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and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: the vermont national guard sent in helicopters and heavy trucks today to get supplies to hundreds of people. the dramatic relief effort was triggered by hurricane irene's weekend assault. ray suarez begins our coverage. >> suarez: the airlift order went out as a dozen vermont towns lay cut off after irene sent rivers of rainwater surging down hills and mountainsides. >> we've seen so many heartbreaking stories. we need all the help we can get. >> suarez: cavendish, hancock, pittsfield, stockbridge, strafford, and stratton were among the places hardest hit. statewide, 260 roads and 30 bridges were washed out by 11 inches of rain. >> water started coming through the front door, i knew it was getting bad. and once the walls started to break and the molding started to

pop, i knew i was really in trouble. >> suarez: roads turned into rivers in upstate new york and new jersey, as well. emergency crews in paterson, new jersey, rescued people from flooding that turned their homes into islands and kept coming. and in manchester, new hampshire, on monday, a man and his two daughters were found clinging to buoys after they tried to jet ski on a roiling river and the jet ski was swept away. their life jackets kept them afloat. >> the gentleman was cold, very cold, very frightened. he was very disappointed in himself, but he saved his own family by first having p.f.d.s on, and then keeping them all together. >> suarez: others were not so lucky: a number of deaths blamed on the storm came after its passage from drowning or electrocution. meanwhile, an estimated 2.5 million people still had no power, but that was down from nearly 7.5 million at the height of the storm.

and in north carolina, where irene first made landfall in the u.s., some 1,000 people were still in emergency shelters. the homeland security secretary, janet napolitano, visited today, promising help. >> we're going to take care of immediate needs of all states and communities affected by irene, and we're going to be leaving or having in all the affected states, fema coordinators to facilitate movement of disaster movement of disaster declarations, damage assessments. >> suarez: for now, early estimates put the storm's damages between $7 billion and $10 billion, far smaller than the $100 billion caused by hurricane katrina. >> ifill: for more on the situation in vermont, i spoke with senator patrick leahy, a democrat, earlier today. he joined me from burlington. senator leahy, thank you for

joining us. >> good to be with you, thank you. >> ifill: you were able to tour your sat today. what did you see? >> i've seen since the flooding i've seen a great deal of the state. yesterday i went with the governor by helicopter. i've been driving around other parts. we had to use the helicopter because some of our towns are completely cut off. there's no way you can get in there which creates all kinds of concerns. not only the devastation in the town but you can't get medical personnel in, food, water, and so forth. so i've lived here all my life. i've never seen anything quite like this in vermont. >> ifill: which areas of the state would you say were worst hit? >> i think the worst hit were down in the southern part of the state. there were places like water bury which is the next town over, my own town of middle

sex was hit badly. some in montpelier and elsewhere but the southern part of the state, as you fly over and you see bridges out, roads that have just been torn apart, it's awkward. also the capriciousness of it. you fly along. you see a small town and everything is in fine shape. fields, farm fields are fine. you go just a mile or so further and you see houses that have tumbled into the river. the road is carved out, totally impassable. the fields, the farm fields where the harvests should be coming in very soon are just ruined. a whole summer's work is gone. that's the bad part. the good part though, the spirit of the people here in vermont, i've talked to many, many people i know. many i didn't know.

they were working to try to clean up. i saw one person who was helping to shovel out the muck from businesses that have been badly damaged. i said, "do you work here?" he said, "no, no, i live the next town over. i figured these people needed help so i just came over and volunteered." you're seeing an awful lot of that. >> ifill: we're seeing reports that people have been cut off and stranded. how are you getting water and supplies into those areas? >> that is very difficult. fortunately we have our vermont national guard. even though a lot of their equipment is over in iraq, they've used the equipment they have. i think they'll probably be helped by other states that were using their helicoptering in food and supplies. they will build temporary bridges, temporary road, get trucks of water in. we can take care of the short term. it won't be easy. it won't be comfortable for the people who are there. thank goodness it's not in the middle of the winter. but the long term is going to be very, very difficult to

repair some of those roads. >> ifill: is the worst passed? have all the rivers crested? >> we think the worst has passeded. there's still a certain amount of run-off from the mountains. there's still a lot of fast- moving water which of course creates a danger for people who come too close to the banks. that's where some of the deaths have occurred in vermont. but i think the worst is passed. certainly the weather report is such that we're going to have some clear weather. if we were to have another very, very heavy rainstorm in the next day or so, it could be devastating. >> ifill: senator, i know you've been keeping track of the federal debate about over disasters. how costly does this seem it will be. >> we don't have all the figures in yet. it will be costly. it will be a big burden for a state of only 660,000 people. so we will need federal disaster money. we're not the only ones. every state hit from the

