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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports
Member of Congress Prepares to Question Men Who Ran War in Iraq
Aired July 09, 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, CNN ANCHOR: A powerful member of the U.S. Congress preparing to question the men who ran the Iraq war. Did they mislead the nation and the world on the nature of the Iraqi threat? There are new questions today.
WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): Iraqi weapons, Bush and Blair under pressure.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The facts will show the world the truth.
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I do not accept that parliament was misled in any way at all.
BLITZER: Did Saddam Hussein have an agent working in the United States; today, word of an arrest.
Health news that may shock you into changing the way you shop.
Is he twisting history or daring to tell it like it was? I'll ask the best-selling author of "The Kennedy Curse."
He used to run home from the bullies, then he learned to fight. Now, the seven time world champion is fighting for kids. I'll speak with Oscar de la Hoya.
(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, July 09, 2003. Hello from Washington, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting.
They went to war together against Saddam Hussein but did they base that war on some faulty intelligence? Two allies are taking heat. Britain's Tony Blair faced an uproar at home while the controversy has followed President Bush on a trip abroad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER (voice-over): The president may have been in South Africa but he couldn't escape questions about the war in Iraq, specifically his January State of the Union assertion that Iraq was attempting to obtain uranium from Africa with the objective of building a nuclear weapon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you still believe they were trying to buy nuclear materials in Africa?
BUSH: Right now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, were they? I mean (unintelligible).
BUSH: One thing is for certain. He's not trying to buy anything right now.
BLITZER: But the president did not directly respond to the questions about the war in Iraq, including questions about the White House's acknowledgement that the State of the Union assertion was based on bad intelligence including forged documents.
BUSH: There is no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the world peace and there's no doubt in my mind the United States, along with allies and friends, did the right thing in removing him from power.
BLITZER: On Capitol Hill, Democratic Senators continued pressing for a formal inquiry during their questioning of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), ARMED SERVICES CMTE.: Have you determined how it happened that that information about the forgery stayed for so long in the, to quote Condy Rice, "the bowels of the agency?
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: No, I can't give you a good answer. I can try to get an answer for the record if you'd like. I must say that as someone who reads intelligence every day as you do, I find that corrections are being made fairly continuously, that you review a week's worth of intel and two months later they come back and say well we said this on this date. We have new information that suggests this or that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And, if you think President Bush is taking some heat, wait until you witness this extraordinary scene in Britain's Parliament today where the Prime Minister Tony Blair got a broadside on the issue of prewar intelligence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IAN DUNCAN SMITH, CONSERVATIVE PARTY LEADER: The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee says the prime minister should apologize to parliament for misrepresenting the status of the second dossier. Will he do that now? BLAIR: Mr. Speaker, the foreign secretary has already apologized on behalf of the whole government for the mistake that was made but I do not accept in any shape or form that the information in that second briefing was wrong. Actually those parts of it that were based on intelligence were indeed based on intelligence.
SMITH: Let me remind the prime minister what the report said. It said the prime minister in saying that the report was further intelligence misrepresented its status and made a bad situation worse and he also went on, the chairman of that committee, to say that when a minister misleads parliament, even inadvertently, they should come to the House of Commons and apologize. Why is it for this prime minister sorry seems to be the hardest word?
BLAIR: First of all, Mr. Speaker, on the 10th of February, we made it quite clear that we acknowledged the mistake that one part of that briefing paper, one part of it, should have been sourced to a written record of a review that was published some time before.
That part of it that was expressed to be based on intelligence was indeed based on intelligence, so I'm afraid I do not accept that parliament was misled in any way at all. And let me just say this too.
The intelligence upon which we based both the September dossier and that February briefing was intelligence that was specifically shared with him by our intelligence services. So, if he is now disputing any of that intelligence, perhaps he'd say so.
SMITH: The prime minister knows I was given no sight of that dossier. I wasn't even contacted about it. The first I k new about that dossier in February was when I found it in the newspaper, so he can retract that for a start.
And, until the prime minister, oh yes, and until the prime minister accepts that he misrepresented the status of the second dossier to parliament and he apologizes his trust will plummet and nobody will believe a word he says anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: And here is your chance to weigh in on this story. Our web question of the day is this: "Should Congress launch a formal inquiry into President Bush's handling of Iraq intelligence?" We'll have the results later in this broadcast.
You can vote at cnn.com/wolf. While you're there, I'd love to hear directly from you. Send me your comments. I'll try to read some of them on the air each day at the end of this program. That's also, of course, where you can read my daily online column, cnn.com/wolf.
Frustration over the U.S. military occupation of Iraq was clearly on display at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier today. The Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld took most of the heat there.
Let's go live to our Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. Both Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former U.S. Central Commander General Tommy Franks were in the hot seat but it was Rumsfeld who fielded most of the tough questions.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE (voice-over): Rumsfeld faced frustration about the rising number of attacks on American troops in Iraq and the inability of the U.S. to stop them.
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D-MA), ARMED SERVICES CMTE.: I'm now concerned that we have the world's best trained soldiers serving as policemen in what seems to be a shooting gallery.
MCINTYRE: Frustration about the failure to find Saddam Hussein.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME), ARMED SERVICES CMTE.: Unless we capture or kill Saddam that our progress is going to be far slower.
RUMSFELD: I agree with that and I will say, however, that in answer to your question what's the priority, the priority is very high.
MCINTYRE: There was frustration Rumsfeld wouldn't be nailed down on whether France and Germany were among the more than 70 countries asked to contribute troops to Iraq.
SEN. ROBERT BYRD (D-WV), ARMED SERVICES CMTE.: Is Germany and France on the list?
RUMSFELD: I'll have to ask. I would suspect they are.
MCINTYRE: Frustration about what the war is costing.
BYRD: Well, I'd like to know now.
MCINTYRE: Rumsfeld's staff did come up with numbers, nearly $4 billion a month for Iraq and $900 million a month for Afghanistan, but Senator John McCain warned Rumsfeld his unwillingness to even guess at how many troops it will take and how long they will stay is making Americans uneasy.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: This whole issue of how long are they going to be there, the uncertainty, the seeing the pictures of the wounded or dead American soldiers are leading to this unease.
MCINTYRE: And there was the frustration Senators just back from Iraq heard from troops who still don't know when they're coming home.
COLLINS: And over and over I heard I'm proud of our mission. I helped free the Iraqi people but when do I get to go home?
MCINTYRE: In response, Rumsfeld himself sounded frustrated and made a plea for patience.
