captioning funded by cbs and ford-- built for the road ahead. >> pelley: this is what espionage looks like. the man driving the car is gregg bergersen. he's a civilian analyst at the pentagon with one of the nation's highest security clearances.

his companion is tai shen kuo, a spy for the people's republic of china. bergersen knew a secret that the chinese desperately wanted to know. neither man knows that what they're about to do is being recorded by two cameras the f.b.i. has concealed in their car. >> are you sure that's okay? >> simon: just a short distance from the banks of the euphrates, all he had to do was scratch the surface of the sand to collect evidence of what had happened here. >> the fragments of bones. hmm. this is the bone of the wrist. more here. >> simon: it was extraordinary standing on a mound where perhaps thousands of people lie in tombs. there's no record of who they were or where they could have come from. >> look at that. we've got these kids who know this area just picking up bones by the dozen. >> stahl: kathryn bigelow directed what critics say is the best war movie made in years. while it was weak at the box office, it could beat out "avatar," the year's biggest movie by james cameron.

how sweet is this, to be head to head with your ex-husband? incredible. that the two films were made by people who were married to each other. >> you couldn't have scripted it. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm byron pitts. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories and andy rooney >> i'm scott pelley. thosso i'm on a red eyerooney back from a bachelor party with my buddy mike, who is a terrible, terrible dancer. he's actually right behind... what up, mike? hey, dude! [ laughs ] yeah, this is how he dances. uhhh! [ laughs ] it's, uh, haunting. anyway, while i was away, the e-trade machine... thanks, martha. ...worked its technomagic, triggered my stop loss orders, saved me a pantload! [ pilot ] please fasten your seatbelts. dad? no, mike, that's the pilot. he's making an announcement! dad? ugh. [ male announcer ] upgrade to first class

investing technology at e-trade. to grow on your dentures? you are if you use toothpaste instead of soaking them in polident toothpaste is abrasive on dentures look, scratches where bacteria can collect and grow and bacteria can cause bad breath that's why i recommend replacing toothpaste with polident only polident is proven to clean without scratching and kills 99.9% of odor causing bacteria don't scratch your dentures clean use polident every day introducing benefiber orange, the orange flavored fiber with a taste 2 out of 3 people prefer over metamucil orange. that's the beauty of benefiber.

the stuff you want your kids to reach for. the stuff you want to reach for. now you can enjoy good choices even more. people who spent $100 a week at leading national supermarkets... on frequently purchased groceries... could have saved $55 in one month... by shopping at walmart instead. it's another pantry filled. and another great day for the savers. save money. live better. walmart.

>> pelley: we're used to spy novels about the russians, but today's reality in espionage is different. china has just as good a spy network in the united states. and tonight, you are going to see a chinese spy caught red- handed taking american military secrets from an employee of the defense department. if china is the asian dragon, then it has awakened to compete with the united states all around the world for resources, markets and strategic advantage. the chinese are also shopping for information, ranging from u.s. nuclear weapons designs to the inside deliberations of the obama white house. because of the nature of espionage, you never get a look at this clandestine underworld, but recently, the f.b.i. recorded a chinese agent stealing america's secrets, and we're making the video public for the first time. this is what espionage looks like.

the man driving the car is gregg bergersen. he's a civilian analyst at the pentagon with one of the nation's highest security clearances. his companion is tai shen kuo, a spy for the people's republic of china. this is kuo in an f.b.i. surveillance photo. he was born in taiwan, but he's a naturalized american citizen who owns a number of businesses in louisiana. and this is bergersen, who worked at the pentagon's defense security cooperation agency, which manages weapons sales to u.s. allies. bergersen knew a secret the chinese desperately wanted to know-- what kind of weapons was america planning to sell to taiwan, the rebellious chinese island that mainland china wants to reclaim. it's july 2007. they're driving outside washington. and neither man knows that what they are about to do is being recorded by two cameras the

f.b.i. has concealed in their car. >> tai shen kuo: i'll give you... let you have the money. >> gregg bergersen: whoa, oh, are you sure that's okay? >> kuo: yeah, yeah, fine >> bergersen: you're sure? >> kuo: yeah. >> pelley: we watched the tape with john slattery, the f.b.i. agent at headquarters who oversaw the case. he recently retired as a deputy assistant director. what's happening there? >> slattery: information has been passed prior, and this is reward for that, or there is expectation that passage of information is forthcoming, so that's what's happening here. >> pelley: how much money is he holding in his hand? >> slattery: i think we're probably looking at about $2,000, thereabouts. >> pelley: tai shen kuo's money and contacts came to the f.b.i.'s attention while the bureau was investigating a different chinese espionage case. they followed him, tapped his phone, watched his email, and all of that led to bergersen. in the car, the pentagon employee and chinese spy were plotting the hand over of secret documents that listed future