carolinas up are going to feel it. now i take a bit with a grain of salt some of the debate so whether we can afford as a nation the money for this. we've spent... we're spending several billions dollars a week in afghanistan. we spend billions, hundreds of billions of dollars in iraq, a war we never should have been in. if we can spend... eventually it amounts to several trillion dollars in wars in iraq and afghanistan and then say we can't afford to help americans? in america? no, i can't accept that. i can't imagine anybody that could. >> ifill: was vermont blind sided by the force of the storm? >> no. i think we were as prepared as we could be. obviously we have not had... they say there hasn't been a storm like this certainly not in my lifetime but we prepared all the ways we could. but as the governor pointed

out, we're a state of mountains and hills and valleys. all these streams and rivers come down in different directions. it's not like being a coast line along an ocean where you have some idea of just which way the water goes. here it goes every different direction. and i think that they prepared just as well as they could. in some things you can't prepare for. if the water hits too hard, wipes out a road or a bridge, there's nothing you can do to prepare for that. >> ifill: senator patrick leahy, thank you very much. >> thank you for caring and thank you for showing what's happened in vermont. >> brown: still to come on the newshour: the nation's housing crisis; a shifting role for women in brazil; the suicide bombing of a cia post in afghanistan; and latin american poet ernesto cardenal.

brazil; the suicide bombing of a cia post in afghanistan; and latin american poet ernesto cardenal. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: u.s. consumers got a serious case of nerves this month. the business research group conference board reported today that consumer confidence dropped to the lowest since april of 2009. it cited stock market swings and the standard and poor's decision to downgrade the u.s. debt rating. the news sent wall street down at first, but the market rebounded later. the dow jones industrial average finished with a gain of more than 20 points to close near 11,560. the nasdaq rose 14 points to close at 2,576. thousands of people rallied across syria today in a show of defiance as the muslim holy month of ramadan came to an end. activists said security forces shot and killed at least seven people, including a 13-year-old boy. amateur video showed crowds filling the streets of several cities. they carried pictures of loved ones killed in the crackdown, and chanted anti-government slogans. meanwhile, the u.s. treasury department announced new sanctions on top syrian officials. the rebels in libya are now threatening to launch an all-out attack on sirte, the place that gave rise to moammar qaddafi. at the same time, there were new reports of negotiations over the

fate of the city, 250 miles east of tripoli. we have a report from james mates of independent television news. >> reporter: qaddafi's hometown of sirte was always going to be the last to fall to the rebels, the one place where support for qaddafi and his clan was not extracted exclusively through the barrel of a gun. it's also the one place where the rebel army is still fighting their way to the outskirts of the town from the east and west. they cannot rely on the local population to rise in their support once the attack begins. no wonder, then, that they have given the town until the end of the muslim festival of eid on saturday to surrender before ordering an assault. the interim leader of the new libya spelled out his terms today. "by saturday," he said, "we will decide this matter militarily. we do not wish to do so, but we >> ifill: for more on the will wait no longer."

the defense of sirte is being led by gadhafi's son, mutassim, as others in the family flee across the border to algeria-- among them, his wife saifa, son hannibal, and daughter aisha-- who's reported today to have given birth to a daughter herself. aisha was last seen at a rally supporting the failing regime in april on a balcony in the heart of the qaddafi compound in tripoli. today, in the very spot where she stood, newly liberated libyans dance and celebrate. the former qaddafi compound here is now tripoli's' number one tourist attraction. thousands come every day to shout their hatred of qaddafi and all who were associated with him. no wonder the family want to be as far away from this place as possible. they know what fate will await them-- a fate that has already caught up with khamis qaddafi, reputedly the most ruthless of the whole family. rebel commanders say he was killed as he led his troops in a fighting retreat from the south of tripoli on saturday. >> sreenivasan: also today, a top rebel official said his forces have "a good idea" where moammar qaddafi himself is

hiding. he said, "we don't have any doubt that we will catch him." in afghanistan, a roadside bombing killed an unidentified nato soldier today. and the casualty count for all of august made it the deadliest month for u.s. forces there. in all, 66 americans have been killed, nearly half of them in the downing of a helicopter by the taliban. so far this year, nearly 300 americans have died in the afghan war. today, president obama recognized the sacrifice in afghanistan and iraq as he addressed the american legion convention in minneapolis. >> now they lay at rest in quiet corners of america, but they live on in the families who loved them, and in the nation that is safer because of their service. and today, we pay humble tribute to the more than 6,200 americans in uniform who have given their lives in this hard decade of war. we honor them all. >> sreenivasan: the u.s. military has begun withdrawing 10,000 troops from afghanistan this year. another 23,000 will leave by the summer of 2012.

