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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports
New Videotape Threatens More Harm To U.S. Troops; Two Gehring Children Missing, Presumed Dead; Forensic Evidence Says Two Bodies Are Hussein's Son
Aired July 24, 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: We have to warn our viewers right here at the start the photographs released today that the U.S. government says are of the bodies of Uday and Qusay Hussein are extremely graphic. We will show them to you and our reporters, analysts, and guests, all of them are standing by to tell you what to expect next. It's coming up on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): Saddam's sons, the U.S. offers its proof.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, the regime of Saddam Hussein is gone forever.
BLITZER: Are Iraqis ready to believe that? Die-hards are vowing revenge and taking it against U.S. troops.
Who's to blame for September 11? Congress comes out with a massive report.
REP. JANE HARMAN (D), CALIFORNIA: What I worry about is two years later we haven't fixed all the problems.
BLITZER: In New York, shock and anger over a City Hall shooting. I'll speak with the brother of a slain councilman.
And they set sail from Cuba to Florida in a 1951 Chevy truck.
(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 Thursday, July 24, 2003. Hello from Washington, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting.
The Bush administration today announced flatly it's all over for Iraq's former ruling family and the United States has offered what it says is proof to convince Iraqis that Saddam Hussein's sons were indeed killed in Tuesday's shootout.
But, anti-American attacks in Iraq are surging, not subsiding. We'll go live to CNN's Nic Robertson in Baghdad and Brent Sadler, he's in Beirut, for Arab reaction, some of it rather chilling. First, though, those photos of Uday and Qusay, we caution you they are at times gruesome.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And now, more than ever, the Iraqis can know that the former regime is gone and is not coming back.
BLITZER: It was by no means an easy decision for the Bush administration to release the two very graphic photos they say are of Saddam Hussein's sons. The U.S. military has a long tradition of avoiding the distribution of pictures of the enemy killed in action.
But the top civilian leadership argued it was essential in the effort to convince still skeptical Iraqis that the Saddam Hussein regime has no chance of regaining power. The photos, they felt, could save lives over the long run.
PAUL BREMER, U.S. ADMIN. IN IRAQ: The strategic importance of the killings, of their being dead, is to help us persuade the Iraqi people that we are there having liberated the country. We're there and we're going to be sure that these Ba'athists have no future and I think it will, in fact, in time help reduce the security threat to our forces.
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Tuesday was a good day for the Iraqi people. The brutal careers of Uday and Qusay Hussein came to an end.
BLITZER: Both brothers had grown full beards in the weeks since the fall of Baghdad. The U.S. says this is the older brother, 39- year-old Uday Hussein seen with a virtually shaved head with extensive wounds around his mouth and nose. That's one reason why U.S. military commanders say they could only get a 90 percent confirmation from dental records.
But they did get better results from a comparison of x-rays. Uday's legs had been seriously injured during an unsuccessful assassination attempt in 1996. The tell-tale identification marks were there according to U.S. investigators. As for the 37-year-old Qusay, U.S. military commanders say they got a 100 percent dental match with considerably less destruction around his mouth.
Beyond the forensic evidence, U.S. commanders say four senior members of the former Iraqi regime provided positive identification and they add that the night before the gun battle in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, an informant had told U.S. officers the two brothers were hiding inside the house.
CHENEY: We've seen many challenges and many victories. Those victories have come exactly as President Bush said they would, sometimes in pitched battle, sometimes in the stealth of Special Operations, sometimes in sudden, decisive strikes like the one witnessed two days ago by the late Uday and Qusay Hussein. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: The photos are drawing a variety of reactions in Iraq where the deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein are also drawing vows of revenge.
Let's go live to our Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson. He's standing by in Baghdad, Nic the reaction first.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the majority of people we're talking to here do believe that these pictures support the case that Uday and Qusay are dead. They believe that.
They express that in a range of ways some people saying they're pleased that they're dead that the country can move on, others saying perhaps this can lead to more information being put forward about Saddam Hussein, others saying that they should have been taken alive so that they can be judged, and others saying that perhaps they will become martyrs for some - for people who would coalesce around forces opposing the United States here in Iraq.
And, certainly, one tape, videotape, passed to an Arab news station in Baghdad today might perhaps support that case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We want to say to the occupiers who said last evening that the killing of Uday and Qusay would decrease the attacks on the invaders, we want to say to them that the deaths of Uday and Qusay will increase the attacks on the soldiers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: There are people here who say that they don't believe these pictures prove that Uday and Qusay are dead. When we asked them, some people have said the pictures were perhaps a little dark that they couldn't identify them properly. Others say that this is all just part of an American conspiracy and fabrication.
But, perhaps, one of the better people to judge whether or not these pictures were Qusay and Uday and who is able to speak publicly was their former doctor. He appeared on a news station, an Arabic news station and he said conclusively he knew Uday and Qusay when they were alive and conclusively he said 100 percent he believed these pictures were proof that the brothers were dead - Wolf.
BLITZER: Nic Robertson in Baghdad, Nic thanks very much.
So, is the Arab world convinced that Uday and Qusay Hussein are indeed dead? Let's get reaction from our Beirut Bureau Chief Brent Sadler. He's standing by in Beirut - Brent.
BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF: Thanks, Wolf. Well, Arabic television channels went into immediate breaking news once those photographs were released and, I have to tell you that in this part of the world those images, those very gory images of Saddam Hussein's two eldest sons people here expected nothing less than to see the proof, the visible proof, of the demise of Saddam Hussein's offspring because in this part of the world it is very common for the offspring of dictators to succeed to take over power from their fathers.
So, apart from the fact that Saddam Hussein himself has been dealt a very serious blow in whatever he is doing now in terms of possibly being involved in resistance attacks against U.S. occupation forces as far as Saddam Hussein is concerned, the fact that his sons have been killed breaks forever, as far as viewers in the Middle East are concerned, the possibility of any return of course to power by Saddam Hussein and a handover to those two sons at some later stage in their development.
So, a very important cycle, generational cycle, broken there evident now to viewers right across the Middle East. Now, many analysts say that people certainly are going to be convinced from the wealth of information that's come out from those medical reports.
This is what one observer had to say about the fact that Saddam Hussein's position is now very seriously weakened and it's only a matter of time before he himself is either killed or captured.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIBRAN TUENI, PUBLISHER, AN-NAHAR: Even if the Americans would have been able to kill Saddam Hussein or to catch Saddam Hussein and not able to kill or to catch Qusay and Uday it would have been maybe much more - it would have been a bigger problem for them than killing now Qusay and Uday and going after Saddam Hussein now. Saddam Hussein without Qusay and Uday is less dangerous than Qusay or Uday without Saddam Hussein.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SADLER: And many observers here believe that Saddam Hussein's next step, presuming he's alive, might be to distribute some kind of voice recording in the aftermath of the killing of his two sons - Wolf.
BLITZER: CNN's Brent Sadler in Beirut, Brent thanks very much.
What do these photos tell us overall? Dr. Cyril Wecht is one of the world's foremost experts in forensic pathology. As a coroner he's performed 14,000 autopsies. He also holds a law degree and is a university professor and author. Dr. Wecht is joining us now live from West Palm Beach, Florida.
You've had a chance to look at these pictures, Dr. Wecht. What do they say to you?
DR. CYRIL WECHT, CORONER, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PA: Well, the physiognomy certainly appears to be a positive identification, Wolf. I frankly believe not for aesthetic purposes but for more direct and complete visual identification the faces should have been cleaned up.
I also would have had a barber come in and cut off the beards in order to try to simulate as closely as possible the last known distributed pictures of those two fellows so that people in Iraq, particularly, could see more closely.
Now, forensic odontological examinations have been done, as we were told, one a 100 percent identification, one 90 percent because of damage evidently probably to the upper teeth.
I would also hope that if it is possible to have materials to which comparisons can be made that they will undertake fingerprints and DNA ultimately because then that will eliminate all skepticism, cynicism, and political rejection on the part of Iraqis and the rest of the world.
They should be able to do that. We talked before about the (unintelligible) line coming down on the mother's side. They've got relatives I'm sure in Tikrit where these people are from and I hope that they will do that and I would also suggest then that they have the test participated in and even independently conducted by experts in other countries.
BLITZER: They say - Dr. Wecht, they say they're absolutely going to do that including a full DNA examination if they haven't done that yet.