weapons sales to taiwan and details of a taiwanese military communications system. >> bergersen: i'm very, very, very, very reticent to let you have it, because it's all classified. >> kuo: oh, okay. >> bergersen: and... but i will let you see it... >> kuo: mm-hmm, mm-hmm. >> bergersen: ... and you can take all the notes you want... >> kuo: okay. >> bergersen: ...which i think you can do today. but i... if it ever fell into the wrong hands, and i know it's not going to, but if it ever... >> kuo: okay, that's fair, that's fair, yeah, yeah. >> bergersen: ...was, then i would be fired for sure. i'd go to jail. >> kuo: yeah. >> bergersen: because i violated all the rules. >> pelley: he just described them as classified documents. >> slattery: exactly. >> pelley: he knows precisely what he's doing. >> slattery: exactly. >> pelley: he's almost going down your list of requirements for an indictment by a grand jury. >> slattery: and we thank him for that. >> pelley: when it comes to espionage against the united states, is china now the number one threat that we face?

>> michelle van cleave: i would be hard pressed to say whether it's the chinese or it's the russians, but they're one, two, or two, one. >> pelley: michelle van cleave was america's top counter- intelligence officer. working for the director of national intelligence, she was in charge of coordinating the hunt for foreign spies from 2003 to 2006. >> van cleave: the chinese are the biggest problem we have with respect to the level of effort that they're devoting against us versus the level of attention we are giving to them. >> pelley: what do the chinese want from us? >> van cleave: virtually every technology that is on the u.s. control technology list has been targeted-- sensors and optics, and biological and chemical processes. these are the things... information technologies across all the things that we have identified as having inherent military application. >> pelley: the chinese have stolen technology used in the space shuttle and in submarine propulsion systems.

in the late 1990s, a congressional commission found china now holds the most closely guarded secrets america had. >> van cleave: we learned and the cox commission reported that the chinese had acquired the design information for all u.s. thermonuclear weapons currently in our inventory. >> pelley: let me make sure i understand-- the chinese are in possession today of the designs of all of our nuclear weapons? >> van cleave: yes. >> pelley: how did they get that? >> van cleave: the questions of how they acquired it remain, to some extent, unknown. >> pelley: how the u.s. lost its atomic secrets may be unknown, but there are fewer mysteries in the case of tai shen kuo and gregg bergersen. the f.b.i. says that kuo wanted to expand his louisiana business into china. when he sought permission from

beijing, the chinese asked for a few favors for their intelligence service. the $2,000 was only part of kuo's development of bergersen. kuo wined and dined his spy, and bergersen seemed to have an appetite for espionage. at one dinner, kuo's tab came to $710. kuo took bergersen to las vegas for some shows. and the day of the ride, kuo brought a box of expensive cigars. all the while, kuo lied to bergersen, telling him that the information was being passed to taiwan, the u.s. ally. does that make any difference in the law, whether you're spying for a hostile government or a friendly one? >> slattery: of course not. classified information's not allowed to be passed without, you know, certain approvals to any foreign government. >> bergersen: but i think when you see the information, you can get out of it what you need. >> kuo: yeah, okay. >> bergersen: you know, you can write all the... you can take

all the notes you want. >> kuo: okay. >> bergersen: it's just i cannot... >> kuo: okay. >> bergersen: ... ever let anyone know... >> kuo: good, i got it. >> bergersen: ... because that'll... that'll... i'll,... that's my job. >> kuo: yeah, yeah. >> bergersen: uh, i'd get fired for sure on that. well, not even get fired, i'd go to ( bleep ) jail. >> pelley: the recruitment of bergersen has a familiar ring to fengzhi li. li recruited spies for china as an officer in the ministry of state security. the m.s.s. is their c.i.a. give me a sense of all the different ways you would persuade someone to spy for china. >> fengzhi li: that will be a long story. >> pelley: i've got time. >> li: okay. >> pelley: in our interview, li switched between english and mandarin. he worked for chinese intelligence 14 years recruiting spies in russia. he's now seeking political asylum in the u.s. >> ( translated ): li: let me say this-- intelligence work is different from other kind of