two top u.s. law enforcement officials resigned today. the u.s. attorney in arizona and the acting head of the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms stepped down. it stems from a law enforcement operation, "fast and furious," aimed at major gun traffickers along the southwest border. the congressional probe found that the atf lost track of roughly 2,000 guns and some wound up in the hands of criminals. japan has a new prime minister, its sixth in five years. the japanese parliament elected yoshihiko noda to be the country's new premier today. he inherits a faltering economy and recovery efforts from the tsunami and nuclear disasters. the previous prime minister, naoto kan, resigned amid widespread criticism of his administration and fracturing within the ruling party. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jeff. >> brown: the troubled u.s. housing market got a bit of good news today with word that some prices are rising.

but full recovery remained a long way off. four cities-- chicago, minneapolis, washington and boston-- posted the largest increases in the latest case- shiller home-price index. but prices in detroit, cleveland, las vegas, and phoenix were selling at the same levels as january of 2000, more than ten years ago. what's more, the survey of 20 cities found overall home prices have actually fallen over the last 12 months. and home sales for this year are on track to be the worst in 14 years. and things could get worse yet, once banks pick up the pace on millions of foreclosures, as expected. they've been delayed by a government investigation into mortgage lending practices. >> attorney generals, prosecute the criminals! >> brown: amid anger over the banks' handling of foreclosures, 36 state attorneys general and the obama administration have been trying to negotiate a settlement with the five largest mortgage servicers.

it could include a lump sum settlement of more than $20 billion that states could then use to modify mortgages. meanwhile, the futures of mortgage giants fannie mae and freddie mac are still to be determined, with a new plan from the obama administration reportedly in the works. fannie mae and freddie mac still back most home loans in the u.s. for a closer look at all this, we turn to: nicolas retsinas, who teaches housing finance and real estate at harvard business school; and guy cecala, publisher of "inside mortgage finance," a housing industry research publication. nick retsinas, we'll start with you. so what do you see in the latest numbers? is there any sign of hope there? >> well, there's always a sign of hope, but the signs are very slim. it's amazing-- interest rates are at a 50-year low, and yet we have such a tepid housing market. yes, prices have gone up in a number of cities over the last couple months, but they're down

from a year ago and really down from where they were almost at beginning of the decade. it's still a very difficult sort of shaky time in the housing market. >> brown: the uptick, such as it is, came in the second quarter. the quarter was up but the year is down. i mean, that's... it was interesting to read the reports this morning, just to parse it. >> yeah, it's a little bit-- emphasis on "little"-- bit of good news. most people would say the real number to look at is the year- over-year change. as long as we keep declining, that's bad news. cumulative, we've already seen a 30% or so decline, according to the case schiller index. so, this is just more bad news. >> brown: just to help us with it a little bit more, this seasonal adjustment idea. explain that concept because that plays into how we read these numbers, right? >> if you look at typically the housing season is the summer months, so you would expect to see an increase in the summer

months if it was just not adjusted. so the difference between the first quarter and the second quarter, the second quarter would generally always be more active than the first quarter. when you factor in the seasonal adjustment, it tends to flatten out the differences a little more. >> brown: nick retsinas, fill in the picture behind the big numbers. you mentioned some of the differences in regional and in different cities. what do you see there when you look out? >> well, it's a big country. some markets are in better shape than other markets. clearly, in the markets such as the southwest, south florida, parts of california, there was such substantial overbuilding that we have a huge excess inventory. in other parts of the country like the upper midwest that have faced severe economic problems, you have struggles on the demand side. so while there are some silver linings-- parts of texas, parts of the northeast-- where you think we're probably at or near a bottom, as long as this foreclosure cloud is hovering overhead, a recovery is going to be in the distance.

>> brown: to fill us in a little bit more, nick, is it correct to talk about a national housing market at this point, or is it better to think in terms of regional housing markets? >> well, it's better to think in terms of regional, because people buy homes in particular neighborhoods, not in the united states of america. however, we do have a national housing finance system. that national housing finance system is tightening credit, requiring higher down payments, so it is discouraging people who might want to buy. for those who have the means to buy, they're discouraged because what they see is a possible downfall in prices. >> brown: what do you see in terms of regionally versus the nation? >> there's a lot of difference, as nick pointed out, between different regions of the country. what's so disturbing about the housing trends now is we're seeing no region of the country posting any increases. it's just a question of which are posting the largest declines year over year. also, as nick pointed out, it

tends to be the areas that had the boom and now they're having the bust. some of the other areas are a little bit flatter in terms of slower declines, but generally every area has seen a decline. they've seen a decline this year. >> brown: we've all mentioned the foreclosure issue. let me start with you, guy cecala, on this. it seems as though it's somewhat in limbo at this point, given what the attorneys general are doing, the states are doing, legal proceedings. what's going on? >> backing up a little-- one of the things that is pushing housing prices lower is the fact that we have so many distressed properties or foreclosed properties that make up housing sales. they tend to have lower prices. if you compare those to what we saw several years ago, it's naturally going to result in price decline. the issue going on now is that foreclosures have slowed down. you might think, "gee, isn't that good news?" it's not slowing down because unemployment has improved and a lot of people are catching up on their mortgages. it's slowing down because there's this big settlement that the federal government and mostly the state attorneys

