Witnesses Come Forward in Airline/Secret Service Agent Case; Pakistan Deploys Troops on Indian Border; Summit Kicks Off in Nepal
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, I'm Aaron Brown. It was clear early this morning and it hasn't changed at all since, that some of the best stories of this day, some of the most interesting ones have nothing to do with September 11th, and I'd be lying if I said that didn't please me. While there is plenty going on in the war on terror, there are also lots of good stories that have gone unreported or unnoticed, and all of us need to start paying attention to those stories as well. So perhaps today is a good day for all of us to treat the war on terror in the way we treat all other news stories. When something important happens, when something happens of note, we'll report it, but the story competes with everything else today for space. That way, we get the most important and most interesting coverage of the war, and set the rest aside. Among those other stories tonight, a controversy in Littleton, Colorado about who really shot a student on that terrible day at Columbine High School. Might it have been the police? And we'll also spend some time tonight on parents, kids and sports. This on a day when a trial opened, one father accused of killing another father at their son's hockey practice. And we'll pay our respects to Buddy, the former first dog, the Clinton's dog. Buddy's death really was front-page news in my local paper this morning. One thing we will not have tonight, and I know this is going to break your hearts, no accordion and no accordion player. You just don't want to overdo a really good thing. Now on with the whip around the world, and the people covering it. First, the dispute today that got a bit uglier, an accusation of racial profiling by one man against American Airlines. Jeanne Meserve has been reporting the story. Jeanne, a headline please.</s>JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, with accusations flying back and forth between the airline and the agent, two people who claimed to be witnesses to events have now talked to CNN, and what they say seems to bolster the agent's version of events. Aaron.</s>BROWN: Jeanne, thank you. The latest on the hunt for al Qaeda along the border with Pakistan, Kamal Hyder joins us tonight on the videophone. Kamal, the headline.</s>KAMAL HYDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, yes. Good morning, Aaron. The deployment on the Pakistani western border is unprecedented, and this comes at a time when the Indian strike formations are poised across the eastern frontier, so we have been traveling through the tribal area and looking into Afghanistan to see if al Qaeda could have entered into Pakistan.</s>BROWN: Kamal, back with you shortly. Another first for the whip, Kathmandu, Nepal, where Asian leaders are meeting and the big topic is that conflict between India and Pakistan. Michael Holmes is there for us, also on the videophone. Michael, a headline please.</s>MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Aaron. Yes, a red-letter day in Kathmandu, Nepal as the regional summit kicks off. But no one's writing home about the chances of the leaders of India and Pakistan getting together and meeting even on the sidelines of this summit. No one's holding their breath -- Aaron.</s>BROWN: Michael, back with you; and finally down under, outside Sydney, Australia the latest on the fires threatening the city, Mitch Catlin. Mitch, the headline from you please.</s>MITCH CATLIN, CHANNEL 7 CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Aaron. Well, the Australian wildfire crisis hit flashpoint last night, when three entire townships were evacuated because fireballs of up to 20 meters high were knocking on the back door of hundreds of homes here in the Blue Mountains. Now firefighters were forced out because conditions were so dangerous. Adding to their problems, the water supply. It was cut because water mains exploded at the wrong time. There are more than 100 fires that continue to burn out of control across New South Wales. This morning, another two teenage arsonists have been arrested, taking to 22 the total number charged with deliberately lighting these blazes. I'll have more details shortly, Aaron.</s>BROWN: Thank you, Mitch. Back with all of you shortly. But we begin with the latest on this Arab secret service agent, Walied Shater, who was forced off an American Airlines flight. Today his lawyers laid out what their client says happened to him on Christmas Day, as he tried to get to Crawford, Texas before his boss did. His boss here being the President of the United States. When you put the agent's account and the pilot's account side by side, you might think we're talking about two separate incidents. Each one says the other was rude and hostile, and how they both behaved will be important in figuring out who in fact was the victim here. Back to Washington and Jeanne Meserve. Jeanne, good evening.</s>MESERVE: Good evening, Aaron. You told me last night it would be interesting to talk to the agent's seatmate, and now I have. Mark Pushell (ph) claims he was sitting in the same row as Walied Shater. He says he watched the flight attendant pat down a leather jacket the agent had left behind, when he was first pulled off the flight. She looked at a book the agent had left about the Arab world, and Pushell (ph) says she put it back, making a gesture which led him to believe she found the book offensive. She also made several comments to Pushell about the agent, indicating her discomfort. Was it racial? Pushell (ph) says he thinks so, "he fit a description, and I think he was kicked off the plane because of that." A woman, Molly Reed (ph), has also stepped forward. She claims she saw and spoke with the agent several times in the terminal and says he was very professional, "I never witnessed any yelling or hostile behavior." But an important note, neither of the alleged witnesses saw the pilot and the agent interact. This as lawyers for Walied Shater laid out his version of events.