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Aired November 14, 2001 - 04:30   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.
MICHAEL MCMANUS, CO-HOST: Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Michael McManus.

SUSAN FREIDMAN, CO-HOST: And I'm Susan Freidman.

The opposition Northern Alliance takes the Afghan capital Kabul, delivering a major blow to the Taliban. The political landscape has changed now with the Northern Alliance patrolling the streets of the capital city and the Taliban on the run. Officials in Washington say there are also Taliban defections further south. The cities in red on this map designate those now under the control of anti-Taliban forces.

MCMANUS: As the Northern Alliance took hold of Kabul, international leaders study the possibilities for a post-Taliban government. The pressing question is who will rule the Afghan capital? Our Joel Hochmuth will explore some options in a minute.

For now, we turn to CNN's Joie Chen and military analyst Major General Don Shepperd for more on what Northern Alliance forces have accomplished and the challenges ahead.

JOIE CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: General, you know, we have really been quite surprised at the sort of pictures that we have seen coming into Kabul of the Northern Alliance forces. Just the fact they are in there is a bit of a surprise, but the warm welcome they received and no resistance at all to speak of.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET)., CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, basically when they got to Kabul, there was no one home. They basically reportedly stopped with their major forces outside of Kabul, sent security forces in. That's the reports we are receiving. They are distinguishing between that and occupying the city which they say they are not doing. It's an importance difference.

CHEN: So when they say they have 6,000 forces gathered in and around the city, a lot of that is going to be outside the city?

SHEPPERD: That's correct.

And then Secretary Rumsfeld basically -- or rather Judy reported that it has been reported that some U.S. forces are also with the Northern Alliance in Kabul and other regions of the country in the south. CHEN: Already though we have seen from Kabul some signs of change. Indications there that the people in the streets are living already quite a different way. In some cases, taking off some of the beards that had been required by the Taliban and listening, as you see there, to a radio.

SHEPPERD: Yes, what I'm watching is the jubilation of the people, which is different than what the Soviets experienced, difference in the South Vietnamese in 1975, the Iraqis in 1991. As the Northern Alliance has taken over, basically, the people have joined them and basically are welcoming the Taliban to leave the cities and leave their positions.

CHEN: I guess I wonder why it is so different for the Northern Alliance forces coming in than the Soviets -- the Soviets who have met so much resistance.

SHEPPERD: Well, the Soviets were trying to take someone else's country. And in this case, the al Qaeda forces have also occupied this country with the help, of course, of the Taliban. And now, it appears the people, of course, the Northern Alliance, other oppositions trying to take their country back, all the difference in the world.

CHEN: Let's talk a little bit more about why the Taliban might be backing off, giving up if they are in fact doing that. Why would they do that and where would they intend to go?

SHEPPERD: Well, they have no choice. First of all, they have been pounded by air power. Every time they would try to talk, we would find them and we hit them. And it's been talk about a strategic retreat toward the Kandahar region. There is no strategic retreat going on, it's a rout. They can't talk. They can't walk. They can't resupply. They may be going toward Kandahar, but there they are going to have a choice of either surrendering or being attacked because it is very lucrative targets for air power if they get together and try to reattack down there.

CHEN: Well, let's talk about the road to Kandahar then and what they would find in Kandahar itself. Kandahar is south of Kabul, a significant stronghold for the Taliban and particularly for Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban.

SHEPPERD: Right.

Kabul has been the capital, but Kandahar has been the stronghold, if you will, of the Taliban forces. Mullah Omar has essentially ruled from there, if you will. His quarters have been attacked several times. And Kandahar itself sits at the end of the Hindu Kush, just above the plains. And by the way, the plains, southwest of that city, basically where they have had a lot of fruit orchards and stuff that were demolished in the Soviet days.

So now, not only in Kandahar itself, but northwest of Kandahar and north are the hills where you could form guerrilla pockets that have to be dug out where a lot of the caves and tunnels are and further where bin Laden himself could be hiding. We are looking hard.

