players in the six-party talks to speak with one voice. Calls Tuesday night to the leaders of South Korea and Japan yielded support for tough United Nations sanctions against Korea. But the president's Wednesday morning calls to the leaders of Russia and China resulted in a roadblock, sparking the president to downplay expectations.
BUSH: Diplomacy takes a while, particularly when you're dealing with a variety of partners. And, so, we're -- we're spending time diplomatically making sure that voice is unified. I was pleased from the responses I got from the leaders.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: The president can take another run at his counterparts from China and Russia next week at the G8 Summit in St. Petersburg, where the agenda was supposed to be dominated by Iran. Instead, now, suddenly, North Korea has vaulted to the top of that list -- John.
ROBERTS: Ed, if the president can't get what he wants from the United Nations Security Council, does he have any other options?
HENRY: Very limited options. I mean, one would be to get tough, ration up the rhetoric with Kim Jong Il. But then the dictator could try to hold America hostage, try to sell off some of those nuclear weapons he's stockpiled, sell them off to terrorists.
You heard another option the president dismissed with Larry King, saying he will not sit down for direct talks with Kim Jong Il. But one option that Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, seemed to leave open today is that, maybe down the road, he said every option is on the table, and maybe if China and Russia and others in the six-party talks urge the U.S. to do something like that, maybe it could happen, maybe not directly with President Bush, but maybe with someone like Secretary of State Rice.
ROBERTS: It's all just a matter of that -- that deft diplomatic language.
HENRY: That's right.
ROBERTS: Ed Henry, thanks.
And we will hear more of Larry King's exclusive interview with the president still ahead.
If you add up everything we know about the man North Koreans call their "Dear Leader," you get a pretty odd picture of a dictator whose tastes include cartoons, horror movies, James Bond, and nuclear weapons.
Gary Tuchman has this snapshot of Kim Jong Il for us tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If he weren't so dangerous, he might be hilarious. Kim Jong Il, the autocratic leader of the most isolated country in the world, wears throwback suits, platform shoes, and a 1960s style pompadour hairdo.
Jerrold Post is a former CIA psychological profiler.
JERROLD POST, AUTHOR, "LEADERS AND THEIR FOLLOWERS IN A DANGEROUS WORLD": He has great insecurity about himself personally. He's only 5'2'', weighs, roly-poly, 175 pounds, wears four-inch lifts in his shoes.
TUCHMAN: It is said the leader of North Korea likes watching James Bond movies, "Friday the 13th" films, and Daffy Duck cartoons. He's seen in the West as a playboy and a buffoon.
But he's also seen as a brutal tyrant, with the ultimate weapons at his disposal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And if anybody takes him on, you have heard about their gulags. They're are gigantic. It's Holocaust stuff. You don't cross this guy, or you're dead. TUCHMAN: North Koreans are told Kim Jong Il was born under a bright star in a double rainbow on a North Korean mountaintop. But, in actuality, he was born in the Soviet Union, where his father was in exile during World War II. His father, Kim Jong Il, was portrayed to his people as a god. He ruled with an iron fist, until his death in 1994, when his son took over.
POST: He was told from very early on that he was the son of God, in effect, a daunting challenge.
TUCHMAN: North Korea has long been an economic basket case. The country has an excess of weapons, but catastrophic shortages of food, leading to widespread, shameful famine. Yet, there is no shortage of food and frivolity for Kim Jong Il.
POST: He lives in a seven-story pleasure palace. He has recruited, at the junior high school level, attractive young women to become members of what are called the Joy Brigades, to be providing pleasure and relaxation to the hardworking officials of -- of his inner circle.
TUCHMAN: His cult of personality relies on exaggerating his achievements. North Korea's official newspaper has said, in college, he published 1,500 books. That's more than one a day.
The paper also declared, the first time Kim Jong Il ever played golf , he finished 38 under par, the greatest round of golf ever. It's quite fair to question his publishing and golf abilities, but one cannot deny his power and ability to inspire fear.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: And you can see more of Gary Tuchman's reports regularly on "ANDERSON COOPER 360" at 10:00 p.m. Eastern here on CNN.
