Martha Stewart Sentenced To A Double Nickel; Fire At Indian School Kills 90; Wildfires Continue To Burn In Nevada
Aired July 16, 2004 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, again everyone. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington sitting in for Aaron Brown.Based on my limited experience on this program, here's how Friday usually works. The big stories from earlier in the week have all grown bigger and all those smaller, quirkier stories, the fascinating items, they're simply piling up fighting for a spot in our rundown. The result is 90 minutes of content but we only have the same one hour to showcase it. So, enough said, on to the whip.We'll have extensive coverage this hour of the Martha Stewart sentencing.But our whip begins with another big story, the wildfires burning out west. CNN's Ted Rowlands is in Carson City, Nevada, Ted a headline please.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, after two and a half days on the losing end of this fire, late word from the fire lines, firefighters now believe they may have the upper hand.
BLITZER: All right, we'll be back with you, Ted, thanks very much.Next to Baghdad and a change from the ordinary there, CNN's Jane Arraf is there for us, Jane a headline from you.
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Wolf, they're not sure if it's the calm before the storm or the start of a somewhat safer Baghdad, but Iraqis and U.S. soldiers are taking advantage of a relative lull in violence to try to bring some neighborhoods in Baghdad back to life.
BLITZER: All right, Jane, we'll get back to you as well.Finally, to a town in a rural India and an awful tragedy unfolding tonight, CNN's Satinder Bindra is on the videophone for use, Satinder the headline.
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, more than 80 school children have been killed in the fire here. Today, another 20 tiny bodies are being cremated or buried right where I'm standing, all this as anger is rising that this is a tragedy that could have been prevented.
BLITZER: All right, Satinder, we'll be back to you. Thanks to you. Thanks to all of our reporters. We'll get back to everyone tonight on NEWSNIGHT.A very not good thing for Martha Stewart unfolded today as the domestic diva faces prison time.And later, a brand new idea in Baghdad getting back to normal.Plus, lately, it seems as though cows are worth their weight in gold or maybe it's just the milk that costs that much, all that and more in the hour ahead.We begin though tonight out west in Nevada, not in Reno or Las Vegas but a relative dot on the map by comparison, Carson City, the state capital, home to just 50,000 people and tonight more than 1,200 firefighters. They've got a lot to deal with. The fire that was totally uncontained last night remains very dangerous tonight and very close to those 50,000 people, reporting for us CNN's Ted Rowlands.
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ROWLANDS (voice-over): Firefighters spent another day attacking flames mainly from the air. Helicopters and planes dropped water and retardant as the wind shifted the blaze away from Carson City towards the Sierra peaks leading to Tahoe.Meanwhile, some of the people who were evacuated were allowed to come home, seeing for the first time the devastation left behind from the fire. Some found their home completely destroyed.
GLORIA GOODNIGHT, CARSON CITY RESIDENT: It's pretty amazing to have nothing, just to all of a sudden, you know, you realize, you know, friends are calling saying, well you know I can give you some of my clothes and you picture yourself wearing somebody else's clothes and sleeping in somebody else's home and it's that you have nowhere to go. It's pretty amazing.
ROWLANDS: Fourteen homes have burned down but many more have been saved. In fact, dozens of people came home to find that the fire had burned to their front door only to be turned away by firefighters.
LYNN ANDERSON, CARSON CITY RESIDENT: I don't know why it was us that was spared and they lost theirs. I don't know why.
ROWLANDS: At an afternoon news conference, the governor of Nevada, Kenny Guinn, who can see the fire from his Carson City capital office, said this is one of the worst fires in his state's history.
GOV. KENNY GUINN, NEVADA: I've lived in the state for almost 40 years and I've never seen anything like it. The firefighters that I've talked to have never seen anything like it. I think we describe it as the meanest, ugliest and kind of an uncooperative fire.
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ROWLANDS: Well, tonight late word from the fire line. The fire is cooperating. An afternoon wind shift has pushed the fire back towards Carson City. The net effect of that is that it's pushing it back into an area where it has already burned. Firefighters very confident tonight as they return home for a night's rest but they will, Wolf, be back at it tomorrow.
BLITZER: And, Ted, what's the weather forecast? Is it going to be cooperative or not so cooperative?
ROWLANDS: They are hoping for good weather and lower winds than we have seen in the past few days. That is what is predicted and higher humidity levels. They'll wait to see, however, before they get too optimistic. They're not going to send anybody home by any stretch of the imagination but very, very optimistic tonight.
BLITZER: Let's hope for the best. Ted Rowlands reporting for us once again, thanks Ted very much.Farther west a similar picture in and around Lake Hughes, California on the edge of the Angeles National Forest that's north of Los Angeles. Fires have burned about 14,000 acres. Firefighters thought they had things under control on Wednesday. Then the wind kicked up. The temperature rose. And tonight it's touch and go once again. Said a forestry official today, and I'm quoting, "It's as dry as it's ever been for this time of year. The worst" she said "is ahead of us."The Lake Hughes fire is just one of many across the state, including a 3,000-acre fire now burning in Yosemite National Park.Martha Stewart made a lot of money today, by some estimates about $90 million, at least on paper naturally. Shares in the company she founded closed up this afternoon nearly 37 percent. That said, we can't imagine that Martha Stewart was wishing for another day like this one. She said it best herself. It was a shameful day and a fateful one. Two reports tonight and a look at the new life she might soon be leading but for now is trying to avoid, first, CNN's Allan Chernoff.
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ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Martha Stewart left court after getting the minimum possible under the sentencing guidelines, five months in prison, five months of home detention, as well as a $30,000 fine.
MARTHA STEWART: I hope the months go by quickly. I'm used to all kinds of hard work, as you know, and I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid whatsoever.
CHERNOFF: In a far softer voice, Stewart had asked Judge Miriam Cederbaum to, "Remember all the good that I have done. Consider all the intense suffering that I have endured every single moment of the past two-and-a-half years. I seek the opportunity to continue serving my country," Stewart said. Judge Cederbaum responded: "You have suffered and will continue to suffer enough."Stewart's attorney asked that she serve her time at a minimum security prison camp in Danbury, Connecticut and do home detention at her house in Bedford, New York but Stewart intends to keep fighting to stay out of prison.
STEWART: And I'll be back. I will be back.
CHERNOFF: She's hired the former top attorney in the Clinton administration.
WALTER DELLINGER, STEWART'S APPEAL ATTORNEY: We believe that there are very significant issues to be brought before the Court of Appeals.
CHERNOFF: Ms. Stewart's former stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic, received the same minimum sentence with a smaller $4,000 fine. Bacanovic and Stewart were convicted of lying to federal investigators about the reason behind Martha Stewart's sale of ImClone stock, the broker's tip that former Chief Executive Sam Waksal was dumping his shares. Ironically, biotech firm ImClone now trades well above the price at which Stewart sold.(on camera): Judge Cederbaum agreed to stay both sentences pending appeal but legal analysts say Stewart and Bacanovic have little chance of success in court and are almost certain to do their time in prison.Allan Chernoff, CNN Financial News, New York.
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BLITZER: Martha Stewart's home in Westport, Connecticut has a name, Turkey Hill Farm. That sets Westport apart from most other places where houses merely have numbers and sets Ms. Stewart apart from most people who live in houses with numbers and mortgages. What most people in most places have in common, however, is wherever you go people will talk and, in Westport, Connecticut tonight, they are. Here's CNN's Alina Cho.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's justice, you know. This is what the courts decided.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It strikes me as excessive. It really does.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Along Main Street in Westport, residents were split on whether their neighbor, Martha Stewart, should go to prison. This woman says no.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But I don't think she deserves prison, especially when some of these other fat cats who have cost people their jobs, their pensions and everything are going to walk.CHO: Others wish Stewart would show some contrition.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it would help her case if she would acknowledge that what she did was wrong and five months is not a long time. I think she should serve the time and get on with her life.CHO: Stewart has spent much of her adult life in Westport, one of the most affluent towns in the country along the Connecticut coastline. She moved to this home, which she calls Turkey Hill Farm, in the 1970s with her then husband and daughter. It is where she began her catering business where she later taped her popular TV show.
