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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Devastating Jerusalem Bus Bombing Shatters Hopes for Peace

Aired June 11, 2003 - 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.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Shattered hopes for peace, a devastating bus bombing in Jerusalem.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I went a little -- drive further I saw the bus blown up, smoke coming out. It smelled. I saw a black (UNINTELLIGIBLE). There were pieces of body parts all over the place.

BLITZER: And more missile strikes in Gaza. Is it time to fold up the road map.

COLLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: This is a time for us to remain steadfast.

BLITZER: Where are Iraq's weapons?

Lawmakers take their concerns behind closed doors.

But the chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix goes public, blasting the Bush administration.

Monkeypox, an exotic disease, an alarming outbreaks.

Are you at risk?

I'll ask an expert.

And the young girl who revealed her soul while hiding from the Nazis. Now a stunning exhibit shows there is much more to Anne Frank's story.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: CNN live this hour, WOLF BLITZER REPORTS live from the nation's capital, with correspondents from around the world. WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts now.

BLITZER: It's Wednesday, June 11, 2003. Hello from Washington. I am Wolf Blitzer reporting.

A devastating and deadly setback today for the road map, President Bush's backing for peace in the Middle East. In the latest of a series of an eye for an eye attack a Palestinian suicide bombing killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens other in one of Jerusalem's most heavily policed areas. Only less than an hour later an Israeli air strike targeted Hamas militants, killed seven people and wounded 30 in Gaza. The attacks triggered chaos. Ambulances rushed the wounded to hospitals, in both Jerusalem and Gaza. We have two live reports.

Our Jerusalem bureau chief Mike Hanna standing by with the latest on the attacks and our White House correspondent Chris Burns has reaction from President Bush. First, a day of death in the streets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): A witness across the streets said he saw a plume of smoke, people flying through the air and then silence. Then screaming. The suicide bombing aboard a Jerusalem bus detonated by what they say was a Palestinian dressed as an Orthodox Jew. In addition to the dead, Israeli hospital officials say dozens were injured.

Within minutes, Israeli helicopter gunships attacked three targets in Gaza and operation Israeli military sources insist was planned before the Jerusalem bombing. Four missiles were fired into one car. Two members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas were killed. Palestinian hospital sources say civilians were also among the dead, dozens wounded. The military wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for the Jerusalem bombing.

ISMAIL ABU SHANAB, HAMAS: I think if the Israeli continue killing Palestinian civilians, the Palestinians have no other choice except to continue their resistance.

BLITZER: Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack and called for an end to all violence. Israel was also quick to condemn the bombing.

RA'ANAN GISSIN, SHARON SPOKESMAN: What we are talking about is deliberated, premeditated campaign at murdering innocent Israelis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: These latest attacks come just a week after President Bush's trip to the region for a peace summit with the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Palestine Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Do their meetings have any meaning now?

Joining us, Mike Hanna.

Let's ask Mike Hanna directly what's happening right now in Gaza -- Mike.

If you can hear me, tell us what's happening right now in Gaza.

We're clearly having some audio problems with Mike Hanna. We're going to go back to Jerusalem in a minute.

But Chris Burns our White House correspondent hopefully is standing by at the White House to tell bus the president's reaction to these disturbing developments today -- Chris.

CHRIS BURNS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Wolf. This was a day after the Israeli targeted attack on Palestinian militants, during -- after which the president here said that he was troubled about that attack. Today the president stepping back and giving diplomacy a chance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BURNS (voice-over): A day after diplomatically riding herd on Israel, President Bush faces yet more Mideast turmoil. He lashes out at Palestinian militants he says are intent on scuttling the road map to peace.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is clear there are people in the Middle East who hate peace.

BURNS: The president appears to hold out hope the new Palestinian Prime minister Mahmoud Abbas can forge a truce among the militants. Though there is growing frustration in the Bush administration with Abbas' current inability to do so. This as Ariel Sharon seeks to neutralize the militants by force.

MARTIN INDYK, THE SABAN CENTER FOR MIDDLE EAST POLICY: It is not dead yet, but it is in a coma, and it's essentially on life support until and unless the president can find a way to get Prime Minister Abbas to act to stop the terrorism and in the process to get Prime Minister Sharon to hold back.

BURNS: Instead of direct public pressure on either side, the president calls on the world the Arab world, the help shut down the militant sources of support.

BUSH: I strongly urge all of you to fight off terror, to cut off money to organizations such as Hamas, to isolate those who hate so much that they are willing to kill to stop peace from going forward.

BURNS: But for a second day, the president avoids reporters' questions.

QUESTION: Would Israel be justified going after Hamas sir.

BURNS: Little more overt action beyond reports of feverish phone contacts with the Middle East and plans for the U.S. promised troubleshooting team to arrive the region in the coming days.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNS: Although the president has committed himself to going to distance in the coming days, it appears that he's trying to give the behind the scenes diplomacy a chance and hoping for a period of calm -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Chris Burns at the White House, thanks very much. Let's go back to Jerusalem right now. Our Jerusalem chief Mike Hanna is standing by. He's following up-to-the-minute developments. I understand there are developments unfolding right now Mike, in Gaza.

MIKE HANNA, JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, indeed, Wolf. Reports we are receiving from Gaza say there's much air activity. Israeli helicopters are flying overhead Gaza City. We are told they are dropping flairs. There has not been an attack as yet but residents fearing an imminent Israeli attack, bearing in mind there has been Israeli air attacks in Gaza in the course of the afternoon. So, that's developing at the moment.

BLITZER: Have the Israelis taken any additional steps to close off the borders, to increase security in the aftermath of this bus bombing not far from where you are right now?

HANNA: Well, there has been intense security put in place in the wake of that failed assassination attempt in Gaza Tuesday, after which Hamas militants in particular had threatened to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians. Now there has always been a high state of alert in place. However, this was tightened even further in the wake of that failed attempt in Gaza. Nonetheless, the suicide bomber managed to slip through the cordon. The area that bombing took place is probably one of the most tightly guarded place in Israel.

It's two square miles in which there had been a number of suicide attacks in the past. Certainly it is one area that the police have tried to keep as tightly closed as possible. But the bomber managed to get through. Perhaps because his disguise. We are told by police he was disguised as a religious Jew, of which there are many in that particular neighborhood. And perhaps that's how he managed to sneak through the police patrols and border patrol into the very middle of downtown Jerusalem and detonate that bomb -- Wolf.

BLITZER: What an awful situation. CNN's Jerusalem Bureau chief, Mike Hanna, thanks for much for that report.

The chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee is proposing a bold and potentially high-risk plan to bring peace to the Middle East. Earlier today I spoke with Republican Senator John Warner about his suggestion of sending a NATO force, possibly including U.S. troops, to the West Bank and Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. JOHN WARNER (R-VA), CHAIRMAN ARMED SERVICE COMMITTEE: We should have both the governments of Israel and Palestine invite NATO to come in temporarily, and provide such security and visibility to the infrastructure of those who send these hopeless bombers into this thing that we mean business.

BLITZER: Do you really want U.S. Soldiers and marines to be sent into the West Bank and Gaza where they clearly could be the target of suicide bombers themselves?

WARNER: It would not be a risk-free mission, but, mind you, the NATO forces would be composed of a number of countries, probably some of our Americans would be a part, a relatively small part of the total equation. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And here's your turn to weigh in on this important story. Our web question of the day is this, "Should U.S. troops be sent to the West Bank and Gaza to keep the peace?" We'll have the results later in this broadcast. You can vote right now. Go to cnn.com/wolf.

While your there, I'd love to hear from you. Send me your comments. I'll try to read some of them on the air each day at the end of the program. That's also, of course, where you can read my daily online column, cnn.com/wolf.

U.S. troops in Iraq have not turned up weapons of mass destruction, which the Bush administration cited as a key reason for going to war. U.S. lawmakers are now battling over the intelligence on Iraq's weapons and the way it was used.

Let's go live to our national security correspondent, David Ensor -- David.

DAVID ENSOR, NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, under pressure from all the talk of cooked intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, terror ties, Republican leaders called a news conference to say they are looking into the matter. They will hold closed hearings next week. But they reject Democratic party calls for a full, formal investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R-KS), INTELLIGENCE CHMN: In my view, some of the attacks have been simply politics, and for political gain.