CHEN: Yes, this is map that shows Kandahar. And it kind of gives you an indication of what you are looking at. Kandahar, as you said, sits on the edge of a plain, really of the desert, to the south of there and then to the north -- these hills -- not necessarily the highest mountains of Afghanistan.

SHEPPERD: No, think of Kandahar as Tucson, Arizona and the hills behind it there as Mount Lemon, if you will -- goes up to about 12,000 feet or so and then, of course, goes higher as you move up toward Kabul there.

But the road between Kabul and Kandahar is a major supply route for the Taliban. That's now being interdicted, it's now owned, if you will, by the Northern Alliance. We've got to look in all these caves and places for bin Laden -- makes it easier to look in a small area.

CHEN: Back here at our map, I'm wondering -- and it has to lead you to wonder -- whether these folks will use either that area north of Kandahar or somewhere else in the country as a hideout, as an opportunity to regroup before coming back.

SHEPPERD: The possibilities are endless.

They can retreat to the mountains out here in small pockets, but there is no way because there is no roads in there to resupply with for major attacks. You can do guerrilla attacks from there forever if you want, but you can't assemble a major force in mountains like this when the cities are owned by other people. You can't resupply from Pakistan. You can't resupply from Iran. It is very difficult.

Other places that bin Laden could be in the mountainous areas here, north of Jalalabad. Another one over here -- east of Konduz and Taloqan and these high mountains. There are endless places. We are searching for a needle in a haystack, but the search is being narrowed and made a lot easier by what is going on.

CHEN: Yes, and a very rough haystack to pick through as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOEL HOCHMUTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even as Northern Alliance troops sweep into Kabul, the daunting question looms, what next? What type of government will assume control in Afghanistan?

Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush discussed that very issue at their summit in Washington, D.C.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We support the U.N.'s efforts to fashion a post-Taliban government that is broadly based and multi-ethnic. The new government must export neither terror nor drugs, and it must respect fundamental human rights. (END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): Of course, we do not intend to force upon the Afghani people the solutions. It is for them to resolve those issues with the active participation of the United Nations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOCHMUTH: The Northern Alliance now controls most key cities in the north of the country but the Taliban holds the rest, and it could be months before they're completely rooted out. Still, the sudden victories by the Northern Alliance left the United Nations scrambling. It has outlined a two-year transitional government to be run by Afghans and backed by a multinational security force.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: A stable Afghanistan, living in peace, carrying out its international obligations and posing no threat to any of its neighbors must be our common objective.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOCHMUTH: Annan is sending a top official to Kabul immediately to get the wheels in motion, needless to say, it won't be easy. Afghanistan remains a country deeply divided by tribal loyalties, tribes that have been at war with each other for more than a decade.

While the Northern Alliance may now control Kabul, they are mostly ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks, two minority groups.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: This is called the Northern Alliance for a reason. And but the majority of the Afghan people are Pashtun and they are in the south and they have to be a part of this and being in Kabul in some form where the interim government is formed is essential, because otherwise it will just split the country down the middle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOCHMUTH: There are hopes that Afghanistan's exiled king, 87- year-old Mohammad Zahir Shah, could be brought in as a unifying force. He's currently living in Italy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALBRIGHT: The role of the former king is important, not so much that he be reinstated as king but that he be the one that provides some kind of leadership in terms of getting this government together, a legitimate force.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOCHMUTH: Clearly the clock is ticking. The fear is the longer the Northern Alliance controls Kabul the less willing they will be to share power.

