Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Hurricane Isabel Reaches Category 5 Strength; Saudis Forced to Confront Terrorists Within; Johnny Cash, John Ritter Die

Aired September 12, 2003 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Is this hurricane the big one? It's been five years since we've seen one this strong that hit land, a category five hurricane inching closer to the United States. It doesn't get any bigger than this.
Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Bloody day, confusion and crossfire lead to heavy casualties in Iraq. We're on a raid with U.S. troops as they run into resistance.

Never seen before the last will and testament of a 9/11 hijacker on tape.

Unexpected death, American loses an actor, an audience favorite.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN RITTER, COMEDIAN: As long as it's OK with my daughter; otherwise, you will continue to date her and no one but her until she is finished with you because if you make her cry I will make you cry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And, mourning for the man in black, a hard-living Hall of Famer who lived up to the title of the greatest man in country music.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

BLITZER: It's Friday, September 12, 2003. Hello from the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting.

Even though U.S. forces are caught up in unrelenting violence this was an especially bloody day in Iraq. Two U.S. soldiers were killed and seven wounded when a gun battle broke out during an overnight raid in the town of Ramadi. In Abu Ghurayb, also west of Baghdad, two Americans were wounded when their military police vehicle hit an explosive device and then came under small arms fire.

And, in Fallujah, a nightmare of confusion, a friendly fire incident involving American troops left nine Iraqi security personnel and a Jordanian soldier dead.

We begin with the chain of fatal mistakes in Fallujah where three sides were caught up in a bloody crossfire.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson was on the scene. He's joining us now live from Baghdad - Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it still isn't clear exactly what precipitated those events and that led to the deaths of so many Iraqis and the Jordanian security officer.

What we are told by witnesses is that in the very early hours of the morning a U.S. helicopter came in and took away many of the dead and injured to a U.S. military base for treatment. Later in the day, some of the Iraqis were released to an Iraqi medical facility.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Writhing in pain, an Iraqi policeman injured in an overnight shooting involving U.S. and Jordanian forces and the Iraqi police receives treatment in a Fallujah hospital, one of nine injured survivors in an apparent friendly fire incident that killed nine Iraqi police and one Jordanian officer; outside the nearby Jordanian military hospital where the firefight took place distraught family members.

"These shells are for a light weapon" he says. "The Iraqis don't have such ammunition, only the Americans."

According to the U.S. forces the shooting was defensive after they were attacked with a rocket-propelled grenade resulting in one U.S. casualty and the injury of five of what the U.S. describes as neutral individuals.

(on camera): Much about this incident remains unclear. All that's left here, a few spent shell casings but in this area where tensions between U.S. troops and Iraqi people have been running high for some time, this latest attack will likely antagonize an already delicate situation.

(voice-over): Meanwhile, on the other side of Fallujah, another attack on U.S. troops. In the ensuing gun battle, a young child shot in the head adding to the tension and anger here.

Not far away in the town of Ramadi, the aftermath of an overnight U.S. raid that apparently went wrong, two U.S. soldiers killed and seven injured. A bloody 24 hours even for this section of west central Iraq where security experts warn U.S. forces are at the most risk of attack. (END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: And those same security experts believe there is a possibility that perhaps some of these foreign fighters coming into Iraq are embedding in this area around Fallujah, Ramadi, and Abu Ghurayb are providing training, are providing money for some of these attacks - Wolf.

BLITZER: Nic, these kinds of friendly fire incidents happen all the time but how angry are Iraqis on the street who've heard about this one?

ROBERTSON: Very angry, Wolf. I spent a lot of July and June in Fallujah. The people there were still relatively friendly despite some troubling outbreaks of violence.

When I was there today you could see the anger in people's eyes. The descriptions of what they said they might do with President Bush or a U.S. soldier, if found, really didn't bear hearing. They were very angry, Wolf, much angrier than I've seen in the past.

BLITZER: All right, Nic Robertson in Baghdad, Nic thanks very much.

U.S. troops, meanwhile, are continuing an aggressive campaign to root out the guerrillas who have been violently opposing the occupation. CNN went along on one raid in which U.S. troops ran into resistance in the central Iraqi town of al-Gharma (ph).

Ben Wedeman picks up the harrowing story of decision making and death on the front lines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey! There's a guy on the ground with an RPG and an AK it looks like.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We saw an individual come out of the building - the building right now, over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got eyes on him right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's back. Yes, it's him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have your interpreter tell him to lay his weapon down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Try that first, if not then fire him up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's too far away and he's moving.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's going to get away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger, fire at will.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cease fire, cease fire. BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Their fire found its mark, the man with the guns was killed. They thought there were others waiting in ambush.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They got him. Hey, we got three (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, no, no, no, no, no (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I see him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To the left, to the left.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Friendlies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're friendlies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do not fire.

WEDEMAN: With helicopters buzzing overhead the platoon searched a few houses looking for weapons. This platoon detained one man for further questioning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is his guilty or what his guilt?

