Bush Releases Military Records; National Guardsman Accused of Helping al Qaeda
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone. Here is the question of the night. At what point, if at any point, does rumor become news? There are three ways to answer this I've learned in the last day. If the rumor is about your guy it never becomes news. If the rumor is about the other guy it's news right away. If you're a reporter or an editor the answer is when you feel like it. Yesterday, the net was abuzz about a rumor involving John Kerry, a nasty rumor at that. We didn't get near it. It wasn't news. It lacked facts but it was all over the net. Millions of people read it and hear it. Conservative talk radio ate it up all day and today the story moved. Mr. Kerry denied it on a national radio program. So, does that denial make it news? Is it fair to take the denial and use it to spread the rumor because that's what's happening? And, while I feel comfortable about how we're going to deal with this all tonight, I also know that we are pushing up against an uncomfortable line in day when facts and fiction can spread far too fast. That's later in the program. Other matters first, starting tonight with the president's military records, hundreds of pages of it given out at the White House, which meant a lot of reading for White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux who starts us off with a headline.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, document dumps like this one, of course, were so common in the Clinton administration. Reporters used to refer to it as Friday night follies. This certainly counts as one of those nights, the administration certainly hoping that they're going to put questions about President Bush's military record to rest.</s>BROWN: Thank you, Suzanne. We'll get to you at the top tonight. Also tonight the presidential campaign which got a whole lot rougher today, Kelly Wallace in Las Vegas, Nevada tonight, Kelly a headline.</s>KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, John Kerry has not officially clinched the Democratic nomination but the Bush reelection team is already unveiling its first ad targeting the frontrunner and John Kerry is fighting back with some new ammunition -- Aaron.</s>BROWN: Kelly, thank you. To Fort Lewis, Washington, around Tacoma, and the saga of a National Guardsman accused of trying to help al Qaeda, CNN's Katharine Barrett working the story, Katharine a headline.</s>KATHARINE BARRETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Special Ryan Anderson's neighbors call him a good guy and a gun love. Seattle's Muslim leaders call him misguided. We'll give you a glimpse into Specialist Ryan Anderson's past.</s>BROWN: Thank you. And finally, the Pentagon, and a change in policy where the detainees at Guantanamo are concerned the headline from CNN's Barbara Starr.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The Pentagon is setting up a parole board for al Qaeda detainees paving the way for more of them to be released. That may satisfy the critics who say Guantanamo Bay is a legal black hole but just how hard will it be to be voted off the island -- Aaron?</s>BROWN: Barbara, back to you and the rest shortly. Also ahead on the program on this Friday night with all the noise about whether gays can marry or not, we'll take a look at just marriage is legally and how it got that way, a Valentine's story from us. In Segment 7 tonight, you meet Violet Palmer, the only female referee in the NBA, in all of major sport in fact. Hers is a great little story and, although shunned by those picking the players for the NBA All Star game. The rooster will be here, which means your morning papers for Saturday will be too and this being Friday, and it is Friday, we'll throw in a tabloid or two as well, all of that and more in the hour ahead. We begin with the paper trail to President Bush' past. The payroll stubs and the dental records were just a trickle. Tonight, the White House released hundreds of pages of Mr. Bush's military records from his days of service in the Air National Guard, a veritable avalanche meant to put to rest all the questions, the when's and the where's and the how's of Mr. Bush's military service during the Vietnam Era. We begin at the White House and CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.</s>MALVEAUX (voice-over): President Bush said to his staff put it all out and, with that, his entire military file from 1968 to 1973 was released Friday night.</s>JOEL JOHNSON, CLINTON SENIOR ADVISER: It's a time-honored White House tactic. It's Friday night, time to take out the garbage. What you're trying to accomplish is one bad ugly story on a Saturday rather than seven, eight, nine stories the following week.</s>MALVEAUX: The nearly 400 pages show much of what was already known. Mr. Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968, transferred to serve in Alabama while he worked on a political campaign, was suspended from flying in 1972 when he failed to take a physical and was honorably discharged in October of 1973, eight months early to attend business school. As for the period in Alabama, critics charge the president failed to show up for duty. The documents show check-ins for at least five of those months. Mr. Bush's medical records, which reporters were given 20 minutes to examine in the Roosevelt Room but were not released revealed Mr. Bush was fit for flying. They were open to counter speculation Mr. Bush skipped his physical to avoid reveal damaging information. While some of the records are very detailed, down to descriptions of Mr. Bush's boots, others have gaps. A spokesman from the Democratic National Committee said in a statement: "Each revelation of material from the Bush White House has raised more questions than it has answered. It remains to be seen if these newest documents will provide any answers."