But there is precedent that new governments can be set up quickly. In 1993, the U.N. set up a king in Cambodia to unify that nation in the wake of the brutal Kamere Rouge (ph) regime.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD BUTLER, FORMER U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: What we did at the U.N. is we put together an interim government headed by a king -- King Sihanuk, just as there is an Afghan king. He didn't necessarily have the power, but he held the factions together and then U.N. peacekeepers went in to keep order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOCHMUTH: So far, the Northern Alliance is giving assurances it welcomes U.N. presence in Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, NORTHERN ALLIANCE SPOKESMAN: For setting up the new government, what is needed is the presence of the United Nations and also the Afghan groups to come and to start negotiations about it. It cannot be formed, the future government of Afghanistan cannot be formed by foreign forces, but the presence of the United Nations is necessary, of course.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUTLER: We definitely have to hope he means it because we -- there was a tragic past in Afghanistan where there was terrible tribal fighting there an in a way that partly led to the arrival of the Taliban. So let's hope he means it. There has to be order if Afghanistan is to have a new start.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOCHMUTH: While hopes are high that Afghanistan is off to a new start, suspicions remain about just what the Northern Alliance has in mind.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Many people in neighboring Pakistan are nervous about the Northern Alliance as well. They, along with a number of anti- Taliban groups in southern Afghanistan, want to be included in the government's development. Groups such as the Pashtun say they don't want the Northern Alliance in charge. Rebecca MacKinnon brings us that story coming up.

First, here's Tom Mintier with more Pakistani reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The fall of Kabul happened so fast that the Pakistani Foreign Ministry learned of it not through their excellent intelligence channels, but by watching television.

It was these pictures of Northern Alliance troops inside the city of Kabul that officials watched and cringed at. Pakistan has for years supported the Northern Alliance's enemy, the Taliban. And now Pakistan is worried about having a hostile neighbor.

AZIZ AHMED KHAN, FOREIGN MINISTRY: We would like that city of Kabul is not occupied by one faction or the other, preferably the administration taken over by a United Nations or a multinational force.

MINTIER: Across town, U.N. officials accused the Northern Alliance of executing young Taliban soldiers.

STEPHANIE BUNKER, U.N. SPOKESWOMAN: Today in Mazar, we have had several sources that have corroborated that over 100 Taliban troops who were young recruits who were hiding in a school were killed by Northern Alliance forces on Saturday at 6:00 p.m.

MINTIER: A charge from the U.N. denied by the Northern Alliance's foreign minister. Pakistan is now calling on the United Nations to prevent the Northern Alliance from forming a government in Afghanistan. Pakistan is also asking the U.N. to put a multinational peacekeeping force in right away, before the Northern Alliance attempts to get a firm grip on power.

ABDULLAH: It was a situation that the people would have dreamed to get rid of the rule of the Taliban and terrorist groups, nothing -- no such a thing has happened and it will not happen. There is no risk of such a thing.

MINTIER: In Islamabad, the Taliban's ambassador has left town. He was seen in this car driving away hours after Taliban forces abandoned Kabul. Sources tell CNN that the ambassador has left for the Afghan city of Kandahar to hold meetings with senior Taliban leaders.

The Taliban also reportedly moved those eight foreign aid workers awaiting trial in Kabul. The guard says the Taliban came to take them away after midnight. The father of American detainee Heather Mercer is in Islamabad trying to fight for his daughter's release. He told CNN that he was told by the Taliban his daughter and the others were moved to Kandahar.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MERCER, FATHER OF DETAINEE: With the Northern Alliance moving in there and things very unsettled, I think it's probably for the detainees' own good that they were moved, although I was -- had certainly hoped that a resolution to this case would have been found before now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MINTIER (on camera): Pakistan is now calling on the United Nations to prevent the Northern Alliance from forming a government in Afghanistan. Pakistan is also asking the U.N. to put a multinational peacekeeping force in right away, before the Northern Alliance attempts to get a firm grip on power.

Tom Mintier, CNN, Islamabad, Pakistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An anxious father hungry for news as word comes from across the border that Northern Alliance Commander Hajed Ali (ph) is moving on the city of Jalalabad. Exiled anti-Taliban commander Hadji Riese Kudyani (ph) has a 13-year-old son there in Taliban captivity.

"I've seen my nephew and my brother killed," he says, "but this boy is very sensitive. I'm really worried."

This is the headquarters of what's called the Eastern Surra, an alliance of exiled Pashtun commanders from eastern Afghanistan. The fall of Kabul has got everyone hoping they'll be home soon.

"I think we'll be there in a matter of days," says Pierre Hadrie (ph).

For Hadji Riese Kudyani, the sooner it happens the sooner his son will be safe. Their leader, Hadji Zamin has been meeting nonstop with his followers working out a plan.

"The most important thing," he says, "is to go in without bloodshed."

