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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Loss of Two Legends; Hamas Warns of New Attacks; U.S. Forces Strike Back in Iraq

Aired June 12, 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.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST: WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Loss of two legends. One of America's greatest screen heroes ...

GREGORY PECK, ACTOR: He did something that, in our society, is unspeakable. She kissed a black man.

BLITZER: Gregory Peck could also plumb the depths of evil.

And once better known than the Beatles.

DAVID BRINKLEY, ABC NEWS: Good night, Sam.

SAM DONALDSON, ABC NEWS: Good night, David.

BLITZER: Pioneering TV journalist, David Brinkley.

An Israeli missile finds another militant leader. And more innocent civilians. While Hamas warns that a bloody bus bombing is just the beginning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your children and your women, your husbands, everybody is a target now.

BLITZER: It is far from over in Iraq. Tired of being targets, U.S. forces strike back. But the losses mount.

NASA's newest nightmare. A dangerous threat to the remaining space shuttles.

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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: It's Thursday, June 12, 2003. Hello from Washington. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting. The United States has lost two men who will forever be household names. One was an icon on the silver screen, the other a titan of television news. Gregory Peck and David Brinkley have died. We start with the legendary journalist. David Brinkley passed away last night at his home in Houston, of complications from a fall. He was 82 years old. Needless to say, he molded the medium you're watching in countless ways.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRINKLEY: Good night, Chet.

CHET HUNTLEY, ABC NEWS: Good night, David. And good night for NBC News.

BLITZER (voice-over): In the mid 1960s, even Walter Cronkite couldn't match Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. One survey claimed they had more name recognition then than the Beatles. But David Brinkley's run was extraordinary. Forty-one years at the forefront of the business that changed so much, so fast, that at times it seemed he was one of only a few who could put it in perspective.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SENIOR ANALYST: This guy knew how to speak to people in language they could understand, and that is a rare gift that no, you know, television coach or bunch of focus group executives can teach.

BLITZER: He grew up at a perfect time for his life's work. Raised in North Carolina with a passion for writing, he came to Washington during World War II. While with NBC in 1956, Brinkley and Chet Huntley began covering political conventions when they actually meant something.

BRINKLEY: I was a little staggered to see this convention start on time and so were the delegates, because they weren't here.

BLITZER: Through 14 years of the "Huntley-Brinkley Report," David Brinkley brought us history as he saw it. And we could always relate.

BRINKLEY: In about four hours we had gone from President Kennedy in Dallas alive to back in Washington dead, and a new president in his place. What has happened today has been just too much, too ugly and too fast.

BLITZER: It was that style. Never flowery, never trying to impress us with too many words that won us over.

BRINKLEY: Vladimir Lenin, who had brought communism to Russia, is pulled off his pedestal.

BLITZER: When his run at NBC ended, all that was left was for him to change the face of Sunday morning talk shows with ABC's "This Week".

BRINKLEY: First a little news since the Sunday morning papers ...

BLITZER: There were plenty of hard-hitting interviews. But we always seemed to look forward to his humor.

BRINKLEY: We'll be back with a few words about -- this is the truth. A few words about some people who watch this program stark naked.

BLITZER: Near the end of his network career, there was one remark that President Clinton was a bore, for which Brinkley later apologized. Then, in 1997, he said good-bye to all of us for the last time.

BRINKLEY: I quote Shakespeare who said, all is well that ends well. My time here now ends extremely well. Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And when it came to Brinkley's knack for good writing, a colleague at ABC News once said, and I am quoting now; "He can take a story, compress it into nine or 10 words and have greater clarity and punch than I would have when I write two paragraphs." Those are the words of Sam Donaldson.

Sam Donaldson joins us now, live to reflect on David Brinkley. He was an extraordinary journalist. What kind of person was he?

DONALDSON: Elegant gentlemen, calm, like some people I know. Not the bombastic. Didn't think you had to shout. Didn't think you had to be rude or mean. Could ask tough questions, but a gentleman, always. And I think one of his great draws was people liked to watch him because they liked him.

BLITZER: And what was he like to work with as a colleague? You worked with him on "This Week" for a long time.

DONALDSON: Well, when I went on "This Week" at the beginning, I don't know that David that was that happy. But, you know, I was not his style, perhaps. But, he never said a word, except to welcome me. And then after a few months, I think he got on to the fact that maybe I was okay, too.

And he was always a great friend. Always loyal to his people. That's another mark, I think, of a great leader, because he was a leader, Wolf. I mean, he was the impresario that ran things. George, Will, and I would sometimes fight back and forth on an issue, and when he had enough he'd say, all right, Sam, let's move on. He'd raise a hand and I knew to shut up at that point.

BLITZER: And you paid attention and you listened. Why did the American public trust David Brinkley so much?

DONALDSON: Brinkley had strong opinions. I know that some of them were, but he never let that show on the air. He was the journalist that we all talk about, who keeps his opinions out of his work. And I think people trusted him because they knew he understood that when he reported, he wanted to simply give people the facts and they would make up their own mind. They trusted him because they never caught him doing something shifty. They never caught him cutting corners, because he never did.

BLITZER: And he was a real journalist. In this day and age, though, where everybody wants attitude and edge and personality, would have David Brinkley have made it in today's news environment?

DONALDSON: I think so. He wouldn't make it by shouting or playing loose with the facts or being bombastic. He would make it as he made then with that style. Look, David was the perfect combination of substance and style. I mean, when you heard him talk like this, almost anything was interesting.

BLITZER: The amazing thing is, when he left NBC News and Roone Arlidge, the legendary president-leader of ABC News took him, the thought was, he was finished. This was sort of just a little gig for him after what he had done at NBC.

DONALDSON: Let me tell you. The man who's name I won't use, but everyone in the industry knows him, was then president of NBC News, and for some reason thought David Brinkley was washed up and not much account. David had been with NBC for 38 years. And Look at the things retrospectively he had done for NBC. In 1964, he and Chet Huntley had 87 percent of the audience at the Republican National Convention. The other two split it.

So he was ready when Dick Walt, his good friend, and Roone Arlidge, our late leader at ABC, called him and offered him the opportunity to do a program. And later, Goldenson, who was the founder of the American Broadcasting Company, then alive, said in his memoirs that he was against it. He thought Brinkley, at 61, was too old.

But he said, Roone, you're running the news department. If you want to hire him, go ahead. Then later then wrote in his memoirs, Roone was right, I was wrong. And David was with us and did his program with us longer than the "Huntley-Brinkley Report" was on air.

BLITZER: And the amazing thing is, that he took that, what was a half hour show, and he made it an hour show, and the format has become so popular, all of us, including my "LATE EDITION", we copy it basically.

DONALDSON: David did it. And people, Dorian Smith (ph), that was the producer that Roone put in charge around him. People did it. But he turned it into the television program instead of a press conference for print reporters on the air. He used bumpers. He used all that music. And we invited guests that were very interesting, and then we had our roundtable.

BLITZER: And the roundtable was a remarkable development.

DONALDSON: It was the first network roundtable in which we gave our opinions. Now everybody and his dog -- and the dog sometimes makes more sense than I do -- everybody and his dog gives an opinion on television. But we did it first.

BLITZER: Sam Donaldson, we will always be grateful to you for joining us today, and talking about David Brinkley, someone who has influenced all of us who work in television.

DONALDSON: Well, you are great yourself, and you are my pal.

