The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

GWEN IFILL: Good evening. I'm Gwen Ifill. Jim Lehrer is away. On the NewsHour tonight, a summary of the news, an update on the Washington sniper story; plus a look at the media's handling of the coverage and the messages; the second part of Elizabeth Farnsworth's report on Turkey as a reluctant ally in a possible war with Iraq; remembering former CIA Director Richard Helms, who died yesterday.

NEWS SUMMARY

GWEN IFILL: The shooting death of a bus driver yesterday was the work of the Washington-area sniper. Police today said ballistics tests and other evidence confirmed that link. They would not comment on letters reportedly left at the scenes of the last two shootings. According to news stories, the sniper claimed in the letters to have tried to contact authorities several times and demanded millions of dollars. 13 shootings have been linked to the sniper in three weeks. Ten people have been killed. We'll have more on all of this in just a moment. President Bush signed a $355 billion defense bill into law today, an 11% increase over last year, and the largest since Ronald Reagan was President. It includes military pay raises, funding for two new aegis-class destroyers, and money to develop a national missile defense system. An Islamic extremist group in Southeast Asia was labeled a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. today. The group has been linked to al-Qaida in the past, and is suspected in the Bali nightclub bombing that killed more than 180 people earlier this month. State Department Spokesman Phil Reeker said the U.S. has asked the United Nations to impose financial and other sanctions on the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah or JI.

PHIL REEKER, State Department: The United States and our partners around the world have long had concerns about JI the group designated today and today's designation is the result of a process that is underway since well before the horrific Bali bombings. The Bali terrorist attack, the worst attack since September 11, 2001 claimed victims from 29 countries and it is an example of how terrorists threatens democratic institutions, undermines economies, destabilizes regions and kills innocent people.

GWEN IFILL: The terrorist designation allows the U.S. to freeze the group's assets, and makes it a crime for Americans to assist them. In Germany, more revelations today from the first suspected September 11 conspirator to stand trial. Mounir el Motassadeq, a Moroccan, admitted he transferred money from an al-Qaida lieutenant to at least one of the suicide hijackers, but he denied knowing anything of the 9/11 attack plans. Prosecutors charge the money was used for flight training in the U.S. In Russia today, dozens of armed gunmen and women stormed a Moscow theater, taking the audience hostage. An estimated 700 people were gathered there to see a popular musical performance. Some women and children were permitted to leave. They said the gunmen claimed to be Chechens demanding an end to Russia's war against Chechnya. Heavier workloads for nurses result in more patient deaths, that according to a new study released today in the "Journal of the American Medical Association." University of Pennsylvania researchers found post-surgical patients stood a greater chance of dying in hospitals where nurses took care of more people. The report comes amid concerns of a nationwide nursing shortage. On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 44 points at 8494. And the NASDAQ was up 27 points, more than 2%, at 1320. Former CIA Director Richard Helms died last night at his Washington home. The CIA announced that today. No cause of death was given. Helms was appointed CIA head in 1966. He was fired by Richard Nixon in 1973 for refusing to block an FBI probe into the Watergate scandal. Richard Helms was 89. We'll have more on Mr. Helms at the end of the program. Also coming, a sniper update, plus the media's role, Turkey and the Kurds.

UPDATE MANHUNT

GWEN IFILL: The latest on the Washington area sniper story, Kwame Holman begins our coverage.

KWAME HOLMAN: Regular schedules resumed today at the Montgomery County, Maryland bus stop where Conrad Johnson was shot and killed a day after he became the area sniper's tenth homicide victim. Meanwhile, investigators appealed to any potential witnesses to yesterday's events to come forward, including illegal immigrants who may be wary of speaking to authorities. Monday, Richmond-area police arrested two undocumented immigrants. They later were cleared of any involvement in the shootings and handed over to immigration authorities. Montgomery County police chief Charles Moose:

CHARLES MOOSE: We want to talk to them, ask questions about what they saw, heard in the area of this shooting. That would be the focus of our questions and certainly please understand, sir, that Montgomery County police officers do not have any authority or authorization to enforce immigration laws and we want to talk to them about this crime.

KWAME HOLMAN: Chief Moose reiterated his statement of yesterday that the killer has demonstrated the ability to shoot any person, any gender, anywhere, and at any time. He also revealed yesterday that police had received a letter threatening the safety of children. All that has left parents and students struggling to deal with the climate of fear.

REPORTER: What are you telling your kids about the sniper?

WOMAN: That this is a horrible person but that most people are very, very good and that we can't let him change our lives and we have to keep going and be very cautious.

STUDENT: I don't want to be at school right now because I don't like walking in the morning because it's dark outside and I can't really -- I don't feel very safe in the mornings.

KWAME HOLMAN: Schools in the greater Washington, D.C., area, and far beyond, once again canceled all outdoor activities. A few school systems continued to lock their outside doors to protect students inside. Meanwhile, government officials tried to ease the public's insecurity. President Bush, at a White House event, said federal agencies are providing all necessary resources to aid in the effort. Maryland's governor, Parris Glendening, said the state may place the National Guard at polling places on election day in two weeks. And Chief Moose made this emphatic point.