STEWART: What a beautiful touch.CHO: Early on, Stewart was socially active here, attending a fundraiser at the town historical society with one of Westport's other famous residents Paul Newman. In recent years, Stewart has favored glitzy Manhattan functions but has still spent much of her time here. Westport Firstselect Woman Diane Farrell calls her a long time political supporter and friend.DIANE
FARRELL, WESTPORT FIRST SELECTWOMAN: Most people who know Martha know this is just a chapter in her life. She'll be back. She will be back stronger than ever.CHO (on camera): Stewart's relationship with her Westport neighbors hasn't always been perfect. When neighbors complained she was making too much noise during the taping of her TV show, Stewart responded by writing an article calling Westport unfriendly. Some people here have not forgotten that while others say she made a great contribution to this town and, instead of prison time, she should do community service.Alina Cho CNN, Westport, Connecticut.
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BLITZER: With us now in New York is Foster Winans. He was once a reporter for "The Wall Street Journal." He served time in a federal prison in connection with a major stock scandal back in the 1980s. He's now a commentator, public speaker, prolific author. We're pleased to have him on the program. Foster, thanks very much for joining us. You spent about nine months in that federal prison in Danbury where she might be going. What's it like there?
FOSTER WINANS, FORMER "WALL STREET JOURNAL" REPORTER: Well, I would start my comment by saying that Martha said it was a shameful day. I would say the shame was that a convicted felon stood on the steps of the courthouse five minutes after being sentenced and made a mockery of the judicial system. I would have liked to have heard from the 12 independent jurors who found her guilty. Martha likes to see herself as a victim and I think that's going to be a problem when she gets to prison. There's an expression in prison, "Quit your crying and do your time" and I think that's one of the first things that Martha's going to hear.It's a safe, you know, Danbury is a very safe, comfortable place. It looks a little like an elementary school. If you took out the bunks and you took out the inmates and you put in kids and desks, you would swear that you were in a school and it's a non-violent place. There are no walls, no bars, no razor wire. There are two guards for about 200 inmates. The inmates basically run the institution. But, Martha is a celebrity. She's going in, obviously, with a very bad attitude I think and I think she's going to have some trouble adjusting. Five months...
BLITZER: When you say she's going to have some trouble adjusting give us a specific. What do you mean?
WINANS: Sure. Well, if you're the CEO of a big company used to controlling everything in your life, you're going to -- she's going to find that when she can make a phone call, how long the phone call can be, the phone calls will be listened to, when she eats, when she gets up.Five times a day you have to stand by your bunk and get counted. You know, what time she goes to work, what she wears, what she's allowed to have in her locker, every single thing about her life is going to be controlled and dictated to her and that is an adjustment for people who are used to managing other people and having a lot of control over their lives.
BLITZER: Well, it's an adjustment for anyone I would assume going from the outside into a prison but what about privacy, especially when you go to the bathroom, for example, or you take a shower?
WINANS: Well, the showers do have curtains on them. The stalls do have doors on them but you sleep in a room with 75 other people who are snoring, passing wind, that sort of thing. It's noisy. There is no privacy. There are very few places actually to even sit down but you can walk away anytime you want except that you get a longer sentence than the one you're serving.
BLITZER: I understand that there are bunk beds for the inmates, is that right?
WINANS: Yes. Yes, and she will get a lower bunk because she's over 50 years old. They reserve the lower bunks for the older inmates.
BLITZER: What kind of work do they do?
WINANS: Every prison has a factory that makes things like shirts or furniture for the government. I don't know what the factory is at Danbury right now. When I was there they made postal sorting trays.I chose to mop floors. I actually found that to be sort of Zen- like. I would just spend my days mopping floors and scraping up waxy build-up behind the bathroom doors.The work is kind of -- it's basically cleaning the institution, a little bit of work in the factory, and then there's a tremendous amount of time that you have to fill and the two single things that are I think the most difficult about a prison are it can be very boring and you have no control over your life.
BLITZER: Is there any opportunity for the men in the prison and the women in the prison to get together?
WINANS: Absolutely not, no, the women are separate in this small federal -- in this prison camp. Next door to it there's a big minimum -- or sorry, medium security prison with about 1,200 inmates behind two layers of wire and razor wire and that sort of thing, so there isn't any mingling at all, except for some guards who might be men but that would be it.
BLITZER: And one final question.
WINANS: Yes.
BLITZER: Her bad attitude, at least the way you described it, you think it's going to have a direct impact on the way -- on the way she's treated by her fellow inmates and I ask the question in the sense we see all these movies and stories about prisons around the country where prisoners are beaten up, where there's violence, prisoner on prisoner, is any of that likely to happen at Danbury?
WINANS: It's not going to be violence. It would be hazing. It would be inmates who are maybe asking her for a little bit of financial help for their families on the outside.One of the things that I was thinking about is I wouldn't be surprised to see a bidding war break out among the inmates at Danbury as to who's going to sell what they know about Martha to the "National Enquirer." My advice to Martha going into prison would be to keep her head down and her mouth shut and try to get through it and help other inmates while she's there. I think that one of the things she can do for herself and for her experience is to try to do something for other people.
BLITZER: And sexual assault that's unlikely to happen at a place like Danbury.
WINANS: No. Very unlikely, if you raise an eyebrow in a minimum security prison you end up going into the real prison. They just take you right out of there.
BLITZER: It's not a lovely place by any means, certainly not Club Fed.
WINANS: Yes.
BLITZER: Foster Winans, thanks very much for joining us.
WINANS: You're welcome.
BLITZER: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, getting things back to normal, never easy to do when you're living in a war zone.And, as one country answers the demand of kidnappers, others are left wondering what the consequences will be.
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BLITZER: And our deepest condolences to their families.At last count, 886 American troops have died in Iraq. None died today. However, in Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off this afternoon wounding three Iraqis and one American soldier from a passing convoy.Hard to imagine but this is what qualifies as a quiet day in Iraq, no fatalities and no mass casualty attacks. It's a reminder of how far from normal life in Iraq still is. Just the same there are places where normal is gaining ground and life goes on, from Baghdad, CNN's Jane Arraf.
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ARRAF (voice-over): The trumpet and the city it serenaded were a little battered but the song, "My Country, My Country" rang even more true. After more than a year of occupation and U.S. soldiers prominent in the streets, Baghdad is being given back to Baghdadis.Dozens of families dressed up their children and came to the reopening of this park on Baghdad's historic Abu Nuwas Street. With more Iraqi police in the streets and a few weeks of relative calm, parts of the city are beginning to feel almost normal."This is a wonderful occasion because it's been over a year we couldn't go out" said Nada Abdul Kareem (ph). She and her husband Omar Hashim al-Jamieli (ph) came to watch their daughter Taiba (ph) at the top of her sixth grade class recite a children's poem.Reopening the park is part of the campaign to clean up the streets and encourage businesses to open again. Local workers have been hired to do as much of the work as possible. The U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division has been doing the rest. They're trying to bring this riverside street with its famous fish restaurants back to life.(on camera): On some streets, the city's mayor has even begun dismantling some of the barbed wire and concrete barriers like this meant to guard against car bombs.(voice-over): Baghdad still sees some violence. This week at least ten Iraqis were killed when a car bomb exploded close to the interim government's headquarters but the mayor says Iraqis are so resilient they'll continue to go out despite the occasional explosion.
MAYOR ALAA AL-TAMIMI, BAGHDAD: This is the Iraqi. They are very brave and this is their city and I don't think these bombs will prevent them from normal living. I don't think this will prevent the Iraqi to live and to build.
ARRAF: In Baghdad, where neighborhoods come to life after the day's heat, a lot of streets are crowded again at night. Actor Ali Segdon (ph) says he was robbed at gunpoint not long ago."I was planning to leave the country" he says but he adds the streets have been safer in the past two weeks since the transfer of authority. He says now he believes he'll stay.Jane Arraf, CNN, Baghdad.
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BLITZER: As we reported on the program last night, the Philippine government has begun withdrawing its 51 soldiers and police officers from Iraq in hopes of securing the release of a truck driver being held by Islamic radicals. If all goes well, a life may be saved but critics argue many more lives will be put in danger. That's the concern tonight in Manila, in Washington and beyond, reporting for us tonight, CNN's Maria Ressa.
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MARIA RESSA, CNN JAKARTA BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): It was an unexpected move from Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a staunch U.S. ally usually tough on terrorism.But the Philippines began pulling its troops out of Iraq in exchange for the life of 46-year-old Angelo de la Cruz. Many of the streets of Manila applaud Mrs. Arroyo's decision. Nearly one Filipino in ten are like de la Cruz, taking jobs in hazardous places to send money home to their families.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a plus point for her and this would be something which would make Filipinos feel that the government (unintelligible) is not only looking for politics per se.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It shows there are deep concerns for the Filipinos abroad.
