Preview -- World News Tonight 05/11/01

N E W   Y O R K, May 11 -- Good Afternoon.

It has been an embarrassing day for the United States government. An interesting day for anyone who has followed the story of the Oklahoma City bombing. And it ends with these words from a lawyer for Timothy McVeigh: "He (McVeigh) is keeping all his options open."

The idea that McVeigh would have "options," five days before his scheduled execution, is bizarre to say the least. As you probably know by now, all this derives from the news that thousands of pages collected by FBI field agents were never handed over to the defense. As they should have been. Particularly in a case that was arguably the most important in FBI history. A case in which we repeatedly heard the clichéd phrase, "no stone will be left unturned." To put it mildly, this is one big stone.

The execution of Timothy McVeigh will now be delayed — at least until June 11. Our Justice Department correspondent Pierre Thomas reports that FBI agents are "beside themselves." This afternoon, Attorney General John Ashcroft expressed concerns of a "permanent cloud over Justice." And families of the victims don't know what to think. "I thought I might be able finally to put this behind me," a woman who lost her daughter in the bombing told us. "It's just hard," another relative said simply. "Very hard."

In the end, it is almost certain that Timothy McVeigh will still be executed for the crime. But there is a lot of ground to cover tonight. Pierre Thomas, as we said, reports from the Justice Department; Dean Reynolds is in Terre Haute, Ind., where the execution was to have taken place next Wednesday; we'll talk to legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin; and we'll have a report from Oklahoma City. Erin Hayes is there.

In the other news, on the White House agenda today — AIDS, Africa and energy. President Bush met with an African president and the African who runs the United Nations, and he used the occasion to pledge $200 million to a U.N. "war chest" to deal with the ravages of AIDS. Various constituents have either cheered the news, or chided the United States for not offering more to deal with one of the great calamities of our time. Later, when the president met the press corps, he spent a great deal of time talking about tax reform, and the nation's energy supplies. Terry Moran, as always, is at the White House for us.