general are trying to work out with the largest mortgage servicers in this country. it's bogged down the whole foreclosure process to the point where legitimate foreclosures are being kept out of the market. that's going to create a backlog going forward. >> the point is we need this process to take place, as painful as it's going to be, we need the foreclosures to go forward. >> yes. we have somewhere in the neighborhood of four million distressed properties out there. those are either seriously delinquent mortgages or ones already in the foreclosure process. most of those loans have to be pushed through the system at some point. the longer we take to get through that, the longer the housing market is going to take to recover. >> brown: nicolas retsinas, what is the hold-up in trying to resolve this issue, particularly with what's going on at the state level? >> well, the state attorney generals are suggesting that because of malfunctions and a dysfunctional servicing system, banks have to be held accountable, have to modify loans and make payments.

the banks, on the one hand, are willing to do that as long as they know that's the end of the litigation. but there are some attorney general of new york, who suggest, no, it's not just the robo-signing. it's not just the bad paperwork, but there are other issues. we should be able to follow up on those issues also. all of that leads to stagnation and sluggishness. as guy said, the pipeline isn't clear anymore. >> brown: so, nick, staying with you, what difference would it make once a settlement comes through? what difference would it make to consumers and to these banks? >> well, in the short term, it would probably even more properties on the market. in the very near term, it might further depress prices. but once we're through with this, we can start dealing with the excess inventory. when we clear the excess inventory, we can have a supply- demand balance. that's when you can see a recovery begin. >> brown: the administration also has talked about it, sort of a hoped-for plan for a new

foreclosure settlements. what's going on with that? >> well, they're also trying to work this through. i think there's a lot of pressure on the administration now to do something to revive the morbid housing market. one of the few things they see is necessary is resolving the foreclosure crisis. as we said, everybody is sort of in agreement now that there's a huge pipeline that has to start moving through the process. if you keep that backlog, you're not talking about a recovery for two or three more years. so the sooner you can do it, the better. that's why i think the administration is trying to goose along this settlement as much as they can. they just haven't had a lot of luck. >> brown: are there things they can do beyond the settlement with various proposals they're looking at? >> any proposal they look at can't cost much money or any money, which makes it very difficult. one of the few things you hear a lot of talk about these days is utilizing fannie mae and freddie mac, and particularly all the

mortgages that they control, and somehow creating an environment where borrowers who are current on their mortgages but can't re-fi because of tough under writing or a lack of equity could suddenly be allowed to capitalize on historically low rates. that would pump some more money into the economy and certainly help tens of thousands of people lower their mortgage payments. >> brown: nicolas retsinas, what are you hearing in that regard in terms of what proposals might be on the table for dealing with the foreclosure settlements? >> well, a couple weeks ago, the administration put forth a request for information, a request for ideas dealing with the foreclosed properties. they seem to indicate they were open to investors buying large pools of foreclosed properties and perhaps convert them into rental housing. somewhat similar to the resolution trust corporation over 20 years ago. so that's what they're looking at because they too come to that same conclusion. until we get the foreclosures through the pipe, we're not

going to be able to establish what the market clearing price is. >> brown: nick, one last big issue hanging out there. we just heard you mention fannie mae and freddie mac. clearly, a lot of conjecture about their future. but clearly, nick, the administration is treading carefully here as well, right? >> absolutely. in some ways, ironically, there is consensus on both sides of the aisle that fannie mae and freddie mac can continue any way, shape or form similar to their current structure. on the other hand the housing finance system and the housing market is so fragile, these entities are providing life support. they're between a rock and a hard place in determining how to proceed and when to proceed. >> is that what you see happening, guy? >> yes. in the first half of this year, we tracked numbers and fannie and freddy were accounting for 70% of all new mortgages being made. >> brown: still that high? >> still that high. >> brown: even after all these years of the problems. >> exactly. when they're doing that, you really can't talk about dialing them back or changing them dramatically.