RESSA: But others warn there will be repercussions, especially for the 4,000 Filipino workers in Iraq and for this country's own war on terror.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): She sacrificed the whole nation and terrorists now know they can do it again. Let's hostage another Filipino and threaten to behead him. RESSA: Above all critics say the Philippines loses its credibility. Despite commitments to the U.S., it ignored requests not to give in to terrorists.
MAX SOLIVEN, NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER: : Well, it leaves us out in left field. We got no friends left. You know when you're in an alliance you stick by it because otherwise nobody will come to your help when you're in trouble. You got to stand up for your friends.
RESSA: Soliven says in response he expects the U.S. will cut aid and support for counterterrorism training.(on camera): For now much of the focus here centers on Angelo de la Cruz and his homecoming but critics warn the Philippines may have sacrificed too much in the long run to save one life.Maria Ressa, CNN, Manila.
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BLITZER: On the other side of the war on terror this news from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The Pentagon said today that all of the 600 or so detainees being held at the U.S. naval base there have been apprized of their right to a hearing on their status as enemy combatants. The first of those hearings, which result from a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, may be held as early as next week.Coming up on NEWSNIGHT the continuing problem of anti-Semitism in France and what officials there plan to do about it.Plus, a vandalized cemetery in New Zealand and what it has to do with two possible Israeli spies.From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.
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BLITZER: Odd to say it seems to have taken a fraud to bring the increasingly serious problem of anti-Semitic attacks in France to the fore. A woman claiming to have been harassed by thugs she says took her to be Jewish turns out to have been lying. It's an ugly lie to be sure but then again in France these days the truth is also pretty ugly.CNN's Guy Raz reports.
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GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): France's Jewish community feels the siege. Shalom Quaki, Tunisian born, came to France as a boy but says now he wants to leave. Two weeks ago his son was badly beaten by a group of North African boys in this French neighborhood. They taunted him with anti- Semitic remarks and tore his scull cap from his head. Quaki says not a day goes by without him being harassed. "I have to deal with the insults, the spitting as I pass, the aggressive body language," he says. "I always feel ill at ease walking in my neighborhood.Roger Cukierman survived the Holocaust but says French Jews are now experiencing an unprecedented level of hostility.
ROGER CUKIERMAN, FRENCH JEWISH COMMUNITY: Oh, it's undoubtedly the most difficult period that we ever lived in France. I was a child of four when the war started, the Second World War. I have some souvenirs of that period. I could have never imagined that being a Jew would be a problem 60 years later.
RAZ: The government reports more than 300 anti-Semitic incidents so far this year, more than all of 2003. Almost all of the attacks, the government says, carried out by young North African men. France has the world's third-biggest Jewish community. Jews are 1 percent of the population here, but just one-tenth of the Muslim population. Muslims and Jews often live side-by-side in and around Paris. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict often plays out on the streets here. Groups working to combat the problem say poor, jobless, young North African men often take out their anger on Jews in France.
NASSER RAMDANE, ANTI-RACISM CAMPAIGNER (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Without a doubt, anti-Semitism is increasing in our country. Those who deny it have no idea what they're talking about.
RAZ: Ramdane says the problem is compounded because many Jews and Muslims are made to feel like outsiders in France. In 1980, a bomb outside this Paris synagogue killed four people. The then-French prime minister, Raymond Barre, remarked that two of those killed were innocent Frenchmen, implying the two Jews killed weren't French. It was a slip of the tongue, but something that the French-Jewish community hasn't forgotten. But these days, France's government is taking unprecedented steps to fight against the anti-Semitic violence.
JEAN FRANCOIS COPE, FRENCH INTERIOR MINISTRY: The government, the French government, is determined to fight against anti-Semitism. The government takes this issue very seriously, because we know that what's on this question of racism and anti-Semitism is the fact that there is, you know, disinformation. RAZ: Despite tougher laws, French Jews are leaving France at levels not seen in two decades. If current trends continue, France no longer will have the third-largest Jewish community in the world. Guy Raz, CNN, Paris.
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BLITZER: But for now, at least, it numbers more than half a million people. By contrast, just about 5,000 Jews live in New Zealand. Yet there, too, an apparent act of anti-Semitism is making headlines. It's wrapped up in a spy scandal involving the state of Israel.
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BLITZER: It started with two Israelis convicted of trying illegally to obtain a New Zealand passport, a valuable commodity in the world of international spy craft, one that could open up doors often closed to Israeli passport holders.But along the way, a hugely embarrassing failure that has resulted in angry allegations of espionage, strained diplomatic relations between Israel and New Zealand and now, apparently, the anti-Semitic desecration of a Jewish cemetery in New Zealand.
DAVID ZWARTZ, HEAD OF NEW ZEALAND JEWISH COUNCIL: It really makes me feel sick and reminds me of the history of the Jewish people, where this has happened over and over again, but never before in New Zealand.
BLITZER: The Israelis, Urie Kelman and Eli Cara, are now serving six-month jail items in New Zealand, after pleading guilty of trying to assume the identity of a wheelchair-bound New Zealander who has cerebral palsy. It's a classic spy technique, assume the identity of someone you know can't travel. Both Israelis are suspected of being agents of the Israel's Mossad spy agency.
HELEN CLARK, PRIME MINISTER OF NEW ZEALAND: That's completely unacceptable, and I don't think there would be New Zealanders who would say that New Zealand should do nothing in the face of another country's agents trying to breach our sovereignty. We have to take a stand on that, regardless of who the country is.
BLITZER: Prime Minister Clark has strongly condemned the vandalism at the cemetery, which authorities believe is the result of anger towards Israel. She also wants a formal apology from the Israeli government. So far, that has not been forthcoming.
SILVAN SHALOM, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: Israel is very sorry about the decision that was taken by the government of New Zealand, but we believe that, if we will work one with each other as we used to work in the past, we will overcome the last day of difficulties.
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BLITZER: This isn't the first time the Israelis or others have blundered in the world of international espionage, and probably won't be the last. I spoke with one Israeli close to the Mossad earlier today who made this point: "When it comes to fighting terrorism, you have to take chances. And sometimes, you get caught. "Still to come on "Newsnight," tragedy in India as a fire in a school claims the lives of over 80 young children. And still later, from Bangkok, the conclusion of the international AIDS conference. A look at what was accomplish and what wasn't. Around the world, this is "Newsnight."
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BLITZER: Tragedies are heartbreaking by definition, but some are harder to bear than others. Today, a kitchen fire at a rural school in India spread to the rest of the rickety school building. The older children mostly got away, but the youngest, more than 90 of them, did not. CNN's Satinder Bindra is on the scene -- Satinder.
BINDRA: Wolf, this town is struggling to deal with the scale and scope of this tragedy. Right now, Wolf, I'm standing here at the crematorium where 20 young children will be brought here. Just about 15 or 20 minutes ago, I witnessed one family carrying two children, one was a 12-year-old boy, another a 7-year-old girl. They were both laid to rest side-by-side among scenes of unimaginable grief. The state government here, Wolf, has announced some compensation. But for parents, that's not good enough. Nothing will bring their children back. And all the stores, all the businesses in this town, are shut as a mark of respect for the 90 children that have died. Some 20 children, Wolf, are in hospital. Four or five are in very serious condition. But this entire country of one billion people is praying for them to make it.Back to you.
BLITZER: How did -- what exactly happened? Set the scene for us. Walk us through how this tragedy occurred.
BINDRA: Wolf, first the school building is very, very small, very narrow. There are no regulated fire escapes, and then, officials tell us, there was a fire that started in the kitchen of the school. The fire then quickly spread to the roof the school, which was made, essentially, of bamboo shoots and the leaves taken from coconut trees. So it was very combustible. And the fire spread to the roof extremely quickly. The roof then collapsed on hundreds of screaming children and they had no escape. So many teachers just ran out of the school -- parents are extremely angry and upset about that -- leaving the children to fend for themselves. Most of the children that who died here, Wolf, were under ten years old. So they had very little idea what to do; they had very little idea where to go.