work. when i target a hundred people, even if 99 people have refused me, if there is one i persuade, that's enough. >> pelley: that's enough? >> li: mm-hmmm. yeah. >> pelley: li told us that he recruited spies through blackmail and sometimes greed, especially if someone wanted to do business in china. once, he says, his agents recruited the official photographer for a european head of state that he still won't name. would you say the m.s.s. spends most of its effort on the united states? >> li( translated ): definitely. without a doubt. >> pelley: what would some examples be of some of the kind of information that m.s.s. was interested in getting a hold of? >> li: for example, what president obama thinks right now. >> pelley: they want to know what president obama thinks? >> li: yes. >> pelley: thanks to gregg bergersen, the chinese were about to find out just what sort of weapons america intended to sell to taiwan. the day of that car ride,

bergersen drove kuo and the secret documents to a restaurant in suburban washington. in the restaurant, kuo copied the secrets by hand. out in the parking lot, bergersen waited with a glass of wine, one of those cigars, and the f.b.i. in tow. as they left, bergersen just couldn't stop talking. >> bergersen: but i... i will be very careful to keep my tracks clean. >> kuo: of course. of course. >> bergersen: and no... no fingerprints. it's just like these documents... >> kuo: gotcha. >> bergersen: ... no fingerprints. i can't afford to lose my job. >> pelley: later, kuo left the u.s. for beijing. but while he waited for his flight, federal agents got into his bags, photocopied his handwritten notes, and put them back. kuo's notes matched the secret document on the right. but john slattery, who oversaw the case for the f.b.i., told us the bureau didn't make arrests until six months later. but, i mean, this is drop-dead evidence, and espionage is occurring.

why didn't you arrest them sooner than that? >> slattery: well, these... these investigations are tremendously complex and tremendously difficult to begin with. >> pelley: the department of defense wants you to stop it right away. >> slattery: please-- sooner than later. but the f.b.i. says, "well, listen, we want to make sure we can sustain a conviction here. and... and are there other players in this?" >> pelley: turns out, there were other players. kuo had another source inside the pentagon, and kuo was connected to spies on the west coast who were giving up u.s. space and naval technology. presumably, the u.s. is doing the same kind of spying in china, but michelle van cleave says america has so much more to lose. >> van cleave: i think we're a real candy store for the chinese and for others in... in terms of technology and commercial products, or other proprietary

information, and so we will always be the principal target for them. >> pelley: what is the most serious damage that chinese espionage has done to the united states? >> slattery: it's the totality of the collection effort. take a case like this or... or cases like... like this-- traditional espionage, penetration of the... of the interior. couple that with industrial and economic collection, couple that with cyber. it... it greatly concerns me. it greatly concerns me. >> bergersen: well, i hope this all works out. i mean, you are helping me a lot here. >> kuo: thank you. thank you. >> bergersen: but... but i don't want anyone to know about our... >> kuo: no, no, of course not. >> bergersen: ... relationship or anything, because it could get me in a lot of trouble. >> pelley: bergersen kept saying, "i could go to jail," and both men did. in 2008, prosecutors showed them this tape and they pled guilty. bergersen got almost five years for communicating national defense information; kuo, a naturalized american citizen, is in a u.s. prison doing 15 years for espionage. prison may have been the best option bergersen had.

because after he left the car, kuo pulled out his own tape recorder. we'll never know why he taped the damning conversation, but it is classic spycraft to use blackmail to get at ever deeper and deeper secrets. for every case that is broken-- like the bergersen case, for example-- how many others are there that we have no idea about? >> van cleave: oh, isn't that the important question? you never know what you don't know. but we... certainly, we have seen such an extensive range of activities by the... by the chinese that it... it should make you very uncomfortable. >> money watch update sponsored by:. >> mitchell: good eke. republicans signaled today the vote to extend unemployment benefits temporarily.

warren buffett called for penalties for ceos whose risky investments ran their companies in trouble. gas rose 6 cents in a week to 2.70 a gallon. and shutter island won the weekend box office again. i'm russ mitchell, cbs news. hey can i play with the toys ? sure, but let me get a little information first. for broccoli, say one. for toys, say two. toys ! the system can't process your response at this time. what ? please call back between 8 and 5 central standard time.

he's in control. goodbye. even kids know it's wrong to give someone the run around. at ally bank you never have to deal with an endless automated system. you can talk to a real person 24/7. it's just the right thing to do. but we've got the ammunition she needs: omnaris. (troops) omnaris! to the nose. (general) omnaris works differently than many other allergy medications. omnaris fights nasal allergy symptoms that occur from allergic inflammation... relieve those symptoms with omnaris. side effects may include headache, nosebleed and sore throat. her nose is at ease. we have lift off. (general) remember omnaris! ask your doctor. in the battle against nasal allergy symptoms, omnaris combats the cause. new kenmore elite multi-motion washer. - how does that work? - hit it! see, other machines only go in circles. this kenmore elite has multi motions for a custom clean. it scrubs to help lift stains, rolls to wash gently, swings, steps, and tumbles.