And, this weekend, "CNN PRESENTS" takes you undercover in North Korea with dissidents who are using tiny digital cameras and cell phones to show the world how brutal life is there. That's Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. Eastern.
Right now, we turn to our countdown of the top stories on CNN.com. Nearly 19 million of you clicked on the Web site today.
Coming in at number 10 -- intense fighting today in Gaza, where Israeli forces are battling Palestinian militants. At least 19 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed. The Hamas-led Palestinian government is urging its security forces to joint militants in the fight. Israel entered Gaza last week to free a captured soldier.
And nine -- the shuttle Discovery docks with the International Space Station 220 miles above the Earth. Crews are now transferring more than 5,000 pounds of supplies from the shuttle on to the space station. Numbers eight and seven are coming up next, plus, an ominous new development reopens the wounds of a bloody terrorist attack.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS (voice-over): A voice from the dead -- a year after the deadly bombings that terrified London, one suicide terrorist comes back on tape to explain the plotting and the planning behind the bloodshed. Was London just the beginning of a bigger jihad?
And tonight's "Eye Opener" -- these incredible scenes could be going on at your child's school, violent abuse that drives some kids to extremes -- tonight, cracking down on school bullies. Why some parents have decided enough is enough -- all that and more just ahead.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: President Bush is celebrating his 60th birthday today. So, he invited CNN's Larry King to the White House for an exclusive interview. The first lady was there as well. Larry will join me in just a little bit to tell us all what happened.
Now, here's what's happening at this moment. The administration is not backing down on a politically unpopular plan to make it easier for foreign investors to buy America's airlines. Outgoing Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta made it clear he thinks the U.S. needs the foreign capital to stay competitive.
There's no relief from higher energy prices. A barrel of oil closed above $75 today. It's the second day in a row. And some investors are again talking about $100-a-barrel oil in the near future.
And here's tonight's "Crude Awakening," a look at gas prices nationwide. The states with the highest gas prices are in red. The lowest are in green. And the average today for unleaded regular, $2.95 a gallon. That's an increase of 10 cents over the last two weeks, as gas prices trend higher.
Tonight, a former -- a former Army private has just pleaded not guilty to murder and rape charges in federal court. Twenty-one-year- old Steven Green is the only person charged so far in one of the most shocking allegations of atrocities by U.S. forces in Iraq. He is accused of raping and killing an Iraqi woman, then murdering her family back in March.
Senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has the latest on the case in tonight's "Outside the Law."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A white van departs the Mecklenburg County Jail in North Carolina, as a former Army private is transferred to Louisville, Kentucky, to face charges in federal court, charges that have sent shockwaves across Iraq and strained relations between the U.S. military and the Iraqi people.
Twenty-one-year-old Steven Green is accused of a premeditated murder in March of an Iraqi family, including a small child, followed by the brutal rape and murder of their eldest daughter, whose age is variously reported as between 15 and 25.
What Green and up to four other American soldiers are alleged to have done in this farmhouse in Mahmoudiya, identified in videotape by the Associated Press, is especially offensive to Muslims. The reason? In Islamic culture, rape and sexual assault can be a source of deep shame for a family.
So, recognizing that, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq and the top U.S. commander today issued a rare joint statement.
"This is painful, confusing, and disturbing, not only to the family who lost a loved one, but to the Iraqi people as a whole," Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and General George Casey wrote. "The alleged events of that day are absolutely inexcusable and unacceptable behavior. We will fully pursue all the facts in a vigorous and open process."
While the killings occurred March 11 or 12, the allegations didn't surface until June 23, when two soldiers came forward during stress counseling. The investigation started the next day, June 24, and Green was arrested in the United States June 30, a week later.
By then, Green had already received an honorable discharge from the Army in April, according to court documents, because of a personality disorder, something that, according to Army regulation, is authorized only if the disorder is so severe that the soldier's ability to function effectively in the military environment is significantly impaired.
A few months before his discharge, Green was featured on the Army's official Web site. In a picture, he's seen about to blast a lock off a gate of what is described as an abandoned Iraqi home.