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Sam.

And for more on David Brinkley is former colleague, Ted Koppel, will join our Aaron Brown tonight on "NEWS NIGHT". That is at 10:00 p.m. eastern, 7:00 Pacific.

Only hours after learning of David Brinkley's death, came word of a loss of a Hollywood legend. Actor Gregory Peck died overnight at the age of 87. Like Brinkley's impression on the small screen, Peck's influence on the big screen cannot be overstated. CNN's Bill Tush has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pleased to meet you (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

PECK: Pleased to meet you, Pearl.

BILL TUSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From his earliest films beginning in the 1940s, Gregory Peck quickly established himself as a star and one of Hollywood's leading leading men. Over five decades, and in films like "Dual in the Sun," "The Gunfighter," "12 O'clock High," and "The Omen," Peck took on a variety of roles. But he most often played characters of integrity and with a strong sense of social conscience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PECK: Inside of all the makeup and the characterization, it is you. And I think that is what the audience is really interested in -- you. How are you going to cope with the situation, with the obstacles and the troubles that the writers put in front of you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUSH: But it was his acting skill that earned Peck an Academy Award for best actor in 1962 for his performance in "To Kill A Mockingbird". He played an attorney trying to break through a wall of prejudice, defending a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PECK: A quiet, humble, respectable Negro who has the unmitigated (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to feel sorry for a white woman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PECK: I feel extremely lucky to have had a picture like that in my background, because it's not forgotten. It's played in the high schools and junior high schools, on the cassettes. They write papers about it. So it's a blessing. I'm very frank to say that I will always be grateful for having at least one like that along the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUSH: Among his many awards, Peck was a Kennedy Center honoree, and a recipient of the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award. Just before the AFI ceremony in 1989, Peck reluctantly talked about his contribution to the art of film.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PECK: I hope that my main contribution has been to entertain people over the years. To give them enjoyment, some pleasure, some excitement, some romance, something to think about, something to carry with them in the theater with them so that they think of me as an old friend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUSH: An old friend the world now mourns.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Gregory Peck, this note, just last week Peck's powerful performance in "To Kill A Mockingbird" was underscored once again. The American Film Institute said his Oscar winning performance of Atticus Finch is the greatest hero role in movie history.

More bloodshed in the Middle East as the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is being blown to pieces. And will President Bush personally intervene? We are live at the White House.

Plus, dangerous threat to the space shuttle program. Why scientists fear another potential accident.

And little boy lost. Why would a mother abandon her son. A mysterious phone call may -- may hold the clue. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: There have been no letup in the violence in the Middle East. An Israeli missile strike today killed a senior Hamas militant in Gaza. Six other Palestinians, including the man's wife and child also were killed. It was the third such air strike since yesterday's attack on a Jerusalem bus in which a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 17 people.

With the stepped up violence, there's stepped up rhetoric as well. Sources say that in today's Israeli cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon scoffed at the failure of Palestinian leaders to rein in the militants, calling them, and I am quoting now; "Cry babies who let terror run rampant." Sharon referred to the new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, as a chick without feathers, adding, and once again, I am quoting; "We have to help him fight terror until his feathers grow." Abbas had tried and failed so far to negotiate a cease-fire with the radical groups.

Hamas is warning foreigners to flee Israel, and a spokesman for the group today suggested Wednesday's bloody bus bombing in Jerusalem is only the beginning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For every Israeli, your children and your women, your husband, everybody is a target.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The Bush administration today shifted its stance a bit on the violence and also came down quite hard on Hamas once again. Let's go live to our White House correspondent, Dana Bash -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Bush officials today called on Arab leaders to come down very hard on Hamas, to condemn that organization for its efforts to derail the peace process. But here at the White House, they are saying they are still very much committed to the road map.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A lot of issues ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Two days after a rare rebuke of Israel for attempting to assassinate a Hamas leader, the White House is now placing the blame squarely on Hamas with the bloodshed that threatens the president's push for peace. The issue is Hamas.

The terrorists are Hamas, said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. Hamas is no friend to the Palestinian authority. Hamas is a threat to everything that Prime Minister Abbas and those people in the Palestinian Authority who seek to create a state stand for.

Despite scores of dead and wounded since leaders gathered last week to launch the road map for peace, Bush officials say Israel and the Palestinian Authority are still interested in working together, and so is the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: President Bush remains committed to the course set at Aqaba, because it is the only course that will bring a durable peace and lasting security. This president keeps his promises. He expects all the parties to keep theirs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Officials at the National Security Council and the State Department spent a third day burning up the phone lines. And although the president has not picked up the phone, the Bush administration answered demands from the region for more overt intervention.

Announcing Secretary of State Colin Powell will go to Jordan June 22 to meet with officials from Russia, EU and the U.N., who authored the road map. At her appearance at a town hall meeting in Los angels, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice dismissed a question about whether Mr. Bush, who pursues terrorists that threaten the U.S. is holding Israel to a double standard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICE: There is not going to be any pass for any Palestinian leadership on fighting terror. It is absolutely the case that this president and this United States government believe that terror, wherever it is found, wherever it is practiced, has got to be rooted out and destroyed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: But, Rice said, leaders must realize they are now on a different path, implying Israel, too, must consider the effects of their retaliation on the new peace process. New U.S. Envoy, John Wolfe, heads to the region to set up shop this weekend, and White House officials say his number one priority will be to help the Palestinians set up their security forces to start cracking down on the terrorists. Wolf?

Dana Bash, thanks so very much. Dana is over at the White House.

Fears of another space shuttle disaster. Find out why scientists are raising serious flags over at NASA.

Plus, a CNN exclusive. The mission to track down Iraq's most wanted. We'll take you along with U.S. troops.

And abandoned on the streets. What drove a mother to leave her little boy. The phone message that may explain her side of the story.

And 3 million dead in Congo. Why the world -- the world is turning a blind eye.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: There's a new and serious threat to America's space shuttle program. The discovery also play have a major impact on the international space station. CNN's Kathleen Koch is joining us now live with details. Kathleen, tell us what's going on.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, investigators are very concerned about bolts. There are four of them. They fasten these solid rocket boosters to the external fuel tank right here and here. And just after these boosters are separated, 126 seconds into the flight, they noticed -- investigators noticed on radar some piece of debris falling away from the shuttle. They think it could be one of these bolts.

They are very big bolts. When they separate, each part weighs about 40 pounds each. And these bolts, if they were to strike a shuttle, could cause catastrophic damage. Now, investigators today were very concerned about this finding, though they don't believe that one of these bolts actually hit the Columbia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADMIRAL HAL GEHMAN (RET), CHAIRMAN, COLUMBIA ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION BOARD: What we have here is a possibility that we have found another source of debris. We don't have any evidence that it was a source of debris, except that the radar tracking of the Columbia indicated at the time of SRV separation, 126 seconds, at a time when there's not supposed to be any debris, it noted a piece of debris.

MAJOR GENERAL JOHN BARRY, COLUMBIA ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION BOARD: Long story short is, you know, this thing can cause some serious impact damage, if in fact -- but there is no indication that this hit the orbiter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Now, investigators are primarily focusing, though, now on the foam that hit the shuttle. This happened just 81 seconds into the flight, Wolf, you will recall. And what they did today is they released some new pictures a special test that they did there.