WARNER: The evidence that I have examined does not rise to give the presumption that anyone in this administration has hyped or crooked or embellished such evidence to a particular purpose.

ENSOR (voice-over): Leading Democrats, angered at not being invited to the news conference, said a review is not good enough.

SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-WV), INTELLIGENCE CHMN.: I'm not satisfied with the way we're proceeding. In fact, we're not proceeding.

ENSOR: Rockefeller said Congress should formally investigate whether intelligence was manipulated to make the case for war.

ROCKEFELLER: We need to have public hearings, and we need to be able to call witnesses. Witnesses who don't agree who work with what the intelligence agencies don't agree. Witnesses who have said, well, we were pressured, and they have said it.

ENSOR: For their part, bush administration officials say they are focused on finding Iraq's hidden weapons.

POWELL: More experts are going in, and I think one should be careful about making judgments as to whether it was hyped or not hyped until the exploitation is finish.

ENSOR: Republicans Warner and Roberts are in no hurry to hold open hearing, but warner says they probably will do so eventually. But Democrats questioning the president's primary case for war the stakes could be high indeed as we head into next year's presidential election -- Wolf.

BLITZER: David Ensor, our national security correspondent. Thanks, David, very much.

The U.N.'s chief weapons inspector is no longer necessarily on the weapons hunt. Dr. Hans Blix is retiring this month and the Swedish diplomat is not very diplomatic when it comes to his view of some U.S. Officials. Here's CNN senior United Nations correspondent, Richard Roth.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANS BLIX, UNITED NATIONS CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR: And then we have the presidential sites.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Satellite photographs on his office wall are the only way Hans Blix can see Iraq these days. The chief weapons inspector and his international searchers are shut out of Iraq by the U.S. But in his final days on the job Blix is speaking out more, angry over how he feels he was treated by some in the U.S. government.

In an interview in "The Guardian" newspaper, Blix said, "I have my detractors in Washington. There are bastards who spread things around, of course, who planted nasty things in the media, not that I cared very much."

BLIX: I said it vexes me and I have what I regard as totally unjustified accusations, but I don't lose sleep over it.

ROTH: You used the word beginning with "b."

BLIX: Yes. Well, I wasn't sure that would be printed. I don't think that will be printed in America.

ROTH: Do you think they were, to use the word printed bastards.

BLIX: Well, I certainly had a low opinion about these detractors, but it's really, not worth much time.

ROTH: Blix, in print said some elements in the Pentagon were behind a smear campaign against him.

BLIX: Clearly, when a former Swedish deputy prime minister writes, in the "Washington Times" or the "Wall Street Journal," and I haven't met the guy since the '70s and evidently some of the information must have compromised the sources in the U.S. There was something wrong.

POWELL: There's no smear campaign I'm aware of. I have high regard for Dr. Blix. I worked very closely with Dr. Blix over the last eight or nine months. I know the president had confidence in him as well, and what we're doing now is looking forwards, not looking backwards.

ROTH: Secretary Powell's briefing to the Security Council has yet to bear fruit on the ground. Blix said he received little intelligence during his time in Iraq that in his time in Iraq, his team could ever confirm. And the former Swedish foreign minister had this warning for the future.

BLIX: I think one has to be cautious in making use of the armed force on flimsy or shaky grounds.

ROTH (on camera): Hans Blix may have even more to say. He's expected to write a book. Secretary General Annan defended him saying, we haven't heard the last of him.

Richard Roth, CNN, United Nations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: They are driving some seniors into poverty. Prescription drug costs that is.

Is there any pain relief in sight for you?

Find out what a new Medicare plan could mean for your pocketbook.

Serial rapists in Miami targeting children.

Do you know this man?

Police are asking the police for help.

And Miss Universe 2003, she's only 18 years old, but on top of the world. Amelia Vega, will join me live.

First, today's news quiz.

Which country has won the most Miss Universe titles?

The United States, Brazil, Thailand, Venezuela.

The answer coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A potentially deadly virus in the United States now pops up further east. Could the smallpox vaccine stop its spread? The nation's top man on infectious diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci. He's ready to share what he knows.

What's at risk, what needs to be done?

That's coming up on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

Now to a story that literally affects 10s of millions of retired of Americans, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 10s of millions of others who are about to retire. It could impact you, your parents, and your grandparents. Namely this, the high cost of prescription drugs.

Louise Schiavone is joining us live for what may finally, finally be some relief -- Louise.

LOUISE SCHIAVONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For the first time since its inception 40 years ago Medicare may be poised to cover the cost of prescription drugs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHIAVONE (voice-over): Costs of medicines to seniors is a huge domestic issue that President Bush wants to act on before next year's elections. The president is taking his Medicare reform campaign on the road, starting in Chicago.

BUSH: America's seniors deserve a modern system of health care.

(APPLAUSE)

BUSH: Instead of a bureaucracy that covers the latest medical treatments slowly and sporadically.

SCHIAVONE: With 40 million recipients and ringing up at roughly $27 billion a year, Medicare covers hospitalization and doctors' visits. That's bound to explode when today's baby boomers start reaching age 65 between the years 2008 and 2030. For many seniors, the missing link in Medicare is prescription drug coverage. Congress is now talking about spending another $50 billion a year to include it. Nothing is final yet, but House and Senate leaders are crafting somewhat different plans to help seniors pay their drug bills.

Both bills envision a $35 a month premium. Under the Senate bill a Medicare recipient would pay a $275 deductible. After that, they would be responsible for half the bill, up to $3450. But above that, there is a gap, up to $5,300, where seniors will have to foot the whole bill. Above $5,300, the Senate would have seniors paying only 10 percent of the cost. The House leadership plan follows a similar track, but with different payment brackets.

The deductible is $250. Between $250 and $2,250, seniors would pay 20 percent for their medicines. There's a gap in this plan, too, from 2,250 to $3,700, seniors pick up the entire check. But after that, Uncle Sam would cover the entire cost, unless the senior makes more than $60,000. It's not clear yet how much wealthier recipients would have to pay. Seniors advocates and many Democrats are not sold.

BARBARA KENNELLY, NATL. COMTE. TO PRESERVE SOCIAL SECURITY & MEDICARE: We are concerned about many things. One is the gap, a huge gap in coverage during which seniors have to pay 100 percent of drug costs. And this really concerns seniors.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHIAVONE: Bipartisan consent, this is closest in the Senate where a liberal Massachusetts Democrat, Ted Kennedy, says he's encouraged by the proposal and top Democrat Tom Daschle has already predicted it will pass. The president wants to see the bill on his desk by the 4th of July.

BLITZER: Louise Schiavone, thanks very much. We'll see if that happens.

Let's turn to the first outbreak of monkeypox in the western hemisphere and the government's aggressive move to try to stop it from spreading in this country. The disease produces puss-filled blisters, fever rash and aches. Today the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that smallpox shots for those exposed to the African disease that's jumped from prairie dogs to humans, potentially be used. U.S. officials are investigating 50 cases of monkeypox in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and New Jersey. The government also banned the sale of prairie dogs and the importation of African rodents.

Here to talk to me about this disease, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infections Disease.

Dr. Fauci, thanks very much.

This sounds like a very serious problem. How serious is it?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATL. INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: It's not serious in the sense of spreading from person to person because it does not do that essentially. But it's serious that this disease can be quite serious. It's a close relative of smallpox. It doesn't have as high as a mortality. The mortality ranges between 1 and 10 percent as opposed to 30 percent to smallpox.

But the difficulty is, animals that get infected if they have the pusstules and the illness, they can spread it easily to humans. So that's how all of this start. And the rat that was infected probably spread it to a large number of prairie dogs that were sold as exotic pets, and the individuals who had direct contact with those rodents have gotten infected. It's something we have to take very seriously.

BLITZER: Most of us have heard of smallpox and chickenpox. Monkeypox, I thought that someone was pulling a joke on us.

FAUCI: It's not a joke. It was first recognized in monkeys in the early '50s, 1958 the first case in humans was in 1970. It's a very close relative. It's what we call an orthropox virus. And many of the signs and symptoms the rash and headache and back ache and cough and et cetera are very closely related to smallpox.

