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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports
Yasser Arafat May Get Out of Confinement; Was There Massacre in Jenin?; What has Changed in the 10 Years Since the L.A. Riots?
Aired April 29, 2002 - 17:00 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.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Now on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS: After U.S. pressure, Yasser Arafat may finally be getting out of confinement. But the U.N. still can't get in to Jenin. Was there really a massacre? Our reporter on the scene tells us what she has learned.
From a deadly germ unleashed on a city to a suicide bombing at a shopping mall, what are the odds of it happening here? I'll ask Senator Fred Thompson of the intelligence committee.
Ten years ago, an explosion of rage in Los Angeles.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RODNEY KING: Can't we all get along?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Ten years later, you may be surprised what has changed. I'll speak with noted defense attorney Johnnie Cochran.
From Missouri to Maryland, violent storms carve a path of destruction and death.
And if you are wondering what happened to the legend of late night TV, here's Johnny.
It's Monday, April 29, 2002. Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. He's been holed up in his compound for a month. Topping our "News Alert": Yasser Arafat moves closer to getting out.
The Palestinian leader may be off the hook. Israel and the Palestinians agree on a U.S. plan that would end his virtual house arrest, while jailing six wanted Palestinians now hiding in his compound. But as talks continue to try to make that happen, Israel continues its latest incursion. Nine Palestinians have been killed as troops comb the city of Hebron for militants and weapons. The sweep follows a weekend terror attack on a nearby settlement which left four Israelis dead.
U.S. and coalition forces may be hot on the heels of al Qaeda fighters along the Pakistani border in eastern Afghanistan. Officials say Operation Mountain Lion has entered an especially active phase. Troops have found fresh trails of enemy forces and may have spotted al Qaeda fighters at a distance. Hundreds of coalition troops are involved in the hunt.
Congressional investigators testing the effectiveness of post- September 11 security measures were able to enter four federal office buildings in Atlanta with false IDs and with firearms. Government sources say the investigators bypassed x-ray machines and smuggled duffel bags into the buildings, which house federal agencies and federal courts. The findings are to be released at a congressional hearing tomorrow.
The mayor of La Plata, Maryland likens his town to a war zone, a day after a powerful tornado leveled homes and businesses, killing three people. We have just learned from the National Weather Service that the tornado is an F-5, that's the most intense. Winds, we are told, were in excess of 260 miles per hour. Other twisters claimed lives in Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois as storms raged through much of the eastern half of the country. We will have much more on these tornadoes later in our program.
But we begin in the Middle East, where Yasser Arafat may soon be a free man. An apparent breakthrough in Ramallah, slow-paced bargaining in Bethlehem and an ongoing stalemate over Jenin. Let's start with CNN's Matthew Chance. He's in Ramallah.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At last, a chance for Yasser Arafat to leave his compound turned prison for the first time since March. He is meeting the Romanian foreign minister here, only the latest in a line of international dignitaries to show support.
As Israeli tanks keep their tight grip outside, security experts from Britain and the United States met their Palestinian counterparts in secret elsewhere onboard with Washington's unexpected diplomatic initiative. Once arrangements are finalized, this long-running standoff will come to an end.
But before the Palestinian leader can leave, Israel wants firm guarantees these wanted Palestinians also holed up inside the compound will not be set free once the tanks are ordered to leave. Only last week, four were convicted by a makeshift Palestinian court of killing the Israel tourism minister last October. Another is implicated in smuggling arms.
SHIMON PERES, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: I imagine that he'll wait until the arrangement for the prisoners will be established.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And when will this arrangement be established?
PERES: I don't know. I hope it won't take too long. From our standpoint, he is free to move.
CHANCE: But there are Palestinian concerns too, that once responsibility for prisoners is transferred to the U.S./British team, the men will be kept secure and out of Israeli hands.
YASSER ABED RABBO, PALESTINIAN CABINET MINISTER: Most if not all our prisons were attacked by Israelis plane and many prisoners as well as police officers were killed in these attacks. So, we're really interested in this safety of the prison and the guarantees that the United States and Britain will give to this effect.
CHANCE: There is mutual suspicion as always, but agreements on this may be the first tangible sign of common ground in months of bitter conflict here.
(on camera): The U.S. initiative allows both sides to achieve their limit goals, and perhaps, more importantly, to save face. What it does not do is address the underlying crisis here. There is still no guarantee Palestinian attacks on Israelis will stop or the Israeli occupation of these territories will come to an end.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Ramallah in the West Bank.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Movement toward a solution is harder to come by in Bethlehem, where Palestinians are still holed up in a holy place. Here is CNN's Mike Hanna.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE HANNA, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Thank you very much, indeed, Wolf. Well, the standoff here in Bethlehem is continuing. After more than three weeks, a number of people are still holed up in the compound of the Church of the Nativity. Among them priests, monks, nuns, as well as Palestinian police officers, Palestinian civilians and, says Israel, a number of wanted militants, people who the Israel Defense Force calls known terrorists.