BLITZER: Satinder Bindra reporting on a horrible, horrible situation in India. Our deepest condolences to the families there as well. Thank you very much, Satinder. Just ahead on "Newsnight," they must be eating caviar. How else do you explain the rising cost of milk these days? Plus some of the fiercest competition this side of the Mississippi. You won't want to miss this. We'll show you what it is. First the break. This is "Newsnight."
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BLITZER: The phrase "sticker shock" was invented to describe what new car buyers often feel after walking around a showroom for the first time since their last purchase. These days, though, sticker shock seems to apply at the grocery store, as well. Pick up a gallon of milk and you'll see what we mean. How come the stuff costs so much nowadays? That's what we asked some people who ought to know, dairy farmers. Their answers may surprise you.
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TUNIS SWEETMAN, DAIRY FARMER: There's a lot of people making a lot of money off of milk. And, unfortunately, over the years, it has not been the dairy farmer. The greatest increase in our cost this year has been in fertilizer. One of the problems has always been that, for example, when the cost of fertilizer goes up, as it has this year, the cost of fuel goes up, as it has this year, the cost of feed, which has skyrocketed this year. None of those pricing factors are taken into consideration when figuring the price of milk.
BOB YOUNG, CHIEF ECONOMIST, AMERICAN FARM BUREAU: The government gets involved in setting the price of milk that goes into a bottle, in order to basically move milk from surplus areas into deficit areas. That basically is why there's a fluid milk price difference, to help make that milk move.
SWEETMAN: In the last few years, we have seen prices that have been the same as the prices that farmers have received back in the 1970s. And, as we have all of these input costs rising, we have it becoming more and more difficult for farmers to operate on a profit. What happens? Farmers go out of business.
RANDY DOTTY, DAIRY FARMER: A year ago, I sold off half of my mountain cows. The price of milk just wasn't doing nothing, wasn't covering costs.
SWEETMAN: We're seeing the result of supply and demand. Too many farmers have gone out, the demand has been constant or rising, so we see that spike in the milk prices. Another factor is that the Canadian border has closed because of the mad cow scare. That's causing the price of beef to rise. Now, since we were already receiving record-low milk prices at that time, it took a lot of dairy cows off the market in the way of slaughtering them for beef purposes.
DOTTY: The price has been so low for so long, you can only take so much of it, but the country does not understand that. They want cheap food, no matter where it comes from.
YOUNG: I think milk is viewed as being a very staple product, that it is basically a replacement for mother's milk, if you will. It is considered to be a fairly perfect food. If the price of the product were to go too high, would there be some reaction to that? I think absolutely, because it is such a special product.
SWEETMAN: It amazes me that we can actually even produce milk as cheaply as we're able to. Even that consumers have to pay $4 a gallon, I think it's a bargain. We're only getting about $1.75, at best, of that $4. And when you compare what you're getting for that $4, to that $1.25 12-ounce can of carbonated sugar water. When you compare it to that dollar bottle of spring water, you're getting 128 ounces of a wholesome, nutritious product.It's milk. It's always been around. It's good for you, and I think it's still a bargain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Tastes good too. A few other items to mention before we take a break, starting with a major recall of one of the best selling family cars in the country. It affects Ford Tauruses and Mercury Sables from the 1999, 2000 and 2001 model years that were sold in 22 cold weather states. That's about 900,000 cars. According to Ford, their springs are vulnerable to corrosion from road salt and could shatter and shred a tire. In the meantime, Wall Street had a pretty lackluster day, with the NASDAQ leading the losses, down more than a percent and a half. Still ahead on "Newsnight," the end of the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok. And the end, some fear, of global attention to the deadly disease.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: The International AIDS Conference, just now concluding in Bangkok, Thailand, after six days, is the largest such meeting ever held. That does not seem to be all that surprising, after all, the problem itself, global, staggering, daunting, has never been bigger, either.Here's a report from CNN's Aneesh Raman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAMAN: A conference high on activism, trying to refocus a world suffering from complacency. At the closing ceremony, a mandate from former South African president, Nelson Mandela.
NELSON MANDELA, FORMER SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT: History will surely judge us harshly if we do not respond with all of the energy and resources that we can bring to bear in the fight against HIV-AIDS.
RAMAN: The central issue this week, U.S. President Bush's $15 billion emergency AIDS initiative, set forth last year. Attacks came on two fronts. On prevention, critics argue too much emphasis is being put on abstinence, rather than condom distribution and sex education. Fueling the fire, the Ugandan president linking his country's success to going beyond that very pillar of the Bush plan.
YOWERI MUSEVENI, PRESIDENT OF UGANDA: Abstinence. Be faithful to each other. But if you can't, use a condom. It is a
(UNINTELLIGIBLE)
process, rather than another unique solution approach.
RAMAN: The second line of attack on treatment methods emerged when U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Randall Tobias arrived. Critics, including French President Jacques Chirac and Britain's international development minister, Gareth Thomas, called on the U.S. to put resources towards generic, rather than high-priced, name brand drugs. But the Bush plan aside, in a conference void of any major medical announcements, the political call to arms became a constant mantra.
KOFI ANNAN, UN SECRETARY-GENERAL: There must be no more sticking heads in the sand, no more embarrassment, and no more hiding behind a veil of apathy.
RAMAN: There is fear, though, that as the conference ends, so will the focus on AIDS and fear that in two years, when the world gathers again, the numbers will be no smaller, the situation no better. Aneesh Rahman, CNN, Bangkok.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: An estimated 38 million people are infected with AIDS on a global basis. It's an astounding, horrifying number. While some will be lucky to have their lives extended through drug treatment, the vast majority will likely die from the disease or an AIDS-related illness. But the facts for those in the United States cast a slightly different perspective on the global epidemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: More than 14,000 Americans died of AIDS in 2001, according for the Center for Disease Control, which tracks these things. That's just slightly less than the 20,000 homicide victims in the United States that year.More than twice that number, 42,000, died of breast cancer, another disease that gets a lot of attention and a lot of funding. 43,000 people died in car accidents.But look at these numbers. Diabetes killed 71,000, more than double that number died from lung cancer, and although you probably have heard it over and over again, heart disease remains the number one killer of Americans by a huge margin. 700,000 people died from heart disease.And that presents one of the biggest challenges for AIDS activists, keeping the topic high on the political agenda when 50 times more Americans die from heart disease than AIDS.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All those numbers are staggering to be sure.We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Regular "Newsnight" viewers know that this broadcast does not ordinarily cover sports. But some events are so compelling, so dramatic, so rich in the human details that make a great story that even "Newsnight" cannot resist.CNN's Eric Philips was on the sidelines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILIPS: The mood is intense. The competition is fierce. Though it's all about games, it's not about fun here at the 38th annual American Pool Checkers national tournament. Over 100 men, mostly African-Americans seniors from all over the country, have come to Memphis, Tennessee to jump or be jumped. At stake are trophies and the top prize of $500 and bragging rights. These players are serious.
DR. ERVIN SMITH, PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN POOL CHECKERS ASSOCIATION: Very serious. We're like what you'll call the lifers at the game of checkers.
PHILIPS: They spend their lives playing, studying and sharpening their skills, skills they bring to this three-day event, where everyone from masters to novices can test their wits and practice tactical trash talking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shoot, you didn't show me nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How can you win
(UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I tell him a lot of times that I play this game for bread and meat. And when I don't win, I don't eat. And I point down at this.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILIPS: What makes American pool checkers different from regular checkers, you never really feel safe. Jumping can happen both forward and backward.
SMITH: It's sort of like driving, same thing. You've got to be vigilant all the time, behind you, beside you, in front of you. You've got to look at all directions at once. It takes skill. It takes time. It takes patience. It takes discipline.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It takes too long. I know -- I understand they got to study and see what they got to do. They just take too long.
PHILIPS: While many of today's kids don't choose checkers, 31- year-old Emanuel Rogers was a child checker chaser. He says he still plays because it stimulates his mind.
ROGERS: It's so mentally draining, especially when you're playing them hard guys, which all of them are.
PHILIPS: Albert Barnett of Atlanta, better known as "East Point," was last year's American pool checker champ. We figured we'd offer him a checker challenge, an embarrassment waiting to happen for me, that is.
BARNETT: That's a bad move.
PHILIPS: That was a bad move?
BARNETT: Yeah.
PHILIPS: How much of it is luck? How much of it is skill?
BARNETT: Most of it's skill, but you still need a little luck.
