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CNN Live Sunday
Spanish Popular Party Blamed For Bombings, Loses Election; Anti-War Protesters Meet Soldier's Bodies Returning Home For Burial; Bush Administration Insists Iraq War Was Justified
Aired March 14, 2004 - 16:30 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR, CNN SUNDAY: A look at the top stories now. Israel is investigating two suicide bombings today in the port city of Ashdod. Investigators say 13 people including the two bombers died in the attacks. More than 20 others were injured. The Palestinian militant groups Hamas and the Al Aqsa Brigade claimed joint responsibility.
The election polls are closed in Spain, after a still grieving Spaniards cast ballots. The ruling Popular Party had quickly pointed blame for last week's train bombing on the vast terror group ETA. Now the probe is focusing more on links with Al Qaeda terrorists. A development that may impact the outcome of today's national election.
Today U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft was discharged from George Washington University Hospital five days after under going surgery to remove his gallbladder. The Justice Department says Deputy Attorney General James Coney (ph) will continue to run the agency while Ashcroft recuperates.
As we approach the one-year anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, the country is still proving to be vulnerable and dangerous. Six American soldiers were killed in roadside bombings this weekend. The latest, a member of the First Infantry Division killed today in Baghdad, 564 U.S. soldiers died since "Operation Iraqi Freedom" began.
The remains of American soldiers killed in action are usually returned to the states through Dover, Delaware. Anti-war demonstrators are marching to the gates of the Dover Air force Base today. Some U.S. military families are among them. Our Elaine Quijano is there with details. Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Fredricka. Well that demonstration is now over, but the people who participated certainly hoped that their voices continue to be heard. Their messages today, ones of peace and also of strong opposition to the war in Iraq. Now several hundred people turned out. They began their demonstration several miles away from Dover in a town called Camden, Delaware. From there they marched to the gates of Dover Air Force Base.
As you mentioned, Dover is the military mortuary where the bodies of American troops killed in Iraq are first delivered. Now more than 550 Americans have died since the start of the conflict that began almost one year ago. And here at the gates of Dover the names of those who died in Iraq were read one by one. Now in the crowd today were mothers, fathers, veterans and peace activists. Many questioning the Bush administration's motives for carrying out the military action in Iraq, including a mother who lost her son in the conflict.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is it going to accomplish? The people don't want us there. They're killing our men and women every day, and we're having to kill them. And it's just not worth it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now, in addition to the demonstration here today, many of the people who participated are also planning to travel to Washington, D.C. There they plan to demonstrate tomorrow both at Walter Reed Medical Center and also later on in the afternoon tomorrow outside in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House. This, of course, timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the start of the Iraqi conflict later this week. Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Elaine Quijano from Dover, Delaware. Thanks very much for that report.
Well as the summer anniversary approaches, the Bush administration is defending its decision to go to war in Iraq even though weapons of mass destruction have yet to the found. Our Kathleen Koch brings us the latest from the White House. Kathleen.
KATHLEEN KOCH, WHITE HOUSE: Well it was a full-court press from the administration on Iraq today. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell all made the rounds of the Sunday talk shows today. And their message was that the decision to go to war was the right one. And that it was based on the best intelligence that the administration had at the time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: We were presenting to the world the facts, as we understood them from our intelligence analysis. It was not cooked. It was what the intelligence community believed and had reason to believe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: Administration officials insist that they are winning the war on terror. That the world is now indeed a safer place. However, now with this claim from al Qaeda, this al Qaeda-related organization that it carried out last week's bombings in Madrid to punish them for helping the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan there were questions today about whether or not the coalition would survive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: No one can be intimidated. We're at war with these people and, yes, they will try to attack those who they believe might defeat them. That is a part of their game. But they will not win and we will not falter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: Iraq is very much the focus of President Bush's schedule this week. He meets Tuesday and Wednesday with the prime minister of two allies in the war, the Netherlands and Ireland. Thursday Mr. Bush will visit with troops in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. And that before returning to the White House for a Friday speech, marking the one-year anniversary of the war in Iraq. Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Kathleen Koch from the White House, thank you.
Well the U.S. knew a great deal about Iraq before the bombs ever started dropping on Baghdad, and in the year since the war began, the U.S. military has learned a lot more. Here's CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.
