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CNN NEWSNIGHT AARON BROWN
Snowstorm Pounds Eastern States; Millions March Against Possible War With Iraq
Aired February 17, 2003 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, HOST: And good evening again, everyone. We seem to have traded in a sea of brown, the desert of Kuwait, for a sea of white, the worst storm here in New York since 1996. Not exactly a pleasant day in the city, but home. And as some of you may have noticed, even the home here at least is different.
Different too seems the landscape since we left. Friday's U.N. meeting clearly did not go the administration's way. And by just about any measure, the anti-war demonstrations over the weekend were sizable enough to give any politician anywhere pause.
As we made our way home from Kuwait and read the accounts in the Kuwaiti press first and then the British press, and finally the papers here, it seemed an odd yet passionate assortment who gathered around the globe. There were the usual and expected groups of anti-Americans and anti-Israelis. There were also those who just flat out oppose war, virtually any war any time. Those groups are well represented.
Of greater interest to us were those who seemed to say not so much no war at all but no war yet, not now, not before it's clear there is no other way. We heard from them in all the capitals of the world, people unconvinced despite America's best attempts that this is the moment.
The inspectors still have work to do, they seem to be saying. Let them do it before the killing begins. It is in sharp contrast to what we saw our last day in Kuwait, something we'll show you a little bit later. There we saw not just the gun, but the gun with the trigger pulled. And you have to wonder if all the marches and all the polls in all the capitals of the world will end up changing anything.
So maybe the landscape didn't change at all. Maybe it was just one of those phenomenon of the desert, a mirage.
"The Whip" starts, though, not with desert sand, but with winter white. Daryn Kagan is here in New York and has been pretty much outside all day. Daryn, a headline from you tonight.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Aaron, it finally has stopped snowing here in New York City. But the question is now, 20 inches later, how do you clean all this stuff up? It looks like they're getting started behind me. We'll talk about that more in a bit. Back to you.
BROWN: Daryn, thank you. A simply terrible story outside of Chicago. An evening at a nightclub that went horribly wrong. Jeff Flock has been working that today. So, Jeff, a headline from you tonight.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CHICAGO BUREAU CHIEF: Aaron, 21 people are dead. It is a scene you might expect to play out somewhere in some country far, far away. But it was here in Chicago, and tonight they are still trying to figure out exactly how it could have happened.
BROWN: Jeff, thank you.
And the Monday after, the follow-up on the weekend's marches around the globe. Maria Hinojosa covered them Saturday and is with us tonight. A headline from you tonight.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, anti-war activists are invigorated from New York City to San Francisco, from London to Australia. They say that this is an international anti-war movement like never seen before. Their challenge now is to build on that momentum as the pace for war continues to move forward -- Aaron.
BROWN: Maria, thank you. Back to you and the rest shortly.
Also coming up tonight, the power of the protesters. Is it real or imagined? We'll talk about the impact both here and in Europe with Peter Beinart of "The New Republic."
Michael Isikoff of "Newsweek" tonight with the anatomy of a terror threat. A look behind the scenes at why we look from yellow to orange. Both of them braved the snow in Washington to be with us tonight. Not an easy task that.
Also, a story we brought back from Kuwait. Something you will not see anywhere else, as they say. A genuine exclusive. The battlefield from above, the vision just miles from the Iraqi border.
And the children of the brothels of Calcutta. Kids with nothing given a priceless opportunity. A chance to bring their world to life with camera in hand. That's "Segment 7" tonight. It's a busy hour.
As we said, it's nice to be home, though home is a bit more in inhospitable than we would have liked. New York is being snowed on, the back of a huge storm still lingering here. Lingering, but also making its way up through New England. Most will remember it, of course, as a day off from work or school. But the blizzard of 2003 is also taking toll in money and lives and people who want to be home but are stuck someplace else instead.
We begin tonight with the storm and CNN's Daryn Kagan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN (voice-over): The massive winter storm which charged up the Eastern Seaboard this weekend hit hard tonight as it arrived in Boston. Its fury paralyzed some air and rail service while contributing to more than 20 deaths. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone a is little frustrated because there's not much they can do about it. But, you know, grateful for the assistance and just ready to wait out the storm.