i think it puts a serious debate on that on hold for a year or two. there's really nothing you can do. >> brown: but are there serious proposals on the table, or literally at this point, it's just got to get to the next step before we can think about that? >> i think we have to get to the next step. when you talk about serious proposals, the biggest complaint is what fannie and freddy did in the past. i don't think anybody is complaining what fannie and freddy are doing now. so, do we want to create new entities or authorize private companies to do what fannie mae and freddie mac are doing well right now? it makes it a very difficult decision. >> brown: nicolas retsinas, to bring it full circle, now we're in the fall season. what do you look at normally in the housing market? what is supposed to happen? what do we need to happen next? >> well, i need... again i go back to foreclosures, foreclosures, foreclosures. as long as foreclosures, distress sales, short sales are 30%-40% of the market there will continue to be downward pressure

on the market. i'm afraid the silver linings we saw in the numbers today may only be temporary. >> brown: closing word. >> i agree 100% with what nick said. you know, the foreclosure situation is the real nut that has to be cracked. that's going to take time to do it. we're not making any progress on it. in fact, we're delaying it. >> brown: guy, nicolas retsinas, thank you both very much. >> you're welcome. >> ifill: now, we have another story in our series on global population issues. it's a partnership with "national geographic" magazine, which has been reporting on this topic throughout 2011. the september issue examines the declining birth rate in brazil. our report is from special correspondent fred de sam lazaro. >> reporter: psychoanalyst maria says sunday brunch in her rio apartment with husband paolo and their two children is a favorite ritual.

it brings back fond memories of her own childhood. >> ( translated ): when i was a child, every sunday, my father would make fried eggs and bacon for all six of us kids. >> reporter: there are two big differences. she grew up in a much larger family, and the sunday ritual always began with church in this predominantly catholic nation of 200 million. fewer people go to church in the modern brazil, which is now predominantly urban. there's simply no space for large families like the one she grew up in. the extended family all live in rio and often gather for dinner. it is prepared in the kitchen of their mother. she had six children and wishes she had had more. >> ( translated ): i had one girl, two girls, three girls, and then i wanted a boy. so i thought, he should have a

friend, but instead i had two more girls. i stopped after the sixth child. there were complications. my doctor said that i physically could not have any more children. in that sense, i was pardoned from the church from having any more children. >> reporter: today, her six children have a total of just seven offspring among them, a poster family for one of the swiftest demographic shifts in history. brazil's birth rate is now lower than the u.s. rate of just over two children per woman. jacklyn is a leading women's rights advocate. >> from brazil from six children per woman in the '60s, we have now 1.9. there has been a dramatic decrease in the numbers of children that each woman has throughout her life. >> reporter: she says the shift is the result of a dramatic change in the role women play in society. it was symbolized most visibly

by the election of 2010, the first female president of brazil. brazil's women's movement began in the 1960s and was closely allied with groups that resisted the military dictatorship at the time. it paved the way for new progressive policies by the late '80s. >> the new constitution that came when the country was democratized recognizes the role of the state in allowing couples to make free decisions concerning their reproductive life. and the duty of the state in providing information to have this done. >> reporter: she says 80% of women of child-bearing age use contraception. at the same time, a robust economy has needed their labor. today women make up 40% of the country's work force. up and down the economic ladder. the majority of college graduates in brazil are women. >> for example, my granddaughter wants to be a chef.

it never occurred to me when i was a child to be a chef. but i always did encourage my daughters to have profession and to work. >> reporter: today the women around her table range from screen writer and physical therapist to systems analyst and business consultant. women can aspire to any career but few aspire to have large families. the demands of career far outweigh those of a once influential catholic church which has long opposed all forms of artificial contraception. >> i do know a number of catholic families who have just one or two children. >> reporter: what's noteworthy about brazil's declining fertility rate is that it's happening not just in the growing prosperous middle class areas, but also in the poorer sections of what remains a very unequal society. despite the economic growth, about a quarter of brazil's

population remains below the poverty line. many live in the rural northeast, but millions have crowded into slums in cities like rio and sao paolo. they suffer from high crime and still lack some of life's basic needs, but they do have health services, including information about and access to contraception, including sterilization. these women live in the rio favela where they work for a sewing cooperative. lillian has three children, trying unsuccessfully to have a son. she couldn't control the gender balance of her kids, but she can control the decision to have them, she says. >> ( translated ): you only get pregnant if you want to because we have free access to any sort of family planning. >> reporter: this woman, who is 34, has a six-month-old daughter. boy or girl, they plans to have only one more child, unlike her grandmother.

>> ( translated ): my grandmother had ten children. but didn't have a radio or television. it's not just television. there are commercials, all kinds of information. >> reporter: in fact, television, including the wildly popular soap operas or novellas, have been a major cultural influence in defining the ideal brazilian family. >> in the '70s, the soap operas started to be aired on national chains throughout the country. they were, you know, associated with the modernity. modernity was associated with couples with two or three children. and this is very important in terms of a symbolic message, you know. >> ( translated ): it works both ways with the novellas. it goes in both directions.