better than just circles. pfft! what?! sorry. introducing the first and only multi-motion washer from kenmore. get 15% off all appliances and floor care. sears. life. well spent. advisor:... ms. davis, this is onstar. i've received a signal you've been in a crash... i'm contacting emergency services... 911 dispatch:...onstar reporting a front end crash... on wakefield road... chevy malibu... fire/ems:...air bags deployed... ...injuries reported... advisor: ma'am, help is on the way...ok. and i'll stay on the line with you until they get there. automatic crash response. built into 15 chevy models.

>> simon: wars are fought over oil, land, water, but rarely over history, especially about something that happened nearly 100 years ago. but that's what turkey and armenia are still fighting over- - what to label the mass deportation and subsequent massacre of more than a million christian armenians from ottoman turkey during the first world war. armenians and an overwhelming number of historians say that turkey's rulers committed genocide, that its actions were a model for what hitler did to the jews. the turks, meanwhile, say their ancestors never carried out such

crimes, and that they too were victims in a world war. ever since, this battle over history has not only ensnared the two nations, but even the white house and congress, where resolutions officially recognizing the genocide are currently moving through the house and senate. but our story begins where the lives of so many armenians ended, far from istanbul, in the desert. we took a drive into what is now syria, to the barren wilderness, to what amounts to the largest armenian cemetery in the world. >> peter balakian: as many as 450,000 armenians died here. >> simon: peter balakian is an armenian-american author who has written extensively about what happened in this desolate place. 450,000 armenians died here in this spot in the desert? >> balakian: in this region called deir zor, yes.

it is the greatest graveyard of the armenian genocide. >> simon: deir zor is to armenians what auschwitz is to jews. the most ghoulish thing about the place is that, 95 years later, the evidence of the massacres is everywhere. just a short distance from the banks of the euphrates, there's a dump. it's also the site of a mass grave; it has never been excavated. all we had to do was scratch the surface of the sand to collect evidence of what had happened here. >> dr. haroot kahvejian: it's the hill full of bones >> simon: little fragments of bones. dr. haroot kahvejian, an armenian dentist, was our guide. >> kahvejian: this is the bone of the... >> balakian: the wrist. >> simon: they've been lying here for 95 years. >> balakian: here we go. more here. >> simon: look at this one. >> balakian: my god, it looks like a joint bone. >> simon: nobody bothered to dig them up until now. it was extraordinary standing on a mound where perhaps thousands of people lie entombed.

there is no record of who they were or where they could have come from. look at that. there are kids who know exactly where they are. they are finding them by the dozen. >> balakian: evidence comes in many forms. it comes in photographs, it comes in texts and telegrams. >> kahvejian: this is the most... >> balakian: and it also comes in bones. >> simon: so just how did all these bones end up here? in 1915, the first world war was raging, and the ottoman empire was crumbling. the armenians were a christian minority who were considered infidels by the ruling muslims, a fifth column who sided with the enemy in the war. the fact that they were prosperous didn't help, says

balakian, whose great uncle survived the genocide and wrote about it in a memoir, "armenian golgotha." >> balakian: like the jews of europe, the armenians of the ottoman empire had a dominant role in commerce and trade. they were highly educated, many of them. >> simon: and highly... highly resented? >> balakian: and highly resented. >> simon: what happened next? >> balakian: what happens from the spring of 1915 on through the summer is a well- orchestrated project of government-planned arrests and deportations. >> simon: some were forced to buy round-trip tickets for train journeys from which they never returned. they ended up in box cars. the rest, mostly women and children, were forced on death marches, hundreds of miles. many perished from starvation, disease or brutal killings. the survivors ended up in concentration camps hundreds of miles from istanbul, out of sight. at the time of the deportations, american diplomats in the region sent dispatches to washington detailing what they had seen and heard. just weeks after the arrests of armenians had begun, henry morgenthau, the u.s. ambassador here, sent off this one:

"deportation of and excesses against peaceful armenians is increasing, and from harrowing reports of eyewitnesses, it appears that a campaign of race extermination is in progress." to this day, the turks vigorously deny there was any such campaign. when we spoke to nabi sensoy, he was turkey's ambassador to washington. we were in syria, sir, and we scratched the sand and came up with bones. how can you argue with that? >> nabi sensoy: well, bones you can find anywhere in turkey, you know. there they been a lot of tragedies that happened in those lands. >> simon: excuse me, sir. we dug up these bones in a place called deir zor, which armenians say is their equivalent of auschwitz. >> sensoy: well, i don't think that it was any... anything to comparable to auschwitz. this was only deportation, and things happened on the road. >> simon: but the deportations ended in massacres, didn't they? >> sensoy: no, it did not. >> simon: weren't there massacres, mass executions and death marches of the armenians? >> sensoy: there was no death

marches of armenians. there was deportation and tragic things happened. many people perished under the deprivations of the first world war. >> simon: but did what happen in 1915 amount to genocide? the u.n. defines it as the intent to destroy a racial, ethnic or religious group. >> sensoy: the most important thing is the intent. the killings is something else; it's happened on both sides. but whether it constitutes genocide is another matter. it is a legal word and it should not be lightly used. >> simon: but you're saying there was no intention of the turkish government... >> sensoy: there was no intention of annihilating in whole or in part the armenian population. >> simon: bishop sarkin sarkissian is convinced that the massacres were intended and meticulously executed. he showed us one of the caves into which he said untold numbers of armenians, women and

children, were thrown. looks like you could walk for miles down here. >> bishop sarkin sarkissian: i... i think so. i think so. >> simon: it was, the armenians believe, a primitive gas chamber. they lit fires at the mouth of the cave. >> sarkissian: yeah. >> simon: and the people inside couldn't breathe anymore. >> sarkissian: exactly. and there is no other way to escape out. >> simon: the ottoman turks developed a template which, according to genocide scholars, was later to be adopted by the nazis. >> balakian: most dramatically, we have adolph hitler saying eight days before invading poland in 1939, "who today, after all, speaks of the annihilation of the armenians?" hitler was inspired by the armenian extermination. you know, it made him think, "well, sure, you know, you can get rid of a hated minority group, and if you're powerful and your side wins, that event will never get recorded." >> simon: the turks dispute the evidence that hitler ever uttered those words or was inspired by the events of 1915.

nonetheless, when the ottomans were swept from power and the modern turkish state was founded, all memory of what happened to the armenians was erased. records were destroyed, a new alphabet was adopted, and ever since, the massacres have not been taught in schools. the use of the word "genocide" is regarded as an insult to the turkish nation. it is a jailable offense. hrant dink, who edited an armenian newspaper in turkey, was prosecuted three times for insulting the turkish nation. he also received thousands of death threats from extremists, but kept on writing. his daughter dalal recalls the turkish authorities telling her father they couldn't protect him. >> dalal dink: they were kind of warning my father about what might happen. and the days following that, nationalist groups came in front

of "agos" and... >> simon: in front of your father's newspaper? >> dink: yes, in front of the newspaper, shouting that he's their target and he's their enemy, and one day they will come for him. >> simon: days later, as he stepped outside that same office, he was shot at point blank range. dink is viewed as a martyr now in armenia, where he is seen as the latest victim of the genocide. his picture emerges from the wall of flowers on a hillside outside the capital, yerevan, where, every april, hundreds of thousands attend a memorial to remind the turks and the world of what they went through. they pay homage to those who died nearly a century ago. it's as if the entire country turns out for what is, emotionally, a funeral, a burial the victims never had.

and on the same day, in times square, thousands of armenian americans gather to demand that congress pass a resolution recognizing the genocide. two years ago, when a resolution was to be put to a vote in the house, turkey recalled ambassador sensoy in protest. its president warned of "serious troubles" and its top general said military ties with the u.s. would never be the same. to limit further damage, the bush administration and eight former secretaries of state weighed in to kill the bill. it worked. eight former secretaries of state rallied behind turkey to defeat that resolution. >> sensoy: yes. >> simon: why do you think that was, sir? >> sensoy: well, i think it's the importance of turkey for the united states. we have a long list of positive agenda between us. >> simon: and the items on that list, sensoy says, are far more important than the armenian issue. turkey is, after all, a regional superpower and an essential

broker between the u.s. and the muslim world. it has the second largest army in nato, and the u.s. relies on the country's airbases for its wars in iraq and afghanistan. 70% of american supplies to those wars go through turkey, which is also a crucial conduit for oil. which is probably why no u.s. president has uttered the word "genocide." during his presidential campaign, candidate obama promised that, if elected, he would use the word. "the armenian genocide," he said, "is a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence." but when president obama made his first overseas trip to turkey, he never mentioned the word. late last year, the u.s. brokered an agreement between turkey and armenia to establish diplomatic relations, with one

key condition-- that a historical commission be formed to rule on whether a genocide took place. nearly six months later, the deal appears to be unraveling. the battle over the use of the word is far from over.