(on camera): In federal court in Kentucky, Green entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of rape and murder. He waived a pretrial hearing, and agreed to be charged in the federal court, not the military justice system. His arraignment was set for next month.
Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Steven Green is scheduled to be formally arraigned on August the 8th.
In just a minute, I'm going to turn the tables on Larry King. He will be my guest and tell us about his trip to the White House for an exclusive birthday interview with President Bush and the first lady. Right after that, there are only five states where the president's approving rating is still above 50 percent. We will take you to one just ahead.
But, first, number eight on our CNN.com countdown -- in Colorado, newly released diaries reveal chilling insights into Columbine killers Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. Coming up, our Ed Lavandera will have the details and tell you why they were made public today.
Number seven on our list -- Michael Jackson's former associate testifies in a Los Angeles court that he loaned the pop star millions to pay expenses, but never got any receipts. Mark Schaffel is suing Jackson for more than $1.5 million in unpaid loans -- numbers six and five just ahead.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: President Bush turned 60 years old today with a crisis on his lap. He talks about North Korea and more in an exclusive interview with Larry King that's coming up at the top of the hour.
And Larry joins me now with a preview.
Good to see you again.
KING: John, it feels like old-home week with you.
ROBERTS: Doesn't it, though?
KING: Every other night, one is one show; one is on the other.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Missed you last night, though.
This is the third time that you have sat down with the president and Laura Bush. Did you get a sense that he was really preoccupied by this North Korea situation?
KING: I think the most unusual thing, John, about this president is, I don't think he is preoccupied. He admitted to being obsessed, or a word like obsessed, he said. He thinks about it every day.
But his actions are one of a very comfortable man, comfortable in his own skin. Life rolls by. The glass...
ROBERTS: Not much gets under his skin.
KING: The glass is half-full.
I don't think that President Bush ponders a lot. I don't think he worries. I'm -- I'm sure he does, but he gives no affectation of it at all.
ROBERTS: Well, let's take a listen to a little bit of what he told you about learning about the North Korean missile launch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
KING: Were you prepared to shoot it down?
BUSH: If it headed to the United States, we have -- we've got a missile defense system that will defend our country.
KING: Do you, then, fear it more now?
BUSH: I think that's what he wants. I think he does want people to fear him.
My response to him and the response of our partners is to be that, you know, it's very important for you, leader of North Korea, to make rational decisions, because the United States is not alone in making these demands.
The demand, of course, is that to give up his weapons programs in a verifiable fashion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And -- and part of the way he's trying to do that is to go to the United Nations Security Council and get a resolution imposing sanctions against North Korea. Did -- did he talk to you about that?
KING: Yes. And he's -- he's trying. And he's confident there, you know, he will get it down. China and Russia, he will get it done.
ROBERTS: Well, he's got a lot of persuading to do.
KING: He will meet with Mr. Putin next week.
ROBERTS: Mmm-hmm.
KING: And...
ROBERTS: Yes. They're in St. Petersburg for the G8 Summit.
KING: ... he likes Mr. Putin. That hasn't changed. Disagrees with some of the things he's done internally in Russia, but still -- still that old: We -- we match souls.
That still exists.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: I will tell you, he...
ROBERTS: Relations are a tad frosty.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: He's one of the most upbeat politicians I have been around. I keep thinking of how long I have been around. He -- I would rank him in upbeat, not in politics, with Hubert Humphrey.
Hubert Humphrey was -- the -- the smile was there. Life is good.
ROBERTS: But he still worries about some things, particularly the Iraq war and the possibility of another terrorist attack on America. You asked him about that.
Let's hear what he has to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
KING: So, there is no doubt, if you had it to do over again, knowing the WMDs weren't there, you'd still go in?
BUSH: Yes. See, this is -- we removed a tyrant, who was a weapon -- was an enemy of the United States who harbored terrorists and who had the capacity, at the very minimum, to make weapons of mass destruction. And he was a true threat. And, yes, I would have done the same thing.
KING: Fear another 9/11?
BUSH: Larry, yes, I do. I do.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: Do you think we're safe?