BLITZER: What your doing to make sure this doesn't spread and can be reversed, in fact. FAUCI: The CDC has as what they do very well, they have jumped on top of this quickly. And what they are doing right now, and Secretary Thompson himself just announced the ban on the importation and the CDC can enforce that ban, of rodents from Africa. And the ban on the selling distribution and moving around of prairie dogs and other rodents within the United States. So, once you put the lid on animals that are either infected or could be infected, that's the best way to put the end to this epidemic.

BLITZER: And the smallpox vaccine will work to deal with this?

FAUCI: Clearly, historically, people who are vaccinated for smallpox in Africa, were people who were relatively protected from monkeypox. The reason why monkeypox has not been up to this time, a serious problem in spreading from person to person and also from animals to humans. But, now we have less immunity to smallpox in the world. Something like monkeypox, which had been contain previously because of the general smallpox vaccination is something you have to pay attention to.

BLITZER: Dr. Anthony Fauci, arguably one of the busiest men in Washington. You have got a lot issues on your agenda. Thanks so much taking a few moments explaining this important issue to us. Thank you very much.

As we reported, monkeypox in the United States has been traced to an exotic rat from Africa. Now the government is taking efforts to stop more sick rodents from infecting the country. Today the Department of Health and Human Services, banned importing all rodents from Africa, and within the United States, restrictions are in place on prairie dogs and six species of rodents.

A vicious sexual predator is on the loose right now in Miami. Police are in hot pursuit of what they describe as a serial rapist that is targeting children. We're there live. We'll go there in a few minutes.

And cell phones triggering explosives. The FBI is issuing a new warning on possible terror tactics.

Sammy Sosa gets a break. His penalty cut after getting caught red-handed with cork in his bat. Find out the final verdict. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

We're following a developing story right now. Could be a parent's worst nightmare. A serial rapist preying on young girls. That's what happening right now in Miami. Now there's word that some women also have been attacked by the suspect. Let's go to Miami.

CNN's Susan Candiotti is standing by to fill us in -- Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Wolf.

Police started making the connection after three little girls were attacked been the last few weeks. Then they found a probable link to the rape of a 79-year-old woman who was assaulted last month. Then police made three definite DNA matches to two more women who were attacked between last September and December. Miami police then started putting out composite sketches made from descriptions from the last three victims, three little girls, ages 11, 12 and 13, all of them attacked after school. In the last case the attacker was waiting for her inside her home. All of the victims, including women from the very same neighborhood. Police have formed a task force and are trying to avoid a panic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANK FERNANDEZ, DEPUTY CHIEF MIAMI POLICE: This serial rapist is not only targeting our children, but also our women of all ages. The sixth case is a 79-year-old female. We have extended a warning to all parents to be watchful over their kids. However, we are now expanding that to the general public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Parents in particular are concerned, more than usual, taking their children to school this day, the last day before school is out for the summer. In fact, now as you heard police say, they want everyone, all women to be on guard, and they are looking for more possible matches among unsolved cases.

So, Wolf, there could be even more cases linked to this serial rapist.

BLITZER: Susan Candiotti, thanks very much for that alarming report. We'll stay on top of it. Appreciate it.

The war may have been easy, but what about the peace? We'll go live to Baghdad and talk to a Congressman who has been there.

Plus, cell phone terror attack. The FBI issues a warning on explosives.

And Miss Universe 2003, Amelia Vega will be my special guest. She's got a special mission she wants to tell you all about.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(INTERRUPTED BY CNN COVERAGE OF BREAKING NEWS)

BLITZER: There are other important developments unfolding right now.

Indeed, it seems every day there are attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq with steadily mounting casualties. Iraq's infrastructure and economy don't seem to be improving all that dramatically, at least on the surface.Are things really so bad? Are there success stories in Iraq? In just a moment we'll hear from a top U.S. lawmaker who says there is indeed good news coming from Iraq. But let's go first to CNN's Matthew Chance. He's in Baghdad -- to see where things stand right now. Matthew, update us.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Wolf.

And it has been just over two months since U.S. forces entered the Iraqi capital. Without question the tyranny of Saddam Hussein's regime has been lifted from the people here. They now have the freedom to express their own opinions, even air their grievances in a way that none of them could really imagine ever doing under Saddam.

Having said that though, no one really likes the idea of being under occupation. As we've been witnessing, particularly over the past couple of weeks, that there have been attacks on U.S. patrols across the country. Soldiers have been killed and injured in what U.S. military says appear to be attacks that have been organized, at least, and coordinated at least on a local level.

Saddam loyalists, of course, have been held responsible for carrying out those attacks. But I think it's important to remember, as well, the other factors that contribute, if not for the attacks themselves, then at least to kind of the atmosphere of resentment that exists amongst the -- in the community at large here. People are very concerned about a number of issues, about the political future, about what role their religion or political faction might play in the future Iraq, but also more simple issues as well, like electricity and clean drinking water.

Iraq's infrastructure was very badly damaged during the conflict, damaged as well by the chaotic aftermath And although things are getting done now to try to get the essential services restored to many areas, many ordinary Iraqis believe enough was not done soon enough, Wolf.

BLITZER: Matthew chance with an update for us from Baghdad. Matthew, thank you very much.

And joining me from Capitol Hill is the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Congressman Duncan Hunter. He recently returned from a trip to Iraq, suggesting that the country is getting off to a good start.

Congressman, thanks very much for joining us. Are we getting the accurate picture from the news media, from our reporting, other news organizations? What did you see there?

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R-CA), CHAIRMAN, ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Well, Wolf, of course it depends on where you're at. If you're in Baghdad you're going to get a different story than if you are in Karbala, where they had a good story today from "The Washington Post," no less, about how American forces are welcomed and when we went to Kirkuk, which is north of Baghdad near the Iranian border, we actually had people come out of their houses and cheer when the American troops came by.

What we've got to do is get the wheels turning. We have to turn on the electricity, turn on the water. And in the old days, Saddam Hussein would pull electricity out of the other communities and bring it into Baghdad. Now that those communities no longer have a Saddam Hussein to fear, they're less -- they're inclined to want to send their electricity to the big city. So we've got about 3,000 megawatts turned on right now. We've got to get to about 4,400 megawatts. We are right now repairing the major lines and we're going to be up to 44,00 megawatts in a month or two.

With respect to water, we've got about 50 percent of the drinking water turned on that we need to have. We need good, potable water to avoid a cholera epidemic this summer.

So there's lots of things we need to do. But let me tell you, Wolf, the G.I.s are doing this. These great division commanders and battalion commanders are treating water, they're putting together police operations where people go out, the police go out. They actually patrol. They don't take pay-offs. We're training them. We've got about 500 on the streets now in Baghdad. So we;'re starting the wheels to turn.

And, you know, people are complaining. But, Wolf, if there was not a single American soldier in that country, these people who haven't been allowed to complain for 30 years and speak their mind, would be out speaking their mind to somebody.

BLITZER: That's a fair point. Matthew Chance just made it. They're allowed to complain, which is something they never could do under Saddam Hussein.

But a lot of Americans, as you well know, are getting very concerned. It seems to be that the U.S. soldiers and Marines and soldiers on an average of one a day are dying. And the resistance, if you could call it that, the Iraqis are going after them, seem to be getting better organized. How concerned should the American public be that these U.S. troops are being targeted?

HUNTER: Well, of course, Wolf, we've got 160,000 G.I.s in that country. Believe me, their commanders have got them on high alert. They're looking for people who are coming to attack them, and these people in ones and twos and threes coming by to throw an RPG here or let off an AK burst there have been coming after the G.I.s

But I just want to remind you that, you know, we lost 20 people killed in this city I'm in right now, Washington, D.C. in the last 30 days. Nobody suggested that we abandon Washington, D.C. So we're not going to be able to absolutely close down the guy with an AK or the two or three people with a rocket-propelled grenade. You're always going to have those elements. You've got those Ba'ath Party members who are still coming back and hitting American forces. We've had eight people killed in 14 days.

It's still dangerous. It's a little bit like the days in El Salvador when we put that fragile democracy in place, which now is staying and enduring without American troops.

BLITZER: Clearly. HUNTER: You have to have that umbrella, that protective umbrella to put the government in place and get the wheels turning.

BLITZER: Clearly you seem some light at the end of the tunnel.