Let's take a look, first of all, at Qusay Hussein - excuse me Uday Hussein. Let's go to Uday first, the older brother. His face badly damaged as you see in these pictures. Uday Hussein, the nose, the mouth, the entire area, but those cheeks look so puffy as you can see on the body there. What exactly happened?
WECHT: Well, the puffiness can be due to early postmortem decomposition. It's still quite hot over there. I do not know how many hours had elapsed. They also could have gained weight since those pictures were taken and simply been out of shape.
They also can have swelling of the tissues as a result of the trauma, hemorrhage into the soft tissues from the head and facial wounds, so all of those things together could account for the seeming distortion, the bloating of the facial features.
The finding of the x-ray evidence is extremely important, Wolf. I've been involved in cases and my colleagues have too where you have pins and plates from old injuries and so on. Certain things like that can be very, very definitive and...
BLITZER: There's been a lot of talk that he had a titanium knee, for example, knee cap in place.
WECHT: Yes.
BLITZER: From that assassination attempt. That would have been very significant as well.
Let's go to the photograph of the younger brother, Qusay. I want to put that up on our screen and show our viewers right now. There has been some speculation, as you well know, one or two or perhaps neither of the brothers may have committed suicide.
WECHT: Yes.
BLITZER: I there any way from these pictures to get some sense of whether or not that is possible?
WECHT: I would say not because, Wolf, in light of the tremendous firepower that was utilized in overpowering those people the possibility of their having sustained a head wound from gunfire externally as contrasted to their having shot themselves can not be eliminated by looking at the pictures.
If one had the bodies and looking at the wounds, then you can see if you got a close or near contact wound as from a suicide and contrast that with a distant shot which would have been the case with shots fired from the outside. I couldn't, I wouldn't venture a guess though from these pictures alone.
BLITZER: Dr. Cyril Wecht, we always rely on your expertise.
WECHT: Thank you.
BLITZER: And you provided us with some good analysis, thanks very much.
WECHT: Thanks, Wolf.
BLITZER: And here's your turn to weigh in on this story. Our web question of the day is this. "Was the United States right to release the photos of both of the bodies of Saddam Hussein's sons?" 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, our viewers. 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.
There has been an upsurge in attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and the killing of Saddam Hussein's sons has done nothing so far to alter that. Three U.S. soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, which took part in that assault on Saddam's sons, were killed early today in northern Iraq.
The U.S. military says their convoy was hit by gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades. Two hundred thirty-nine American troops have died in Iraq since the start of the war, 101 of them have died since May 1 when President Bush declared an end to major combat.
Meanwhile, with the deaths of Saddam Hussein's sons, 37 of the 55 Iraqis on the U.S. governments most wanted list have now been captured or killed, 18 remain at large.
A lot of other news breaking around the country right now, a new development in the case against Kobe Bryant. That story breaking. We'll have that this hour.
Also, the key clues that might have prevented the September 11 terror attacks, the congressional report is huge. It's just been released and why some key points were omitted.
Also, the vice president of the United States, Dick Cheney, he's firing directly back defending pre-war intelligence on Iraq. Our John King will have the latest on that.
And, the legacy being left behind a murdered city councilman, I'll talk directly and live with the victim's brother. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: A nearly year-long congressional investigation into the September 11 attacks finds no single intelligence failure that could have prevented the worst terror strike in U.S. history but it doesn't let intelligence and law enforcement agencies completely off the hook.
CNN National Correspondent Bob Franken has been combing through the report. He's here with us for details - Bob.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Although there was no smoking gun, the heavily censored new report places the blame on U.S. intelligence, most of it on the FBI and CIA. The community missed opportunities, the report said, to disrupt the September 11 plot.
SEN. ROBERT GRAHAM (D), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: The attacks of September the 11 could have been prevented if the right combination of skill, cooperation, creativity, and some good luck had been brought to the task.
FRANKEN: According to the report, the best chance to prevent the attack centered on events during the year 2000 in San Diego, numerous contacts between an FBI informant and two hijackers, Khalid Almidhar and Nawaf Alhazmi.
An FBI agent in San Diego told congressional investigators that if headquarters had told him they were already on a government watch list, quoting the agent, "it would have made a huge difference. We would have done everything. We would have given them the full court press."
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: These were not cryptic things. These were a couple of things that should have been more apparent to the intelligence agencies. These were leads that were not adequately pursued.
FRANKEN: Although much of the information in this report has been publicly discussed for months, some of it is new. For instance, there was intelligence that the so-called mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, traveled to and from the United States in May, 2001; however, a U.S. official now insists that never happened.
And, for years, there had been warnings about al Qaeda and threats to the United States which the reports says went unheeded. Summer of 1998, a memo suggest UBL, Osama bin Laden, is planning attacks in the U.S. Redaction says plans are to attack in New York and Washington. Information mentions an attack in Washington, probably against public places.
The individual author's name and his agency were removed; in fact, the Bush administration refused to declassify large portions of the approximately 800-page report, information for instance about the role of Saudi Arabia.
SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: There's a lot of stuff in here but there's a lot of information hat's not in here that should be in my judgment but we did the best we could.
FRANKEN: One question what did President Bush know about the threat? The committee was denied access to any intelligence information shared with the president.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN: The only evidence provided was a description of a so- called PDB, a presidential daily briefing about the danger of an attack that was dated August 6, 2001, just over a month before the September 11 plot was carried out.
And, we have a late statement from the FBI Director Robert Mueller saying that the recommendations that were made by the committee to a large part are being carried out already by the FBI. Mueller says while the report provides a snapshot of the FBI on September 11, 2001, the picture of the FBI today shows a changed organization - Wolf.
BLITZER: Bob Franken with the complete overview of the report. Thanks Bob very much.
Joining me now, here in Washington to talk a little bit more about this report our Terrorism Analyst Peter Bergen. You've had a chance to go through a lot of this, what jumped out at you right away, Peter?
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, there were a lot of interesting details. For instance, in the appendix it says that apparently members of bin Laden's organization were interested in hijacking planes. This was information that was gathered by the U.S. government in '98 and, in fact, that there was a dry run at a New York Airport. It doesn't say anything more. This seems quite interesting to me.
The NSA, the National Security Agency, had in the year 2001, had 33 separate intercepts indicated an imminent terrorist attack so there's a lot of these kind of nitty gritty detail. I think one thing that we've heard a lot about the criticism is about FBI, CIA.
One institution that comes in for some criticism in the report, I think, is the U.S. military. There was a section of the report about the covert action to get bin Laden in August, '98 forward. The U.S. military apparently was very reluctant to put boots on the ground in Afghanistan for any kind of snatch or kill operation of Osama bin Laden, so they come in for some criticism on that front.
BLITZER: Missed opportunities galore. Obviously, everyone's a lot smarter with hindsight.
BERGEN: Yes.
BLITZER: The notion that they really sanitized a big chunk of this report to protect, for example, Saudi Arabia. How does that stand out in your mind?
BERGEN: Well, let's view the interesting thought experiment, Wolf that instead of Saudi Arabia the information was about Iraq. Do you think they'd sanitize that? You know clearly there is some...
BLITZER: Because they don't care about U.S.-Iraqi relations nor did the former regime.
BERGEN: Right. So, clearly, you know, I've heard from people involved in the investigation in the past that the Saudis have continued to be obstructionist into the 9/11 investigation.
Now, that conversation happened before the Riyadh attacks which I think have changed, which happened in May, have changed Saudi authorities' views of the threat posed by al Qaeda. They've taken a more proactive stance. Nonetheless, it's puzzling to me why, you know, 26 pages of this report are not in there.
BLITZER: We've heard some members of the Intelligence Committee, Jane Harman for one, say almost two years after 9/11 a lot of what the U.S. should be doing hasn't yet been done.
BERGEN: Well, I've heard from other people in the intelligence community that the human intelligence is still not particularly good, partly because the background checks are still even perhaps more onerous than they might have been before 9/11. The kinds of people who were good at this are the sorts of people that lawyers don't like at agencies or the sort of people that don't get on very well with bureaucrats, so that's still a problem and, clearly, Osama bin Laden is still at large two years, almost two years after 9/11.
BLITZER: Still on the loose but they're looking for him. Peter Bergen thanks very much.
BERGEN: Thank you.
BLITZER: A new twist in the Kobe Bryant case, just ahead new information about the alleged victim and the judge is ready to make a key ruling. We'll have a live report from Colorado.
Also, inside the jury in the police beating case that's now caught on tape, what factors may influence the verdict?