All right, obviously we're having a problem with that tape. We'll bring that to you as soon as we can.
Well time for a look at other news around the world, Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to serve a second term in office. So far exit polls show Mr. Putin with a big lead, with more than 65 percent of the vote, he is promising Russian stability and a better economy.
In Seoul, South Korea, simmering anger over the president's impeachment. Tens of thousands of protesters turned out today for a demonstration. The South Korea's national assembly voted Friday to impeach the president after accusations of illegal campaigning and incompetence.
And former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide is headed to Jamaica; he is currently in the Central African Republic. But is expected in Jamaica earlier next week to see his children. Jamaican officials have notified the U.S. of his impending trip, they say it won't last for more than eight to ten weeks and he'll seek political asylum. However, U.S. officials are discouraging him for making that trip for fear of destabilizing the Caribbean.
A world-renowned tenor retires. Still to come, Luciano Pavarotti takes this final bow. Plus you know the name, the face and the colorful hair. Where would the world be without Albert Einstein's contribution to science? We'll look back on the 125th anniversary of his birthday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Now we bring you the piece from the CNN Pentagon senior correspondent Jamie McIntyre on the U.S. lessons learned in the war in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JAMIE MCINTYRE, PENTAGON SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before going to war against Saddam Hussein, the U.S. knew more about Iraq than any previous adversary. After all it defeated Iraq's army in 1991, patrolled its no-fly zones for a decade and had access to intelligence from U.N. inspectors on the ground. But there was a lot the U.S. didn't know.
And didn't foresee. Last summer, with U.S. casualties mounting, the Pentagon was still in denial that after winning the major combat phase of the war it was facing what its own dictionary defined as gorilla warfare.
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I knew I -- I could die that I didn't look it up!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Paramilitary operations conducted in enemy help or hostile territory by a regular -- indigenous force. This seems to fit a lot of what's going on here.
RUMSFELD: It really doesn't.
MCINTYRE: More than 500 Americans died in Iraq. Almost half from hostile fire since the end of major combat. Another big reality check came when the U.S. got a firsthand look at Iraq's decrepit infrastructure. Electricity and water plants were suffering from years of neglect.
RICK BARTON, CTR. STRATEGIC & INTL. STUDIES: Part of it had been the sanctions. Part of it had been the gross and constant mismanagement of the Saddam Hussein regime.
MCINTYRE: Rick Barton led a team of experts from the Center Force for Strategic and International Studies on an inspection tour in Iraq last summer. They found the biggest miscalculation was what it would take to provide security.
BARTON: You have to start off strong. And our inability to provide for public safety initially has created a complication that we've ended up having to live with.
MCINTYRE: Despite the Pentagon's insistence that looting was inevitable and that more U.S. troops would have only meant more U.S. targets, Barton and other experts argue having additional forces early on to secure armories and collect weapons might have made a big difference. And then there was the flawed idea that oil-rich Iraq could pay its own way quickly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're dealing with a country that can finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon.
MCINTYRE: While oil production is approaching pre-war levels and experts have already brought in some $6 billion, that's still a fraction of the estimated $100 billion needed to put Iraq back on its feet. Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ALBERT EINSTEIN: We cannot and should not lack in our effort to make the nations of the world and especially their governments a way of the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) they are certain to provoke, unless they change their attitude to each other and that's the task of shaping the future.
WHITFIELD: Well you can instantly recognize his name and face and now you know his voice. That was Albert Einstein speaking on "Voice of America" back in 1945. Well today marks the day he was born 125 years ago. Let's take this chance to talk about the German born American physicist. The man "Time" magazine named person of the 20th Century. He didn't start talking until he was 3 years old and his professors didn't think very highly of him, but look what happened.
For more on what he was really like we're joined by Peter Goddard from Princeton University. He's director of the Institute for Advanced Study, which is where Einstein had worked. Good to see you.
PETER GODDARD, INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY: Very good to be here.
WHITFIELD: All right, well how might you all be recognizing the anniversary of his 125th -- 125 years after his birth?
GODDARD: Of course, a very noteworthy occasion and its reflected in our newsletter. But the bigger celebration will be next year, which is the century of his first great contributions to theoretical physics in 1905, when he really revolutionized the subject.