PHILIPS: And a little trash talking. Of course, that doesn't work on true masters.Eric Philips, CNN, Memphis, Tennessee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: That's tonight's "Newsnight." Aaron will be back Monday. Pleasure filling in for him.I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 16, 2004 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, again everyone. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington sitting in for Aaron Brown.Based on my limited experience on this program, here's how Friday usually works. The big stories from earlier in the week have all grown bigger and all those smaller, quirkier stories, the fascinating items, they're simply piling up fighting for a spot in our rundown. The result is 90 minutes of content but we only have the same one hour to showcase it. So, enough said, on to the whip.We'll have extensive coverage this hour of the Martha Stewart sentencing.But our whip begins with another big story, the wildfires burning out west. CNN's Ted Rowlands is in Carson City, Nevada, Ted a headline please.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, after two and a half days on the losing end of this fire, late word from the fire lines, firefighters now believe they may have the upper hand.
BLITZER: All right, we'll be back with you, Ted, thanks very much.Next to Baghdad and a change from the ordinary there, CNN's Jane Arraf is there for us, Jane a headline from you.
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Wolf, they're not sure if it's the calm before the storm or the start of a somewhat safer Baghdad, but Iraqis and U.S. soldiers are taking advantage of a relative lull in violence to try to bring some neighborhoods in Baghdad back to life.
BLITZER: All right, Jane, we'll get back to you as well.Finally, to a town in a rural India and an awful tragedy unfolding tonight, CNN's Satinder Bindra is on the videophone for use, Satinder the headline.
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, more than 80 school children have been killed in the fire here. Today, another 20 tiny bodies are being cremated or buried right where I'm standing, all this as anger is rising that this is a tragedy that could have been prevented.
BLITZER: All right, Satinder, we'll be back to you. Thanks to you. Thanks to all of our reporters. We'll get back to everyone tonight on NEWSNIGHT.A very not good thing for Martha Stewart unfolded today as the domestic diva faces prison time.And later, a brand new idea in Baghdad getting back to normal.Plus, lately, it seems as though cows are worth their weight in gold or maybe it's just the milk that costs that much, all that and more in the hour ahead.We begin though tonight out west in Nevada, not in Reno or Las Vegas but a relative dot on the map by comparison, Carson City, the state capital, home to just 50,000 people and tonight more than 1,200 firefighters. They've got a lot to deal with. The fire that was totally uncontained last night remains very dangerous tonight and very close to those 50,000 people, reporting for us CNN's Ted Rowlands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROWLANDS (voice-over): Firefighters spent another day attacking flames mainly from the air. Helicopters and planes dropped water and retardant as the wind shifted the blaze away from Carson City towards the Sierra peaks leading to Tahoe.Meanwhile, some of the people who were evacuated were allowed to come home, seeing for the first time the devastation left behind from the fire. Some found their home completely destroyed.
GLORIA GOODNIGHT, CARSON CITY RESIDENT: It's pretty amazing to have nothing, just to all of a sudden, you know, you realize, you know, friends are calling saying, well you know I can give you some of my clothes and you picture yourself wearing somebody else's clothes and sleeping in somebody else's home and it's that you have nowhere to go. It's pretty amazing.
ROWLANDS: Fourteen homes have burned down but many more have been saved. In fact, dozens of people came home to find that the fire had burned to their front door only to be turned away by firefighters.
LYNN ANDERSON, CARSON CITY RESIDENT: I don't know why it was us that was spared and they lost theirs. I don't know why.
ROWLANDS: At an afternoon news conference, the governor of Nevada, Kenny Guinn, who can see the fire from his Carson City capital office, said this is one of the worst fires in his state's history.
GOV. KENNY GUINN, NEVADA: I've lived in the state for almost 40 years and I've never seen anything like it. The firefighters that I've talked to have never seen anything like it. I think we describe it as the meanest, ugliest and kind of an uncooperative fire.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROWLANDS: Well, tonight late word from the fire line. The fire is cooperating. An afternoon wind shift has pushed the fire back towards Carson City. The net effect of that is that it's pushing it back into an area where it has already burned. Firefighters very confident tonight as they return home for a night's rest but they will, Wolf, be back at it tomorrow.
BLITZER: And, Ted, what's the weather forecast? Is it going to be cooperative or not so cooperative?
ROWLANDS: They are hoping for good weather and lower winds than we have seen in the past few days. That is what is predicted and higher humidity levels. They'll wait to see, however, before they get too optimistic. They're not going to send anybody home by any stretch of the imagination but very, very optimistic tonight.
BLITZER: Let's hope for the best. Ted Rowlands reporting for us once again, thanks Ted very much.Farther west a similar picture in and around Lake Hughes, California on the edge of the Angeles National Forest that's north of Los Angeles. Fires have burned about 14,000 acres. Firefighters thought they had things under control on Wednesday. Then the wind kicked up. The temperature rose. And tonight it's touch and go once again. Said a forestry official today, and I'm quoting, "It's as dry as it's ever been for this time of year. The worst" she said "is ahead of us."The Lake Hughes fire is just one of many across the state, including a 3,000-acre fire now burning in Yosemite National Park.Martha Stewart made a lot of money today, by some estimates about $90 million, at least on paper naturally. Shares in the company she founded closed up this afternoon nearly 37 percent. That said, we can't imagine that Martha Stewart was wishing for another day like this one. She said it best herself. It was a shameful day and a fateful one. Two reports tonight and a look at the new life she might soon be leading but for now is trying to avoid, first, CNN's Allan Chernoff.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Martha Stewart left court after getting the minimum possible under the sentencing guidelines, five months in prison, five months of home detention, as well as a $30,000 fine.
MARTHA STEWART: I hope the months go by quickly. I'm used to all kinds of hard work, as you know, and I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid whatsoever.
CHERNOFF: In a far softer voice, Stewart had asked Judge Miriam Cederbaum to, "Remember all the good that I have done. Consider all the intense suffering that I have endured every single moment of the past two-and-a-half years. I seek the opportunity to continue serving my country," Stewart said. Judge Cederbaum responded: "You have suffered and will continue to suffer enough."Stewart's attorney asked that she serve her time at a minimum security prison camp in Danbury, Connecticut and do home detention at her house in Bedford, New York but Stewart intends to keep fighting to stay out of prison.
STEWART: And I'll be back. I will be back.
CHERNOFF: She's hired the former top attorney in the Clinton administration.
WALTER DELLINGER, STEWART'S APPEAL ATTORNEY: We believe that there are very significant issues to be brought before the Court of Appeals.
CHERNOFF: Ms. Stewart's former stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic, received the same minimum sentence with a smaller $4,000 fine. Bacanovic and Stewart were convicted of lying to federal investigators about the reason behind Martha Stewart's sale of ImClone stock, the broker's tip that former Chief Executive Sam Waksal was dumping his shares. Ironically, biotech firm ImClone now trades well above the price at which Stewart sold.(on camera): Judge Cederbaum agreed to stay both sentences pending appeal but legal analysts say Stewart and Bacanovic have little chance of success in court and are almost certain to do their time in prison.Allan Chernoff, CNN Financial News, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Martha Stewart's home in Westport, Connecticut has a name, Turkey Hill Farm. That sets Westport apart from most other places where houses merely have numbers and sets Ms. Stewart apart from most people who live in houses with numbers and mortgages. What most people in most places have in common, however, is wherever you go people will talk and, in Westport, Connecticut tonight, they are. Here's CNN's Alina Cho.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's justice, you know. This is what the courts decided.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It strikes me as excessive. It really does.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Along Main Street in Westport, residents were split on whether their neighbor, Martha Stewart, should go to prison. This woman says no.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But I don't think she deserves prison, especially when some of these other fat cats who have cost people their jobs, their pensions and everything are going to walk.CHO: Others wish Stewart would show some contrition.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it would help her case if she would acknowledge that what she did was wrong and five months is not a long time. I think she should serve the time and get on with her life.CHO: Stewart has spent much of her adult life in Westport, one of the most affluent towns in the country along the Connecticut coastline. She moved to this home, which she calls Turkey Hill Farm, in the 1970s with her then husband and daughter. It is where she began her catering business where she later taped her popular TV show.