You see it on Friday where they fired a chunk of foam that was roughly the same size as the one that hit the shuttle, fired it at a mock-up of the wing. They found that it caused some serious cracks. Today they released some still photos that showed the cracks were even worse than they had initially suspected, and there were more of them.

Well, Wolf, they are still stopping just short of saying that that was the definitive cause of the crash. But obviously, in looking for the cause, they may have prevented a future disaster.

BLITZER: But for the time being, no more space shuttle flights.

KOCH: Not for some time. At least, not for another year.

BLITZER: And that's going to cause problems for the international space station. They're going to rely just on the Russian Soyuz vessels to get up there.

KOCH: That will be the way to get up and back for now.

BLITZER: All right, Kathleen Koch. Thanks very much. We will continue to monitor this space story. Appreciate it.

American forces launch one of the biggest U.S. assaults since the war in Iraq began.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not taking any chances. We're not going to approach them lightly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The resistance continues and the casualties are mounting. Is Saddam Hussein behind all the trouble? We'll have an exclusive report.

Plus -- little boy lost. A mother explains why she abandoned her son on the street.

And more than 3 million people have died in the bloodiest conflict since World War II. So why isn't the world paying attention? That's our question of the day. Does the United States have a responsibility to help stop the Congo crisis? Log on to cnn.com/wolf. That's where you can vote right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN. An exclusive report from Iraq, as U.S. troops go on the hunt for Saddam Hussein guys.

First, the latest headlines.

(NEWSBREAK)

BLITZER: It's been almost six weeks since President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq were over, but U.S. losses keep mounting. An Apache helicopter was shot down today during what U.S. officials say was an attack on a terrorist camp west of Baghdad. The two-member crew was rescued. During the same operation, an F-16 fighter also went down. The Pentagon says that loss was due to mechanical problems. The pilot was recovered.

183 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, 45 of them have died since President Bush declared that end to major combat operations aboard "the Abraham Lincoln ON May 1.

For more on the dangers U.S. forces face let's turn to Patty Davis. She is over at the Pentagon -- Patty.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They continue to find themselves targets of militants in Iraq. The latest killed a paratrooper, just todays ago, at a trash collection point in Baghdad. He was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVIS (voice-over): As U.S. troops work to restore order in Iraq, they are under attack almost daily. Paul Bremer, who is leading Iraq's reconstruction, says there are no signs the attacks are being orchestrated by a central group.

PAUL BREMER, ADMINISTRATOR COALITION PROVISIONAL AUTH.: These are groups that are organized, but they are small. They may be five or six men conducting isolated attacks against our soldiers.

DAVIS: But the head of the Iraqi National Congress in Washington to meet with lawmakers, said he believes Saddam Hussein is likely behind the scenes. Even offering bounties to kill U.S. soldiers.

AHMED CHALABI, IRAQI NATIONAL CONGRESS: Saddam, I believe, is still alive and he is still inside Iraq working.

DAVIS: The U.S. says it has no evidence that Saddam Hussein is alive or dead. And they acknowledge that's allowing members of his Ba'athist party to spread fear he may return. Despite those problems, officials say there is progress on Iraq's reconstruction.

BREMER: Here in Baghdad, we are producing 20 hours of electricity a day. The gasoline line that you've read about has almost disappeared, as have the lines for liquid petroleum gas, which is what's used for cooking.

DAVIS: Bremer says the priority is getting Iraq's economy moving. Unemployment hovers well over 50 percent. Also, dismantling the former ruling Ba'athist party. A new interim administration, run by Iraqis, is expected to be in place within the next four to five weeks, and then begin work on a new constitution. The U.S. plans to start training a new Iraqi army within the next month.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAVIS: The goal is to have Iraq's demobilized military guard the country's power plants and other important sites. That would take a dangerous job away from U.S. forces and free them up to be soldiers, not policemen -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Patty Davis, at the Pentagon. Thanks, Patty, very much..

Stunned by a relentless series of attacks, U.S. troops in Iraq have gone back on the offensive. CNN's Ben Wedeman was embedded with some of them during the course of what's called "Operation Peninsula Strike."

Here's his exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): American forces in action in the air, in the water, on the ground. In one of the most extensive operations in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, up to 4,000 U.S. soldiers descended upon abandoned bend Tigris River, 45 miles north of Baghdad. Searching for hard-core loyalists to the deposed Iraqi leader. In the course of the operation, dubbed "Peninsula Strike" the Americans rounded up hundreds of men, women and children.

LT. GEN. DAVID MCKIERNAN, U.S. ARMY: We're just not taking any chances. We're not going to approach them lightly. It's going to be force. Has to be. People are coming up with suicide bombs and weapons and drive-bys.

WEDEMAN: By midweek, U.S. troops had detained nearly 400 men, none from their most-wanted list. They also managed, however, to arouse a fair amount of resentment.

"The Americans are occupiers, says this man. They have no manners or ethics. One of them grab a Quran and threw it to the ground."

This operation comes at a time when attacks against U.S. Forces are on the increase, raising suspicions among some U.S. officers that resistance to the American presence is becoming more organized and more lethal.

BREMER: There have been some handbills that we found that offer monetary rewards for attacks against coalition forces.

WEDEMAN (on camera): On Thursday, for the first time since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, hostile fire brought down an American aircraft. An Apache helicopter, 90 miles west of Baghdad. The war may have ended, but troubles for the Americans in Iraq may be only just beginning.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: For more on the ongoing dangers in Iraq and the ongoing debate in this country over who knew what about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, let's turn to Senator Saxby Chambliss. He is a key member of the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees. He is joining us live from Capitol Hill.

Senator, Chambliss, thanks for joining us.

What do you make of what we just heard, that the troubles in Iraq may be just beginning.

SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R-GA), INTELLIGENCE CMTE: Well, I don't know that I'd put it exactly like that, Wolf. But certainly this is a war that's unlike any war America's ever been involved in. Iraq is still a dangerous place, even though the conflict has subsided. Anybody who thinks that Iraq was not made up of terrorists, just hasn't seen these groups of five or six people who are roaming around taking shots at Americans. They are acting like terrorists and certainly they are terrorists. It still continues to be very, very dangerous.

BLITZER: So the American public should brace for this, more casualties, more terrorism, more action against U.S. Troops, about 160,000 still there?

CHAMBLISS: I think the president's been very straightforward in saying that this war is still a long ways from being over with. This is a part of the continuing war on terrorism, and it is very dangerous and unfortunately I'm afraid that we're probably going to see more casualties. But the good news in all of it is that we're winning it. And our troops are doing a great job over there as they did again yesterday.

BLITZER: Is Ahmed Chalabi, who was up on Capitol Hill today, right when he says, Saddam Hussein is alive and well is not only that but organizing active resistance against the United States?

CHAMBLISS: Well, he could be. Certainly, if he is able to function and communicate with his people. I would suspect he's at least giving orders to take out Americans at every turn. But, you know, we know at the very best, Wolf, that he has been wounded, certainly his communication lines have been disrupted. But they are probably not totally severed. So, he very well could be.

BLITZER: A lot of your Democratic colleagues on the Armed Services and Intelligence Committee are suggesting the intelligence before the war was manipulate, exaggerated, the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

How concerned are you about this debate that's unfolding right now?