CHARLES MOOSE: If you have some concern that we are doing something to jeopardize your safety in order to enhance our investigation, then I want to put those thoughts to rest that at the foundation of our process and it is a very emotional process, thoughtful process but at the bottom line, the three of us it is always public safety first and the investigation is second.

KWAME HOLMAN: Moose deflected several questions about his department's ongoing communications with the area sniper.

GWEN IFILL: As Kwame just reported, one key aspect of this investigation has involved the cat-and-mouse communication between law enforcement and the sniper, much of it springing from two letters apparently left by the sniper for the police. Sari Horwitz of the "Washington Post" has been reporting on this. She joins us now. Welcome.

SARI HORWITZ: Thank you.

GWEN IFILL: Tell us what you can about the contents of this latest letter, the one discovered at the last site.

SARI HORWITZ: Let me start with the Ashland letter. That was left in the woods. Investigators found it tacked to a tree. It was about three pages long, double spaced, neatly printed but there were misspelled words and grammatical mistakes and there were three major themes in the letter: First a demand for money, $10 million to be a deposited into a domestic bank account and the writer of the letter gave details about the account; second frustration and anger that the police were ignoring the letter writer. The letter writer said the police were incompetent and he had tried to research the police in Montgomery County and the FBI at least six times and five people had to die because they ignored him and hung up on him.

GWEN IFILL: So as far as you know the second letter the contents were not so dissimilar from the first?

SARI HORWITZ: Connect. The second letter was shorter but made similar remarks and also threatened children as did the first one.

GWEN IFILL: Let's take it an item at a time. Let's talk first about the ransom. It sounds like a gigantic ransom note -- $10 million.

SARI HORWITZ: A huge amount

GWEN IFILL: Was this what Chief Moose was talking about yesterday when he communicated late last night that they wouldn't be able to make the electronic transfer that they asked about?

SARI HORWITZ: We think so. We don't know exactly what Chief Moose was talking about but that's seems most reasonable because she was asking for money to be deposited into a account by a deadline of Monday. They didn't meet that deadline. And he might have been saying that they could not electronically transfer this money.

GWEN IFILL: Do the authorities have reason to know why after a week he is suddenly asking for money?

SARI HORWITZ: No, and of course we don't know if there have been requests before for money. This is the first time that we heard this. Also in this letter he told the police he was going to call and left a number but there was a problem with the number and it didn't work. And by the time the police figured out how to get this number to work and rerouted it commandeered the number to police headquarters -- the deadline there had passed so they were unable to communicate with the shooter that day.

GWEN IFILL: You also said the letter writer seemed angry at the place for what the letter writer thinks is boggling the investigation, not take five or six phone calls. Is that something the police have responded to?

SARI HORWITZ: They haven't responded to it. They haven't discussed the contents of letter at all except for the postscript, which is your children aren't safe anywhere any time. They haven't discussed anything else about the letter. It was interesting the writer names people he talked to, people who hung up on him and ignored him, says whether they're men or women, clearly frustrated by this experience.

GWEN IFILL: Why did the police decide to release details of that postscript only that very chilling postscript about the children and nothing else not even a handwriting sample?

SARI HORWITZ: That's a good question. We wonder about that. One theory might be that in this letter as in the tarot card the writer said I am God, do not release to this the press. Perhaps the police were trying to establish some kind of rapport and credibility, establish credibility with the sniper and so they didn't release it. There were a lot of questions asked to Moose at one of first press conferences yesterday about a report in some newspapers that school children were at risk and sort of demands that they clarify this. That many may have put pressure on Chief Moose along with a lot of discussions with other chiefs around the region to release information so that parents would know what was in this note specifically about children.

GWEN IFILL: Now you mentioned the tarot card. That was a tarot card that was found with the note that read I am God outside of school where the 13-year-old was shot last week. Is there a definitive link as far as you can tell between these letters and that card?

SARI HORWITZ: Investigators have told us they believe the same person left both of these messages. There apparently are phrases. We know I am God and police don't release this to the press that are the same in both of them but investigators who I have spoken to see very confident that these two come from the same person.

GWEN IFILL: It seems to us and as we speak to you tonight we're waiting to hear from Chief Moose again do we think that so much of the information now hinges on this two-way communication between the Chief and the cameras and the sniper in the letters he is leaving?

SARI HORWITZ: It's hard to know. There are all kinds of clues we're being given. Hard to know. We hear the chief has actually not talked to this person personally. But there's some sort of line set up he can call into. We just don't know how much communication is taking place at this point.

GWEN IFILL: Sari you have covered a lot of big investigations. Does this investigation that involves over 1,000 federal agents and multi jurisdictions, counties all around the Washington area, how is this investigation working? Is it working well I guess?

SARI HORWITZ: Well, that's a controversy controversial point. Many people have said it's not well organized that each jurisdiction only knows what their jurisdiction is working on. But they don't have the bigger picture -- a lot of complaints about the fact that there are so many police departments involved shall the ATF and the FBI, Customs, various agencies, unwieldy investigation.