RUMSFELD: We all believe that it's important that it be done, that it's important we get other countries to participate in it. We intend to see it through and it's going to take some patience and when it's done it's going to have been darn well worth having done.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: Rumsfeld did say that the 3rd Infantry Division, among the first troops in Baghdad are coming home, a third of them this month, another brigade next month, and the final brigade in September, and he said he'll make some decisions, Wolf, this week that will allow U.S. commanders to tell other troops when they'll be coming home from Iraq as well -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Let's go back a dozen years, Jamie, the mystery involving U.S. Navy Captain Scott Speicher, the first American pilot lost over Iraq a dozen years ago during the first Gulf War. There's apparently some additional information that may, repeat may, help clarify what exactly happened to him?
MCINTYRE: Well, it's some clues. It's not the answer yet. The U.S. is still looking for that information but what they have found is some documents listing who was held at a prison in Baghdad where it's believed Scott Speicher might have been held in the 1990s.
As far as we know, Speicher's name isn't on the roster, but it does provide a list of names of other people the U.S. investigators can question to try to verify whether that claim is true that Speicher was in that prison. That's the one where what appeared to be his initials were found scrawled on a cell wall -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Let's hope there is some additional information on this case. Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon thanks Jamie very much.
Meanwhile, a Chicago man was arrested today and charged with acting as an agent for Iraqi intelligence. For that, let's turn to our Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena -- Kelli.
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, his name is Khaled Abdel-Latif Dumeisi and he's been living in the United States for ten years heading up a company that publishes an Arabic language newspaper, but the government alleges that the 60-year-old was also secretly serving as an agent for Saddam Hussein's regime by providing information on Iraqi opposition leaders.
Now, officials say that a dossier found at an intelligence safe house in Baghdad included information on an agent in the United States who went by the code name "Sirhan." The government says Sirhan and Dumeisi are one and the same. Dumeisi is not being charged with espionage but instead with not registering as an agent of a foreign government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICK FITZGERALD, U.S. ATTORNEY: Telling a foreign government that here are the people in America opposed to you. We cannot tolerate people doing that here and so I'm trying to send a message here that this case is serious because people can't spy against people that live here who come here for our freedoms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARENA: Now, officials say that Dumeisi is guilty of producing press ID cards for Iraqi intelligence officials; that he received financial support from the Iraqi government to conduct his activities; and that he traveled to Iraq to get intelligence gathering training.
In one instance, officials say that he secretly gathered information from one Iraqi opposition leader using a pen with a hidden microphone and camera inside. For all this, Dumeisi faces 15 years in prison if he is convicted -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Kelli Arena with that story thanks Kelli very much.
Coming up, a family murdered and a nationwide manhunt, an elementary school vice principal turns himself in. Find out what clues he may be holding in this killing. There's new information on this story. We'll have it for you.
Plus, he covered the face of Saddam, find out what this major league Marine is doing right now.
And, the skinny on trans-fat, the new guidelines that could change the way you do your grocery shopping.
First, today's news quiz.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER (voice-over): Which of these foods does not have trans- fat, French fries, steak, crackers, cookies, the answer coming up?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: There are new developments in a story that stunned the city of Bakersfield, California yesterday. Within the last few minutes, police in North Carolina have made a dramatic announcement on a vice principal whose family was shot to death. That vice principal showed up in North Carolina.
Let's listen in right now.
CAPT. GEORGE KOCK, ACTING POLICE CHIEF, ELIZABETH CITY, N.C.: At 2:30 p.m. today Vincent Edward Brothers, 41 years of age of Bakersfield, California, was arrested on probable cause for five counts of homicide.
Mr. Brothers will have a first appearance in (unintelligible) district court on Thursday and since this is an active criminal investigation any other questions need to be referred back to the Bakersfield Police Department in California. Thank you very much.
BLITZER: For more on what led to that dramatic announcement, here's CNN's Jennifer Coggiola.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JENNIFER COGGIOLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police say Vincent Brothers, the vice principal of Freemont Elementary School in Bakersfield, California showed up after family members he was with in North Carolina told him about the shootings.
Tuesday morning, a family friend checking in on her neighbors discovered the bodies of Joanie Harper, Brothers' recently estranged wife, her mother, and three children aged four years to six weeks. According to local officials, the last time they had been seen was Sunday at church.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are very loved in the community and in my 33 years of experience with this department, this is the most serious crime that we have ever experienced.
COGGIOLA: Brothers' blue pickup truck was found Tuesday afternoon at the California airport but investigators report the car may have been there for over a week.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: That was CNN's Jennifer Coggiola reporting.
Meanwhile, authorities in Mississippi are trying to figure out if it was racism that drove a worker to open up fire on fellow workers at the Lockheed Martin plant near Meridian only yesterday.
The Lauderdale County sheriff said today it's unclear exactly why Douglas Williams went on the shooting rampage but employees and some victims' families say Williams had a hot temper and was openly racist. Eight of the 14 victims were African-Americans, including four of the five who died.
In New Jersey, the youngest of three teenagers accused of planning a shooting spree will stay in juvenile detention despite his father's pleas for his release.
The 14-year-old's dad says his son is a good kid who was bullied into the plot by the accused ringleader but the judge says the 14- year-old should stay in juvenile custody because the charges against him are so serious. All three teenagers are due back in court next week when the prosecution will begin proceedings to have them charged as adults.
Could there be a connection between the Laci Peterson murder case and the unsolved killing of a pregnant woman whose body was found several months earlier.
Scott Peterson's attorneys say the answer is yes and want access to that case file, but the judge ruled they could see only the autopsy records in the Evelyn Hernandez case. Her body was found in water near the Bay Bridge nearly a year ago.
Separately today, the judge ruled prosecutors can review all but one wiretapped conversation taken from Scott Peterson's cell phone.
"The Kennedy Curse" fact or fiction:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Since John Kennedy, the president, was assassinated in 1963, the Kennedy's and those associated with them have been dying at the rate of one every two years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: The author of a controversial new biography joins us live. I'll ask him some questions about the unnamed sources and the allegations of drug abuse.
Plus, a tropical storm trucking along a popular vacation spot in its path, find out if you should change your plans.
And, explosion at a baseball game, what caused the security scare and sent an eight-year-old to the hospital?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: There's been a lot of criticism of a new book about the Kennedy's, most of it focusing on the allegations in the book of drug use, infidelity, and violence plaguing the marriage of John Kennedy, Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. The book is called "The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy has Haunted America's First Family for 150 years."
Its author is Ed Klein. He's joining us now live from New York to talk about this book. Very briefly Ed, first of all, "The Kennedy Curse," why did you come up with that name?
ED KLEIN, AUTHOR, "THE KENNEDY CURSE": Because the Kennedy's have been bedeviled for over a century by more calamities and deaths than any other family I could possibly have imagined.
BLITZER: And so you believe they were cursed, is that what you're saying?
KLEIN: I'm saying they're cursed because they have the classic case of hubris and the modern case of a genetic disposition. The hubris makes them over-achieving, over-reaching, men and women who seem to try to get away with things that the rest of us can't and, as far as the genetics is concerned, there are scientists who believe the Kennedy's carry a gene called the thrill-seeking gene.
