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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports
U.N. Weapons Inspectors Begin Work In Iraq
Aired November 27, 2002 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (voice over): They're on the weapons hunt.
JACQUES BAUTE, IAEA TEAM LEADER: And we had access to what we wanted to see.
SAVIDGE: And CNN comes along for the ride in Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing. Everything (unintelligible). Thank you very much.
SAVIDGE: Explosions and fireballs, a rare look at how U.S. troops are preparing for the worst case scenario, urban combat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You never know what's going to happen.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: I don't want to alarm you but there's a building on fire behind you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Things happen once in a while.
SAVIDGE: The mission uncover every detail of the 9/11 attacks.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Follow all the facts wherever they need.
HENRY KISSINGER, CHMN. 9/11 COMMISSION: We are under no restrictions and we will accept no restrictions.
SAVIDGE: Vandalized in Virginia, are ecological terrorists targeting SUVs? Fish it's good for your heart or is it? And, they just couldn't wait for Thanksgiving.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (on camera): It is Wednesday, November 27, 2002. I'm Martin Savidge. It's terrific to be with you from CNN Center in Atlanta in for Wolf Blitzer.
Well after four years, U.N. inspectors have begun a new hunt for Iraqi weapons, visiting two suspected sites on the outskirts of Baghdad. CNN's Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson followed one of those teams. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's 7:00 am. and the first weapons inspectors are showing up at their base, vehicles prepared for what could be a long day and journalists outside for a long wait.
ROBERTSON (on camera): It's about 7:30 now. Most of the inspectors seem to have gone in and everyone here is waiting for them to come out so we can follow them to their first inspection.
ROBERTSON (voice over): An hour later, engines gunning, the inspectors race out and Iraqi officials have given us permission to follow.
ROBERTSON (on camera): Okay now we're running to get into the cars so that we can follow them. There they go.
ROBERTSON (voice over): We followed a team of nuclear experts turning white in their white U.N. jeeps they pick up their Iraqi counterparts who fall in behind. Confusion for a moment as the U.N. experts we're tailing appear to lose their way en route to the surprise inspection.
By 9:00 a.m. the inspectors are arriving at the Tahadi (ph) Industrial complex on the eastern outskirts of Baghdad. Left outside in the enforced lockdown under U.N. inspection rules, journalists jockey for scant camera positions. Through gaps in the barbed wire top wall surrounding the mile-square compound, inspectors can be seen taking photographs and visiting the dozen or so warehouses.
By noon, the team of nuclear experts are finished heading back to base. Iraqi officials, keen to show they have nothing to hide let us in as soon as the inspectors leave.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing. Everything (unintelligible). Thank you very much.
ROBERTSON: No weapons visible in the one building we were shown.
ROBERTSON (on camera): This part of the factory appears to be for reconditioning heavy industrial motors but we still don't know where the inspectors went or exactly what they were interested in.
ROBERTSON (voice over): According to Mahmud (ph), the inspectors saw all they wanted to see, almost exactly the same language from the inspectors.
BAUTE: And we had access to what we wanted to see. We hope that the Iraqi response today reflects the future pattern of cooperation.
ROBERTSON: Day One it seems ended without major incident and without any weapons found.
Nic Robertson CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: While U.N. inspectors are pleased with the cooperation they received on Day One, will they be able to keep the pressure on Iraq? CNN's Christiane Amanpour had an exclusive conversation with the Chief U.N. Weapons Inspector Hans Blix.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANS BLIX, CHIEF U.N. INSPECTOR: So called sensitive sites in the past were subject to a special procedure under which the inspector would have to wait the arrival of a high Iraqi official who was supposed to coordinate it and the entry into residential sites were also subject to a very special procedure in which you have to have a number of ambassadors or high diplomats present and it took a couple of days before you can organize it.
This is all done away with under the new regime and the talks that we had in Vienna, Mr. el-Baradei (ph) and I, the Iraqis agreed that we would have immediate and unconditional and unrestricted access to any sensitive sites and the Security Council decided the same would apply to the presidential sites. So, as far as we are concerned, there is no difference between them. I think what the Iraqis wanted to say that well, look here there is some dignity attached to these places. That's possible but they are the same procedures that apply.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So you will go in there.
BLIX: Of course.
AMANPOUR: No holds barred?
BLIX: Of course.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: The Bush administration has said that if the United Nations can't get Iraq to disarm, the U.S. will form a coalition to disarm Iraq and if the U.S. winds up invading Iraq, it could mean urban combat situations for coalition forces. The U.S. military has found an elaborate way to prepare for just such a scenario.
CNN senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE (voice over): Urban combat up close and personal is usually a last resort for the U.S. The Pentagon prefers the safety of long distance war with high tech weapons.
MCINTYRE (on camera): But if it comes to war with Iraq, America's technological advantage will only go so far in large cities.
MCINTYRE (voice over): So, in recent years, the military has begun an urban renewal of sorts, rewriting its doctrine and training manuals and building mock villages like this one at Fort Knox, Kentucky, for war games. MCINTYRE (on camera): What's the main premise here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reality, training to a standard that we have not been able to reach before by making the city real.
MCINTYRE (voice over): There's a railroad, a junkyard, a fake cemetery on the outskirts of town, even a sewer system.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And down in here you can see it's wet and it's dirty and we have an outfit that makes industrial odors for us, so in this environment we do employ the correct odor.
MCINTYRE (on camera): So you have a working sewer system right down to the smell?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we don't put raw sewage in it but the soldiers aren't sure about that.
MCINTYRE (voice over): As for the water tower at the edge of town, it's actually the control room for a battery of special effects. Sounds bring the village to life. With the roar of a virtual fighter jet, and the blast of pyrotechnics, the town takes on the ominous qualities of war-torn Bosnia or Kosovo, and it's easy to imagine Latin America or towns in Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East.
MCINTYRE (on camera): Is this the army's premiere training facility for this kind of operation?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it's the newest. It is the most intense when it comes to what we're doing. It covers just about all aspects of possible deployments.
MCINTYRE: Whoa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You never know what's going to happen around here.
MCINTYRE: I don't want to alarm you but there's a building on fire behind us. Whoa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Things happen once in a while.
MCINTYRE: Take a look at that. Do soldiers coming in here have any idea these pyrotechnics are going to take place?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. It's just what we're experiencing now is what they experience as they come through here.
MCINTYRE: Of course this is daylight but they do this at night?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They do it day and night.
MCINTYRE: Is it dangerous?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They think it is. Realistically it's not. We can't kill them in training. They know that but the stress levels that are imposed by many of the things that we do in here gives them the feeling of being in combat.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: Our full report on the perils of fighting in a city like Baghdad airs Sunday night at 8:00 Eastern as "CNN PRESENTS: URBAN COMBAT."
One of the most famous and perhaps controversial American diplomats of the 20th Century back on the national stage, Henry Kissinger, was tapped by President Bush today to lead an independent investigation of the September 11th attacks.
CNN's senior White House correspondent John King joins us from Crawford, Texas.
John, the White House did a bit of an about face on this whole issue.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The White House did, Marty, months of contentious negotiations in the Congress to bring this commission about. It is up and running now. It has a new chairman as you noted. Still though, debates over what should the focus be? How broad should the commission's powers be? The commission is up and running, the political debate in many ways just beginning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING (voice over): The president once resisted the September 11th commission but now says he urgently awaits its findings.
BUSH: America's enemies are still determined to inflict great harm. We have a duty, a solemn duty, to do everything we can to protect this country.
KING: Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is the president's choice to lead the inquiry. He says nothing is off limits, including mounting questions about Saudi Arabia's role in terror financing.
KISSINGER: I have be given every assurance by the president that we should go where the facts lead us and that we're not restricted by any foreign policy considerations.
KING: But signing the legislation that creates the blue ribbon panel hardly ends the controversy. The White House, for example, is making clear it does not think the president should be asked to testify, but key lawmakers see things differently.
SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: I would be surprised if this commission in pursuit of the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help them God did not want to speak with this president.
KING: The new chairman was non-committal.
KISSINGER: One doesn't start with the president of the United States.
KING: Kissinger's selection also raised eyebrows among those who say it is critical that the commission see what the president was told in his intelligence briefings in the weeks and months before the attacks. The Federation of American Scientists characterized Kissinger as "on who has stubbornly resisted the disclosure of official information to members of Congress, courts of law, private researchers, and others."
The commission has 18 months to complete its work but the president said he hopes it finishes sooner. One White House concern in the contentious negotiations with Congress on a timetable was a damaging revelation in the middle of the 2004 reelection year.
NICK CALIO, WHITE HOUSE CONG. LIAISON: I think we got the appropriate type of structure in terms of the chairman. We have ensured that if there's going to be subpoenas issued by the commission it will be done on a bipartisan basis.