GWEN IFILL: The President said today that he, that the United States is giving is lending as much effort as it can to help local law enforcement get to the bottom of this. Is there any discontent that the federal government is not giving all it could?

SARI HORWITZ: No. What I hear is people are pretty with all the resources and the help they are getting from everybody. The real question the problem I'm hearing about is more than it's disjoint and disorganized and not everybody is talking to each other. On the other hand, we do know the chiefs of every jurisdiction and the key point people are talking to each other on a conference call every day sometimes more than once a day and there are several meetings going on.

GWEN IFILL: Okay. Sari Horwitz thank you very much for joining us.

SARI HORWITZ: Thank you.

FOCUS MEDIA & MESSAGES

GWEN IFILL: Now to the coverage of this ongoing story and to media correspondent Terence Smith.

CHIEF CHARLES MOOSE, Montgomery County, Md.: We'd like to thank the media for carrying a message that has been very well done. I know that that's somewhat awkward, and we appreciate that.

TERENCE SMITH: What's "awkward" for Chief Charles Moose is the sometimes tense but interdependent relationship between the press and police. The chief's use of the media to send veiled messages to the shooter is only the latest example of this constant process of give-and-take. Police need to communicate with a jittery public. The press needs to inform the public and remain independent from law enforcement.

MIKE BUCHANAN, WUSA-TV Anchor: The killer left a calling card.

TERENCE SMITH: While relying on the media, the chief has lashed out at it on several occasions. He blasted the CBS affiliate in Washington, WUSA, and the "Washington Post" for reporting on the tarot card message left near the scene of one shooting.

CHIEF CHARLES MOOSE: I have not received any message that the citizens of Montgomery County want channel 9 or the "Washington Post" or any other media outlet to solve this case. If they do, then let me know.

TERENCE SMITH: WUSA TV responded with this statement:

GORDON PETERSON, WUSA-TV Anchor: WUSA Nine News stands behind our report. The information was obtained from several credible sources active in the ongoing investigation. We made contact with appropriate police authorities, and a request to withhold the information was never made by the authorities. WUSA Nine News take sour responsibility to inform the public seriously and will continue to do so.

TERENCE SMITH: While both press and police serve the public, their duties occasionally collide, as they did yesterday when leaks to news organizations led to a late disclosure from authorities.

DAVID BLOOM, NBC News: So why did authorities wait three days to disclose the threat to children, and why did they ask NBC News last night not to? Because, sources say, the sniper in his two notes to police explicitly warned them not to publicly disclose this information, threatening more violence. In the end they sided that with at least nine and perhaps now ten murders blamed on the sniper in less than three weeks the public on this matter had the right to same information they had.

TERENCE SMITH: Chief Moose has derided the "ranting and raving" of crime analysts and former law enforcement officials in the media.

MIKE RUSTIGAN, Criminologist: There's two basic motivations here with the serial sniper.

TERENCE SMITH: With so little real information to report, broadcast and print media have enlisted a small army of experts to theorize on the shooter's motivation.

LEVIN: He's trying to do something so heinous that he gets the publicity he seeks

TERENCE SMITH: and to handicap the progress of the investigation.

CARDINALE: But they're doing everything they can do to track him down.

TERENCE SMITH: Some reporters have deputized themselves.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN Anchor: I'm going to try to do a little police work here myself.

TERENCE SMITH: The shooting spree has also provided a ratings boost.

ANNOUNCER: Sniper on the loose. Tonight on "Crossfire."

TERENCE SMITH: All three cable news channels have seen a 25% to 30% jump in viewership since the attacks began.

TERENCE SMITH: Joining me now are law enforcement veteran Mike Brooks, who served 26 years on the Washington, D.C., police force and was a member of the FBI's joint terrorism task force. He has been providing analysis on this story for CNN. Also, Washington news anchor Andrea McCarren of the ABC affiliate WJLA-TV; and Rita Cosby, Fox News Channel national correspondent and host of "Foxwire." Welcome to you, all.

Andrea McCarren Chief Moose is not happy with the media; he was caustic in his comments about the disclosure involving the tarot card. What is your response?

ANDREA McCarren, Anchor, WJLA-TV: Well, Terry, it is a daily balancing act for us in local news. We have an obligation to our communities. We're members of that community. We have an obligation to report and of course it's far easier to disseminate information than to withhold it; and we are cooperating with authorities on a local level not divulging things. Yesterday morning we were in the unusual and extraordinary position of not divulging where police had put up road blocks trying to catch this guy because they felt that would alienate the investigation. We were asked by the local hospital where this victim was taken not to divulge the location of that simply because they were afraid security-wise. So it's something we have to gauge day by day. I also -- I'm proud of how local coverage has gone simply because we have not gone rapid fire with every bit of information we have gotten in as I have witnessed some of the 24-hour cable stations have. For instance, they went last week reporting for hours fanning the hysteria that there were reports of a shooting at an elementary school. That proved completely false. And you can see the potential impact of that on our community. They reported about a shooting at a motel where we know local police dismissed that as a domestic incident right away. So we are using restraint in what we report because again it's our community we're reporting to.

TERENCE SMITH: Rita Cosby, as the representative of cable news in this discussion, how do you plead to that statement by Andrea?