KAGAN: In Maryland, flakes piled up four inches an hour; some counties receiving nearly 50 inches. The blizzard closed roads and, in some cases, mobilized the National Guard to help with the efforts. Six states declared a state of emergency.
GOV. BOB EHRLICH (R), MARYLAND: We've had the National Guard in the field since about noon yesterday. We have a very elite police force here. Our state troopers and local police have been terrific.
KAGAN: The storm slammed into the nation's capital. Washington saw 15 inches fall by midday, the sixth largest storm in the district's history. Those hoping to escape were shut out.
Because it was a federal holiday, all government offices were closed, giving those on the front lines one advantage: hardly any people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like 50-50. A lot of things are closed, a lot of things are opened. But I think we're going to go to the same place that he went back to in '96 during the blizzard to get coffee.
KAGAN: More than a foot of snow was expected in New Jersey, and mother nature didn't disappoint. Newark's airport stayed officially opened, but almost all the flights were canceled. More than 2,000 canceled flights nationwide, 2,500 workers used 2,000 pieces of equipment to clear roads.
The storm did have its share of casualties. A 23-year-old man was killed when a roof covering a designated smoking area collapsed at a New Jersey job training school. Four others were injured.
JOHN DOHERTY, NEW YORK CITY SANITATION COMMISSIONER: The problem right now is we plow them, you go a couple of miles, and the operators have to turn around and come back and re-plow.
KAGAN: And, if you're one of those commuters who challenged the New Jersey turnpike into New York City this afternoon, you were certainly hit with blizzard conditions. Thirty-five mile per hour winds and heavy blowing snow reduced visibility to almost zero.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's cold, it's slippery, I can't drive to work. Trains are slow, the buses are slow. I hope this ends up real quick.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: And here in New York City, Mayor Bloomberg offered up a very interesting formula about how expensive this storm is. $1 million per inch of snow. So if New York is averaging 20 inches of snow, that's a $20 million tab just to get this cleaned up. Aaron, no fewer than 2,000 vehicles are out on the streets tonight trying to push as much of the snow aside as possible. BROWN: Well, Daryn, I could ask you a series of long questions, or just say thank you and come on inside and warm up. I'll choose the latter.
KAGAN: On behalf of my wet feet, I say thank you very much for that.
BROWN: And thank you for your work tonight.
KAGAN: Have a good night.
BROWN: Thank you very much, Daryn Kagan.
On the upper west side of Broadway -- let's go there first -- in the upper 80s this afternoon. The bus shelter billboard advertised the program "Six Feet Under," and it was the upper west side or nearly so. The plow had just come through for about the 20th time pushing a new batch of snow over an illegally parked Subaru and on to the shelter. Well, it looked like a Subaru anyway.
Here's CNN's Jamie Colby.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE COLBY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Driving wind and pounding snow, a winter wonderland for some, a nightmare commute for others.
ELIZABETH GAITHER, AMERICAN BALLET THEATER: I think we'll get there eventually.
COLBY: Monday was supposed to be Elizabeth Gaither's big day. But on her way to the Kennedy Center in Washington to dance "Romeo and Juliet" she got stuck at Manhattan's Penn Station.
GAITHER: Even if we don't get there today, you know, if we have to go tomorrow, we'll go on a train and run into the theater and do the show.
COLBY: Back outside, this firefighter warmed up to the snowfall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My legs don't get cold usually. As long as my chest is warm, I'm pretty good to go.
COLBY: While others battled the bitter chill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we were outside the city it would be beautiful. In the city it's just more of a bother than something wonderful.
COLBY: The city's biggest snowstorm in seven years not a bother for this tourist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How often do you get to the walk in the middle of 8th Avenue in the middle of a snowstorm?
COLBY: But officials warned: stay off the roads.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're asking people for their own safety to stay at home with their families, be safe and secure.
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (R), NEW YORK CITY: Mass transit is the way to go. We suggest you do not move your cars. Nobody should bring cars into the city.
COLBY: Travelers who made it to the city's airports found long delays or cancellations. LaGuardia closed by midday. The city has 2,700 sanitation workers plowing on 12-hour shifts. Still, some streets won't be cleared for days.