WHITFIELD: Well let's talk about some of his contributions. You know, as we look at the current events around the world right now, so much talk of nuclear weapons, et cetera, and he was very outspoken about his fears or concerns about the Nazis and their capabilities with atomic bombs, et cetera.
Let's try and apply some present day scenarios with his points of views of the past. How might you believe he might be responding or thinking about a situation in Iran, in Iraq and even North Korea?
GODDARD: Well, Einstein was, from his earliest years, basically a pacifist. But not an absolute pacifist. He saw the Nazi threat, indeed. That was what made him leave Germany and he chose to come here to the Institute for advanced study in Princeton in 1933. He warned of FDR of the impending dangers that might happen if the Nazis developed the atomic bomb and that spurred the United States and its allies to develop the bomb.
But after the war he had gained, was very keen that we should have some forms of international collaboration in government, which would lead to the control of nuclear weapons.
WHITFIELD: But it is his contribution to science as you know talking about the general theory of relativity, which really kind of putt him on the map, or at least that's kind of the indelible mark that most people have in their minds. Do you think worldwide his legacy really is honored? Across the board, on the same levels. Are there places you think, you know, really have the lasting memory of him most?
GODDARD: Well, I think he is throughout the scientific world, actually, throughout the world and general public, seen as he is. As a great icon's science. Somebody who really represents the advances of science in the 20th Century. And the gains that can be made in science and in other disciplines of knowledge, studying really fundamental questions.
WHITFIELD: How would you like to see him honored around the world as we celebrate 125 years?
GODDARD: I think I would like to see us realize that it's important not always to look for immediate practical gains from the investigations that we pursue in the sciences and humanities. Often, though, the developments of most practical benefits come from far sided researchers who are pursuing fundamental problems rather than trying to solve problems in the next year or two even if the benefits may in the end come quite quickly from the breakthroughs they make in our understanding of the natural world.
WHITFIELD: All right, Peter Goddard thanks very much. The director of the Institute for Advance Studies and your shot coming out of Princeton, New Jersey. We really appreciate it.
GODDARD: Good to be with you.
WHITFIELD: Well, can it be legendary opera singer Luciano Pavarotti says he is calling it quits? The past summer the tenor announced that last night's performance of Tosco would be his last at the Metropolitan Opera House. But speaking to the Associated Press Pavarotti went on a step further saying it would indeed be his final stage performance anywhere. That was last night. The 68-year-old Italian has thrilled opera fans for four decades now.
Well be careful of where you toss your stones. It could land you in jail. Still to come a clean sweep of the archaic laws that still on the books in some cities.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: In Chicago, city officials are doing a little legal spring-cleaning. They're purging a number of laws that are so outdated even city attorneys don't know why they're written. One law even made it illegal to kill diseased cattle. Here's our Keith Oppenheim.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A city with a history -- has a lot of old rules. So think back to another time. Did you know Chicagoans made it illegal to transport dead people on public trains?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I didn't, actually, I brought a body on my way up here.
OPPENHEIM: Or that police were allowed to dump confiscated weapons in Lake Michigan five miles offshore.
PETER ALTER, CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY: That one, I really can't explain.
OPPENHEIM: You'd be fined for throwing a stone in the road because it interfered with horse-drawn wagons. Babies born with sore eyeless had to be reported to the health department, because the mother was considered to be a carrier of sexually transmitted diseases.
ALTER: The thinking was obviously if she's contracted one of these diseases that she's immoral, that she is a loose woman.
OPPENHEIM: The awareness of outdated books began three years ago when various groups cried foul over one law. They were challenging a 79-year-old ordinance that made it a crime to wear a mask in public. As that archaic idea got written out of the books city officials started to realize there were a lot of old laws that just didn't fit with the times.
MARA GEORGES, LEAD ATTORNEY CITY OF CHICAGO: If it's on the books it means it can be enforced, tickets can be written.
OPPENHEIM: So city officials are preparing to purge some ordinances including a recent one that put a litter tax on take-out food, that one was considered unconstitutional. But in the end it appears that if a law isn't hip with the times, its time runs out. Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, Chicago's not the only place with silly statutes. Do you know in Denver it's illegal to lend your vacuum cleaner to your next-door neighbor? That is just one of the absurd laws collected in the book "You May Not Tie an Alligator to a Fire Hydrant." No kidding, the author Andy Powell is with me right here in Atlanta, he co-wrote the book in high school no less.