We only have a few seconds, Congressman, but I want you to react to what your counterpart in the Senate, Senator John Warner, told me earlier today -- that he's open to sending NATO troops, including U.S. troops into the West Bank and Gaza potentially to try to bring some sort of semblance of peace. Is that a good idea for American forces?

HUNTER: You know, I think what we've got to do, in that part of the world, Wolf, is we've got one president. I think American foreign policy has to go with one voice. I'm not on the ground out there, and I think we've got to follow the president's lead very, very strongly.

We're all secretaries of state. Let's let President Bush lead us on that one. That's the toughest one out there.

BLITZER: Congressman Duncan Hunter, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, thanks for spending a few minutes with us.

HUNTER: Good to be with you.

BLITZER: Thank you.

Let's take a quick look at some other headlines making news this hour.

(NEWSBREAK)

BLITZER: Little known writings from the best known victim of the Holocaust. Images and words from Anne Frank that you haven't -- any of us have seen before. That's just ahead.

Plus, beauty, brains, and a conscience. Miss Universe, Amelia Vega, is joining us live. She'll talk about her new cause.

First, a look at some other news making headlines "Around the World."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Iranians demand changes. Thousands of Iranians, including hundreds of university students, took to the streets of the capital, Tehran, in the biggest anti-government protest in months. Police swinging batons broke up the demonstration. A student news agency reported dozens of people were arrested.

Violence in France. Strikes continue but are less violent in Paris today, one day after thousands of protesters clashed with riot police. For weeks now, massive demonstrations by striking workers irate over government pension reform plans, have disrupted air, train and bus travel throughout the country.

Shocking abuse case. A secret home video captures a nanny in Mexico hitting a one-and-a-half-year-old on the back and slapping him in the face. The nanny is charged with assault and battery and faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

Peru hostages released. Leftist rebels released the 71 workers seized from a pipeline construction camp high in the Andes Mountains. Soldiers are searching for the guerrillas in the jungle, 250 miles southeast of the capital, Lima. Peru's president blames the kidnapping on what he said were remnants of the Shiny Path guerrilla movement.

British Sex Crisis. Lawmakers warn of a sexual health crisis with cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and other infections soaring. A parliamentary committee also reports there are more HIV cases than ever before in the country, and teenage pregnancy rates are the highest in Europe.

Cuban pop star defects. Carlos Manuel of the band Carlos Manuel and his Clan has been granted asylum in the United States after walking across the border from Mexico to Brownsville, Texas. Manuel says he defected to find personal and artistic freedom.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

The incredible story of Anne Frank's remarkable effort to survive the nightmare years of Nazi Germany is well known and has inspired people the world over. Now there's a new exhibit, a firsthand documents of her life up until her death in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): How did you react to adversity when you were a teenager? When she was just 13, Anne Frank's world became a nightmare. That's when she began turning out some of the most inspiring writing the world has ever seen.

BERND "BUDDY" ELIAS, ANNE FRANK'S COUSIN: A child that has to hide because she had a religion that some government regard as they called the Jews, underhuman, is a terrible thing and Anne wrote about it.

BLITZER: For decades, millions of us believed that Anne Frank wrote one diary. Then last fall, officials from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington were given access to a vault in Amsterdam.

What they saw was dizzying. Three notebooks, hundreds of loose leaf pages from other diaries, a photo album, closely held for years by the family and the Dutch government. Reflections of a missed adolescence. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Cycling, dancing, whistling, looking out at the world, feeling young, to know that I am free. That's what I long for.

BLITZER: Some of this material is now on display for the first time.

SARA BLOOMFIELD, DIR., U.S. HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL: I hope people look at Anne the way I think Anne wanted people to see her. And that is as a writer.

BLITZER: But still a child, hiding with her family in an attic in Amsterdam, the Nazis closing in.

ELIAS: All of a sudden, this talent exploded. But in hiding two years, hiding in a back room without school, without girlfriends, without somebody to talk to. She made her diary her friend.

BLITZER: Buddy Elias, Anne Frank's first cousin, her closest living relative, the guardian of her legacy.

ELIAS: She was a real little wild girl and I was a little wild boy and we fit very well together.

BLITZER: The last time he saw her she was 9. He was 13. Both of their families escaped Germany. His family went to Switzerland. In Amsterdam, Anne Frank developed a stark awareness of how bleak her world had become.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness. I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us too. I can feel the sufferings of millions and, yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right -- that this cruelty, too, will end.

BLITZER: It didn't end in time for Anne Frank. That passage, written just before her family was betrayed, arrested in August 1944. Family records say they were sent to Auschwitz, where her mother died.

Fifteen-year-old Anne and her sister, Margo, separated from their father, sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. March, 1945, Anne and Margo died of typhoid, weeks before the British liberated the camp.

Only her father, Otto, survived. As he got the news of his daughters' deaths, he saw for the first time what his youngest had left behind.

ELIAS: Her father said, I didn't know my child until I read her diary. And that's the same feeling I had. I didn't know Anne that way.

BLITZER: A lost child's gift to her father, and to us.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: The exhibit is entitled "Anne Frank, the Writer: An Unfinished Story." it opens for the public tomorrow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum here in Washington. The first lady, Laura Bush, is touring the exhibit tonight. Tomorrow would have been Anne Frank's 74th birthday.

A young woman with an important cause, only 18 years old and now on top of the world. Miss Universe, Amelia Vega, joins me live to talk about that cause and more when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Earlier we asked: "Which country has won the most miss universe titles?" The answer: the United States. It's taken seven titles since 1952. Puerto Rico and Venezuela have each won four.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And the new Miss Universe plans to use her celebrity status to help the worldwide battle against AIDS. Amelia Vega is of the Dominican Republic. She captured the crown just a week ago. She's joining us now live from New York.

Amelia, congratulations to you. Good to have you on our program.

AMELIA VEGA, MISS UNIVERSE: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Tell us a little bit about this -- tell us about mission that you now have to deal with AIDS.

VEGA: OK. I'm going now, like, to 20 countries around the world, like, May conference and talking about HIV and AIDS awareness now, and with being part of the Global Health Council.

BLITZER: This is a serious problem, not only around the world, but in the Dominican Republic as well. Is that right?

VEGA: Yes. But there is news -- good news.

And I remember when I went to Panama, I read something in newspapers. They thought that this year it gets down, the percent, like 4 -- 4 percent low than other years.

BLITZER: You're only 18-years-old. You're so beautiful.

VEGA: Yes.

BLITZER: You're poised. Why have you decided to take on this mission? You didn't really have to do it.

VEGA: Why?

BLITZER: You didn't have to. You're 18. You're beautiful. You're poised. But you're take on this important mission to deal with the problem of AIDS. Why?

VEGA: No, you know, I think that when you get through the pageants like me -- well, in my case, I really love my world -- my work. It's not just something like beauty or take care of how you look. You have a mission. You have something to do. They're people that needs people that care about the things that they're happened to them.

So now they're kids they have AIDS, woman that have AIDS and that need people that tell them how to take care of AIDS too. So this is part of my work that I really like, and I'm so glad to Miss Universe organization give me the honor to be part of them to work with HIV and AIDS.

BLITZER: Amelia -- what -- very briefly, what's it like to be Miss Universe?

VEGA: What it's like? Well, I'm so glad now because I'm the first Dominican that have got the title. And, you know, the support of my people have -- are giving me, it's so much. So I feel the -- it's not like a compromiso to be and represent well my country with honor.

BLITZER: Well, you're doing a beautiful job.

VEGA: Thank you.

BLITZER: Only one week with the title. Congratulations. Please come visit us often and good luck.

VEGA: Of course. Thank you, Wolf. It was a pleasure.

BLITZER: Thank you. Amelia Vega, a beautiful Miss Universe indeed.

And our hot "Web Question of the Day" is this: "Should U.S. troops be sent to the West Bank and Gaza to keep the peace?" You can still vote. We'll have the results immediately when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in on our "Web Question of the Day." The question: "Should U.S. troops be sent to the West Bank and Gaza to keep the peace?" Look at this: 19 percent of you say yes, but 81 percent, not surprisingly, say no. Remember, this is not a scientific poll.

Standing by with his scientific polls, Lou Dobbs. He's in New York. He's picking up our coverage -- Lou.