</s>MALVEAUX: Now, White House advisers tell us that President Bush has been watching the briefings this past week, that he thinks that they are silly, that he made his decision in the Oval Office this afternoon after getting his complete military record. Advisers say that he is essentially trying to stop the impression that he was trying to hide something -- Aaron.</s>BROWN: Two things, two questions, one on this and one on something else. You got these documents and there are literally, as you said, hundreds of pages about what time tonight?</s>MALVEAUX: I would say perhaps three, four hours ago.</s>BROWN: So, is it fair to say that we have not been able to read every page and go through every detail at this point?</s>MALVEAUX: Absolutely, that's fair. I mean this is a question that is not going to be answered for some time. It's a matter of credibility. Democrats, as well as the White House, say it depends on what you believe. The White House says we've released all of this. You should take our word for it and this is the evidence. Democrats say there are holes that we don't see, particular service at these days or these times, that it lacks the kind of evidence that they're looking for and so they're saying give us more.</s>BROWN: All right and just on another matter, the White House made a decision on how it will deal with the president's "testimony" to the 9/11 commission today.</s>MALVEAUX: Well, that's right. The president was actually asked to be interviewed by the 9/11 commission formally today. The president has agreed that he will sit down for a private interview, discussions with the chair and the co-chair of the 9/11 commission to tell what the administration knew before those attacks, whether or not there was anything that could be done, whether or not that's revealing. What we have learned as well, Aaron, is that the president in all likelihood is not going to publicly testify but he will sit down and answer questions.</s>BROWN: Do we know when that will happen?</s>MALVEAUX: It has to happen before the deadline of the commission's report. That deadline is in the summer, so sometime within the next three or four months.</s>BROWN: Suzanne, thank you. You've had a very busy night, Suzanne Malveaux at the White House. The White House gave up more information on another front as well today or the administration did at least. In Miami, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld described what kind of intelligence the government is getting from the men held at Guantanamo Bay, at least generally speaking. Six hundred and fifty detainees who have not been charged with any crime or tried, though in most cases they were found on the battlefield and we also learned, at least procedurally, what will happen to them next. From the Pentagon CNN's Barbara Starr.</s>STARR (voice-over): For the first time, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld detailed the critical intelligence the U.S. is getting from interrogation of suspected Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners.</s>DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Detainees currently being held at Guantanamo Bay have revealed al Qaeda leadership structures, operatives, funding mechanisms, communication methods, training and selection programs.</s>STARR: That disclosure was designed to demonstrate that the 650 detainees are being held because they are dangerous but the Bush administration also responding to international criticism that detainees are in legal limbo with no assurances about their future. The International Committee of the Red Cross in January saying that: "U.S. authorities have placed the internees in Guantanamo beyond the law. The internees still have no idea about their fate and no means of recourse through any legal mechanism." The Pentagon says there will now be a parole board, each detainee's case to be reviewed annually to determine if they are still a threat or if they can be released. The U.S. wants to return more than 100 detainees to their home country for either continued detention or release. Nearly 90 have already left Guantanamo Bay. Still, the Pentagon says some of the most lethal al Qaeda operatives are being held.</s>PAUL BUTLER, DEPUTY ASST. SEC. OF DEFENSE: There's an individual who served as a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden and escorted him to Tora Bora, Afghanistan following the fall of Jalalabad.</s>STARR: The secretary making it clear the U.S. believes the detainees have plenty to tell their interrogators.</s>RUMSFELD: They have provided information on al Qaeda front companies and on bank accounts, on surface-to-air missiles, improvised explosive devices and tactics that are used by terrorist elements.</s>STARR (on camera): But a note of worry. U.S. officials believe at least one of the released detainees may have already returned to the battlefield, so the process for any future releases will be a cautious one. Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.