Interview With Michigan Senator Carl Levin
ZAHN: Another "Top Story" we're following tonight, a possible breakthrough in a baffling series of crimes in one of the West's fastest-growing cities -- we are going to have the very latest on the efforts to solve the Phoenix Baseline killings. But, right now, we continue our "Top Story" coverage on the war on terror, a war that's turning into the number-one issue in the upcoming election. President Bush went to Atlanta today to deliver another in a series of speeches on the war and national security. And, once again, he's making news that both his supporters and opponents will consider purely political.</s>ZAHN (voice-over): With elections quickly approaching, President Bush used today's speech to ask and answer one of this year's most important questions.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Five years after 9/11, are we safer? The answer is yes. America is safer.</s>ZAHN: Starting in the mid-1990s, the president went through what he considers the missed opportunities to disrupt the 9/11 terrorist plot. Then, he listed what his administration has done to, in his words, fix the problems.</s>BUSH: We learned the lessons of September the 11th. We're changing how people can work together. We're modernizing the system. We're working to connect the dots to stop the terrorists from hurting America again.</s>ZAHN: The most eye-opening part of today's speech came when the president called on Congress to authorize his administration's highly controversial program of secretly wiretapping suspected terrorists without getting court warrants, which a federal judge has declared unconstitutional. Until today the president had argued that he already has the necessary power to order the wiretaps. And he isn't admitting he's been wrong.</s>BUSH: Yet a series of protracted legal challenges would put a heavy burden on this critical and vital program. The surest way to keep the program is to get explicit approval from the United States Congress. So, today, I am calling on the Congress to promptly pass legislation providing additional authority for the terrorist surveillance program, along with broader reforms in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.</s>ZAHN: While the president insists his speeches aren't political, there seems to be a clear message: To get the tools he needs to fight terrorism, the president wants a Congress that sees the war on terror the same way he does. And Congress just happens to be up for reelection in two months.</s>ZAHN: And late word from Capitol Hill tonight is that an unnamed Democratic senator temporarily rather blocked action on a surveillance bill this afternoon, ticking off a whole lot of Republicans, which brings us another "Top Story" in the war on terror and in politics. President Bush also wants quick congressional action setting up military commissions to put captured terrorists on trial. But here's a surprise. Right now, the senators applying the brakes on this bill are the president's fellow Republicans. Here's congressional correspondent Andrea Koppel.</s>ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the second day in a row, President Bush put the onus on lawmakers to put accused terrorists on trial.</s>BUSH: And the sooner the Congress authorizes the military commissions I have called for, the sooner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed will receive the justice he deserves.</s>KOPPEL: Most Republicans were quick to embrace the president's plan to establish military tribunals for terror suspects. But three powerful Republican senators, Armed Services Chairman John Warner, former POW John McCain, Lindsey Graham, himself a lawyer in the Air Force Reserves, challenged key parts of that plan. Graham told CNN, the biggest sticking point, whether accused terrorists and their attorneys should be denied access to classified evidence, even if a jury is allowed to see it.</s>SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: It would be unacceptable, legally, in my opinion, to give someone the death penalty in a trial where they never heard the evidence against them. Trust us, you're guilty. We're going to execute you, but we can't tell you why. That's not going to pass muster. That's not necessary.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you would comment on that.</s>KOPPEL: House Republicans heard the same thing Thursday from the Army's top uniformed lawyer.</s>MAJOR GENERAL SCOTT BLACK, ARMY JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL: I can't imagine any military judge believing that an accused has had a full and fair hearing, if all the government's evidence that was introduced was all classified, and the accused was not able to see any of it.</s>KOPPEL: For Democrats who also oppose the president's plan, the fact that Republicans are unable to present a united front on fighting terrorism, one of their signature issues, is an election-year gift.</s>SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: I think you're looking for a fight that doesn't exist. First of all, I agree with Senator Warner and Senator Lindsey Graham. I think there's a compromise.</s>KOPPEL: And while Senator Graham agrees compromise is possible, he also made clear he won't let politics dictate his principles.</s>GRAHAM: America is not safe by making one party take a bad vote. Our troops are not being supported by creating political fights that will make good commercials.</s>KOPPEL (on camera): And, earlier this evening, Senator Warner told CNN, negotiations with the White House will continue at least through the weekend. According to Senator Graham, not to reach a deal would be, in his words, political malpractice. Andrea Koppel, CNN, Capitol Hill.</s>ZAHN: And, a short while ago, I spoke with Senator Carl Levin, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, who says he also has some serious concerns about part of the president's plans for military commissions.</s>ZAHN: So, isn't the president giving you essentially what you asked for here?</s>SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: Well, there's a -- a number of problems, which have been pointed out by our top military lawyers in their testimony today. There's a number of problems which have been identified by senators on the Armed Services Committee on a bipartisan basis. And we need to address those problems. We have been waiting a long time for rules relative to military commissions. Over 400 people have been detained at Guantanamo. And there has not been one military trial, one military tribunal or commission that has held a hearing yet.</s>ZAHN: Some of your colleagues who sit on the Armed Services Committee in the Senate and those in the House think that any military commission established to try terrorists has to have to right to protect their intelligence sources and withhold evidence from accused terrorists. What's wrong with that?</s>LEVIN: We're going to protect information, which must be protected. We do the same thing in federal court. There are procedures for doing that, where we try people who are alleged of terrorism in federal court. Those procedures can be worked out with a military commission. But what you cannot do is try people based on secret evidence that that person can't see, so that that person has an opportunity to defend against. If we do that, we're going to be doing something, as our military lawyer said today, that no civilized country has ever done in its rule of law. And we will be creating huge problems for our uniformed people in the future, if we adopt that standard.</s>ZAHN: Do you think the president expected for these alleged flaws to be exposed, and this really is about putting Democrats in a position where they have to take a stand on this one way or the other?</s>LEVIN: If that is the president's motive, I don't think it's working particularly well, because he's putting some key Republicans on the spot, who understand the importance of our following procedures which we are willing to see used against our own troops, and who see the importance of having procedures which, when convictions are achieved, can see those convictions sustained in the court.</s>ZAHN: So, do you give the president any credit at all on this one?</s>LEVIN: Well, it's very late in coming, and there's a lot of flaws in it. And I neither want to challenge his motives, nor to give him what I think might be unwarranted credit. I don't want to go in either direction at this point. I would rather keep working, on a bipartisan basis, to come up with a -- a draft which is acceptable to the Senate and hopefully to the entire Congress.</s>ZAHN: Senator Levin, you sound like a judge tonight. Thank you so much for your time.</s>ZAHN: And there's a lot more "Top Story" coverage ahead. But, first, our countdown of the top 10 stories on CNN.com -- about 20 million of you logging on to our Web site today. At number 10: newly released footage of an Israeli airman who vanished after he was shot down over Lebanon in 1986. The images were shown last night on Israel and Lebanese TV. The airman was captured by a pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim militia. Number nine -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair today announced he will step down some time within the next year. He's been in office since May 1997. Number eight -- police in Phoenix say they have arrested a man in connection with two sex assaults that were blamed on the elusive Baseline Killer -- much more on a possible big break coming on that case right here, and more of our countdown just ahead. Also, one of today's controversies is so big, it's a "Top Story" in politics, the war on terrorism, and entertainment -- coming up, an in-depth look at a TV miniseries -- that is, miniseries -- about 9/11 that has former President Clinton and his supporters really angry. A little bit later on, a "Top Story" in crime fighting. Find out who the FBI has just added to its list of most wanted fugitives.