RITA COSBY, Fox News National Correspondent: Well, can I tell that you I think we have been extremely responsible and I can tell you firsthand because of I know of at least seven or eight shootings where we got details and we said wait until we know specifically that this looks like there are some signs pointing in the direction, until investigators are going down. In fact, I was the one who got the first report last Saturday night about that shooting in Ashland, Virginia, and until I knew that Nancy Demme, who is the captain, of course, of the police department, was heading down there that clearly was a signal until we knew the roads were being blocked off then we went to air with it, and it was only until then. I do think there has been some hysteria. I think it's a very frightening story, but I will also tell you that there a lot of decisions made behind the scenes, and even though we're filling a lot of time, the public is very interested in this but there is a lot of editorial processes behind the scenes that you're not aware about. And I can also tell you that it's interesting we have a lot of discussions and I think as this story has been developing we're very careful not to report every shooting, not to report every particular incident and also putting it in context too. I also care about that community; I lived there for six and a half years. I just moved to up New York recently. So this hits home for me as well. But I think we're very careful about what we report, how we report it, and also putting it in context that this is still very, very random and a very slight incident scary, very frightening but still saying to people look let's show you the big picture. And I do think the broadcast networks and I think particularly the 24 hour news because we have a lot of time to fill, we have been doing a very good job of putting it in perspective, trying to understanding the story and understand the context.

TERENCE SMITH: All right. Let me ask Mike Brooks from his perspective from your law enforcement experience having dealt with stories and situations like this including being a negotiator in crisis situations, what is the effect of this sort of coverage on an investigation? Does it make it more difficult?

MIKE BROOKS, Law Enforcement Analyst: I think right now, Terry, that the media has been doing pretty well. Early on chief Moose came out and he chastised the media and he came back and he was a little more conciliatory; then he came out and chastised the media for following some of his investigators around supposedly. But I think the relationship in the Washington metropolitan area, as Andrea said, has always been fairly good. Having been on the other side of that for many, many years -- and I fostered a relationship with the media personnel that we see on the air today and, you know, sometimes you can live by the media and you can die by the media and I think that the media overall is doing a fairly good job. Some of the problem I have is with some of the as Chief Moose put it when he was chastising the media or some of talking heads like myself -- the news agencies have to be extremely careful to vet the people before they put them on the air to make sure that who they say they are and what their background is is accurate. Some of things they are saying could exacerbate the situation and you get profilers and other people on the air talking about the shooter as a coward, calling them names. The shooter may be feeding off of some of the news coverage. If people don't think that he, she or they are watching, they are sadly mistaken. These people are watching; law enforcement is using the media as a conduit to the shooter.

TERENCE SMITH: From your experience, is it credible that Chief Moose was actually upset that the media by disclosing let's say the tarot card or perhaps the suggestion of harm to children in the letter that this was forcing his hand, that this was jeopardizing a line of communication with the shooter?

MIKE BROOKS: We'll take the tarot card for instance, I don't think it was that big of a deal. I spoke to some of my former colleagues and some of my sources in the Washington metropolitan area who are working the case and they also thought it wasn't that big of a deal at that time and still don't really think it was that big of a deal. Now, we have to remember -- Chief Moose has to remember that that information was given to Mike Buchanan from the CBS affiliate WUSA he was given that information by a law enforcement officer. Is it one of locals or one of the federal officers who are investigating this, we don't know -- but his -- I consider him a friend of law enforcement. When I was on the street, he was one of the people that I trusted the most. If they had asked him to hold the information, he would have held the information; WUSA held information about a triple homicide in the Georgetown section of Washington for a long time because investigators asked them to do so. So I think they are very responsible and I don't really think it was that big of a deal.

TERENCE SMITH: All right. Let me ask Andrea McCarren about. You mentioned several things that you knew and did not report out of concern for the impact. Has your station made a policy decision to observe -- when the police ask you not to report something, what is your answer?

ANDREA McCARREN: We are willing to cooperate in this instance. That doesn't mean we're not asking the police chief tough questions but -- we're not pandering to the police but we're cooperating as members of community. I might also add that this is one of those rare occasions I believe in local news that we're actually performing a public service. And I would agree with Mike, I thought the tarot card incident was not a big deal. I actually thought that was the case of good reporting. And it is my understanding that the reporter in question was not asked to withhold that information.

TERENCE SMITH: Well, that's clearly the case from the statement from WUSA, but in the other instance involving disclosure of some of the contents of the letter from the shooter I would gather Chief Moose is arguing his hand was forced by the media?

ANDREA McCARREN: And we're in an interesting position of being used as pawns somewhat as he relays these cryptic statements to the sniper. It's an extraordinary case. I have gotten a slew of e-mail from our viewers and the vast majority is supportive of what we're doing. In the early stages of this back October 2nd, October 3rd, there was a lot of concern about our round-the-clock coverage and that we were encouraging the sniper.

TERENCE SMITH: That he was feeding off it in some fashion?

ANDREA McCARREN: Exactly. Exactly.