BUSH: I think we're safer, but I'm -- I'm worried about -- worried about an enemy that wants to hit us again. And I'm comforted by the fact there's a lot of people working hard on the issue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: So, it was his 60th birthday. His approval ratings are just a little above half of that. Did he show concern about that for both himself and the party?
KING: No. No concern about his polls at all. Doesn't think about polls. If you worry about polls, he says, you -- you act -- you act on behalf of the polls, rather than on what you believe is right.
He did say that he thinks about al Qaeda every day, that the term al Qaeda never leaves his mind -- but polls, unaffected by them.
ROBERTS: Wow. Where do we get some of that?
Larry, thanks very much. We will see you at the top of the hour with President and Mrs. Bush.
Approval ratings hovering in the 30s probably don't make for a very happy birthday for the president. He has regained some ground in the past few weeks. But, still, there are only five states now where more than half of the people think that he is doing a good job.
Tonight, Candy Crowley, part of the best political team in television, takes us to one of those states, Wyoming.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you come to Wyoming to talk politics, you will find the talk is about Wyoming.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you ready to get this thing started?
CROWLEY: It is the most Western of Western states, a place where mamas still let their babies to be cowboys, or at least act like one.
GLORIA HEDDERMAN, REALTOR: Sometimes, you got to be a little tough to be a Westerner. You know, you -- you can't give up. If you get bucked off, you got to get back on.
CROWLEY: Most of Wyoming, hundreds of thousands of acres of mountains and plains, remains unsettled an unforgiving, a heritage that's become part of the state's DNA.
DAVID REETZ, BANKER: In Wyoming, you couldn't have given up easily, if you moved here in the days when this was just sagebrush and no water systems. I mean, people here have heart. They have -- they have a kind of a stick-to-itness that we see in this president.
CROWLEY: Wyoming is the least populous state in the union, half- a-million people, less a state than a community. They know each other's families or someone who knows each other's families.
GOV. DAVE FREUDENTHAL (D), WYOMING: Loyalty is -- is hard-won and hard-lost. And, so, once people adopt that loyalty, they don't -- they're not real fickle about it.
CROWLEY: Wyoming is still Bush country, one of only five states where a recent survey found the president's job approval above 50 percent. Here, they will tell you the first American killed in Iraq was from Powell, that, when 85 Guard members were deployed from Casper, 900 people showed up to say goodbye.
Here, the Democratic governor will tell you, supporting the troops, but not supporting the war doesn't make sense.
FREUDENTHAL: I think that's -- that would be perceived here as a distinction without a difference.
CROWLEY: Here, the senior U.S. senator says the president is strong, not in spite of the war, but because of it.
SEN. CRAIG THOMAS (R), WYOMING: Nobody wants to withdraw and leave it undone. And, so, in terms of the president's posture, Iraq has a great deal to do with it in Wyoming.
CROWLEY: Here, Wyoming's Craig Thomas, a consistent conservative in the Senate, is not likely to be criticized for supporting the war.
(on camera): You're still supportive of the war? THOMAS: Yes.
CROWLEY: Still believe the president's -- was right to do it?
THOMAS: I think so.
CROWLEY: Have you had a time when you thought, ohh?
THOMAS: Well, there are times when new things are discovered, new information is made available that apparently wasn't available at the time, and you -- you wonder, you know, we should have known that. Had we known that, would we have done the same thing?
CROWLEY (voice-over): And that's the thing they most want you to know here. Support for the president is not unthinking, not unquestioning.
REETZ: I myself, personally, would like to see a plan. I like to see more concrete objectives, even though it may not be easy to do. But I think it's -- it's kind of like we're on the train together, and we want to make sure that the conductor and the driver knows exactly where this is going.
CROWLEY: If you come to talk politics in Wyoming, you will find questions and support for George W. Bush. And, more often than not, the subject returns to Wyoming, a conversation that almost always tells you what you need to understand the politics.
HEDDERMAN: Here in Wyoming, we have an old saying. It says, you don't switch horses in the middle of the stream. And, right now, we're in the middle of a stream.