And, that New York City shooting we were reporting exactly 24 hours ago, the legacy left behind by the murdered city councilman.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BREAKING NEWS)
BLITZER: We have new information coming into CNN right now about the woman who is accusing Kobe Bryant of sexual assault, information that could play into the basketball star's defense.
Our Rusty Dornin is following the story and another breaking development in Eagle, Colorado as well. Rusty, what do you have?
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, as you know people will talk in a high profile case like this but the judge here wants to stop any prejudicial pretrial publicity so he's clamping down on the prosecution, the defense, law enforcement, and court staff.
He stopped short of a court order but his is an order regarding pretrial publicity. He's basically telling them you cannot talk about evidence. You cannot talk about your personal opinion in this case because, of course, it could prejudice the case against Kobe Bryant.
Now, even in the community, the community themselves seem to be clamping down. The mother of the alleged victim, the parents of course have asked her friends not to talk to the media anymore and also three hotels, at least three hotels in the area have told their employees if they talk to the media they will be fired.
In fact, we had a hotel employee who had given us some information, who came up to us and said, please, I have two children. Please do not tell anyone that I have talked to you. So, even within this community, they are restricting any leaks that are coming out about this.
Now, meantime, there were some 9-1-1 calls to the alleged victim's house, one last month regarding her overdose on pills. Now, the media is trying to unseal the documents in that case. The judge will be considering that over the weekend and may have a ruling on Monday or Tuesday.
But, we have a new report that was first reported by "Celebrity Justice" that we have confirmed with the chief of police in (unintelligible), Colorado, the University of Northern Colorado that on February 25 the alleged victim, the police were called to her campus room. She was determined to be a danger to herself. Police took her into custody and took her to a medical center.
We have no further information on that, what was involved, and why they did that, although the chief of police says he does believe that she did continue and finish her campus studies. So, we are continuing to have information come out about the alleged victim but the court now is trying to restrict that coverage so as not to make any trial prejudicial - Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Rusty Dornin on this very, very high profile case, thanks Rusty very much.
Twenty-four hours ago we were reporting about a shooting in New York City. Well, security at New York City Hall is much tighter than usual today. The Mayor Michael Bloomberg stepped through a City Hall metal detector earlier today, something he and council members were exempt from doing until now.
It all changed tragically after the New York City Councilman James Davis was shot and killed yesterday by someone being described as a political rival who was then shot and killed by police.
Joining us now from New York is Geoffrey Davis, here to talk to us about his brother's life and legacy.
Our deepest condolences, first of all, to you Geoffrey. I know your brother was a good man. But do you have any idea with this Othniel Askew killed your brother?
GEOFFREY DAVIS, COUNCILMAN DAVIS' BROTHER: No, no, I have no idea why he killed my brother, no. No.
BLITZER: He's being described as a political rival, if you will. Was there a rivalry beyond anything that's been in the papers as far as you know?
DAVIS: Of course not, no. No. My brother's campaigning for the primary September 9, which is coming up, 2003. There was no political rival whatsoever.
BLITZER: There was talk that he actually walked in to city hall with the shooter, Othniel Askew. Do you know that to be true?
DAVIS: No, I don't know that to be true. But what I do know is that my brother does not have or any city council member does not have the authority to allow a friend or a partner or anyone whatsoever to go through city hall. I do know that. There are security that's placed -- that are put in place to check everyone coming through those gates, to protect our elected officials.
BLITZER: Well the mayor said yesterday the Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, they both said that for council members and their invited guests there was a separate procedure. They didn't have to get through the magnetometers, the metal detectors. And your brother obviously didn't go through and since this Othniel Askew was going with him, he didn't go through either. Presumably, that's why his gun wasn't detected. Are you questioning that?
DAVIS: Yes, I am questioning that. Security is placed there to protect our elected officials. And I am definitely questioning that completely entirely. We don't know the minds of people. Evil, hatred has no look. So I'm definitely questioning that. In fact, when I came to this building, I was escorted in from the security personnel downstairs and the first thing that security did was say, I realize you're being escorted in, however, we want to see your I.D. There should be some form of I.D. that had to be checked.
BLITZER: So where do you go from here on Geoffrey? What are you going to do about this tragic loss of your brother?
DAVIS: Well, my brother, whom I love dearly, for the rest of my life, created a legacy. He spoke against police brutality. He spoke against black-on-black crime. He spoke against the injustices of inner city communities. And we're going to continue to struggle. He was dedicated to the struggle. I'm dedicated to the struggle. We're going to continue to go forth and bring the word out to the community, letting the community know that we can continue to build, continue to organize, continue to love each other and continue to make an effort to stop violence in the inner city communities and all throughout the world. We're going to continue to go on with that campaign.
BLITZER: Geoffrey Davis, once again our heart goes out to you and your entire family. Our deepest condolences. Thanks very much for joining us.
DAVIS: Thank you so much.
BLITZER: On the offensive over prewar intelligence, what the Vice President Dick Cheney has to say about prewar and post-war Iraq. Also, the police beating caught on tape. What action has the jury taken today? And later, get this, from Cuba, to Key West, the drive, that's right, the drive to freedom.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN. Vice President Dick Cheney fires back on criticism over prewar intelligence. We'll have John King from the White House on that.
First though, more on our top story of the day. The pictures, the U.S. government says include pictures of Uday and Qusay Hussein, and we warn you, some of the images are graphic.
A doctor tells Abu Dhabi Television grisly photographs released today are definitely Uday and Qusay Hussein. The physician is believed to be the families plastic surgeon said the pictures are, and I'm quoting now, "100 percent accurate". U.S. administrators went public with the photos to convince Iraqi skeptics the Hussein brothers are indeed dead.
Preparing for the worst at the Pentagon. Members of the special protection force, local police and fire units slipped on gas masks for an emergency drill centered on a mock chemical attack. An organizer says improving interagency communications is one of the main goals of today's post-September 11 drill. Vice president Dick Cheney is strongly defending the administration's decision to invade Iraq, and pointing to a recently released intelligence report as justification. Our senior White House correspondent John king is covering the story now from the White House. John, we hadn't heard from the vice president in awhile. But he came out swinging today.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, they rolled the vice president out when they believe they need to accomplish a key mission. The vice president's mission today was to make the case that all this controversy over whether there was strong enough of a case to go to war is in the vice president's view a great diversion.
Speaking here in Washington, the vice president did not mention specifically the debate over that now infamous and now discredited claim by the administration that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium in Africa, is what the White House said was part of an effort to bolster its nuclear weapons program. But the vice president did say that there were a number of other available information, consensus information, he said, among the intelligence agencies. He said there was no doubt that Iraq was pursue being chemical and biological weapons.
Within a decade he said of developing a nuclear weapon. And of course public evidence that Iraq was defying and stalling and keeping the U.N. weapons inspectors from doing their jobs. After giving a list of what he said was consensus intelligence information about Iraq, the vice president issued a direct challenge to those who now question the White House case for going to war in the first place.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now the regime of Saddam Hussein is gone forever. And at a safe removed from the danger, some are now trying to cast doubt upon the decision to liberate Iraq. The ability to criticize is one of the great strengths of our democracy. But those who do so have an obligation to answer this question. How could any responsible leader have ignored the Iraqi threat?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: President Bush on the road today said much the same in much less detail, however. The president saying the Iraqi leader, the former Iraqi leader, was defying the United Nations and the world and that he had no choice but to act -- Wolf.
BLITZER: John King at the White House. Thanks, John, very much.
Once again our web question of the day is this, was the United States right to release the photos of the bodies of Saddam's sons? We'll have the results later in this broadcast. Go ahead and vote right now, CNN.com/wolf.
The police beating caught on tape goes to the jury. What's at stake for the officer charged in the case? We'll have a live report right after the next break. First, though, a look at some other headlines from around the world.
Cleanup in southern China after an unwelcome visit from Typhoon Imbudo. It's the strongest to hit Guangdong province in seven years with winds that reached 115 miles an hour. At least 11 people were injured on top of at least 11 people were injured on top of at least 10 killed in the Philippines.
Just when the SARS epidemic seemed under control in Hong Kong, 12 new suspected cases. Eleven are patients at a mental institution. SARS is blamed for 300 deaths in Hong Kong this year.
Call her the human submarine. A British woman has broken the woman's free diving record, riding a weighted sled 311 feet into the Caribbean Sea. She held her breath for an incredible three minutes and 38 seconds.