KING: Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, a Democrat, will serve as the panel's co-chairman.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING (on camera): And one early challenge will be setting a primary focus. The president says it should be on learning more about al Qaeda's methods and al Qaeda's operations but family members of the victims say they want to know if the government had even more clues the attacks might be coming and failed to connect them - Marty.
SAVIDGE: John King live with the president in Crawford, Texas, thank you very much. Law enforcement officials being warned about a different kind of threat in this week's FBI bulletin, the agency says an extremist animal rights group is planning protests over the holiday weekend that could include criminal activities and environmental terrorism. CNN's Jeanne Meserve live in Washington with the details on this. Jeanne, this is rather a surprise.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actually they've mentioned these groups, similar groups in alerts in the past, this week alerting local law enforcement to the possibility of protests over the weekend from this group called SHAC, Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty. Hungtington is a reference to Huntington Life Sciences or HLS, which does animal testing.
SHAC is staging three days of protests this weekend to mark the 50th anniversary of the company and an FBI bulletin to local law enforcement characterizes the group as extremists saying: "Criminal activity is expected to occur in conjunction with this demonstration based on law enforcement investigation, incidents during previous SHAC events, and rhetoric emanating from the group."
On its website, SHAC says it stays within the law in our campaign against HLS. Local police in New Jersey say their past protests have been peaceful, and today a federal judge did grant them a permit to demonstrate on Sunday. Now members of the group did face criminal charges in connection with protests in Boston but they pleaded not guilty, saying they were exercising free speech. The SHAC protests this Thanksgiving weekend expected in New Jersey and New York targeting HLS, its employees, and possibly the company's insurance firm - Marty, back to you.
SAVIDGE: Jeanne Meserve joining us from Washington, thank you for the update. Planes, trains, and automobiles, the holiday travel season in full swing, so how is it in the air and on the roads? We'll go coast-to-coast when we come back. Plus, oh Canada, find out what happens when you call the president of the United States a moron. And fish, it's supposed to be good for you, so why may some types double your risk for heart attacks? Elizabeth Cohen with a medical update but first a look at news making headlines around the world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (voice over): Bin Laden's warning, a man who says he served briefly as one of Osama bin Laden's bodyguards testified at a trial in Germany that the al Qaeda leader told followers about a half year before September 11th that the United States must be attacked. The Jordanian born witness testified at the trial of an alleged 9/11 plot member.
Anti-American protests, a South Korean puppet show depicts the real life accident in which two girls were hit and killed by a U.S. Army vehicle five months ago. President Bush issued an apology expressing his sadness and regret over the incident. The recent acquittal of two American soldiers of negligent homicide in the case triggered days of violent protests.
Australian fires, firefighters have their hands full as they battled bushfires fanned by hot weather and strong winds across New South Wales. The worst fires waned in the Sydney suburbs of Londonderry and New Castle, a city about 90 miles to the north.
Protests in Argentina, thousands of poor and out of work Argentines take to the streets of Buenos Aires demanding justice for two protesters killed in clashes with police this year. Hundreds of police initially blocked the march for several hours demanding protesters first register with authorities. The standoff ended with the interior minister lifting the requirement.
Elton the critic, Elton John reportedly calls Madonna's single "Die Another Day" the worst Bond theme song ever. According to the British tabloid "The Sun" John says the makers of the new James Bond hit would have been better off having the theme song sung by Shirley Bassey or even himself, and that's our look around the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: It is as traditional as turkey and once again the annual Thanksgiving travel rush is on. CNN's Ed Lavandera takes a look from his vantage point at one of the country's busiest airports Dallas-Ft. Worth. Ed, how's it going? ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's going pretty good by all indications here so far and it promises to be an incredibly busy holiday season here which is expected to last through next Tuesday, people here expecting many travelers over the next five to six days, but this first major test for the airport screeners, the federal airport screeners, and the early reports are is everything so far is so good.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (voice over): Snow threatens to snarl travel on both runways and highways this Thanksgiving Eve. A quick moving storm dusted the Midwest and brought higher accumulations to the Northeast, but by afternoon the storm had moved out and airport delays were minimal. Financially troubled airlines were thankful for more passengers. Fewer people flew last Thanksgiving in the wake of September 11th. This year AAA predicts 5.1 million people will fly over this holiday period, up six percent from last year.
MARION BLAKEY, FAA ADMINISTRATOR: We're expecting probably there will be about 50,000 commercial flights today and those flights are going to be 90 plus percent full.
LAVANDERA: This is also the first big test for the Transportation Security Administration. The new agency created after 9/11 finalized its takeover of airport passenger screening just last week. By mid-afternoon there were no reports of major checkpoint delays.
BLAKEY: The new Transportation Security Administration has really done a terrific job and those folks really are ready for this holiday.
LAVANDERA: Highway travel is also expected to be up this year. AAA estimates almost 31 million people will take to the roads. That's up one percent from last year. But, gas prices are also up from last Thanksgiving about 25 cents to an average $1.45 a gallon, and as bad as traffic was expected to be today, it's expected to be just as bad on the other end of this holiday weekend.
JUSTIN MCNAULL, AAA: Today really is the most intense travel day just because so many people do have to work or send the kids to school today, that most people do end up on the road this afternoon or this evening. But Sunday can be a pretty gruesome day too because you do get people who are trying to get to football games and doing all the other parts of life in addition to holiday traveling.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (on camera): Well, the goal for the airport screeners is to get people through these checkpoints in less than ten minutes. Here at DFW International Airport that has been happening around the five-minute mark and we understand that nationwide all but one airport, Miami International, is at about 15 minutes but most other airports around the country coming in well under that ten minute promise that airport screeners here are trying to give to airline passengers. Now, we'll see just how happy they'll be when all these people make their way back home - Marty.
SAVIDGE: Let's hope it's happy trails. Ed Lavandera, live in Dallas thanks very much.
First the Germans, now the Canadians and the British. Why is mocking President Bush turning into a global sport? The fallout and the shakedown when we come back; also a new drug to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder but first a coast-to-coast look at conditions on the road right now plus tomorrow's weather forecast.
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: All right, the Canadian official who called President Bush a moron has resigned her post as communications director for Prime Minister Jean Chretien, but the controversy is far from over as Roger Smith of CTV reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROGER SMITH, CTV CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For Francois Ducros, the way her moron remark played in Canada and the U.S. was bad enough, having Iraqi newspapers use it to slur George Bush was the final straw.
JEAN CHRETIEN, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: She said to me that because of the controversy she had no interest of carrying on because she was leaving anyway, so I'm very sorry. She was very good.
SMITH: Though Jean Chretien insists there's no harm done to relations with the U.S., the opposition thinks there is and demanded an apology to Bush, but the prime minister confounded critics by arguing there was never any insult.
CHRETIEN: In that discussion that was a private discussion with a journalist she was defending the president of the United States. You were not there. You're very smart to know what happened there.
SMITH: How moron was a defense of Bush he didn't explain.
STEPHEN HARPER, OPPOSITION LEADER: I mean this is the problem with this prime minister. By delaying an apology he just - and digging himself in, he just makes it a bigger and bigger incident.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has acted irresponsibly. He continues to act irresponsibly.
SMITH: On the U.S. talk shows that feasted on Ducros any sympathy was overwhelmed by gloating over her demise.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What they did was unacceptable and what has happened here is simple justice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CTV reports of Chretien's advisors watched us hash the issue over again on "CROSSFIRE" last night and decided she had to go. What a government. What a country.
SMITH: Ducros replacement Jim Munson (ph) a former CTV reporter. He'll try to repair her strained relations with the media.
SMITH (on camera): As for her departure, there was a little political spin to put that in the best light. Ducros was already planning to go back to the public service, the prime minister said, now she's simply going a few weeks sooner. Roger Smith, CTV News, Ottawa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: Meanwhile, the British comedy series that found an animated way to poke fun at President Bush finds itself attracting, well, similar scrutiny. It created the following television commercial that shows a cartoon commander-in-chief toasting a tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TV CHARACTER: My favorite. Just pop it in the video player, the best of 2DTV on video and DVD.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Well the group responsible for regulating such ads isn't laughing. It's banning the ad because its guidelines say that living people should not be caricatured without their permission. Love them or hate them, SUVs seem to dominate the roadways but should their owners pull over, the debate over a vehicle that seems to be a lightning rod for anger.
Also, the pollutant that could be making fish dangerous for your heart, Elizabeth Cohen joins us live with a medical report. And, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, the power divorce that's leading some to some very big time mud slinging, but first we've got today's news quiz.
Which 2003 model vehicle has the worst fuel efficiency, Ferrari Enzo Ferrari, Chevy Surburban, Ford Explorer, GMC Yukon, the answer coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: Welcome back to CNN. I'm Martin Savidge. Coming up, fired off over SUVs, what's causing rage on the roadways? That debate in a moment but first let's take a look at other stories making news right now in our "CNN News Alert."