The officer commanding the parachute battalion that has now surrounded that compound says there are at least 20 known militants holed up in a specific part of that compound who, he says, are holding hostages as a human shield. Well, this denied by some Palestinians and by some of the priests inside the compound, who say that people are free to come and go as they wish, that are fearful of them merging out of the compound as it is continued to be surrounded by the Israeli forces.
There have been ongoing negotiations in a bid to get a peaceful resolution. Two of this particular standoff, five sets of formal talks have taken place between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. No formal talks in the course of the day, however, but an Israel negotiator says that the talks are ongoing. He says there has been progress pointing to the fact that at least 50 people have come out of the compound in recent weeks. And confidence too from the Israeli side that there will be a peaceful end to these ongoing negotiations.
But no peace in the course of the morning. There was the sounds of gunfire around about 10:00 in the morning and a Palestinian gunman says the Israel Defense Force who was in the compound was shot dead by Israeli troops. The IDF says the man opened fire on the IDF positions and they responded to the fire, killing this particular gunman.
So talks ongoing, no formal negotiations in the course of the day, nobody else came out of the compound despite rumors that there may be a number of people emerging. But the Israelis say that they are confident there will be a positive, in other words, a peaceful outcome. And from the Palestinian side, we hear too that same hope. Back to you, Wolf.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Thank you very much, Mike Hanna in Bethlehem.
Israel and the U.N. are still at loggerheads over the terms of a fact-finding mission to the Jenin refugee camp, also on the West Bank. Palestinians say a massacre took place there. Israel says that is a lie, insisting casualties stemmed from a fierce battle. While the U.N. team has yet to visit Jenin, CNN's senior international correspondent Sheila MacVicar has done so. She joins us now live from Jerusalem.
And you have some preliminary conclusions based on a lot of interviews you have done. You spent a lot of time in Jenin, Sheila. First of all, how many people is it now estimated were killed in Jenin?
SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There are a number of different estimates, Wolf. The IDF has been saying now for about a week after their initial estimates of 200 or more, they've been saying 50.
We now know from international human rights organizations that have been conducting dozens and dozens of interviews in the camp, they say that they have documented the cases of 52 people who have died, 21 of whom they say were civilians. That is a far cry, of course, from the 200 that the IDF initially said and a far cry, of course, in the numbers we heard initially from the Palestinians.
What is clear, Wolf, what is most important here is that the international human rights workers in the camp say that they are now convinced there was no massacre, but there were other violations, serious violations, of international human rights law.
BLITZER: Sheila, is that number expected to go higher once all the rubble has been cleared or is that the approximate number that it's probably going to wind up with? We know 23 Israeli soldiers were also killed during that fighting.
MACVICAR: That's a good question. The IDF at the moment has the death toll of four Palestinians in the camp at 54. As I've said, Human Rights Watch says 52. Everyone agrees that there could still be a number of people under the rubble. But we're talking about individuals. We're not talking about an order of magnitude here. We're not talking about tens.
The death toll may shift in some way. And we will find out more once they begin to excavate more of that rubble, we'll find out more about the circumstances under which these people died.
BLITZER: Sheila, you also say there by all accounts, apparently, there was no massacre by the Israeli forces, but there were human rights violations. Specifically, what are you hearing from international, U.N. and other Red Cross officials who went in and local residents and from the Israeli Defense Force itself?
MACVICAR: There are a number of specific charges. First off, it's important to remember the IDF chose to use infantry in this instance. They put foot soldiers on the ground. It's clear from talking to everyone, fighters that I have spoken to, including people who have surrendered, who have been offered to us by Israel's foreign ministry and talking to IDF solders. No one expected this intensity of conflict. The people in the camp, the fighters in the camp, did not expect to confront Israeli infantry. Israeli infantry did not clearly expect to encounter the level of resistance they did.
So you had a situation in the camp that evolved very quickly over a matter of hours. And in that instance, it's become clear to both the human rights organizations that have been operating there, to the U.N. and to journalists that there were a number of apparent abuses committed. There are what are called extrajudicial executions, the killing of civilians.
Human Rights Watch says that they have documented the killings, the death of 21 civilians. The IDF of course says this is a war situation, a very difficult situation, a very intense fight that took place.
There are others instances of problem where people describe being used as human shields, things like that, the denial of humanitarian aid, things that people say they need, that's the reason why, in fact, they want the U.N. fact-finding mission to come here, Wolf, to get to the bottom of it.
BLITZER: All right. Sheila MacVicar reporting live from Jerusalem after doing some extensive reporting in Jenin. Thank you very much for that good work.
After the September 11 attacks here in the United States, U.S. officials announced a wide range of initiatives to step up homeland security. A new report suggests those steps may not be enough. CNN's Jeanne Meserve has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Toughening up airport security, stockpiling antibiotics and vaccines are all well and good. But a comprehensive report on homeland security from a Washington think tank says the federal government has a lot more to do.
MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: It is not enough just to think about what terrorists did to us before, we have to be creative and think about what they might do to us next. MESERVE: A suicide bombing is rated more likely than some scenarios, but the report urges attention to the most catastrophic possibilities. An efficient attack with a biological weapon like smallpox or Ebola could kill as many as a million. The detonation of an atomic bomb in a major city could take 100,000 lives. A successful attack on a nuclear or chemical plant could result in 10,000 deaths.
O'HANLON: I think you have to say, listen, some things are so bad that even if the chances of their occurring are quite low, we have to do everything we can within reason to stop them.
MESERVE: Among the most urgent steps that must be taken, according to the report, improving port security, reducing the vulnerability of building air intake systems and more background checks for drivers of trucks carrying hazardous materials. The estimated cost of these and other measures: $45 billion a year, $7 billion more than the president has proposed for 2003.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(on camera): (OFF-MIKE) the nation's homeland security effort. In speech this afternoon, said that a large scale review of the nation's infrastructure is underway to map out the risk, probabilities and consequences so the country can set priorities and better focus its resources. But we won't know how his list compares to that of the Brookings Institution until Ridge unveils his national strategy for homeland security that is expected this summer or fall -- Wolf.
BLITZER: And, Jeanne, before I let you go, this report that's coming out on the insecurity, if you will, at federal buildings in Atlanta. What is behind this? What else can you tell us?
MESERVE: Well, we're told by government sources that investigators from the General Accounting Office posed as law enforcement officers, carrying fake IDs. They were able to get into four federal buildings in Atlanta. Not only could they get in, they got in weapons and they got in duffel bags. Apparently, security personnel did not follow procedures. They issued these investigators ID badges, security codes, they gave then 24-hour access. And these buildings were homes to offices for agencies like the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the IRS and the federal court.
Interestingly enough, the GAO put a report on its Web site today on the use of technology to protect federal buildings. But as far as we can tell, these breaches in Atlanta were due to failure of people rather than machines. We're going to learn a lot more tomorrow because the House of Government Reform Committee will be holding a field hearing in Atlanta to talk about what happened -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. Jeanne Meserve reporting, thank you very much.
Senator Fred Thompson is a member of the Senate intelligence committee. He joins us now to talk a little bit about national security, homeland security. Senator Thompson, thanks so much for joining us. What is on the scale of probability? What is more worrisome to you right now, a high-tech biological or nuclear terrorist attack or a low-tech suicide bombing at a shopping center, a mall or a restaurant?
SENATOR FRED THOMPSON (R), TENNESSEE: The thing most worrisome I think, Wolf, is the thing that would kill the most people, and that would be nuclear, biological. They are also the least likely.
So what this report does, I think, and why it is such a valuable contribution is that it takes all the catastrophic scenarios and ranks them. It also takes a degree of probability that they'll happen and ranks them. You have got to marry those two things and spend the resources we've got accordingly. We only have a limited amount of money for this and we have got to do a cost/benefit analysis on all of it. And I think you will see in the president's overall plan that is coming out July 1, by July 1, that done.
BLITZER: So, you are satisfied with the way they are breaking up, they're dividing up the limited resources?
THOMPSON: Well, so far. I mean, we'll have to see the plan. But I think that Tom Ridge and the president certainly are mindful of what we have just been talking about, and I think you will see that reflected in the plan that comes out in July.
BLITZER: What kind of capability does Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda operatives still have?
THOMPSON: Well, we don't really know, but probably everything that they have always had. Bin Laden may or may not still be with us, but they still have their organization. They still have presence here in this country. And whether it is nuclear capability, if they are able to get the material to create such a device, all the way from suicide bombers.
You know, they can do an awful lot with conventional weapons. It has to do with the will and the fanaticism in addition to the materials that they get a hold of. And I think we have got to assume that they have got both.
BLITZER: You've heard a lot about Abu Zubaydah later, this captured al Qaeda commander, supposedly during interrogations, raising all sorts of possibilities, including a so-called dirty bomb. Is he to be believed?
THOMPSON: I don't know. I think that there are mixed feelings about that as to whether or not he is trying to disrupt us or trying to help us. I think we have got to take it seriously. I think the administration is. There's been a warning put out accordingly. Not an extremely high-level warning, but people have been notified that he has identified. And it just goes to show you the kind of lives we are going to have to live for a while, at least, and probably for a long while.
BLITZER: So, it could be disinformation designed to cause panic or to just get the U.S. off the real track or it could be real substantive information.
THOMPSON: Could be any of the above. And we have to take it all seriously and act accordingly.
BLITZER: As you know, the U.N. weapons inspection teams might be going back into Iraq. There has been a lot of discussion of that lately. You think that would be a terrible idea, and tell our viewers why?
THOMPSON: Well, I think we have got to address the Iraqi situation. And my worst fear right now is that Saddam, once he realizes that we're going in, and I think we are -- it's a matter of when and how and where -- that he will resort to that and let us come back in there.