WEDEMAN: He and other detainees are later brought to the center of town for paperwork. After the teeth-clenching tension of the raid for the troops it all seems a bit unreal.

LT. COL. MARK CALVERT, U.S. ARMY: The paperwork. Well, it's not a side of the business the soldiers are used to doing but it's part of the police work that's involved in processing these individuals.

WEDEMAN: A total of 27 men were rounded up in the raid since then says an Army spokesman. The number of attacks on American troops in the area has declined dramatically.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, al-Gharma in central Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: President Bush today traveled to Fort Stewart here in Georgia to salute the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which had delayed a homecoming after leading the assault on Baghdad. The president has moved on now to Houston.

Our Senior White House Correspondent John King is covering the president and he's joining us now live - John.

JOHN KING, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And, Wolf, that visit to Fort Stewart a chance for the president to thank the 3rd Infantry Division. As you noted, a long deployment to Iraq, the first wave heading into Baghdad on the day that Saddam Hussein's statue fell.

Mr. Bush thanked them. He said their work was critical in the war on terrorism. He said it was critical as well to bringing stability to the Middle East. The president also used this appearance in front of the troops at Fort Stewart to issue a call, if you will, to the international community to send in some reinforcements.

Secretary of State Powell begins in earnest this weekend meeting with United Nations members trying to round up the votes. Mr. Bush said it was now critical that the international community send in troops to help the United States stabilize post-war Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No free nation can be neutral in the fight between civilization and chaos. Terrorists in Iraq have attacked representatives of the civilized world and opposing them and defeating them must be the cause of the civilized world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: More than 16,000 members of the 3rd Infantry Division were deployed to war. The unit suffered the highest casualties of any U.S. military unit including 40 killed.

The president took some time privately while at Fort Stewart to meet with family members of eleven of those soldiers killed, a reminder, painful reminder for the president that even as he reaches out to try to get more international help on the ground in post-war Iraq that the burden will be carried in the months and years ahead, Wolf, overwhelmingly by U.S. troops.

BLITZER: CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King traveling with the president thanks John very much.

Forecasters, meanwhile, here in the United States are keeping a wary eye on a monster storm looming out in the Atlantic. Isabel is a category five hurricane. That's the top of the scale with maximum sustained winds of get this, 160 miles an hour.

The storm is so large it stands out clearly from space. This is the view astronauts aboard the International Space Station got of Isabel coming over the horizon.

The last Atlantic hurricane to reach category five was Mitch in 1998. That storm slammed into central America killing 11,000 people in at least three countries.

For the latest on Isabel, we're joined now by meteorologist Max Mayfield. He's the director of the National Hurricane Center. Thanks very much for joining us Mr. Mayfield.

MAX MAYFIELD, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: You're welcome, Wolf.

BLITZER: When do we expect or do we expect, first of all, Isabel to hit the United States?

MAYFIELD: Wolf, it's really too soon to say what impact this will have on the United States yet. You're absolutely right this is a very, very powerful hurricane right now. The top of our (UNINTELLIGIBLE) hurricane field or the category five.

It would be very unusual to have that intensely persist for too much longer. We've looked back at the 50 or 60 years. We've had 20 category five hurricanes in the Atlantic basin and most of those do not last longer than about 30 hours. So, we are forecasting it to weaken here over the next three to five days but it could still be a major hurricane within that period of time.

Now, as far as the forecast goes by Monday we're forecasting it to be well east of the Bahamas and by Wednesday it should be northeast of the northernmost Bahamas but the steering currents are still pretty weak. We'll have to see whether it continues that movement towards the southeast U.S. or it turns left a little bit more to the north.

The good news is we have plenty of time to watch it, take the weekend, look over your hurricane plan and know what you would do if it does head toward your community.

BLITZER: Dr. Mayfield, the Bahamas already just suffered in the past few days from one hurricane. Are you suggesting that people in the Bahamas might be suffering from another one? Excuse me that was Bermuda but Bahamas not that far away.

MAYFIELD: It looks like the core of the hurricane will stay to the east of the Bahamas but it's certainly close enough. I can certainly imagine them putting up tropical storm warnings and maybe a hurricane watch if it stays in this track.

But right now at least they're not looking at a direct hit now and it's a slow-moving hurricane. They've got plenty of time to see how the steering currents set up. We have our NOAA jet flying out there starting tomorrow afternoon to help define the steering currents that feed into the computer models to help us make a better forecast.

BLITZER: So, right now we can't predict North Carolina, Florida, anyplace else, is that what you're saying?

MAYFIELD: That's absolutely right. There's a very good reason we don't want to go beyond five days. There are just too many different steering currents that could set up but the message is that, you know, people not just in the Carolinas and Georgia but even further up the East Coast may have to deal with this sometime in the future but they have plenty of time to watch it.

BLITZER: I suspect, Mr. Mayfield, we'll be speaking often between now and then. Thanks very much, as usual, for joining us.