♪ [ sniffs ] morning. you got in pretty late last night. dad, i'm not sixteen anymore. still, it was late. well... you're not gonna have to worry about that anymore. yeah, why's that? ♪ todd's a lucky man. ♪ the best part of wakin' up... ♪ that's what i told him when we talked last week. ♪ ...is folgers in your cup and you're still fighting to sleep in the middle of the night, why would you go one more round using it ? you don't need a rematch-- but a re-think-- with lunesta. lunesta is different. it keys into receptors that support sleep, setting your sleep process in motion. lunesta helps you get the restful sleep you need. when taking lunesta, don't drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving or engaging in other activities

while asleep without remembering it the next day have been reported. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations or confusion. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. alcohol may increase these risks. allergic reactions such as tongue or throat swelling occur rarely and may be fatal. side effects may include unpleasant taste, headache, dizziness and morning drowsiness. stop fighting with your sleep. get a free 7-night trial on-line and ask your doctor about switching to lunesta. discover a restful lunesta night.

about switching to lunesta. you might know that it has protein, but whole soy's also naturally packed with fiber, antioxidants and other nutrients.

which is why we bake it with fruit... to make soyjoy. >> stahl: kathryn bigelow is a film director who made a movie almost no one went to see, about a subject, the iraq war, the hollywood studios were afraid of.

and yet her movie, "the hurt locker," is running neck and neck for all the top oscars with the biggest grossing movie of all time. it's mega-bucks "avatar" against made-on-a-shoestring "hurt locker." bigelow was a painter before she was a filmmaker, and is still something of a recluse. but now, she spends a lot of her time walking the red carpet. "hurt locker" has already won just about every major critics' award, plus film of the year from the producers' guild and best director award from the directors guild. if she wins the big one, she'll be the first woman ever to win an oscar for directing. critics say that kathryn bigelow's "hurt locker" is the best war movie made in years. and there's an irony in the fact that it's up against james cameron's movie. how sweet is this-- to be head- to-head with your ex-husband? incredible that the two films were made by people who were

married to each other. >> bigelow: you couldn't have scripted it. ( laughs ) >> stahl: no. >> james cameron: there's this whole thing that's going on where people love to... they love to create a headline-- "battle of the exes," you know, "war of the roses." we were married two decades ago for a brief period of time, and we've been friends and collaborators since. >> stahl: as we talked about this with bigelow at a ranch where she escapes from the hoopla of hollywood, she said she and cameron are now such good friends, they swapped scripts and early versions of each other's movies. when he saw "hurt locker," did he say, "you ought do to this, you ought to do that"? >> bigelow: yeah, he said "cut negative". >> stahl: what is "cut negative"? >> cameron: "cut negative" means you're done editing. >> stahl: "cut negative" means "it's perfect"? >> bigelow: it was a big compliment. ( laughs ) >> stahl: and now, her little movie has as many oscar nominations at cameron's blockbuster-- nine for both. >> bigelow: i was stunned, shocked, thrilled beyond belief. >> stahl: best actor? >> bigelow: yes. >> stahl: best screenplay, best picture, best director.

>> bigelow: yes. >> stahl: in "the hurt locker," a riveting two hours filled with fear and violence, bigelow shows how terrifying it is for a bomb squad in iraq. >> butcher shop, 2:00. dude has a phone. >> stahl: here, they're trying to stop that butcher from detonating an i.e.d. with his cell phone. >> put down the cell phone! >> stahl: by using wobbly hand- held cameras, bigelow heightens the tension and the sense of immediacy. she wants the audience to feel like the fourth member of the bomb squad. >> bigelow: the ground just erupts out of nowhere. i mean, it's just an incredibly harrowing, dangerous, volatile environment. >> stahl: she sees the film both as anti-war, and as a tribute to the soldiers who sign up to do this kind of work. >> bigelow: these are men and women who volunteer, who are there by choice, who are walking toward what you and i and

perhaps the rest of the world would run from. and they arguably have the most dangerous job in the world, yet they're there by choice. >> stahl: they don't know where to look. they don't know. >> bigelow: you don't know where to look. it's an invisible enemy. and you don't know if the man on the third floor balcony is shaking out a rug or calling in a sniper strike. >> stahl: but beneath all the action is a film about the psyche of soldiers under siege. bigelow opens the movie with a quote: "the rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug." >> bigelow: but it's also a sense of meaning and purpose that nothing else in your life can replicate, except the battlefield. >> stahl: her main character, sergeant will james, can only function when his life is in danger. he's a go-it-alone cowboy who breaks the rules... >> oh, god. >> stahl: ... and terrifies his