ANDY POWELL, WWW.DUMBLAWS.COM: Yes, I did.
WHITFIELD: All right, that must have been a lot of fun?
POWELL: It was it was incredibly exciting.
WHITFIELD: What was the inspiration?
POWELL: Freshman year, algebra class. Just had the idea and have been doing it about 5 1/2 years now. But it is a fabulous time for us, a great opportunity. We discovered a lot of interesting things along the way.
WHITFIELD: Well interesting, there is always a lot of citizens who say you know what, I think that law is dumb, silly, et cetera. But it is another thing when the municipalities agree. Then you know it's probably out of there.
POWELL: It is time to fix things.
WHITFIELD: Yes, it is time to fix things. You have got a few favorites. One in Michigan, it's illegal to cuss or curse, depending on what part of the country you're from, in front of women or children?
POWELL: Right, this is...
WHITFIELD: What happened?
POWELL: This is a big deal a couple years ago. A man flipped his canoe and he came up and he cursed up a storm. And they pulled out this statute that was over 100 years old and threw the book at him. Something that really people weren't even aware was still in effect. So it really caught everybody off guard and made people think what else is on the books that really shouldn't be there anymore.
WHITFIELD: OK and then -- I guess another instance, this was a federal law wasn't it? Nighttime skydiving? Perhaps they had to wear some kind of blinking lights? What was that all about?
POWELL: The law is, if you go skydiving at night anywhere in the country, that you have to wear a blinking beanie. And I guess it is just for safety reasons.
WHITFIELD: Is that still on the books?
POWELL: Still in the books.
WHITFIELD: You're kidding?
POWELL: So that passing an aircraft can spot you? I don't want to be skydiving...
WHITFIELD: I didn't know there was a whole lot of nighttime skydiving.
POWELL: It wouldn't be me.
WHITFIELD: That is what I know about skydiving. Haven't tried it yet. Currant County, California, you just can't play bingo drunk. What's this world coming to?
POWELL: I guess the element is, it gets out of hand. A little too much, a little to daring, you know on the floor there.
WHITFIELD: When you did the research for some of these, you know, what some people are saying silly or dumb laws, was the impetus that there was an awful lot people, you know citizens who are complaining about these things or was it a story or two that just kind of struck your fancy and you thought, let's compile a bunch of stuff?
POWELL: We really knew these things had been created, they had stuck with us for years and years, and really nobody ever takes the initiative. No cities, no states, to clean off the books. WHITFIELD: All right. And there are some wacky laws in Georgia apparently. Right here in Atlanta, it is illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp. In Columbus, it is illegal to cut off a chicken's head on Sunday. In Gainesville, it is illegal to eat chicken with utensils. And in Mariana, it is illegal to spit from a car or a bus, but it's OK if you're in a truck. And now, I can just see there are a lot of folk whose had plans to come to Georgia, just might not do it anymore! What are your favorites?
POWELL: My favorites, there is a law in Pacific Grove, California, that says it's illegal to molest a butterfly. And I actually got called out on the radio in California for saying this. Because they have an endangered species butterfly that migrates only there every year.
WHITFIELD: Interesting.
POWELL: And the locals were more than happy to tell me that on the air. So you find some that have a local history that do make sense, when you're in the area.
WHITFIELD: Well I'm sure it was a lot of fun to do the research and still a lot of fun to keep it fresh and have you here to talk about it.
POWELL: Right.
WHITFIELD: Andy Powell thanks very much. And the book is "You May Not Tie an Alligator to a Fire Hydrant" and you have a Web site. WWW.dumblaws.com.
POWELL: WWW.dumblaws.com.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks a lot.
POWELL: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: That's all we have time for right now. But stay with CNN, coming up at 5:00 on "NEXT@CNN," Hub bud over the Hubble. Hear why some believe the space telescope should be saved from a premature death. Then at 6:00 Eastern college basketballs winningest coach Dean Smith joins us live to talk of NCAA March madness. And at 7:00 Eastern, a closer look at the lives of American ideal Ruben Stoddard and second place finisher Clay Aiken. Thanks for joining us; I'll be back with a look at the headlines right after this.