CROWLEY: Candy Crowley, CNN, Cody, Wyoming.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Wyoming is still Bush country. So, what are the other four states where the president's approval rating is still above 50 percent? Utah, Idaho, Alabama, and -- you should have been able to guess this -- Texas.
Tomorrow marks a significant and sad anniversary in the war on terrorism. Has anything changed in the year since the London bombing? We will take you there next.
And stay with us to go inside the minds of some homegrown killers. Diaries kept by the Columbine gunmen have just been released. What do they reveal?
We move on now to number six on our CNN.com countdown -- actress Ashley Judd speaking out about her battle with depression. In an interview with "Glamour" magazine, Judd says she spent 47 days at a treatment center in Texas earlier this year.
At number five -- the prime-time Emmy nominations, they were announced this morning in Hollywood. The miniseries "Into the West" was the leading nominee, with 16 bids. "24" and "Grey's Anatomy" were also among the top nominees. The awards will be handed out on August the 19th.
Stay with us -- number four just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: In this half-hour go inside the minds of two killers in the making. What have we learned from the just released diaries kept by the Columbine High School gunmen? Also, fighting back against bullies. What are some parents doing to save your children a lifetime of pain and humiliation.
Here's what's happening at this moment. Supporters of gay marriage are regrouping after losses in two states today. A court in New York says the state's marriage law specifies that only a man and a woman can wed. While a Georgia court upheld a constitutional amendment that banned same sex marriage. So far, the only state where it's legal is Massachusetts.
Canada's prime minister warns the United States not to restrict the free passage of Americans and Canadians at the border. In his first visit to the White House, conservative Steven Harper said if Congress tightens the traditionally open border with Canada, the terrorists will have won. President Bush praised Canada for last months round up of terror suspects in the city of Toronto.
In London police are analyzing the newly broadcast video that one of the suicide terrorists made just before them bombings there one year ago. Those attacks raised fears about a new wave of home grown terrorists and the bomber called the strikes, quote, just the beginning.
A suicide bomber's video taped last will and testament is an unsettling reminder of al-Qaeda's global reach and it's PR savvy. It was delivered to the al Jazeera television network just in time for tomorrow's first anniversary of the deadly attacks. We asked chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour to look back at what happened in London on July 7, 2005 and then to take us beyond the headlines to see what has changed since the attack.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): England was still celebrating news of an incredible victory. London had just won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you for your leadership.
AMANPOUR: It was all smiles from Prime Minister Blair, President Bush, and world leaders gathered in Glenn Eagle, Scotland for the January G-8 summit. When at 8:52 a.m. a massive power surge hit the city subway system. At first that's all anyone knew. But half an hour later emergency services began rushing to the scene as news of explosions started coming in. CLAIRE MOFFAT, METROPOLITAN POLICE: It's getting darker and darker, it's getting smokier and smokier as we get closer, but eventually we saw the train, and it didn't look like a train anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All the doors and windows were blown out, so I was able to jump out of one of the doors with the help of a very nice gentleman, but I walked out of there, I had so much open wound and open skin on my legs and face and I felt zero pain.
AMANPOUR: It became clear that this was Britain's 9/11, three nearly simultaneous bomb attacks on the London underground. Thirty minutes later an explosion rips open a London bus. In all 52 people were killed plus the four bombers. Another 700 were wounded. At 12:10 that day a website linked to al Qaeda claimed responsibility for carrying out, quote, blessed raids in London. And soon the worst fears are confirmed as security camera pictures of the bombers emerge revealing all of them to be British citizens, British Muslims. Two weeks later a copy cat attack failed, and in a tragic blunder police shot and killed a Brazilian working, mistaking him for a terrorist.
(on camera): At the time Britain responded in true Brit fashion. It's World War II spirit galvanized the nation, but since official reports have listed a chorus of complaints, emergency services were in chaos because of radios that didn't work properly and a cell phone network that was jammed. When it comes to the investigation, says the report, intelligence services are stretched thin.
