CBS Evening News Online Edition - 2004-10-25

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Hello everybody, I'm Dan Rather and

[0:02] welcome to the CBS Evening News online

[0:04] edition. Just ahead, where did hundreds

[0:06] of tons of Iraqi explosives go and who

[0:10] let them go? 60 Minutes correspondent Ed

[0:12] Bradley has the story. Also, we report

[0:15] on a man who spent years in jail for

[0:17] killing his parents. New evidence could

[0:19] free him if he can get a new trial. And

[0:23] we think this is especially interesting.

[0:25] We're going to show you a new gadget

[0:26] that lets you shut off practically any

[0:28] TV anywhere. It's all starting now on

[0:32] the CBS Evening News online edition.

[0:36] Eight days to go till America elects a

[0:38] president and disturbing news from Iraq

[0:41] is again dominating the campaign. The

[0:43] White House acknowledged today that a

[0:45] huge stockpile of ultraigh explosives is

[0:48] inexplicably missing from an Iraqi

[0:51] weapon site. Senator John Kerry called

[0:53] this a quote great blunder by President

[0:56] Bush and his administration. CBS News 60

[0:59] Minutes correspondent Ed Bradley has

[1:01] been working with the New York Times to

[1:02] break this story. Ed, what about it,

[1:04] Dan? The Saddam Hussein regime

[1:06] maintained a storehouse of 350 metric

[1:09] tons of extremely dangerous high

[1:11] explosives called HMX and RDX. Enough

[1:15] explosive material to construct

[1:17] thousands of very large bombs.

[1:22] The explosives were stored in bunkers

[1:24] located at the El Kaka munitions dump.

[1:28] The explosives are powerful enough to

[1:30] detonate a nuclear bomb or to blow up

[1:33] buildings and vehicles in terrorist

[1:35] attacks. Just one pound of an explosive

[1:38] containing RDX blew up the Panama plane

[1:41] that crashed at Lockerby, Scotland. Last

[1:45] week in Baghdad, Iraq's technology

[1:47] minister told CBS News correspondent

[1:49] Kimberly Doer that all of it, all 350

[1:53] tons of it, is gone.

[1:55] >> Certain materials are missing. Yes, they

[1:58] are missing. We don't know what

[1:59] happened. Two weeks ago, Omar's ministry

[2:02] notified the UN's nuclear agency in

[2:04] Vienna that the high explosives were

[2:07] lost after April 2003

[2:11] through theft and looting of the

[2:12] government installations due to lack of

[2:15] security. But a year and a half earlier,

[2:17] in an internal memo, a UN expert warned

[2:21] that terrorists might be helping

[2:22] themselves to the explosives and that it

[2:25] would be the greatest explosives bonanza

[2:28] in history. It was the main uh explosive

[2:32] high explosive storage site in Iraq.

[2:34] >> Do you have any idea how this happened?

[2:37] I mean, it just seems to me if coalition

[2:40] forces going in know that you've got 350

[2:43] tons of high explosives here. That

[2:45] that's something you want to keep a

[2:47] close eye on.

[2:48] >> This is something that we'd like to

[2:50] know. We'd like to know how it uh went

[2:52] missing, where it went. According to the

[2:54] Iraqi government, um it it was lost

[2:58] because of theft and looting and due to

[3:01] lack of security.

[3:02] >> The Pentagon had the main responsibility

[3:04] for securing Iraqi munition sites.

[3:07] Correspondent David Martin reports the

[3:09] Pentagon claims soldiers did inspect the

[3:12] Elkaka site and found no evidence of the

[3:16] explosives flagged by the UN.

[3:19] Small comfort, according to terrorism

[3:21] expert Daniel Bman. years. This is a

[3:24] disaster almost any way you look at it.

[3:26] Uh, very dangerous stuff got out to very

[3:29] bad people and it's going to be hard to

[3:30] portray it in any way that is not

[3:32] completely negative.

[3:33] >> Do you have any idea what happened to

[3:35] this material?

[3:36] >> No, we'd like to know what happened to

[3:38] the material.

[3:39] >> It could still be in Iraq. It could be

[3:40] on the black market elsewhere. It could

[3:43] be in the hands of terrorists anywhere

[3:46] in the world. That is the the danger and

[3:48] that is the threat that it has gotten

[3:50] into the wrong hands and that it is

[3:52] being used to commit terrorist acts.

[3:55] >> What is most startling is that there was

[3:57] nothing secret about these explosives.

[3:59] The UN says it warned the US the site

[4:02] might be looted after the invasion. A

[4:04] White House spokesman says President

[4:06] Bush is determined to get to the bottom

[4:08] of this. Dan,

[4:09] >> it was a murder case that shocked the

[4:11] New York suburbs. A teenager convicted

[4:13] of bludgeoning his parents to death. Now

[4:16] 33 years old and having spent nearly

[4:18] half his life in prison, he will ask a

[4:20] court tomorrow for a new trial based on

[4:23] new evidence, including police work he

[4:26] says proves he didn't do it. 48 Hours

[4:29] correspondent Aaron Morari gives you the

[4:31] inside story.

[4:33] >> Murder second DEGREE GUILTY.

[4:36] >> WHEN MARTIN Tankliff was convicted of

[4:38] murdering his parents at their posh Long

[4:41] Island home in 1990, he swore he was

[4:44] innocent. But the jury didn't believe

[4:46] his claim that he was coerced by police

[4:49] into confessing to the crime.