LOU DOBBS, HOST, "LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE": Wolf, thank you very much. Indeed, they are scientific.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

Peace>

Aired June 11, 2003 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Shattered hopes for peace, a devastating bus bombing in Jerusalem.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I went a little -- drive further I saw the bus blown up, smoke coming out. It smelled. I saw a black (UNINTELLIGIBLE). There were pieces of body parts all over the place.

BLITZER: And more missile strikes in Gaza. Is it time to fold up the road map.

COLLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: This is a time for us to remain steadfast.

BLITZER: Where are Iraq's weapons?

Lawmakers take their concerns behind closed doors.

But the chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix goes public, blasting the Bush administration.

Monkeypox, an exotic disease, an alarming outbreaks.

Are you at risk?

I'll ask an expert.

And the young girl who revealed her soul while hiding from the Nazis. Now a stunning exhibit shows there is much more to Anne Frank's story.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: CNN live this hour, WOLF BLITZER REPORTS live from the nation's capital, with correspondents from around the world. WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts now.

BLITZER: It's Wednesday, June 11, 2003. Hello from Washington. I am Wolf Blitzer reporting.

A devastating and deadly setback today for the road map, President Bush's backing for peace in the Middle East. In the latest of a series of an eye for an eye attack a Palestinian suicide bombing killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens other in one of Jerusalem's most heavily policed areas. Only less than an hour later an Israeli air strike targeted Hamas militants, killed seven people and wounded 30 in Gaza. The attacks triggered chaos. Ambulances rushed the wounded to hospitals, in both Jerusalem and Gaza. We have two live reports.

Our Jerusalem bureau chief Mike Hanna standing by with the latest on the attacks and our White House correspondent Chris Burns has reaction from President Bush. First, a day of death in the streets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): A witness across the streets said he saw a plume of smoke, people flying through the air and then silence. Then screaming. The suicide bombing aboard a Jerusalem bus detonated by what they say was a Palestinian dressed as an Orthodox Jew. In addition to the dead, Israeli hospital officials say dozens were injured.

Within minutes, Israeli helicopter gunships attacked three targets in Gaza and operation Israeli military sources insist was planned before the Jerusalem bombing. Four missiles were fired into one car. Two members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas were killed. Palestinian hospital sources say civilians were also among the dead, dozens wounded. The military wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for the Jerusalem bombing.

ISMAIL ABU SHANAB, HAMAS: I think if the Israeli continue killing Palestinian civilians, the Palestinians have no other choice except to continue their resistance.

BLITZER: Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack and called for an end to all violence. Israel was also quick to condemn the bombing.

RA'ANAN GISSIN, SHARON SPOKESMAN: What we are talking about is deliberated, premeditated campaign at murdering innocent Israelis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: These latest attacks come just a week after President Bush's trip to the region for a peace summit with the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Palestine Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Do their meetings have any meaning now?

Joining us, Mike Hanna.

Let's ask Mike Hanna directly what's happening right now in Gaza -- Mike.

If you can hear me, tell us what's happening right now in Gaza.

We're clearly having some audio problems with Mike Hanna. We're going to go back to Jerusalem in a minute.

But Chris Burns our White House correspondent hopefully is standing by at the White House to tell bus the president's reaction to these disturbing developments today -- Chris.

CHRIS BURNS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Wolf. This was a day after the Israeli targeted attack on Palestinian militants, during -- after which the president here said that he was troubled about that attack. Today the president stepping back and giving diplomacy a chance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BURNS (voice-over): A day after diplomatically riding herd on Israel, President Bush faces yet more Mideast turmoil. He lashes out at Palestinian militants he says are intent on scuttling the road map to peace.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is clear there are people in the Middle East who hate peace.

BURNS: The president appears to hold out hope the new Palestinian Prime minister Mahmoud Abbas can forge a truce among the militants. Though there is growing frustration in the Bush administration with Abbas' current inability to do so. This as Ariel Sharon seeks to neutralize the militants by force.

MARTIN INDYK, THE SABAN CENTER FOR MIDDLE EAST POLICY: It is not dead yet, but it is in a coma, and it's essentially on life support until and unless the president can find a way to get Prime Minister Abbas to act to stop the terrorism and in the process to get Prime Minister Sharon to hold back.

BURNS: Instead of direct public pressure on either side, the president calls on the world the Arab world, the help shut down the militant sources of support.

BUSH: I strongly urge all of you to fight off terror, to cut off money to organizations such as Hamas, to isolate those who hate so much that they are willing to kill to stop peace from going forward.

BURNS: But for a second day, the president avoids reporters' questions.

QUESTION: Would Israel be justified going after Hamas sir.

BURNS: Little more overt action beyond reports of feverish phone contacts with the Middle East and plans for the U.S. promised troubleshooting team to arrive the region in the coming days.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNS: Although the president has committed himself to going to distance in the coming days, it appears that he's trying to give the behind the scenes diplomacy a chance and hoping for a period of calm -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Chris Burns at the White House, thanks very much. Let's go back to Jerusalem right now. Our Jerusalem chief Mike Hanna is standing by. He's following up-to-the-minute developments. I understand there are developments unfolding right now Mike, in Gaza.

MIKE HANNA, JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, indeed, Wolf. Reports we are receiving from Gaza say there's much air activity. Israeli helicopters are flying overhead Gaza City. We are told they are dropping flairs. There has not been an attack as yet but residents fearing an imminent Israeli attack, bearing in mind there has been Israeli air attacks in Gaza in the course of the afternoon. So, that's developing at the moment.

BLITZER: Have the Israelis taken any additional steps to close off the borders, to increase security in the aftermath of this bus bombing not far from where you are right now?

HANNA: Well, there has been intense security put in place in the wake of that failed assassination attempt in Gaza Tuesday, after which Hamas militants in particular had threatened to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians. Now there has always been a high state of alert in place. However, this was tightened even further in the wake of that failed attempt in Gaza. Nonetheless, the suicide bomber managed to slip through the cordon. The area that bombing took place is probably one of the most tightly guarded place in Israel.

It's two square miles in which there had been a number of suicide attacks in the past. Certainly it is one area that the police have tried to keep as tightly closed as possible. But the bomber managed to get through. Perhaps because his disguise. We are told by police he was disguised as a religious Jew, of which there are many in that particular neighborhood. And perhaps that's how he managed to sneak through the police patrols and border patrol into the very middle of downtown Jerusalem and detonate that bomb -- Wolf.

BLITZER: What an awful situation. CNN's Jerusalem Bureau chief, Mike Hanna, thanks for much for that report.

The chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee is proposing a bold and potentially high-risk plan to bring peace to the Middle East. Earlier today I spoke with Republican Senator John Warner about his suggestion of sending a NATO force, possibly including U.S. troops, to the West Bank and Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. JOHN WARNER (R-VA), CHAIRMAN ARMED SERVICE COMMITTEE: We should have both the governments of Israel and Palestine invite NATO to come in temporarily, and provide such security and visibility to the infrastructure of those who send these hopeless bombers into this thing that we mean business.

BLITZER: Do you really want U.S. Soldiers and marines to be sent into the West Bank and Gaza where they clearly could be the target of suicide bombers themselves?

WARNER: It would not be a risk-free mission, but, mind you, the NATO forces would be composed of a number of countries, probably some of our Americans would be a part, a relatively small part of the total equation. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And here's your turn to weigh in on this important story. Our web question of the day is this, "Should U.S. troops be sent to the West Bank and Gaza to keep the peace?" We'll have the results later in this broadcast. You can vote right now. Go to cnn.com/wolf.

While your there, I'd love to hear from you. Send me your comments. I'll try to read some of them on the air each day at the end of the program. That's also, of course, where you can read my daily online column, cnn.com/wolf.

U.S. troops in Iraq have not turned up weapons of mass destruction, which the Bush administration cited as a key reason for going to war. U.S. lawmakers are now battling over the intelligence on Iraq's weapons and the way it was used.

Let's go live to our national security correspondent, David Ensor -- David.

DAVID ENSOR, NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, under pressure from all the talk of cooked intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, terror ties, Republican leaders called a news conference to say they are looking into the matter. They will hold closed hearings next week. But they reject Democratic party calls for a full, formal investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R-KS), INTELLIGENCE CHMN: In my view, some of the attacks have been simply politics, and for political gain.