The standoff between Israel and Yasser Arafat, today's actions after Israel decides in principle to expel the Palestinian leader.

Also, a look at the roadmap to peace in the Middle East from a high point that happened almost exactly ten years ago today.

And later, the CIA reveals a new analysis of the latest Osama bin Laden tape. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Al Qaeda confessions, could the U.S. learn lessons from the French in getting suspected terrorists to open up? That story, much more, coming up on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: You're looking at a live picture of the Mukasa (ph). That's Yasser Arafat's compound, the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah on the West Bank, an incredibly tense moment right now in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Indeed, in the Middle East, Arafat may be at risk following Israel's decision "to remove him" but he's taken full advantage of the situation. For a second straight night the Palestinian Authority president rallied supporters at his West Bank compound offering thanks to those around the world who said that they are standing by him and the Palestinians.

The Israeli move has sparked protests in Jerusalem. About 500 Muslim youths left Noon prayers and stoned Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall. Police dispersed the crowd with tear gas.

The latest flare-up in tensions comes on the even of an important anniversary. Ten years ago tomorrow, Yasser Arafat joined Israeli leaders in presenting a symbol of hope and peace, a handshake that today seems hard to imagine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): It looked spontaneous but it was anything but. President Clinton's aides later disclosing he had actually rehearsed how he would try to bring Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat together for that powerfully symbolic handshake. September 13, 1993, a high moment in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Dr. Kissinger, thank you very much for spending some of this day with us.

I was on the South Lawn of the White House that day reporting on what so many of us had thought would quickly result in real peace after so many decades of war. For a time it indeed did look good.

The next year, President Clinton went to Aqaba to officiate at the signing of the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty bringing Prime Minister Rabin and King Hussein together for yet another upbeat moment. Jordan became the second Arab state, after Egypt, to enter into a formal peace with Israel.

Those were high points. There was a moment near the end of the Clinton administration in 2000 when the Israelis and the Palestinians seemed close to a deal. Mr. Clinton had brought Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak together at Camp David but, in the end, the negotiations collapsed and in the three years since, the situation has gone from hopeful to horrifying.

This is the famous book the Israelis put out. When I interviewed Arafat last year at his besieged Ramallah compound he defiantly rejected Israeli accusations he was engaged in terrorism.

I thought it couldn't get much worse but since then it has and now with more terror and the threat of exile it's becoming apparent that the cycle of terrorism and retaliation could easily deteriorate into all out war.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And what a difference a decade makes.

When we come back a settlement in a landmark legal case, coming up what happened when the family of a murdered woman went to court to sue AAA?

Also, why a man convicted in a dog mauling death won't be getting out of prison as planned.

And later, I'll look at the hidden heart condition that killed the popular actor John Ritter.

First, though, a quick look at some other news making headlines around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Typhoon slams Japan, the powerful storm swept through parts of Okinawa killing at least one person and injuring more than 90 others. Attacking wind gusts of more than 85 miles an hour, the typhoon overturned cars and trucks, knocked down power lines, and shattered windows in homes and businesses.

Iraq fallout, a British judge investigating the apparent suicide of a government weapons expert says he'll question the head of the British Broadcasting Corporation next week. Arms expert David Kelly died after being identified as a possible source of a BBC report that said Prime Minister Tony Blair's government had hyped the case for war with Iraq. The crisis is the most serious in Mr. Blair's six years in office.

Iran nuclear deadline, the United Nations nuclear watchdog has set an October 31 deadline for Iran to prove it has no secret nuclear weapons program. Following the vote on the resolution by the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran's delegation stormed out of the meeting.

Amazing robot, a new Japanese humanoid robot is jumping into the record books. Researchers say the robot can jump into a crouched position from a lying position by swinging its arms and legs in one dynamic movement, and that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. Security concerns are postponing the release of a high profile prisoner. Robert Noel along with his wife was convicted of manslaughter for the 2001 death of a San Francisco woman. Diane Whipple was mauled by the couple's dog in the hallway of their San Francisco building.

Prison officials say they decided to delay releasing Noel when they saw a crowd of media waiting outside. His wife Marjorie Knoller is scheduled to be released in March. For more on the case be sure to join Anderson Cooper tonight, "360", that's at 7:00 Eastern only, of course, here on CNN.

There's been an abrupt end to a unique and closely watched case. It pitted AAA against the family of a woman who was raped and murdered.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Melissa Gosule found herself in that predicament so many of us have faced. Her car wouldn't start. It was getting late. She needed a tow and a lift. What happened next devastated her family, horrified so many others and led to nearly four years of recriminations and a lawsuit.

LES GOSULE, MELISSA GOSULE'S FATHER: The loss of a child is something you never get over and it's just been really emotional dealing with it.