He welcomes the Northern Alliance victory in Kabul, but...

"The Northern Alliance is brainless and incapable of running Afghanistan," he says. "We know that from past experience."

These commanders hope the United Nations will send a neutral peacekeeping force to Kabul as soon as possible, that way the former King Zahir Shah can return to Kabul, convene what's called a loya gerga (ph) or grand council and form a new government.

(on camera): The eastern Pashtun commanders say they're committed to avoid power struggles with the Northern Alliance, but they also warn it could be difficult to keep the peace in Afghanistan unless the international community remains committed to their country long after Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network have been removed.

Rebecca MacKinnon, CNN, Peshawar, Pakistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Pakistan's Baluchistan province is critical as the war against the Taliban continues. It sits along side Afghanistan and U.S. troops are reportedly using military bases there for search and rescue operations. But as Pakistan supports the war against terrorism, one powerful man there does not. He is the chief of Baluchistan's largest, most influential tribe.

CNN's Carol Lin introduces us to the man who is a legend to his people.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dera Bugti can inspire terror when the Bugti tribes people watch their legendary chief take a stroll.

"What's the price?" he demands, as he pokes around. Wearing a straw hat and designer sunglasses, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti looks more like Sean Connery than tribal war lord, but he is a legend and the law to his people.

"Nawab is our father," these tribesmen tell us. "We would give our souls for him."

And legend has it that he killed his first man when he was only 12, and that he killed another 100 men to avenge the murder of his favorite son.

Tribal law reigns in the vast Bugti territory, where murder is not a capital crime.

NAWAB AKBAR KHAN BUGTI, BUGTI TRIBAL CHIEF: Killing is part of life, life and death, they go side by side.

LIN: Nawab Bugti's modern, and tribal worlds have long lived side by side. He was educated at Oxford, but he lives by laws more than a thousand years old. Honor and family are sacred. Yet, he has fond memories of a lap dancer in a Berlin nightclub.

It's not his values, but his authority over a well-armed tribe of 187,000 people in Pakistan's Baluchistan Province that worries the government.

Lately, Nawab Bugti has openly condemned Pakistan's support for the United States airstrikes over Afghanistan.

BUGTI: We are being used. Our land is being used, whether it is all overflight, whether it is rescue, now we resent that. And we resent that government of Pakistan has sold us off.

LIN: Sold off Baluchistan for foreign aid, promised by the United States, says the tribal chief. Nawab Bugti says he cannot explain to his people why Pakistan supports western bombs that he says are killing fellow Muslims in Afghanistan.

Would his tribesmen retaliate against American troops now basing in Baluchistan?

BUGTI: Everybody is watching events and seeing how things develop, and as they develop, people will make decisions and all that -- for their own safety and security, naturally.

LIN: And that is all the tribal chief of Baluchistan's largest, best-armed tribe of independent warriors would guarantee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Following September 11, some people within the U.S. were picked up by various police and government agencies and detained for questioning. Some are still being held while the investigation into the attacks continue.

Across the Atlantic, England is considering toughening up its lockup laws. There is a bill before the House of Commons outlining the proposed emergency powers.

Robin Oakley reports on the bill and the concerns around it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These, some argue, are the faces that make a mockery of Britain's asylum laws. Men like the Muslim cleric Abu Katada, a Palestinian sentenced to life imprisonment in Jordan, or Yasser al-Seri, wanted for offenses in Egypt -- extremists sympathetic to terrorist groups saved from extradition because British courts won't send people home if they face the death penalty or torture.

But now, Home Secretary David Blunkett has announced drastic plans for terrorist suspects to be locked up indefinitely without trial. He's declared a state of public emergency in Britain, a ploy to opt out of European human rights laws. Political opponents say no case has been made for denying essential liberties.

NORMAN BAKER, LIBERAL DEMOCRAT SPOKESMAN: There may be suspected terrorists here, but the answer is, first of all, to make a prosecution stick against them, and if that cannot be done, there are maneuvers whereby they can be deported. I think the answer to they should be interned without trial is, frankly, unacceptable.