(voice-over): Unlike in the United States there has been no British equivalent of the 9/11 commission to hold public hearings into what went wrong and to make recommendations on improving safety. British officials argue that such hearings would distract security agencies that are focused on preventing future attacks. While this year has seen the biggest investigation ever conducted in Britain, with dozens charged and awaiting trial on terrorism offenses, police say there are still many unanswered questions.
PETER CLARKE, NATIONAL TERRORISM COORDINATOR: It's impossible to say whether we're more safe. The intelligence picture is concerning, it's very concerning. So I think it's very difficult to say whether we're more safe. I doubt that we're less safe.
AMANPOUR: And one year on a U.K. parliamentary panel concluded that despite some successes against al Qaeda, the threat it poses has not diminished. Indeed, they say, it may have even have risen.
CLARKE: Two things which are particularly concerning about what we've learned since last year. One is that we're seeing British citizens prepared to kill their fellow countrymen and the second thing is the youth, extreme youth for some of the people that we're seeing involved in what's going on. We've charged a young man of 16 with very serious offenses. That's massively worrying.
AMANPOUR: Outwardly London is barely different on the first anniversary of the bombing. Rush hour is just as hectic, the trains and buses are still as crowded. England has changed a little. Terror does breed suspicion. Christiane Amanpour, CNN, London. (END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: The threat of home grown terrorism isn't only a concern in Great Britain. In Miami, Florida tonight, six men charged with swearing allegiance to al Qaeda and plotting to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower remain in jail. We also learned this week that the CIA has disbanded a unit that had been tracking Osama bin Laden since 1996. It's members were reassigned to other tasks because home grown terrorism is now considered a bigger threat than bin Laden himself.
In just a minute home grown terrorists with a different kind of motive. What have we learned from the newly released diaries and other papers from the killers at Columbine High School? Plus astonishing pictures of school bullies picking on other children. Should schools try harder to put a stop to it?
First number four on our CNN.com count down. U.S. officials say it's doubtful that North Korea will launch another long range missile in the future. North Korea test fired seven missiles during a 14-hour period this week. Number three on our count down when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Tonight, more than seven years after the bloody massacre at Columbine high school in Colorado, we're getting new insights into the minds of the killers. Authorities have released hundreds of pages of documents seized from the homes and cars of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. The two teenagers killed themselves after murdering 13 people at the school in April of 1999. Ed Lavandera has been sorting through the papers and just filed this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a troubling journey into the minds of two highly disturbed teenagers. Nearly 1,000 pages of diary entries, notes and schoolwork written by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold in the years leading up to the Columbine high school rampage were made public for the first time since the shootings seven years ago.
The documents include a blueprint of how the students planned to carry out the attack. There are chilling to-do lists, like get nails, get propane, fill my clips. A list of the gear they would need, including gas cans and cargo pants. They sketched out what they would wear and even mapped out the school cafeteria, researching how many people would be there at any given time.
And then there was the timeline. Set car bombs for 11:18, go outside to the hill and wait for bombs to go off, and then have fun.
Craig Scott was a sophomore at Columbine at the time of the shooting. He survived the rampage, but his sister Rachel did not.
CRAIG SCOTT: I think that the two shooters wrote these diaries so that we would be talking about it now. And I think they wanted to become infamous, and they wanted to go down in history. And this is how they were going to leave their mark on the world.
LAVANDERA: Among the pages released, this quote from Eric Harris' journal. "I'm full of hate and I love it. I hate people and they better fear me if they know what's good for them." He wanted the shooting to be remembered like the L.A. riots, the Oklahoma bombing, World War II, Vietnam all mixed together.
Dylan Klebold wrote about plans for the ultimate revenge and taking care of business. The papers included a should-have-died list, the names blacked out by authorities.
Sheriff Ted Mink authorized the release of these documents, in the hope some people can learn to prevent future school attacks by reading these pages.
The gunmen's parents did not fight the release.
TED MINK, JEFFERSON COUNTY SHERIFF: I think it contains a lot, like I say, of what they were feeling as far as their emotional, their relationships with girls, or, you know, wanting to have relationships with girls, and then it switches gears to the more violent part, tendencies of them, talking about what they were going to do and things of that nature. So I think it gives an overall picture of where these two were at in their lives.