</s>JOHN RELMAN, AGENT'S ATTORNEY: Pure and simple, this is a case of discrimination.</s>MESERVE (voice-over): The Arab-American agent was trying to get to Crawford, Texas ahead of President Bush when he was removed from an American Airlines flight at Baltimore-Washington International Airport for security reasons, despite his secret service credentials.</s>RELMAN: The pilot assumed because of his appearance that he was not a secret service agent, and everything proceeded from that ground, from that basis, and he was treated in a demeaning manner as you've heard, a humiliating manner, a rude manner.</s>MESERVE: The attorneys say during a delay of more than an hour, three different law enforcement officers verified the agent's identity, but the captain would not be satisfied, and would not call the secret service directly. The captain in his account says he was suspicious because paperwork filled out by the agent to carry his weapon on board was unreadable and missing items. But the agent's lawyers say the problem arose when the agent's first flight was canceled and he was sent to a different gate.</s>CHRISTY LOPEZ, AGENT'S ATTORNEY: The American Airlines agent at that gate had no blank forms that he needed to fill out, so the American Airlines agent decided to use one of the forms that he already had, and simply crossed out the airport, flight, and seat numbers and wrote in the new flight and seat numbers.</s>MESERVE: The pilot in his account described the agent as very hostile and abusive. Lawyers for the agent say it was the pilot who was rude and unprofessional, and they asked if pilots should have unfettered authority to remove passengers.</s>RELMAN: The question is, if there is no legitimate security risk being posed, does a pilot of an American airline, any American airline have the right to keep someone off of a plane just because he doesn't like the way they look?</s>MESERVE: On its Web site, American Airlines says these are "frivolous claims of racial profiling." It says it's security "guidelines are applied equally among all passengers, and the company vigorously resents any suggestion of racial discrimination."</s>MESERVE: The pilot has now filed a formal complaint with the secret service, saying the agent was argumentative, hostile and confrontational, and asking the secret service to address this behavior before the agent interferes with another flight crew and "compromises the safety and security of the crew and passengers aboard" -- Aaron.</s>BROWN: Jeanne, thanks. Jeanne Meserve in Washington on this story. A little bit later in this hour, we'll talk with the agent's lawyer about some of the discrepancies in these two accounts. On to other things. We got a reminder today of the new normal on Capitol Hill and just how far from the real normal things still are. There was an anthrax scare on the Hill, probably a hoax, but something seemed awfully real from the men from the hazmat teams and their moon suits, to the sealed off buildings and that same queasy feeling all over again. CNN's Kate Snow has been working the story on a busy day for Kate. She joins us from Washington. Kate, good evening.</s>KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Aaron. You know you could sense that feeling in the voice of the first official I talked to this afternoon when we learned about this letter. He simply did not want a repeat of what happened in mid-October. Tonight, it looks like it was not a repeat. The FBI saying now a letter discovered this morning in the capitol office of Senator Tom Daschle was likely a hoax. Government officials say the letter was postmarked in London in late November. It did contain a threatening note, and a powdery substance, but two initial field tests at the capitol today showed no sign of anthrax. Lieutenant Dan Nichols of the Capitol Police said earlier, it was possible that the material could have been anthrax at one time, and was then irradiated. But a government source now tells CNN, it's unlikely today's tests would have been negative if that were the case. The powder would have still registered as anthrax spores, even if they were irradiated spores. Now this letter, like all mail now going to the capitol, went through a double check before arriving at Daschle's office.</s>LT. DAN NICHOLS, CAPITOL POLICE SPOKESMAN: All the letters get through. All the letters that are destined for the Capitol Complex will be sent off for irradiation by the U.S. Postal Service before it even arrives at the Capitol Complex. Once it's -- and that is, of course, intended to kill any hazardous material that may be contained in the letters. Once the letters arrive within the Capitol Complex, there is additional screening that goes on, actually off site.</s>SNOW: A congressional source tells us that additional screening process involves a machine that shakes every letter and then makes a small cut in each envelope. Nichols said that that cut is not to look for powder, but rather to be able to test the inside and the contents of any letter for dangerous substances of any kind, not just for anthrax, and he says that's how the letter got through. It simply didn't contain anything dangerous, so in Nichols' view, the system worked well. The letter has been sent on to Fort Detrick, Maryland for further analysis, and the FBI continues its investigation. But I'm told the Capitol will be open, Aaron, for regular business tomorrow. Aaron.</s>BROWN: I try and ask one really dumb question a night. I have a feeling this is it. If they go through all of these checks, they radiate them. They cut them open, this and that.</s>SNOW: Right.