BLITZER: July 11, 1999, near the Sagamore Bridge on Cape Cod, Gosule, a 27-year-old school teacher was stranded. Her stepfather called AAA Motor Club. The tow truck driver arrived sometime later and told her he wouldn't be able to take her or her car back to her family's house near Boston for another three or four hours.

Rather than wait, Gosule accepted a ride from a stranger, Michael Gentile. He's now serving a life sentence for stabbing her to death.

GOSULE: No other person who loves someone should ever be in the shoes that we were in.

BLITZER: Gosule's family sued AAA for unspecified damages claiming she died because AAA didn't provide the service that it promises. The tow truck driver was also a defendant; AAA's counterclaim that Gosule had a series of safe options available to her other than to accept a ride from Gentile. In court papers, AAA reportedly said she could have called a taxi or had a relative pick her up. This week, three days into the trial, it was over, a settlement, terms not disclosed.

BOBBY BURCHFIELD, AAA ATTORNEY: The American Automobile Association and AAA Southern New England truly regret the circumstances that led to Melissa's tragic death.

BLITZER: The parties were noncommittal about why they settled but one expert tells CNN that while AAA might have been able to prevail in court the negative publicity might have been too much to bear.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: What a nightmare, what a horror.

The CIA examines the latest Osama bin Laden videotape. Coming up what new information the CIA has learned from the tape.

Also, the tape released today showing a suspected al Qaeda hijacker.

Later, how Saudi Arabia is fighting suspected terrorists inside its borders. We'll have a special report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Crackdown in Arabia, what made the Saudis take the war on terror to a new level. The answer may not be what you think that story and much more coming up on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

BLITZER: They're not yet certain, but CIA officials are increasingly confident that the voice on an audiotape released this week by Al Jazeera is indeed that of Osama bin Laden. Officials say it's impossible to know when bin Laden may have recorded the tape, which makes no references to events in the last two years. Earlier, officials said the other voice on the tape is that of Ayman Al- Zawahiri, the No. 2 man in al Qaeda. Al Jazeera says the video, which shows the two leaders walking in a mountainous area, was probably shot last spring. U.S. officials tend to doubt that.

Another al Qaeda video today showing up on the Al Jazeera network. With me to help sort through this latest development, CNN's Mike Boettcher, who knows a lot about this.

Tell us all about it, Mike.

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, what we saw today was something similar to what al Qaeda did last year right around 9/11. It was a message recorded from one of the hijacker, actually recorded in December of 2000, what al Qaeda calls it a last will and testaments, which purport to explain why they were going to carry out a mission.

We've seen a couple of these already, and we believe all or almost all of the hijackers recorded them. This ones calms from Sayeed Al-Ghamdi. He was a Saudi, 21 years old, one of the hijackers on United Flight 93 that crashed outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Aside from talking why he was going to take part in an operation -- and he only refers to it as something big that is going to happen, we see a video of Al-Ghamdi firing a submachine gun, a rocket propelled grenade and other weapons all in Afghanistan. The question now is, why are these videos being released? We had one two days ago, Wolf -- you just talked about with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri basically walking -- what appeared to me like a Volksmarch and making comments.

Three things -- and information warfare campaign by al Qaeda, as well a recruitment tool and as well a message for possible recruits out there to bring them to their side.

BLITZER: Sort of to rally the troops around. Is that...

BOETTCHER: Absolutely.

BLITZER: ...one of the goals of this?

BOETTCHER: It's unclear, too, whether messages -- signals are being sent out there about there about operations. If you look at one of the superimposed sections behind Al-Ghamdi in this video, it shows Al-Ghamdi holding an AK -- pardon me, an RPG, a rocket-propelled grenade, and a 747 flying overhead.

BLITZER: It's shocking for us to think of this. But to some people out there, small number but clearly a very dangerous number, this videotape inspires them. They think of these 19 guys as heroes.

BOETTCHER: No, absolutely. And you have to take yourself outside of our society and put yourself in the communities where possible recruits live. These people are considered heroes in their community.

BLITZER: It's shocking but it's important for us to understand. Thanks, Mike.

In the past two years, since 9/11, the United States has captured a number of high-level al Qaeda officials. Some of them are talking. And officials say they're providing valuable information. But how hard is it for the U.S. intelligence community to squeeze this information out of them?

For that, let's turn now to our national security correspondent, David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In recent weeks, senior Pentagon officials have been screening a 1960s film about the French experience with terrorism in Algeria, looking for lessons for the U.S.

The word torture doesn't appear in our order, says the French officer. Questioning is the only valid method in a police action against a clandestine group.

The French said they did not torture. But, back then, they did. As the film shows, the tough French tactics in Algeria backfired. TOM MALINOWSKY, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Those kinds of techniques are wonderful ways of getting false confessions out of innocent people.

ENSOR: President Bush has said the U.S. does not, will not use torture. But what if thousands of lives could be saved? Where do you draw the line? Khalid Shaikh Mohammed? Abu Zubaidayh? Hambali? Ramzi bin Al Shib? All are prisoners of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, a surreal existence, says writer Mark Bowden in "The Atlantic Monthly," in an undisclosed location outside the U.S.