I think under any circumstances, if we went back in there, he would still be able to hide things as he did before. We would still be engaged in debates over individual buildings. We would have to go back to the United Nations, where the French, the Russians and the Chinese are going to side with them instead of us. It would buy him time to develop nuclear capabilities that he may be on the verge of obtaining.
BLITZER: Is it your sense that the U.S. can't do anything really against Iraq while the Israeli/Palestinian crisis festers out there?
THOMPSON: No, I do not believe that. I believe that in a perfect world, that would be at case. But we can't wait for the Palestinian-Israel situation to resolve itself. I don't think it's going to be resolved for a while. Unfortunately, I don't think there is any short-term political solution.
Hopefully, we can help toward a longer-term one, but until the parties decide, both parties, not the French, not the Americans or the Arab moderates, but both of those parties decide they want it, it is not going to happen. So we have got to go ahead and do what is in the interest of this country. He poses a significant threat to us. I believe we will have sufficient cooperation among our Arab allies in the region to do what is necessary, and we should not have that policy totally engaged in the Middle East crisis right now.
BLITZER: A lot of our viewers who like you way back before you were a senator, going back to your days in Hollywood, are disappointed to hear that you've decided not to seek re-election. Remind us, why did you make that decision?
THOMPSON: Well, I appreciate that. It's better to leave while a few people still want you to stay then the other way around. I have always felt that a person ought to come out of private live and try to give something back. In my case, not forever, but rather in my case, it's better to go back into private life.
I did it a little sooner than I had anticipated because of a number of reasons, but a lot personal and as well as the fact that I think that it's just time to move on. When I look at another campaign and another six years after that, that is just a little bit too much when you get to my stage of things. There are other things that I want to do, other things I am interested in, and you can make a lot of contributions in places other than Congress.
BLITZER: First of all, was it because the possibility you might be in the minority again? Was that a factor?
THOMPSON: Not really. Not really. I have been in both places and majority is better. But, I think that the Republicans will probably take back the majority this next time.
BLITZER: And we only have a few seconds. The big screen, we saw you in a lot of major motion pictures, some of us old enough remember the Watergate hearings, but any major movies coming up?
THOMPSON: No major movies coming up, but who knows. There may be a bit part for an old actor somewhere here and there along the line. Who knows.
BLITZER: I have a feeling it might be more than a bit part. Senator Thompson, thanks for joining us.
THOMPSON: Thanks a lot.
BLITZER: I am sure you will be on this program many times before you leave Washington...
THOMPSON: I hope so.
BLITZER: ... and hopefully after you leave Washington as well.
THOMPSON: Thank you.
BLITZER: Good to have you on the show. Good luck to you.
THOMPSON: Thanks.
BLITZER: And the Los Angeles riots, 10 years later.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was worse than being in Vietnam. At least in Vietnam, I could shoot back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: What has changed in the past decade? Lawyer Johnnie Cochran joins us live to talk about it right after the break.
And look who else is talking. Johnny Carson breaks his silence, 10 years after saying good-bye to the late-night airwaves.
Also, homes ripped into pieces, deadly storms sweep from the Midwest to Maryland. We will go live to the scene of destruction. First, our "News Quiz."
The deadliest tornado in U.S. history also travelled more than any other. What's the distance it covered: several cities, several counties, several states or two countries? The answer coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back.
Los Angeles is marking a grim anniversary today. It has been a decade since bloody and fiery riots erupted in the city after four police officers were acquitted of beating Rodney King. Fifty-five people were killed and 2,000 were injured in the violence. Ten years later, where are some of the key players? CNN's Anne McDermott set out to find them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNE MCDERMOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They were scary and they were angry. Watch this guy. And where is he now? Yes, Mark Craig's a suburban dad. But the former Gulf War veteran says the Rodney King beating and the cops' acquittal so sickened him that he had to protest, he had to do this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the proudest moments of my life.
MCDERMOTT: Nothing to be proud of here. And there was no stopping the looters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is America! Get out!
MCDERMOTT: And they did it all in the name of...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rodney King!
MCDERMOTT: King wanted no part of it.
RODNEY KING: Can't we all get along? Can't we get along?
MCDERMOTT: But King is not talking now. He's in rehab and said through a spokeswoman focusing on getting better. He spent a decade in and out of trouble with the cops.
The cops who beat King don't do many TV interviews either. Then there's Reginald Denny, the man who got beat up while we all watched on TV. He told me, "I just want to move on."
GregAlan Williams cannot move on. Yes, he's busy with his acting career. This is him in The West Wing."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's when we go.
MCDERMOTT: But 10 years ago, Williams was a hero. This is him rescuing another bloody beating victim on video used in the attackers' trial. Now, he tells kids all about it, about flagging down a cop, trying to get the guy to a hospital.
GREGALAN WILLIAMS, ACTOR/ACTIVIST: Excuse me, there is a man hurt here. And they looked at me for a second and they drove away.