(on camera): The concern now shifts from accumulation to plunging temperatures. Plows will work through Monday night. But if what is unplowed freezes, it could make Tuesday's commute, when so many on holiday return to work, even more treacherous. Jamie Colby, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: OK. Now Washington. A mere forecast of snow there can tie up the city in knots. Sometimes schools close even before the first snowflake hits the pavement. And when it does, it usually melts.
Stores are empty to milk and bread. People seem to know it's a little bit silly, but they'll also be the first to tell you that theirs just isn't a snow town. Today, though, it was. The digging out could take days. Government workers have tomorrow off, and Washington is more or less closed for business.
Here's CNN's Patty Davis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Washington, D.C. virtually paralyzed by the fierce winter storm. Reagan National Airport closed for the second straight day, as crews worked to clear runways. The roads to the airport so bad some passengers camped out all night to make sure they'd make their flights.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was so hopeful. They were plowing the tarmac, they were washing the planes. There were people behind the counter over there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a doctor and I've got a full office of patients tomorrow. And I've got to make a couple quick calls and rearrange some things.
DAVIS: Airport troubles in Washington and the Northeast rippled across the country, stranding passengers in Miami who were trying to get home. Trouble on the roads, too. Passengers were stranded at Greyhound stations after the company canceled bus service east of Pittsburgh and all the way from Buffalo to North Carolina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just called my boss and told him. He freaked out. He freaked out. He was like, "You are stuck where?"
DAVIS: In D.C., a festive atmosphere in Washington's Dupont Circle, where it was quicker to walk than to try to drive.
(on camera): So what brings you out in the snow today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're just crazy and bored.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we're bored. Getting some coffee.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Getting some exercise.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Getting exercise.
DAVIS (voice-over): Even metro buses were having a tough time making it through the snow. Lucky for most people the storm hit on President's Day weekend, Monday a federal holiday. The federal government remains closed Tuesday because of the snow, giving many Washingtonians time to dig out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People pay good money to get exercise like this. And now we get an opportunity to do it in the snow, man against nature.
DAVIS (on camera): Man against nature. And man is determined to win this one here in Washington, D.C. The big dig out will continue for days. Patty Davis, CNN at Reagan National Airport.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still ahead on a snowy New York night, millions turn out around the world to protest the war with Iraq or the possibility of one. But did anything really change over the last couple of days?
And later, 21 people die in a Chicago nightclub stampede. We'll have the latest on the investigation. From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Our first story tonight on Iraq, and it isn't set at the U.N. or the White House or 10 Downing Street, although it may have an impact on all those places. This weekend, millions of people marched against a possible war with Iraq. The protesters represented any number of groups. Some in the mainstream, others not.
Most who turned out will concede Saddam Hussein is a bad character. What they object to is either the means to remove him or the motives of those who would do it. Some consider that to be naive. Others wonder why opponents of the war seem to consider the Bush administration a greater threat to the world than a dictator and a murderer.
You can argue either side, we suppose, but what's indisputable right now is that the marchers made an impression. So here again, CNN's Maria Hinojosa. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HINOJOSA (voice-over): They call themselves an unparalleled international anti-war movement, several million people calling for peace around the globe. More than 600 cities worldwide, hundreds of thousands in Rome, tens of thousands in London and Paris. There were protesters on the streets in Mexico City and across the globe in Australia.
In this country, more than 300 U.S. cities also took part. Several hundred thousand demonstrators from New York City to San Francisco, and hundreds of cities and small towns in between.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This weekend was very, very important for a number of reasons. One is that it squarely placed our work in this country in the context of a global anti-war movement. So one thing that I think we will definitely be doing is a higher degree of coordination with other anti-war movements around the world.
HINOJOSA: Organizers say the challenge now is to keep that momentum up. Domestically they'll focus on the Cities for Peace movement. So far, over 90 city councils have passed anti-war resolutions, including Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore, Syracuse and Cleveland. Large numbers of people willing to voice anti-war opinions, but how do you harness that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we're mostly effective, or our power is felt when all kinds of tactics are being used. When people are lobbying, when people are pressuring their local media to put different points of view into the press, into the print media, broadcast media when people are demonstrating. I don't think it's any one approach that does it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HINOJOSA: What's next for the anti-war movement? Well, a couple of things on different fronts, Aaron. On the street, a nationwide student strike and walkout is called for March 5. On February 26, organizers are calling for a virtual march on Washington. On that day, a phone call, e-mail or fax to every Senate office every minute of the day from an anti-war constituent, while several other groups are preparing for civil disobedience and emergency action in case war does break out -- Aaron.