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Anti-War Protesters Meet Soldier's Bodies Returning Home For Burial; Bush Administration Insists Iraq War Was Justified>
Aired March 14, 2004 - 16:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR, CNN SUNDAY: A look at the top stories now. Israel is investigating two suicide bombings today in the port city of Ashdod. Investigators say 13 people including the two bombers died in the attacks. More than 20 others were injured. The Palestinian militant groups Hamas and the Al Aqsa Brigade claimed joint responsibility.
The election polls are closed in Spain, after a still grieving Spaniards cast ballots. The ruling Popular Party had quickly pointed blame for last week's train bombing on the vast terror group ETA. Now the probe is focusing more on links with Al Qaeda terrorists. A development that may impact the outcome of today's national election.
Today U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft was discharged from George Washington University Hospital five days after under going surgery to remove his gallbladder. The Justice Department says Deputy Attorney General James Coney (ph) will continue to run the agency while Ashcroft recuperates.
As we approach the one-year anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, the country is still proving to be vulnerable and dangerous. Six American soldiers were killed in roadside bombings this weekend. The latest, a member of the First Infantry Division killed today in Baghdad, 564 U.S. soldiers died since "Operation Iraqi Freedom" began.
The remains of American soldiers killed in action are usually returned to the states through Dover, Delaware. Anti-war demonstrators are marching to the gates of the Dover Air force Base today. Some U.S. military families are among them. Our Elaine Quijano is there with details. Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Fredricka. Well that demonstration is now over, but the people who participated certainly hoped that their voices continue to be heard. Their messages today, ones of peace and also of strong opposition to the war in Iraq. Now several hundred people turned out. They began their demonstration several miles away from Dover in a town called Camden, Delaware. From there they marched to the gates of Dover Air Force Base.
As you mentioned, Dover is the military mortuary where the bodies of American troops killed in Iraq are first delivered. Now more than 550 Americans have died since the start of the conflict that began almost one year ago. And here at the gates of Dover the names of those who died in Iraq were read one by one. Now in the crowd today were mothers, fathers, veterans and peace activists. Many questioning the Bush administration's motives for carrying out the military action in Iraq, including a mother who lost her son in the conflict.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is it going to accomplish? The people don't want us there. They're killing our men and women every day, and we're having to kill them. And it's just not worth it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now, in addition to the demonstration here today, many of the people who participated are also planning to travel to Washington, D.C. There they plan to demonstrate tomorrow both at Walter Reed Medical Center and also later on in the afternoon tomorrow outside in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House. This, of course, timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the start of the Iraqi conflict later this week. Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Elaine Quijano from Dover, Delaware. Thanks very much for that report.
Well as the summer anniversary approaches, the Bush administration is defending its decision to go to war in Iraq even though weapons of mass destruction have yet to the found. Our Kathleen Koch brings us the latest from the White House. Kathleen.
KATHLEEN KOCH, WHITE HOUSE: Well it was a full-court press from the administration on Iraq today. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell all made the rounds of the Sunday talk shows today. And their message was that the decision to go to war was the right one. And that it was based on the best intelligence that the administration had at the time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: We were presenting to the world the facts, as we understood them from our intelligence analysis. It was not cooked. It was what the intelligence community believed and had reason to believe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: Administration officials insist that they are winning the war on terror. That the world is now indeed a safer place. However, now with this claim from al Qaeda, this al Qaeda-related organization that it carried out last week's bombings in Madrid to punish them for helping the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan there were questions today about whether or not the coalition would survive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: No one can be intimidated. We're at war with these people and, yes, they will try to attack those who they believe might defeat them. That is a part of their game. But they will not win and we will not falter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: Iraq is very much the focus of President Bush's schedule this week. He meets Tuesday and Wednesday with the prime minister of two allies in the war, the Netherlands and Ireland. Thursday Mr. Bush will visit with troops in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. And that before returning to the White House for a Friday speech, marking the one-year anniversary of the war in Iraq. Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Kathleen Koch from the White House, thank you.
Well the U.S. knew a great deal about Iraq before the bombs ever started dropping on Baghdad, and in the year since the war began, the U.S. military has learned a lot more. Here's CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.
All right, obviously we're having a problem with that tape. We'll bring that to you as soon as we can.