BLITZER: Well, we're not going to get into that whole issue of the thrill-seeking gene but I do want to get into the whole issue of John and Carolyn, Carolyn Bessette.
Obviously, the excerpt in "Vanity Fair" has caused a huge uproar. The accusation against you is that you're smearing them when they're dead in the grave. They can't defend themselves.
I want you to listen to what one friend of John Kennedy, Jr. said about you and your book. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN PERRY BARLOW, FRIEND OF JFK, JR.: You know, quite apart from that, these are people who are dead. They're too dead to defend themselves and to exploit their memories given the fact that they're not in a position to defend themselves and with the knowledge that the family will not engage because they don't want to get wrestling the tar baby, is a form of grave robbery as far as I'm concerned.
I mean it's about a ghoulish a thing as you can do and all the sources in the article, not all of them but all of them that have sort of scurrilous information attached to them, are unnamed. I mean I could write a book demonstrating that Richard Nixon had been a child molester with unnamed sources and it would be just as valid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right, well what about that charge, Ed?
KLEIN: I think it's absurd. First of all, I've been reporting on the Kennedy's and writing about the Kennedy's for 15 years. I've interviewed several hundred people, most of them on the record.
There are 140 people on the record in my book, including many of the same people that this person just said were leveling scurrilous charges, including Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's former lover, Michael Bergin, the Calvin Klein underwear model who is very much on the record.
Secondly, as far as their being dead is concerned, there is a moral question about writing about the dead and it's a difficult question that we all face. There is, for instance, the question of should we write about Thomas Jefferson's love affair with his Black...
BLITZER: Well, let me interrupt here. Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States. Carolyn Bessette was the wife of John Kennedy, Jr., and you say in there based on anonymous sources she was using cocaine.
She was maybe having an affair with this former lover of hers that she was destroying, in effect, the marriage that she had with John Kennedy, Jr. when there really was no on the record evidence to back that up.
KLEIN: Well, there's the fact that when Carolyn and John went missing, the president of the United States, Bill Clinton, sent the United States Navy and Coast Guard to try to find them. These were not just your ordinary citizens. Even you, Wolf, probably wouldn't have the Navy look for you if you went down in a plane crash.
BLITZER: I know but Carolyn Bessette is really in a position right now, and certainly her parents and her loved ones, are in no position to come out and defend her on the basis of what you've written.
KLEIN: The reason they can't defend her is because those who knew her well and who were present when she was taking drugs were more than a half a dozen people that I talked to. There's no question in my mind given the old journalistic (unintelligible), trust me, trust my sources, but as a former editor-in-chief as I am of "The New York Times Magazine" I stand by my sources.
BLITZER: And what would you say to those who suggest that you're simply out doing this to make a buck, especially after you did have a long friendship with Mrs. Kennedy, with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, over many years. She would be outraged by this book.
KLEIN: Well, she wouldn't be happy to buy this book but does that mean that the obligation of a writer is to make somebody happy? The obligation of a writer, an historian, and a journalist is the truth, not the people they write about.
BLITZER: So, you're not backing away from anything, you're defending obviously your book.
KLEIN: I think it's a very important book because John Kennedy was in the minds of many, including mine, a fellow who had a tremendous future, somebody who could have achieved quite a great future including perhaps, who knows, running for president of the United States some day. Certainly, a lot of people thought so, and he died as a result of this totally unnecessary fatal accident.
BLITZER: But let me just wrap it up by saying this. You're not directly blaming her, Carolyn Bessette for the fatal accident even though you do report she had, what, three pedicures that day delaying the entire departure from New Jersey?
KLEIN: Yes. I'm saying that every minute that they delayed leaving was an important and critical minute but certainly the ultimate responsibility lies with John, who was in no emotional, physical situation to fly a plane. He even was not technically competent to fly that plane that night and it was ultimately his responsibility.
BLITZER: Ed Klein's new book is "The Kennedy Curse." It's caused a huge uproar but I'm sure it's probably going to sell a lot of copies. Ed Klein thanks for joining us.
KLEIN: Thank you very much.
BLITZER: Fallout over Iraq and uranium, the president dodges questions over bad intelligence. I'll try to get some straight answers from the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
Plus, fat stuff in unexpected places, more labels to warn you about it but will it really help trim the waistline? We'll take a much closer look.
And, Oscar de la Hoya, I'll go one-on-one with the boxer about life outside the ring. And, what do you get for betting against Senator Hillary Clinton's book? Tucker Carlson (AUDIO GAP) show you what happened. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(AUDIO/VIDEO GAP)
BLITZER: Should Congress launch a formal inquiry into President Bush's handling of Iraq intelligence? You can still vote. Go to cnn.com/wolf.
The fat you may have never known was there. Uncle Sam steps in to help all of us shape up. New guidelines that may change what we eat.
Also, the Saddam cover-up seen around the world. Find out what this U.S. Marine, this one who is placing the flag on top of Saddam Hussein's head, find out what's going on with him right now.
And look at this. Tucker Carlson gets ready to eat his shoe. Watch this. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton served it up. We'll show you what happened. She's now sold a million copies of her new book. And he's ready to eat that shoe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Earlier we asked, "Which of these foods does not have trans-fat?"
The answer, steak. Most french fries, crackers and cookies contain them.
So what to doughnuts, french fries and crackers have in common?
They have their taste enhanced by artery clogging trans fat. There's been no way of knowing how much trans fat is in your food, but that will soon change.
Our Medical Correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen is joining us from the CNN center.
Elizabeth, tell our viewers, first of all, what's going to happen at their local supermarkets.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, at people's local super markets, starting in January 2006, all products are supposed to have trans fat labels right on the product. Now all you can find is total fat and saturated fat. Starting soon, trans fat will be added to that list.
BLITZER: What exactly is trans fat?
Why are we all of a sudden paying are we paying attention to it, and why is it becoming so dangerous.
COHEN: For decades they've been telling us trans fat clogs arteries. There are two types of fat basicly, good fat and bad fat. Bad fat clogs the arteries. You can see all these things flying around. They're going to stick to the sides of the vessels there and it's going to clog them up. And that's obviously bad for heart disease and stroke. So, trans fat clogs up the arteries.
BLITZER: The labels are going to tell us how much trans fat is in any food product. So what's the advice, how much can we eat without dying.
Unfortunetly, Wolf, there's no real answer to that question. The government hasn't set a maximum level of trans fat. However, health experts should say you shouldn't get more than 20 grams of saturated and transfat put together. With these new labels you can now add it up to 20. Now what I did was brought some foods that show you what 20 grams of bad fat looks like. If you have hash browns for breakfast and 8 fishsticks for lunch and then Oreos for a desret, well you have been eating all the bad fat that you can have in one day. That's 20 grams right there.
BLITZER: And I of course was joking. I was being sarcastic when siad how much can we before were dying.