MARK BOWDEN, ATLANTIC MONTHLY: It could be a foreign country. It could be an island. It could be on an aircraft carrier. It's just a place that they won't name.

ENSOR: Wherever he is, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is talking, identifying suspects in the U.S., according to law enforcement officials. But why? The CIA has no comment.

BOWDEN: What appears to be more effective are these techniques which fall under the rubric of coercion -- what I called coercion -- or it's often called "torture lite," which is things -- which are things like sleep deprivation, keeping a person hungry, uncomfortable, tired, disoriented. They won't cause lasting physical damage to the person. And I think under the present circumstances, it's probably the morally correct choice.

ENSOR: Human rights activists say, lite or not, torture is torture. And it's a line they hope the U.S. is not crossing. After all, President Bush condemned Saddam Hussein for using it in his prisons.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning.

MALINOWSKY: How can we say that to the world and stand for the values if, at the same time, we say, Well, there are times when it's OK, when we do it? When it's expedient.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: But no one really knows where American interrogators draw the line. That ambiguity is deliberate. Al Qaeda's leaders can only imagine their fate if caught, which is just the way the CIA wants it - Wolf.

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

In Saudi Arabia, home to 15 of the 9/11 hijackers, a nightmare is becoming reality. Numerous violent clashes between militants and police and last May's suicide bombings that have killed 35 people have shocked the kingdom and forced it face the enemy within.

Our senior international correspondent Sheila MacVicar reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHELIA MACVICAR, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): For months, Saudis have been shocked by what they have seen on their television screens. Pictures of raids broadcast by state television. This one took place in a suburb of the capital, Riyadh; arrests; caches of weapon; and talk of plots.

Plots, say Saudi officials, to blow up government installations and targets, to attack the oil industry, to go after Western interests, including a specific threat against British Airways planes.

MAI YAMANI, ROYAL INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS: It is very serious. If it was serious -- the September 11 two years ago -- it is critical now.

DR. SA'AD AL FAGIH, MOVEMENT FOR ISLAMIC REFORM: If the reports, which came from the Saudi Minister of Interior are correct, then probably three or four major (UNINTELLIGIBLE) have been foiled in the last few weeks. And if some of those circles close to the jihad are credible, then there is still more to come.

MACVICAR: Dr. Al Fagih is a Saudi dissident advocating nonviolence. From his base in London, he monitors what goes on in the kingdom.

AL FAGIH: Two weeks is fast. Three weeks, four weeks, the crackdown was immense. Everybody is a suspect. Everybody. Literally, everybody is a suspect. Everybody is searched. Everybody is questioned. And nobody is safe from us because there were no leads.

MACVICAR: It was only after the triple bombings at housing compounds in Riyadh on May 12, which killed 26 people, most of them Saudis or other Arabs, that the regime acknowledged it had a big problem with militants.

SIMON HENDERSON, SAUDI ANALYST: This is the story in a nutshell of al Qaeda or Islamic terrorists in Saudi Arabia. They ignored it for a while. They paid it off. And it's only now, since May 12, that they're really tackling it head on.

MACVICAR: Life in Saudi Arabia has become more restrictive. There are checkpoints, searches and sometimes, say dissidents, families are put under pressure when women or elderly members are arrested. But it is repression, say analysts, that is starting to backfire.

AL FAGIH: The situation back to square one. People are very angry with the regime. They do not see those measures as -- for the sake of the nation. They see it -- they see them only for the sake of America.

MACVICAR: Dr. Mai Yamani, herself a Saudi, says the government does not know who is loyal and who is not.

YAMANI: Do the royal princes know the extent of the problem or who is a militant and who is a moderate? The only way they would know is they -- if they embark on reforms.

MACVICAR: A big problem in Saudi Arabia, which could become a bigger problem for those in the west.

HENDERSON: If they don't deal with militant Islam, we get hit, perhaps literally, by militant Islam.

MACVICAR: The war against militants who believe that just as their predecessors vanquished the Soviets from Afghanistan, that they can drive the Americans and their allies from Iraq, the westerns from Saudi Arabia and bring to an end the rule of the house of Saud. The Saudis now acknowledge it will be a long and difficult war.

Sheila MacVicar, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And the man in black loses his long battle with a series of health problems.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Just ahead, the great career of Johnny Cash and how fans are remembering him.

Also, Pope John Paul looking extremely frail. A look at the health precautions the Vatican brings whenever the pontiff travels.

And children of the holocaust, a new exhibit showcases how some survived by hiding throughout the war.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Day two of what's proving to be a difficult trip to Slovakia for Pope John Paul II. Yesterday, for the first time, he was unable to finish his arrival remarks. Later, his aides were seen toting medical equipment, for the first time also. The pontiff looked somewhat better today as he celebrated a two-hour mass, but he read only a small part of his sermon.