(NEWS ALERT)
SAVIDGE: Turning to another environmental end and safety issue, the sport utility vehicles. Some tests have show that SUVs are dangerous in some collisions, rollover more than car, get worse gas mileage and pollute the air more. Now, the SUV may be the target of ecoterrorists. CNN national correspondent, Gary Tuchman has that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are driving to eliminate driving behind the wheels of sport utility vehicles. At a car dealership near Richmond, Virginia, 25 SUVs were vandalized with acid type chemicals.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is just an act of you know, senseless, not violence but senseless vandalism. I can't think of any purpose this would serve.
TUCHMAN: Police tell CNN they believe the vandalism is likely the work of a radical environmental group called the Earth Liberation Front. The initials ELF were sprayed on many of vehicles.
Authorities say the ELF has caused tens of millions of dollars in damage over the last five years, and actions ranging from arson to releasing animals. The group is believed to set a blaze that caused more than $12 million damage at the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) ski resort.
But it's not just shadowy environmental groups that say they are anti-SUV, many traditional environmentalists also criticize the gas- guzzling vehicles, saying they unacceptably damage the planet.
ANNOUNCER: Too many of car, trucks and SUVs that are made, that we choose to drive, are polluting our air.
TUCHMAN: And just last week, a religious group started an anti- SUV ad campaign, called, "What would Jesus drive?"
ANNOUNCER: If we love our neighbor and we cherish God's creation, maybe we should ask, what would Jesus drive?
REV. JIM BALL, EVANGELICAL ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK: We want folks to understand that transportation choices are moral choices.
TUCHMAN: The car manufacturers are saying the criticism is unfair.
CHRIS PREUSS, GENERAL MOTORS: This is a consumer choice issue, and our vehicles that have improved in efficiency, our passenger cars, 133 percent over the last several decades.
TUCHMAN: In 1998, 2.8 million SUVs were sold. But last year, the number jumped to 3.8 million, a 36 percent increase in three years. So whatever the environmental impact, the SUV's business environment is still healthy.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: All right, that was just to wet your appetite. Joining us now in our Washington studio to talk more about this, Joan Claybrook, the president of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization founded by Ralph Nader and Sam Kazman, general council for Competitive Enterprise Institute, a nonprofit, public policy group.
Thanks to both of you for being here. What is wrong with SUV? Joan, go ahead.
JOAN CLAYBROOK, PRESIDENT, PUBLIC CITIZEN: Well, the SUV is a very dangerous vehicle and people don't realize that it's a very stiff vehicle. So even for its own occupants, it's very dangerous in the crash. It's highly prone to rollover. It's very inefficient in terms of fuel economy, damages the environment.
And people have a false sense of security. And the reason of all of this exists is because it's really slipped through a lot of loopholes in federal regulations, which need to be closed. And the manufacturers have been totally irresponsible in the way they've manufactured them.
SAVIDGE: But aren't there a lot of dangerous vehicles on the road? I mean an 18-wheeler to me does not look that safe when I'm right next to it.
CLAYBROOK: Well, that's true. SUVs are terribly damaging when they hit a car. You're much more likely to die if you're hit on the side or even the front by an SUV, but they don't have to be that way.
You can have a really great vehicle that instead of weighing 6,500 pounds weighs 4,000 pounds and it'll do all those -- the kinds of work and jobs that you want it to do for, you know, a larger-sized vehicle. So you don't have to have these dangers and because the roof crushes in, and they're highly likely to rollover, they're very, very dangerous for the people who are inside who don't realize how dangerous they are.
SAVIDGE: Sam, you've been very patient. Weigh in here. Tell me the good points of SUV.
SAM KAZMAN, GENERAL COUNCIL, COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: For all the talk about the alleged safety hazards of SUV, the fact remains that the very largest SUVs do a better job protecting their occupants than any other class of passenger vehicle on the road. And that's not the only feature of SUVs that people are choosing, that people have a right to choose.
Even a magazine such as "Consumer Reports" talks about the fact that SUVs have certain advantageous traits. They carry lots of people. They carry lots of cargo. And one reason people have turned to SUVs is because passenger cars have been progressively downsized under the Federal Fuel Economy Standards. Not only have they been downsized, their safety has been reduced.
We do not need any more stringent fuel economy standards because the only result of that would be to downsize both SUVs and cars and those standards have already proven to be incredibly deadly. They're a bigger killer in terms of reducing consumer safety than any other federal regulation on the books.
SAVIDGE: All right, Sam. Well, let me ask you this... CLAYBROOK: Well, that's absolutely incorrect.
SAVIDGE: Go ahead, Joan.
CLAYBROOK: That's absolutely incorrect. Eighty-five percent of the improvement in fuel economy has come from technology improvement. The only downsizing that occurred was with the 5,500-pound cars that went down to 4,000 pounds.
KAZMAN: Excuse me...
CLAYBROOK: The others were not downsized. In fact, smaller cars are larger today than they were when I issued those standards in 1977.
KAZMAN: The National Academy of Sciences did an exhaustive study of this a year and a half ago. They found the existing standards have downsized cars to the point where they cause between 1,300 to 2,600 deaths every year. Every year, for a program that's been under the books -- on the books for over two decades.
CLAYBROOK: That wasn't what they found, Sam.
KAZMAN: And the one industry that the biggest stake in this, the auto insurance industry, itself, takes the position that the alleged incompatibility between SUVs and cars really is an overblown issue, that if you want to improve auto safety by changing the vehicle mix, the one thing you really ought to do is get the smallest, most vulnerable cars off the road. But you can't do that because of the Passenger Fuel Economy Standards that Miss Claybrook helped enact.
SAVIDGE: All right, wait. Can I just -- can I insert myself into this conversation here.
CLAYBROOK: OK.
SAVIDGE: Let me ask you, Joan. Do you -- are you forebanning SUVs? Should we get rid of them? Is that what you're saying?
CLAYBROOK: No, what SUVs should be is redesigned completely. They can be much lighter, much more fuel-efficient. And if they're more compatible with cars on the highway, than many, many lives will be saved.
SAVIDGE: All right. Hold it right there, Joan. OK, let me stop there because we're running out of time. Sam, isn't it possible? Couldn't we make SUVs safer?
KAZMAN: They're getting better just as all cars are getting better all of the time. But we should not have them being changed by a bureaucrat passing regulations enforced by an agency that never sells anything to consumers.
SAVIDGE: All right.
CLAYBROOK: That's the only reason we have safety on the highways and air bags because of federal regulations. KAZMAN: I don't think so.
SAVIDGE: We have to end it there. Thank you very much, Joan Claybrook and Sam Kazman. We appreciate both of your insights into what is an issue that'll be driven -- driving conversation for a while. Thank you.
CLAYBROOK: Thank you.
SAVIDGE: Here's your chance to weigh in on this story. Our "Web Question of Day" is -- are SUVs a menace to society? We'll have the results later in this broadcast. Vote CNN.com/Wolf. And while you're there, we'd like to hear from you. Send us your comments and we'll try to read some of them at the end of this program. That's also, of course, where you can read our daily online column, CNN.com/Wolf.
Fish food -- that may not be good for your health. Find out why underwater contaminants may double -- that's right -- your risk for a heart attack. And an early start to turkey day gluttony, but first today's news quiz.
Now, earlier we asked -- which 2003 model vehicle has the worst fuel efficiency? The answer -- come on, you must have known this -- the answer is the Ferrari Enzo Ferrari. The luxury two-seater sports car gets only eight miles a gallon in the city and 12 miles a gallon on the highway.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: Fish is good for you. Mercury is bad for you. Some types of fish contain mercury, so what should do you? Well, there's some new research out on this very subject. So let's turn to our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, and find out what it says.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: What the answer is. Well, you know it is a conundrum -- fish are terrific, as you said. Mercury, not two terrific. Two articles in the "New England Journal of Medicine" out today and a little bit of advice how to answer that conundrum.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN (voice-over): A European study says men with high mercury levels in their body were twice as likely to get heart attacks. One source of mercury? Fish from polluted waters. But fish oils lower cholesterol, which benefits your heart. So what are you supposed to do, stop eating fish? The Food and Drug Administration says, no, just be careful about what fish you do eat.
These four types of fish tend to have the highest levels of mercury, swordfish, shark, king mackerel and tilefish. The FDA says children, women who are pregnant, trying to become pregnant or breastfeeding should stop eating these fish altogether because mercury can affect the nervous system of a fetus, baby, or child.
The FDA says these high-risk groups should eat no more than 12 ounces a week of any kind a fish. That's about three to four servings of fish per week. For everyone else, the FDA says there's no reason to stop eating fish. They say the amount of mercury in fish is not necessarily harmful to adults.
