New Tape of Saddam Surfaces
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, again. We sometimes think Fridays should feel more settled than they do, that by the end of the week at the end of the day some of the week's unfinished business ought to be, well, finished. Wouldn't that be something? Instead, there's little business that isn't unfinished tonight, whether it's peace in the Middle East, a little boy lost, campaign finance, or the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein, unfinished business and unanswered questions. About all that's settled this Friday is what Nigella Lawson is whipping up for us tonight. Yep, we have a chef. Until then, we'll make do with "The Whip." And, first in "The Whip," Nic Robertson, he's in Baghdad on the tape released today of a worn and defeated sounding Saddam Hussein -- Nic, a headline please.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, new videotape emerging of Saddam Hussein on the 9th of April, the day his regime fell. It raises two very important questions. Number one, of course, was this really the former Iraqi leader, and the other, why now -- Aaron.</s>BROWN: Nic, thank you, back to you at the top tonight. On to Washington, and a new assessment on the state of al Qaeda, CNN Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena, working that -- Kelli a headline.</s>KELLY ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, the terror network may be down but it is not out. New warnings in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia about possible terror attacks against U.S. interests is proof that al Qaeda remains a potent enemy.</s>AARON: Kelli, thank you. Next, to Jerusalem, bumps on the roadmap to peace another Kelly, this time Kelly Wallace, on the phone -- Kelly, a headline.</s>KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, tens of thousands of Palestinians take to the streets vowing revenge after a deadly Israeli military operation and voicing opposition to the new Palestinian prime minister, just another example of why many believe it will be very difficult for that roadmap to quickly get the two sides on the path to peace.</s>BROWN: Kelly, thank you. Also tonight, Jason Bellini will join us from Albany, Georgia, where different kinds of battle lines are forming over issues of race. Jason has that. That's coming up. Also coming up in the hour ahead, which is Friday, the 2nd day of May, a familiar new face in the defense of the case of Laci Peterson, attorney Mark Geragos now leading the effort to keep Scott Peterson out of the death chamber. And embarrassing questions for the postal service, when postal workers weren't rooting out fraud and waste, they were baking gingerbread and dressing up as cats. They were doing it with your money. And, 40 years later memories of planting the seeds of civil rights into bitter soil of Birmingham, Alabama from the people who were there, all that and more in the 90 minutes ahead. But we begin with Saddam Hussein's latest appearance on a tape documenting the moment when it must have been apparent, even to him, that things were going badly in the war. On it we see and hear very much a shadow of his former self. That said, each new tape, each new letter, each curtain call, if you will, retains a certain power to puzzle and to haunt us, bedevil the process of building a post-war, post-Saddam Iraq. We begin tonight in Baghdad and CNN's Nic Robertson.</s>ROBERTSON (voice-over): Appearing tired, confused, and exhausted, Saddam Hussein delivers his last address to the Iraqi people. He starts, "The faster the better. Are you ready?" Broadcast by radio on April 9th, the day his regime collapsed, this is the first time the video recording of the speech has been seen. As he reads, he occasionally loses his way. "And if you would like to ask about your command, it is firm and not moved" he says. The message, however, belies the truth. Although it is not known where this was recorded, by the end of that day U.S. troops were famously helping pull down one of Saddam's statues in the center of Baghdad. Previously released video from the same source, an employee of Iraqi TV, shows what purports to be Saddam Hussein in the Adamia (ph) neighborhood of Baghdad on the same day, April 9th. The man clamoring on the cars on that video bears a strong resemblance to Saddam Hussein and looks just like the man giving the speech. The emergence of this tape raises many questions, not least of which is why now, particularly following reports from a little known pro-Saddam group that the former Iraqi leader would make a speech soon. At the end of this recording, a pause, adding "how was the reading, all in all good? Yes?" Possibly the root of his problems, no one left around to tell him he was wrong. Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.</s>BROWN: If the specter of one man hangs over Iraq, the ghosts of 2,700-plus men, women, and children haunt the new roadmap to peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The roadmap calls for restraint on both sides, not business as usual. But as Secretary of State Powell gets ready for a new round of shuttle diplomacy, business as usual is staring him in the face, reporting for us tonight CNN's Kelly Wallace.</s>MAHDI ABDUL HADI, PALESTINIAN ANALYST: I have doubts, very much doubts, the Israelis are going to deliver the minimum expected from them because they are still living in that (unintelligible) of fear and they don't trust us.</s>WALLACE: The Israelis say they don't know if they can trust Abbas just yet, pointing to a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv just hours after his cabinet was confirmed in the Palestinian Parliament.</s>GIDEON MEIR, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: We're expecting their prime minister to take action, not declarations, to perform not to give promises. We want to see action on the ground against terror.