TERENCE SMITH: Rita Cosby, you took some heat earlier from media critics and others by seeking out comment from David Berkowitz -- the so called "Son of Sam" -- a serial killer who is now in jail for his killings back in the 70s. Do you have any regrets about that? What are your thoughts in hindsight about seeking his comment on this case -- a serial killer on a case miles away that I suppose he can't have any particular knowledge of?

ANDREA McCARREN: Well, it's interesting. As you say, he doesn't have any particular knowledge but you just talked about all the different talking heads. Mike and Andrea were just talking about all the different talking heads. Here is a man who does have unfortunately some particular insight. I have absolutely no regrets with talking with him. And the reason I say that if David Berkowitz had written to me and said look atta boy -- that was a great thing the sniper did -- keep going and encouraging him that would absolutely be despicable. That was not the case. In the letter that I received from him instead he said I'm urging this man to stop; I made a horrible mistake, and I hope he is listening to me. He also provided some interesting insight that may be helpful to law enforcement, talking about some of the possible motivations and also some of the ways that maybe law enforcement could reach out to him. This is a very critical phase, a communication phase, as we've been talking about, the back and forth between the police and the sniper or snipers as we don't know at this point. David Berkowitz unfortunately knows that situation all too well. This is a man who was in that situation years ago and he talked about why he communicated with police. And he said maybe there are some things that I can suggest that may be helpful. His message was one, please get this man behind bars; this is a terrible thing.

TERENCE SMITH: Mike Brooks, what do you think of that from a law enforcement perspective, approaching someone like David Berkowitz?

MIKE BROOKS: Well, I don't think that there's any harm in that. In fact, law enforcement psychologists, the FBI psychologists, when these people are caught and when they are arrested, they are make an effort to go out to interview these people to find out what makes them tick, what was the motivation behind this, their particular crime that they committed, and to let the people know a little bit about the background behind what drives some of these serial killers. I think it's very interesting. I myself on the Berkowitz case I knew a lot of that -- when I did training with the FBI on psychological profiling they used the interviews that they have done with these serial killers as part of training to delve into the psyche of these people.

TERENCE SMITH: Andrea McCarren what is your reaction?

ANDREA McCARREN: I think on a local level we are being more caution in terms of vetting the relevance of our guests. For instance, if we interview a profiler, it's more about what a profiler can do rather than asking them to tell us who the sniper is in our area. We're serving a different function now. Rather than filling airtime with a slew of talking heads, what we're doing is informing parents and in some cases reassuring them, telling them about school closings, changes in traffic patterns. We have a different role to play in this.

TERENCE SMITH: Rita Cosby, how much is too much when it comes to saturation coverage of a story like this? One -- a viewer of ours rather wrote into to us today and accused of media of creating what he called hysteria by design. What do you think of that?

RITA COSBY: I don't think there's any by design. I mean, I can tell you that I have been in discussions at the highest levels at Fox Network and I know my colleagues at the other networks go through the same thing. This is not a story that we're anxious to report. The ratings have been good but that's a side effect. This is a story that we really care about and something that hits everybody in this community. And as I just mentioned to you, this is a community that I lived in for six and a half years. So it hits very close to home for me and when we saw the shooting the other day of bus driver and then of course the school boy, all these cases, your heart just sank. This is a story that is so personal, almost unlike any other story that we've covered. I do think though as you point out there is this fear of over saturation -- on the other hand the story keeps changing. It keeps evolving and people certainly want to tune in. I mean, you look at the numbers. People are interested; they want to know is their community safe. And it is a toughie -- it's a tough balancing act. But I think we and I think the other networks are doing a better job. I think at first there was sheer craziness and how do we cover this because it was a story like any other that we've ever had to cover. On the other hand I think as time goes on everybody I think is doing a better job of putting into perspective explaining the context and even doing the things that Andrea is talking about. We're addressing international and also of course domestic audience, we at Fox News, but we're also focusing on still what can you could to be safe because this is a story even if you don't live in Washington, D.C., you're scared. So we're still trying to provide the same type of tips and same type of information; I think we're doing a better job all of us at realizing we have to stay calm and we also have a public service, too, and we realize that.

ANDREA McCARREN: I just want to give your viewers an idea of level of craziness this has reached. Montgomery County police have issued somewhere between seven and eight hundred media credentials to organizations from around the world. I happen to have children in the local school system where the shootings have been happening. My five-year-old daughter was ambushed by media, overseas media, at school today because she was weeping and hugging her father's legs. This had nothing to do with the fact that there was a sniper out there, and she didn't want to go to school; it was the simple fact that her father hading forgotten her pink backpack today. So the level of hysteria is fueled by the international coverage.

TERENCE SMITH: All right. Mike Brooks, very briefly, can you tell us the impact of this sort of saturation coverage on an investigation, does it help, does it hurt or does it do both? Quickly.

MIKE BROOKS: I think it can help and it can hurt. We have to make sure especially on speculation. You can speculate all you want. But you have to make sure you say if you think it's speculation instead of saying it's fact. We're getting a lot of this from some of the profiling experts. They are saying this person is this way and this person is going to be doing this, this is his next step; all speculation. I think it can help also to get the word out. People all over the country have been calling me saying, hey, I have a kid that's going to be going on a field trip to Washington. Here in Atlanta, Georgia, the people are saying as he moves further South to Ashland, Virginia, is he coming this way, is he coming to Georgia? People care about what is going on and the media is the conduit to get that information out to the people.