Over the years we've been getting so much information about nutrition. But as a whole, the nation is getting fatter and fatter.
What's going on here?
COHEN: That's true. Some people are saying, who cares what it was labeled. We keep getting fatter. The more information they put on it, the fatter we get. Welll, you can look at it in another way. One is that, the more that the government says you have to label, the more food companies say, gee, we want our labels to look good. That's why for example, the Frito Lay company has made some of theirs without trans fat. They new the government was probably going to do this. They took trans fat out of this. When you look at the label on the back it says so that there's no trans fat. This is to get companies to start reformulating. Also just because on average Americans have gotten fatter, that doesn't mean that for some people these labels are very helpful.
BLITZER: I'm sure they'll be helpful for all of us.
2006, that's when all the labels have to be in place?
COHEN: That's right.
All right. Elizabeth Cohen with some useful information as she always provides us. Thanks, Elizabeth, very much.
Some people thought it was a bomb. We'll show you what really happened at the Oakland A's game last night that injured a little boy.
Plus, Oscar de la Hoya's million-dollar gift.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: At least one player says he thought it was a gun shot. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) grounded out to start the first, and the pitch is up and in. And we had some explosion down there. Somebody set off some pretty good fireworks, it appears, down in the stands, left field side.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Actually it was a cherry bomb exploding in the stands during the third inning of last night's A's/Devil Rays game in Oakland. An 8-year-old was burned on his legs and his father suffered hearing loss. Police arrested an unidentified man who is facing felony charges.
Throwing out the first pitch at Shea Stadium today, Sergeant Edward Chin (ph) of the United States Marine Corps. You may not know him by name, but you'll probably remember what he did in Iraq. Chin (ph) is the one who covered the face of the Saddam Hussein statue with an American flag the day Baghdad fell to U.S. forces. The 23-year-old Brooklyn native says both that and throwing out the first pitch for the Mets are once in a lifetime experiences.
Boxing champion Oscar de la Hoya is throwing his weight behind a drive to build more charter schools in California. Charter schools are independent public schools that operate outside the usual bureaucracy. De la Hoya has partnered with a nonprofit developer to open one in his home town, East L.A., and he's donating $1 million toward the project. I talked about it with him just a short while ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Oscar de la Hoya, thanks for joining us, and congratulations. You are giving away $1 million for charter schools. Tell us why.
OSCAR DE LA HOYA, BOXING CHAMPION: I am doing it because the kids deserve it. The kids want it, and they want to do something with it. And now that we're building the high school at the Oscar de la Hoya Foundation Center, we're excited.
BLITZER: This is your way of giving back to East L.A., which is where you are from?
DE LA HOYA: Definitely. It's just something small that I'm giving back from the heart, and there's still a lot more to give back, because the fans, the people that support my career, they've been doing it for so long, that this is just the way of me saying thank you.
BLITZER: Why charter schools? You know, there is some controversy, some educators don't believe the kids get as good an education in the charter schools as they would in a normal public school, for example. DE LA HOYA: Actually, they get a better education. The kids are graduating at an incredible rate. The parents are getting involved. They require to do 30 to 40 hours per year with their kids, with teachers, with the principal. So it's a great program. And I'm very thrilled and honored to be part of it.
BLITZER: Let's talk a little bit about boxing. You are not far from a boxing ring right now, a place close to your heart. First of all, women and boxing. Do you think that's a good idea?
DE LA HOYA: Well, I believe in equal opportunity, and if women want to fight, more power to them. I never close the doors on no one. I -- if they want to go up in the ring and fight, go ahead.
But it is a dangerous sport. It is very difficult. But there's a lot of women who can do it. And I believe that there can be women's boxing for more years to come.
BLITZER: When Laila Ali had her news conference, as you probably know, the other day with Christie Martin, was that staged or was that real?
DE LA HOYA: I believe it was real, because when you have two people that are going to fight in a matter of time, there's these emotions that are going through us. There's these feelings that we feel, that we just want to go ahead and fight at that moment. There's one thing of controlling those emotions and waiting until you fight in the ring, and then there's the emotions where you can't control and you do it right there and then. And maybe it was not a smart move by them fighting outside the ring, but it's going to be a good fight. That's for sure.
BLITZER: You've done a lot of positive things for the image of boxing. Mike Tyson has done the opposite. How much damage has he done?
DE LA HOYA: It's very sad, actually. I'm very -- I'm very disappointed, because at one point Mike Tyson was our heavyweight champion of the world. He was a nice, humble human being. And he's going through problems. He's going through emotional problems. I wish him the best. I wish him all the luck in the world to hopefully change his life around and get the right guidance. But he has put a small blemish on the sport of boxing.
BLITZER: One final question, Oscar. Before I let you go. There were a lot of reports in the "L.A. Times" and elsewhere over the past several days about a missing kid, a former girlfriend. That seems to have been resolved. What can you tell us about that?
DE LA HOYA: Well, I was very concerned. I was very shocked, actually. But thank God that those were just rumors.
BLITZER: And the 4-year-old, is that 4-year-old your son?
DE LA HOYA: Oh, definitely. Definitely. It was cleared up a long time ago, and I'm just very happy and very just -- I got emotional because it was -- I couldn't believe it. But now that it's all cleared up, and those comments were just all false. So we're very happy.
BLITZER: Thank God it's all cleared up, and thanks to you, Oscar de la Hoya, for all your good work, for joining us here on this program.
DE LA HOYA: Thank you very much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And our hot Web question of the day is this -- should Congress launch a formal inquiry into President Bush's handling of Iraq intelligence? You can still vote, cnn.com/wolf. The results when we come back.
And Tucker Carlson forced to eat a shoe after losing a bet on Senator Hillary Clinton's book. Guess who served it up? Look at this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Here's how you are weighing in on our Web question. Remember, we've been asking you this -- should Congress launch a formal inquiry into President Bush's handling of Iraq intelligence? Look at this, 93 percent of you say yes; 7 percent of you say no. As always, we remind you, this is not a scientific poll.
He said it couldn't be done. In fact, CNN "CROSSFIRE" co-host Tucker Carlson vowed that if Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton managed to sell a million copies of her new book, he'd eat his shoes. Today the publisher, Simon & Schuster, announced the million mark milestone, and for Tucker, it was time to eat his words. Lucky for him, Senator Clinton served him an edible shoe made by her friend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: Worried about, you know, how you were actually going to be able to eat and digest a shoe, I didn't even know what kind you were going to choose.
TUCKER CARLSON, CO-HOST, CROSSFIRE: Thank you.
CLINTON: So I had a friend of mine, Collette (ph), who is here somewhere from New York, do this for you, because I figured you had enough embarrassment and humiliation over this.
CARLSON: Yes, I have. Thank you.