A special Israeli government committee has voted to release some Palestinian prisoners. A source puts the number at a couple hundred. But the panel says the full Israeli cabinet will have to take up the release.
The first of 2,300 international troops have arrived in the capital of the Solomon Islands. They're charged with ending the violence caused by armed militants and criminals that's plagued the country. It's the largest military buildup in the South Pacific since World War II.
And Spain doesn't have a lock on the running of the bulls. One city in Veracruz, Mexico, has its own festival, now in its 28th year. Six people were injured, three of them seriously.
And that's our look "Around the World."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back.
Jurors in Southern California have to make an important decision today. Was this less than gentle, shall we say, arrest of a teenager the act of an out-of-control police officer or the work of a professional trying to handle a difficult situation?
Last year's videotaped incident was, of course, widely publicized. The case was turned over to the jury today. CNN's Dan Lothian is joining us now from Los Angeles County Superior Court.
What's going on, Dan?
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the jury is deliberating on the eighth floor of the courthouse behind me. They have been doing so now for the past three hours deciding the fate of two former Englewood police officers. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LOTHIAN (voice-over): Is this the picture of an out-of-control police officer carrying out street justice, or a display of law enforcement using reasonable force in an unpredictable situation?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lift your hands to approximately shoulder level, slamming them down forcefully on the trunk of the car.
LOTHIAN: In Los Angeles, California, those were some of the questions before a jury, seven days of testimony in the videotaped beating case of then 16-year-old Donovan Jackson.
Former officer Jeremy Morse charged with assault under the color of authority, and his ex-partner, Bijan Darvish, charged with filing a false police report.
It happened a little more than a year ago at this Englewood gas station. Jackson, handcuffed, slammed onto a squad car and punched. What started out as a suspicious car registration inquiry ended up in a controversial beating videotaped by a guest at this hotel across the street.
The community was outraged. Jackson, his father said then, was left terrorized.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They wake up at night screaming. He's scared of police now. He's scared to go outside by himself.
LOTHIAN: Morse, through his attorney, has maintained he punched only after he was grabbed in the groin area.
And in trial, the defense presented a use of force expert and other witnesses who concluded the actions taken that day were reasonable.
JOHN BARNETT, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Officer Morse followed policy and he was within that policy.
LOTHIAN: But prosecutors presented their own witnesses who said just the opposite and put Jackson on the stand, who testified he never resisted.
In a community still angry, there have been fears about unrest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our message is we want everyone to be calm, cool and collected and really we want to make sure there's no violence.
CROWD: No justice, no peace. No justice, no peace.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LOTHIAN: Now, Wolf, CNN has just learned that members of the jury have requested that some testimony be read back to them. This is testimony from a prosecution witness who testified about the use of force -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Dan Lothian on the scene for us. And we'll be checking back with you when we get word. Thanks, Dan, very much.
Reading the jury in this case and any case, of course, may prove to be an incredibly difficult challenge. The panel is composed of six men and six women. One juror is African American. The accused officer is white. His alleged victim is black. But race has not been raised as an issue in the trial.
James Curtis is a former California prosecutor who can now be seen on Court TV. He's joining us now live from New York.
Thanks, James, very much for joining us.
JAMES CURTIS, COURT TV: My pleasure.
BLITZER: What, if anything, can we make up from this jury? You've been trying to watch this trial unfold.
CURTIS: Yes, well, you know, Wolf, like you said at the top, it is like reading to tea leaves to a large extent. Dan Lothian's excellent report with respect to what the readback that was asked for by these jurors can give us some insight, just perhaps as to exactly what they're thinking about.
I would have guessed -- and I'm not surprised by the fact that they are requesting and wanting to hear more about this use of force issue. The bottom line is, from a legal standpoint, were these officers -- was this officer within his administrative rights, as well as criminal rights to use the kind of force that he used. And that's probably going to be the biggest factor.
BLITZER: The video is so incredibly, at least on the surface, damaging to the police officer, because he slams the young kid's head pretty hard on the ground -- on the car as we've all seen multiple times. But he alleges, the police officer, that the alleged victim grabbed him in the groin, causing him incredible pain. That's why he reacted. Is the jury going to buy that?
CURTIS: Well, the jury may buy it if, indeed, they think or they adopt the standpoint, the point of view that his response to that grabbing, if, indeed it did happen -- certainly no one ultimately testifies as to whether it happened or not other than Jeremy Morse, the police officer in question.
Even if that's true, was his response appropriate? That's going to be what they're looking at in determining whether or not the training that LAPD police officers receive is consistent with that conduct.
BLITZER: They say race is not a factor here. But it's a white cop, a black alleged victim; the jury is almost all white. Is this going to be a factor?
CURTIS: Absolutely. I think that any time, especially in Southern California, where we have had such heated outbreaks based on racially charged issues stemming back for Rodney King, even issues of race certainly in the O.J. Simpson trial and other trials that have been very, very high profile -- I don't think that although it was not overtly stated and dealt with as an issue in this trial, it is certainly a strong undercurrent -- underpinning to all of these issues.
BLITZER: James Curtis of Court TV helping us understand this case. We'll be standing by for the verdict. James, thanks very much for that.
CURTIS: Thanks, Wolf.
BLITZER: Let's move to a developing story that we're following right now on the nationwide search for those two missing children. Their father accused of killing them. Today, a public plea for help.
CNN's Sean Callebs is joining us now live with details -- Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, here's the latest information in the search for the children.
A 44-year-old Manuel Gehring stands accused of murdering his two children. So far authorities have not been able to find their bodies, and as you said, are now appealing to the public for assistance.
The two, 14-year-old Sara and 11-year-old Phillip Gehring, were last seen (AUDIO GAP).
They believe the two children could be in shallow graves somewhere between the Indiana/Ohio border and Joliet, Illinois. That is a big distance of a distance of nearly 190 miles. Here is some information investigators believe may be of assistance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM DELONG, FBI: There should be a large yellow or tan building, perhaps a metal building that's within view and nearby of the burial site. And then lastly, the burial site is suspected to be within ten miles north or south of interstate 80. I know that's a large area to cover when you talk about Pennsylvania, to Joliet, Illinois. And that's why we need your help.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: Now Gehring had been in a custody battle with his former wife. Today he pleaded not guilty to two counts of first degree murder -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Sean Callebs following this search for these two young kids. Thanks, Sean, very much.
An amazing effort at freedom to leave Cuba. An old Chevy truck converted, look at this, into a boat. What happened when the United States Coast Guard spotted this ship? First, though, our news clip. Which President signed the law allowing Cubans to reach American soil to stay? Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, or Richard Nixon? The answer coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Earlier we asked, which president signed the law allowing Cubans who reach American soil to stay? The answer Lyndon Johnson. He signed the Cuban Adjustment Act exempting Cubans from general U.S. immigration laws on November 2, 1966.
Cubans desperate to reach the United States have tried all sorts of ways to make the dangerous trip across the Florida strait. But a recent attempt is believed to be the first of its kind. CNN's Havana bureau chief Lucia Newman explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF: We've seen Cubans trying to row to Florida, sail to Florida, but never, never before had anyone ever seen Cubans trying to drive to Florida. That's just what twelve would-be immigrants did, in a 1951 Chevy pickup truck.
It was spotted by the U.S. Coast Guard doing a brisk eight miles per hour, about 40 miles from Key West. Using 50 gallon oil drums as floaters. Coast guard officers say they couldn't believe their eyes when they saw the driver at the wheel steering the truck. The engine running to activate an attached propeller.
The distance from this point to Key West is roughly 120 miles. About a two-hour drive to Florida at normal speed, if there was a road. But on water this trip would have taken 15 hours. Except that like most Cubans who are picked up at open sea this latest group was returned to Cuba on Sunday.
The U.S. coast guard normally returns them to this port about 35 miles from Havana in accordance with the 1994 U.S./Cuban migration agreement which says Cuba cannot take reprisals against the rafters. Cuban authorities haven't furnished the names or whereabouts of the people who tried trucking to Florida. But few would argue that at the very least they deserve full marks for creativity. Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: You've got to give those people credit. The results of our Web question, that's coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in on our Web question of the day. Was the U.S. right to release the photos of the bodies of Saddam's sons? Look at this, 65 percent say yes, 35 percent say no. Remember this is not a scientific poll.
I'll see you tomorrow. Until then, thanks very much for watching. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.