TERENCE SMITH: Okay. Mike Brooks, Rita Cosby, Andrea McCarren, thank you all three very much.

GWEN IFILL: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight: Why Turkey is on edge and remembering Richard Helms.

FOCUS RELUCTANT ALLY

GWEN IFILL: Now, part two of Elizabeth Farnsworth's report from Turkey, a reluctant ally in the run-up to war with Iraq. She begins at Incirlik air base near Adana.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: United States and British fighter jets are already using the Turkish airbase Incirlik to fly patrols over northern Iraq as part of "Operation Northern Watch." Since the Gulf War, the fighters, operating under strict rules of engagement laid down by Turkey, have patrolled and protected a Kurdish safe-haven in northern Iraq from attack by Saddam Hussein. But so far, Turkey's leaders have been reluctant to commit themselves publicly to wider participation in any future war. General Tommy Franks, head of the U.S. Central command, was in Turkey Monday. He visited the tomb of Turkey's national hero Kemal Ataturk in the capital city, Ankara, after visiting the high command. Franks was the latest in a series of U.S. officials to visit Turkey in recent months.

GENERAL TOMMY FRANKS: We made no requests of Turkey for specifics with regard to the positioning of any forces or any assets vis- -vis operations in Iraq. No requests were made.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Formal requests may not have been made yet, but Foreign Minister Sukru Sina Gurel indicated earlier this month that negotiations are under way.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Can you tell us what Turkey wants from the United States in return for cooperating on Iraq?

SUKRU SINA GUREL: We feel that our strategic partnership should include every aspect of our common interests, and we feel that in a strategic partnership not only one's side's political priorities are brought into discussion or considered as a matter of cooperation, and this is the understanding that we've reached with our American friends.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: What is the United States asking of you?

SUKRU SINA GUREL: I would not be able to go into detail in that issue, but of course, we'll be cooperating with the United States in the future as we did in the past in order to create better conditions for peace and security in the wide region that Turkey and the United States are both active and effective at.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: You won't tell me what the U.S. is asking for?

SUKRU SINA GUREL: (Laughs)

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The United States used Incirlik and other Turkish bases to launch attacks on Iraq during the Gulf War, and it is widely assumed among Turks that the U.S. will also need the bases this time around. Some newspapers have also reported that Turkey expects to be asked to serve as a staging ground for U.S. ground troops as well. The key problem for Turkey is that the U.S. also needs cooperation from the Kurds of Northern Iraq, who have much experience fighting Saddam Hussein, and this means offering them something in return. And as we reported last night, Turkey's leaders say further Kurdish gains in Iraq could destabilize towns like Diyarbakir in Turkey's heavily Kurdish southeast. Kurds there have waged a long non-violent struggle for more civil rights, and guerrillas of the Marxist Kurdish workers' party, the PKK, have also fought a violent struggle, partly based in Iraq, that wound down only three years ago. Defense Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu.

SABAHATTIN CAKMAKOGLU ( Translated ): For a long time, close to 20 years, the separatist terrorist organization has used Iraq as its base. For this reason, northern Iraq has been the focus of our preventive efforts. We would be against any kind of new arrangement for the Kurds there.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The defense minister pointed out that in the safety of the no-fly zone, Kurds in northern Iraq have already built what comes close to being a separate state. They have their own currency, schools, and police, and last month they took very public steps to further assert their autonomy. They convened a parliament and prepared a controversial draft constitution for an autonomous Kurdish zone inside a decentralized post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. Turkey's leaders condemned the parliament and the constitution as going too far. Cengiz Candar is a columnist for the daily newspaper "Yeni Shafak."

CENGIZ CANDAR: They are so much focused on the disintegration of Iraq, which would result in an independent Kurdish entity under the American security umbrella, because otherwise it can't survive. The Turks have made it very clear they won't permit it.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: After a meeting of Turkey's national security council in Ankara, earlier this month, newspapers reported that a decision was made to "Convey to the U.S. and the Kurdish group in northern Iraq that a declaration of a Kurdish state would be considered a cause for war."

CENGIZ CANDAR: What the Turks asked from Americans are guarantees for the territorial integrity of Iraq.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: In other words...

CENGIZ CANDAR: It's not the kind of relationship that the Turks asking the Americans, "please stop the Kurds from forming an independent state." It's a declaration on the Turkish part to the Americans that we will not permit it.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Turkey's military, shown here training to fight the mountain-based Kurds, confirmed recently that its troops have been in Northern Iraq for several years to prevent attacks on Turkey by the PKK guerrillas based there. And there were unconfirmed stories in Turkish newspapers last Friday reporting that up to 12,000 more Turkish troops moved into Iraq last week in a show of strength. Turkey has the second largest army in NATO after the United States. Some Turkish planners are arguing that still more troops should move into Iraq in the event of war. Retired Major General Armagan Kuloglu, a fellow at a think tank in Ankara, has written a widely circulated paper urging the Turkish general staff to take control of Northern Iraq if war breaks out to protect Turkey's interests. Those interests go beyond the Kurds, he said, and include protecting the "Turkmen," a Turkish-speaking minority in northern Iraq.