BROWN: So that's what's coming up. Maia, thank you. You've had a long weekend as well. Maria Hinojosa.
A factory worker from Venice said this after joining the protests on Saturday. "It is as if we really have the ability to change the world." Those two words, and they're not easy to say, "as if," seem to be the operative ones. Do they have the power to stop a war or even influence one, one may start?
Especially (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in Europe, where in some countries like Britain the people seem squarely at odds with their government. Joining us now to talk about the protests and the impact, Peter Barnard of "The New Republic." Peter, good to see you.
Let's start with that. Did anything change over the weekend, do you think? Maybe even beginning with Friday and then bleeding over into these huge demonstrations on Saturday?
PETER BEINART, EDITOR, "THE NEW REPUBLIC": Yes, I think so. The protests, the size of them coming right after Blix's report I think did change the momentum, which is now, at least for the moment, kind of going against the Bush administration. And I think you are seeing the Bush administration have to react.
I think they're sending signals that they're really going to go after the second U.N. resolution, even if that means pushing the war back a little bit. Because the protests, for instance, showed that Tony Blair could be in real trouble if he doesn't get that second resolution. I think what it showed is that some of the rhetoric about how America had European leaders on its side -- and it does -- didn't take account of the fact that those leaders are often out of step with their public and, therefore, potentially in peril if the Bush administration doesn't take care of them.
BROWN: Let me broach a side subject here a little bit. Is it possible that the administration in some respects has been its own worst enemy here in the way and perhaps even the people who have been speaking the loudest? Because overseas we heard again and again tremendous dissatisfaction with the tone of particularly Secretary Rumsfeld.
BEINART: Yes, I think that's right. I don't think these protests would be as great were there not a preexisting -- this is before the Iraq debate -- a preexisting hostility of the Bush administration that came from a lot of fights that didn't have nearly as much resonance in the United States as they did in Europe. Fights about the Kyoto treaty, fights about various international treaties that the Bush administration was opposed to.
And I think these things were exacerbated by Rumsfeld's comments. Rumsfeld is not a good public spokesman for the U.S. He comes across as arrogant. And I think that felt like a finger in the eye to the Europeans.
BROWN: This is an administration, if you go back to the campaign, the president talked about a humble foreign policy. And one of the things again that we heard overseas is a lack of humility on the American side.
BEINART: Well, you know, the debate is quite different in Europe. A lot more Europeans and the European press, for instance, pays a lot more attention to the fact that in December of 1983 Donald Rumsfeld -- and I should parenthetically say I say this as someone who supports the war -- Donald Rumsfeld in December of 1983 went to Baghdad, met with Saddam Hussein, and was largely responsible for the restoration of diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Saddam, which ushered in a period of the U.S. sending weapons to Saddam Hussein.
Now the U.S. would do a lot better if Rumsfeld is going to come out for the U.S. to concede and show a little humility on the fact that we have not always been pure on this question ourselves. I think it's that kind of thing that the assumption that anyone who opposes us must be stupid or immoral when we ourselves have some apologizing to do. I think it's that kind of thing which sets a tone which inflames these protests.
BROWN: Thirty seconds, Peter, no more. You said yourself you've been a hawk on the war. Do you think that anything that's happened over the last few days changes the likelihood of war as opposed to the timing?
BEINART: Ultimately no. Public opinion is still hanging basically pro war in the United States, and particularly the Bush administration's Republican base. I think at the end of the day the Bush administration is in too deep. And unless the American public turns way against the war, which I don't foresee, I think it's going to happen anyway.
BROWN: Peter, thank you. Peter Beinart of "The New Republic" has been writing about this and talking about it with us tonight. Thank you.
Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, a disaster in Chicago, and that is not too much to say. The latest on the investigation into a stampede that killed 21. From New York and around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In Chicago, an especially painful ritual played out nearly two dozen times today at the county morgue. Mothers and fathers coming to identify sons and daughters. Loved ones came looking for loved ones, the victims died overnight in a stampede at a nightclub where the exits were locked shut.