squad members with reckless behavior. >> what's he doing? >> i don't know... >> if i'm going to die, i'm going to die comfortable. >> stahl: he's fearless as he looks for bombs, and when he defuses one, he then has to deal with the usual secondaries. >> secondary. >> take cover. get in the wall. get in the wall. >> stahl: it never stops in this movie. really, it's one intense moment right after the next... >> bigelow: right. right. >> stahl: ...without letup. >> bigelow: without letup. >> jeremy renner: she likes to watch and she captures. she's a painter. >> stahl: jeremy renner plays sergeant james. i don't know anybody who has seen this movie who says, "i can't believe a woman directed this movie"-- the violence, the macho-ness. >> renner: what does having a set of ovaries have to do with

directing a film? it's through her eyes that she sees, not through her mammaries or anything else that defines her as a woman, right? >> stahl: this muscular, somewhat violent world that she's attracted to-- do you understand what it is she's drawn to there? >> cameron: i think the idea of war and conflict fascinates her. and so, it's something that's out there in the world that she's trying to understand. i think she also takes pride in the fact that she can outgun the guys, you know-- that, just in pure technique, just pure game, she's got more game than most of the male directors out there. >> stahl: bigelow is 58, and "the hurt locker" is her eighth movie, and if she has a signature, it's exactly that-- a concentration on tough guys like harrison ford and liam neeson in "k-19: the widowmaker," and on daredevils like keanu reeves and patrick swayze in "point break," about an f.b.i. agent who goes after a ring of bank robbers.

>> bigelow: i'm drawn to provocative characters that find themself in extreme situations, and i think i'm drawn to that consistently. >> stahl: she's been drawn to it ever since the early '70s, when she was in new york studying painting, and one night went to the movies with some friends. the film was sam peckinpah's "the wild bunch," a western known as much for its body count as its art. >> bigelow: it was visceral. >> stahl: very violent, it could be very bloody. >> bigelow: exactly. very, very visceral, very... you know, and you were just enraptured by this material. >> stahl: enraptured because she realized that, unlike painting, film could make you physically feel what the characters in the film were feeling. one of her professors described it as... >> bigelow: scopophilia. >> stahl: scopophilia? >> bigelow: scopophilia, which is the desire to watch and identify with what you're watching. >> stahl: is that when you said, "it has to be film.

i have to make movies." >> bigelow: it was just... it was like, suddenly, i had woken up from a drought and there was water in front of me, and i was just... i couldn't get enough. >> stahl: watch "hurt locker" and you do feel what the characters feel, as in the sniper scene where the unit is pinned down, all day long, out in the desert. the audience feels the fear, the heat, and the thirst. bigelow shot the movie almost entirely in jordan, part of it in this palestinian refugee camp... and used displaced iraqis as characters and extras. with a measly $11 million budget, the actors and crew had to take their breaks in bedouin tents-- no air conditioning for anyone. >> bigelow: i think what was in

our head was to survive any given day. i mean, you're in the middle east, you're in the summer. you've got sandstorms, wind storms, probably an average of 115 to 120 degree heat. your lead actor is in a 100- pound bomb suit. >> stahl: the cast had other challenges, since bigelow often shot takes with four cameras rolling simultaneously, never telling the actors where the cameras were. anthony mackie plays sergeant j.t. sanborn. >> anthony mackie: i'd never shot a movie like that before, so it was always... >> stahl: you always knew where the camera was... >> mackie: always. >> stahl: ...and had to worry about it, and this... >> mackie: what was my good side? where my light was coming from. how should i talk to you? that's how you make movies. >> stahl: but this was different? >> mackie: this was different. >> stahl: this was almost like a documentary. >> mackie: and it was guerrilla filmmaking. >> stahl: bigelow recently held a screening of the film for some real bomb-squad veterans. they agree with her about the addiction of war, that the adrenaline rush in what they do creates a craving for more. jim o'neill, who heads a foundation that helps bomb squad

techs, told about one tech who got wounded. >> jim o'neill: lost a leg, got blown up. has lost a leg from the knee down, and he's over there in afghanistan. >> stahl: and he's back? >> o'neill: wearing the bomb suit with a prosthetic. that's the personality. i mean it's an incredible, incredible... >> stahl: brad somerville worked on a bomb squad in baghdad. >> brad somerville: after you've been there for a long period of time, doing this over and over, and going down range and you come home, there's an empty feeling inside. >> stahl: they think bigelow nailed it when she showed how difficult it was for sergeant james to go home. he couldn't relate to his wife... >> you know they need more bomb techs. >> can you chop those up for me? >> stahl: ... and couldn't even function when he went to the grocery story to buy a box of cereal. >> somerville: the image, the one that i took away the most was at the very end, was him walking through the grocery store, and that was the one that

