CBS Evening News Online Edition - 2004-10-04

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Hello, I'm Dan Rather and welcome to the

[0:02] CBS Evening News online edition. Just

[0:05] ahead, a spaceship one spectacular. The

[0:08] $10 million prize is won, but not

[0:11] everybody is happy with tourist and

[0:13] other commercial space flight. Also,

[0:16] what's going on inside Mount St. Helens?

[0:19] And the Patriot Act, it's supposed to

[0:21] help in the war on terror, and in some

[0:23] ways it has. But does it go too far or

[0:26] not? where the presidential candidates

[0:28] stand in CBS's election series, What

[0:31] Does It Mean to You. It's all starting

[0:33] now on the CBS Evening News online

[0:36] edition.

[0:38] High, very high over California. Today,

[0:41] a man in a tiny rocket accomplished the

[0:43] modern equivalent of Charles Lindberg's

[0:46] first solo flight across the Atlantic.

[0:48] Like Lindberg, he won a prize for it.

[0:50] And as CBS's Bill Whitaker reports, like

[0:53] Lingberg, he opened what some say is the

[0:56] future of space travel for all of us.

[0:59] One day they promise space flights like

[1:01] this will be common place. Today, it's

[1:04] simply amazing. In the clear sky above

[1:06] the Mojave for the second time in 6

[1:08] days, Spaceship 1 rocketed toward the

[1:11] heavens, reaching almost 70 miles into

[1:14] space, into history. pilot now astronaut

[1:18] Brian Binny experienced three and a half

[1:20] minutes of weightlessness long enough to

[1:23] play and take in the sights back on

[1:26] Earth he could have been on cloud9

[1:28] >> it's a fantastic view is a fantastic

[1:31] feeling uh there's a freedom there and a

[1:33] and a sense of wonder that um I tell you

[1:36] what you all need to experience

[1:38] >> that's the dream to open space to

[1:40] everyone today's flight was almost

[1:42] flawless no spinning like the last time

[1:45] designer Bert Rut Tan was walking on

[1:47] air.

[1:48] >> We've identified some major

[1:52] breakthroughs

[1:54] that make us confident

[1:56] that man space flight can be flown at

[2:00] very high safe safety levels.

[2:02] >> His team is in the record books again,

[2:04] breaking an altitude record. They're

[2:06] also in the money, winning the $10

[2:09] million X-P prize for putting a private

[2:11] passenger craft into space twice within

[2:14] 2 weeks. But they say it's not about the

[2:16] money, it's about the future. A new

[2:18] space age in which private commercial

[2:20] spaceships will make out of thisworld

[2:22] tourism routine. Virgin Atlantic Airline

[2:26] owner Richard Branson and the Spaceship

[2:28] 1 team plan to launch a new space

[2:30] venture, Virgin Galactic, to shuttle

[2:32] civilians into space if they have

[2:35] $200,000, that is. But the FAA says,

[2:38] "Don't let the excitement obscure the

[2:40] risk of an unregulated industry. Will

[2:42] the money continue to flow even if

[2:44] there's an accident?

[2:45] >> But that's a question for this team to

[2:47] answer later. Bill Whitaker, CBS News,

[2:49] Mojave, California.

[2:51] >> In the Pacific Northwest, Mount St.

[2:53] Helens blew off more steam today. The

[2:55] volcano belts out a huge plume, but that

[2:58] posed no threat to population centers

[3:00] such as Portland or Seattle, at least

[3:01] for now. So, under the smoke, what's

[3:04] going on beneath the volcano? CBS's John

[3:07] Blackstone has a real inside story

[3:10] tonight.

[3:13] The latest burst of steam and ash from

[3:15] Mount St. Helens erupted into a clear

[3:17] sky for some 40 minutes. With almost no

[3:20] wind, a billowing cloud rose above the

[3:22] crater to 12,000 ft. Even during the

[3:25] explosion, Mount St. Helens continued to

[3:28] rumble with earthquakes. The

[3:29] >> rock starts to break and each time the

[3:31] rock breaks, we have an earthquake.

[3:33] >> So, what is going on beneath this

[3:35] restless mountain? Geologists say magma,

[3:38] molten rock under tremendous pressure,

[3:40] is breaking layers of solid rock,

[3:43] creating earthquakes as it pushes from

[3:45] below. When enough rock is broken, the

[3:47] magma flows up, causing vibrations

[3:50] geologists call harmonic tremors. The

[3:53] hot magma heats groundwater, generating

[3:56] explosions of steam and ash.