CLINTON: That the least I could do was, you know, give you something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: That's it. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT." Jan Hopkins filling in. Starts right now. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Iraq>
Aired July 9, 2003 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: A powerful member of the U.S. Congress preparing to question the men who ran the Iraq war. Did they mislead the nation and the world on the nature of the Iraqi threat? There are new questions today.
WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): Iraqi weapons, Bush and Blair under pressure.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The facts will show the world the truth.
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I do not accept that parliament was misled in any way at all.
BLITZER: Did Saddam Hussein have an agent working in the United States; today, word of an arrest.
Health news that may shock you into changing the way you shop.
Is he twisting history or daring to tell it like it was? I'll ask the best-selling author of "The Kennedy Curse."
He used to run home from the bullies, then he learned to fight. Now, the seven time world champion is fighting for kids. I'll speak with Oscar de la Hoya.
(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, July 09, 2003. Hello from Washington, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting.
They went to war together against Saddam Hussein but did they base that war on some faulty intelligence? Two allies are taking heat. Britain's Tony Blair faced an uproar at home while the controversy has followed President Bush on a trip abroad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER (voice-over): The president may have been in South Africa but he couldn't escape questions about the war in Iraq, specifically his January State of the Union assertion that Iraq was attempting to obtain uranium from Africa with the objective of building a nuclear weapon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you still believe they were trying to buy nuclear materials in Africa?
BUSH: Right now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, were they? I mean (unintelligible).
BUSH: One thing is for certain. He's not trying to buy anything right now.
BLITZER: But the president did not directly respond to the questions about the war in Iraq, including questions about the White House's acknowledgement that the State of the Union assertion was based on bad intelligence including forged documents.
BUSH: There is no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the world peace and there's no doubt in my mind the United States, along with allies and friends, did the right thing in removing him from power.
BLITZER: On Capitol Hill, Democratic Senators continued pressing for a formal inquiry during their questioning of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), ARMED SERVICES CMTE.: Have you determined how it happened that that information about the forgery stayed for so long in the, to quote Condy Rice, "the bowels of the agency?
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: No, I can't give you a good answer. I can try to get an answer for the record if you'd like. I must say that as someone who reads intelligence every day as you do, I find that corrections are being made fairly continuously, that you review a week's worth of intel and two months later they come back and say well we said this on this date. We have new information that suggests this or that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And, if you think President Bush is taking some heat, wait until you witness this extraordinary scene in Britain's Parliament today where the Prime Minister Tony Blair got a broadside on the issue of prewar intelligence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IAN DUNCAN SMITH, CONSERVATIVE PARTY LEADER: The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee says the prime minister should apologize to parliament for misrepresenting the status of the second dossier. Will he do that now? BLAIR: Mr. Speaker, the foreign secretary has already apologized on behalf of the whole government for the mistake that was made but I do not accept in any shape or form that the information in that second briefing was wrong. Actually those parts of it that were based on intelligence were indeed based on intelligence.
SMITH: Let me remind the prime minister what the report said. It said the prime minister in saying that the report was further intelligence misrepresented its status and made a bad situation worse and he also went on, the chairman of that committee, to say that when a minister misleads parliament, even inadvertently, they should come to the House of Commons and apologize. Why is it for this prime minister sorry seems to be the hardest word?
BLAIR: First of all, Mr. Speaker, on the 10th of February, we made it quite clear that we acknowledged the mistake that one part of that briefing paper, one part of it, should have been sourced to a written record of a review that was published some time before.
That part of it that was expressed to be based on intelligence was indeed based on intelligence, so I'm afraid I do not accept that parliament was misled in any way at all. And let me just say this too.
The intelligence upon which we based both the September dossier and that February briefing was intelligence that was specifically shared with him by our intelligence services. So, if he is now disputing any of that intelligence, perhaps he'd say so.
SMITH: The prime minister knows I was given no sight of that dossier. I wasn't even contacted about it. The first I k new about that dossier in February was when I found it in the newspaper, so he can retract that for a start.
And, until the prime minister, oh yes, and until the prime minister accepts that he misrepresented the status of the second dossier to parliament and he apologizes his trust will plummet and nobody will believe a word he says anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: And here is your chance to weigh in on this story. Our web question of the day is this: "Should Congress launch a formal inquiry into President Bush's handling of Iraq intelligence?" We'll have the results later in this broadcast.
You can vote at cnn.com/wolf. While you're there, I'd love to hear directly from you. Send me your comments. I'll try to read some of them on the air each day at the end of this program. That's also, of course, where you can read my daily online column, cnn.com/wolf.
Frustration over the U.S. military occupation of Iraq was clearly on display at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier today. The Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld took most of the heat there.
Let's go live to our Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. Both Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former U.S. Central Commander General Tommy Franks were in the hot seat but it was Rumsfeld who fielded most of the tough questions.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE (voice-over): Rumsfeld faced frustration about the rising number of attacks on American troops in Iraq and the inability of the U.S. to stop them.
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D-MA), ARMED SERVICES CMTE.: I'm now concerned that we have the world's best trained soldiers serving as policemen in what seems to be a shooting gallery.
MCINTYRE: Frustration about the failure to find Saddam Hussein.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME), ARMED SERVICES CMTE.: Unless we capture or kill Saddam that our progress is going to be far slower.
RUMSFELD: I agree with that and I will say, however, that in answer to your question what's the priority, the priority is very high.
MCINTYRE: There was frustration Rumsfeld wouldn't be nailed down on whether France and Germany were among the more than 70 countries asked to contribute troops to Iraq.
SEN. ROBERT BYRD (D-WV), ARMED SERVICES CMTE.: Is Germany and France on the list?
RUMSFELD: I'll have to ask. I would suspect they are.
MCINTYRE: Frustration about what the war is costing.
BYRD: Well, I'd like to know now.
MCINTYRE: Rumsfeld's staff did come up with numbers, nearly $4 billion a month for Iraq and $900 million a month for Afghanistan, but Senator John McCain warned Rumsfeld his unwillingness to even guess at how many troops it will take and how long they will stay is making Americans uneasy.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: This whole issue of how long are they going to be there, the uncertainty, the seeing the pictures of the wounded or dead American soldiers are leading to this unease.
MCINTYRE: And there was the frustration Senators just back from Iraq heard from troops who still don't know when they're coming home.
COLLINS: And over and over I heard I'm proud of our mission. I helped free the Iraqi people but when do I get to go home?
MCINTYRE: In response, Rumsfeld himself sounded frustrated and made a plea for patience.
RUMSFELD: We all believe that it's important that it be done, that it's important we get other countries to participate in it. We intend to see it through and it's going to take some patience and when it's done it's going to have been darn well worth having done.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: Rumsfeld did say that the 3rd Infantry Division, among the first troops in Baghdad are coming home, a third of them this month, another brigade next month, and the final brigade in September, and he said he'll make some decisions, Wolf, this week that will allow U.S. commanders to tell other troops when they'll be coming home from Iraq as well -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Let's go back a dozen years, Jamie, the mystery involving U.S. Navy Captain Scott Speicher, the first American pilot lost over Iraq a dozen years ago during the first Gulf War. There's apparently some additional information that may, repeat may, help clarify what exactly happened to him?