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Gehring Children Missing, Presumed Dead; Forensic Evidence Says Two Bodies Are Hussein's Son>
Aired July 24, 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: We have to warn our viewers right here at the start the photographs released today that the U.S. government says are of the bodies of Uday and Qusay Hussein are extremely graphic. We will show them to you and our reporters, analysts, and guests, all of them are standing by to tell you what to expect next. It's coming up on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): Saddam's sons, the U.S. offers its proof.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, the regime of Saddam Hussein is gone forever.
BLITZER: Are Iraqis ready to believe that? Die-hards are vowing revenge and taking it against U.S. troops.
Who's to blame for September 11? Congress comes out with a massive report.
REP. JANE HARMAN (D), CALIFORNIA: What I worry about is two years later we haven't fixed all the problems.
BLITZER: In New York, shock and anger over a City Hall shooting. I'll speak with the brother of a slain councilman.
And they set sail from Cuba to Florida in a 1951 Chevy truck.
(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 Thursday, July 24, 2003. Hello from Washington, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting.
The Bush administration today announced flatly it's all over for Iraq's former ruling family and the United States has offered what it says is proof to convince Iraqis that Saddam Hussein's sons were indeed killed in Tuesday's shootout.
But, anti-American attacks in Iraq are surging, not subsiding. We'll go live to CNN's Nic Robertson in Baghdad and Brent Sadler, he's in Beirut, for Arab reaction, some of it rather chilling. First, though, those photos of Uday and Qusay, we caution you they are at times gruesome.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And now, more than ever, the Iraqis can know that the former regime is gone and is not coming back.
BLITZER: It was by no means an easy decision for the Bush administration to release the two very graphic photos they say are of Saddam Hussein's sons. The U.S. military has a long tradition of avoiding the distribution of pictures of the enemy killed in action.
But the top civilian leadership argued it was essential in the effort to convince still skeptical Iraqis that the Saddam Hussein regime has no chance of regaining power. The photos, they felt, could save lives over the long run.
PAUL BREMER, U.S. ADMIN. IN IRAQ: The strategic importance of the killings, of their being dead, is to help us persuade the Iraqi people that we are there having liberated the country. We're there and we're going to be sure that these Ba'athists have no future and I think it will, in fact, in time help reduce the security threat to our forces.
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Tuesday was a good day for the Iraqi people. The brutal careers of Uday and Qusay Hussein came to an end.
BLITZER: Both brothers had grown full beards in the weeks since the fall of Baghdad. The U.S. says this is the older brother, 39- year-old Uday Hussein seen with a virtually shaved head with extensive wounds around his mouth and nose. That's one reason why U.S. military commanders say they could only get a 90 percent confirmation from dental records.
But they did get better results from a comparison of x-rays. Uday's legs had been seriously injured during an unsuccessful assassination attempt in 1996. The tell-tale identification marks were there according to U.S. investigators. As for the 37-year-old Qusay, U.S. military commanders say they got a 100 percent dental match with considerably less destruction around his mouth.
Beyond the forensic evidence, U.S. commanders say four senior members of the former Iraqi regime provided positive identification and they add that the night before the gun battle in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, an informant had told U.S. officers the two brothers were hiding inside the house.
CHENEY: We've seen many challenges and many victories. Those victories have come exactly as President Bush said they would, sometimes in pitched battle, sometimes in the stealth of Special Operations, sometimes in sudden, decisive strikes like the one witnessed two days ago by the late Uday and Qusay Hussein. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: The photos are drawing a variety of reactions in Iraq where the deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein are also drawing vows of revenge.
Let's go live to our Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson. He's standing by in Baghdad, Nic the reaction first.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the majority of people we're talking to here do believe that these pictures support the case that Uday and Qusay are dead. They believe that.
They express that in a range of ways some people saying they're pleased that they're dead that the country can move on, others saying perhaps this can lead to more information being put forward about Saddam Hussein, others saying that they should have been taken alive so that they can be judged, and others saying that perhaps they will become martyrs for some - for people who would coalesce around forces opposing the United States here in Iraq.
And, certainly, one tape, videotape, passed to an Arab news station in Baghdad today might perhaps support that case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We want to say to the occupiers who said last evening that the killing of Uday and Qusay would decrease the attacks on the invaders, we want to say to them that the deaths of Uday and Qusay will increase the attacks on the soldiers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: There are people here who say that they don't believe these pictures prove that Uday and Qusay are dead. When we asked them, some people have said the pictures were perhaps a little dark that they couldn't identify them properly. Others say that this is all just part of an American conspiracy and fabrication.
But, perhaps, one of the better people to judge whether or not these pictures were Qusay and Uday and who is able to speak publicly was their former doctor. He appeared on a news station, an Arabic news station and he said conclusively he knew Uday and Qusay when they were alive and conclusively he said 100 percent he believed these pictures were proof that the brothers were dead - Wolf.
BLITZER: Nic Robertson in Baghdad, Nic thanks very much.
So, is the Arab world convinced that Uday and Qusay Hussein are indeed dead? Let's get reaction from our Beirut Bureau Chief Brent Sadler. He's standing by in Beirut - Brent.
BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF: Thanks, Wolf. Well, Arabic television channels went into immediate breaking news once those photographs were released and, I have to tell you that in this part of the world those images, those very gory images of Saddam Hussein's two eldest sons people here expected nothing less than to see the proof, the visible proof, of the demise of Saddam Hussein's offspring because in this part of the world it is very common for the offspring of dictators to succeed to take over power from their fathers.
So, apart from the fact that Saddam Hussein himself has been dealt a very serious blow in whatever he is doing now in terms of possibly being involved in resistance attacks against U.S. occupation forces as far as Saddam Hussein is concerned, the fact that his sons have been killed breaks forever, as far as viewers in the Middle East are concerned, the possibility of any return of course to power by Saddam Hussein and a handover to those two sons at some later stage in their development.
So, a very important cycle, generational cycle, broken there evident now to viewers right across the Middle East. Now, many analysts say that people certainly are going to be convinced from the wealth of information that's come out from those medical reports.
This is what one observer had to say about the fact that Saddam Hussein's position is now very seriously weakened and it's only a matter of time before he himself is either killed or captured.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIBRAN TUENI, PUBLISHER, AN-NAHAR: Even if the Americans would have been able to kill Saddam Hussein or to catch Saddam Hussein and not able to kill or to catch Qusay and Uday it would have been maybe much more - it would have been a bigger problem for them than killing now Qusay and Uday and going after Saddam Hussein now. Saddam Hussein without Qusay and Uday is less dangerous than Qusay or Uday without Saddam Hussein.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SADLER: And many observers here believe that Saddam Hussein's next step, presuming he's alive, might be to distribute some kind of voice recording in the aftermath of the killing of his two sons - Wolf.
BLITZER: CNN's Brent Sadler in Beirut, Brent thanks very much.
What do these photos tell us overall? Dr. Cyril Wecht is one of the world's foremost experts in forensic pathology. As a coroner he's performed 14,000 autopsies. He also holds a law degree and is a university professor and author. Dr. Wecht is joining us now live from West Palm Beach, Florida.
You've had a chance to look at these pictures, Dr. Wecht. What do they say to you?
DR. CYRIL WECHT, CORONER, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PA: Well, the physiognomy certainly appears to be a positive identification, Wolf. I frankly believe not for aesthetic purposes but for more direct and complete visual identification the faces should have been cleaned up.
I also would have had a barber come in and cut off the beards in order to try to simulate as closely as possible the last known distributed pictures of those two fellows so that people in Iraq, particularly, could see more closely.
Now, forensic odontological examinations have been done, as we were told, one a 100 percent identification, one 90 percent because of damage evidently probably to the upper teeth.
I would also hope that if it is possible to have materials to which comparisons can be made that they will undertake fingerprints and DNA ultimately because then that will eliminate all skepticism, cynicism, and political rejection on the part of Iraqis and the rest of the world.
They should be able to do that. We talked before about the (unintelligible) line coming down on the mother's side. They've got relatives I'm sure in Tikrit where these people are from and I hope that they will do that and I would also suggest then that they have the test participated in and even independently conducted by experts in other countries.
BLITZER: They say - Dr. Wecht, they say they're absolutely going to do that including a full DNA examination if they haven't done that yet.
Let's take a look, first of all, at Qusay Hussein - excuse me Uday Hussein. Let's go to Uday first, the older brother. His face badly damaged as you see in these pictures. Uday Hussein, the nose, the mouth, the entire area, but those cheeks look so puffy as you can see on the body there. What exactly happened?