</s>WALLACE: And, Israelis say if they see action they will take steps immediately, such as releasing Palestinian prisoners and dismantling illegal settlement outposts even while Israeli officials and the public remain skeptical Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is truly giving up power to the new prime minister. In an Israeli newspaper poll released Friday, asked who they believe is in charge, 71 percent of Israelis said Arafat. Only seven percent said Abbas, with 22 percent saying they did not know. (on camera): Even if the two sides can find a way to start trusting each other again, there is the question of whether they will be willing to take the painful steps required under the roadmap to bring about a democratic Palestinian state alongside secure Israel by 2005. (voice-over): This Israeli columnist who has covered the region for 35 years says the answer is no.</s>DANNY RUBINSTEIN, "HA ARETZ" COLUMNIST: Israeli will never freeze the settlements, or this government at least will never freeze the settlement, the settlement movement. And, the Palestinians will not stop terrorism.</s>WALLACE: The diplomats now will try to prove the skeptics wrong hoping this latest peace effort will succeed whereas so many others have failed before. Kelly Wallace, CNN, Jerusalem.</s>BROWN: And, Kelly joins us on the phone from Jerusalem, more violence, and more death -- Kelly.</s>WALLACE: Yes, Aaron, an overnight development, the Israeli military confirming that a British cameraman was killed covering a clash between Israeli troops and armed Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip near the Israeli-Egyptian border. The IDF says its troops were uncovering a tunnel allegedly used for smuggling weapons when they came under fire by armed Palestinian gunmen. The troops returned fire and during that clash, this cameraman was hit and killed. The IDF is expressing sorrow at the death of the cameraman, saying this is a person who did enter a combat zone and did run the risk of getting hurt. But obviously, Aaron, another sign the violence continues and the real difficulties ahead for the international diplomats to get these two sides on a path to peace -- Aaron.</s>BROWN: Do we know which side fired the shot that killed the cameraman?</s>WALLACE: We do not. We know one shot apparently did kill him. We are not certain if it was an Israeli shot or if it came from an armed Palestinian gunman who was killed during that clash.</s>BROWN: Kelly, thank you very much, Kelly Wallace who's in Jerusalem. Day two of President Bush's victory tour and we're once again reminded of the legacy, not just of his father, but of the man his father succeeded. Nearly 20 years ago when Ronald Reagan was running for reelection, a network correspondent did a piece contrasting the administration's morning in American imagery with the reality of a sagging economy. The correspondent was surprised the next day to get a thank you note from Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deever. "How can you thank me," she asked, "I just skewered your boss?" "Simple" he replied. "The pictures were great and that's all people see." Nearly 20 years later, the question is on the table, does the formula still hold? Here's CNN's Suzanne Malveauz.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Bush is steaming full force ahead from the USS Abraham Lincoln, where he had declared major combat operations in Iraq over, to a military contractor that provided tanks and fighting vehicles for the war. This visit to United Defense Industries in California's Silicon Valley, the heart of the economic bubble and its burst, was also designed to use Mr. Bush's wartime popularity to sell his $550 billion tax cut plan aimed at promoting economic growth.</s>BUSH: The goal of this country is to have an economy vibrant enough, strong enough, so that somebody who's looking for work can find a job.</s>MALVEAUX: But Mr. Bush was stung by newly released unemployment numbers, a jump from 5.8 percent unemployment in March to six 6 percent in April, 8.8 million Americans out of work, more than half a million jobs lost in the past three months, the worst stretch since immediately following the September 11th terrorist attacks, a fact Democrats immediately seized on to blast his big tax cut plan. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said, "We would hope that the president would use his political capital that he may have gained coming off the war to create jobs for the American people and not just create a tax break for the wealthiest people." The president, too, tried to use the new unemployment figure to his advantage.</s>BUSH: The unemployment number is now at 6 percent, which should serve as a clear signal to the United States Congress we need a bold economic recovery package so people can find work.</s>MALVEAUX: With the latest polls showing Mr. Bush's popularity hovering around 70 percent, the White House is hoping his wartime success will also help the administration push other items on the domestic agenda, like Medicare reform, prescription drugs, and energy. But aides acknowledge it's far from certain, one reason the president will continue to travel across the country, to promote his brand of job creation in important electoral states. (on camera): And while this weekend President Bush hosts Australia's Prime Minister John Howard at his Crawford Ranch to thank him for his support in the war with Iraq, nine Democratic presidential hopefuls will gather in South Carolina for their first debate, all angling to find holes in Mr. Bush's agenda. Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.