WARNER: The evidence that I have examined does not rise to give the presumption that anyone in this administration has hyped or crooked or embellished such evidence to a particular purpose.

ENSOR (voice-over): Leading Democrats, angered at not being invited to the news conference, said a review is not good enough.

SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-WV), INTELLIGENCE CHMN.: I'm not satisfied with the way we're proceeding. In fact, we're not proceeding.

ENSOR: Rockefeller said Congress should formally investigate whether intelligence was manipulated to make the case for war.

ROCKEFELLER: We need to have public hearings, and we need to be able to call witnesses. Witnesses who don't agree who work with what the intelligence agencies don't agree. Witnesses who have said, well, we were pressured, and they have said it.

ENSOR: For their part, bush administration officials say they are focused on finding Iraq's hidden weapons.

POWELL: More experts are going in, and I think one should be careful about making judgments as to whether it was hyped or not hyped until the exploitation is finish.

ENSOR: Republicans Warner and Roberts are in no hurry to hold open hearing, but warner says they probably will do so eventually. But Democrats questioning the president's primary case for war the stakes could be high indeed as we head into next year's presidential election -- Wolf.

BLITZER: David Ensor, our national security correspondent. Thanks, David, very much.

The U.N.'s chief weapons inspector is no longer necessarily on the weapons hunt. Dr. Hans Blix is retiring this month and the Swedish diplomat is not very diplomatic when it comes to his view of some U.S. Officials. Here's CNN senior United Nations correspondent, Richard Roth.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANS BLIX, UNITED NATIONS CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR: And then we have the presidential sites.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Satellite photographs on his office wall are the only way Hans Blix can see Iraq these days. The chief weapons inspector and his international searchers are shut out of Iraq by the U.S. But in his final days on the job Blix is speaking out more, angry over how he feels he was treated by some in the U.S. government.

In an interview in "The Guardian" newspaper, Blix said, "I have my detractors in Washington. There are bastards who spread things around, of course, who planted nasty things in the media, not that I cared very much."

BLIX: I said it vexes me and I have what I regard as totally unjustified accusations, but I don't lose sleep over it.

ROTH: You used the word beginning with "b."

BLIX: Yes. Well, I wasn't sure that would be printed. I don't think that will be printed in America.

ROTH: Do you think they were, to use the word printed bastards.

BLIX: Well, I certainly had a low opinion about these detractors, but it's really, not worth much time.

ROTH: Blix, in print said some elements in the Pentagon were behind a smear campaign against him.

BLIX: Clearly, when a former Swedish deputy prime minister writes, in the "Washington Times" or the "Wall Street Journal," and I haven't met the guy since the '70s and evidently some of the information must have compromised the sources in the U.S. There was something wrong.

POWELL: There's no smear campaign I'm aware of. I have high regard for Dr. Blix. I worked very closely with Dr. Blix over the last eight or nine months. I know the president had confidence in him as well, and what we're doing now is looking forwards, not looking backwards.

ROTH: Secretary Powell's briefing to the Security Council has yet to bear fruit on the ground. Blix said he received little intelligence during his time in Iraq that in his time in Iraq, his team could ever confirm. And the former Swedish foreign minister had this warning for the future.

BLIX: I think one has to be cautious in making use of the armed force on flimsy or shaky grounds.

ROTH (on camera): Hans Blix may have even more to say. He's expected to write a book. Secretary General Annan defended him saying, we haven't heard the last of him.

Richard Roth, CNN, United Nations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: They are driving some seniors into poverty. Prescription drug costs that is.

Is there any pain relief in sight for you?

Find out what a new Medicare plan could mean for your pocketbook.

Serial rapists in Miami targeting children.

Do you know this man?

Police are asking the police for help.

And Miss Universe 2003, she's only 18 years old, but on top of the world. Amelia Vega, will join me live.

First, today's news quiz.

Which country has won the most Miss Universe titles?

The United States, Brazil, Thailand, Venezuela.

The answer coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A potentially deadly virus in the United States now pops up further east. Could the smallpox vaccine stop its spread? The nation's top man on infectious diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci. He's ready to share what he knows.

What's at risk, what needs to be done?

That's coming up on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

Now to a story that literally affects 10s of millions of retired of Americans, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 10s of millions of others who are about to retire. It could impact you, your parents, and your grandparents. Namely this, the high cost of prescription drugs.

Louise Schiavone is joining us live for what may finally, finally be some relief -- Louise.

LOUISE SCHIAVONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For the first time since its inception 40 years ago Medicare may be poised to cover the cost of prescription drugs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHIAVONE (voice-over): Costs of medicines to seniors is a huge domestic issue that President Bush wants to act on before next year's elections. The president is taking his Medicare reform campaign on the road, starting in Chicago.

BUSH: America's seniors deserve a modern system of health care.

(APPLAUSE)

BUSH: Instead of a bureaucracy that covers the latest medical treatments slowly and sporadically.

SCHIAVONE: With 40 million recipients and ringing up at roughly $27 billion a year, Medicare covers hospitalization and doctors' visits. That's bound to explode when today's baby boomers start reaching age 65 between the years 2008 and 2030. For many seniors, the missing link in Medicare is prescription drug coverage. Congress is now talking about spending another $50 billion a year to include it. Nothing is final yet, but House and Senate leaders are crafting somewhat different plans to help seniors pay their drug bills.

Both bills envision a $35 a month premium. Under the Senate bill a Medicare recipient would pay a $275 deductible. After that, they would be responsible for half the bill, up to $3450. But above that, there is a gap, up to $5,300, where seniors will have to foot the whole bill. Above $5,300, the Senate would have seniors paying only 10 percent of the cost. The House leadership plan follows a similar track, but with different payment brackets.

The deductible is $250. Between $250 and $2,250, seniors would pay 20 percent for their medicines. There's a gap in this plan, too, from 2,250 to $3,700, seniors pick up the entire check. But after that, Uncle Sam would cover the entire cost, unless the senior makes more than $60,000. It's not clear yet how much wealthier recipients would have to pay. Seniors advocates and many Democrats are not sold.

BARBARA KENNELLY, NATL. COMTE. TO PRESERVE SOCIAL SECURITY & MEDICARE: We are concerned about many things. One is the gap, a huge gap in coverage during which seniors have to pay 100 percent of drug costs. And this really concerns seniors.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHIAVONE: Bipartisan consent, this is closest in the Senate where a liberal Massachusetts Democrat, Ted Kennedy, says he's encouraged by the proposal and top Democrat Tom Daschle has already predicted it will pass. The president wants to see the bill on his desk by the 4th of July.

BLITZER: Louise Schiavone, thanks very much. We'll see if that happens.

Let's turn to the first outbreak of monkeypox in the western hemisphere and the government's aggressive move to try to stop it from spreading in this country. The disease produces puss-filled blisters, fever rash and aches. Today the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that smallpox shots for those exposed to the African disease that's jumped from prairie dogs to humans, potentially be used. U.S. officials are investigating 50 cases of monkeypox in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and New Jersey. The government also banned the sale of prairie dogs and the importation of African rodents.

Here to talk to me about this disease, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infections Disease.

Dr. Fauci, thanks very much.

This sounds like a very serious problem. How serious is it?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATL. INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: It's not serious in the sense of spreading from person to person because it does not do that essentially. But it's serious that this disease can be quite serious. It's a close relative of smallpox. It doesn't have as high as a mortality. The mortality ranges between 1 and 10 percent as opposed to 30 percent to smallpox.

But the difficulty is, animals that get infected if they have the pusstules and the illness, they can spread it easily to humans. So that's how all of this start. And the rat that was infected probably spread it to a large number of prairie dogs that were sold as exotic pets, and the individuals who had direct contact with those rodents have gotten infected. It's something we have to take very seriously.

BLITZER: Most of us have heard of smallpox and chickenpox. Monkeypox, I thought that someone was pulling a joke on us.

FAUCI: It's not a joke. It was first recognized in monkeys in the early '50s, 1958 the first case in humans was in 1970. It's a very close relative. It's what we call an orthropox virus. And many of the signs and symptoms the rash and headache and back ache and cough and et cetera are very closely related to smallpox.