WECHT: Well, the puffiness can be due to early postmortem decomposition. It's still quite hot over there. I do not know how many hours had elapsed. They also could have gained weight since those pictures were taken and simply been out of shape.
They also can have swelling of the tissues as a result of the trauma, hemorrhage into the soft tissues from the head and facial wounds, so all of those things together could account for the seeming distortion, the bloating of the facial features.
The finding of the x-ray evidence is extremely important, Wolf. I've been involved in cases and my colleagues have too where you have pins and plates from old injuries and so on. Certain things like that can be very, very definitive and...
BLITZER: There's been a lot of talk that he had a titanium knee, for example, knee cap in place.
WECHT: Yes.
BLITZER: From that assassination attempt. That would have been very significant as well.
Let's go to the photograph of the younger brother, Qusay. I want to put that up on our screen and show our viewers right now. There has been some speculation, as you well know, one or two or perhaps neither of the brothers may have committed suicide.
WECHT: Yes.
BLITZER: I there any way from these pictures to get some sense of whether or not that is possible?
WECHT: I would say not because, Wolf, in light of the tremendous firepower that was utilized in overpowering those people the possibility of their having sustained a head wound from gunfire externally as contrasted to their having shot themselves can not be eliminated by looking at the pictures.
If one had the bodies and looking at the wounds, then you can see if you got a close or near contact wound as from a suicide and contrast that with a distant shot which would have been the case with shots fired from the outside. I couldn't, I wouldn't venture a guess though from these pictures alone.
BLITZER: Dr. Cyril Wecht, we always rely on your expertise.
WECHT: Thank you.
BLITZER: And you provided us with some good analysis, thanks very much.
WECHT: Thanks, Wolf.
BLITZER: And here's your turn to weigh in on this story. Our web question of the day is this. "Was the United States right to release the photos of both of the bodies of Saddam Hussein's sons?" 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, our viewers. 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.
There has been an upsurge in attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and the killing of Saddam Hussein's sons has done nothing so far to alter that. Three U.S. soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, which took part in that assault on Saddam's sons, were killed early today in northern Iraq.
The U.S. military says their convoy was hit by gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades. Two hundred thirty-nine American troops have died in Iraq since the start of the war, 101 of them have died since May 1 when President Bush declared an end to major combat.
Meanwhile, with the deaths of Saddam Hussein's sons, 37 of the 55 Iraqis on the U.S. governments most wanted list have now been captured or killed, 18 remain at large.
A lot of other news breaking around the country right now, a new development in the case against Kobe Bryant. That story breaking. We'll have that this hour.
Also, the key clues that might have prevented the September 11 terror attacks, the congressional report is huge. It's just been released and why some key points were omitted.
Also, the vice president of the United States, Dick Cheney, he's firing directly back defending pre-war intelligence on Iraq. Our John King will have the latest on that.
And, the legacy being left behind a murdered city councilman, I'll talk directly and live with the victim's brother. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: A nearly year-long congressional investigation into the September 11 attacks finds no single intelligence failure that could have prevented the worst terror strike in U.S. history but it doesn't let intelligence and law enforcement agencies completely off the hook.
CNN National Correspondent Bob Franken has been combing through the report. He's here with us for details - Bob.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Although there was no smoking gun, the heavily censored new report places the blame on U.S. intelligence, most of it on the FBI and CIA. The community missed opportunities, the report said, to disrupt the September 11 plot.
SEN. ROBERT GRAHAM (D), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: The attacks of September the 11 could have been prevented if the right combination of skill, cooperation, creativity, and some good luck had been brought to the task.
FRANKEN: According to the report, the best chance to prevent the attack centered on events during the year 2000 in San Diego, numerous contacts between an FBI informant and two hijackers, Khalid Almidhar and Nawaf Alhazmi.
An FBI agent in San Diego told congressional investigators that if headquarters had told him they were already on a government watch list, quoting the agent, "it would have made a huge difference. We would have done everything. We would have given them the full court press."
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: These were not cryptic things. These were a couple of things that should have been more apparent to the intelligence agencies. These were leads that were not adequately pursued.
FRANKEN: Although much of the information in this report has been publicly discussed for months, some of it is new. For instance, there was intelligence that the so-called mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, traveled to and from the United States in May, 2001; however, a U.S. official now insists that never happened.
And, for years, there had been warnings about al Qaeda and threats to the United States which the reports says went unheeded. Summer of 1998, a memo suggest UBL, Osama bin Laden, is planning attacks in the U.S. Redaction says plans are to attack in New York and Washington. Information mentions an attack in Washington, probably against public places.
The individual author's name and his agency were removed; in fact, the Bush administration refused to declassify large portions of the approximately 800-page report, information for instance about the role of Saudi Arabia.
SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: There's a lot of stuff in here but there's a lot of information hat's not in here that should be in my judgment but we did the best we could.
FRANKEN: One question what did President Bush know about the threat? The committee was denied access to any intelligence information shared with the president.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN: The only evidence provided was a description of a so- called PDB, a presidential daily briefing about the danger of an attack that was dated August 6, 2001, just over a month before the September 11 plot was carried out.
And, we have a late statement from the FBI Director Robert Mueller saying that the recommendations that were made by the committee to a large part are being carried out already by the FBI. Mueller says while the report provides a snapshot of the FBI on September 11, 2001, the picture of the FBI today shows a changed organization - Wolf.
BLITZER: Bob Franken with the complete overview of the report. Thanks Bob very much.
Joining me now, here in Washington to talk a little bit more about this report our Terrorism Analyst Peter Bergen. You've had a chance to go through a lot of this, what jumped out at you right away, Peter?
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, there were a lot of interesting details. For instance, in the appendix it says that apparently members of bin Laden's organization were interested in hijacking planes. This was information that was gathered by the U.S. government in '98 and, in fact, that there was a dry run at a New York Airport. It doesn't say anything more. This seems quite interesting to me.
The NSA, the National Security Agency, had in the year 2001, had 33 separate intercepts indicated an imminent terrorist attack so there's a lot of these kind of nitty gritty detail. I think one thing that we've heard a lot about the criticism is about FBI, CIA.
One institution that comes in for some criticism in the report, I think, is the U.S. military. There was a section of the report about the covert action to get bin Laden in August, '98 forward. The U.S. military apparently was very reluctant to put boots on the ground in Afghanistan for any kind of snatch or kill operation of Osama bin Laden, so they come in for some criticism on that front.
BLITZER: Missed opportunities galore. Obviously, everyone's a lot smarter with hindsight.
BERGEN: Yes.
BLITZER: The notion that they really sanitized a big chunk of this report to protect, for example, Saudi Arabia. How does that stand out in your mind?
BERGEN: Well, let's view the interesting thought experiment, Wolf that instead of Saudi Arabia the information was about Iraq. Do you think they'd sanitize that? You know clearly there is some...
BLITZER: Because they don't care about U.S.-Iraqi relations nor did the former regime.
BERGEN: Right. So, clearly, you know, I've heard from people involved in the investigation in the past that the Saudis have continued to be obstructionist into the 9/11 investigation.
Now, that conversation happened before the Riyadh attacks which I think have changed, which happened in May, have changed Saudi authorities' views of the threat posed by al Qaeda. They've taken a more proactive stance. Nonetheless, it's puzzling to me why, you know, 26 pages of this report are not in there.
BLITZER: We've heard some members of the Intelligence Committee, Jane Harman for one, say almost two years after 9/11 a lot of what the U.S. should be doing hasn't yet been done.
BERGEN: Well, I've heard from other people in the intelligence community that the human intelligence is still not particularly good, partly because the background checks are still even perhaps more onerous than they might have been before 9/11. The kinds of people who were good at this are the sorts of people that lawyers don't like at agencies or the sort of people that don't get on very well with bureaucrats, so that's still a problem and, clearly, Osama bin Laden is still at large two years, almost two years after 9/11.
BLITZER: Still on the loose but they're looking for him. Peter Bergen thanks very much.
BERGEN: Thank you.
BLITZER: A new twist in the Kobe Bryant case, just ahead new information about the alleged victim and the judge is ready to make a key ruling. We'll have a live report from Colorado.
Also, inside the jury in the police beating case that's now caught on tape, what factors may influence the verdict?