STEWART: What a beautiful touch.CHO: Early on, Stewart was socially active here, attending a fundraiser at the town historical society with one of Westport's other famous residents Paul Newman. In recent years, Stewart has favored glitzy Manhattan functions but has still spent much of her time here. Westport Firstselect Woman Diane Farrell calls her a long time political supporter and friend.DIANE
FARRELL, WESTPORT FIRST SELECTWOMAN: Most people who know Martha know this is just a chapter in her life. She'll be back. She will be back stronger than ever.CHO (on camera): Stewart's relationship with her Westport neighbors hasn't always been perfect. When neighbors complained she was making too much noise during the taping of her TV show, Stewart responded by writing an article calling Westport unfriendly. Some people here have not forgotten that while others say she made a great contribution to this town and, instead of prison time, she should do community service.Alina Cho CNN, Westport, Connecticut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: With us now in New York is Foster Winans. He was once a reporter for "The Wall Street Journal." He served time in a federal prison in connection with a major stock scandal back in the 1980s. He's now a commentator, public speaker, prolific author. We're pleased to have him on the program. Foster, thanks very much for joining us. You spent about nine months in that federal prison in Danbury where she might be going. What's it like there?
FOSTER WINANS, FORMER "WALL STREET JOURNAL" REPORTER: Well, I would start my comment by saying that Martha said it was a shameful day. I would say the shame was that a convicted felon stood on the steps of the courthouse five minutes after being sentenced and made a mockery of the judicial system. I would have liked to have heard from the 12 independent jurors who found her guilty. Martha likes to see herself as a victim and I think that's going to be a problem when she gets to prison. There's an expression in prison, "Quit your crying and do your time" and I think that's one of the first things that Martha's going to hear.It's a safe, you know, Danbury is a very safe, comfortable place. It looks a little like an elementary school. If you took out the bunks and you took out the inmates and you put in kids and desks, you would swear that you were in a school and it's a non-violent place. There are no walls, no bars, no razor wire. There are two guards for about 200 inmates. The inmates basically run the institution. But, Martha is a celebrity. She's going in, obviously, with a very bad attitude I think and I think she's going to have some trouble adjusting. Five months...
BLITZER: When you say she's going to have some trouble adjusting give us a specific. What do you mean?
WINANS: Sure. Well, if you're the CEO of a big company used to controlling everything in your life, you're going to -- she's going to find that when she can make a phone call, how long the phone call can be, the phone calls will be listened to, when she eats, when she gets up.Five times a day you have to stand by your bunk and get counted. You know, what time she goes to work, what she wears, what she's allowed to have in her locker, every single thing about her life is going to be controlled and dictated to her and that is an adjustment for people who are used to managing other people and having a lot of control over their lives.
BLITZER: Well, it's an adjustment for anyone I would assume going from the outside into a prison but what about privacy, especially when you go to the bathroom, for example, or you take a shower?
WINANS: Well, the showers do have curtains on them. The stalls do have doors on them but you sleep in a room with 75 other people who are snoring, passing wind, that sort of thing. It's noisy. There is no privacy. There are very few places actually to even sit down but you can walk away anytime you want except that you get a longer sentence than the one you're serving.
BLITZER: I understand that there are bunk beds for the inmates, is that right?
WINANS: Yes. Yes, and she will get a lower bunk because she's over 50 years old. They reserve the lower bunks for the older inmates.
BLITZER: What kind of work do they do?
WINANS: Every prison has a factory that makes things like shirts or furniture for the government. I don't know what the factory is at Danbury right now. When I was there they made postal sorting trays.I chose to mop floors. I actually found that to be sort of Zen- like. I would just spend my days mopping floors and scraping up waxy build-up behind the bathroom doors.The work is kind of -- it's basically cleaning the institution, a little bit of work in the factory, and then there's a tremendous amount of time that you have to fill and the two single things that are I think the most difficult about a prison are it can be very boring and you have no control over your life.
BLITZER: Is there any opportunity for the men in the prison and the women in the prison to get together?
WINANS: Absolutely not, no, the women are separate in this small federal -- in this prison camp. Next door to it there's a big minimum -- or sorry, medium security prison with about 1,200 inmates behind two layers of wire and razor wire and that sort of thing, so there isn't any mingling at all, except for some guards who might be men but that would be it.
BLITZER: And one final question.
WINANS: Yes.
BLITZER: Her bad attitude, at least the way you described it, you think it's going to have a direct impact on the way -- on the way she's treated by her fellow inmates and I ask the question in the sense we see all these movies and stories about prisons around the country where prisoners are beaten up, where there's violence, prisoner on prisoner, is any of that likely to happen at Danbury?
WINANS: It's not going to be violence. It would be hazing. It would be inmates who are maybe asking her for a little bit of financial help for their families on the outside.One of the things that I was thinking about is I wouldn't be surprised to see a bidding war break out among the inmates at Danbury as to who's going to sell what they know about Martha to the "National Enquirer." My advice to Martha going into prison would be to keep her head down and her mouth shut and try to get through it and help other inmates while she's there. I think that one of the things she can do for herself and for her experience is to try to do something for other people.
BLITZER: And sexual assault that's unlikely to happen at a place like Danbury.
WINANS: No. Very unlikely, if you raise an eyebrow in a minimum security prison you end up going into the real prison. They just take you right out of there.
BLITZER: It's not a lovely place by any means, certainly not Club Fed.
WINANS: Yes.
BLITZER: Foster Winans, thanks very much for joining us.
WINANS: You're welcome.
BLITZER: Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, getting things back to normal, never easy to do when you're living in a war zone.And, as one country answers the demand of kidnappers, others are left wondering what the consequences will be.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: And our deepest condolences to their families.At last count, 886 American troops have died in Iraq. None died today. However, in Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off this afternoon wounding three Iraqis and one American soldier from a passing convoy.Hard to imagine but this is what qualifies as a quiet day in Iraq, no fatalities and no mass casualty attacks. It's a reminder of how far from normal life in Iraq still is. Just the same there are places where normal is gaining ground and life goes on, from Baghdad, CNN's Jane Arraf.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARRAF (voice-over): The trumpet and the city it serenaded were a little battered but the song, "My Country, My Country" rang even more true. After more than a year of occupation and U.S. soldiers prominent in the streets, Baghdad is being given back to Baghdadis.Dozens of families dressed up their children and came to the reopening of this park on Baghdad's historic Abu Nuwas Street. With more Iraqi police in the streets and a few weeks of relative calm, parts of the city are beginning to feel almost normal."This is a wonderful occasion because it's been over a year we couldn't go out" said Nada Abdul Kareem (ph). She and her husband Omar Hashim al-Jamieli (ph) came to watch their daughter Taiba (ph) at the top of her sixth grade class recite a children's poem.Reopening the park is part of the campaign to clean up the streets and encourage businesses to open again. Local workers have been hired to do as much of the work as possible. The U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division has been doing the rest. They're trying to bring this riverside street with its famous fish restaurants back to life.(on camera): On some streets, the city's mayor has even begun dismantling some of the barbed wire and concrete barriers like this meant to guard against car bombs.(voice-over): Baghdad still sees some violence. This week at least ten Iraqis were killed when a car bomb exploded close to the interim government's headquarters but the mayor says Iraqis are so resilient they'll continue to go out despite the occasional explosion.
MAYOR ALAA AL-TAMIMI, BAGHDAD: This is the Iraqi. They are very brave and this is their city and I don't think these bombs will prevent them from normal living. I don't think this will prevent the Iraqi to live and to build.
ARRAF: In Baghdad, where neighborhoods come to life after the day's heat, a lot of streets are crowded again at night. Actor Ali Segdon (ph) says he was robbed at gunpoint not long ago."I was planning to leave the country" he says but he adds the streets have been safer in the past two weeks since the transfer of authority. He says now he believes he'll stay.Jane Arraf, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: As we reported on the program last night, the Philippine government has begun withdrawing its 51 soldiers and police officers from Iraq in hopes of securing the release of a truck driver being held by Islamic radicals. If all goes well, a life may be saved but critics argue many more lives will be put in danger. That's the concern tonight in Manila, in Washington and beyond, reporting for us tonight, CNN's Maria Ressa.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA RESSA, CNN JAKARTA BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): It was an unexpected move from Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a staunch U.S. ally usually tough on terrorism.But the Philippines began pulling its troops out of Iraq in exchange for the life of 46-year-old Angelo de la Cruz. Many of the streets of Manila applaud Mrs. Arroyo's decision. Nearly one Filipino in ten are like de la Cruz, taking jobs in hazardous places to send money home to their families.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a plus point for her and this would be something which would make Filipinos feel that the government (unintelligible) is not only looking for politics per se.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It shows there are deep concerns for the Filipinos abroad.