</s>BROWN: With us once again, a veteran of many administrations, David Gergen, currently passing on his wisdom at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and when we can get him here on this program as well, David, nice to have you with us.</s>DAVID GERGEN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Good to talk to you again, Aaron.</s>BROWN: Let's go back 24 hours. It was a world class photo opportunity.</s>GERGEN: The best we've seen I think, Aaron, since -- certainly since Michael Deever was in the White House with Ronald Reagan, but I would go all the way back to Richard Nixon's return from China. It was a dramatically orchestrated return when he came in on a helicopter to the steps of Capitol Hill on live television and then went into that chamber to talk, to report to the American people on that breakthrough in diplomacy. It was a highly orchestrated event then, and this one was clearly orchestrated down to the very colors that were displayed in section after section on that ship. It was an awesome sight and it's -- I was thinking, Aaron, there was a time when the opposition party always used to get angry. They could splutter about the fact that the president was using Air Force One. This is the first time we've ever seen a president use an aircraft carrier.</s>BROWN: And he used it pretty well. Since the war, the president has been seen at the Pentagon, at a couple of Army bases, at two tank factories. What is the point of the imagery here?</s>GERGEN: Oh, I think it's to sink in very deeply in the public mind, especially yesterday, knowing that the battle was coming to an end and they did want to pivot toward economic affairs to leave a deep imprint upon the public mind of a warrior leader. It is a great asset for the president heading toward reelection and it's also meant to send a signal to other nations that might test us, don't, you know, it's that shirt they wear in Texas, "Don't Mess With Texas" and that's surely the signal he's sending out with all of these images.</s>BROWN: Any political risk in such an obvious photo op?</s>GERGEN: There's a modest political risk, Aaron, but I think it's in the noise and it's -- everyone knows that there were political overtones to last night's event on the carrier and some Americans, I'm sure, didn't watch. But this was a moment, frankly, when whatever your position was on the war, and I had some differences with the president on the war, it was a moment when all Americans celebrated the end of the war, and I think Democratic (unintelligible) it's really important in a moment like this to stand aside, celebrate the commander-in-chief, celebrate the military, let that moment pass, and then there will be other times when you can come back and make your criticisms. Last night was not the time and I think last night the president deserved to bask in the glory.</s>BROWN: On to the substance.</s>GERGEN: Sure.</s>BROWN: Of the talk last night. What jumped out at you either said or unsaid?</s>GERGEN: Aaron, what jumped out at me was the -- that the underlying message that struck me was that in addition to thanking the troops and saying that the battle is basically over that the president has been waving around a club now for some months, threatening one country after another with military action. Last night he repeated his philosophy but I thought he put the club back in the closet. I thought he essentially said I've got the club in the closet. Don't mess with us. In the meantime, I'm going back to domestic affairs. My reading of the White House strategy is that they do not intend to undertake any major military enterprises between now and the election but rather to concentrate on domestic affairs. There would be some fear in the White House, if you were looking at another military action say in Syria, that people would think you were a little trigger happy or maybe reckless. By going now to having completed Afghanistan and completed Iraq in the public mind successfully, even though there are going to be all these huge issues now, difficult issues of rebuilding, I think it was a -- I think the main thing the president was doing last night was saying, OK, we've done it. We've shown the world and don't mess with us. In the meantime, I'm going to go back and rebuild the American economy.</s>BROWN: Something unsaid, maybe I'm reading more into this than ought to be, he thanked Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld but he never mentioned his secretary of state.</s>GERGEN: Absolutely on, Aaron. That was striking, was it not, and after all it was only a week ago that Newt Gingrich issued that chilly blast against the secretary of state, and instead of the president defending his secretary of state, he sent his spokesman out to do it. And then last night, he thanked Secretary Rumsfeld. He thanked Tommy Franks and said nothing about Secretary Powell, and I was surprised. It does seem to me that it creates perhaps a misimpression. Perhaps it was not what he intended to say but by the omission spoke volumes and it does seem to me now that Secretary Powell is doing the messy work of diplomacy, which is always harder, and he's off in the Mid East with this, you know, trying to sell this roadmap. You just had a report on about how difficult this is going to be. He's going to have his work cut out for him and I do think Secretary Powell now is laboring under a much larger burden than he was only a few months ago.</s>BROWN: David, good to have you with us. Have a good weekend.</s>GERGEN: Thank you, Aaron. Take care.</s>BROWN: Thank you, sir, David Gergen with us tonight from Boston. Ahead on NEWSNIGHT continuing threat from al Qaeda recruiting new members and making new threats. And later, Scott Peterson gets a high-profile celebrity attorney as he prepares to defend himself against charges that he killed his wife and unborn child. From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.