One of the women who came to identify one of the victims had a very simple question as she made her way home. She wanted to know why. Here again, CNN's Jeff Flock.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FLOCK (voice-over): It was a horrific scene. Lifeless bodies being carried from the E2 nightclub on Chicago's near south side. Others gasping for air, lying in the street, and they just kept coming.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a fight, and security abused their privileges, spraying mace.
FLOCK: The people inside say there was a stampede for the door down a steep staircase. That's where bodies began to stack up at the bottom.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They've got one entrance, exit. They would not open the back door. FLOCK: And now Chicago city attorneys say the club shouldn't have been open at all. They city says the owners were in violation of a court order not to open the second floor nightclub, which is above the Epitome restaurant.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The owner knows damn well that he is not to open that second floor facility, and he has chosen to at least on one occasion that we know of, and that was last night.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is incorrect. There was an agreement between the attorneys for Epitome Chicago, an agreement between the city's attorneys to use E2's upstairs. The only agreement or the only prohibition was not to use the VIP sections on the north side of the building.
FLOCK: Though it was supposed to be closed last April, CNN has obtained copies of letters complaining about the club for the last several months. One refers to club patrons shooting at each other in the ally. Another cites extreme overcrowding conditions. At a prayer service, families begged authorities to find out how the tragedy that killed 12 men and nine women between the ages of 21 and 43 happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please god, give us answers.
FLOCK: One of those complaint letters to club owner concludes, now eerily, "You must not sacrifice human beings for a profit." It is not known if the owner ever got the letter.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FLOCK: And, Aaron, one more thing here tonight. Some of the people we talked to say that when the pepper spray or mace or whatever it was, was sprayed, their first thought was poison gas or maybe be a terrorist attack. They think, some of them at least, that the hair trigger that we're all on may have, in fact, contributed to the stampede and the panic that ensued -- Aaron.
BROWN: Boy, talk about sign of the times. No one yet has been charged, with anything, correct?
FLOCK: Correct. The city is pursuing a criminal contempt charge. They say that this club violated a court order that prohibited it from opening.
BROWN: Jeff, thank you. Difficult day in Chicago. Jeff Flock, our bureau chief there.
A few stories from around the world tonight, starting with a subway disaster. A disaster of a different sort of South Korea. It's happening in the city of Degos (ph), South Korea's third largest city. A fire broke out on one of the trains.
The AP is reporting that witnesses saw a man throwing a flaming milk carton into the car of the train. As many as 10 people are feared dead. This, according to local reporting out of South Korea now. Dozens have been injured, mostly from the smoke we are told. A U-2 spy plane made its first flight over Iraq today. It took little more than four hours. Flight path and targets to observe unknown. This is something Iraq has long tried to prevent. Until last week, the answer from Iraq was no flights period. Then it became flights OK, but only if the inspectors filed detailed flight plans in advance. No word yet on whether today's flight took place under that or any other condition.
A mixed bag from the European Union leaders today uniting behind a somewhat watered down warning to Iraq. They approved a joint declaration, saying Iraq faces one last chance to disarm, but they set no deadline to do it. Also, left out language that Great Britain was pushing hard, which gave Iraq a warning that time was running out. Germany's prime minister called that particular phrase unacceptable.
And a drive into central London now costs about $8. It's called a congestion charge. Kind of like a bridge toll without the bridge. Cameras shoot a picture of your car when you cross into the C zone. You pay in advance.
If you don't, you pay a fine. And it goes up. As you can imagine, not everybody is tickled about this; local merchants unhappy for one. Today, though, it did seem to be working. Traffic seemed to be moving a little bit better.
Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT: Whatever happened to the terror alert? We'll talk with "Newsweek"'s Michael Isikoff about whether the alert was overblown and how that came to be -- that and more as we continue from New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: There was a great quote from a Bush administration official in the latest edition of "Newsweek" describing what spy masters have to deal with in deciding what the terror threat level really is: "You don't know whether you're looking at a mouse running across a field or a rhino charging right at you."
The government has to make its judgments from an eye-glazing swirl of intelligence, of course. And, in this case, the government decided to prepare for the rhino. "Newsweek" now is reporting that some of the information was bogus, raising a whole number of questions, including the most important one: What actually is the threat?