RESSA: But others warn there will be repercussions, especially for the 4,000 Filipino workers in Iraq and for this country's own war on terror.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): She sacrificed the whole nation and terrorists now know they can do it again. Let's hostage another Filipino and threaten to behead him. RESSA: Above all critics say the Philippines loses its credibility. Despite commitments to the U.S., it ignored requests not to give in to terrorists.
MAX SOLIVEN, NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER: : Well, it leaves us out in left field. We got no friends left. You know when you're in an alliance you stick by it because otherwise nobody will come to your help when you're in trouble. You got to stand up for your friends.
RESSA: Soliven says in response he expects the U.S. will cut aid and support for counterterrorism training.(on camera): For now much of the focus here centers on Angelo de la Cruz and his homecoming but critics warn the Philippines may have sacrificed too much in the long run to save one life.Maria Ressa, CNN, Manila.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: On the other side of the war on terror this news from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The Pentagon said today that all of the 600 or so detainees being held at the U.S. naval base there have been apprized of their right to a hearing on their status as enemy combatants. The first of those hearings, which result from a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, may be held as early as next week.Coming up on NEWSNIGHT the continuing problem of anti-Semitism in France and what officials there plan to do about it.Plus, a vandalized cemetery in New Zealand and what it has to do with two possible Israeli spies.From New York this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Odd to say it seems to have taken a fraud to bring the increasingly serious problem of anti-Semitic attacks in France to the fore. A woman claiming to have been harassed by thugs she says took her to be Jewish turns out to have been lying. It's an ugly lie to be sure but then again in France these days the truth is also pretty ugly.CNN's Guy Raz reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): France's Jewish community feels the siege. Shalom Quaki, Tunisian born, came to France as a boy but says now he wants to leave. Two weeks ago his son was badly beaten by a group of North African boys in this French neighborhood. They taunted him with anti- Semitic remarks and tore his scull cap from his head. Quaki says not a day goes by without him being harassed. "I have to deal with the insults, the spitting as I pass, the aggressive body language," he says. "I always feel ill at ease walking in my neighborhood.Roger Cukierman survived the Holocaust but says French Jews are now experiencing an unprecedented level of hostility.
ROGER CUKIERMAN, FRENCH JEWISH COMMUNITY: Oh, it's undoubtedly the most difficult period that we ever lived in France. I was a child of four when the war started, the Second World War. I have some souvenirs of that period. I could have never imagined that being a Jew would be a problem 60 years later.
RAZ: The government reports more than 300 anti-Semitic incidents so far this year, more than all of 2003. Almost all of the attacks, the government says, carried out by young North African men. France has the world's third-biggest Jewish community. Jews are 1 percent of the population here, but just one-tenth of the Muslim population. Muslims and Jews often live side-by-side in and around Paris. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict often plays out on the streets here. Groups working to combat the problem say poor, jobless, young North African men often take out their anger on Jews in France.
NASSER RAMDANE, ANTI-RACISM CAMPAIGNER (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Without a doubt, anti-Semitism is increasing in our country. Those who deny it have no idea what they're talking about.
RAZ: Ramdane says the problem is compounded because many Jews and Muslims are made to feel like outsiders in France. In 1980, a bomb outside this Paris synagogue killed four people. The then-French prime minister, Raymond Barre, remarked that two of those killed were innocent Frenchmen, implying the two Jews killed weren't French. It was a slip of the tongue, but something that the French-Jewish community hasn't forgotten. But these days, France's government is taking unprecedented steps to fight against the anti-Semitic violence.
JEAN FRANCOIS COPE, FRENCH INTERIOR MINISTRY: The government, the French government, is determined to fight against anti-Semitism. The government takes this issue very seriously, because we know that what's on this question of racism and anti-Semitism is the fact that there is, you know, disinformation. RAZ: Despite tougher laws, French Jews are leaving France at levels not seen in two decades. If current trends continue, France no longer will have the third-largest Jewish community in the world. Guy Raz, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: But for now, at least, it numbers more than half a million people. By contrast, just about 5,000 Jews live in New Zealand. Yet there, too, an apparent act of anti-Semitism is making headlines. It's wrapped up in a spy scandal involving the state of Israel.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
BLITZER: It started with two Israelis convicted of trying illegally to obtain a New Zealand passport, a valuable commodity in the world of international spy craft, one that could open up doors often closed to Israeli passport holders.But along the way, a hugely embarrassing failure that has resulted in angry allegations of espionage, strained diplomatic relations between Israel and New Zealand and now, apparently, the anti-Semitic desecration of a Jewish cemetery in New Zealand.
DAVID ZWARTZ, HEAD OF NEW ZEALAND JEWISH COUNCIL: It really makes me feel sick and reminds me of the history of the Jewish people, where this has happened over and over again, but never before in New Zealand.
BLITZER: The Israelis, Urie Kelman and Eli Cara, are now serving six-month jail items in New Zealand, after pleading guilty of trying to assume the identity of a wheelchair-bound New Zealander who has cerebral palsy. It's a classic spy technique, assume the identity of someone you know can't travel. Both Israelis are suspected of being agents of the Israel's Mossad spy agency.
HELEN CLARK, PRIME MINISTER OF NEW ZEALAND: That's completely unacceptable, and I don't think there would be New Zealanders who would say that New Zealand should do nothing in the face of another country's agents trying to breach our sovereignty. We have to take a stand on that, regardless of who the country is.
BLITZER: Prime Minister Clark has strongly condemned the vandalism at the cemetery, which authorities believe is the result of anger towards Israel. She also wants a formal apology from the Israeli government. So far, that has not been forthcoming.
SILVAN SHALOM, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: Israel is very sorry about the decision that was taken by the government of New Zealand, but we believe that, if we will work one with each other as we used to work in the past, we will overcome the last day of difficulties.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: This isn't the first time the Israelis or others have blundered in the world of international espionage, and probably won't be the last. I spoke with one Israeli close to the Mossad earlier today who made this point: "When it comes to fighting terrorism, you have to take chances. And sometimes, you get caught. "Still to come on "Newsnight," tragedy in India as a fire in a school claims the lives of over 80 young children. And still later, from Bangkok, the conclusion of the international AIDS conference. A look at what was accomplish and what wasn't. Around the world, this is "Newsnight."
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BLITZER: Tragedies are heartbreaking by definition, but some are harder to bear than others. Today, a kitchen fire at a rural school in India spread to the rest of the rickety school building. The older children mostly got away, but the youngest, more than 90 of them, did not. CNN's Satinder Bindra is on the scene -- Satinder.
BINDRA: Wolf, this town is struggling to deal with the scale and scope of this tragedy. Right now, Wolf, I'm standing here at the crematorium where 20 young children will be brought here. Just about 15 or 20 minutes ago, I witnessed one family carrying two children, one was a 12-year-old boy, another a 7-year-old girl. They were both laid to rest side-by-side among scenes of unimaginable grief. The state government here, Wolf, has announced some compensation. But for parents, that's not good enough. Nothing will bring their children back. And all the stores, all the businesses in this town, are shut as a mark of respect for the 90 children that have died. Some 20 children, Wolf, are in hospital. Four or five are in very serious condition. But this entire country of one billion people is praying for them to make it.Back to you.
BLITZER: How did -- what exactly happened? Set the scene for us. Walk us through how this tragedy occurred.
BINDRA: Wolf, first the school building is very, very small, very narrow. There are no regulated fire escapes, and then, officials tell us, there was a fire that started in the kitchen of the school. The fire then quickly spread to the roof the school, which was made, essentially, of bamboo shoots and the leaves taken from coconut trees. So it was very combustible. And the fire spread to the roof extremely quickly. The roof then collapsed on hundreds of screaming children and they had no escape. So many teachers just ran out of the school -- parents are extremely angry and upset about that -- leaving the children to fend for themselves. Most of the children that who died here, Wolf, were under ten years old. So they had very little idea what to do; they had very little idea where to go.
BLITZER: Satinder Bindra reporting on a horrible, horrible situation in India. Our deepest condolences to the families there as well. Thank you very much, Satinder. Just ahead on "Newsnight," they must be eating caviar. How else do you explain the rising cost of milk these days? Plus some of the fiercest competition this side of the Mississippi. You won't want to miss this. We'll show you what it is. First the break. This is "Newsnight."