GEN. ARMAGAN KULOGLU (Ret.) (Translated): It's essential that Turkey take control of northern Iraq during and after a military campaign. First, it will enable us avoid a refugee problem. Second, it will provide the Turkmen minority with security of life and property. We share important values with the Turkmen in terms of culture, language, and history.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The Turkmen, have lived for millennia in Northern Iraq, especially in the oil-rich region around the cities of Kirkuk and Mosul. Like Kurds, Turkmen want autonomy in that region in a federal Iraq if Saddam Hussein is overthrown. This Turkmen family from Kirkuk is living in Istanbul, in Western Turkey, after having been on the move for several years. They fled from Kirkuk into the Kurdish safe haven nine years ago, escaping repression by Saddam Hussein. Then several months ago, they fled what they called Kurdish repression in the safe-haven. The children have never known any safe place to live, they said.

INTERPRETER: They came here to save their lives. They haven't gone to school. They want their kids to have a normal life.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Our interpreter this night was Orhan Ketene, a Turkmen who was visiting in Istanbul when we were there. He lives most of the time in Washington, D.C., where he's pressing Turkmen claims in meetings between Bush Administration planners and the Iraqi opposition. There are somewhere between half a million and three million Turkmen in Iraq. The number is a matter of some dispute.

ORHAN KETENE, Iraqi Turkmen Front: Turkmen should have their rightful place per their population which is about 13% to 15%, and everybody should live in freedom and democracy, and they should have their political, social, and economic rights.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Do you think the Turkmen should have Kirkuk?

ORHAN KETENE: Kirkuk is the main city of the Turkmen. Yes, Kirkuk is a Turkmen city despite all the claims for it by Kurds or Arabs.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The pro-Turkmen campaign is an indication of the competing claims by varying groups in Northern Iraq and shows the challenges faced by the Bush Administration in planning for the post-war period there. For example, not only Turkmen and Kurds claim the oil rich region about Kirkuk and Mosul; some Turkish leaders do, too. Columnist Cengiz Candar says Turks are convinced Iraq could disintegrate in another war.

CENGIZ CANDAR: Iraq is a very artificial, superficial entity concocted by the British/French, mainly British diplomacy -- in the wake of the First World War while the Ottoman Empire was disintegrating.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And so once again as it has through its history, Turkey is pursuing policies aimed at preventing a disintegration of Iraq and of Turkey itself. Meanwhile, in the southeast in Diyarbakir, Kurdish leaders are trying to reassure officials in Ankara that whatever happens in Iraq, it won't make Turkey's Kurds more divisive or dangerous. Diyarbaki's Kurdish Mayor Feredun Celik:

FEREDUN CELIK ( Translated ): It's true that in the past fighting took place. Some organizations resorted to armed struggle, but what we want now is a democratic Turkey in which Kurds will have all the freedoms and human rights. Any anxiety on the part of Turkey in this respect is misplaced.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: People in Diyarbakir are waiting to see whether war will, in fact, break out in Iraq, while officials in Ankara maneuver to cut Turkey's losses if it does.

GWEN IFILL: Next week, Elizabeth will report on the role of Islam in upcoming parliamentary elections.

FOCUS IN MEMORIAM

GWEN IFILL: Richard Helms, who died Tuesday at age 89, was one of the founding fathers of the U.S. Intelligence community. Ray Suarez tells us more.

RAY SUAREZ: Richard Helms was director of Central Intelligence during some of the CIA's most tumultuous years. He was appointed by President Johnson in 1966 as CIA Director, the first career officer to get the top job. Some of the pivotal events of his tenure included plots to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro, spying on U.S. citizens who opposed the Vietnam War, and the overthrow of Chile's democratically elected government. President Nixon removed Helms as director of the CIA in 1973, reportedly because the agency would not cooperate in the Watergate cover-up. In 1977, Helms pleaded no contest to federal charges he did not fully tell the truth to a Senate committee about the CIA's activities in Chile and elsewhere.

Joining us to talk more about the life and times of Richard Helms is his biographer, Thomas Powers, the biography is titled "The Man Who Kept the Secrets."

And Richard Powers, tell us more about the man who kept the secrets. Was this most of critical times to be director of Central Intelligence in the years after the Second World War?

THOMAS POWERS: That was the beginning of American intelligence. That's when it was founded, came in existence, and was created. But you know Intelligence services are always around at critical moments and whoever is running it at any given moment has got a lot of stuff on his plate to deal with.

RAY SUAREZ: Did he make the times or was he swept along by events? Was this a man who made the CIA In his own image during these times?

THOMAS POWERS: He was responsive to what Presidents wanted. Whenever you're talking about a CIA Director and that certainly includes Helms, you're asking what was the President trying to get out of him, what was the President really interested in? And that sort of sets the tone. When Helms was the DCI, we had an aggressive war in Vietnam and deeply involved in ongoing intelligence on a daily basis about how the war was going and that set the tone while he was actually DCI. Before that it was Kennedy obsession with Cuba that set the tone.