In fact, the second study in the "New England Journal of Medicine" found the exact opposite of the European study. Men with lots of mercury in their bodies were not more likely to have heart attacks. The researchers concluded, however, that they couldn't rule out a relationship between mercury and heart attacks.
So bottom line -- the American Heart Association says the benefits of fish outweigh the risks from mercury.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN: So let's go over some of those bottom line issues, again. If you're pregnant or breastfeeding or if you're a child, then it's best to avoid those four types of fish altogether and limit the amount other fish you're eating to three to four serves per week. But for the rest of us, the FDA says we don't have to worry, but I think it's a good idea to keep those four types in mind.
SAVIDGE: Well, Elizabeth, what is it about these particular fish that seems to make them so prone to mercury?
COHEN: Well, what experts think is that it's because they eat lots of other fish. So they get the mercury from the other fish and these four types of fish also tend to live a long time. So that it's a lot of time for that mercury to build up.
SAVIDGE: Got it. OK. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much.
Well, what holiday would be complete without someone gorging to win a contest? At New York's Mickey Mantle's Restaurant today, a 33- year-old subway conductor won the eatery's first turkey eating contest. Eric Booker (ph) also known as Bad Lands gobbled five-and-a- half plates of Thanksgiving dinner in 12 minutes. He beat out seven other hungry contenders. The event was sponsored by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. Who knew?
By the way, Booker (ph) came in the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest last July. You'd never know looking at him.
He's a powerbroker on Wall Street, but his biggest challenge may come from his soon-to-be ex-wife. Welch versus Welch, the marital mudslinging may drag a top CEO down into the dirt.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: The already dirty divorce of former General Electric chief, Jack Welch and his second wife, Jane, is getting even dirtier. First, she disclosed millions of dollars in post-retirement perks he got from GE. Now, he's reportedly going public with allegations that she had an affair with an Italian chauffer. CNN's Deborah Feyerick has the latest on the war of the Welches.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Corporate giant, Jack Welch, is having a tough time closing the deal on a divorce growing more bitter by the day. His soon to be ex-wife, Jane Beasley Welch, turning out to be a particularly challenging opponent for the former General Electric titan.
Their 10-year pre-nup expired three years before their marriage did. In a Connecticut court, Mrs. Welch is seeking what her lawyer calls "her fair share" of an estimated $900 million fortune. It's a fight that makes boardroom battles look like schoolhouse brawls.
Rumors about the Welch divorce cropping up every day in the New York tabloids. First on the gossip pages, Jack Welch's affair with a "Harvard Business Review" editor, then the release of astonishing corporate perks, some $2.5 million for things like flowers, food, and wine.
Jack Welch's side says his wife released reports about the perks to embarrass Welch. Jane Welch's lawyer says the perks were presenting as part of a financial affidavit for a judge to decide alimony. Then, just when it looked like Mrs. Welch was ahead in the image award, the most recent bombshell rumor -- the "New York Post" and the "Wall Street Journal" reporting she was having an affair with a handsome Italian chauffer before her husband's affair began.
The nasty break has tarnished Jack Welch's outstanding business reputation. Lumping him together and fairly, experts say, with the likes of Enron's, Ken Lay and Tyco's Dennis Kozlowski.
NELL MINOW, THE CORPORATE LIBRARY: Nobody disputes the fact that Jack Welch is an honest guy, who did an amazing job at General Electric. He may have not been everything that he was portrayed as, but he was very, very good. He was one of the best CEOs of all-time.
FEYERICK: Welch has offered his estranged wife a settlement in the many millions of dollars. She and her there lawyers have turned it down.
CECILE WEICH, DIVORCE ATTORNEY: She should get every penny that she's entitled to and that has nothing to do with whether she had an affair. She had a 10-year marriage with this man. I'm sure that he liked her some time during the 10 years.
FEYERICK (on camera): Financial insiders say it's unlikely the divorce will have any long-term on Welch's business reputation as one of America's top CEOs of all-time. Still in the short term, corporate America remains uncomfortable with yet another bright spotlight shining on it.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: And joining us from New York to offer some professional inside into Welch versus Welch, divorce attorney, Raul Felder. Thank you very much for being with us, sir.
RAUL FELDER, DIVORCE ATTORNEY: It's a pleasure.
SAVIDGE: This -- well, is this about as bad as you have ever seen?
FELDER: Well, no. I mean it seems terrible because it's also published. But it's another ho-hum day in divorce court.
SAVIDGE: Really? Well, why do you think that the attorneys or whomever in this case are leaking so much information to the media?
FELDER: Well, it started with Mrs. Welch and I think she made a serious mistake. She's talked about all of these perks he was getting and so he had to relinquish the perks. That means there's that much less money available for her. Then, he revealed that he offered a great deal of money, maybe a $400 million. Then, the sympathy of public started to go the other way. Why does she need more than $140 million?
And now, he's revealed about her affair with a chauffer and how ordinary. You see everything about him, we knew before. We knew about this young lady he was keeping company with. She was a lawyer, a journalist. We didn't know about Mrs. Welch's chauffer.
The real people who are injured here is corporate America because that's the dirty underside of what's going on in these corporations. You know everybody said, "Well, he deserved it!" In fact, in your package, somebody said, "He deserved it. He did great for the company." But he was paid $16 million a year. Would he give back money if he did poorly?
SAVIDGE: Well, the Italian chauffer -- I like the way you say, "How ordinary" it is. It doesn't strike me as ordinary. But if you were representing Mr. Welch, what would you advise him? What would you say now?
FELDER: I think he is doing dandy. I think Mrs. Welch is self- destructing quite publicly. It looks like Mrs. Welch is being in a superior position at this point, but I don't think that's the case at all. She got more than $35,000 a month temporary maintenance. Well, that was too low. Everybody knew that. Everybody knew she was going to get higher.
And why I said, "how ordinary" -- being a chauffer is not ordinary, but Mr. Welch is more imaginative. He got a journalist, a lawyer. Why does she end up with a guy who's driving a car?
SAVIDGE: Well, is this the worst case, divorce wise, you've seen ever?
FELDER: Oh no, I've seen cases with murders in them and all kinds of terrible things. But I think this have many interesting aspects, things people don't hear about. It has lots of money on the table, which always attracts other people. And of course, it's a peephole, the way these people live with these grand apartments and wines and flowers and all of this, and it's great.
SAVIDGE: Well, how's it going to end?
FELDER: Well, I think Mr. Welch is going to call it a day here because his lawyers, I think, outfoxed her primarily. They began in Connecticut where you're not going to do as well as New York. And if they waited, she would have picked New York. So I think he's going to do just fine. He's probably going to pay exactly what he wants to pay. And she's going to be, you know, a little worse for the ware when it's all over.
SAVIDGE: I'm sure she'll still she will afford a chauffer though.
FELDER: Oh no. There's no question. She could have a team of chauffeurs.
SAVIDGE: I'm sure. All right.
FELDER: One to actually drive the car.
SAVIDGE: I got you. Raul Felder, thank you very much for joining us.
Well, time is running out for you to -- your turn that is to weigh in on our "Question of The Day." Our Web question is, by the way -- are the SUVs a menace to society? Log onto CNN.com/Wolf to vote. We'll have the results immediately when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: All right. Here we go. Here is how we're weighing on our "Web Question of The Day." Earlier we asked you this, our web question -- are SUVs a menace to society? Fifty-nine percent of you said yes. Forty-one percent of you right now say no. You can find the exact vote tally and continue to vote, by the way, on our Website, CNN.com/Wolf. Remember this is not science, ladies and gentlemen.
Now, time to hear from you and to read some of your e-mails. Raja writes -- "Thank you for your fair and balanced interview with Pat Robertson yesterday. In today's climate, it is heartening to see somebody try to talk to Pat about facts instead of getting bogged down in his biased sermons."
Kimbrea -- I want to make sure I say it right -- disagrees. "It is beyond me why there is such a soft approach taken with Islam on the news networks. If Christian radicals had been behaving as badly as Muslim radicals, there would be no softening of reporters' tones. Stop the political correctness nonsense."
Paul says -- "Your interview with Pat Robertson yesterday demonstrated that when a reporter understands the topic, it leads to an intelligent, balanced discussion and prevents guests from promoting their biased agendas."
And from Lawrence -- "Pat Robertson's comments about Islam were right on the money. Despite his efforts, his interviewer could not derail his factual argument."
We love to hear from you. Thank you very much.
That's all of time, though, we have for today. You can join me tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, and please join us weekdays at noon Eastern for "SHOWDOWN IRAQ."
Until then, it has been a pleasure. Thank you very much for watching. I'm Martin Savidge in for Wolf Blitzer. Jan Hopkins is up next with "MONEYLINE." Jan is sitting in for Lou tonight.