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BLITZER: The phrase "sticker shock" was invented to describe what new car buyers often feel after walking around a showroom for the first time since their last purchase. These days, though, sticker shock seems to apply at the grocery store, as well. Pick up a gallon of milk and you'll see what we mean. How come the stuff costs so much nowadays? That's what we asked some people who ought to know, dairy farmers. Their answers may surprise you.
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TUNIS SWEETMAN, DAIRY FARMER: There's a lot of people making a lot of money off of milk. And, unfortunately, over the years, it has not been the dairy farmer. The greatest increase in our cost this year has been in fertilizer. One of the problems has always been that, for example, when the cost of fertilizer goes up, as it has this year, the cost of fuel goes up, as it has this year, the cost of feed, which has skyrocketed this year. None of those pricing factors are taken into consideration when figuring the price of milk.
BOB YOUNG, CHIEF ECONOMIST, AMERICAN FARM BUREAU: The government gets involved in setting the price of milk that goes into a bottle, in order to basically move milk from surplus areas into deficit areas. That basically is why there's a fluid milk price difference, to help make that milk move.
SWEETMAN: In the last few years, we have seen prices that have been the same as the prices that farmers have received back in the 1970s. And, as we have all of these input costs rising, we have it becoming more and more difficult for farmers to operate on a profit. What happens? Farmers go out of business.
RANDY DOTTY, DAIRY FARMER: A year ago, I sold off half of my mountain cows. The price of milk just wasn't doing nothing, wasn't covering costs.
SWEETMAN: We're seeing the result of supply and demand. Too many farmers have gone out, the demand has been constant or rising, so we see that spike in the milk prices. Another factor is that the Canadian border has closed because of the mad cow scare. That's causing the price of beef to rise. Now, since we were already receiving record-low milk prices at that time, it took a lot of dairy cows off the market in the way of slaughtering them for beef purposes.
DOTTY: The price has been so low for so long, you can only take so much of it, but the country does not understand that. They want cheap food, no matter where it comes from.
YOUNG: I think milk is viewed as being a very staple product, that it is basically a replacement for mother's milk, if you will. It is considered to be a fairly perfect food. If the price of the product were to go too high, would there be some reaction to that? I think absolutely, because it is such a special product.
SWEETMAN: It amazes me that we can actually even produce milk as cheaply as we're able to. Even that consumers have to pay $4 a gallon, I think it's a bargain. We're only getting about $1.75, at best, of that $4. And when you compare what you're getting for that $4, to that $1.25 12-ounce can of carbonated sugar water. When you compare it to that dollar bottle of spring water, you're getting 128 ounces of a wholesome, nutritious product.It's milk. It's always been around. It's good for you, and I think it's still a bargain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Tastes good too. A few other items to mention before we take a break, starting with a major recall of one of the best selling family cars in the country. It affects Ford Tauruses and Mercury Sables from the 1999, 2000 and 2001 model years that were sold in 22 cold weather states. That's about 900,000 cars. According to Ford, their springs are vulnerable to corrosion from road salt and could shatter and shred a tire. In the meantime, Wall Street had a pretty lackluster day, with the NASDAQ leading the losses, down more than a percent and a half. Still ahead on "Newsnight," the end of the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok. And the end, some fear, of global attention to the deadly disease.
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BLITZER: The International AIDS Conference, just now concluding in Bangkok, Thailand, after six days, is the largest such meeting ever held. That does not seem to be all that surprising, after all, the problem itself, global, staggering, daunting, has never been bigger, either.Here's a report from CNN's Aneesh Raman.
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RAMAN: A conference high on activism, trying to refocus a world suffering from complacency. At the closing ceremony, a mandate from former South African president, Nelson Mandela.
NELSON MANDELA, FORMER SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT: History will surely judge us harshly if we do not respond with all of the energy and resources that we can bring to bear in the fight against HIV-AIDS.
RAMAN: The central issue this week, U.S. President Bush's $15 billion emergency AIDS initiative, set forth last year. Attacks came on two fronts. On prevention, critics argue too much emphasis is being put on abstinence, rather than condom distribution and sex education. Fueling the fire, the Ugandan president linking his country's success to going beyond that very pillar of the Bush plan.
YOWERI MUSEVENI, PRESIDENT OF UGANDA: Abstinence. Be faithful to each other. But if you can't, use a condom. It is a
(UNINTELLIGIBLE)
process, rather than another unique solution approach.
RAMAN: The second line of attack on treatment methods emerged when U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Randall Tobias arrived. Critics, including French President Jacques Chirac and Britain's international development minister, Gareth Thomas, called on the U.S. to put resources towards generic, rather than high-priced, name brand drugs. But the Bush plan aside, in a conference void of any major medical announcements, the political call to arms became a constant mantra.
KOFI ANNAN, UN SECRETARY-GENERAL: There must be no more sticking heads in the sand, no more embarrassment, and no more hiding behind a veil of apathy.
RAMAN: There is fear, though, that as the conference ends, so will the focus on AIDS and fear that in two years, when the world gathers again, the numbers will be no smaller, the situation no better. Aneesh Rahman, CNN, Bangkok.
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BLITZER: An estimated 38 million people are infected with AIDS on a global basis. It's an astounding, horrifying number. While some will be lucky to have their lives extended through drug treatment, the vast majority will likely die from the disease or an AIDS-related illness. But the facts for those in the United States cast a slightly different perspective on the global epidemic.
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BLITZER: More than 14,000 Americans died of AIDS in 2001, according for the Center for Disease Control, which tracks these things. That's just slightly less than the 20,000 homicide victims in the United States that year.More than twice that number, 42,000, died of breast cancer, another disease that gets a lot of attention and a lot of funding. 43,000 people died in car accidents.But look at these numbers. Diabetes killed 71,000, more than double that number died from lung cancer, and although you probably have heard it over and over again, heart disease remains the number one killer of Americans by a huge margin. 700,000 people died from heart disease.And that presents one of the biggest challenges for AIDS activists, keeping the topic high on the political agenda when 50 times more Americans die from heart disease than AIDS.
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BLITZER: All those numbers are staggering to be sure.We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back.
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BLITZER: Regular "Newsnight" viewers know that this broadcast does not ordinarily cover sports. But some events are so compelling, so dramatic, so rich in the human details that make a great story that even "Newsnight" cannot resist.CNN's Eric Philips was on the sidelines.
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PHILIPS: The mood is intense. The competition is fierce. Though it's all about games, it's not about fun here at the 38th annual American Pool Checkers national tournament. Over 100 men, mostly African-Americans seniors from all over the country, have come to Memphis, Tennessee to jump or be jumped. At stake are trophies and the top prize of $500 and bragging rights. These players are serious.
DR. ERVIN SMITH, PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN POOL CHECKERS ASSOCIATION: Very serious. We're like what you'll call the lifers at the game of checkers.
PHILIPS: They spend their lives playing, studying and sharpening their skills, skills they bring to this three-day event, where everyone from masters to novices can test their wits and practice tactical trash talking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shoot, you didn't show me nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How can you win
(UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I tell him a lot of times that I play this game for bread and meat. And when I don't win, I don't eat. And I point down at this.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILIPS: What makes American pool checkers different from regular checkers, you never really feel safe. Jumping can happen both forward and backward.
SMITH: It's sort of like driving, same thing. You've got to be vigilant all the time, behind you, beside you, in front of you. You've got to look at all directions at once. It takes skill. It takes time. It takes patience. It takes discipline.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It takes too long. I know -- I understand they got to study and see what they got to do. They just take too long.
PHILIPS: While many of today's kids don't choose checkers, 31- year-old Emanuel Rogers was a child checker chaser. He says he still plays because it stimulates his mind.
ROGERS: It's so mentally draining, especially when you're playing them hard guys, which all of them are.
PHILIPS: Albert Barnett of Atlanta, better known as "East Point," was last year's American pool checker champ. We figured we'd offer him a checker challenge, an embarrassment waiting to happen for me, that is.
BARNETT: That's a bad move.
PHILIPS: That was a bad move?
BARNETT: Yeah.
PHILIPS: How much of it is luck? How much of it is skill?
BARNETT: Most of it's skill, but you still need a little luck.
PHILIPS: And a little trash talking. Of course, that doesn't work on true masters.Eric Philips, CNN, Memphis, Tennessee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: That's tonight's "Newsnight." Aaron will be back Monday. Pleasure filling in for him.I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.
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