Well time for a look at other news around the world, Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to serve a second term in office. So far exit polls show Mr. Putin with a big lead, with more than 65 percent of the vote, he is promising Russian stability and a better economy.
In Seoul, South Korea, simmering anger over the president's impeachment. Tens of thousands of protesters turned out today for a demonstration. The South Korea's national assembly voted Friday to impeach the president after accusations of illegal campaigning and incompetence.
And former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide is headed to Jamaica; he is currently in the Central African Republic. But is expected in Jamaica earlier next week to see his children. Jamaican officials have notified the U.S. of his impending trip, they say it won't last for more than eight to ten weeks and he'll seek political asylum. However, U.S. officials are discouraging him for making that trip for fear of destabilizing the Caribbean.
A world-renowned tenor retires. Still to come, Luciano Pavarotti takes this final bow. Plus you know the name, the face and the colorful hair. Where would the world be without Albert Einstein's contribution to science? We'll look back on the 125th anniversary of his birthday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Now we bring you the piece from the CNN Pentagon senior correspondent Jamie McIntyre on the U.S. lessons learned in the war in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JAMIE MCINTYRE, PENTAGON SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before going to war against Saddam Hussein, the U.S. knew more about Iraq than any previous adversary. After all it defeated Iraq's army in 1991, patrolled its no-fly zones for a decade and had access to intelligence from U.N. inspectors on the ground. But there was a lot the U.S. didn't know.
And didn't foresee. Last summer, with U.S. casualties mounting, the Pentagon was still in denial that after winning the major combat phase of the war it was facing what its own dictionary defined as gorilla warfare.
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I knew I -- I could die that I didn't look it up!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Paramilitary operations conducted in enemy help or hostile territory by a regular -- indigenous force. This seems to fit a lot of what's going on here.
RUMSFELD: It really doesn't.
MCINTYRE: More than 500 Americans died in Iraq. Almost half from hostile fire since the end of major combat. Another big reality check came when the U.S. got a firsthand look at Iraq's decrepit infrastructure. Electricity and water plants were suffering from years of neglect.
RICK BARTON, CTR. STRATEGIC & INTL. STUDIES: Part of it had been the sanctions. Part of it had been the gross and constant mismanagement of the Saddam Hussein regime.
MCINTYRE: Rick Barton led a team of experts from the Center Force for Strategic and International Studies on an inspection tour in Iraq last summer. They found the biggest miscalculation was what it would take to provide security.
BARTON: You have to start off strong. And our inability to provide for public safety initially has created a complication that we've ended up having to live with.
MCINTYRE: Despite the Pentagon's insistence that looting was inevitable and that more U.S. troops would have only meant more U.S. targets, Barton and other experts argue having additional forces early on to secure armories and collect weapons might have made a big difference. And then there was the flawed idea that oil-rich Iraq could pay its own way quickly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're dealing with a country that can finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon.
MCINTYRE: While oil production is approaching pre-war levels and experts have already brought in some $6 billion, that's still a fraction of the estimated $100 billion needed to put Iraq back on its feet. Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ALBERT EINSTEIN: We cannot and should not lack in our effort to make the nations of the world and especially their governments a way of the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) they are certain to provoke, unless they change their attitude to each other and that's the task of shaping the future.
WHITFIELD: Well you can instantly recognize his name and face and now you know his voice. That was Albert Einstein speaking on "Voice of America" back in 1945. Well today marks the day he was born 125 years ago. Let's take this chance to talk about the German born American physicist. The man "Time" magazine named person of the 20th Century. He didn't start talking until he was 3 years old and his professors didn't think very highly of him, but look what happened.
For more on what he was really like we're joined by Peter Goddard from Princeton University. He's director of the Institute for Advanced Study, which is where Einstein had worked. Good to see you.
PETER GODDARD, INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY: Very good to be here.
WHITFIELD: All right, well how might you all be recognizing the anniversary of his 125th -- 125 years after his birth?
GODDARD: Of course, a very noteworthy occasion and its reflected in our newsletter. But the bigger celebration will be next year, which is the century of his first great contributions to theoretical physics in 1905, when he really revolutionized the subject.