OAKLEY: Mr. Blunkett, now being talked of as a future prime minister, dismisses such talk as airy fairy, saying his first duty is to protect life.

DAVID BLUNKETT, BRITISH HOME SECRETARY: I think the answer to the people who are worried about civil liberties is that you can only really retain your democracy if you're prepared to take proportionate measures that give people judicial process and the right to appeal but don't allow that freedom to be abused by those who would take away that life and that liberty.

OAKLEY: But even in today, a security conscious world, civil liberties campaigners say Mr. Blunkett's going too far. SHAMI CHARRABARTI, LIBERTY: There would be no suggestion of the United States suspending its constitution at the time when it wishes to defend its freedoms so patriotically, and perhaps we take our rights too much for granted in this country.

OAKLEY (on camera): There are classical arguments, how far do you restrict liberty to protect life? If you're provoked into enacting laws which defy a country's legal and democratic traditions, are you handing the terrorists a partial victory? Britain's government wants to rush the new law through by Christmas. It will get its way, but not without an angry struggle.

Robin Oakley, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREIDMAN: No doubt we are enduring some difficult days. From anthrax scares to plane crashes, the stress of life today can sometimes feel overwhelming. Modern anxiety can leave us wishing for simpler, easier times, times like those captured in the paintings of Norman Rockwell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A sweet picture, but look again. The juxtaposition of nurture and menace speaks clearly in this Norman Rockwellesque ad for "The New York Times." An exhibit of Norman Rockwell paintings is drawing record crowds at the Guggenheim Museum.

LAURA CLARIDGE, AUTHOR, "NORMAN ROCKWELL, A LIFE": I get the feeling that right now, that Americans have come most aware of what they risk losing in that everydayness, if life changes too dramatically. And so suddenly as we look what -- at the small things that matter, Rockwell comes to mind because that's what he was a master of for six decades.

PILGRIM: Family, war, country, civil order, all with a humble, human touch, a simple vision of life. American art experts like Gavin Spanierman are not surprised by the new connection America is making to Rockwell in these troubled times, with themes of family and simplicity. Spanierman points to the bucolic simplicity of Winslow Homer after the Civil War as a similar pattern. Yet he says Rockwell always implied the presence of world events in his paintings.

GAVIN SPANIERMAN, SPANIERMAN GALLERY: Besides the wonderful storyline, there's always this sort of presence of an outside, obvious presence of an outside world, you know? It's not a snapshot. It is part of a much greater whole. And that's what I think he conveys so well.

PILGRIM: Advertising executives say their clients are opting for a kinder and gentler message, but a modern version, ads that emphasize camaraderie and connection, like this Mitsubishi ad.

DONNY DEUTSCH, CHAIRMAN & CEO, DEUTSCH, INC.: What will last is not Norman. You're not going to see Norman Rockwell in advertising, but feel-good messages, family messages. And I think that's across all media. It's not just advertising. That's just what the doctor ordered right now.

PILGRIM: Now the era of edgy, demanding, abrasive may be over in both art and its commercial application, advertising. If it doesn't feel good these days, many are saying it just isn't going to sell.

Kitty Pilgrim, CNN Financial News, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREIDMAN: If good old-fashioned nostalgia doesn't do the trick, maybe a dose of patriotism is in order. From flags on minivans to countless renditions of the national anthem, symbols of America are everywhere because, as Anne McDermott explains, national pride is now a big seller.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNE MCDERMOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You want flags? We got flags. Get them in person. Get them on the Net. This company sold a million bucks worth in a single week. Patriotism sells. You got your hard sell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yours for only $39.95.

MCDERMOTT: You got your soft sell. What are they selling? Why, the New York Stock Exchange of course. But check out this Los Angeles supermarket. The flag bags are free. Ditto at the dry cleaners.

MIKE AZADEH, DR. J'S CLEANERS: Customers love it and that, you know, feeling and that smile on their face makes me happy.

MCDERMOTT: Happy isn't the operative word for some retailers. And most offers are innocuous enough, it's just that it's everywhere. And so it was, well, about 60 years ago, back in the days when Pontiac sold patriotism; when people were told to buy juice with victory vitamin C and women were told they'd be so happy when their fighting man finally came home, that they'd run right out and buy some silverware.