Next week at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. an especially heart-wrenching exhibit will open to the public. It tells the stories of Jewish children forced to go into hiding or change their identities to escape the Nazis. Here's is a look at the exhibit. It is entitled "Life and Shadows: Hidden Children In The Holocaust" as told by curator Steven Luckert.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVEN LUCKERT, HOLOCAUST MUSEUM: The exhibition "Life and Shadows: Hidden Children In The Holocaust" details the dilemmas, the challenges, the choices that hidden children and their family had to make to survive during one of the darkest eras of mankind's history, the Holocaust.

Some went into hiding with their parents. Some had to go into hiding alone. Some never knew their parents. Another challenge that Jewish children in hiding faced, and that was the posing as a non-Jew, as a Christian.

It is a tiny snapshot. It shows a group of children in this -- at this Catholic orphanage. You see a nun in the background. In the midst are some Jewish children. One of the nuns at the orphanage told this girl that she looked too Jewish. So what she did is she scratched her face out of the photograph.

Here we have one particular case of a boy who was dressed as a girl. There are his false birth and baptismal certificate that is states that he is a girl.

We have a rather unique story about a boy in occupied Poland who was physically hidden during the war but for the years that they were in hiding, the boy hid in this wardrobe or behind it, sitting in this chair so that there were very real dangers of discovery here. This child survived for years in hiding.

Life in hiding was never safe. There was always a danger of discovery that even up until the very end of the war, the Nazis kept up their effort to discover every Jew in hiding and to kill them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And our appreciation to the curator Steven Luckert for that. This, exhibit, by the way, opens to the public next Friday, September 19. It runs through May 12 and will then travel to different locations around the United States.

The hidden heart condition that killed the actor John Ritter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RITTER: I'm happy right now.

SUZANNE SOMERS, ACTRESS: That doesn't count.

RITTER: Why?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: How someone who appeared so healthy could die so quickly. That story after the break.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Also, the passing of one of the greatest country music singers of all time. A live report looking at the amazing career of Johnny Cash.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Friends and colleagues are using words like stunning and unbelievable to describe their reaction to the death of John Ritter. The 54-year-old actor died unexpectedly last night in a Los Angeles area hospital. His publicist said he suffered from a tear in the main artery from the heart. What's called an aortic dissection. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has more now on the condition that killed the popular veteran performer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RITTER: Hey, Janet, I don't need any fake guru to make me look foolish.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We first knew John Ritter as the goofy Jack Tripper in the 1970s sitcom "Three's Company." Children recognize him as the voice of the Clifford the Big Red Dog. Most recently, audiences got to know him as the dad in the current series "Eight Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter." He was the star of a small screen bringing laughter to households across the nation.

And then, suddenly, he was the victim of a devastating cardiac event known as aortic dissection. The aorta i the main artery taking blood away from the heart. In a dissection, it tears and the tear keeps getting bigger and bigger. If it happens near the heart, the death rate is 1 percent per hour, meaning half of all victims will die within two days if left untreated.

Blood builds up against the wall of the artery and eventually it can rupture. Imagine the artery unzipping. Aortic dissections affects one out of every 5,000 people, mostly often men between ages 40 and 70. The cause is unknown, but certain factors make you more vulnerable such as: hardening of the arteries, high blood pressure -- the most important risk factor -- and injury to the chest.

Symptoms include sudden severe chest pain, confusion, rapid pulse rate and dizziness.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: Now, aortic dissections, Wolf, can be very hard to diagnose because it looks like different things, but once they do diagnose it, they can try to treat it with surgery or drugs or both of them.

BLITZER: Presumably, this could happen to anyone, even if they seem to be so healthy?

COHEN: Absolutely. It could happen to a seemingly healthy person, but really, probably not. There are things to look for. Seemingly is the operative word here. Someone may have high blood pressure. They might even be born with a heart defect and not know. So, most of the time, they do find there is a reason why someone has had this happen.

BLITZER: All right, Elizabeth Cohen as usual. Thanks very much.

COHEN: Thank you.

BLITZER: We'll have much more on the life of John Ritter on "LARRY KING LIVE" tonight. His guest, one of Ritter's co-stars on "Three's Company", Suzanne Somers. That's at 9 p.m. Eastern, tonight.

The music world legend and icon, known as the Man in Black has died.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Johnny Cash's deep and brooding voice moved countless fans for almost 50 years, died today in Nashville of complications of diabetes. Cash was 71. He was a member of the Country Music Rock and Roll and Songwriters Halls of Fame. CNN's Ed Lavandera is over at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. He's joining us now live -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf. We are told by sources close to the Johnny Cash family that funeral arrangements are being finalized at this hour. We do understand that there will be some private memorial service that will be planned here in the next few days. But we also understand that there are plans in the works to hold some sort of public memorial as well for Johnny Cash.