MCDERMOTT: Drove away. The cops say their leaders failed them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was worse than being in Vietnam. At least in Vietnam, I could shoot back.
MCDERMOTT: Detective Tom Lang, who one day would be known as the O.J. cop, was out on the streets then. He remembers a department in paralysis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's probably afraid of the image of the police department. They just went through the Rodney King situation that caused these most bloody riots in U.S. history.
MCDERMOTT: Bloody? You bet. But for some...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you go back 10 years ago and you view some of the video, it's more like a party.
MCDERMOTT: Well, a terrifying party then that went on night and day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Go, Bob, go!
MCDERMOTT: But passions eventually cooled and clean-up began, with actor Edward James Olmos in the lead. Things will get better, he says today, if we can just remember:
EDWARD JAMES OLMOS, ACTOR: There is only one race and that's the human race.
MCDERMOTT: Its members include Nigel Campbell (ph), who was 12 when rioting touched his neighborhood, but it didn't hold him back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I'm at University of California Berkeley studying English.
MCDERMOTT: Campbell isn't sure if things are better now. But the man in the mural is sure, or at least he figures things will be better for his children. They better be.
Anne McDermott, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: President Bush is now in Los Angeles to mark the 10th anniversary of these riots. Earlier, he stopped in New Mexico on his way to California. During his visit to Los Angeles, the president is scheduled to visit a church about five miles from the flashpoint of the riots. The White House says he will meet with community leaders and talk about how Los Angeles came together in the aftermath of the violence.
A decade after the riots, a poll by the "Los Angeles Times" shows more whites than African-Americans think race relations in the city have improved. Overall, half of those surveyed say race relations are better; 12 percent say they have gotten worse; 28 percent think things have stayed the same. Johnnie Cochran is among those with a unique perspective into the L.A. riots. He is the former attorney for Reginald Denny, the man who was pulled out of that truck and savagely beaten during the violence. Johnnie Cochran joins us now live from Harlem in New York. Johnnie, thanks for joining us. Remind our viewers, how did you get involved in representing Reginald Denny?
JOHNNIE COCHRAN, ATTORNEY: Well, Reginald Denny called me one day and I went out and met with him, Wolf. And he was such an impressive individual without bitterness, who had basically a global perspective about this. And we undertook to represent him because we think that he was failed by not only the hooligans who beat him, but also by the police department that had withdrawn from that area and failed to warn him. So it was really an honor to represent Reginald Denny.
BLITZER: And that videotape which our viewers are now seeing is, of course, etched in the minds of all of us who remember 10 years ago in Los Angeles when he was pulled out of that truck and was so badly beaten. But is he in -- physically, he has emerged in relatively good shape, right?
JOHNNY COCHRAN, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR REGINALD DENNY: Well, you know, remarkably so. He's still without bitterness. He's tried to move on with his life and he really is an outstanding young man. He needs to raise his daughter. He's done a lot of positive things. So, he has moved on, despite what took place to him, and I think that's a positive sign.
BLITZER: And what happened to those who beat him up, who pulled him out of the truck?
COCHRAN: I think if you recall there was a trial and for most of the serious charges, as I recall, Damian Williams I think was acquitted by a jury, if I recall, and that he since got in trouble again, I believe, but not much. Not much happened. I think there were maybe one or two convictions, but not anything really serious happened to anybody who was involved in this.
BLITZER: What's changed in Los Angeles over the past decade, if anything?
COCHRAN: Well, I think that, you know, I think there's been some growth in the middle class of African-Americans in Los Angeles. But by and large, I think the problems are still there, Wolf, unfortunately so. I think there's still an educational crisis. There's been some disparity in the delivery of healthcare to Blacks and Whites out there, Blacks, Whites and Browns. I think that there continues to be police misbehavior. Witness the Rampart Scandal of just humongous proportions.
So, I think that there are too many people still stuck at the bottom, so that many of the things we confronted in 1992 are still very much there, and there's still a lot of divisiveness in the city. Witness the battle over the police chief Bernard Parks. Many Blacks, most Blacks are very supportive of him, but only three votes were found in the city council and the police commission voted 4-1 against the chief, who really was trying to change things, most people feel.
So, that we still have a lot of separation, based upon race and class in Los Angeles. It has not improved much, and there has really been failed leadership at the top, among the mayors. They have not led us where they should have over the course of the last ten years.
BLITZER: Is Los Angeles unique or is it the same situation around the other major urban centers around the country?
COCHRAN: I think so. I think we've suffered really from failed leadership in a lot of these cities, but especially Los Angeles. I think that the former mayor really was much more interested in the damage done by the earthquake in Northridge in 1994.
Now that's important, but you know, clearly after 1992, people were talking about we needed some substantive change, but we have not seen that change.