TO ORDER A COPY OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired November 27, 2002 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (voice over): They're on the weapons hunt.
JACQUES BAUTE, IAEA TEAM LEADER: And we had access to what we wanted to see.
SAVIDGE: And CNN comes along for the ride in Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing. Everything (unintelligible). Thank you very much.
SAVIDGE: Explosions and fireballs, a rare look at how U.S. troops are preparing for the worst case scenario, urban combat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You never know what's going to happen.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: I don't want to alarm you but there's a building on fire behind you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Things happen once in a while.
SAVIDGE: The mission uncover every detail of the 9/11 attacks.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Follow all the facts wherever they need.
HENRY KISSINGER, CHMN. 9/11 COMMISSION: We are under no restrictions and we will accept no restrictions.
SAVIDGE: Vandalized in Virginia, are ecological terrorists targeting SUVs? Fish it's good for your heart or is it? And, they just couldn't wait for Thanksgiving.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (on camera): It is Wednesday, November 27, 2002. I'm Martin Savidge. It's terrific to be with you from CNN Center in Atlanta in for Wolf Blitzer.
Well after four years, U.N. inspectors have begun a new hunt for Iraqi weapons, visiting two suspected sites on the outskirts of Baghdad. CNN's Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson followed one of those teams. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's 7:00 am. and the first weapons inspectors are showing up at their base, vehicles prepared for what could be a long day and journalists outside for a long wait.
ROBERTSON (on camera): It's about 7:30 now. Most of the inspectors seem to have gone in and everyone here is waiting for them to come out so we can follow them to their first inspection.
ROBERTSON (voice over): An hour later, engines gunning, the inspectors race out and Iraqi officials have given us permission to follow.
ROBERTSON (on camera): Okay now we're running to get into the cars so that we can follow them. There they go.
ROBERTSON (voice over): We followed a team of nuclear experts turning white in their white U.N. jeeps they pick up their Iraqi counterparts who fall in behind. Confusion for a moment as the U.N. experts we're tailing appear to lose their way en route to the surprise inspection.
By 9:00 a.m. the inspectors are arriving at the Tahadi (ph) Industrial complex on the eastern outskirts of Baghdad. Left outside in the enforced lockdown under U.N. inspection rules, journalists jockey for scant camera positions. Through gaps in the barbed wire top wall surrounding the mile-square compound, inspectors can be seen taking photographs and visiting the dozen or so warehouses.
By noon, the team of nuclear experts are finished heading back to base. Iraqi officials, keen to show they have nothing to hide let us in as soon as the inspectors leave.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing. Everything (unintelligible). Thank you very much.
ROBERTSON: No weapons visible in the one building we were shown.
ROBERTSON (on camera): This part of the factory appears to be for reconditioning heavy industrial motors but we still don't know where the inspectors went or exactly what they were interested in.
ROBERTSON (voice over): According to Mahmud (ph), the inspectors saw all they wanted to see, almost exactly the same language from the inspectors.
BAUTE: And we had access to what we wanted to see. We hope that the Iraqi response today reflects the future pattern of cooperation.
ROBERTSON: Day One it seems ended without major incident and without any weapons found.
Nic Robertson CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: While U.N. inspectors are pleased with the cooperation they received on Day One, will they be able to keep the pressure on Iraq? CNN's Christiane Amanpour had an exclusive conversation with the Chief U.N. Weapons Inspector Hans Blix.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANS BLIX, CHIEF U.N. INSPECTOR: So called sensitive sites in the past were subject to a special procedure under which the inspector would have to wait the arrival of a high Iraqi official who was supposed to coordinate it and the entry into residential sites were also subject to a very special procedure in which you have to have a number of ambassadors or high diplomats present and it took a couple of days before you can organize it.
This is all done away with under the new regime and the talks that we had in Vienna, Mr. el-Baradei (ph) and I, the Iraqis agreed that we would have immediate and unconditional and unrestricted access to any sensitive sites and the Security Council decided the same would apply to the presidential sites. So, as far as we are concerned, there is no difference between them. I think what the Iraqis wanted to say that well, look here there is some dignity attached to these places. That's possible but they are the same procedures that apply.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So you will go in there.
BLIX: Of course.
AMANPOUR: No holds barred?
BLIX: Of course.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: The Bush administration has said that if the United Nations can't get Iraq to disarm, the U.S. will form a coalition to disarm Iraq and if the U.S. winds up invading Iraq, it could mean urban combat situations for coalition forces. The U.S. military has found an elaborate way to prepare for just such a scenario.
CNN senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE (voice over): Urban combat up close and personal is usually a last resort for the U.S. The Pentagon prefers the safety of long distance war with high tech weapons.
MCINTYRE (on camera): But if it comes to war with Iraq, America's technological advantage will only go so far in large cities.
MCINTYRE (voice over): So, in recent years, the military has begun an urban renewal of sorts, rewriting its doctrine and training manuals and building mock villages like this one at Fort Knox, Kentucky, for war games. MCINTYRE (on camera): What's the main premise here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reality, training to a standard that we have not been able to reach before by making the city real.
MCINTYRE (voice over): There's a railroad, a junkyard, a fake cemetery on the outskirts of town, even a sewer system.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And down in here you can see it's wet and it's dirty and we have an outfit that makes industrial odors for us, so in this environment we do employ the correct odor.
MCINTYRE (on camera): So you have a working sewer system right down to the smell?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we don't put raw sewage in it but the soldiers aren't sure about that.
MCINTYRE (voice over): As for the water tower at the edge of town, it's actually the control room for a battery of special effects. Sounds bring the village to life. With the roar of a virtual fighter jet, and the blast of pyrotechnics, the town takes on the ominous qualities of war-torn Bosnia or Kosovo, and it's easy to imagine Latin America or towns in Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East.
MCINTYRE (on camera): Is this the army's premiere training facility for this kind of operation?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it's the newest. It is the most intense when it comes to what we're doing. It covers just about all aspects of possible deployments.
MCINTYRE: Whoa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You never know what's going to happen around here.
MCINTYRE: I don't want to alarm you but there's a building on fire behind us. Whoa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Things happen once in a while.
MCINTYRE: Take a look at that. Do soldiers coming in here have any idea these pyrotechnics are going to take place?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. It's just what we're experiencing now is what they experience as they come through here.
MCINTYRE: Of course this is daylight but they do this at night?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They do it day and night.
MCINTYRE: Is it dangerous?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They think it is. Realistically it's not. We can't kill them in training. They know that but the stress levels that are imposed by many of the things that we do in here gives them the feeling of being in combat.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: Our full report on the perils of fighting in a city like Baghdad airs Sunday night at 8:00 Eastern as "CNN PRESENTS: URBAN COMBAT."
One of the most famous and perhaps controversial American diplomats of the 20th Century back on the national stage, Henry Kissinger, was tapped by President Bush today to lead an independent investigation of the September 11th attacks.
CNN's senior White House correspondent John King joins us from Crawford, Texas.
John, the White House did a bit of an about face on this whole issue.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The White House did, Marty, months of contentious negotiations in the Congress to bring this commission about. It is up and running now. It has a new chairman as you noted. Still though, debates over what should the focus be? How broad should the commission's powers be? The commission is up and running, the political debate in many ways just beginning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING (voice over): The president once resisted the September 11th commission but now says he urgently awaits its findings.
BUSH: America's enemies are still determined to inflict great harm. We have a duty, a solemn duty, to do everything we can to protect this country.
KING: Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is the president's choice to lead the inquiry. He says nothing is off limits, including mounting questions about Saudi Arabia's role in terror financing.
KISSINGER: I have be given every assurance by the president that we should go where the facts lead us and that we're not restricted by any foreign policy considerations.
KING: But signing the legislation that creates the blue ribbon panel hardly ends the controversy. The White House, for example, is making clear it does not think the president should be asked to testify, but key lawmakers see things differently.
SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: I would be surprised if this commission in pursuit of the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help them God did not want to speak with this president.
KING: The new chairman was non-committal.
KISSINGER: One doesn't start with the president of the United States.
KING: Kissinger's selection also raised eyebrows among those who say it is critical that the commission see what the president was told in his intelligence briefings in the weeks and months before the attacks. The Federation of American Scientists characterized Kissinger as "on who has stubbornly resisted the disclosure of official information to members of Congress, courts of law, private researchers, and others."
The commission has 18 months to complete its work but the president said he hopes it finishes sooner. One White House concern in the contentious negotiations with Congress on a timetable was a damaging revelation in the middle of the 2004 reelection year.
NICK CALIO, WHITE HOUSE CONG. LIAISON: I think we got the appropriate type of structure in terms of the chairman. We have ensured that if there's going to be subpoenas issued by the commission it will be done on a bipartisan basis.