Here at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Johnny Cash's plaque draped by in a black cloth surrounded by red roses, as hundreds of people have come here to pay their respects. Signing a book just underneath that plaque, officials here at the museum say, will be forwarded to the family.

Johnny Cash, an incredible legacy, very hard to put into words what he has meant to the industry. One of three performers to be included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame. The other two, Hank Williams and Elvis Presley. Johnny Cash received ten Grammy awards and a lifetime achievement award. A man who has left a tremendous legacy, not only in country music, but in all of music and popular culture -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Great, there's no doubt about it. Our deepest condolences to the family. Ed Lavandera, thanks, Ed very much.

And in just a moment, a CNN unveiling of sorts. But first, our hot Web question of the day. It's this, what's your favorite Johnny Cash song? "Ring of Fire", "Boy Named Sue", "Fulsom Prison Blues." You can vote right now. Go to CNN.com/wolf. We'll have the results when we come back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) (MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Back in my stomping grounds, namely CNN's Washington D.C. Bureau, it's a very special day indeed. We are unveiling the new state of the art Washington news room and studio today. At the risk of sounding a little bit like the "Home and Garden Channel", here's a look. It is a pod like design with clustered seating and the best high tech features, plasma screens at virtually every work station, Compaq computers and a great new studio that utilizes our view of the U.S. Capitol.

We had to move the news room down 1 floor and then back up again. But news gathering, of course, was never, ever interrupted. The best digs, of course, for the best journalists in the business.

Here's how you're weighing in on our Web question of the day. We've been asking you this question, what's your favorite Johnny Cash song? Look at this, 62 percent of you say "Ring of Fire", 22 percent of you said "Boy Named Sue, 18 percent of you said "Fulsom Prison Blues". My favorite, "I Walked A Line". As always we remind you this is not a scientific poll.

I'll see you, of course, every week day, 5:00 p.m. Eastern as well as Noon Eastern. Sunday -- this Sunday on "LATE EDITION", the last word in Sunday talk. I'll see you then.

Until then, thanks very much for watching.

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





Forced to Confront Terrorists Within; Johnny Cash, John Ritter Die>


Aired September 12, 2003 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Is this hurricane the big one? It's been five years since we've seen one this strong that hit land, a category five hurricane inching closer to the United States. It doesn't get any bigger than this.
Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Bloody day, confusion and crossfire lead to heavy casualties in Iraq. We're on a raid with U.S. troops as they run into resistance.

Never seen before the last will and testament of a 9/11 hijacker on tape.

Unexpected death, American loses an actor, an audience favorite.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN RITTER, COMEDIAN: As long as it's OK with my daughter; otherwise, you will continue to date her and no one but her until she is finished with you because if you make her cry I will make you cry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And, mourning for the man in black, a hard-living Hall of Famer who lived up to the title of the greatest man in country music.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

BLITZER: It's Friday, September 12, 2003. Hello from the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting.

Even though U.S. forces are caught up in unrelenting violence this was an especially bloody day in Iraq. Two U.S. soldiers were killed and seven wounded when a gun battle broke out during an overnight raid in the town of Ramadi. In Abu Ghurayb, also west of Baghdad, two Americans were wounded when their military police vehicle hit an explosive device and then came under small arms fire.

And, in Fallujah, a nightmare of confusion, a friendly fire incident involving American troops left nine Iraqi security personnel and a Jordanian soldier dead.

We begin with the chain of fatal mistakes in Fallujah where three sides were caught up in a bloody crossfire.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson was on the scene. He's joining us now live from Baghdad - Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it still isn't clear exactly what precipitated those events and that led to the deaths of so many Iraqis and the Jordanian security officer.

What we are told by witnesses is that in the very early hours of the morning a U.S. helicopter came in and took away many of the dead and injured to a U.S. military base for treatment. Later in the day, some of the Iraqis were released to an Iraqi medical facility.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Writhing in pain, an Iraqi policeman injured in an overnight shooting involving U.S. and Jordanian forces and the Iraqi police receives treatment in a Fallujah hospital, one of nine injured survivors in an apparent friendly fire incident that killed nine Iraqi police and one Jordanian officer; outside the nearby Jordanian military hospital where the firefight took place distraught family members.

"These shells are for a light weapon" he says. "The Iraqis don't have such ammunition, only the Americans."

According to the U.S. forces the shooting was defensive after they were attacked with a rocket-propelled grenade resulting in one U.S. casualty and the injury of five of what the U.S. describes as neutral individuals.

(on camera): Much about this incident remains unclear. All that's left here, a few spent shell casings but in this area where tensions between U.S. troops and Iraqi people have been running high for some time, this latest attack will likely antagonize an already delicate situation.

(voice-over): Meanwhile, on the other side of Fallujah, another attack on U.S. troops. In the ensuing gun battle, a young child shot in the head adding to the tension and anger here.