Michael Isikoff covers such things and more for "Newsweek." And Michael joins us again tonight from Washington.
We talked last week about why the threat level was raised. Let's talk about the snookering a little bit. You've got a guy who fails a lie-detector test.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF, "NEWSWEEK": Yes, one informant was provided by a foreign intelligence service, who actually provided one late critical piece of information that sort of helped to tip the scale in the debate that the government was having about whether to raise the terror alert.
And this was a guy who said that there was a specific threat, that al Qaeda was going to attack a Jewish-owned hotel in Virginia Beach. That came in late the week before. And with everything else going on, that was one piece that helped tip the scale. It turned out that was bogus. The guy, after the threat was raised, got taken to the United States, polygraphed by the FBI, flunked the polygraph on that.
And there was some other bogus information that administration officials discovered had gone into the analysis, too. There had been some other piece about a possible -- that al Qaeda had gotten a missing piece that would help it put together a radiological dirty bomb. And that, put together with the end of the Hajj last week in Saudi Arabia, a spike in the chatter that's picked up by these electronic intercepts that seemed to show something was amiss, had gotten people very alarmed and led to the raising of the terror threat.
And then, after that, things got badly bungled, with the reference to the duct tape and the bottled water.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: I'm sorry, Michael. Let me ask you one more thing before we get to that, though.
ISIKOFF: Sure.
BROWN: This is the -- since December, this is the second time that there's essentially been bogus information put out. You had the alleged, I guess, Pakistanis who somehow snuck into the country. And it turned out one of them, at least, was a jeweler who was living in Karachi.
So, now we have these two incidents. How concerned are the people you're talking to that people are not going to take anything seriously?
ISIKOFF: Very concerned.
And, in fact, what you get when you talk to veterans in this field is that this is the kind of stuff that, prior to September 11, never would have raised any public -- led to any public alarms, public warnings, for precisely this reason. You don't want to scare the public and you're not sure of what you've got.
And, in the past, this informant who had provided the information about the attack that might be coming against the hotel would have been thoroughly vetted and polygraphed before it ever got passed along to local police or to the public. But, in the environment we're in after September 11, when people are unquestionably jittery and government officials are very worried about being blamed if they don't alert people to what they've heard, everything gets broadcast instantly. And it leads to the kind of fiasco that we had last week. BROWN: Now, again, understanding the clarity of hindsight, all of this gets worse when the press conference is held. This is, I guess, around midweek or so. And we have the duct tape and seal your windows and all of that.
ISIKOFF: Right.
Well, actually, that's almost a comedy of errors in and of itself. What happened was, there was a routine briefing that had been previously scheduled by the Department of Homeland Security for reporters who cover this stuff. And they had somebody from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who had planned to come and talk about the kinds of things the public can do to prepare in any event, regardless of whether there was a raising of the terror alert.
And this guy mentions duct tape and bottled water and plastic sheets to insulate your home. And everybody gets -- the reporters there, knowing that the threat has just been raised to orange, seize on that. It becomes front-page stories the next day. Suddenly, everybody's rushing out to their hardware store and Wal-Mart to buy their duct tape and bottled water, when there really was no specific basis for it.
There was nothing that the government knew about -- certainly about any specific attack and a lot of questions about whether, if there really was the kind of chem-bio attack that's most likely, those sorts of preventive steps would really make any difference anyway.
BROWN: The next time we talk -- and we should probably do this soon and perhaps gather a number of others -- we should talk about lessons learned here, both by the government and by those of us who write these stories.
Michael, it's always good to talk to you. Thanks for coming in on a snowy night in Washington -- Michael Isikoff tonight.
Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, we go back to Kuwait and take a look at the military buildup there. We'll give you an extraordinary aerial view of the Kuwaiti desert and the huge military presence there.
And in segment seven tonight: an amazing view from the brothels of India, the children as they see themselves.
This is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Next on NEWSNIGHT: the skies over Kuwait, the view of the massive military machine that is just sitting there waiting.
Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Back to Kuwait. The day we arrived, which was a week ago Sunday, we went straight to the Iraqi border, a story on the oil fields that had been torched by the Iraqis a dozen years ago. The last thing we did before leaving was to head up that way again, not all the way to the border this time and not in search of oil. We went to see the state of readiness, what has been done in a very short time and what still needs to be done.