CHAMBLISS: The interesting thing about that is that everybody in the world knew that after the gulf war in 1991 that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction because he admitted to it. He admitted he has mustard gas, sarin gas, VX gas. So we know he had weapons of mass destruction. That's why the United Nations resolutions were passed, directing him to destroy those weapons. He never did. He's never told the world what he did with them. And in the weeks and months leading up to the strike in Iraq, every intelligence community organization in the world agreed with us that Saddam Hussein had those weapons of mass destruction, had the ability to use those weapons. Now that the dispute was whether or not he would use them. But there's been never any disagreement in the intelligence community that he had those weapons. Obviously, as long as he had the capability to do it, he would have used them against Americans. But we're moving that capability was a very, very important aspect of the president's decision to take action against Iraq.

BLITZER: How surprised are you that none of those weapons have yet been found?

CHAMBLISS: Well, you had several weeks and a couple of months there to either destroy those weapons, to move them out or do something with them. And it's very likely that he did that. But you got to remember, too, wolf. We've identified over 1,100 sites within Iraq that are either places where weapons of mass destruction were manufactured or could be stored. We've only hardly to opportunity to explore about 25 percent of those. We haven't found them. We have found the mobile labs. We found chemical weapons suits that Saddam Hussein had by the thousands for his troops. We found plans for decontamination, when a trooper -- when a soldier became infected with some sort of chemical or biological weapon.

Those weren't to be used in favor of Americans. Those were to be used in case they had an accident, or if they used weapons against Americans. So...

BLITZER: That's that. Senator Chambliss, unfortunately we have to leave it right there. but always good to speak with you. Thanks for joining us. CHAMBLISS: Same here, Wolf.

BLITZER: Senator Saxby Chambliss from Georgia, speaking to us from Capitol Hill. And we have this just in from Capitol Hill here at CNN. The U.S. House of Representatives has approved an $82 billion tax package, approved today. That will boost the child tax credit for millions of families, rich and poor. It was adopted on a vote that generally followed party lines. This is a live picture you are seeing from the floor of the House of Representatives. Congressional negotiators will have to merge that bill with a much smaller Senate measure adopted last week.

Stay with CNN for continuing details to see if you qualify for that kind of tax -- child tax credit.

A bloody war that's left more than three million people dead. It's raging right now, and the death toll continues to climb. So why isn't the world paying much attention? We'll have a special report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Slaughter in Congo, with most of the world turning a blind eye. A month of bloodletting between rival tribes have already killed some 500 people. But that's just a fraction of the killings and rapes and torture that have gripped the country since 1998. Here's a look at what's happened, and we want to warn you, some of the pictures in this report are very disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): For a while, the world focused on the war in Iraq. Now the spotlight turns to the conflict in the Middle East. A massacre of massive proportions is unraveling in Africa, and most of the world is turning a blind eye.

International relief agencies estimate that more than three million people have died in what's often dubbed Africa's first world war. It is, in fact, the deadliest conflict since World War II, and has been going on for five years.

There is no oil here. But the land is home to other natural gems being fought over -- diamonds, gold, timber, and cultain (ph), a mineral you probably use every day. It's in cell phones and laptop computers.

Congo, almost a quarter the size of the United States. The war there, a direct spillover from the 1994 civil war in Rwanda, where government-led militia slaughtered an estimated 800,000 opposition and opposition sympathizers in about 100 days.

After Rwanda, the world issued mea culpas. President Clinton apologized for not getting involved. Here's what he said when he visited the country in 1998.

BILL CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Scholars of these sorts of events say that the killers, armed mostly with machetes and clubs, nonetheless did their work five times as fast as the mechanized gas chambers used by the Nazis. And never again must we be shy in the face of the evidence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: But just a few short years after the war in Rwanda ended, the conflict came to Congo, then called Zaire. The fleeing culprits of the Rwanda genocide were ironically classified as refugees and supported by Mobutu Sese Seko, then Zaire's president-dictator and a one-time U.S. ally for his anti-communist views.

Rwanda's post-genocide government invaded. Zaire collapsed, and a new leader, Laurent Kabila, renamed the country Democratic Republic of Congo.

That's when the conflict started taking shape of a world war. Rwanda got involved. Then Uganda, and Angola, and Chad, and Sudan, and Namibia, and Zimbabwe. Plus vast assortment of tribal militias, and so-called liberation movement.

The French are leading a contingent of international peacekeepers, but with a force of less than 2,000, the task ahead is daunting. The United States so far sits on the sidelines.

But why should Americans care about a bloody conflict in the heart of Africa? Three million dead, hundreds of thousands of refugees, and the numbers keep rising every day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Right now, ambassadors to the U.N. Security Council are on the ground in Congo. They're there to see for themselves the death and devastation, a nightmare ordinary people of Congo are living with every single day.

Joining us now with his unique perspective on Congo, the human rights expert Irwin Cotler, he's a member of the Canadian Parliament, a law professor at McGill University in Montreal.

Irwin, thanks so much for joining us. How could this happen? How can this happen in this day and change, three million people slaughtered like this, with most of the world not paying attention?

PROF. IRWIN COTLER, MCGILL UNIV.: Well, we seem to have a pattern of crimes of indifference and conspiracies of silence. That's why we had an all-party resolution in the Canadian Parliament, and we called all-party press conference to sound the alarm, to warn against an impending genocide in the Congo, along the lines of what happened in Rwanda. Even the "New York Times" and United Nations has used the "g" word, genocide. And in a way, the unthinkable has already occurred. As you mentioned, some 3.5 million have been killed in the last four years alone. As we now speak, 16 million civilians have critically humanitarian needs, along with those that continue to be slaughtered daily.

So we wanted to sound the alarm, to have a wake-up call for the international community. And we tried to set forth a multi-faceted strategy so as to do something about the combating of these killing fields.

BLITZER: Why is there simply no interest, at least publicly, among the leadership of so much of the Western world? Is it simply because these are black people in Africa?

COTLER: There is some suggestion today that the indifference and the silence may be tinged with some sense of racism about it. Perhaps it's because it's regarded as Africa's world war, and let Africans take care of it, as we sometimes hear.

It also has not really made itself on to the radar screen. Even your CNN, which happily is considering this now, has been addressing, and most of the media, have been addressing, of course, what's going on in Iraq, what's going on in in the Middle East, but here we have an African world war going on for four years, millions being killed, displaced refugees, and, you know, every human being here is not just a statistic. We're talking about a universe is born and unborn that are being murdered every day.

And so what we feel at this point is needed a broad-based sort of strategy of cross-commitment. Number one, the U.N. Security Council has to have a mandate, not of the kind in terms of a peace enforcement, not of the kind that was done on May 30, which was very little and very late. We need the kind of peacekeeping force that can put an end to the killing, that can disarm the militias, that can do away with the illegal weapons, that can allow the humanitarian aid that needs to come in, because we've got here a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe, apart from the killing fields.

(CROSSTALK)

COTLER: ... it's a greater humanitarian catastrophe.

BLITZER: Well, Irwin Cotler is trying to do his best to do something about it. We're going to continue, obviously, to cover this important story. Irwin Cotler joining us now from Ottawa. Thanks very much. We'll continue to talk.

COTLER: Good speaking with you.

BLITZER: And here's your turn to weigh in on this important story. Our Web question of the day is this -- does the United States have a responsibility to help stop the Congo crisis? We'll have the results later in this broadcast. Please vote at cnn.com/wolf.