[3:58] >> This could be uh punctuated with

[4:01] something else very soon. The something

[4:03] else may be a bigger explosion as magma

[4:06] breaks through the crater floor, but

[4:08] Mount St. Helens won't produce the hot

[4:10] lava flows of volcanoes in Italy and

[4:13] Hawaii. How is this mountain different

[4:17] from say Kilaweo?

[4:18] >> The stuff in Hawaii is runny. The stuff

[4:20] out here is much more thick and pasty.

[4:22] Uh tends to clog up in the vents. It has

[4:25] more gas dissolved in it and is more

[4:27] explosive. Scientists now believe the

[4:30] magma is pushing up through the same

[4:32] underground channel as the huge eruption

[4:34] of 1980 that blew the top off Mount St.

[4:37] Helens and buried hundreds of square

[4:39] miles in ash and debris. The eruption

[4:42] that's forecast won't be nearly as

[4:44] powerful as that, scientists say. But

[4:46] they believe today's steam burst is just

[4:48] a taste of what could come in as little

[4:51] as a few hours or perhaps a few months.

[4:54] John Blackstone, CBS News, near Mount

[4:56] St. Helens. The constitutional rights of

[4:58] Americans are at the heart of a national

[5:00] debate over the Patriot Act, the law

[5:03] written after the 9/11 attacks to help

[5:05] prevent terrorism. The presidential

[5:07] candidates agree on the goal, but not on

[5:10] all of the methods. Wyatt Andrews

[5:13] reports in CBS's Eye on America election

[5:16] series. What does it mean to you?

[5:20] Mary Lieberman saw exactly how the

[5:23] Patriot Act might be abused when she was

[5:25] the director of a church-based group in

[5:28] Knoxville helping Iraqi refugees.

[5:31] >> An agent from the FBI came to my office

[5:33] and said to me, "Let me look at all your

[5:35] files of all your Iraqi born clients."

[5:39] >> All the files meant personal and medical

[5:42] records of refugees legally in America.

[5:45] some because they had fought Saddam

[5:47] Hussein. Under the Patriot Act, the FBI

[5:50] has broad powers to go after terrorists,

[5:52] but Lieberman says she felt a chill for

[5:55] Americans.

[5:56] >> It just felt like this over broad

[5:59] fishing expedition.

[6:00] >> What would you say to those people who

[6:01] would expect the FBI to do no less than

[6:04] this?

[6:05] >> I would say first it would be the Iraqis

[6:08] and then it would be somebody else and

[6:10] then Mr. You know, John Q public, it

[6:13] would be you. When Lieberman fought the

[6:16] FBI, a federal judge forced her to give

[6:18] up some, but not all, of the Iraqi

[6:21] records. She joined an ACLU lawsuit

[6:23] challenging the reach of the Patriot

[6:25] Act. Those who would reform the Patriot

[6:28] Act, including liberals and

[6:30] conservatives, don't claim there have

[6:31] been widespread abuses of civil

[6:33] liberties so far, only that the

[6:35] potential exists. So, in the

[6:37] presidential campaign, the question is,

[6:39] should the Patriot Act be changed?

[6:41] >> The Patriot Act defends our liberty.

[6:43] President Bush wants the Patriot Act to

[6:45] stand as is.

[6:47] >> The Patriot Act makes it able for those

[6:49] of us in positions of responsibility to

[6:52] defend the liberty of the American

[6:54] people. It's essential law.

[6:56] >> John Kerry, however, has proposed

[6:58] reforms.

[6:59] >> Now, there are several provisions in the

[7:01] act that I think need to be changed.

[7:03] >> Kerry would require FBI agents to list

[7:06] specific facts when they want personal

[7:08] records and specific targets when they

[7:10] want roving wire taps. He would also let

[7:13] parts of the act expire at the end of

[7:15] next year.

[7:16] >> We're not going to undo those parts of

[7:18] it that are very important to the

[7:20] security of our country.

[7:22] >> What frightens Mary Lieberman is the

[7:24] secrecy the FBI has under the Patriot

[7:26] Act. When agents want personal records

[7:29] for a certain time, the person being

[7:31] investigated cannot be told.

[7:33] >> I was really scared, not just for these

[7:36] clients, but just for my country. But

[7:39] defenders of the act say that secrecy is

[7:41] needed so terrorists don't know the feds

[7:44] are looking. That Mary Lieberman and

[7:46] innocent Americans can relax.

[7:48] >> Whoa.

[7:49] >> In Washington, Wyatt Andrews for Eye on

[7:51] America. More stories are just a click

[7:54] away, but don't forget to join me on

[7:56] television for the on air edition of the

[7:58] CBS Evening News. On Tuesday, they could

[8:01] easily elect the next president. So, why

[8:04] don't most of America's 22 million

[8:07] single women vote?