KING: Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, a Democrat, will serve as the panel's co-chairman.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING (on camera): And one early challenge will be setting a primary focus. The president says it should be on learning more about al Qaeda's methods and al Qaeda's operations but family members of the victims say they want to know if the government had even more clues the attacks might be coming and failed to connect them - Marty.
SAVIDGE: John King live with the president in Crawford, Texas, thank you very much. Law enforcement officials being warned about a different kind of threat in this week's FBI bulletin, the agency says an extremist animal rights group is planning protests over the holiday weekend that could include criminal activities and environmental terrorism. CNN's Jeanne Meserve live in Washington with the details on this. Jeanne, this is rather a surprise.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actually they've mentioned these groups, similar groups in alerts in the past, this week alerting local law enforcement to the possibility of protests over the weekend from this group called SHAC, Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty. Hungtington is a reference to Huntington Life Sciences or HLS, which does animal testing.
SHAC is staging three days of protests this weekend to mark the 50th anniversary of the company and an FBI bulletin to local law enforcement characterizes the group as extremists saying: "Criminal activity is expected to occur in conjunction with this demonstration based on law enforcement investigation, incidents during previous SHAC events, and rhetoric emanating from the group."
On its website, SHAC says it stays within the law in our campaign against HLS. Local police in New Jersey say their past protests have been peaceful, and today a federal judge did grant them a permit to demonstrate on Sunday. Now members of the group did face criminal charges in connection with protests in Boston but they pleaded not guilty, saying they were exercising free speech. The SHAC protests this Thanksgiving weekend expected in New Jersey and New York targeting HLS, its employees, and possibly the company's insurance firm - Marty, back to you.
SAVIDGE: Jeanne Meserve joining us from Washington, thank you for the update. Planes, trains, and automobiles, the holiday travel season in full swing, so how is it in the air and on the roads? We'll go coast-to-coast when we come back. Plus, oh Canada, find out what happens when you call the president of the United States a moron. And fish, it's supposed to be good for you, so why may some types double your risk for heart attacks? Elizabeth Cohen with a medical update but first a look at news making headlines around the world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (voice over): Bin Laden's warning, a man who says he served briefly as one of Osama bin Laden's bodyguards testified at a trial in Germany that the al Qaeda leader told followers about a half year before September 11th that the United States must be attacked. The Jordanian born witness testified at the trial of an alleged 9/11 plot member.
Anti-American protests, a South Korean puppet show depicts the real life accident in which two girls were hit and killed by a U.S. Army vehicle five months ago. President Bush issued an apology expressing his sadness and regret over the incident. The recent acquittal of two American soldiers of negligent homicide in the case triggered days of violent protests.
Australian fires, firefighters have their hands full as they battled bushfires fanned by hot weather and strong winds across New South Wales. The worst fires waned in the Sydney suburbs of Londonderry and New Castle, a city about 90 miles to the north.
Protests in Argentina, thousands of poor and out of work Argentines take to the streets of Buenos Aires demanding justice for two protesters killed in clashes with police this year. Hundreds of police initially blocked the march for several hours demanding protesters first register with authorities. The standoff ended with the interior minister lifting the requirement.
Elton the critic, Elton John reportedly calls Madonna's single "Die Another Day" the worst Bond theme song ever. According to the British tabloid "The Sun" John says the makers of the new James Bond hit would have been better off having the theme song sung by Shirley Bassey or even himself, and that's our look around the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: It is as traditional as turkey and once again the annual Thanksgiving travel rush is on. CNN's Ed Lavandera takes a look from his vantage point at one of the country's busiest airports Dallas-Ft. Worth. Ed, how's it going? ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's going pretty good by all indications here so far and it promises to be an incredibly busy holiday season here which is expected to last through next Tuesday, people here expecting many travelers over the next five to six days, but this first major test for the airport screeners, the federal airport screeners, and the early reports are is everything so far is so good.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (voice over): Snow threatens to snarl travel on both runways and highways this Thanksgiving Eve. A quick moving storm dusted the Midwest and brought higher accumulations to the Northeast, but by afternoon the storm had moved out and airport delays were minimal. Financially troubled airlines were thankful for more passengers. Fewer people flew last Thanksgiving in the wake of September 11th. This year AAA predicts 5.1 million people will fly over this holiday period, up six percent from last year.
MARION BLAKEY, FAA ADMINISTRATOR: We're expecting probably there will be about 50,000 commercial flights today and those flights are going to be 90 plus percent full.
LAVANDERA: This is also the first big test for the Transportation Security Administration. The new agency created after 9/11 finalized its takeover of airport passenger screening just last week. By mid-afternoon there were no reports of major checkpoint delays.
BLAKEY: The new Transportation Security Administration has really done a terrific job and those folks really are ready for this holiday.
LAVANDERA: Highway travel is also expected to be up this year. AAA estimates almost 31 million people will take to the roads. That's up one percent from last year. But, gas prices are also up from last Thanksgiving about 25 cents to an average $1.45 a gallon, and as bad as traffic was expected to be today, it's expected to be just as bad on the other end of this holiday weekend.
JUSTIN MCNAULL, AAA: Today really is the most intense travel day just because so many people do have to work or send the kids to school today, that most people do end up on the road this afternoon or this evening. But Sunday can be a pretty gruesome day too because you do get people who are trying to get to football games and doing all the other parts of life in addition to holiday traveling.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (on camera): Well, the goal for the airport screeners is to get people through these checkpoints in less than ten minutes. Here at DFW International Airport that has been happening around the five-minute mark and we understand that nationwide all but one airport, Miami International, is at about 15 minutes but most other airports around the country coming in well under that ten minute promise that airport screeners here are trying to give to airline passengers. Now, we'll see just how happy they'll be when all these people make their way back home - Marty.
SAVIDGE: Let's hope it's happy trails. Ed Lavandera, live in Dallas thanks very much.
First the Germans, now the Canadians and the British. Why is mocking President Bush turning into a global sport? The fallout and the shakedown when we come back; also a new drug to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder but first a coast-to-coast look at conditions on the road right now plus tomorrow's weather forecast.
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAVIDGE: All right, the Canadian official who called President Bush a moron has resigned her post as communications director for Prime Minister Jean Chretien, but the controversy is far from over as Roger Smith of CTV reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROGER SMITH, CTV CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For Francois Ducros, the way her moron remark played in Canada and the U.S. was bad enough, having Iraqi newspapers use it to slur George Bush was the final straw.
JEAN CHRETIEN, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: She said to me that because of the controversy she had no interest of carrying on because she was leaving anyway, so I'm very sorry. She was very good.
SMITH: Though Jean Chretien insists there's no harm done to relations with the U.S., the opposition thinks there is and demanded an apology to Bush, but the prime minister confounded critics by arguing there was never any insult.
CHRETIEN: In that discussion that was a private discussion with a journalist she was defending the president of the United States. You were not there. You're very smart to know what happened there.
SMITH: How moron was a defense of Bush he didn't explain.
STEPHEN HARPER, OPPOSITION LEADER: I mean this is the problem with this prime minister. By delaying an apology he just - and digging himself in, he just makes it a bigger and bigger incident.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has acted irresponsibly. He continues to act irresponsibly.
SMITH: On the U.S. talk shows that feasted on Ducros any sympathy was overwhelmed by gloating over her demise.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What they did was unacceptable and what has happened here is simple justice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CTV reports of Chretien's advisors watched us hash the issue over again on "CROSSFIRE" last night and decided she had to go. What a government. What a country.
SMITH: Ducros replacement Jim Munson (ph) a former CTV reporter. He'll try to repair her strained relations with the media.
SMITH (on camera): As for her departure, there was a little political spin to put that in the best light. Ducros was already planning to go back to the public service, the prime minister said, now she's simply going a few weeks sooner. Roger Smith, CTV News, Ottawa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: Meanwhile, the British comedy series that found an animated way to poke fun at President Bush finds itself attracting, well, similar scrutiny. It created the following television commercial that shows a cartoon commander-in-chief toasting a tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TV CHARACTER: My favorite. Just pop it in the video player, the best of 2DTV on video and DVD.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Well the group responsible for regulating such ads isn't laughing. It's banning the ad because its guidelines say that living people should not be caricatured without their permission. Love them or hate them, SUVs seem to dominate the roadways but should their owners pull over, the debate over a vehicle that seems to be a lightning rod for anger.
Also, the pollutant that could be making fish dangerous for your heart, Elizabeth Cohen joins us live with a medical report. And, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, the power divorce that's leading some to some very big time mud slinging, but first we've got today's news quiz.
Which 2003 model vehicle has the worst fuel efficiency, Ferrari Enzo Ferrari, Chevy Surburban, Ford Explorer, GMC Yukon, the answer coming up.
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SAVIDGE: Welcome back to CNN. I'm Martin Savidge. Coming up, fired off over SUVs, what's causing rage on the roadways? That debate in a moment but first let's take a look at other stories making news right now in our "CNN News Alert."