MCINTYRE: Well, it's some clues. It's not the answer yet. The U.S. is still looking for that information but what they have found is some documents listing who was held at a prison in Baghdad where it's believed Scott Speicher might have been held in the 1990s.
As far as we know, Speicher's name isn't on the roster, but it does provide a list of names of other people the U.S. investigators can question to try to verify whether that claim is true that Speicher was in that prison. That's the one where what appeared to be his initials were found scrawled on a cell wall -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Let's hope there is some additional information on this case. Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon thanks Jamie very much.
Meanwhile, a Chicago man was arrested today and charged with acting as an agent for Iraqi intelligence. For that, let's turn to our Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena -- Kelli.
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, his name is Khaled Abdel-Latif Dumeisi and he's been living in the United States for ten years heading up a company that publishes an Arabic language newspaper, but the government alleges that the 60-year-old was also secretly serving as an agent for Saddam Hussein's regime by providing information on Iraqi opposition leaders.
Now, officials say that a dossier found at an intelligence safe house in Baghdad included information on an agent in the United States who went by the code name "Sirhan." The government says Sirhan and Dumeisi are one and the same. Dumeisi is not being charged with espionage but instead with not registering as an agent of a foreign government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICK FITZGERALD, U.S. ATTORNEY: Telling a foreign government that here are the people in America opposed to you. We cannot tolerate people doing that here and so I'm trying to send a message here that this case is serious because people can't spy against people that live here who come here for our freedoms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARENA: Now, officials say that Dumeisi is guilty of producing press ID cards for Iraqi intelligence officials; that he received financial support from the Iraqi government to conduct his activities; and that he traveled to Iraq to get intelligence gathering training.
In one instance, officials say that he secretly gathered information from one Iraqi opposition leader using a pen with a hidden microphone and camera inside. For all this, Dumeisi faces 15 years in prison if he is convicted -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Kelli Arena with that story thanks Kelli very much.
Coming up, a family murdered and a nationwide manhunt, an elementary school vice principal turns himself in. Find out what clues he may be holding in this killing. There's new information on this story. We'll have it for you.
Plus, he covered the face of Saddam, find out what this major league Marine is doing right now.
And, the skinny on trans-fat, the new guidelines that could change the way you do your grocery shopping.
First, today's news quiz.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER (voice-over): Which of these foods does not have trans- fat, French fries, steak, crackers, cookies, the answer coming up?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: There are new developments in a story that stunned the city of Bakersfield, California yesterday. Within the last few minutes, police in North Carolina have made a dramatic announcement on a vice principal whose family was shot to death. That vice principal showed up in North Carolina.
Let's listen in right now.
CAPT. GEORGE KOCK, ACTING POLICE CHIEF, ELIZABETH CITY, N.C.: At 2:30 p.m. today Vincent Edward Brothers, 41 years of age of Bakersfield, California, was arrested on probable cause for five counts of homicide.
Mr. Brothers will have a first appearance in (unintelligible) district court on Thursday and since this is an active criminal investigation any other questions need to be referred back to the Bakersfield Police Department in California. Thank you very much.
BLITZER: For more on what led to that dramatic announcement, here's CNN's Jennifer Coggiola.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JENNIFER COGGIOLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police say Vincent Brothers, the vice principal of Freemont Elementary School in Bakersfield, California showed up after family members he was with in North Carolina told him about the shootings.
Tuesday morning, a family friend checking in on her neighbors discovered the bodies of Joanie Harper, Brothers' recently estranged wife, her mother, and three children aged four years to six weeks. According to local officials, the last time they had been seen was Sunday at church.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are very loved in the community and in my 33 years of experience with this department, this is the most serious crime that we have ever experienced.
COGGIOLA: Brothers' blue pickup truck was found Tuesday afternoon at the California airport but investigators report the car may have been there for over a week.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: That was CNN's Jennifer Coggiola reporting.
Meanwhile, authorities in Mississippi are trying to figure out if it was racism that drove a worker to open up fire on fellow workers at the Lockheed Martin plant near Meridian only yesterday.
The Lauderdale County sheriff said today it's unclear exactly why Douglas Williams went on the shooting rampage but employees and some victims' families say Williams had a hot temper and was openly racist. Eight of the 14 victims were African-Americans, including four of the five who died.
In New Jersey, the youngest of three teenagers accused of planning a shooting spree will stay in juvenile detention despite his father's pleas for his release.
The 14-year-old's dad says his son is a good kid who was bullied into the plot by the accused ringleader but the judge says the 14- year-old should stay in juvenile custody because the charges against him are so serious. All three teenagers are due back in court next week when the prosecution will begin proceedings to have them charged as adults.
Could there be a connection between the Laci Peterson murder case and the unsolved killing of a pregnant woman whose body was found several months earlier.
Scott Peterson's attorneys say the answer is yes and want access to that case file, but the judge ruled they could see only the autopsy records in the Evelyn Hernandez case. Her body was found in water near the Bay Bridge nearly a year ago.
Separately today, the judge ruled prosecutors can review all but one wiretapped conversation taken from Scott Peterson's cell phone.
"The Kennedy Curse" fact or fiction:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Since John Kennedy, the president, was assassinated in 1963, the Kennedy's and those associated with them have been dying at the rate of one every two years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: The author of a controversial new biography joins us live. I'll ask him some questions about the unnamed sources and the allegations of drug abuse.
Plus, a tropical storm trucking along a popular vacation spot in its path, find out if you should change your plans.
And, explosion at a baseball game, what caused the security scare and sent an eight-year-old to the hospital?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: There's been a lot of criticism of a new book about the Kennedy's, most of it focusing on the allegations in the book of drug use, infidelity, and violence plaguing the marriage of John Kennedy, Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. The book is called "The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy has Haunted America's First Family for 150 years."
Its author is Ed Klein. He's joining us now live from New York to talk about this book. Very briefly Ed, first of all, "The Kennedy Curse," why did you come up with that name?
ED KLEIN, AUTHOR, "THE KENNEDY CURSE": Because the Kennedy's have been bedeviled for over a century by more calamities and deaths than any other family I could possibly have imagined.
BLITZER: And so you believe they were cursed, is that what you're saying?
KLEIN: I'm saying they're cursed because they have the classic case of hubris and the modern case of a genetic disposition. The hubris makes them over-achieving, over-reaching, men and women who seem to try to get away with things that the rest of us can't and, as far as the genetics is concerned, there are scientists who believe the Kennedy's carry a gene called the thrill-seeking gene.