[4:52] >> It's like having an 18-wheeler

[4:54] st, you know, driving on your chest and

[4:57] you believing that the only way you can

[4:59] get that way to get off your chest is to

[5:02] tell the police whatever they want to

[5:03] hear. But 14 years later, Tankliffe and

[5:06] his family now say they can prove he's

[5:08] innocent with a mountain of new

[5:10] evidence, including what may be the real

[5:13] murder weapon and a parade of witnesses.

[5:16] You were going to rob a house,

[5:18] >> right?

[5:18] >> Glenn Harris says he drove the real

[5:20] killers to the Tankliff home for what he

[5:23] thought was a burglary.

[5:25] >> Something more than a burglary happened.

[5:26] It appeared there was an encounter of

[5:28] some sort. One of the alleged killers is

[5:31] a career criminal that Tankless family

[5:33] believes was hired by Seymour Tankliff's

[5:35] business partner, a man with a motive.

[5:38] He was deeply in debt to Tankliff and

[5:41] the last person to see the couple alive.

[5:43] And then there's that confession. The

[5:46] lead detective on the case admits he

[5:48] tricked the defendant, claiming Martin's

[5:50] father named him as the killer right

[5:52] before he died.

[5:54] >> You lied to him. That that never

[5:55] happened.

[5:56] >> Well, yes, I lied to him. Martin, just

[5:58] barely 17 at the time, began to believe

[6:01] he might have done it.

[6:02] >> Detective McCree said my father said it

[6:04] was me, and I believe that.

[6:06] >> Now 33 years old, Tankliff is asking for

[6:09] a new trial. To win a new trial, Martin

[6:11] Tankliff has to prove that the new

[6:13] evidence would have convinced the jury

[6:15] in the original trial to find him not

[6:18] guilty. The problem is, says the family,

[6:20] the decision and Martin's future are in

[6:23] the hands of the Suffach County, New

[6:24] York authorities. The same people who

[6:27] used a coerced confession and shoddy

[6:29] evidence in the first place.

[6:31] >> There was an incredible rush to

[6:33] judgment. The Suffach County Police and

[6:37] and DA's office, they figured, "Oh, look

[6:40] at this. We settled this terrible crime

[6:41] in less than a day." And that was that.

[6:44] >> With the odds stacked against them,

[6:46] Tankless family hopes for justice. They

[6:48] say they've never gotten. But police and

[6:51] prosecutors say guilty means guilty. And

[6:54] unless a judge reopens his case, Martin

[6:57] Tankliff will likely spend the rest of

[6:59] his life in prison. In Riverhead, Long

[7:02] Island, Aaron Morardi for Eye on

[7:05] America.

[7:06] >> We end tonight with one of the hottest

[7:07] new inventions on the market. It's

[7:09] called the TV Zapper. What does it do?

[7:11] How? And why do so many people want one?

[7:14] CBS's John Blackstone shows you.

[7:18] In his tiny apartment on a San Francisco

[7:20] hilltop, Mitch Alman, former flowerchild

[7:23] and self-confessed geek, has several

[7:25] computers, but not a single TV set. Why

[7:29] do you hate TV?

[7:31] >> Well, I don't always hate it.

[7:33] >> But TVs are unavoidable. They're

[7:35] fixtures in bars and restaurants and

[7:37] airports. The planes may not run on

[7:39] schedule, but TV shows always do.

[7:42] >> There it is. It's up in the corner and

[7:43] it's distracting us and we're paying

[7:45] attention to it rather than to each

[7:47] other.

[7:48] >> So, he spent the last 2 years inventing

[7:50] the TV be gone. It's a keychain remote

[7:53] control carrying electronic codes that

[7:56] turn off just about every TV set ever

[7:59] made.

[8:00] >> A great barbecue.

[8:01] >> And then you can turn it off and people

[8:03] can go, "Hey, wait a minute. I was

[8:05] watching that." And then we can talk

[8:07] about it.

[8:08] >> Oh, sure. Want to try that in a sports

[8:10] bar full of Red Sox fans?

[8:13] >> Don't turn it off now, baby.

[8:14] >> But as you can tell, if I turn that off

[8:16] right now, I'd probably be beheaded.

[8:17] >> Even in this crowd, though, there are

[8:19] those who wouldn't mind having a choice.

[8:21] >> If you don't like TVs, he'll say, "I

[8:23] hate you. I'll switch you up."

[8:25] >> I think it's great. My neighbor has his

[8:27] TV too loud. I'm going to use it.

[8:30] >> Even Mitch Alman is surprised by how

[8:32] many people want to turn off somebody

[8:34] else's TV. I think there's a large

[8:37] amount of people who are just kind of

[8:38] mischievous in a playful way. Maybe some

[8:40] people are even a little malicious.

[8:42] >> He originally figured he'd sell 2,000 TV

[8:45] beans. Now he expects to ship 20,000 to

[8:48] people who see a TV and think,

[8:50] >> "Wouldn't it be great if we could turn

[8:51] that thing off?"

[8:53] >> But could this device have unintended

[8:55] consequences? After all, the same code

[8:58] that turns every TV set off also turns

[9:01] every TV on. John Blackstone, CBS News,

[9:04] San Francisco.

[9:06] >> More stories are just a click away, but

[9:08] don't forget to join me for the on air

[9:10] edition of the CBS Evening News. On

[9:12] Tuesday's broadcast, where the

[9:14] presidential candidates stand on Supreme

[9:17] Court nominations, also why a sudden

[9:20] illness has made the Supreme Court a big

[9:23] campaign issue. Our election series,

[9:25] what does it mean to you? Rolls on for

[9:28] cbsnews.com. I'm Dan Rather.