(NEWS ALERT)
SAVIDGE: Turning to another environmental end and safety issue, the sport utility vehicles. Some tests have show that SUVs are dangerous in some collisions, rollover more than car, get worse gas mileage and pollute the air more. Now, the SUV may be the target of ecoterrorists. CNN national correspondent, Gary Tuchman has that.
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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are driving to eliminate driving behind the wheels of sport utility vehicles. At a car dealership near Richmond, Virginia, 25 SUVs were vandalized with acid type chemicals.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is just an act of you know, senseless, not violence but senseless vandalism. I can't think of any purpose this would serve.
TUCHMAN: Police tell CNN they believe the vandalism is likely the work of a radical environmental group called the Earth Liberation Front. The initials ELF were sprayed on many of vehicles.
Authorities say the ELF has caused tens of millions of dollars in damage over the last five years, and actions ranging from arson to releasing animals. The group is believed to set a blaze that caused more than $12 million damage at the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) ski resort.
But it's not just shadowy environmental groups that say they are anti-SUV, many traditional environmentalists also criticize the gas- guzzling vehicles, saying they unacceptably damage the planet.
ANNOUNCER: Too many of car, trucks and SUVs that are made, that we choose to drive, are polluting our air.
TUCHMAN: And just last week, a religious group started an anti- SUV ad campaign, called, "What would Jesus drive?"
ANNOUNCER: If we love our neighbor and we cherish God's creation, maybe we should ask, what would Jesus drive?
REV. JIM BALL, EVANGELICAL ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK: We want folks to understand that transportation choices are moral choices.
TUCHMAN: The car manufacturers are saying the criticism is unfair.
CHRIS PREUSS, GENERAL MOTORS: This is a consumer choice issue, and our vehicles that have improved in efficiency, our passenger cars, 133 percent over the last several decades.
TUCHMAN: In 1998, 2.8 million SUVs were sold. But last year, the number jumped to 3.8 million, a 36 percent increase in three years. So whatever the environmental impact, the SUV's business environment is still healthy.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: All right, that was just to wet your appetite. Joining us now in our Washington studio to talk more about this, Joan Claybrook, the president of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization founded by Ralph Nader and Sam Kazman, general council for Competitive Enterprise Institute, a nonprofit, public policy group.
Thanks to both of you for being here. What is wrong with SUV? Joan, go ahead.
JOAN CLAYBROOK, PRESIDENT, PUBLIC CITIZEN: Well, the SUV is a very dangerous vehicle and people don't realize that it's a very stiff vehicle. So even for its own occupants, it's very dangerous in the crash. It's highly prone to rollover. It's very inefficient in terms of fuel economy, damages the environment.
And people have a false sense of security. And the reason of all of this exists is because it's really slipped through a lot of loopholes in federal regulations, which need to be closed. And the manufacturers have been totally irresponsible in the way they've manufactured them.
SAVIDGE: But aren't there a lot of dangerous vehicles on the road? I mean an 18-wheeler to me does not look that safe when I'm right next to it.
CLAYBROOK: Well, that's true. SUVs are terribly damaging when they hit a car. You're much more likely to die if you're hit on the side or even the front by an SUV, but they don't have to be that way.
You can have a really great vehicle that instead of weighing 6,500 pounds weighs 4,000 pounds and it'll do all those -- the kinds of work and jobs that you want it to do for, you know, a larger-sized vehicle. So you don't have to have these dangers and because the roof crushes in, and they're highly likely to rollover, they're very, very dangerous for the people who are inside who don't realize how dangerous they are.
SAVIDGE: Sam, you've been very patient. Weigh in here. Tell me the good points of SUV.
SAM KAZMAN, GENERAL COUNCIL, COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: For all the talk about the alleged safety hazards of SUV, the fact remains that the very largest SUVs do a better job protecting their occupants than any other class of passenger vehicle on the road. And that's not the only feature of SUVs that people are choosing, that people have a right to choose.
Even a magazine such as "Consumer Reports" talks about the fact that SUVs have certain advantageous traits. They carry lots of people. They carry lots of cargo. And one reason people have turned to SUVs is because passenger cars have been progressively downsized under the Federal Fuel Economy Standards. Not only have they been downsized, their safety has been reduced.
We do not need any more stringent fuel economy standards because the only result of that would be to downsize both SUVs and cars and those standards have already proven to be incredibly deadly. They're a bigger killer in terms of reducing consumer safety than any other federal regulation on the books.
SAVIDGE: All right, Sam. Well, let me ask you this... CLAYBROOK: Well, that's absolutely incorrect.
SAVIDGE: Go ahead, Joan.
CLAYBROOK: That's absolutely incorrect. Eighty-five percent of the improvement in fuel economy has come from technology improvement. The only downsizing that occurred was with the 5,500-pound cars that went down to 4,000 pounds.
KAZMAN: Excuse me...
CLAYBROOK: The others were not downsized. In fact, smaller cars are larger today than they were when I issued those standards in 1977.
KAZMAN: The National Academy of Sciences did an exhaustive study of this a year and a half ago. They found the existing standards have downsized cars to the point where they cause between 1,300 to 2,600 deaths every year. Every year, for a program that's been under the books -- on the books for over two decades.
CLAYBROOK: That wasn't what they found, Sam.
KAZMAN: And the one industry that the biggest stake in this, the auto insurance industry, itself, takes the position that the alleged incompatibility between SUVs and cars really is an overblown issue, that if you want to improve auto safety by changing the vehicle mix, the one thing you really ought to do is get the smallest, most vulnerable cars off the road. But you can't do that because of the Passenger Fuel Economy Standards that Miss Claybrook helped enact.
SAVIDGE: All right, wait. Can I just -- can I insert myself into this conversation here.
CLAYBROOK: OK.
SAVIDGE: Let me ask you, Joan. Do you -- are you forebanning SUVs? Should we get rid of them? Is that what you're saying?
CLAYBROOK: No, what SUVs should be is redesigned completely. They can be much lighter, much more fuel-efficient. And if they're more compatible with cars on the highway, than many, many lives will be saved.
SAVIDGE: All right. Hold it right there, Joan. OK, let me stop there because we're running out of time. Sam, isn't it possible? Couldn't we make SUVs safer?
KAZMAN: They're getting better just as all cars are getting better all of the time. But we should not have them being changed by a bureaucrat passing regulations enforced by an agency that never sells anything to consumers.
SAVIDGE: All right.
CLAYBROOK: That's the only reason we have safety on the highways and air bags because of federal regulations. KAZMAN: I don't think so.
SAVIDGE: We have to end it there. Thank you very much, Joan Claybrook and Sam Kazman. We appreciate both of your insights into what is an issue that'll be driven -- driving conversation for a while. Thank you.
CLAYBROOK: Thank you.
SAVIDGE: Here's your chance to weigh in on this story. Our "Web Question of Day" is -- are SUVs a menace to society? We'll have the results later in this broadcast. Vote CNN.com/Wolf. And while you're there, we'd like to hear from you. Send us your comments and we'll try to read some of them at the end of this program. That's also, of course, where you can read our daily online column, CNN.com/Wolf.
Fish food -- that may not be good for your health. Find out why underwater contaminants may double -- that's right -- your risk for a heart attack. And an early start to turkey day gluttony, but first today's news quiz.
Now, earlier we asked -- which 2003 model vehicle has the worst fuel efficiency? The answer -- come on, you must have known this -- the answer is the Ferrari Enzo Ferrari. The luxury two-seater sports car gets only eight miles a gallon in the city and 12 miles a gallon on the highway.
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SAVIDGE: Fish is good for you. Mercury is bad for you. Some types of fish contain mercury, so what should do you? Well, there's some new research out on this very subject. So let's turn to our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, and find out what it says.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: What the answer is. Well, you know it is a conundrum -- fish are terrific, as you said. Mercury, not two terrific. Two articles in the "New England Journal of Medicine" out today and a little bit of advice how to answer that conundrum.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN (voice-over): A European study says men with high mercury levels in their body were twice as likely to get heart attacks. One source of mercury? Fish from polluted waters. But fish oils lower cholesterol, which benefits your heart. So what are you supposed to do, stop eating fish? The Food and Drug Administration says, no, just be careful about what fish you do eat.
These four types of fish tend to have the highest levels of mercury, swordfish, shark, king mackerel and tilefish. The FDA says children, women who are pregnant, trying to become pregnant or breastfeeding should stop eating these fish altogether because mercury can affect the nervous system of a fetus, baby, or child.
The FDA says these high-risk groups should eat no more than 12 ounces a week of any kind a fish. That's about three to four servings of fish per week. For everyone else, the FDA says there's no reason to stop eating fish. They say the amount of mercury in fish is not necessarily harmful to adults.