PROFESSOR FRANKLIN MITCHELL, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: It was looked upon, as a way to show your unity with those that have been separated from loved ones on the home front.

MCDERMOTT: Also on the home front, celebrity sales pitches.

BING CROSBY, SINGER (singing): Buy, buy, Bonds.

MCDERMOTT: Back then, Der Bingle sold bonds. Today, der Beatles sells charity.

PAUL MCCARTNEY, SINGER (singing): I'm talking about freedom.

MCDERMOTT: And retailers keep pushing patriotism, but they're just giving the people what they want, and who knows, maybe patriotic theme displays like this one at Bloomingdale's will help what is otherwise expected to be a rather dismal shopping season. Sure, some stuff is a bit over the top. Fortunately, Halloween is over, but now, make way for a red, white and blue Yule.

Anne McDermott, CNN, Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Ah yes, the holiday season is upon us, and one of the surer signs of the season is the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. This year, the famous tree comes from northern New Jersey where we sent CNN's Jeanne Moos to examine its roots.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Oh, Christmas tree, oh, Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches. Lovely enough to end up at Rockefeller Center, apparently. Though, at the moment...

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: It looks kind of tied up.

MOOS: Ready to be transported 20 miles by truck from the backyard of Andrew and Kelly Tornabene (ph) of Wayne, New Jersey.

KELLY TORNABENE:: It's just an honor to donate it, especially this year, with all that's gone on.

MOOS: A silent reminder: the hats. The Rockefeller Center folks search for the perfect tree in a helicopter.

(on camera): And do you know right away? Like, did you look down at this and say, "Aha!"?

DAVID MURBACH, HORTICULTURIST, ROCKEFELLER CENTER: Yes, my whole body lights up. I know it's the tree. And then, the next question is, are they going to say yes?

MOOS (voice-over): Andrew Tornabene (ph) had to think about it.

ANDREW TORNABENE: All of about 2 1/2 seconds.

MOOS: (on camera): Now, did you get a twinge in your heart when you saw the first cut go into it?

A. TORNABENE: When I saw it move -- when that tree moved on its own, I missed a heartbeat.

MOOS (voice-over): Moments after the 81-foot Norway spruce was lopped off, there was a stampede to the stump, where the kids practiced the inexact science of counting rings.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: How many rings?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Seventy-eight.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: It was 57.

MOOS: Imagine a couple of hundred neighbors, press people, and tree specialists traipsing around your backyard.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Actually, they knocked down their garage just to get the equipment back in.

MOOS (on camera): Excuse me, but isn't there a Christmas tree parked in your former garage?

K. TORNABENE: There is.

A. TORNABENE: Yes, it was.

K. TORNABENE: How did that get there?

MOOS (voice-over): Actually, the garage was falling apart, and the Tornabenes were glad to get rid of it.

The tree was shared by the next-door neighbors, whose relatives came with another Norway spruce.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: They brought it to replace.

ANN RICCIARDI, NEIGHBOR: So maybe when I'm not here, but maybe the grandchildren, we'll have another Rockefeller tree.

MOOS: Folks snatched souvenir cones and scavenged for sprigs from the spruce.

MOOS (on camera): What are you going to do with it?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I guess I'll put it in my room.

MOOS (voice-over): But wait.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The owner said there's poison ivy in there.

MOOS (on camera): Hey kids, there's poison ivy in here!

(voice-over): What's a little poison ivy when you're itching to get close to a celebrity stump?

Jeanne Moos, CNN, Wayne, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Friday, the eight-ton tree was driven into Manhattan and installed at the skating rink at Rockefeller Center.

FREIDMAN: The tree is to be decorated with 30,000 lights, and the traditional lighting ceremony is planned for November 28.

MCMANUS: Right, and the tree is scheduled to remain on display until January 7. So let's all take the mayor's advice and go check it out. Thanks for being with us. I'm Michael McManus.

FREIDMAN: And I'm Susan Freidman. See you tomorrow.

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