</s>BROWN: On now to a U.S. soldier suspected of trying to help terrorists. A sting involving the Justice Department and the FBI has led to the arrest of a Washington State National Guardsman, the young man stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington. Military and federal officials believe the 26-year-old soldier, a convert to Islam, was trying to provide information to al Qaeda, reporting the story for us tonight, CNN's Katharine Barrett.</s>BARRETT (voice-over): Specialist Ryan Anderson grew up in this quiet neighborhood abloom with flags. Long time neighbors of his father and stepmother say they are shocked by his arrest.</s>TOM WARREN, ANDERSON FAMILY NEIGHBOR: They've been a solid family. You know they wash their car like we do. They fly the flag, visit with the neighbors and nothing that ever made them stand out.</s>BARRETT: Nothing except the incident in 1998 when Anderson strolled these streets shouldering a rifle and bayonet.</s>WARREN: My wife and I passed by him that day and he was just walking along carrying it and he was just proud of it I thought.</s>BARRETT: For the past six months when not training at Fort Lewis, Anderson and his wife lived in this apartment. His next door neighbor calls Anderson a very nice good guy who likes Japanese anime and guns.</s>JACK ROBERTS, ANDERSON NEIGHBOR: Yes, he'd go to shooting ranges sometimes, yes. He went with a neighbor here to local areas shooting guns.</s>BARRETT: Almost two years ago, Ryan Anderson first contacted Seattle's Islamic community joining an e-mail group under the name Abdul Rahid (ph) a.k.a. gunfighter. Local Muslim leaders were immediately suspicious.</s>AZIZ JUNEJO, SEATTLE MUSLIM LEADER: His e-mails right away turned to that he was a marksman shooter and thought that he should get together a group of Muslims from the area, men and women, and teach them how to shoot and we should have a group that goes out and shoots and this was completely against the norms of what we think is correct or right.</s>BARRETT: Junejo says he and Anderson exchanged harsh e-mails. Anderson left the chat group but Junejo says he then showed up at a local mosque trying to recruit shooters. Anderson's wife and family are not speaking publicly about his arrest. In a written statement to the Associated Press they said: "They place their faith and trust in the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice to provide Ryan a fair trial before rendering any decision."</s>BARRETT: Anderson's wife Erin (ph) is shaken up and as shocked as anyone by all of this, according to her next door neighbor. Specialist Anderson remains in military custody here at Fort Lewis tonight awaiting charges -- Aaron.</s>BROWN: Was he scheduled to be deployed?</s>BARRETT: He was scheduled to be deployed within days to Iraq and there's some suggestion that the reason that he was arrested as swiftly as he was, was that they wanted to detain him before he went overseas.</s>BROWN: Katharine, thank you very much, Katharine Barrett out in Seattle out west.</s>BARRETT: My pleasure.</s>BROWN: Still more military news of alleged misconduct in the ranks, criminal misconduct. The "Denver Post" first broke this story reporting that more than two dozen women stationed at Shepherd Air Force Base in North Texas had sought help at a civilian rape crisis center over a year's time. Five of the cases involve gang rapes. The victims' alleged attackers fellow airmen at the base. The story and the allegations, as you can imagine, have triggered an outcry and an investigation. Here's CNN's Ed Lavandera.</s>ED LAVANDERA, CNN DALLAS BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Training missions carve through the sky over Shepherd Air Force Base. It might seem like business as usual but this base is now the latest military installation dealing with widespread allegations of sexual misconduct.</s>SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON (R), TEXAS: We need to find out what the magnitude of the problem is. We need to see how people have been treated, if people have been willing to come forward and we need to solve this very important problem as quickly as possible.</s>LAVANDERA: To do that, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has asked the Air Force to investigate what she calls "an unacceptable number of alleged sexual assaults against some two dozen women at this base." The Senator believes the attacks happened in the last year. As many as 40 airmen are being accused. Air Force officials say an investigative team is on its way. They stress there must be a swift and compassionate way of dealing with victims but they won't talk about the specific treatment the women in these cases received. These latest allegations also come at a time when the Pentagon has called for a review of how the military handles complaints of sexual misconduct. (on camera): The investigative team will arrive here at Shepherd Air Force Base next Monday. Their work is expected to take about two weeks. What happens after that will depend on what they find. Ed Lavandera CNN, Wichita Falls, Texas.</s>BROWN: Still ahead on the program tonight, rumor and fact on the campaign trail as the Democratic frontrunner nails down another endorsement from a former competitor. And later, the lady who is in charge of the court, we'll introduce you to Violet Palmer, the only woman who is a referee in the NBA or in all of major sport, that and more as NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.