BLITZER: What your doing to make sure this doesn't spread and can be reversed, in fact. FAUCI: The CDC has as what they do very well, they have jumped on top of this quickly. And what they are doing right now, and Secretary Thompson himself just announced the ban on the importation and the CDC can enforce that ban, of rodents from Africa. And the ban on the selling distribution and moving around of prairie dogs and other rodents within the United States. So, once you put the lid on animals that are either infected or could be infected, that's the best way to put the end to this epidemic.

BLITZER: And the smallpox vaccine will work to deal with this?

FAUCI: Clearly, historically, people who are vaccinated for smallpox in Africa, were people who were relatively protected from monkeypox. The reason why monkeypox has not been up to this time, a serious problem in spreading from person to person and also from animals to humans. But, now we have less immunity to smallpox in the world. Something like monkeypox, which had been contain previously because of the general smallpox vaccination is something you have to pay attention to.

BLITZER: Dr. Anthony Fauci, arguably one of the busiest men in Washington. You have got a lot issues on your agenda. Thanks so much taking a few moments explaining this important issue to us. Thank you very much.

As we reported, monkeypox in the United States has been traced to an exotic rat from Africa. Now the government is taking efforts to stop more sick rodents from infecting the country. Today the Department of Health and Human Services, banned importing all rodents from Africa, and within the United States, restrictions are in place on prairie dogs and six species of rodents.

A vicious sexual predator is on the loose right now in Miami. Police are in hot pursuit of what they describe as a serial rapist that is targeting children. We're there live. We'll go there in a few minutes.

And cell phones triggering explosives. The FBI is issuing a new warning on possible terror tactics.

Sammy Sosa gets a break. His penalty cut after getting caught red-handed with cork in his bat. Find out the final verdict. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

We're following a developing story right now. Could be a parent's worst nightmare. A serial rapist preying on young girls. That's what happening right now in Miami. Now there's word that some women also have been attacked by the suspect. Let's go to Miami.

CNN's Susan Candiotti is standing by to fill us in -- Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Wolf.

Police started making the connection after three little girls were attacked been the last few weeks. Then they found a probable link to the rape of a 79-year-old woman who was assaulted last month. Then police made three definite DNA matches to two more women who were attacked between last September and December. Miami police then started putting out composite sketches made from descriptions from the last three victims, three little girls, ages 11, 12 and 13, all of them attacked after school. In the last case the attacker was waiting for her inside her home. All of the victims, including women from the very same neighborhood. Police have formed a task force and are trying to avoid a panic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANK FERNANDEZ, DEPUTY CHIEF MIAMI POLICE: This serial rapist is not only targeting our children, but also our women of all ages. The sixth case is a 79-year-old female. We have extended a warning to all parents to be watchful over their kids. However, we are now expanding that to the general public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Parents in particular are concerned, more than usual, taking their children to school this day, the last day before school is out for the summer. In fact, now as you heard police say, they want everyone, all women to be on guard, and they are looking for more possible matches among unsolved cases.

So, Wolf, there could be even more cases linked to this serial rapist.

BLITZER: Susan Candiotti, thanks very much for that alarming report. We'll stay on top of it. Appreciate it.

The war may have been easy, but what about the peace? We'll go live to Baghdad and talk to a Congressman who has been there.

Plus, cell phone terror attack. The FBI issues a warning on explosives.

And Miss Universe 2003, Amelia Vega will be my special guest. She's got a special mission she wants to tell you all about.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(INTERRUPTED BY CNN COVERAGE OF BREAKING NEWS)

BLITZER: There are other important developments unfolding right now.

Indeed, it seems every day there are attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq with steadily mounting casualties. Iraq's infrastructure and economy don't seem to be improving all that dramatically, at least on the surface.Are things really so bad? Are there success stories in Iraq? In just a moment we'll hear from a top U.S. lawmaker who says there is indeed good news coming from Iraq. But let's go first to CNN's Matthew Chance. He's in Baghdad -- to see where things stand right now. Matthew, update us.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Wolf.

And it has been just over two months since U.S. forces entered the Iraqi capital. Without question the tyranny of Saddam Hussein's regime has been lifted from the people here. They now have the freedom to express their own opinions, even air their grievances in a way that none of them could really imagine ever doing under Saddam.

Having said that though, no one really likes the idea of being under occupation. As we've been witnessing, particularly over the past couple of weeks, that there have been attacks on U.S. patrols across the country. Soldiers have been killed and injured in what U.S. military says appear to be attacks that have been organized, at least, and coordinated at least on a local level.

Saddam loyalists, of course, have been held responsible for carrying out those attacks. But I think it's important to remember, as well, the other factors that contribute, if not for the attacks themselves, then at least to kind of the atmosphere of resentment that exists amongst the -- in the community at large here. People are very concerned about a number of issues, about the political future, about what role their religion or political faction might play in the future Iraq, but also more simple issues as well, like electricity and clean drinking water.

Iraq's infrastructure was very badly damaged during the conflict, damaged as well by the chaotic aftermath And although things are getting done now to try to get the essential services restored to many areas, many ordinary Iraqis believe enough was not done soon enough, Wolf.

BLITZER: Matthew chance with an update for us from Baghdad. Matthew, thank you very much.

And joining me from Capitol Hill is the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Congressman Duncan Hunter. He recently returned from a trip to Iraq, suggesting that the country is getting off to a good start.

Congressman, thanks very much for joining us. Are we getting the accurate picture from the news media, from our reporting, other news organizations? What did you see there?

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R-CA), CHAIRMAN, ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Well, Wolf, of course it depends on where you're at. If you're in Baghdad you're going to get a different story than if you are in Karbala, where they had a good story today from "The Washington Post," no less, about how American forces are welcomed and when we went to Kirkuk, which is north of Baghdad near the Iranian border, we actually had people come out of their houses and cheer when the American troops came by.

What we've got to do is get the wheels turning. We have to turn on the electricity, turn on the water. And in the old days, Saddam Hussein would pull electricity out of the other communities and bring it into Baghdad. Now that those communities no longer have a Saddam Hussein to fear, they're less -- they're inclined to want to send their electricity to the big city. So we've got about 3,000 megawatts turned on right now. We've got to get to about 4,400 megawatts. We are right now repairing the major lines and we're going to be up to 44,00 megawatts in a month or two.

With respect to water, we've got about 50 percent of the drinking water turned on that we need to have. We need good, potable water to avoid a cholera epidemic this summer.

So there's lots of things we need to do. But let me tell you, Wolf, the G.I.s are doing this. These great division commanders and battalion commanders are treating water, they're putting together police operations where people go out, the police go out. They actually patrol. They don't take pay-offs. We're training them. We've got about 500 on the streets now in Baghdad. So we;'re starting the wheels to turn.

And, you know, people are complaining. But, Wolf, if there was not a single American soldier in that country, these people who haven't been allowed to complain for 30 years and speak their mind, would be out speaking their mind to somebody.

BLITZER: That's a fair point. Matthew Chance just made it. They're allowed to complain, which is something they never could do under Saddam Hussein.

But a lot of Americans, as you well know, are getting very concerned. It seems to be that the U.S. soldiers and Marines and soldiers on an average of one a day are dying. And the resistance, if you could call it that, the Iraqis are going after them, seem to be getting better organized. How concerned should the American public be that these U.S. troops are being targeted?

HUNTER: Well, of course, Wolf, we've got 160,000 G.I.s in that country. Believe me, their commanders have got them on high alert. They're looking for people who are coming to attack them, and these people in ones and twos and threes coming by to throw an RPG here or let off an AK burst there have been coming after the G.I.s

But I just want to remind you that, you know, we lost 20 people killed in this city I'm in right now, Washington, D.C. in the last 30 days. Nobody suggested that we abandon Washington, D.C. So we're not going to be able to absolutely close down the guy with an AK or the two or three people with a rocket-propelled grenade. You're always going to have those elements. You've got those Ba'ath Party members who are still coming back and hitting American forces. We've had eight people killed in 14 days.

It's still dangerous. It's a little bit like the days in El Salvador when we put that fragile democracy in place, which now is staying and enduring without American troops.

BLITZER: Clearly. HUNTER: You have to have that umbrella, that protective umbrella to put the government in place and get the wheels turning.

BLITZER: Clearly you seem some light at the end of the tunnel.