>> reporter: we visited one evening. this woman can't resist the novellas, engaging and captivating even though in some ways discomforting. >> ( translated ): in my day, we used to play with dolls. now kids are playing having boy friends and girl friends like they see on tv. >> reporter: psycho analyst's life and family may look much like the soap opera ideal. she and her husband just celebrated 25 years of marriage. still, she wishes her children could have a simpler, care free life that she enjoyed. >> ( translated ): what i observe in my work with children and parents is the difficulty in transmitting to the new generation the sort of values that we grew up with-- the respect for authority, how to behave. if religion isn't the axis from where we're getting our values,

and i don't necessarily think it should be, what is replacing it? where are we getting our values? >> reporter: for their part catholic church officials decried a shift among young people to what they see as extreme materialism. this person is with the rio archdiocese. >> they want to have cars, houses, all of that. but they don't want to have children or a family. this means a change in, i would say, philosophy. how you see life, the meaning of life. this weakens the nation. >> reporter: this weakens the nation. he feels brazil is headed to an imbalance in its population like that seen in many european countries. >> social confrontation in europe. the old population cannot be supported by the work of the younger people. >> reporter: there are not enough young people.

>> exactly. there are no people to work and pay taxes. >> reporter: this person heads a family planning advocacy group says the current birth rate is still much higher than in european nations. he says brazil can prepare for its more gradual shift. >> ( translated ): the medical field has grown and evolved. but there are more specialists in such things as geriatrics. these sorts of things are helping support the older population. brazil is far from the crisis that europe is living. the good news is that we have time to prepare and implement more policies and mechanisms to sustain this new brazil. >> reporter: he says brazil has a chance to be the first large nation to get close to a population balance. although demographers say right now, its birth rate is slightly below replacement. >> ifill: fred's reporting is a partnership with the pulitzer center on crisis reporting, and the undertold stories project at saint mary's university in minnesota.

>> brown: next, a true-life spy story about the al qaeda triple agent who dealt a deadly blow to the cia. margaret warner has our book conversation. >> warner: it was the most devastating attaci on the cia in two decades. a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a c.i.a. base in afghanistan. dead were seven c.i.a. officers, a jordanian intelligence agent and their driver. >> sreenivasan: at least eight american civilians were killed in a suicide bombing today in afghanistan. the bomb exploded at a military base. >> warner: early reports were sketchy. >> sreenivasan: the base supports reconstruction and other civilian programs. >> warner: the man carrying out the audacious assault was a jordanian doctor who was initially recruited by jordanian intelligence.

the c.i.a. thought he would lead them to osama bin laden and his top deputy, ayman al zawari. instead, he turned out to be a triple agent for al qaeda. like many suicide bombers, he made a testimonial video just before his fatal mission. >> to kill as much as i can. to kill you. to kill your partner, your jordanian partner. >> warner: how the c.i.a. came to trust balawi and how al qaeda sent him on his murderous path are revealed in a new book, "the triple agent: the al qaeda mole who infiltrated the c.i.a." the writer is "washington post" reporter joby warrick and he joins us now. so, joby welcome. now, remind us, first of all, how big a disaster was this in the history of the cia? >> it's arguably the biggest intelligence disaster since the cold war for the cia. there hasn't been this many lives lost in a single incident since the 1980s, and in terms of just treachery and deceit, it's

as big as it gets-- the cia led into a trap in which multiple officers, including seven americans, were killed. >> warner: so now, tell us about the perpetrator, the triple agent, humam al balawi. who was he? what drove him? how did he get into a position to pull off something like this? >> you probably cannot script a character as improbable as this man. first of all, he starts out as just being a lowly jordanian, a pediatrician, of all people, working in a refugee clinic in jordan, living a quite life, two children in the suburbs and that sort of thing. and through a series of improbable circumstances, ends up being arrested and interrogated, and then made into an informant with his own interest in doing so because, at heart, he was also an al qaeda sympathizer, and he was looking for a way to somehow strike out and do his own form of jihad. and this is exactly what happened in the end. >> warner: he was secretly, at night, actually penning anti-u.s missives or screeds on the internet under a pseudonym. >> he had a dangerous hobby, which is, he was a blogger under

a pseudonym, as you said. he was writing fairly radical things, he was supporting al qaeda, supporting al qaeda leaders, trying to explain them to the masses, and doing it in a very effective way, so he had a very large following, young people in particular. >> warner: and what do you know about balawi and what drove him? you had a lot of details in here. how did you get inside his head? >> he left quite a record of his own thinking. he wrote hundreds and hundreds of words in his blogs before he was arrested. even after he went to pakistan, he continued to write articles, he submitted to interviews, he had multiple video tapes right up to the day he was killed. so he was able to tell us what he was thinking, and even gave us a glimpse of his own internal conflicts as he was trying to decide whether it was worth it to sacrifice himself. this is not some young, naive 20-year-old giving himself up for a few hundred bucks; he was a doctor, a learned man. he really wrestled with this idea of, "will i kill myself? is this the best i can do for god, for allah?" in the end, he ultimately decided that this is the path he had to take. >> warner: so now, what on earth caused the cia to put someone