WHITFIELD: Well let's talk about some of his contributions. You know, as we look at the current events around the world right now, so much talk of nuclear weapons, et cetera, and he was very outspoken about his fears or concerns about the Nazis and their capabilities with atomic bombs, et cetera.
Let's try and apply some present day scenarios with his points of views of the past. How might you believe he might be responding or thinking about a situation in Iran, in Iraq and even North Korea?
GODDARD: Well, Einstein was, from his earliest years, basically a pacifist. But not an absolute pacifist. He saw the Nazi threat, indeed. That was what made him leave Germany and he chose to come here to the Institute for advanced study in Princeton in 1933. He warned of FDR of the impending dangers that might happen if the Nazis developed the atomic bomb and that spurred the United States and its allies to develop the bomb.
But after the war he had gained, was very keen that we should have some forms of international collaboration in government, which would lead to the control of nuclear weapons.
WHITFIELD: But it is his contribution to science as you know talking about the general theory of relativity, which really kind of putt him on the map, or at least that's kind of the indelible mark that most people have in their minds. Do you think worldwide his legacy really is honored? Across the board, on the same levels. Are there places you think, you know, really have the lasting memory of him most?
GODDARD: Well, I think he is throughout the scientific world, actually, throughout the world and general public, seen as he is. As a great icon's science. Somebody who really represents the advances of science in the 20th Century. And the gains that can be made in science and in other disciplines of knowledge, studying really fundamental questions.
WHITFIELD: How would you like to see him honored around the world as we celebrate 125 years?
GODDARD: I think I would like to see us realize that it's important not always to look for immediate practical gains from the investigations that we pursue in the sciences and humanities. Often, though, the developments of most practical benefits come from far sided researchers who are pursuing fundamental problems rather than trying to solve problems in the next year or two even if the benefits may in the end come quite quickly from the breakthroughs they make in our understanding of the natural world.
WHITFIELD: All right, Peter Goddard thanks very much. The director of the Institute for Advance Studies and your shot coming out of Princeton, New Jersey. We really appreciate it.
GODDARD: Good to be with you.
WHITFIELD: Well, can it be legendary opera singer Luciano Pavarotti says he is calling it quits? The past summer the tenor announced that last night's performance of Tosco would be his last at the Metropolitan Opera House. But speaking to the Associated Press Pavarotti went on a step further saying it would indeed be his final stage performance anywhere. That was last night. The 68-year-old Italian has thrilled opera fans for four decades now.
Well be careful of where you toss your stones. It could land you in jail. Still to come a clean sweep of the archaic laws that still on the books in some cities.
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WHITFIELD: In Chicago, city officials are doing a little legal spring-cleaning. They're purging a number of laws that are so outdated even city attorneys don't know why they're written. One law even made it illegal to kill diseased cattle. Here's our Keith Oppenheim.
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KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A city with a history -- has a lot of old rules. So think back to another time. Did you know Chicagoans made it illegal to transport dead people on public trains?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I didn't, actually, I brought a body on my way up here.
OPPENHEIM: Or that police were allowed to dump confiscated weapons in Lake Michigan five miles offshore.
PETER ALTER, CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY: That one, I really can't explain.
OPPENHEIM: You'd be fined for throwing a stone in the road because it interfered with horse-drawn wagons. Babies born with sore eyeless had to be reported to the health department, because the mother was considered to be a carrier of sexually transmitted diseases.
ALTER: The thinking was obviously if she's contracted one of these diseases that she's immoral, that she is a loose woman.
OPPENHEIM: The awareness of outdated books began three years ago when various groups cried foul over one law. They were challenging a 79-year-old ordinance that made it a crime to wear a mask in public. As that archaic idea got written out of the books city officials started to realize there were a lot of old laws that just didn't fit with the times.
MARA GEORGES, LEAD ATTORNEY CITY OF CHICAGO: If it's on the books it means it can be enforced, tickets can be written.
OPPENHEIM: So city officials are preparing to purge some ordinances including a recent one that put a litter tax on take-out food, that one was considered unconstitutional. But in the end it appears that if a law isn't hip with the times, its time runs out. Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Chicago.
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WHITFIELD: Well, Chicago's not the only place with silly statutes. Do you know in Denver it's illegal to lend your vacuum cleaner to your next-door neighbor? That is just one of the absurd laws collected in the book "You May Not Tie an Alligator to a Fire Hydrant." No kidding, the author Andy Powell is with me right here in Atlanta, he co-wrote the book in high school no less.