BLITZER: Well, we're not going to get into that whole issue of the thrill-seeking gene but I do want to get into the whole issue of John and Carolyn, Carolyn Bessette.
Obviously, the excerpt in "Vanity Fair" has caused a huge uproar. The accusation against you is that you're smearing them when they're dead in the grave. They can't defend themselves.
I want you to listen to what one friend of John Kennedy, Jr. said about you and your book. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN PERRY BARLOW, FRIEND OF JFK, JR.: You know, quite apart from that, these are people who are dead. They're too dead to defend themselves and to exploit their memories given the fact that they're not in a position to defend themselves and with the knowledge that the family will not engage because they don't want to get wrestling the tar baby, is a form of grave robbery as far as I'm concerned.
I mean it's about a ghoulish a thing as you can do and all the sources in the article, not all of them but all of them that have sort of scurrilous information attached to them, are unnamed. I mean I could write a book demonstrating that Richard Nixon had been a child molester with unnamed sources and it would be just as valid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right, well what about that charge, Ed?
KLEIN: I think it's absurd. First of all, I've been reporting on the Kennedy's and writing about the Kennedy's for 15 years. I've interviewed several hundred people, most of them on the record.
There are 140 people on the record in my book, including many of the same people that this person just said were leveling scurrilous charges, including Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's former lover, Michael Bergin, the Calvin Klein underwear model who is very much on the record.
Secondly, as far as their being dead is concerned, there is a moral question about writing about the dead and it's a difficult question that we all face. There is, for instance, the question of should we write about Thomas Jefferson's love affair with his Black...
BLITZER: Well, let me interrupt here. Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States. Carolyn Bessette was the wife of John Kennedy, Jr., and you say in there based on anonymous sources she was using cocaine.
She was maybe having an affair with this former lover of hers that she was destroying, in effect, the marriage that she had with John Kennedy, Jr. when there really was no on the record evidence to back that up.
KLEIN: Well, there's the fact that when Carolyn and John went missing, the president of the United States, Bill Clinton, sent the United States Navy and Coast Guard to try to find them. These were not just your ordinary citizens. Even you, Wolf, probably wouldn't have the Navy look for you if you went down in a plane crash.
BLITZER: I know but Carolyn Bessette is really in a position right now, and certainly her parents and her loved ones, are in no position to come out and defend her on the basis of what you've written.
KLEIN: The reason they can't defend her is because those who knew her well and who were present when she was taking drugs were more than a half a dozen people that I talked to. There's no question in my mind given the old journalistic (unintelligible), trust me, trust my sources, but as a former editor-in-chief as I am of "The New York Times Magazine" I stand by my sources.
BLITZER: And what would you say to those who suggest that you're simply out doing this to make a buck, especially after you did have a long friendship with Mrs. Kennedy, with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, over many years. She would be outraged by this book.
KLEIN: Well, she wouldn't be happy to buy this book but does that mean that the obligation of a writer is to make somebody happy? The obligation of a writer, an historian, and a journalist is the truth, not the people they write about.
BLITZER: So, you're not backing away from anything, you're defending obviously your book.
KLEIN: I think it's a very important book because John Kennedy was in the minds of many, including mine, a fellow who had a tremendous future, somebody who could have achieved quite a great future including perhaps, who knows, running for president of the United States some day. Certainly, a lot of people thought so, and he died as a result of this totally unnecessary fatal accident.
BLITZER: But let me just wrap it up by saying this. You're not directly blaming her, Carolyn Bessette for the fatal accident even though you do report she had, what, three pedicures that day delaying the entire departure from New Jersey?
KLEIN: Yes. I'm saying that every minute that they delayed leaving was an important and critical minute but certainly the ultimate responsibility lies with John, who was in no emotional, physical situation to fly a plane. He even was not technically competent to fly that plane that night and it was ultimately his responsibility.
BLITZER: Ed Klein's new book is "The Kennedy Curse." It's caused a huge uproar but I'm sure it's probably going to sell a lot of copies. Ed Klein thanks for joining us.
KLEIN: Thank you very much.
BLITZER: Fallout over Iraq and uranium, the president dodges questions over bad intelligence. I'll try to get some straight answers from the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
Plus, fat stuff in unexpected places, more labels to warn you about it but will it really help trim the waistline? We'll take a much closer look.
And, Oscar de la Hoya, I'll go one-on-one with the boxer about life outside the ring. And, what do you get for betting against Senator Hillary Clinton's book? Tucker Carlson (AUDIO GAP) show you what happened. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(AUDIO/VIDEO GAP)
BLITZER: Should Congress launch a formal inquiry into President Bush's handling of Iraq intelligence? You can still vote. Go to cnn.com/wolf.
The fat you may have never known was there. Uncle Sam steps in to help all of us shape up. New guidelines that may change what we eat.
Also, the Saddam cover-up seen around the world. Find out what this U.S. Marine, this one who is placing the flag on top of Saddam Hussein's head, find out what's going on with him right now.
And look at this. Tucker Carlson gets ready to eat his shoe. Watch this. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton served it up. We'll show you what happened. She's now sold a million copies of her new book. And he's ready to eat that shoe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
Earlier we asked, "Which of these foods does not have trans-fat?"
The answer, steak. Most french fries, crackers and cookies contain them.
So what to doughnuts, french fries and crackers have in common?
They have their taste enhanced by artery clogging trans fat. There's been no way of knowing how much trans fat is in your food, but that will soon change.
Our Medical Correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen is joining us from the CNN center.
Elizabeth, tell our viewers, first of all, what's going to happen at their local supermarkets.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, at people's local super markets, starting in January 2006, all products are supposed to have trans fat labels right on the product. Now all you can find is total fat and saturated fat. Starting soon, trans fat will be added to that list.
BLITZER: What exactly is trans fat?
Why are we all of a sudden paying are we paying attention to it, and why is it becoming so dangerous.
COHEN: For decades they've been telling us trans fat clogs arteries. There are two types of fat basicly, good fat and bad fat. Bad fat clogs the arteries. You can see all these things flying around. They're going to stick to the sides of the vessels there and it's going to clog them up. And that's obviously bad for heart disease and stroke. So, trans fat clogs up the arteries.
BLITZER: The labels are going to tell us how much trans fat is in any food product. So what's the advice, how much can we eat without dying.
Unfortunetly, Wolf, there's no real answer to that question. The government hasn't set a maximum level of trans fat. However, health experts should say you shouldn't get more than 20 grams of saturated and transfat put together. With these new labels you can now add it up to 20. Now what I did was brought some foods that show you what 20 grams of bad fat looks like. If you have hash browns for breakfast and 8 fishsticks for lunch and then Oreos for a desret, well you have been eating all the bad fat that you can have in one day. That's 20 grams right there.
BLITZER: And I of course was joking. I was being sarcastic when siad how much can we before were dying.