The new mayor comes out, basically promises to support Parks and then backtracks on that, and so the feelings run deep still, and I think that's very unfortunate because we should be getting along better. We should really all have the attitude of Reginald Denny as we look forward. But, it's got to be a society where everybody has a chance, especially those on the bottom, and we don't have that now.
BLITZER: Is it your sense though that there's a raw nerve out there, that another race riot, if you will, could erupt in Los Angeles following another incident, God forbid, if it were to happen. Is there enough of a powder keg out there?
COCHRAN: I certainly hope not, you know. Twice in my career in 1965 and again in 1992, I've seen my community go up in flames and that's frightening and it's horrible. But the problem is the underlying causes, the lack of jobs, the lack of mobility in society, the continued police misbehavior, housing, education, health care. Those things are still there, and those are the triggers we saw before. So yes, it's possible, but I hope reasonable minds will always prevail and we never, ever see this again in our community.
BLITZER: Johnny Cochran, while I have you very briefly because we don't have much time left your quick assessment. You, of course, became well known representing O.J. Simpson. There's another Hollywood mystery out there. Robert Blake right now accused of murdering his wife. Is this going to turn out to be another O.J. Simpson kind of fiasco, if you will?
COCHRAN: Well, I don't think so. I think they're being a lot more cautious out there. If O.J. was an "A" movie, this clearly would be just a "B" movie I think at this point. And we should remember that he's presumed to be innocent until the contrary is shown, but I don't think it will rise to those proportions. I really don't.
BLITZER: OK, Johnny Cochran, as usual thanks for joining us on a busy day in New York City, appreciate it very much.
COCHRAN: Thank you, Wolf, it's my pleasure. BLITZER: Thank you and for more on the tenth anniversary of the L.A. riots and the Robert Blake case, join CNN's Leon Harris as he comes to you LIVE FROM HOLLYWOOD. That's tonight 8:00 Eastern, 5:00 Pacific.
And our web question of the day is this: Do you think the country has healed from the L.A. riots? You can vote. Go to my webpage, cnn.com/wolf. While you're there, let me know what you're thinking. There's a "click here" icon right on the left side of the page. Send me your comments. I'll read some of them on the air each day at the end of this program. Also, that's where you can read my daily online column, once again cnn.com/wolf.
From Missouri to Maryland a twisting path of destruction:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I usually come from church and I take a nap, but it's good that day I didn't go to church and because my bed is over there in that yard and I would have been over there too.
BLITZER: A look from outside the eye of the storm when we return.
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BLITZER: Earlier we told you the deadliest tornado in U.S. history also traveled more than any other. What's the most distance it covered? The answer several states. On March 18th, 1925 the Tri- State tornado touched down in Missouri, plowed through Illinois and ended up in Indiana killing an estimated 690 people and injuring more than 2,000.
Authorities say the tornado that hit La Plata in Maryland last night was the strongest twister in that state's history. Of the multiple storms that struck across eastern United States yesterday, the La Plata storm was the most destructive. Three people were killed in that area. CNN's Patty Davis is on the scene. She joins us now live with details. This is the day after, Patty how is it going?
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the National Weather Service has just declared this tornado an F5. That is the most severe tornado. They're calling it a monster of a storm, and saying that it is the worst ever, the most severe, and the only F5 in Maryland history.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVIS (voice over): The powerful tornado was caught on this home video Sunday evening, as it tore a 20-mile path of destruction through southern Maryland, killing three people and injuring nearly 100 others.
It caused especially heavy damage in La Plata, toppling the town's water tower and smashed homes, churches and businesses.
CHERRY MITCHELL, BUSINESS OWNER: Dad started this business 40 years ago. DAVIS: Cherry Mitchell's home center store had closed at three o'clock Sunday. It took a direct hit hours later.
MITCHELL: You know, I really don't know where you start. You just thank God that nobody was hurt and you take it day by day.
DAVIS: This shopping center in La Plata was also hit hard. A KFC fast food restaurant reduced to rubble. More than 100 homes were damaged, many of their roofs ripped off by winds as high as 250 miles an hour, devastation so severe the State of Maryland declared a state of emergency in Charles and Calvert Counties.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've seen homes destroyed, people where they've lived for years, ten years, 12 years, 13 years, everything wiped out.
DAVIS: Joe Aqua spent Monday salvaging what he could from his van. He and his family were in downtown La Plata and tried to outrun the storm.
JOE AQUA, SURVIVED TORNADO: The thing went right by. Things were smashing it. I didn't know what to do. Debris got into my eyes.
DAVIS: His family survived with cuts and scrapes. The National Weather Service called the tornado the strongest it had ever seen in Maryland.
BARBARA WATSON, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: The only thing that's even close to what this has done actually hit La Plata almost in the exact same location, and that was back in November, 1926.
DAVIS: La Plata is now digging out once again, signs of this town's spirit and resolve already on display.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DAVIS (on camera): Looking at the damage here, Wolf, it is amazing that more people did not lose their lives, a very powerful tornado. Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Patty Davis in La Plata, thank you very much for that report. Let's get a little bit more details on what that means the most powerful kind of tornado.