Boy found wandering the streets alone. Now his mother explains why she abandoned him and why she wants him adopted.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Forces Strike Back in Iraq>

Aired June 12, 2003 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Loss of two legends. One of America's greatest screen heroes ...

GREGORY PECK, ACTOR: He did something that, in our society, is unspeakable. She kissed a black man.

BLITZER: Gregory Peck could also plumb the depths of evil.

And once better known than the Beatles.

DAVID BRINKLEY, ABC NEWS: Good night, Sam.

SAM DONALDSON, ABC NEWS: Good night, David.

BLITZER: Pioneering TV journalist, David Brinkley.

An Israeli missile finds another militant leader. And more innocent civilians. While Hamas warns that a bloody bus bombing is just the beginning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your children and your women, your husbands, everybody is a target now.

BLITZER: It is far from over in Iraq. Tired of being targets, U.S. forces strike back. But the losses mount.

NASA's newest nightmare. A dangerous threat to the remaining space shuttles.

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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: It's Thursday, June 12, 2003. Hello from Washington. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting. The United States has lost two men who will forever be household names. One was an icon on the silver screen, the other a titan of television news. Gregory Peck and David Brinkley have died. We start with the legendary journalist. David Brinkley passed away last night at his home in Houston, of complications from a fall. He was 82 years old. Needless to say, he molded the medium you're watching in countless ways.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRINKLEY: Good night, Chet.

CHET HUNTLEY, ABC NEWS: Good night, David. And good night for NBC News.

BLITZER (voice-over): In the mid 1960s, even Walter Cronkite couldn't match Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. One survey claimed they had more name recognition then than the Beatles. But David Brinkley's run was extraordinary. Forty-one years at the forefront of the business that changed so much, so fast, that at times it seemed he was one of only a few who could put it in perspective.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SENIOR ANALYST: This guy knew how to speak to people in language they could understand, and that is a rare gift that no, you know, television coach or bunch of focus group executives can teach.

BLITZER: He grew up at a perfect time for his life's work. Raised in North Carolina with a passion for writing, he came to Washington during World War II. While with NBC in 1956, Brinkley and Chet Huntley began covering political conventions when they actually meant something.

BRINKLEY: I was a little staggered to see this convention start on time and so were the delegates, because they weren't here.

BLITZER: Through 14 years of the "Huntley-Brinkley Report," David Brinkley brought us history as he saw it. And we could always relate.

BRINKLEY: In about four hours we had gone from President Kennedy in Dallas alive to back in Washington dead, and a new president in his place. What has happened today has been just too much, too ugly and too fast.

BLITZER: It was that style. Never flowery, never trying to impress us with too many words that won us over.

BRINKLEY: Vladimir Lenin, who had brought communism to Russia, is pulled off his pedestal.

BLITZER: When his run at NBC ended, all that was left was for him to change the face of Sunday morning talk shows with ABC's "This Week".

BRINKLEY: First a little news since the Sunday morning papers ...

BLITZER: There were plenty of hard-hitting interviews. But we always seemed to look forward to his humor.

BRINKLEY: We'll be back with a few words about -- this is the truth. A few words about some people who watch this program stark naked.

BLITZER: Near the end of his network career, there was one remark that President Clinton was a bore, for which Brinkley later apologized. Then, in 1997, he said good-bye to all of us for the last time.

BRINKLEY: I quote Shakespeare who said, all is well that ends well. My time here now ends extremely well. Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And when it came to Brinkley's knack for good writing, a colleague at ABC News once said, and I am quoting now; "He can take a story, compress it into nine or 10 words and have greater clarity and punch than I would have when I write two paragraphs." Those are the words of Sam Donaldson.

Sam Donaldson joins us now, live to reflect on David Brinkley. He was an extraordinary journalist. What kind of person was he?

DONALDSON: Elegant gentlemen, calm, like some people I know. Not the bombastic. Didn't think you had to shout. Didn't think you had to be rude or mean. Could ask tough questions, but a gentleman, always. And I think one of his great draws was people liked to watch him because they liked him.

BLITZER: And what was he like to work with as a colleague? You worked with him on "This Week" for a long time.

DONALDSON: Well, when I went on "This Week" at the beginning, I don't know that David that was that happy. But, you know, I was not his style, perhaps. But, he never said a word, except to welcome me. And then after a few months, I think he got on to the fact that maybe I was okay, too.

And he was always a great friend. Always loyal to his people. That's another mark, I think, of a great leader, because he was a leader, Wolf. I mean, he was the impresario that ran things. George, Will, and I would sometimes fight back and forth on an issue, and when he had enough he'd say, all right, Sam, let's move on. He'd raise a hand and I knew to shut up at that point.

BLITZER: And you paid attention and you listened. Why did the American public trust David Brinkley so much?

DONALDSON: Brinkley had strong opinions. I know that some of them were, but he never let that show on the air. He was the journalist that we all talk about, who keeps his opinions out of his work. And I think people trusted him because they knew he understood that when he reported, he wanted to simply give people the facts and they would make up their own mind. They trusted him because they never caught him doing something shifty. They never caught him cutting corners, because he never did.

BLITZER: And he was a real journalist. In this day and age, though, where everybody wants attitude and edge and personality, would have David Brinkley have made it in today's news environment?

DONALDSON: I think so. He wouldn't make it by shouting or playing loose with the facts or being bombastic. He would make it as he made then with that style. Look, David was the perfect combination of substance and style. I mean, when you heard him talk like this, almost anything was interesting.

BLITZER: The amazing thing is, when he left NBC News and Roone Arlidge, the legendary president-leader of ABC News took him, the thought was, he was finished. This was sort of just a little gig for him after what he had done at NBC.

DONALDSON: Let me tell you. The man who's name I won't use, but everyone in the industry knows him, was then president of NBC News, and for some reason thought David Brinkley was washed up and not much account. David had been with NBC for 38 years. And Look at the things retrospectively he had done for NBC. In 1964, he and Chet Huntley had 87 percent of the audience at the Republican National Convention. The other two split it.

So he was ready when Dick Walt, his good friend, and Roone Arlidge, our late leader at ABC, called him and offered him the opportunity to do a program. And later, Goldenson, who was the founder of the American Broadcasting Company, then alive, said in his memoirs that he was against it. He thought Brinkley, at 61, was too old.

But he said, Roone, you're running the news department. If you want to hire him, go ahead. Then later then wrote in his memoirs, Roone was right, I was wrong. And David was with us and did his program with us longer than the "Huntley-Brinkley Report" was on air.

BLITZER: And the amazing thing is, that he took that, what was a half hour show, and he made it an hour show, and the format has become so popular, all of us, including my "LATE EDITION", we copy it basically.

DONALDSON: David did it. And people, Dorian Smith (ph), that was the producer that Roone put in charge around him. People did it. But he turned it into the television program instead of a press conference for print reporters on the air. He used bumpers. He used all that music. And we invited guests that were very interesting, and then we had our roundtable.

BLITZER: And the roundtable was a remarkable development.

DONALDSON: It was the first network roundtable in which we gave our opinions. Now everybody and his dog -- and the dog sometimes makes more sense than I do -- everybody and his dog gives an opinion on television. But we did it first.

BLITZER: Sam Donaldson, we will always be grateful to you for joining us today, and talking about David Brinkley, someone who has influenced all of us who work in television.

DONALDSON: Well, you are great yourself, and you are my pal.

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Sam.