LAVANDERA: About a month before the shootings, Harris and Klebold recorded what has become known as the basement videos. The sheriff says the disturbing tapes are a call to arms for other teenagers to carry out similar attacks. The sheriff could have released that tape, but chose not to, in fear of inspiring a copy cat crime.
Craig Scott says he'll read the diaries, but reminds people other students left words behind too, like his sister, who often wrote about treating people kindly in her journals.
CRAIG: It would be the two shooters' and dreams that we would all read their journals and we would all make them famous, and we have the power to do that, or we can choose to focus on somebody like my sister.
LAVANDERA: Authorities have now released some 20,000 documents relating to the Columbine investigation, but most people here still can't explain why this shooting happened.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Denver.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: In a few minutes, we're going to tackle a common problem in our nation's schools. Should more be done to stop bullies? We'll meet some parents who have no doubt. But right now, let's take a biz break.
Stocks struggled to gain ground today, but the Dow did close 73 points higher. The Nasdaq and the S&P were up slightly, as traders wait for tomorrow's job report.
The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is now at 6.8 percent. That's the highest rate in four years. Fannie Mae says it doesn't expect mortgage rates to exceed 7 percent this year, but just one year ago, the average fixed-rate mortgage was 5.6 percent.
Retail sales stalled in June. Even Wal-Mart reported lower than expected sales. Analysts say it may be a sign that consumers are beginning to curb spending because of higher gas prices.
And big tobacco dodges another legal bullet. Altria and other tobacco shares surged today after Florida's supreme court tossed out a huge $145 billion award.
Were you bullied when you were in school? Is it an unavoidable part of growing up? Stay with us and meet some parents who say our schools need to do more now to put a stop to bullying. Right now, number three on our CNN.com countdown -- Larry King told us about it earlier -- his exclusive interview with President Bush and first lady Laura Bush. You can watch it at the top of the hour right here on CNN. We'll be back with number two on our list right after this.
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ROBERTS: School ought to be the farthest thing from a child's mind this time of year, but if your child has been the victim of a bully, that fear may be haunting him or her even now. By one estimate, 30 percent of children are either the victims of bullies or do the bullying themselves.
In tonight's "Eye Opener," Jason Carroll reports on how some parents are fighting back.
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JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): School bus surveillance video captures what happens when a 13-year-old takes a beating by a group of bullying boys.
At another school, a young girl slaps a 12-year-old boy sitting behind her. The beating that follows lasts for several minutes.
School bullies. Chances are you may have known one in class or, worse, you were on the receiving end of a bully's wrath, like 10-year- old Chester Gala from New Baltimore, Michigan.
CHESTER GALA: I think they should all go to jail.
CARROLL: Last month, a bully finally got a hold of Gala. First he says the bully repeatedly taunted him, then Gala remembers counting each time the boy punched him.
C. GALA: Fifteen times and I wanted to punch him in the face.
ERIC GALA, FATHER OF BULLYING VICTIM: When I viewed the tape I was outraged. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I couldn't believe the size difference of the cowardice act of close fist punching someone so much smaller.
CARROLL: The school temporarily suspended the boy but Gala's father says it wasn't punishment enough. That's because he believes the results of bullying can be much worse than the bruises and humiliation his son endured. Matt Epling's father believes that in extreme cases, like the one involving his son, it can be tragic.
KEVIN EPLING, FATHER OF BULLYING VICTIM: It's hard. Every time somebody e-mails me you know an article or I get a phone call from another parent here in the state of Michigan who's now going through the same thing, it brings it all back. It brings it all back.
CARROLL: Almost four years ago Epling was a popular middle school student who got along with just about everyone until his last day of school when three high school students decided he was their next target. They caught Matt near his home in East Lansing, Michigan, forced him to the ground, smeared him with eggs and gave him a message.
EPLING: I'm going to make your next year of high school hell and I'm going to take everything away from you. That emotionally is devastating to a 14-year-old. There really wasn't any follow up from the school and to the best of my knowledge the individuals who came back to school there really wasn't any discipline.