</s>BROWN: Then why do they bring the guys out in the hazmat suits, if they think they've killed it in the first place?</s>SNOW: Right, well good question but I think it's because, you know, someone opened this letter this morning, got very scared. There was a -- remember there was a threatening note inside the letter. We don't know the contents of that note yet, but we don't know what it said exactly, but it was threatening in nature. Powder spilled out all over the place. She called the authorities -- she or he called the authorities, and that's why they checked it out -- Aaron.</s>BROWN: Kate, thank you. Kate Snow in Washington on the anthrax hoax apparently. We came across one of those weird facts today that fits in the program right about now. A poll of visitors at Madame Trousseau's Wax Museum in London shows that for the first time, Hitler is no longer the most hated figure in the world. Osama bin Laden is. No reason to debate that now. It is a reflection of the moment and of two evils for sure. Hitler we know is dead. The government believes bin Laden is alive and the hunt for him goes on. From the Pentagon tonight, CNN's Bob Franken.</s>FRANKEN (voice over): Just in case anyone was thinking that the war was over...</s>DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Reports about mopping up, meaning sort of the end of the effort in Afghanistan notwithstanding, the War on Terrorism is still in a relatively early phase.</s>FRANKEN: And while it is true that there is far less bombing these days.</s>GENERAL RICHARD MYERS, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: We conducted strikes between 10:00 and 11:00 our time in Afghanistan on a leadership compound that was a fairly extensive compound. It had a base camp, a training facility, and some cave pieces to that, fairly close to the Pakistani border, as a matter of fact, and that was the last strike in the last several days.</s>FRANKEN: This was the very same site that was bombed in November by the United States, and attacked with cruise missiles during the Clinton administration in 1998. That was one of the failed efforts to get Osama bin Laden. The Pentagon did release copies of leaflets dropped in the region. They show impressions of how bin Laden might look now, if he shaved his beard and was wearing western style clothing, and they include captions. One translates to English, "Osama bin Laden, the murderer and coward, has abandoned you." As for the reports there are negotiations over the fate of that other fugitive #1, Mullah Omar, the reports are persistent, the defense secretary insistent.</s>RUMSFELD: And I've already said what we would accept. We will accept surrender. These people have killed a lot of people. They deserve to be out of there. They deserve to be punished. And that is what we're there to do.</s>FRANKEN: Plans are now well underway to transfer some of those already in custody to detention facilities under construction at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as soon as possible, and as carefully as possible.</s>RUMSFELD: We plan to transport them, and we plan to use the necessary amount of constraint so that those individuals do not kill Americans in transport or in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.</s>FRANKEN (on camera): Secretary Rumsfeld raise the possibility that some of the other detainees, as they prefer to call them, could be detained at bases in the United States, if the military runs out of room at Guantanamo. This another of the loose ends that reinforces the Secretary's point that the war is still in its early stages. Bob Franken, CNN, the Pentagon.</s>BROWN: There are, by the way, about 250 people in U.S. custody in Afghanistan, but most of the key figures in the Taliban and al Qaeda remain at large. They're among the thousands of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters who are unaccounted for. And as Bob mentioned, the focus on them is on that border with Pakistan, the Afghan-Pakistani border. So we go back there and CNN's Kamal Hyder, who joins us again on the videophone. Good morning to you.</s>HYDER: Good morning, Aaron. This morning we saw frost on all our boxes, so a cold morning here. We have been traveling across this border and at certain times crossing into Afghanistan, talking to the authorities on the other side as well. We have spent the night with the militia forces on a high mountain pass. We could see fires dotting the entire landscape. Every hundred meters away, there were fires burning and the militia forces on alert. Across the border, the Afghans on alert, look out for al Qaeda fighters or terrorists trying to slip across into Pakistan. The authorities there have conducted serious negotiations with the tribal chieftains, telling them that the territorial integrity of Pakistan and their state and these terrorists must be stopped, and the tribals have reaffirmed their support. However, the tribals have told the forces that you will not interfere in our tribal laws, and we will assist you in apprehending and stopping any terrorists from crossing into Pakistan. Aaron.</s>BROWN: And have they, in fact, stopped any terrorists from crossing into Pakistan? Have they found anybody?</s>HYDER: Yes, Aaron, surprisingly in</s>BROWN: Kamal, thank you. It's nice to see you again. Kamal Hyder, on the border in Pakistan for us today. America may be involved in a new war but Pakistan, an ally, and India also an ally of ours, continue to fight an old battle over Kashmir, and lately over a terrorist attack on India. A small sign of the tension today beefed up security around the Taj Mahal, after reports a Pakistani terrorist group had threatened to blow it up. The Taj Mahal by the way is a monument to love. This is not the kind of dispute America media usually spends much time on, and there is fair debate over why that is. But there's no debate that this increase in tensions and violence between Pakistan and India could not come at a worse time for the United States, which is why it is important to note meetings that begin tomorrow in Nepal, where both countries will send representatives, though it does not appear they will talk face-to-face. With that as a backdrop, we head back to Nepal. CNN's Michael Holmes who joins us on the videophone from the capitol city of Kathmandu -- Michael.