And for more on David Brinkley is former colleague, Ted Koppel, will join our Aaron Brown tonight on "NEWS NIGHT". That is at 10:00 p.m. eastern, 7:00 Pacific.

Only hours after learning of David Brinkley's death, came word of a loss of a Hollywood legend. Actor Gregory Peck died overnight at the age of 87. Like Brinkley's impression on the small screen, Peck's influence on the big screen cannot be overstated. CNN's Bill Tush has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pleased to meet you (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

PECK: Pleased to meet you, Pearl.

BILL TUSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From his earliest films beginning in the 1940s, Gregory Peck quickly established himself as a star and one of Hollywood's leading leading men. Over five decades, and in films like "Dual in the Sun," "The Gunfighter," "12 O'clock High," and "The Omen," Peck took on a variety of roles. But he most often played characters of integrity and with a strong sense of social conscience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PECK: Inside of all the makeup and the characterization, it is you. And I think that is what the audience is really interested in -- you. How are you going to cope with the situation, with the obstacles and the troubles that the writers put in front of you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUSH: But it was his acting skill that earned Peck an Academy Award for best actor in 1962 for his performance in "To Kill A Mockingbird". He played an attorney trying to break through a wall of prejudice, defending a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PECK: A quiet, humble, respectable Negro who has the unmitigated (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to feel sorry for a white woman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PECK: I feel extremely lucky to have had a picture like that in my background, because it's not forgotten. It's played in the high schools and junior high schools, on the cassettes. They write papers about it. So it's a blessing. I'm very frank to say that I will always be grateful for having at least one like that along the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUSH: Among his many awards, Peck was a Kennedy Center honoree, and a recipient of the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award. Just before the AFI ceremony in 1989, Peck reluctantly talked about his contribution to the art of film.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PECK: I hope that my main contribution has been to entertain people over the years. To give them enjoyment, some pleasure, some excitement, some romance, something to think about, something to carry with them in the theater with them so that they think of me as an old friend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUSH: An old friend the world now mourns.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Gregory Peck, this note, just last week Peck's powerful performance in "To Kill A Mockingbird" was underscored once again. The American Film Institute said his Oscar winning performance of Atticus Finch is the greatest hero role in movie history.

More bloodshed in the Middle East as the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is being blown to pieces. And will President Bush personally intervene? We are live at the White House.

Plus, dangerous threat to the space shuttle program. Why scientists fear another potential accident.

And little boy lost. Why would a mother abandon her son. A mysterious phone call may -- may hold the clue. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: There have been no letup in the violence in the Middle East. An Israeli missile strike today killed a senior Hamas militant in Gaza. Six other Palestinians, including the man's wife and child also were killed. It was the third such air strike since yesterday's attack on a Jerusalem bus in which a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 17 people.

With the stepped up violence, there's stepped up rhetoric as well. Sources say that in today's Israeli cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon scoffed at the failure of Palestinian leaders to rein in the militants, calling them, and I am quoting now; "Cry babies who let terror run rampant." Sharon referred to the new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, as a chick without feathers, adding, and once again, I am quoting; "We have to help him fight terror until his feathers grow." Abbas had tried and failed so far to negotiate a cease-fire with the radical groups.

Hamas is warning foreigners to flee Israel, and a spokesman for the group today suggested Wednesday's bloody bus bombing in Jerusalem is only the beginning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For every Israeli, your children and your women, your husband, everybody is a target.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The Bush administration today shifted its stance a bit on the violence and also came down quite hard on Hamas once again. Let's go live to our White House correspondent, Dana Bash -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Bush officials today called on Arab leaders to come down very hard on Hamas, to condemn that organization for its efforts to derail the peace process. But here at the White House, they are saying they are still very much committed to the road map.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A lot of issues ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Two days after a rare rebuke of Israel for attempting to assassinate a Hamas leader, the White House is now placing the blame squarely on Hamas with the bloodshed that threatens the president's push for peace. The issue is Hamas.

The terrorists are Hamas, said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. Hamas is no friend to the Palestinian authority. Hamas is a threat to everything that Prime Minister Abbas and those people in the Palestinian Authority who seek to create a state stand for.

Despite scores of dead and wounded since leaders gathered last week to launch the road map for peace, Bush officials say Israel and the Palestinian Authority are still interested in working together, and so is the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: President Bush remains committed to the course set at Aqaba, because it is the only course that will bring a durable peace and lasting security. This president keeps his promises. He expects all the parties to keep theirs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Officials at the National Security Council and the State Department spent a third day burning up the phone lines. And although the president has not picked up the phone, the Bush administration answered demands from the region for more overt intervention.

Announcing Secretary of State Colin Powell will go to Jordan June 22 to meet with officials from Russia, EU and the U.N., who authored the road map. At her appearance at a town hall meeting in Los angels, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice dismissed a question about whether Mr. Bush, who pursues terrorists that threaten the U.S. is holding Israel to a double standard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICE: There is not going to be any pass for any Palestinian leadership on fighting terror. It is absolutely the case that this president and this United States government believe that terror, wherever it is found, wherever it is practiced, has got to be rooted out and destroyed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: But, Rice said, leaders must realize they are now on a different path, implying Israel, too, must consider the effects of their retaliation on the new peace process. New U.S. Envoy, John Wolfe, heads to the region to set up shop this weekend, and White House officials say his number one priority will be to help the Palestinians set up their security forces to start cracking down on the terrorists. Wolf?

Dana Bash, thanks so very much. Dana is over at the White House.

Fears of another space shuttle disaster. Find out why scientists are raising serious flags over at NASA.

Plus, a CNN exclusive. The mission to track down Iraq's most wanted. We'll take you along with U.S. troops.

And abandoned on the streets. What drove a mother to leave her little boy. The phone message that may explain her side of the story.

And 3 million dead in Congo. Why the world -- the world is turning a blind eye.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: There's a new and serious threat to America's space shuttle program. The discovery also play have a major impact on the international space station. CNN's Kathleen Koch is joining us now live with details. Kathleen, tell us what's going on.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, investigators are very concerned about bolts. There are four of them. They fasten these solid rocket boosters to the external fuel tank right here and here. And just after these boosters are separated, 126 seconds into the flight, they noticed -- investigators noticed on radar some piece of debris falling away from the shuttle. They think it could be one of these bolts.

They are very big bolts. When they separate, each part weighs about 40 pounds each. And these bolts, if they were to strike a shuttle, could cause catastrophic damage. Now, investigators today were very concerned about this finding, though they don't believe that one of these bolts actually hit the Columbia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADMIRAL HAL GEHMAN (RET), CHAIRMAN, COLUMBIA ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION BOARD: What we have here is a possibility that we have found another source of debris. We don't have any evidence that it was a source of debris, except that the radar tracking of the Columbia indicated at the time of SRV separation, 126 seconds, at a time when there's not supposed to be any debris, it noted a piece of debris.

MAJOR GENERAL JOHN BARRY, COLUMBIA ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION BOARD: Long story short is, you know, this thing can cause some serious impact damage, if in fact -- but there is no indication that this hit the orbiter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Now, investigators are primarily focusing, though, now on the foam that hit the shuttle. This happened just 81 seconds into the flight, Wolf, you will recall. And what they did today is they released some new pictures a special test that they did there.

You see it on Friday where they fired a chunk of foam that was roughly the same size as the one that hit the shuttle, fired it at a mock-up of the wing. They found that it caused some serious cracks. Today they released some still photos that showed the cracks were even worse than they had initially suspected, and there were more of them.