The Fujita Scale points out that the F5, these are smaller tornadoes F0, F1, F2, but if you take a look at an F5, the wind speed goes from 261 to 318 miles per hour. Cars can fly 100 meters. Trees are debarked in the process.
Enormous destructive damage potentially, that's what occurred in Maryland last night. And for those who experience the La Plata tornado, it will be a long time before the memories fade. Here's what it was like.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PAUL BALES, RESTAURANT OWNER: Somebody had mentioned that there may be a tornado coming through, and there was no indication of that at all, and I didn't hear it. We left and went about our business and then the next thing we know, our phone was ringing off the hook and everything that we heard was that it was gone. That's all we heard. It was gone. I didn't know what was gone. I had no idea, and it ended up my office was gone, but that was just a small part of it because half the town's gone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just roaring north. It sounded like, you know, like a hundred trains, you know. I just looked out the blind in the back and it was like a draft coming from one wall through the foyer out the other wall, so it was trying to blow me out, and we survived. I mean, it hit real hard, then it calmed down. Then it hit hard again.
SCOT SCHOFIELD, RESIDENT: I saw it wrapping itself up. I saw clouds up in the sky going that way over here and down there going that way down there. It was like three or four miles wide. You could just see the whole sky was just going like this with this big black cloud.
But then, we ran up on the porch, on the back porch. I took another picture, and then debris started flying so then we dove into the house and ten seconds later, the kitchen on the back of the house more or less exploded. The door just went across the kitchen, boom, pow. I mean it just exploded.
Finally the wind when it died down we started yelling and trying to find out who was where and if anybody was hurt, and fortunately everybody was fine. I dug Jeff out. I went over and dug the lady out next door, who was trapped in her house. Everything else can be replaced except for the pictures and that stuff. But I got them in here.
BALES: We're in the process of revitalization, and we had a vision for the town, for the future and it looks like we kind of got a jumpstart here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Devastation in southern Maryland. As we mentioned, the tornado that hit La Plata was just one of several storms battering a wide area yesterday. The spring snow storm covered parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin. In white they had accumulations of up to 20 inches of snow. Thousands of people lost power. Four people died in snow-related traffic accidents, including a 17-year-old boy on the way to his high school prom.
A tornado with winds up to 180 miles an hour struck the southeast Missouri town of Marble Hill, plucking a 12-year-old boy off the ground and hurling him to his death. Two other storm-related deaths were reported in the Midwest. The victims were a 69-year-old woman in Illinois and a 52-year-old man in Kentucky.
And, yesterday's storms brought wind, rain and hail the size of golf balls to Virginia. At least 50 homes and many other buildings were damaged or destroyed in the Lynchburg and Bedford areas.
A judge throws the book at Darryl Strawberry, hard times for the former baseball star. Plus, an innocent man goes free, the latest DNA strike against the death penalty. And, how is the previous kind of late night spending his time off the air? Look who's talking, it's Johnny Carson. Stay with us.
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BLITZER: Welcome back. Let's check stories that in our Justice File. Darryl Strawberry will spend the next 18 months behind bars. A judge sent the former New York Yankees outfielder to prison for violating his probation for the sixth time. At the time of the sentence, Strawberry said: 'I'd just like to get this behind me. My life is going in the right direction." The former slugger has been on probation from a 1999 conviction on drug and solicitation of prostitution charges.
Ray Krone is getting a new lease on life. He's the 100th condemned American to be exonerated since the death penalty was reinstated. CNN's Ed Lavandera joins us now live from Mesa, Arizona. He has details. Ed.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's been an amazing couple of weeks for Ray Krone. Over the last ten years, he spent two and a half years on death row, eight years in prison, had two cases for the 1991 murder of a Phoenix woman. Two juries in Phoenix convicted him of that murder, and he knew all along, he says, that he was innocent, and he's waiting more than ten years to hear what happened in a courtroom here just outside of Phoenix in Mesa, Arizona just a short time ago.
And, as we mentioned this jury, two juries in Arizona, convicted Ray Krone of murder of Kim Kona (ph), but in February, his attorneys were able to get permission to get the DNA testing.
He had exhausted all of his appeals, but his attorneys were able to convince a judge to allow this technical DNA testing to take place, and when the results came back, it showed that Ray Krone was not at the crime scene, and in fact that it was another gentlemen that the DNA tests have linked to, saying it was a man who was already in jail, Kenneth Phillips (ph) who's responsible for this murder.
But Ray Krone says he's excited. Tomorrow he takes off for his home town in Pennsylvania and he's excited about getting on with his life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAY KRONE, EXONERATED BY DNA: I think I had to spend ten years in there and people said, well why did the Lord let that happen? What was the purpose of that? What did that all mean? And I think it wasn't about the ten years I spent in the past.