</s>HOLMES: Hi, Aaron, good evening to you. Good morning from Kathmandu, just getting onto 9:00 a.m. here on a hazy morning. Still no more clarity on whether the Indian and Pakistan sides will meet on any level. Certainly on the level of prime minister and president, it seems highly unlikely. The Indian side saying there's no reason to talk while Kashmir is still an issue, and violence continues there as it has continued even this week. Twenty people injured earlier this week in a series of grenade explosions. The summit itself begins in just an hour or so from now, and the leaders of all seven nations here at the regional summit will speak, including of course, India and Pakistan. They're unlikely to mention their specific crisis, of course, and as I said nor are they at this stage likely to meet even on the sidelines. The hope is that perhaps the foreign ministers might meet. I'll mention that later. The big positive of this summit perhaps is that they're here, and while they're here they're not at home and their armies may be facing up on the border, but the two leaders will be facing off across a table and that's seen as a good thing. It gives some breathing space, if you like, that at least they're in the same town, even if they're not having a private meeting in the same room. Aaron, there was a news conference here last night by the Indian external affairs minister, that's the foreign minister, Jaswant Singh, and when it was mentioned again that Pakistan has said</s>BROWN: Well, we are, Michael, always intrigued by the language of diplomacy, and so when the Indian minister says they have not asked for a meeting, it does sound like he's almost begging them to ask, and we wonder if the Pakistanis won't find that demeaning, that they have to ask for this meeting.</s>HOLMES: You know, that's an interesting point. That's exactly what I thought when I heard him say that. It's a real cat and mouse game, Pakistan saying "hey, we'll meet." India saying "well, we have no plans to meet, and anyway they haven't asked for a meeting." Then Pakistan has to consider its position and say, "well do we then diplomatically put ourselves in the position of having to ask for a meeting." Who asks first? Who blinks? It's a situation politically as well as on the border -- Aaron.</s>BROWN: Michael, thank you. Michael Holmes in Kathmandu. It is morning there. Thank you for joining us tonight. Now onto Australia, and the fires that have been burning for more than a week, around Sydney. It's been a very painful thing for Australians to deal with, not just because of the extensive damage to the national forest land, some houses, it's been extensive; but because many of the fires raging appear to have been deliberately set, and so many of the suspected arsonists are quite young. The latest on the fires, Mitch Catlin joins us again. He's with Channel 7 in Australia. I guess it's afternoon there. So good afternoon to you, Mitch.</s>CATLIN: Good afternoon, Aaron. Good to talk to you again. If you look behind me, I'm in the Blue Mountains at the moment. That normally is a massive mountain range. You can only see about 50 meters in front of you because the smoke here is so bad. It was billowing and basically covered the entire area of Sydney, and visibility is down to about 50 meters at most major centers across the city. It's that bad, and of course with it, the stinging smoke of firefighters. The conditions are disastrous. They're finding it very, very difficult to battle these blazes. Now there are still more than 100 that continue to burn out of control, across Australia's most populous state of New South Wales. Now the biggest concern last night was up here in the Blue Mountains. A number of regional little bush retreat communities if you like, several hundred residents, were forced to evacuate their homes around 8:00 last night. So that was sort of around 15, 16 hours ago here in Australia, because there were 20 meter high fireballs that were exploding at their back doorsteps. So they were forced to flee to a local school to escape these flames. There was fear that it could actually run through a whole valley, because it was three different fires that had joined together, and was threatening to jump the major highway, which links this part of town with Sydney. It's the major road which links both towns. So it was looking like that could be cut. Amazingly, firefighters somehow managed to contain that fire, but it's still burning out of control at the moment. Luckily no properties have been lost. It's quite amazing in that fire, but the total 220 properties and businesses have been destroyed since these fires began on Christmas Eve. They mentioned arson. Well this morning, another two teenage arsonists have been arrested. That takes to 22 the total number who have been charged since the fires began, and investigations are continuing to see if any more people will be charged as well -- Aaron.</s>BROWN: Mitch, 15 seconds, no more. How many people are fighting the fires?</s>CATLIN: There's about 7,000 firefighters on the ground from across Australia. They've all come together to try and battle the worst fires in Australia for more than a decade.</s>BROWN: Mitch Catlin of Australia's Channel 7, thanks. Good to talk to you again. Still ahead on NEWSNIGHT, an ugly case no matter how you look at it, one that makes you think especially if you're a parent. We'll be right back.