First Gulf War CNN Correspondents and Photojournalists Remember the War 20 Years Later
BALDWIN: I cannot believe this was 20 years ago, 20 years now after the first grainy night vision images flashed across our TV screens when we were tuned into CNN. The first president Bush says he has no regrets about going to war with Iraq. George H.W. Bush and his former top men Dick Cheney, James baker, Colin Powell, Dan Quayle all of whom are gathering in Texas to reflect on operation desert storm to drive Iraqi troops out of Kuwait. It was not an easy way to try to cover a war back in those days. Watch this.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're still with us, you can hear the bombs now. They are hitting the center of the city.</s>TOM JOHNSON, FORMER CNN PRESIDENT: I went to Ted Turner's office. And I said, Ted, for us to own this story in the event of actual war, we need to spend perhaps $5 I think to $35 million more in expenses than we're authorized to spend in our budget. And I said, how much am I authorized to spend? I'll never forget his answer. He looked back at me and said, and these are his exact words, "You spend whatever you think it takes, pal."</s>INGRID FORMANEK CNN PRODUCER: It was a very surreal scene because Iraq had never had that much press there before. It was a very repressive regime. For the first time they allowed a large amount of media to come in. And we managed to establish a simple device like having two open phone lines. They gave us permission after a lot of hard work and trying to get permission. And then bypass a telephone exchange, which is one of the first things bombed the first night of the war. All the phones in Iraq went out. We had the four wire which enabled us to broadcast that first night of the war.</s>JOHN HOLLIMAN, FORMER CNN REPORTER: Our camera man just came to the window. What does it look like through your view finder? On the other side of the hotel, we have some of the buildings that have incredible damage and also a lot of anti-aircraft batteries.</s>MARK BIELLO, CNN SENIOR PHOTOJOURNALIST: I was terrified. I mean, I thought this was fortunately for all the accuracy of the technology of the weapons, we did survive. Rashid was not taken out. But we were certainly in harm's way.</s>RICH BROOKS, SENIOR PHOTOJOURNALIST: It was eye-opening to me because had I traveled the region quite a bit before that covering the first Gulf war between Iran and Iraq. And so to go there and see suddenly the United States mobilizing to go to war over a very small country was quite something to see. After the first night of the gulf war, everyone around the world knew who CNN was.</s>BALDWIN: That was 20 years ago. So this next story had a lot of us around here in our morning meeting wanting to know more. So we're bringing in an expert who's going to join me in just a minute. But first, remember Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? He is the self-described mastermind behind 9/11 and the senior Al Qaeda leader suspected of beheading "Wall Street Journal" reporter Daniel Pearl. That was back in 2002. In fact, he's confessed to this and told authorities he did it. Al Qaeda released a video of Pearl's beheading. But you never see the face of the decapitator, only his hand. So here's the part we wanted to know a little bit more about. It seems the FBI and CIA have used this forensic technique called "vein matching" and were able to determine the hand in that video was that of KSM, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. That brings us to Lawrence Kobilinski. He knows his stuff. He's joining me from New York. Lawrence, obviously we all remember the video. 2002. Tough to watch then, absolutely no need to replay it right now. But my question to you is this. How in the world did investigators use the image of the killer's hands to corroborate with KSM's confession he did it, he beheaded Daniel pearl?</s>DR. LAWRENCE KOBILINSKI, FORENSIC SCIENTIST: Well, brook, this is not a routine standard procedure in the arsenal of criminalists. What it is based upon is the fact that the major vessels in the hand or any other place on the body remain in the same position throughout one's lifetime barring some kind of clinical intervention so that if you can capture an image of the position of the veins from that video, you can then compare it to a known image. In other words, you're doing what we call biometrics making measurements based upon the position of the venous structure in the hand, and if the two patterns match, you can then say, well, it's the same person. It's very easy to exclude. It's a little harder to include a person as the source.</s>BALDWIN: How in the world can you look at somebody's wrist? I'm looking at my wrist, my wrist looks like your wrist. Aren't our veins in similarly placed positions? How can you tell my vein is the vein in the picture?</s>KOBILINSKI: It's not only the veins but the branching of the veins, the position of the veins relative to landmarks on the back of the hand. There have to be mathematical algorithms worked out. This is not something -- this was based on science and mathematics. But it is still a question in the courts, is this going to be admissible in the courtroom. It may be reliable scientifically but that has to be proven. Then the judge has to decide whether at federal or local level whatever, the judge has to decide if this is reliable science or not.</s>BALDWIN: That was my next question. We know he's in Guantanamo Bay right now. We don't know if he'll be tried in New York. There's debate over that. Even if he goes to trial, but if he does, ultimately, would this help in the prosecution's case? Would this be additional evidence potentially? How does that work?</s>KOBILINSKI: Indeed. We never look at any one item of evidence. We look at in conjunction with other items of evidence. We have a confession obtained in ways that might not be acceptable to the courts but this would basically support the confession and put together, you haven't ruled him out based upon the science. I think it's pretty strong evidence that they've got the right person, the person who killed Danny Pearl.</s>BALDWIN: Lawrence, one other question before I let you go. You've worked on high profile cases. Has this vein matching been used in other high profile cases before?</s>KOBILINSKI: I got to tell you, I am not familiar with any major or even minor cases where this technique has been used. It's just -- it's brand new technology. That's why it's got to be tested in the courts. As far as the science is concerned, it needs a lot more research. And let me tell you the hand is not a flat surface. The image is grainy on the video. There are a lot of problems with this kind of science. So we have to wait and see how this all falls out.</s>BALDWIN: It is fascinating nonetheless. Lawrence, thank you so so much. Lawrence Kobilinski. Thank you.</s>KOBILINSKI: Pleasure.</s>BALDWIN: Coming up next, less than a year after Jesse James divorced Sandra bullock, now word he may be getting hitched again. Who might he be marrying? We're going to have more with that after the break. Also, everyone is talking about the dress -- did you see this, she was gorgeous -- Michelle Obama wore to the state dinner last night. We'll tell you who designed it and was our good friend Monty Durham from "Say Yes to the Dress" Atlanta has to say about it next.