We only have a few seconds, Congressman, but I want you to react to what your counterpart in the Senate, Senator John Warner, told me earlier today -- that he's open to sending NATO troops, including U.S. troops into the West Bank and Gaza potentially to try to bring some sort of semblance of peace. Is that a good idea for American forces?

HUNTER: You know, I think what we've got to do, in that part of the world, Wolf, is we've got one president. I think American foreign policy has to go with one voice. I'm not on the ground out there, and I think we've got to follow the president's lead very, very strongly.

We're all secretaries of state. Let's let President Bush lead us on that one. That's the toughest one out there.

BLITZER: Congressman Duncan Hunter, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, thanks for spending a few minutes with us.

HUNTER: Good to be with you.

BLITZER: Thank you.

Let's take a quick look at some other headlines making news this hour.

(NEWSBREAK)

BLITZER: Little known writings from the best known victim of the Holocaust. Images and words from Anne Frank that you haven't -- any of us have seen before. That's just ahead.

Plus, beauty, brains, and a conscience. Miss Universe, Amelia Vega, is joining us live. She'll talk about her new cause.

First, a look at some other news making headlines "Around the World."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Iranians demand changes. Thousands of Iranians, including hundreds of university students, took to the streets of the capital, Tehran, in the biggest anti-government protest in months. Police swinging batons broke up the demonstration. A student news agency reported dozens of people were arrested.

Violence in France. Strikes continue but are less violent in Paris today, one day after thousands of protesters clashed with riot police. For weeks now, massive demonstrations by striking workers irate over government pension reform plans, have disrupted air, train and bus travel throughout the country.

Shocking abuse case. A secret home video captures a nanny in Mexico hitting a one-and-a-half-year-old on the back and slapping him in the face. The nanny is charged with assault and battery and faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

Peru hostages released. Leftist rebels released the 71 workers seized from a pipeline construction camp high in the Andes Mountains. Soldiers are searching for the guerrillas in the jungle, 250 miles southeast of the capital, Lima. Peru's president blames the kidnapping on what he said were remnants of the Shiny Path guerrilla movement.

British Sex Crisis. Lawmakers warn of a sexual health crisis with cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and other infections soaring. A parliamentary committee also reports there are more HIV cases than ever before in the country, and teenage pregnancy rates are the highest in Europe.

Cuban pop star defects. Carlos Manuel of the band Carlos Manuel and his Clan has been granted asylum in the United States after walking across the border from Mexico to Brownsville, Texas. Manuel says he defected to find personal and artistic freedom.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

The incredible story of Anne Frank's remarkable effort to survive the nightmare years of Nazi Germany is well known and has inspired people the world over. Now there's a new exhibit, a firsthand documents of her life up until her death in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): How did you react to adversity when you were a teenager? When she was just 13, Anne Frank's world became a nightmare. That's when she began turning out some of the most inspiring writing the world has ever seen.

BERND "BUDDY" ELIAS, ANNE FRANK'S COUSIN: A child that has to hide because she had a religion that some government regard as they called the Jews, underhuman, is a terrible thing and Anne wrote about it.

BLITZER: For decades, millions of us believed that Anne Frank wrote one diary. Then last fall, officials from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington were given access to a vault in Amsterdam.

What they saw was dizzying. Three notebooks, hundreds of loose leaf pages from other diaries, a photo album, closely held for years by the family and the Dutch government. Reflections of a missed adolescence. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Cycling, dancing, whistling, looking out at the world, feeling young, to know that I am free. That's what I long for.

BLITZER: Some of this material is now on display for the first time.

SARA BLOOMFIELD, DIR., U.S. HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL: I hope people look at Anne the way I think Anne wanted people to see her. And that is as a writer.

BLITZER: But still a child, hiding with her family in an attic in Amsterdam, the Nazis closing in.

ELIAS: All of a sudden, this talent exploded. But in hiding two years, hiding in a back room without school, without girlfriends, without somebody to talk to. She made her diary her friend.

BLITZER: Buddy Elias, Anne Frank's first cousin, her closest living relative, the guardian of her legacy.

ELIAS: She was a real little wild girl and I was a little wild boy and we fit very well together.

BLITZER: The last time he saw her she was 9. He was 13. Both of their families escaped Germany. His family went to Switzerland. In Amsterdam, Anne Frank developed a stark awareness of how bleak her world had become.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness. I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us too. I can feel the sufferings of millions and, yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right -- that this cruelty, too, will end.

BLITZER: It didn't end in time for Anne Frank. That passage, written just before her family was betrayed, arrested in August 1944. Family records say they were sent to Auschwitz, where her mother died.

Fifteen-year-old Anne and her sister, Margo, separated from their father, sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. March, 1945, Anne and Margo died of typhoid, weeks before the British liberated the camp.

Only her father, Otto, survived. As he got the news of his daughters' deaths, he saw for the first time what his youngest had left behind.

ELIAS: Her father said, I didn't know my child until I read her diary. And that's the same feeling I had. I didn't know Anne that way.

BLITZER: A lost child's gift to her father, and to us.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: The exhibit is entitled "Anne Frank, the Writer: An Unfinished Story." it opens for the public tomorrow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum here in Washington. The first lady, Laura Bush, is touring the exhibit tonight. Tomorrow would have been Anne Frank's 74th birthday.

A young woman with an important cause, only 18 years old and now on top of the world. Miss Universe, Amelia Vega, joins me live to talk about that cause and more when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Earlier we asked: "Which country has won the most miss universe titles?" The answer: the United States. It's taken seven titles since 1952. Puerto Rico and Venezuela have each won four.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And the new Miss Universe plans to use her celebrity status to help the worldwide battle against AIDS. Amelia Vega is of the Dominican Republic. She captured the crown just a week ago. She's joining us now live from New York.

Amelia, congratulations to you. Good to have you on our program.

AMELIA VEGA, MISS UNIVERSE: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Tell us a little bit about this -- tell us about mission that you now have to deal with AIDS.

VEGA: OK. I'm going now, like, to 20 countries around the world, like, May conference and talking about HIV and AIDS awareness now, and with being part of the Global Health Council.

BLITZER: This is a serious problem, not only around the world, but in the Dominican Republic as well. Is that right?

VEGA: Yes. But there is news -- good news.

And I remember when I went to Panama, I read something in newspapers. They thought that this year it gets down, the percent, like 4 -- 4 percent low than other years.

BLITZER: You're only 18-years-old. You're so beautiful.

VEGA: Yes.

BLITZER: You're poised. Why have you decided to take on this mission? You didn't really have to do it.

VEGA: Why?

BLITZER: You didn't have to. You're 18. You're beautiful. You're poised. But you're take on this important mission to deal with the problem of AIDS. Why?

VEGA: No, you know, I think that when you get through the pageants like me -- well, in my case, I really love my world -- my work. It's not just something like beauty or take care of how you look. You have a mission. You have something to do. They're people that needs people that care about the things that they're happened to them.

So now they're kids they have AIDS, woman that have AIDS and that need people that tell them how to take care of AIDS too. So this is part of my work that I really like, and I'm so glad to Miss Universe organization give me the honor to be part of them to work with HIV and AIDS.

BLITZER: Amelia -- what -- very briefly, what's it like to be Miss Universe?

VEGA: What it's like? Well, I'm so glad now because I'm the first Dominican that have got the title. And, you know, the support of my people have -- are giving me, it's so much. So I feel the -- it's not like a compromiso to be and represent well my country with honor.

BLITZER: Well, you're doing a beautiful job.

VEGA: Thank you.

BLITZER: Only one week with the title. Congratulations. Please come visit us often and good luck.

VEGA: Of course. Thank you, Wolf. It was a pleasure.

BLITZER: Thank you. Amelia Vega, a beautiful Miss Universe indeed.

And our hot "Web Question of the Day" is this: "Should U.S. troops be sent to the West Bank and Gaza to keep the peace?" You can still vote. We'll have the results immediately when we come back.

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BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in on our "Web Question of the Day." The question: "Should U.S. troops be sent to the West Bank and Gaza to keep the peace?" Look at this: 19 percent of you say yes, but 81 percent, not surprisingly, say no. Remember, this is not a scientific poll.

Standing by with his scientific polls, Lou Dobbs. He's in New York. He's picking up our coverage -- Lou.

LOU DOBBS, HOST, "LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE": Wolf, thank you very much. Indeed, they are scientific.

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