And, that New York City shooting we were reporting exactly 24 hours ago, the legacy left behind by the murdered city councilman.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BREAKING NEWS)
BLITZER: We have new information coming into CNN right now about the woman who is accusing Kobe Bryant of sexual assault, information that could play into the basketball star's defense.
Our Rusty Dornin is following the story and another breaking development in Eagle, Colorado as well. Rusty, what do you have?
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, as you know people will talk in a high profile case like this but the judge here wants to stop any prejudicial pretrial publicity so he's clamping down on the prosecution, the defense, law enforcement, and court staff.
He stopped short of a court order but his is an order regarding pretrial publicity. He's basically telling them you cannot talk about evidence. You cannot talk about your personal opinion in this case because, of course, it could prejudice the case against Kobe Bryant.
Now, even in the community, the community themselves seem to be clamping down. The mother of the alleged victim, the parents of course have asked her friends not to talk to the media anymore and also three hotels, at least three hotels in the area have told their employees if they talk to the media they will be fired.
In fact, we had a hotel employee who had given us some information, who came up to us and said, please, I have two children. Please do not tell anyone that I have talked to you. So, even within this community, they are restricting any leaks that are coming out about this.
Now, meantime, there were some 9-1-1 calls to the alleged victim's house, one last month regarding her overdose on pills. Now, the media is trying to unseal the documents in that case. The judge will be considering that over the weekend and may have a ruling on Monday or Tuesday.
But, we have a new report that was first reported by "Celebrity Justice" that we have confirmed with the chief of police in (unintelligible), Colorado, the University of Northern Colorado that on February 25 the alleged victim, the police were called to her campus room. She was determined to be a danger to herself. Police took her into custody and took her to a medical center.
We have no further information on that, what was involved, and why they did that, although the chief of police says he does believe that she did continue and finish her campus studies. So, we are continuing to have information come out about the alleged victim but the court now is trying to restrict that coverage so as not to make any trial prejudicial - Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Rusty Dornin on this very, very high profile case, thanks Rusty very much.
Twenty-four hours ago we were reporting about a shooting in New York City. Well, security at New York City Hall is much tighter than usual today. The Mayor Michael Bloomberg stepped through a City Hall metal detector earlier today, something he and council members were exempt from doing until now.
It all changed tragically after the New York City Councilman James Davis was shot and killed yesterday by someone being described as a political rival who was then shot and killed by police.
Joining us now from New York is Geoffrey Davis, here to talk to us about his brother's life and legacy.
Our deepest condolences, first of all, to you Geoffrey. I know your brother was a good man. But do you have any idea with this Othniel Askew killed your brother?
GEOFFREY DAVIS, COUNCILMAN DAVIS' BROTHER: No, no, I have no idea why he killed my brother, no. No.
BLITZER: He's being described as a political rival, if you will. Was there a rivalry beyond anything that's been in the papers as far as you know?
DAVIS: Of course not, no. No. My brother's campaigning for the primary September 9, which is coming up, 2003. There was no political rival whatsoever.
BLITZER: There was talk that he actually walked in to city hall with the shooter, Othniel Askew. Do you know that to be true?
DAVIS: No, I don't know that to be true. But what I do know is that my brother does not have or any city council member does not have the authority to allow a friend or a partner or anyone whatsoever to go through city hall. I do know that. There are security that's placed -- that are put in place to check everyone coming through those gates, to protect our elected officials.
BLITZER: Well the mayor said yesterday the Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, they both said that for council members and their invited guests there was a separate procedure. They didn't have to get through the magnetometers, the metal detectors. And your brother obviously didn't go through and since this Othniel Askew was going with him, he didn't go through either. Presumably, that's why his gun wasn't detected. Are you questioning that?
DAVIS: Yes, I am questioning that. Security is placed there to protect our elected officials. And I am definitely questioning that completely entirely. We don't know the minds of people. Evil, hatred has no look. So I'm definitely questioning that. In fact, when I came to this building, I was escorted in from the security personnel downstairs and the first thing that security did was say, I realize you're being escorted in, however, we want to see your I.D. There should be some form of I.D. that had to be checked.
BLITZER: So where do you go from here on Geoffrey? What are you going to do about this tragic loss of your brother?
DAVIS: Well, my brother, whom I love dearly, for the rest of my life, created a legacy. He spoke against police brutality. He spoke against black-on-black crime. He spoke against the injustices of inner city communities. And we're going to continue to struggle. He was dedicated to the struggle. I'm dedicated to the struggle. We're going to continue to go forth and bring the word out to the community, letting the community know that we can continue to build, continue to organize, continue to love each other and continue to make an effort to stop violence in the inner city communities and all throughout the world. We're going to continue to go on with that campaign.
BLITZER: Geoffrey Davis, once again our heart goes out to you and your entire family. Our deepest condolences. Thanks very much for joining us.
DAVIS: Thank you so much.
BLITZER: On the offensive over prewar intelligence, what the Vice President Dick Cheney has to say about prewar and post-war Iraq. Also, the police beating caught on tape. What action has the jury taken today? And later, get this, from Cuba, to Key West, the drive, that's right, the drive to freedom.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN. Vice President Dick Cheney fires back on criticism over prewar intelligence. We'll have John King from the White House on that.
First though, more on our top story of the day. The pictures, the U.S. government says include pictures of Uday and Qusay Hussein, and we warn you, some of the images are graphic.
A doctor tells Abu Dhabi Television grisly photographs released today are definitely Uday and Qusay Hussein. The physician is believed to be the families plastic surgeon said the pictures are, and I'm quoting now, "100 percent accurate". U.S. administrators went public with the photos to convince Iraqi skeptics the Hussein brothers are indeed dead.
Preparing for the worst at the Pentagon. Members of the special protection force, local police and fire units slipped on gas masks for an emergency drill centered on a mock chemical attack. An organizer says improving interagency communications is one of the main goals of today's post-September 11 drill. Vice president Dick Cheney is strongly defending the administration's decision to invade Iraq, and pointing to a recently released intelligence report as justification. Our senior White House correspondent John king is covering the story now from the White House. John, we hadn't heard from the vice president in awhile. But he came out swinging today.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, they rolled the vice president out when they believe they need to accomplish a key mission. The vice president's mission today was to make the case that all this controversy over whether there was strong enough of a case to go to war is in the vice president's view a great diversion.
Speaking here in Washington, the vice president did not mention specifically the debate over that now infamous and now discredited claim by the administration that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium in Africa, is what the White House said was part of an effort to bolster its nuclear weapons program. But the vice president did say that there were a number of other available information, consensus information, he said, among the intelligence agencies. He said there was no doubt that Iraq was pursue being chemical and biological weapons.
Within a decade he said of developing a nuclear weapon. And of course public evidence that Iraq was defying and stalling and keeping the U.N. weapons inspectors from doing their jobs. After giving a list of what he said was consensus intelligence information about Iraq, the vice president issued a direct challenge to those who now question the White House case for going to war in the first place.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now the regime of Saddam Hussein is gone forever. And at a safe removed from the danger, some are now trying to cast doubt upon the decision to liberate Iraq. The ability to criticize is one of the great strengths of our democracy. But those who do so have an obligation to answer this question. How could any responsible leader have ignored the Iraqi threat?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: President Bush on the road today said much the same in much less detail, however. The president saying the Iraqi leader, the former Iraqi leader, was defying the United Nations and the world and that he had no choice but to act -- Wolf.
BLITZER: John King at the White House. Thanks, John, very much.
Once again our web question of the day is this, was the United States right to release the photos of the bodies of Saddam's sons? We'll have the results later in this broadcast. Go ahead and vote right now, CNN.com/wolf.
The police beating caught on tape goes to the jury. What's at stake for the officer charged in the case? We'll have a live report right after the next break. First, though, a look at some other headlines from around the world.
Cleanup in southern China after an unwelcome visit from Typhoon Imbudo. It's the strongest to hit Guangdong province in seven years with winds that reached 115 miles an hour. At least 11 people were injured on top of at least 11 people were injured on top of at least 10 killed in the Philippines.
Just when the SARS epidemic seemed under control in Hong Kong, 12 new suspected cases. Eleven are patients at a mental institution. SARS is blamed for 300 deaths in Hong Kong this year.
Call her the human submarine. A British woman has broken the woman's free diving record, riding a weighted sled 311 feet into the Caribbean Sea. She held her breath for an incredible three minutes and 38 seconds.