RAY SUAREZ: So Helms had to be the bearer of increasingly bad news to successor Presidents about the war in Southeast Asia.

THOMAS POWERS: He had to bear the bad news, but intelligence agencies learn to narrow the bad news so it doesn't sound so bad. You can't fight with the President who is running the show, so you have to give him the news in a way that he will listen and accept it. Helms did that just like every other DCI.

RAY SUAREZ: Thomas Powers, what was Director Helms' approach to intelligence? What did he think was important and where did he put the money and the manpower?

THOMAS POWERS: He was by nature and by personal history a spy runner, somebody who had started off in the business of running secret operations during World War II in the OSS, and he was always very interested in classic traditional intelligence, which was the gathering and working of information for people in charge -- in the case of the United States, always for a President and the President's policymakers. And he was not a big fan or a champion of covert operations or attempts to run clandestine wars overseas. He was involved in those things because he was in an agency that was trying to do them, but that wasn't what he really stressed. He was interested in information gathered in a timely way and given in a useful form to somebody who needed it.

RAY SUAREZ: Now was he also not a big fan of using assassination as a tool?

THOMAS POWERS: Well, his view on that was you ran into a lot of trouble when you tried to assassinate somebody. You didn't know who would be coming along next and you were the hostage in effect of whoever it was that carried out the dirty deed for you, that could blackmail you for the rest of time. So he didn't think it was a smart thing to do, but in the Kennedy years there was a real strong feeling on the part of both those Kennedy brothers they wanted to get rid of Fidel Castro, and the CIA did its best to do it but failed.

RAY SUAREZ: How did Richard Helms get tripped up by Chile?

THOMAS POWERS: He was asked in a Senate hearing if the CIA had been involved in the efforts to overthrow Salvador Allende, and the true answer to that question was, well, "you bet." They've done everything they could to make that happen. But he was asked in an open forum the kind of question that normally was reserved for executive session. So he did what he thought was necessary; he lied about it and said, "no."

RAY SUAREZ: And the gentleman's agreement between Senators who asked those kinds of questions and directors of intelligence who answer them is normally what, that he wouldn't be asked that in a public forum?

THOMAS POWERS: He would not be asked that in a public forum, but, you know, Watergate changed everything, and that was a kind of cataclysm in American politics in history, and the mood changed. And Senators who in the past were always very accommodating suddenly were much more aggressive. And I think in that particular case they weren't really paying attention. It would be as if a Senator asked George Tenet, "now, do we have any spies close to Saddam Hussein." Well, what could Tenet say? I mean, he would have to say "no," no matter what the answer was.

RAY SUAREZ: So in the aftermath of being found guilty of lying to Congress, did he look at that as a black mark on his career?

THOMAS POWERS: I would say that he did not. Personally, he felt that it was the equivalent of a badge of honor, that he had actually done at personal risk something that mattered to his country, and that he had defended the agency and American policy overseas, which was what he was supposed to do. And it wasn't easy for him to do that. He didn't get paid for doing that. And he paid a price, you know, and had to go through a legal ordeal that lasted for a number of years, but I don't think he ever regretted that.

RAY SUAREZ: When we look back now on the time that Richard Helms was Director of Central Intelligence with the benefit of all the history that's transpired since, can we say anything he or the CIA did during the 60's and early 70's really changed the outcome in Latin America, in Asia, in Africa, of the later stages of the Cold war?

THOMAS POWERS: Well, you know, it's hard to say about the places you mentioned. But it certainly changed the outcome of the Cold War, which was a long intelligence struggle with the Soviet Union that at any time could have turned into a hot war. And information played a very important role there and knowing what the Russians were doing and could do and what kind of military programs they had was absolutely essential to keeping the peace. So that was the big achievement during that period of time. Helms was unusual in the fact that he lived through the entire thing from day one to the last day and then ten years beyond. He saw that all. Nobody in the beginning had any idea how the Cold War would turn out. And we should all be very grateful that it turned out the way it did.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, he started his career in Central Europe. Can you be a director of Central Intelligence in the Helms mold today or has the greater disclosure changed the job beyond all recognition from what it was in the '60s?

THOMAS POWERS: I think technology has changed the job beyond recognition. We're now engaged in an intelligence war against Islamic terrorism and it has got to be conducted in covert operational way that Helms found very uncomfortable. You have to go out there in the field and confront them there. And that has changed the job and demands a different kind of leadership.

RAY SUAREZ: Thomas Powers thanks for being with us.

THOMAS POWERS: Thank you.

RECAP

GWEN IFILL: Again, the major developments of the day. Ballistics tests linked yesterday's fatal shooting in Maryland to 12 other recent attacks attributed to the Washington area sniper. President Bush signed a $355 billion defense bill into law. And the U.S. branded the Indonesian-based Islamic group Jemaah Islamiyah as a foreign terrorist organization. We'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. I'm Gwen Ifill. Thank you and good night.