This is the best look yet that any reporting team has gotten of the largest forward American base. We saw it from the ground and from the air.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): Things are not quite ready yet. You can see that from the ground. You can see the blacktops still being rolled, the runway still being built. But not quite ready is still remarkable, since this has all been built in just a matter of months.
And how much is all of this, you wonder? For that answer, a ground shot will not do. Off to our left in the Apache is Scott Thompson. As we circle the base, his commentary is direct and striking.
CAPT. SCOTT THOMPSON, U.S. ARMY: This is Camp (INAUDIBLE), more combat power in this little space than most armies in the world.
BROWN: The base sits 20 miles or so off anything approaching a conventional road, out in the desert surrounded by nothing but more desert, home now to, among others, the Army's 11th Aviation Regiment. There are three other bases nearby, New York, New Jersey and Virginia, all named for 9/11 targets. Our aerial tour was the first time the Army has allowed a reporting crew to take such a look.
THOMPSON: Do you have any idea how much power is there or how many people, how much material? Right now, three attack helicopter battalions are on the ground, two Black Hawk battalions on the ground, and a cavalry squadron, which consists of about 30 M-1 tanks and 50 Bradleys down there right now.
BROWN: Scott Thompson has been here before. He flew here during the first Gulf War. But there is a big difference this time, because, this time, they have far less respect for the Iraqi Army.
THOMPSON: Today, there is absolute confidence within everyone in my task force that, if we have to go do this for real, we're going to win and we're going to win quickly.
COL. WILLIAM WOLF, 11TH AVIATION REGIMENT: You pull the trigger. That missile's gone. You move on.
BROWN: Colonel William Wolf runs the show. In what is likely his final command, he has more helicopters this time. And the ones he has are better than those that flew a decade ago. His pilots have more experience in the hostile desert terrain. And they have been preparing, training, again and again, for months. WOLF: I like to think that we're not invulnerable. It's what we can't see or we don't plan on that can hurt us. And if we do our preparation and planning, we watch out for each other, no aircraft operates on its own, it always has a wingman near it that looks out beyond where he's looking, trying to secure its flanks, trying to secure the rear, that nobody's going to come up on it.
BROWN: The vast desert is a sea of monotonous ground. The only landmarks at times seem to be tanks on training maneuvers and a junkyard, which, of course, is not just any junkyard, but the tons and tons of Iraqi tanks and artillery and howitzers and even trucks destroyed during the first Gulf War. It was all moved here from what was then called the "Highway of Death" and is now called simply the "Boneyard."
THOMPSON: Aaron, the group of vehicles that are coming up to our front left are a helicopter's worst nightmares. That's all the guns and air defense artillery and air defense systems.
BROWN: Today, of course, it is just so much scrap metal, so much junk. Scott Thompson and his squad have been doing ongoing training since early fall, plenty long enough.
(on camera): Is there a line between being ready and being too ready or peaking too soon?
THOMPSON: We believe we have reached that peak within 26 Cav. And it's hard to keep that peak. It's hard to maintain the highest level before you go into. So, just like any other -- a prize fighter, he's in the tip-top shape. Now he wants to go into the fight.
BROWN (voice-over): His commander in chief seems aware of that as well, even if much of the rest of the world seems somewhat less sure. Sooner is better, says Thompson. And this giant base is just days, perhaps weeks away from ready.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: The view from Kuwait.
A quick take a look at -- a quick take a look? -- a quick look -- jet-lag -- at a couple of morning papers from around the country and around the world. We'll do this from time to time, which may turn out to be every day.
Tomorrow morning, "Chicago Sun Times," if you can see it: "Death Club was Illegal," the entire front page. That is to say, all of the substories down at the bottom that they're teasing detail the terrible tragedy at the nightclub there the other day. That's "The Chicago Sun Times," which, of course, comes from Chicago.
"The London Times," a couple of stories that we note, "Show Saddam Strength, Not Weakness," the big story above the fold. But the big story in the paper really deals with this attempt to take some of the congestion out of part of London, "The Day the Lights Turned Green." We mentioned this earlier. You have to pay about eight bucks, five pounds to drive in parts of London and then the fines go up.