In fact, the second study in the "New England Journal of Medicine" found the exact opposite of the European study. Men with lots of mercury in their bodies were not more likely to have heart attacks. The researchers concluded, however, that they couldn't rule out a relationship between mercury and heart attacks.
So bottom line -- the American Heart Association says the benefits of fish outweigh the risks from mercury.
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COHEN: So let's go over some of those bottom line issues, again. If you're pregnant or breastfeeding or if you're a child, then it's best to avoid those four types of fish altogether and limit the amount other fish you're eating to three to four serves per week. But for the rest of us, the FDA says we don't have to worry, but I think it's a good idea to keep those four types in mind.
SAVIDGE: Well, Elizabeth, what is it about these particular fish that seems to make them so prone to mercury?
COHEN: Well, what experts think is that it's because they eat lots of other fish. So they get the mercury from the other fish and these four types of fish also tend to live a long time. So that it's a lot of time for that mercury to build up.
SAVIDGE: Got it. OK. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much.
Well, what holiday would be complete without someone gorging to win a contest? At New York's Mickey Mantle's Restaurant today, a 33- year-old subway conductor won the eatery's first turkey eating contest. Eric Booker (ph) also known as Bad Lands gobbled five-and-a- half plates of Thanksgiving dinner in 12 minutes. He beat out seven other hungry contenders. The event was sponsored by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. Who knew?
By the way, Booker (ph) came in the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest last July. You'd never know looking at him.
He's a powerbroker on Wall Street, but his biggest challenge may come from his soon-to-be ex-wife. Welch versus Welch, the marital mudslinging may drag a top CEO down into the dirt.
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SAVIDGE: The already dirty divorce of former General Electric chief, Jack Welch and his second wife, Jane, is getting even dirtier. First, she disclosed millions of dollars in post-retirement perks he got from GE. Now, he's reportedly going public with allegations that she had an affair with an Italian chauffer. CNN's Deborah Feyerick has the latest on the war of the Welches.
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DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Corporate giant, Jack Welch, is having a tough time closing the deal on a divorce growing more bitter by the day. His soon to be ex-wife, Jane Beasley Welch, turning out to be a particularly challenging opponent for the former General Electric titan.
Their 10-year pre-nup expired three years before their marriage did. In a Connecticut court, Mrs. Welch is seeking what her lawyer calls "her fair share" of an estimated $900 million fortune. It's a fight that makes boardroom battles look like schoolhouse brawls.
Rumors about the Welch divorce cropping up every day in the New York tabloids. First on the gossip pages, Jack Welch's affair with a "Harvard Business Review" editor, then the release of astonishing corporate perks, some $2.5 million for things like flowers, food, and wine.
Jack Welch's side says his wife released reports about the perks to embarrass Welch. Jane Welch's lawyer says the perks were presenting as part of a financial affidavit for a judge to decide alimony. Then, just when it looked like Mrs. Welch was ahead in the image award, the most recent bombshell rumor -- the "New York Post" and the "Wall Street Journal" reporting she was having an affair with a handsome Italian chauffer before her husband's affair began.
The nasty break has tarnished Jack Welch's outstanding business reputation. Lumping him together and fairly, experts say, with the likes of Enron's, Ken Lay and Tyco's Dennis Kozlowski.
NELL MINOW, THE CORPORATE LIBRARY: Nobody disputes the fact that Jack Welch is an honest guy, who did an amazing job at General Electric. He may have not been everything that he was portrayed as, but he was very, very good. He was one of the best CEOs of all-time.
FEYERICK: Welch has offered his estranged wife a settlement in the many millions of dollars. She and her there lawyers have turned it down.
CECILE WEICH, DIVORCE ATTORNEY: She should get every penny that she's entitled to and that has nothing to do with whether she had an affair. She had a 10-year marriage with this man. I'm sure that he liked her some time during the 10 years.
FEYERICK (on camera): Financial insiders say it's unlikely the divorce will have any long-term on Welch's business reputation as one of America's top CEOs of all-time. Still in the short term, corporate America remains uncomfortable with yet another bright spotlight shining on it.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: And joining us from New York to offer some professional inside into Welch versus Welch, divorce attorney, Raul Felder. Thank you very much for being with us, sir.
RAUL FELDER, DIVORCE ATTORNEY: It's a pleasure.
SAVIDGE: This -- well, is this about as bad as you have ever seen?
FELDER: Well, no. I mean it seems terrible because it's also published. But it's another ho-hum day in divorce court.
SAVIDGE: Really? Well, why do you think that the attorneys or whomever in this case are leaking so much information to the media?
FELDER: Well, it started with Mrs. Welch and I think she made a serious mistake. She's talked about all of these perks he was getting and so he had to relinquish the perks. That means there's that much less money available for her. Then, he revealed that he offered a great deal of money, maybe a $400 million. Then, the sympathy of public started to go the other way. Why does she need more than $140 million?
And now, he's revealed about her affair with a chauffer and how ordinary. You see everything about him, we knew before. We knew about this young lady he was keeping company with. She was a lawyer, a journalist. We didn't know about Mrs. Welch's chauffer.
The real people who are injured here is corporate America because that's the dirty underside of what's going on in these corporations. You know everybody said, "Well, he deserved it!" In fact, in your package, somebody said, "He deserved it. He did great for the company." But he was paid $16 million a year. Would he give back money if he did poorly?
SAVIDGE: Well, the Italian chauffer -- I like the way you say, "How ordinary" it is. It doesn't strike me as ordinary. But if you were representing Mr. Welch, what would you advise him? What would you say now?
FELDER: I think he is doing dandy. I think Mrs. Welch is self- destructing quite publicly. It looks like Mrs. Welch is being in a superior position at this point, but I don't think that's the case at all. She got more than $35,000 a month temporary maintenance. Well, that was too low. Everybody knew that. Everybody knew she was going to get higher.
And why I said, "how ordinary" -- being a chauffer is not ordinary, but Mr. Welch is more imaginative. He got a journalist, a lawyer. Why does she end up with a guy who's driving a car?
SAVIDGE: Well, is this the worst case, divorce wise, you've seen ever?
FELDER: Oh no, I've seen cases with murders in them and all kinds of terrible things. But I think this have many interesting aspects, things people don't hear about. It has lots of money on the table, which always attracts other people. And of course, it's a peephole, the way these people live with these grand apartments and wines and flowers and all of this, and it's great.
SAVIDGE: Well, how's it going to end?
FELDER: Well, I think Mr. Welch is going to call it a day here because his lawyers, I think, outfoxed her primarily. They began in Connecticut where you're not going to do as well as New York. And if they waited, she would have picked New York. So I think he's going to do just fine. He's probably going to pay exactly what he wants to pay. And she's going to be, you know, a little worse for the ware when it's all over.
SAVIDGE: I'm sure she'll still she will afford a chauffer though.
FELDER: Oh no. There's no question. She could have a team of chauffeurs.
SAVIDGE: I'm sure. All right.
FELDER: One to actually drive the car.
SAVIDGE: I got you. Raul Felder, thank you very much for joining us.
Well, time is running out for you to -- your turn that is to weigh in on our "Question of The Day." Our Web question is, by the way -- are the SUVs a menace to society? Log onto CNN.com/Wolf to vote. We'll have the results immediately when we come back.
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SAVIDGE: All right. Here we go. Here is how we're weighing on our "Web Question of The Day." Earlier we asked you this, our web question -- are SUVs a menace to society? Fifty-nine percent of you said yes. Forty-one percent of you right now say no. You can find the exact vote tally and continue to vote, by the way, on our Website, CNN.com/Wolf. Remember this is not science, ladies and gentlemen.
Now, time to hear from you and to read some of your e-mails. Raja writes -- "Thank you for your fair and balanced interview with Pat Robertson yesterday. In today's climate, it is heartening to see somebody try to talk to Pat about facts instead of getting bogged down in his biased sermons."
Kimbrea -- I want to make sure I say it right -- disagrees. "It is beyond me why there is such a soft approach taken with Islam on the news networks. If Christian radicals had been behaving as badly as Muslim radicals, there would be no softening of reporters' tones. Stop the political correctness nonsense."
Paul says -- "Your interview with Pat Robertson yesterday demonstrated that when a reporter understands the topic, it leads to an intelligent, balanced discussion and prevents guests from promoting their biased agendas."
And from Lawrence -- "Pat Robertson's comments about Islam were right on the money. Despite his efforts, his interviewer could not derail his factual argument."
We love to hear from you. Thank you very much.
That's all of time, though, we have for today. You can join me tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, and please join us weekdays at noon Eastern for "SHOWDOWN IRAQ."
Until then, it has been a pleasure. Thank you very much for watching. I'm Martin Savidge in for Wolf Blitzer. Jan Hopkins is up next with "MONEYLINE." Jan is sitting in for Lou tonight.
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