Well, Wolf, they are still stopping just short of saying that that was the definitive cause of the crash. But obviously, in looking for the cause, they may have prevented a future disaster.

BLITZER: But for the time being, no more space shuttle flights.

KOCH: Not for some time. At least, not for another year.

BLITZER: And that's going to cause problems for the international space station. They're going to rely just on the Russian Soyuz vessels to get up there.

KOCH: That will be the way to get up and back for now.

BLITZER: All right, Kathleen Koch. Thanks very much. We will continue to monitor this space story. Appreciate it.

American forces launch one of the biggest U.S. assaults since the war in Iraq began.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not taking any chances. We're not going to approach them lightly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The resistance continues and the casualties are mounting. Is Saddam Hussein behind all the trouble? We'll have an exclusive report.

Plus -- little boy lost. A mother explains why she abandoned her son on the street.

And more than 3 million people have died in the bloodiest conflict since World War II. So why isn't the world paying attention? That's our question of the day. Does the United States have a responsibility to help stop the Congo crisis? Log on to cnn.com/wolf. That's where you can vote right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN. An exclusive report from Iraq, as U.S. troops go on the hunt for Saddam Hussein guys.

First, the latest headlines.

(NEWSBREAK)

BLITZER: It's been almost six weeks since President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq were over, but U.S. losses keep mounting. An Apache helicopter was shot down today during what U.S. officials say was an attack on a terrorist camp west of Baghdad. The two-member crew was rescued. During the same operation, an F-16 fighter also went down. The Pentagon says that loss was due to mechanical problems. The pilot was recovered.

183 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, 45 of them have died since President Bush declared that end to major combat operations aboard "the Abraham Lincoln ON May 1.

For more on the dangers U.S. forces face let's turn to Patty Davis. She is over at the Pentagon -- Patty.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They continue to find themselves targets of militants in Iraq. The latest killed a paratrooper, just todays ago, at a trash collection point in Baghdad. He was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVIS (voice-over): As U.S. troops work to restore order in Iraq, they are under attack almost daily. Paul Bremer, who is leading Iraq's reconstruction, says there are no signs the attacks are being orchestrated by a central group.

PAUL BREMER, ADMINISTRATOR COALITION PROVISIONAL AUTH.: These are groups that are organized, but they are small. They may be five or six men conducting isolated attacks against our soldiers.

DAVIS: But the head of the Iraqi National Congress in Washington to meet with lawmakers, said he believes Saddam Hussein is likely behind the scenes. Even offering bounties to kill U.S. soldiers.

AHMED CHALABI, IRAQI NATIONAL CONGRESS: Saddam, I believe, is still alive and he is still inside Iraq working.

DAVIS: The U.S. says it has no evidence that Saddam Hussein is alive or dead. And they acknowledge that's allowing members of his Ba'athist party to spread fear he may return. Despite those problems, officials say there is progress on Iraq's reconstruction.

BREMER: Here in Baghdad, we are producing 20 hours of electricity a day. The gasoline line that you've read about has almost disappeared, as have the lines for liquid petroleum gas, which is what's used for cooking.

DAVIS: Bremer says the priority is getting Iraq's economy moving. Unemployment hovers well over 50 percent. Also, dismantling the former ruling Ba'athist party. A new interim administration, run by Iraqis, is expected to be in place within the next four to five weeks, and then begin work on a new constitution. The U.S. plans to start training a new Iraqi army within the next month.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAVIS: The goal is to have Iraq's demobilized military guard the country's power plants and other important sites. That would take a dangerous job away from U.S. forces and free them up to be soldiers, not policemen -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Patty Davis, at the Pentagon. Thanks, Patty, very much..

Stunned by a relentless series of attacks, U.S. troops in Iraq have gone back on the offensive. CNN's Ben Wedeman was embedded with some of them during the course of what's called "Operation Peninsula Strike."

Here's his exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): American forces in action in the air, in the water, on the ground. In one of the most extensive operations in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, up to 4,000 U.S. soldiers descended upon abandoned bend Tigris River, 45 miles north of Baghdad. Searching for hard-core loyalists to the deposed Iraqi leader. In the course of the operation, dubbed "Peninsula Strike" the Americans rounded up hundreds of men, women and children.

LT. GEN. DAVID MCKIERNAN, U.S. ARMY: We're just not taking any chances. We're not going to approach them lightly. It's going to be force. Has to be. People are coming up with suicide bombs and weapons and drive-bys.

WEDEMAN: By midweek, U.S. troops had detained nearly 400 men, none from their most-wanted list. They also managed, however, to arouse a fair amount of resentment.

"The Americans are occupiers, says this man. They have no manners or ethics. One of them grab a Quran and threw it to the ground."

This operation comes at a time when attacks against U.S. Forces are on the increase, raising suspicions among some U.S. officers that resistance to the American presence is becoming more organized and more lethal.

BREMER: There have been some handbills that we found that offer monetary rewards for attacks against coalition forces.

WEDEMAN (on camera): On Thursday, for the first time since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, hostile fire brought down an American aircraft. An Apache helicopter, 90 miles west of Baghdad. The war may have ended, but troubles for the Americans in Iraq may be only just beginning.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: For more on the ongoing dangers in Iraq and the ongoing debate in this country over who knew what about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, let's turn to Senator Saxby Chambliss. He is a key member of the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees. He is joining us live from Capitol Hill.

Senator, Chambliss, thanks for joining us.

What do you make of what we just heard, that the troubles in Iraq may be just beginning.

SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R-GA), INTELLIGENCE CMTE: Well, I don't know that I'd put it exactly like that, Wolf. But certainly this is a war that's unlike any war America's ever been involved in. Iraq is still a dangerous place, even though the conflict has subsided. Anybody who thinks that Iraq was not made up of terrorists, just hasn't seen these groups of five or six people who are roaming around taking shots at Americans. They are acting like terrorists and certainly they are terrorists. It still continues to be very, very dangerous.

BLITZER: So the American public should brace for this, more casualties, more terrorism, more action against U.S. Troops, about 160,000 still there?

CHAMBLISS: I think the president's been very straightforward in saying that this war is still a long ways from being over with. This is a part of the continuing war on terrorism, and it is very dangerous and unfortunately I'm afraid that we're probably going to see more casualties. But the good news in all of it is that we're winning it. And our troops are doing a great job over there as they did again yesterday.

BLITZER: Is Ahmed Chalabi, who was up on Capitol Hill today, right when he says, Saddam Hussein is alive and well is not only that but organizing active resistance against the United States?

CHAMBLISS: Well, he could be. Certainly, if he is able to function and communicate with his people. I would suspect he's at least giving orders to take out Americans at every turn. But, you know, we know at the very best, Wolf, that he has been wounded, certainly his communication lines have been disrupted. But they are probably not totally severed. So, he very well could be.

BLITZER: A lot of your Democratic colleagues on the Armed Services and Intelligence Committee are suggesting the intelligence before the war was manipulate, exaggerated, the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

How concerned are you about this debate that's unfolding right now?