The most interesting story to us: "Taliban Refugees Given Asylum Priority," for reasons that are not clear, at least to me. If you're trying to get into Britain from Afghanistan and you're a member of the Taliban, you get ahead of those who aren't.
And the head of "The Boston Herald," people in Boston will wake up tomorrow to snow. They've lived through it all day. And that's the headline they'll see in a tabloid. "Whiteout," it says. But up in the corner, because is the other really most important story of the day, the paper: "Our Spies Reveal Whom the Bachelorette Will Choose," "The Boston Herald" this morning -- a quick look at morning papers from three cities.
And we'll get more as we go along.
Next on NEWSNIGHT: segment 7, change of scenery, to be sure, the streets of Calcutta, where the children of the brothels document their tragic lives.
This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Finally from us tonight: A camera is a powerful thing. It can capture injustice. It can show the beauty of the human spirit thriving against all odds. And, in this story the, camera does both: a photographer who took pictures of kids in brothels of India and then showed them how to take their own, giving them a voice through the images of a childhood lost.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZANA BRISKI, PHOTOGRAPHER: Sonagachi is the biggest red-light district in Calcutta. There's 6,000 or 7,000 women in this one area. In 1995, everything was saying, go to India. So, I just quit my job and went to India. And I started photographing different women's issues there. And somebody took me to the red-light district in Calcutta. And I knew as soon as I stepped foot in that place that that's why I had gone to India.
I ended up living in a brothel. And I felt that was the only way to really understand the women. The women wanted to let me in and accept me, because they actually really wanted to tell their stories. This is one of the prostitutes with her customer, a regular customer, who I also knew. She was working as a maid servant in a house. And she was being abused by the husband of the house. And a friend of hers said, well, you may as well get paid for it and took her to the red-light district.
The women are incredibly resilient. That's really a hellish place. And, at the same time, there's a lot of joy, a lot of laughter. There's children everywhere. Most of them have children. People don't even know that there are children in the red-light district. It's not a population that's given a voice. This is a little girl called Mukta (ph), a wonderful spirited girl. And she was just always singing and dancing in the brothel. And when her mother had a customer, she would just play on the stairs or play outside.
This little girl's name is Montie (ph). And we just fell in love with each other right from the very beginning. And she had a very, very hard life. She was like the slave of the brothel, such a sweet kid. And she would barely open her mouth.
I got very attached to the children. They were always -- they were totally fascinated by me and my camera. I just thought it would be great to teach them formally. I picked a bunch of children. I found a room. I've never taught before. I didn't really know what I was doing. And it was fantastic. I just explained to them how to use the cameras.
The first class was hilarious, because I said, "OK, we're going to go out and shoot." And kids just ran off. And I was just left standing there going, oh, my God. I couldn't see them for like a half an hour, an hour. I just didn't know what happened. But they all came back with the cameras intact, very excited.
We took a weekend trip to the beach, which was unbelievable. Half of them had never seen the sea before. This was taken by Montie. And Montie just wanted to escape. It looks very romantic and very beautiful. It's not actually like that. She didn't really want to turn the camera on herself or her life. She wanted to use it as a means of escape. And she did it so successfully, this full moon rising.
Tapa (ph), she took this picture. She's 11 years old. And she just was very brave and took out her camera in the middle of the street. This is actually the main lane in Sonagachi, which is very crowded, busy, dangerous. What was missing from their description of their lives was the street, the red-light district. This is a picture taken by Raju (ph). It's not a real gun. It's a toy gun. But I think it just sums up the danger of the place. There's always a threat.
The grand finale was an exhibition of the children's work. All the media turned out. The children were taking pictures of the cameramen. And these children, they are taught to be completely ashamed of who they are. They hide. And here they were, in mainstream middle-class society, presenting their own work. And it was fantastic.
So, they were just really empowered. And they could see how their futures could be different from their mothers' and a way to get out of that red-light district.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Zana Briski is working on a documentary about these children.
And we also want to thank Red Light Films for the use of some of their footage.
It's good to be back home. Good to be back with you again. We'll see you all tomorrow at 10:00 Eastern time.
Until then, good night for all of us at NEWSNIGHT.
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