It's about the future, what I can do now to make it right and all the people that helped me, all the people that supported me, there's no way I could ever, you know, support them or pay them back for that support that got me through this, got me here to talk to you today, but there's other people out there that maybe I can help. Maybe I can do something for them that came from a place they expected or least expected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA: The victim's mother in this case was also in the courtroom today and she says that she is happy for Ray Krone, and that even though the legal system in the U.S. and the justice system might not be necessarily the best in the world, it's the best we have and she's happy that Ray Krone gets to go home and drive home to Pennsylvania, Wolf back to you.
BLITZER: Ed Lavandera, thank you very much for that report, and this important programming note. Please join us tonight to hear directly from Ray Krone. He'll be a guest on "CROSSFIRE." That's at 7:00 Eastern tonight here on CNN.
And for years, you saw the same man every night at around 11:30. After ten years of missing Johnny, you may be thinking what's he doing with his time away from television. We'll tell you when we come back.
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BLITZER: Welcome back. It's been almost a decade since Johnny Carson signed off for the last time from "The Tonight Show." In the years since then, he's kept a low profile until now. Carson granted an exclusive interview to "Esquire Magazine" to be published in the upcoming issue. He spoke with contributing editor Bill Zehme who in turn told us what it was like to speak with the late night legend.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL ZEHME, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, ESQUIRE MAGAZINE (voice over): Here was a man who spent 30 years every night sort of comforting us and putting us to bed at night and kind of helping us make sense of our personal problems, as well as world events, and it seemed to me now more than ever, it would be nice to just sort of reconnect with him.
ZEHME (on camera): He actually was considering doing specials or producing some other kind of programming, and it occurred to him finally that whatever else he tried to do, he couldn't probably have the freedom that he had on "The Tonight Show." He's one of the great spontaneous television performers of all time, if not the greatest.
He is a guy who's always been -- he's kept to himself quite obviously, and he's shy. He's actually a shy guy, and therefore, he's not going to pontificate, although he's hilarious on the subject of reality television. He finds it to be just truly appalling, and thinks people on "Survivor" in about as much jeopardy as he is having lunch.
Really in the last six years, he's been floating around the Pacific and starting Wednesday, he's taking a brand new boat, also called the Serengeti, 130 footer down and through the Panama Canal, which is every sailor's dream, and down into the Caribbean. He's very excited about his new life at sea. So we can think of our king out on the water.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: We miss the king, Johnny Carson. Enjoy yourself. But we also like Jay Leno a lot. He's celebrating ten years as "The Tonight Show" host, and he has a special tomorrow.
Someone in New Jersey will be officially $59 million richer tomorrow as well. State lottery officials say that's when they'll announce the holder of a winning ticket in the multi-state Big Game Lottery. It's not, repeat not, a nursing home workers pool, members that accused a coworker of buying the ticket with their money, then refusing to share the jackpot. Officials say a store videotape shows he didn't buy the ticket.
Let's go to New York now and get a preview of Lou Dobbs MONEYLINE that, of course, begins right at the top of the hour. Lou.
LOU DOBBS, MONEYLINE ANCHOR: Wolf, thank you. Israel agrees to release Yasser Arafat from his confinement. We'll have the latest developments from the Middle East and reaction from the White House, and I'll be talking with an expert who just returned from the region, Professor (inaudible).
Merrill Lynch issued a public apology for e-mails that show it misled investors in favor of investment banking clients. Merrill's CEO David Kamansky is my guest tonight. And, one week until the Justice Department and Andersen are in court. I'll be talking with former prosecutor Professor John Baker about this trial and the criminalization of corporations, all of that and a lot more at the top of the hour. Please join us. Now back to Wolf Blitzer, Wolf.
BLITZER: Thank you very much, Lou. We certainly will. Each day we give you a vote on this program and now is the time to exercise it. Do you think the country has healed from the L.A. Riots? We'll have the results of our web question next. Also, a viewer's concern over any future attack on Iraq. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Now the results of our web question of the day. Do you think the country has healed from the L.A. riots? The votes are almost evenly split. Look at this, 49 percent of you say yes, 51 percent say no. Remember this is not a scientific poll.
Let's hear directly from you now. Roni asked this question: "If Israel has nothing to hide, why are they so afraid of what the U.N. fact-finding mission would find" referring to the situation in Jenin from (inaudible).
"Israel, however" Ron writes, "Every TV station in the world called the fierce fighting in Jenin a massacre. We all see now that it isn't so. Israelis don't kill for pleasure, unlike the Palestinians who swore they would die in order to take as many Jews with them as possible."
And on Iraq, Gail write: "I am shocked that our country is discussing an attack on Iraq, a sovereign country, in order to change the head of sate. What is happening to our reasonable, lawful country?"
That's all the time we have right now. Tomorrow on this program, a side of the U.S. President you may not have seen. I'll speak with the author, Robert Faro (ph) about his new book on Lyndon Johnson. Until then, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. Lou Dobbs "MONEYLINE" begins right now.
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