CHAMBLISS: The interesting thing about that is that everybody in the world knew that after the gulf war in 1991 that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction because he admitted to it. He admitted he has mustard gas, sarin gas, VX gas. So we know he had weapons of mass destruction. That's why the United Nations resolutions were passed, directing him to destroy those weapons. He never did. He's never told the world what he did with them. And in the weeks and months leading up to the strike in Iraq, every intelligence community organization in the world agreed with us that Saddam Hussein had those weapons of mass destruction, had the ability to use those weapons. Now that the dispute was whether or not he would use them. But there's been never any disagreement in the intelligence community that he had those weapons. Obviously, as long as he had the capability to do it, he would have used them against Americans. But we're moving that capability was a very, very important aspect of the president's decision to take action against Iraq.

BLITZER: How surprised are you that none of those weapons have yet been found?

CHAMBLISS: Well, you had several weeks and a couple of months there to either destroy those weapons, to move them out or do something with them. And it's very likely that he did that. But you got to remember, too, wolf. We've identified over 1,100 sites within Iraq that are either places where weapons of mass destruction were manufactured or could be stored. We've only hardly to opportunity to explore about 25 percent of those. We haven't found them. We have found the mobile labs. We found chemical weapons suits that Saddam Hussein had by the thousands for his troops. We found plans for decontamination, when a trooper -- when a soldier became infected with some sort of chemical or biological weapon.

Those weren't to be used in favor of Americans. Those were to be used in case they had an accident, or if they used weapons against Americans. So...

BLITZER: That's that. Senator Chambliss, unfortunately we have to leave it right there. but always good to speak with you. Thanks for joining us. CHAMBLISS: Same here, Wolf.

BLITZER: Senator Saxby Chambliss from Georgia, speaking to us from Capitol Hill. And we have this just in from Capitol Hill here at CNN. The U.S. House of Representatives has approved an $82 billion tax package, approved today. That will boost the child tax credit for millions of families, rich and poor. It was adopted on a vote that generally followed party lines. This is a live picture you are seeing from the floor of the House of Representatives. Congressional negotiators will have to merge that bill with a much smaller Senate measure adopted last week.

Stay with CNN for continuing details to see if you qualify for that kind of tax -- child tax credit.

A bloody war that's left more than three million people dead. It's raging right now, and the death toll continues to climb. So why isn't the world paying much attention? We'll have a special report.

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BLITZER: Slaughter in Congo, with most of the world turning a blind eye. A month of bloodletting between rival tribes have already killed some 500 people. But that's just a fraction of the killings and rapes and torture that have gripped the country since 1998. Here's a look at what's happened, and we want to warn you, some of the pictures in this report are very disturbing.

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BLITZER (voice-over): For a while, the world focused on the war in Iraq. Now the spotlight turns to the conflict in the Middle East. A massacre of massive proportions is unraveling in Africa, and most of the world is turning a blind eye.

International relief agencies estimate that more than three million people have died in what's often dubbed Africa's first world war. It is, in fact, the deadliest conflict since World War II, and has been going on for five years.

There is no oil here. But the land is home to other natural gems being fought over -- diamonds, gold, timber, and cultain (ph), a mineral you probably use every day. It's in cell phones and laptop computers.

Congo, almost a quarter the size of the United States. The war there, a direct spillover from the 1994 civil war in Rwanda, where government-led militia slaughtered an estimated 800,000 opposition and opposition sympathizers in about 100 days.

After Rwanda, the world issued mea culpas. President Clinton apologized for not getting involved. Here's what he said when he visited the country in 1998.

BILL CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Scholars of these sorts of events say that the killers, armed mostly with machetes and clubs, nonetheless did their work five times as fast as the mechanized gas chambers used by the Nazis. And never again must we be shy in the face of the evidence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: But just a few short years after the war in Rwanda ended, the conflict came to Congo, then called Zaire. The fleeing culprits of the Rwanda genocide were ironically classified as refugees and supported by Mobutu Sese Seko, then Zaire's president-dictator and a one-time U.S. ally for his anti-communist views.

Rwanda's post-genocide government invaded. Zaire collapsed, and a new leader, Laurent Kabila, renamed the country Democratic Republic of Congo.

That's when the conflict started taking shape of a world war. Rwanda got involved. Then Uganda, and Angola, and Chad, and Sudan, and Namibia, and Zimbabwe. Plus vast assortment of tribal militias, and so-called liberation movement.

The French are leading a contingent of international peacekeepers, but with a force of less than 2,000, the task ahead is daunting. The United States so far sits on the sidelines.

But why should Americans care about a bloody conflict in the heart of Africa? Three million dead, hundreds of thousands of refugees, and the numbers keep rising every day.

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BLITZER: Right now, ambassadors to the U.N. Security Council are on the ground in Congo. They're there to see for themselves the death and devastation, a nightmare ordinary people of Congo are living with every single day.

Joining us now with his unique perspective on Congo, the human rights expert Irwin Cotler, he's a member of the Canadian Parliament, a law professor at McGill University in Montreal.

Irwin, thanks so much for joining us. How could this happen? How can this happen in this day and change, three million people slaughtered like this, with most of the world not paying attention?

PROF. IRWIN COTLER, MCGILL UNIV.: Well, we seem to have a pattern of crimes of indifference and conspiracies of silence. That's why we had an all-party resolution in the Canadian Parliament, and we called all-party press conference to sound the alarm, to warn against an impending genocide in the Congo, along the lines of what happened in Rwanda. Even the "New York Times" and United Nations has used the "g" word, genocide. And in a way, the unthinkable has already occurred. As you mentioned, some 3.5 million have been killed in the last four years alone. As we now speak, 16 million civilians have critically humanitarian needs, along with those that continue to be slaughtered daily.

So we wanted to sound the alarm, to have a wake-up call for the international community. And we tried to set forth a multi-faceted strategy so as to do something about the combating of these killing fields.

BLITZER: Why is there simply no interest, at least publicly, among the leadership of so much of the Western world? Is it simply because these are black people in Africa?

COTLER: There is some suggestion today that the indifference and the silence may be tinged with some sense of racism about it. Perhaps it's because it's regarded as Africa's world war, and let Africans take care of it, as we sometimes hear.

It also has not really made itself on to the radar screen. Even your CNN, which happily is considering this now, has been addressing, and most of the media, have been addressing, of course, what's going on in Iraq, what's going on in in the Middle East, but here we have an African world war going on for four years, millions being killed, displaced refugees, and, you know, every human being here is not just a statistic. We're talking about a universe is born and unborn that are being murdered every day.

And so what we feel at this point is needed a broad-based sort of strategy of cross-commitment. Number one, the U.N. Security Council has to have a mandate, not of the kind in terms of a peace enforcement, not of the kind that was done on May 30, which was very little and very late. We need the kind of peacekeeping force that can put an end to the killing, that can disarm the militias, that can do away with the illegal weapons, that can allow the humanitarian aid that needs to come in, because we've got here a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe, apart from the killing fields.

(CROSSTALK)

COTLER: ... it's a greater humanitarian catastrophe.

BLITZER: Well, Irwin Cotler is trying to do his best to do something about it. We're going to continue, obviously, to cover this important story. Irwin Cotler joining us now from Ottawa. Thanks very much. We'll continue to talk.

COTLER: Good speaking with you.

BLITZER: And here's your turn to weigh in on this important story. Our Web question of the day is this -- does the United States have a responsibility to help stop the Congo crisis? We'll have the results later in this broadcast. Please vote at cnn.com/wolf.

Boy found wandering the streets alone. Now his mother explains why she abandoned him and why she wants him adopted.

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