like this into a position to pull off a catastrophe? >> well, "unlikely" is the way to describe this man, and that includes, from the cia point of view, too, because as far they are concerned, he was one of many possible informants, someone who could be sent someplace and may or may not be able access. so, they took a gamble on him, send him to pakistan, paid his airfare and a little set-up money, but essentially didn't really expect that much out of him. sort of dropping him off into a place where he may get his head cut off, as far as anyone knew, and at no great loss. but as it turns out, he ended up very quickly becoming extremely good, and he started finding more and more amazing things and giving it to the cia through the jordanians, his handlers, and was showing the cia that he was getting very close to the inner circle of al qaeda. >> warner: including with videos? >> exactly. he was not just boasting or saying he was doing this, but sending back... sending documented solid evidence that he was getting very close to senior leaders. >> warner: so the cia decides they have to meet him. one of the astonishing, sort of,

warning signs or bungles here is that no american had ever met him, right? >> right. this is what becomes alarming to the cia is, as they began to see this incredible evidence that he was getting to him and realizing that no one had ever laid eyes on him. so it became a priority for the cia to have this man brought to a place where they can meet him in person, where they could look him in the eye to see if he was telling the truth. and also, to potentially arm him for the things he was about to do. that assignment included, very likely, bringing them to the number two leader of al qaeda, ayman al zawahri. >> warner: whom he claimed to be his doctor? >> who claimed to be his doctor. al qaeda, the taliban needs he claimed to be the doctor to the number two leader of al qaeda. >> warner: now, as i said, there were so many... i mean, this book is painful to read-- there are so many missed signals, so many warning signs ignored, including: one, that nobody had ever met him; but two, that the actual cia guy in amman smelled a rat. >> it's true. the jordanians are quite good at human intelligence, and we've relied on them for years to help us find terrorists and help us sniff out their networks. in this particular case, there were concerns that this man,

balawi, might be not what he claimed. there was even a direct warning that he might be leading them into an ambush. but there are reasons the cia was able to look at these warnings and say that this is just infighting among jordanians, and they were able to disregard it and not take it seriously. >> warner: but then, right before he comes to this cia outpost, didn't the american, the cia agent who was closest to the operation, send a warning back to the station chief, saying something is really bad here? >> and it's part of the reconstruction of what went wrong. there were not only warnings from the jordanians, but some of the americans had concerns and suspicions, too. so, there was a back and forth between the americans at khost, the base where they were all staying, and also a back and forth to washington. "how do we handle this man? do we trust him or not?" it was quite a robust argument. in the end, the imperative was to meet the person, and so the cautions were just disregarded. >> warner: now, they could've stopped him even up to the last minute, yet he gets in with going through no screening. how did that happen?

>> this is really remarkable. >> warner: you mean, all these high-level-- not high-level, but senior cia people... >> yes. there are traditions within the cia for dealing with informants, and you never trust them because you're not sure who they bed and who they are threatened by. so just as a matter of routine, they are often searched as soon as they get into the car. someone checks them just to make sure they are not wearing wires, for example, let alone bombs. in this case, because he was so valuable and because they wanted to see him so urgently, and they were so worried about taliban spies, they allowed him to get through three layers of security without being checked or searched a single time until the moment that he was within a few feet of a great number of cia operatives. >> warner: you also point out this was not a freelance mission. it was approved at the highest levels in washington. >> that's right. this was something that, because, if you think back of the excitement that surrounded the death of bin laden just a few months ago, an opportunity to go to the very heart of al qaeda-- this seemed to be the same opportunity. there was excitement, not just in langley at cia headquarters, but all the way up to

washington, where the president himself was briefed about this meeting that was about to take place. >> warner: of course. the cia did an internal review. what lessons did they take away from that? what have they concluded from this about how they bungled this so badly? >> there's lots of anguish and grief because of the loss of these people. they did look back and find not just little things that went wrong, but systemic problems such as the failure to be attentive to counterintelligence, which is the handling of informants, to make sure you have experienced people in places. there has been a lot of soul searching and a lot of change because of this accident. >> warner: did anyone pay a price? >> you know, that's been a criticism of the cia, but its typical of the way they work. they try to keep their problems internal. this is an agency that doesn't like to be in the spotlight anymore than it has to be. in this case, it was deemed that mistakes were made by people who in this case weren't alive anymore. some commissions were set up, studies were made. no one was disciplined, as far as we can tell. but things, hopefully, have changed regardless of that. >> warner: joby warrick, thank

you. great book. >> ifill: finally tonight, one of latin america's most renowned, but also controversial, writers. ray suarez has our profile. >> ( translated ): what's in a star? we are. all the elements of our body and the planet were once in the belly of a star. we are stardust. >> suarez: at 86, ernesto cardenal is known as one of latin america's greatest living poets. >> ( translated ): we are universal and after death we will help to form other stars and other galaxies we come from the stars and to them we shall return. >> suarez: his recent work reflects on humanity's connection to nature and relationship to the universe. but even in his later years, cardenal does not shy away from politics, or controversy, in his