ANDY POWELL, WWW.DUMBLAWS.COM: Yes, I did.
WHITFIELD: All right, that must have been a lot of fun?
POWELL: It was it was incredibly exciting.
WHITFIELD: What was the inspiration?
POWELL: Freshman year, algebra class. Just had the idea and have been doing it about 5 1/2 years now. But it is a fabulous time for us, a great opportunity. We discovered a lot of interesting things along the way.
WHITFIELD: Well interesting, there is always a lot of citizens who say you know what, I think that law is dumb, silly, et cetera. But it is another thing when the municipalities agree. Then you know it's probably out of there.
POWELL: It is time to fix things.
WHITFIELD: Yes, it is time to fix things. You have got a few favorites. One in Michigan, it's illegal to cuss or curse, depending on what part of the country you're from, in front of women or children?
POWELL: Right, this is...
WHITFIELD: What happened?
POWELL: This is a big deal a couple years ago. A man flipped his canoe and he came up and he cursed up a storm. And they pulled out this statute that was over 100 years old and threw the book at him. Something that really people weren't even aware was still in effect. So it really caught everybody off guard and made people think what else is on the books that really shouldn't be there anymore.
WHITFIELD: OK and then -- I guess another instance, this was a federal law wasn't it? Nighttime skydiving? Perhaps they had to wear some kind of blinking lights? What was that all about?
POWELL: The law is, if you go skydiving at night anywhere in the country, that you have to wear a blinking beanie. And I guess it is just for safety reasons.
WHITFIELD: Is that still on the books?
POWELL: Still in the books.
WHITFIELD: You're kidding?
POWELL: So that passing an aircraft can spot you? I don't want to be skydiving...
WHITFIELD: I didn't know there was a whole lot of nighttime skydiving.
POWELL: It wouldn't be me.
WHITFIELD: That is what I know about skydiving. Haven't tried it yet. Currant County, California, you just can't play bingo drunk. What's this world coming to?
POWELL: I guess the element is, it gets out of hand. A little too much, a little to daring, you know on the floor there.
WHITFIELD: When you did the research for some of these, you know, what some people are saying silly or dumb laws, was the impetus that there was an awful lot people, you know citizens who are complaining about these things or was it a story or two that just kind of struck your fancy and you thought, let's compile a bunch of stuff?
POWELL: We really knew these things had been created, they had stuck with us for years and years, and really nobody ever takes the initiative. No cities, no states, to clean off the books. WHITFIELD: All right. And there are some wacky laws in Georgia apparently. Right here in Atlanta, it is illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp. In Columbus, it is illegal to cut off a chicken's head on Sunday. In Gainesville, it is illegal to eat chicken with utensils. And in Mariana, it is illegal to spit from a car or a bus, but it's OK if you're in a truck. And now, I can just see there are a lot of folk whose had plans to come to Georgia, just might not do it anymore! What are your favorites?
POWELL: My favorites, there is a law in Pacific Grove, California, that says it's illegal to molest a butterfly. And I actually got called out on the radio in California for saying this. Because they have an endangered species butterfly that migrates only there every year.
WHITFIELD: Interesting.
POWELL: And the locals were more than happy to tell me that on the air. So you find some that have a local history that do make sense, when you're in the area.
WHITFIELD: Well I'm sure it was a lot of fun to do the research and still a lot of fun to keep it fresh and have you here to talk about it.
POWELL: Right.
WHITFIELD: Andy Powell thanks very much. And the book is "You May Not Tie an Alligator to a Fire Hydrant" and you have a Web site. WWW.dumblaws.com.
POWELL: WWW.dumblaws.com.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks a lot.
POWELL: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: That's all we have time for right now. But stay with CNN, coming up at 5:00 on "NEXT@CNN," Hub bud over the Hubble. Hear why some believe the space telescope should be saved from a premature death. Then at 6:00 Eastern college basketballs winningest coach Dean Smith joins us live to talk of NCAA March madness. And at 7:00 Eastern, a closer look at the lives of American ideal Ruben Stoddard and second place finisher Clay Aiken. Thanks for joining us; I'll be back with a look at the headlines right after this.
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