got me because it was "wow, it's not happening anymore, and i'm back here and it's not real. it's all back there." and i can remember seeing him walking down the aisles and his mind going, "what do i do now?" >> stahl: can we play the clip of when jeremy talks to his son? >> bigelow: yes. >> the older you get, the fewer things you really love. by the time you get to my age, maybe it's only one or two things. with me, i think it's one. >> stahl: bigelow ends her movie with sergeant james leaving his son and going back to the war. it was crushing to think he needed that rush, that adrenaline fix so badly, he

couldn't stay home and take care of his son. >> bigelow: you know, that comes at a terrible, terrible price for him. and he knows it. but he's incapable of doing anything different. >> cameron: frankly, i thought kathryn was going to get this, so i'm kind of winging it. and she richly deserves it. >> stahl: cameron won at the golden globes for "avatar," the only big award bigelow hasn't won so far. and next week is the biggest one, the oscars. if she does win and beats you out... >> cameron: you mean when she wins as director? >> stahl: you think she's going to win? >> cameron: i think it's an irresistible story-- to finally be able to award the very first directing oscar to a woman, and kathryn... you know, i mean, i'm sure she'll be very ambivalent about this, because she'll be of a mind that, "wait a minute, i want to win for the work, i don't want to win because i'm a woman." but i think it's irresistible at

the moment of voting, that story. >> stahl: kathryn bigelow will not like hearing that-- she hates being considered a female director. >> bigelow: there's really no difference between what i do and what, you know, a male filmmaker might do. i mean, we all try to make our days, we all try to give the best performances we can, we try to make our budget, we try to make the best movie we possibly can. so in that sense, it's very similar. on the other hand, i think the journey for women, no matter what venue it is-- politics, business, film... it's... it's a long journey. >> stahl: kathryn bigelow gives a lot of credit to the screenwriter, mark boal, a journalist who wrote the script after embedding with a bomb squad in iraq. he has also been nominated for an oscar. >> welcome to the cbs sports cup date presented by viagra. at the winter limb pick games in overtime canada wins the men's hockey gold

medal for the first time since 2002. in dlej basketball action after today's play michigan state and purdue are tied for second in the big ten race, one half game behind ohio state. in the big east louisville and marquette each big up their win while xavier and temple are tied for the leads. for more news and scores log on to cbssports.com.

>> kroft: now, a few minutes with andy rooney. >> rooney: i hope all of you are going to fill out your census form when it comes in the mail next month. if you don't return the form,

the area you live in might get less government money and you wouldn't want that to happen, would you? this is a sample of the census 2010 form and i think most people are a little nervous about all the stuff the government wants to know about them. i don't think the government is out to get me or to help someone else get me, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were out to sell me something, or help someone else sell me something. i mean, why else would the census bureau want to know my telephone number? every form asks for my telephone number. how many government agencies do i have to give my phone number to, anyway? have they ever thought of looking me up in the phone book? the census bureau gets in trouble right away here. you have to pick "person number one"-- it asks that as a question. now, is that a way to start trouble in a family or isn't it? i'll be darned if i'm going to say i'm person number one. let someone else be person number one.

i suppose they think the man will put himself down as person number one. can you imagine what could happen to the guy who puts himself down as person number one? he comes down to breakfast in the morning and his wife says, "good morning, person number one. can person number two get person number one a cup of coffee?" there are only ten questions on the form. the last question says, "does person one sometimes live or stay somewhere else?" person one better not live or stay somewhere else very often, or he'll be in big trouble with person number two. i'll answer "none of your damn business" to that question. >> kroft: i'm steve kroft. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." good job, keep going ! you took my eggs ! it's an "egg management fee." what does that even mean ? egg management fee.

even kids know it's wrong to take other people's stuff. that's why at ally bank we don't eat away at your savings with fees. and we offer rates among the most competitive in the country. it's just the right thing to do. .ons of times, is now available over-the-counter in prevacid®24hr to treat frequent heartburn. it's now the fastest growing heartburn relief on the shelf. prevacid®24hr. same medicine. new location. the shelf. as a va doctor,

i get more time to focus on my patients. and as you can imagine, the rewards are considerable. so are the benefits. plus, i only need one active state license to practice in any va facility. you know, it's bigger than giving back to my country. it's giving our veterans the care they deserve. ♪ (announcer) learn more about careers with today's va at vacareers.va.gov.