life or his writing. >> ( translated ): "cell phone." you talk on your cell phone and talk and talk and laugh into and talk and talk and laugh into your cell phone never knowing how it was made and much less how it works but what does that matter? trouble is you don't know just as i didn't-- many people die in the congo thousands upon thousands for that cell phone, they die in the congo. >> suarez: ernesto cardenal was born and raised in nicaragua. he left the country in the 1950s to study in kentucky with the famed poet-priest thomas merton. when cardenal later returned home, he was ordained a catholic priest and quickly resumed his political activism. a committed marxist, cardenal championed the sandinista revolution in nicaragua. when the revolution seized power in the late 1970s, cardenal became that government's first cultural minister.

it was that post which famously drew condemnation from pope john paul ii, who publicly scolded cardenal when he visited nicaragua. the confrontation resulted in cardenal losing his privileges as a catholic priest. later, cardenal left the government and the sandinista party, opposing the leadership of daniel ortega. we recently spoke with ernesto cardenal while he was visiting the u.s. at the poet's house in new york. we spoke about his life and work, looking back to the early days of augusto sandino's rebellion against the united states in the early 20th century. sandino's guerilla war against the u.s. made him a symbol of resistan in latin america. sandino was assassinated in 1934 by general anastasio somoza garcia, who's family went on to rule nicaragua for another 40 years. his son's government was later overthrown by a revolution that took on sandino's name.

>> ( translated ): well, i was about six years old when sandino was murdered by somoza, seven years old. but later-- and once dead-- a movement in favor of sandino began. as a young man, i participated in the resurrection of the figure of sandino that was taking place in nicaragua, and later appeared a political movement-- the sandinist-- which was a guerrilla in the mountain with the emblem of sandino, with sandino's flag. i also participated in that sandinist revolution of the '80s and its government. but now, i am in the sandinist opposition of the present government, who calls itself "sandinista," but which is not. it is the betrayal of the sandinist movement. >> suarez: after you left the government and after you parted ways with the party, were your powers as a priest restored? were you able to carry out your priestly responsibilities again in the eyes of the vatican?

>> ( translated ): no. i was sanctioned by the vatican for being a priest with a position in the government, along with other priests who also had them. but i have not wanted them to give me back the sacrament administration because i did not become a priest to administer sacraments. for me, it wasn't important, it was rather unpleasant. performing baptisms, marriages and all the pastoral and sacramental exercises was not my vocation. my vocation was contemplative, and i always exercise the priesthood in a contemplative matter and, like a poet, delivering my message, my sermons, in my poems. praise the lord in the cosmos, his sanctuary the radius of a hundred thousand million light years praise him through the stars in the interstellar spaces praise him for the galaxies and the intergalactic spaces praise him for the atoms in the interatomic voids. >> suarez: you've been writing a long time.

when you look back at your older work, is it like, your children, and i love them all the same? or do you say, "oh, how naive, or what was i thinking back then?" >> ( translated ): naturally, one always evolves. as time passes by, one can see that one can do better what was done before. sometimes, i correct what i've done; other times, it has to stay like it is because there is no way you can correct it. my favorite poem is always the one i wrote last. after a while, i stop liking it, and then i can do something new. if one sticks with what is already done, one cannot move forward. that's it. >> suarez: and the new work, does it does come from new thinking about the world, new thinking about life? >> ( translated ): yes. in the first place, one matures,

and can write about things one couldn't before. one couldn't get poetry out of this theme or this situation, and later you can do it because you have more technical ability to do it. now, i can do easily things that were impossible for me to do when i was younger. that also happens to painters, i guess, and to all artists and creators. even politicians mature and become, perhaps, more astute or more cunning. evolution unites us all, the living and the dead darwin discovered it, that we come from a single cell that we are interlinked if one rises from the dead, we all rise from the dead. >> ifill: that was poet ernesto cardenal reading from his book, "pluriverse." you can watch him read more of his poetry on our web site. >> brown: again, the major developments of the day:

national guard helicopters and trucks began to ferry food and supplies to a dozen towns in vermont cut off by flooding from hurricane irene. rebels in libya threatened an all out attack on moammar qaddafi's hometown, sirte, unless his loyalists surrender. and home prices in most u.s. cities edged up in june for the third straight month. but they were still below the levels of a year ago. for more of what's on our website we turn to harry veen veen. >> sreenivasan: fred de sam lazaro writes about church attendance and views toward abortion and contraception in rio de janeiro. >> brown: and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, we'll talk with 9/11 commission chairmen lee hamilton and tom kean about the state of national security ten years after the terrorist attacks. i'm jeffrey brown. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening.

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