Over the years we've been getting so much information about nutrition. But as a whole, the nation is getting fatter and fatter.
What's going on here?
COHEN: That's true. Some people are saying, who cares what it was labeled. We keep getting fatter. The more information they put on it, the fatter we get. Welll, you can look at it in another way. One is that, the more that the government says you have to label, the more food companies say, gee, we want our labels to look good. That's why for example, the Frito Lay company has made some of theirs without trans fat. They new the government was probably going to do this. They took trans fat out of this. When you look at the label on the back it says so that there's no trans fat. This is to get companies to start reformulating. Also just because on average Americans have gotten fatter, that doesn't mean that for some people these labels are very helpful.
BLITZER: I'm sure they'll be helpful for all of us.
2006, that's when all the labels have to be in place?
COHEN: That's right.
All right. Elizabeth Cohen with some useful information as she always provides us. Thanks, Elizabeth, very much.
Some people thought it was a bomb. We'll show you what really happened at the Oakland A's game last night that injured a little boy.
Plus, Oscar de la Hoya's million-dollar gift.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: At least one player says he thought it was a gun shot. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) grounded out to start the first, and the pitch is up and in. And we had some explosion down there. Somebody set off some pretty good fireworks, it appears, down in the stands, left field side.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Actually it was a cherry bomb exploding in the stands during the third inning of last night's A's/Devil Rays game in Oakland. An 8-year-old was burned on his legs and his father suffered hearing loss. Police arrested an unidentified man who is facing felony charges.
Throwing out the first pitch at Shea Stadium today, Sergeant Edward Chin (ph) of the United States Marine Corps. You may not know him by name, but you'll probably remember what he did in Iraq. Chin (ph) is the one who covered the face of the Saddam Hussein statue with an American flag the day Baghdad fell to U.S. forces. The 23-year-old Brooklyn native says both that and throwing out the first pitch for the Mets are once in a lifetime experiences.
Boxing champion Oscar de la Hoya is throwing his weight behind a drive to build more charter schools in California. Charter schools are independent public schools that operate outside the usual bureaucracy. De la Hoya has partnered with a nonprofit developer to open one in his home town, East L.A., and he's donating $1 million toward the project. I talked about it with him just a short while ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Oscar de la Hoya, thanks for joining us, and congratulations. You are giving away $1 million for charter schools. Tell us why.
OSCAR DE LA HOYA, BOXING CHAMPION: I am doing it because the kids deserve it. The kids want it, and they want to do something with it. And now that we're building the high school at the Oscar de la Hoya Foundation Center, we're excited.
BLITZER: This is your way of giving back to East L.A., which is where you are from?
DE LA HOYA: Definitely. It's just something small that I'm giving back from the heart, and there's still a lot more to give back, because the fans, the people that support my career, they've been doing it for so long, that this is just the way of me saying thank you.
BLITZER: Why charter schools? You know, there is some controversy, some educators don't believe the kids get as good an education in the charter schools as they would in a normal public school, for example. DE LA HOYA: Actually, they get a better education. The kids are graduating at an incredible rate. The parents are getting involved. They require to do 30 to 40 hours per year with their kids, with teachers, with the principal. So it's a great program. And I'm very thrilled and honored to be part of it.
BLITZER: Let's talk a little bit about boxing. You are not far from a boxing ring right now, a place close to your heart. First of all, women and boxing. Do you think that's a good idea?
DE LA HOYA: Well, I believe in equal opportunity, and if women want to fight, more power to them. I never close the doors on no one. I -- if they want to go up in the ring and fight, go ahead.
But it is a dangerous sport. It is very difficult. But there's a lot of women who can do it. And I believe that there can be women's boxing for more years to come.
BLITZER: When Laila Ali had her news conference, as you probably know, the other day with Christie Martin, was that staged or was that real?
DE LA HOYA: I believe it was real, because when you have two people that are going to fight in a matter of time, there's these emotions that are going through us. There's these feelings that we feel, that we just want to go ahead and fight at that moment. There's one thing of controlling those emotions and waiting until you fight in the ring, and then there's the emotions where you can't control and you do it right there and then. And maybe it was not a smart move by them fighting outside the ring, but it's going to be a good fight. That's for sure.
BLITZER: You've done a lot of positive things for the image of boxing. Mike Tyson has done the opposite. How much damage has he done?
DE LA HOYA: It's very sad, actually. I'm very -- I'm very disappointed, because at one point Mike Tyson was our heavyweight champion of the world. He was a nice, humble human being. And he's going through problems. He's going through emotional problems. I wish him the best. I wish him all the luck in the world to hopefully change his life around and get the right guidance. But he has put a small blemish on the sport of boxing.
BLITZER: One final question, Oscar. Before I let you go. There were a lot of reports in the "L.A. Times" and elsewhere over the past several days about a missing kid, a former girlfriend. That seems to have been resolved. What can you tell us about that?
DE LA HOYA: Well, I was very concerned. I was very shocked, actually. But thank God that those were just rumors.
BLITZER: And the 4-year-old, is that 4-year-old your son?
DE LA HOYA: Oh, definitely. Definitely. It was cleared up a long time ago, and I'm just very happy and very just -- I got emotional because it was -- I couldn't believe it. But now that it's all cleared up, and those comments were just all false. So we're very happy.
BLITZER: Thank God it's all cleared up, and thanks to you, Oscar de la Hoya, for all your good work, for joining us here on this program.
DE LA HOYA: Thank you very much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And our hot Web question of the day is this -- should Congress launch a formal inquiry into President Bush's handling of Iraq intelligence? You can still vote, cnn.com/wolf. The results when we come back.
And Tucker Carlson forced to eat a shoe after losing a bet on Senator Hillary Clinton's book. Guess who served it up? Look at this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Here's how you are weighing in on our Web question. Remember, we've been asking you this -- should Congress launch a formal inquiry into President Bush's handling of Iraq intelligence? Look at this, 93 percent of you say yes; 7 percent of you say no. As always, we remind you, this is not a scientific poll.
He said it couldn't be done. In fact, CNN "CROSSFIRE" co-host Tucker Carlson vowed that if Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton managed to sell a million copies of her new book, he'd eat his shoes. Today the publisher, Simon & Schuster, announced the million mark milestone, and for Tucker, it was time to eat his words. Lucky for him, Senator Clinton served him an edible shoe made by her friend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: Worried about, you know, how you were actually going to be able to eat and digest a shoe, I didn't even know what kind you were going to choose.
TUCKER CARLSON, CO-HOST, CROSSFIRE: Thank you.
CLINTON: So I had a friend of mine, Collette (ph), who is here somewhere from New York, do this for you, because I figured you had enough embarrassment and humiliation over this.
CARLSON: Yes, I have. Thank you.
CLINTON: That the least I could do was, you know, give you something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: That's it. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT." Jan Hopkins filling in. Starts right now. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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