CARROLL: The Eplings, with Matt's support, decided to press charges, but before they did, Matt made a fatal decision.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you, Matt, we miss you.
CARROLL: He hanged himself at home. There was no note.
EPLING: Matt was not someone who had any indicators for suicide. We've had three and a half years to kind of look at everything. Everything leads back to that day where he was assaulted.
CARROLL: The Eplings say before Matt's suicide few in the school system took what happened to him seriously. The school superintendent said we did not talk about anti-bullying before Matt's death. His parents have brought a sensitivity to the school system. Angered by those in the system, the Eplings along with Chester Gala's parents are now pushing for anti-bullying legislation in Michigan. .
EPLING: What an actual bill is going to do is say here's what we would like you to have in your policy. And here are the guidelines that you should incorporate.
CARROLL: The bill calls on districts to adopt a policy prohibiting harassment or bullying, a procedure for reporting, and for a prompt investigation. An organization of concerned parents, calling themselves Bully Police, which monitors legislation on the issue, gave 26 states passing grades for adopting anti-bullying laws. Brenda High did the research after her 13-year-old son Jared committed suicide after being bullied.
BRENDA HIGH, MOTHER OF BULLYING VICTIM: Schools have to own up to the problem and quit saying boys will be boys. That's just a lousy excuse to be lazy.
CARROLL: High is from Washington State, which got an A after she helped push for tougher legislation. Her organization gave Michigan an F. The Eplings say Michigan can do better and their son Matt deserves better.
Jason Carroll, CNN, East Lansing, Michigan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Well, saddle up because we've got a special treat for you tonight in our "Life After Work" series. After 30 years in the construction industry wild horses couldn't keep one baby boomer from pursuing his lifelong passion. Here's Valerie Morris.
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VALERIE MORRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Retirement has been a change for 58 year old Jerry Thompson. After selling his 16 employee construction company, he now breeds and trains rare Kiger Mustangs in Estacada, Oregon.
JERRY THOMPSON, HORSE TRAINER AND BREEDER: I got interested in horses when my father retired. He bought some thorough bread race horses and so kind of got seeded into my soul and I never could let go of it.
MORRIS: Thompson readies Kiger Mustangs for endurance races and shows. He bought his first one in 1998 and now owns about 30. The allure he says is their rich ancestry.
THOMPSON: It's an unbelievable romance story. At one time the genes of these horses in Spain were considered more valuable than gold. They're just a rare horse that managed to somehow survive 400 years in the wilderness. It's a privilege to me and to other people that I know that are doing it to help this horse reestablish itself as an outstanding breed that can compete in a number of venues. When I first retired I didn't anticipate that I would have such a passion for life again like I have now.
MORRIS: Valerie Morris, CNN, New York. .
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: What was it that Ronald Reagan said? Something about the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man. And don't forget at the top of the hour on LARRY KING LIVE, Larry's exclusive 60th birthday visit with President Bush, as well as the first lady.
Before that though, Number two on our CNN.com countdown, in Georgia, the man who won $1 million on Survivor Thailand four years ago, has been charges with shooting a puppy with an arrow. He was released on bond. He told the judge he thought the dog was a coyote that had been bothering his pets.
Next, find out what soda pop has to do with the number one story on CNN.com.
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ROBERTS: Now to the top story on CNN.com, three people accused of trying to sell Coca-Cola trade secrets to corporate rival Pepsi for $1.5 million. The suspects appeared before a federal judge in Atlanta this afternoon. Prosecutors say one suspect, who is a secretary for a Coca-Cola executive, allegedly stole one of the company's new product samples and several documents. She was fired today. Coke and Pepsi worked together with the FBI to foil the alleged plot. Coke now says it is reviewing security procedures in the wake of those arrests.
That's all for tonight. Tomorrow a remarkable portrait of life inside North Korea. Refugees taken in by the U.S. tell us how they faced famine, torture, and sexual slavery before managing to escape. The stories behind their scars, tales of mistreatment and the incredibly harsh living conditions almost all North Koreans face, that's tomorrow. "LARRY KING LIVE's" exclusive 60th birthday interview with President Bush starts right now.
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