A special Israeli government committee has voted to release some Palestinian prisoners. A source puts the number at a couple hundred. But the panel says the full Israeli cabinet will have to take up the release.
The first of 2,300 international troops have arrived in the capital of the Solomon Islands. They're charged with ending the violence caused by armed militants and criminals that's plagued the country. It's the largest military buildup in the South Pacific since World War II.
And Spain doesn't have a lock on the running of the bulls. One city in Veracruz, Mexico, has its own festival, now in its 28th year. Six people were injured, three of them seriously.
And that's our look "Around the World."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back.
Jurors in Southern California have to make an important decision today. Was this less than gentle, shall we say, arrest of a teenager the act of an out-of-control police officer or the work of a professional trying to handle a difficult situation?
Last year's videotaped incident was, of course, widely publicized. The case was turned over to the jury today. CNN's Dan Lothian is joining us now from Los Angeles County Superior Court.
What's going on, Dan?
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the jury is deliberating on the eighth floor of the courthouse behind me. They have been doing so now for the past three hours deciding the fate of two former Englewood police officers. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LOTHIAN (voice-over): Is this the picture of an out-of-control police officer carrying out street justice, or a display of law enforcement using reasonable force in an unpredictable situation?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lift your hands to approximately shoulder level, slamming them down forcefully on the trunk of the car.
LOTHIAN: In Los Angeles, California, those were some of the questions before a jury, seven days of testimony in the videotaped beating case of then 16-year-old Donovan Jackson.
Former officer Jeremy Morse charged with assault under the color of authority, and his ex-partner, Bijan Darvish, charged with filing a false police report.
It happened a little more than a year ago at this Englewood gas station. Jackson, handcuffed, slammed onto a squad car and punched. What started out as a suspicious car registration inquiry ended up in a controversial beating videotaped by a guest at this hotel across the street.
The community was outraged. Jackson, his father said then, was left terrorized.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They wake up at night screaming. He's scared of police now. He's scared to go outside by himself.
LOTHIAN: Morse, through his attorney, has maintained he punched only after he was grabbed in the groin area.
And in trial, the defense presented a use of force expert and other witnesses who concluded the actions taken that day were reasonable.
JOHN BARNETT, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Officer Morse followed policy and he was within that policy.
LOTHIAN: But prosecutors presented their own witnesses who said just the opposite and put Jackson on the stand, who testified he never resisted.
In a community still angry, there have been fears about unrest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our message is we want everyone to be calm, cool and collected and really we want to make sure there's no violence.
CROWD: No justice, no peace. No justice, no peace.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LOTHIAN: Now, Wolf, CNN has just learned that members of the jury have requested that some testimony be read back to them. This is testimony from a prosecution witness who testified about the use of force -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Dan Lothian on the scene for us. And we'll be checking back with you when we get word. Thanks, Dan, very much.
Reading the jury in this case and any case, of course, may prove to be an incredibly difficult challenge. The panel is composed of six men and six women. One juror is African American. The accused officer is white. His alleged victim is black. But race has not been raised as an issue in the trial.
James Curtis is a former California prosecutor who can now be seen on Court TV. He's joining us now live from New York.
Thanks, James, very much for joining us.
JAMES CURTIS, COURT TV: My pleasure.
BLITZER: What, if anything, can we make up from this jury? You've been trying to watch this trial unfold.
CURTIS: Yes, well, you know, Wolf, like you said at the top, it is like reading to tea leaves to a large extent. Dan Lothian's excellent report with respect to what the readback that was asked for by these jurors can give us some insight, just perhaps as to exactly what they're thinking about.
I would have guessed -- and I'm not surprised by the fact that they are requesting and wanting to hear more about this use of force issue. The bottom line is, from a legal standpoint, were these officers -- was this officer within his administrative rights, as well as criminal rights to use the kind of force that he used. And that's probably going to be the biggest factor.
BLITZER: The video is so incredibly, at least on the surface, damaging to the police officer, because he slams the young kid's head pretty hard on the ground -- on the car as we've all seen multiple times. But he alleges, the police officer, that the alleged victim grabbed him in the groin, causing him incredible pain. That's why he reacted. Is the jury going to buy that?
CURTIS: Well, the jury may buy it if, indeed, they think or they adopt the standpoint, the point of view that his response to that grabbing, if, indeed it did happen -- certainly no one ultimately testifies as to whether it happened or not other than Jeremy Morse, the police officer in question.
Even if that's true, was his response appropriate? That's going to be what they're looking at in determining whether or not the training that LAPD police officers receive is consistent with that conduct.
BLITZER: They say race is not a factor here. But it's a white cop, a black alleged victim; the jury is almost all white. Is this going to be a factor?
CURTIS: Absolutely. I think that any time, especially in Southern California, where we have had such heated outbreaks based on racially charged issues stemming back for Rodney King, even issues of race certainly in the O.J. Simpson trial and other trials that have been very, very high profile -- I don't think that although it was not overtly stated and dealt with as an issue in this trial, it is certainly a strong undercurrent -- underpinning to all of these issues.
BLITZER: James Curtis of Court TV helping us understand this case. We'll be standing by for the verdict. James, thanks very much for that.
CURTIS: Thanks, Wolf.
BLITZER: Let's move to a developing story that we're following right now on the nationwide search for those two missing children. Their father accused of killing them. Today, a public plea for help.
CNN's Sean Callebs is joining us now live with details -- Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, here's the latest information in the search for the children.
A 44-year-old Manuel Gehring stands accused of murdering his two children. So far authorities have not been able to find their bodies, and as you said, are now appealing to the public for assistance.
The two, 14-year-old Sara and 11-year-old Phillip Gehring, were last seen (AUDIO GAP).
They believe the two children could be in shallow graves somewhere between the Indiana/Ohio border and Joliet, Illinois. That is a big distance of a distance of nearly 190 miles. Here is some information investigators believe may be of assistance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM DELONG, FBI: There should be a large yellow or tan building, perhaps a metal building that's within view and nearby of the burial site. And then lastly, the burial site is suspected to be within ten miles north or south of interstate 80. I know that's a large area to cover when you talk about Pennsylvania, to Joliet, Illinois. And that's why we need your help.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: Now Gehring had been in a custody battle with his former wife. Today he pleaded not guilty to two counts of first degree murder -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Sean Callebs following this search for these two young kids. Thanks, Sean, very much.
An amazing effort at freedom to leave Cuba. An old Chevy truck converted, look at this, into a boat. What happened when the United States Coast Guard spotted this ship? First, though, our news clip. Which President signed the law allowing Cubans to reach American soil to stay? Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, or Richard Nixon? The answer coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Earlier we asked, which president signed the law allowing Cubans who reach American soil to stay? The answer Lyndon Johnson. He signed the Cuban Adjustment Act exempting Cubans from general U.S. immigration laws on November 2, 1966.
Cubans desperate to reach the United States have tried all sorts of ways to make the dangerous trip across the Florida strait. But a recent attempt is believed to be the first of its kind. CNN's Havana bureau chief Lucia Newman explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF: We've seen Cubans trying to row to Florida, sail to Florida, but never, never before had anyone ever seen Cubans trying to drive to Florida. That's just what twelve would-be immigrants did, in a 1951 Chevy pickup truck.
It was spotted by the U.S. Coast Guard doing a brisk eight miles per hour, about 40 miles from Key West. Using 50 gallon oil drums as floaters. Coast guard officers say they couldn't believe their eyes when they saw the driver at the wheel steering the truck. The engine running to activate an attached propeller.
The distance from this point to Key West is roughly 120 miles. About a two-hour drive to Florida at normal speed, if there was a road. But on water this trip would have taken 15 hours. Except that like most Cubans who are picked up at open sea this latest group was returned to Cuba on Sunday.
The U.S. coast guard normally returns them to this port about 35 miles from Havana in accordance with the 1994 U.S./Cuban migration agreement which says Cuba cannot take reprisals against the rafters. Cuban authorities haven't furnished the names or whereabouts of the people who tried trucking to Florida. But few would argue that at the very least they deserve full marks for creativity. Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: You've got to give those people credit. The results of our Web question, that's coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in on our Web question of the day. Was the U.S. right to release the photos of the bodies of Saddam's sons? Look at this, 65 percent say yes, 35 percent say no. Remember this is not a scientific poll.
I'll see you tomorrow. Until then, thanks very much for watching. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.
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Gehring Children Missing, Presumed Dead; Forensic Evidence Says Two Bodies Are Hussein's Son>