Not far away in the town of Ramadi, the aftermath of an overnight U.S. raid that apparently went wrong, two U.S. soldiers killed and seven injured. A bloody 24 hours even for this section of west central Iraq where security experts warn U.S. forces are at the most risk of attack. (END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: And those same security experts believe there is a possibility that perhaps some of these foreign fighters coming into Iraq are embedding in this area around Fallujah, Ramadi, and Abu Ghurayb are providing training, are providing money for some of these attacks - Wolf.

BLITZER: Nic, these kinds of friendly fire incidents happen all the time but how angry are Iraqis on the street who've heard about this one?

ROBERTSON: Very angry, Wolf. I spent a lot of July and June in Fallujah. The people there were still relatively friendly despite some troubling outbreaks of violence.

When I was there today you could see the anger in people's eyes. The descriptions of what they said they might do with President Bush or a U.S. soldier, if found, really didn't bear hearing. They were very angry, Wolf, much angrier than I've seen in the past.

BLITZER: All right, Nic Robertson in Baghdad, Nic thanks very much.

U.S. troops, meanwhile, are continuing an aggressive campaign to root out the guerrillas who have been violently opposing the occupation. CNN went along on one raid in which U.S. troops ran into resistance in the central Iraqi town of al-Gharma (ph).

Ben Wedeman picks up the harrowing story of decision making and death on the front lines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey! There's a guy on the ground with an RPG and an AK it looks like.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We saw an individual come out of the building - the building right now, over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got eyes on him right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's back. Yes, it's him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have your interpreter tell him to lay his weapon down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Try that first, if not then fire him up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's too far away and he's moving.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's going to get away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger, fire at will.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cease fire, cease fire. BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Their fire found its mark, the man with the guns was killed. They thought there were others waiting in ambush.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They got him. Hey, we got three (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, no, no, no, no, no (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I see him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To the left, to the left.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Friendlies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're friendlies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do not fire.

WEDEMAN: With helicopters buzzing overhead the platoon searched a few houses looking for weapons. This platoon detained one man for further questioning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is his guilty or what his guilt?

WEDEMAN: He and other detainees are later brought to the center of town for paperwork. After the teeth-clenching tension of the raid for the troops it all seems a bit unreal.

LT. COL. MARK CALVERT, U.S. ARMY: The paperwork. Well, it's not a side of the business the soldiers are used to doing but it's part of the police work that's involved in processing these individuals.

WEDEMAN: A total of 27 men were rounded up in the raid since then says an Army spokesman. The number of attacks on American troops in the area has declined dramatically.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, al-Gharma in central Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: President Bush today traveled to Fort Stewart here in Georgia to salute the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which had delayed a homecoming after leading the assault on Baghdad. The president has moved on now to Houston.

Our Senior White House Correspondent John King is covering the president and he's joining us now live - John.

JOHN KING, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And, Wolf, that visit to Fort Stewart a chance for the president to thank the 3rd Infantry Division. As you noted, a long deployment to Iraq, the first wave heading into Baghdad on the day that Saddam Hussein's statue fell.

Mr. Bush thanked them. He said their work was critical in the war on terrorism. He said it was critical as well to bringing stability to the Middle East. The president also used this appearance in front of the troops at Fort Stewart to issue a call, if you will, to the international community to send in some reinforcements.

Secretary of State Powell begins in earnest this weekend meeting with United Nations members trying to round up the votes. Mr. Bush said it was now critical that the international community send in troops to help the United States stabilize post-war Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No free nation can be neutral in the fight between civilization and chaos. Terrorists in Iraq have attacked representatives of the civilized world and opposing them and defeating them must be the cause of the civilized world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: More than 16,000 members of the 3rd Infantry Division were deployed to war. The unit suffered the highest casualties of any U.S. military unit including 40 killed.

The president took some time privately while at Fort Stewart to meet with family members of eleven of those soldiers killed, a reminder, painful reminder for the president that even as he reaches out to try to get more international help on the ground in post-war Iraq that the burden will be carried in the months and years ahead, Wolf, overwhelmingly by U.S. troops.

BLITZER: CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King traveling with the president thanks John very much.

Forecasters, meanwhile, here in the United States are keeping a wary eye on a monster storm looming out in the Atlantic. Isabel is a category five hurricane. That's the top of the scale with maximum sustained winds of get this, 160 miles an hour.

The storm is so large it stands out clearly from space. This is the view astronauts aboard the International Space Station got of Isabel coming over the horizon.

The last Atlantic hurricane to reach category five was Mitch in 1998. That storm slammed into central America killing 11,000 people in at least three countries.

For the latest on Isabel, we're joined now by meteorologist Max Mayfield. He's the director of the National Hurricane Center. Thanks very much for joining us Mr. Mayfield.

MAX MAYFIELD, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: You're welcome, Wolf.

BLITZER: When do we expect or do we expect, first of all, Isabel to hit the United States?

MAYFIELD: Wolf, it's really too soon to say what impact this will have on the United States yet. You're absolutely right this is a very, very powerful hurricane right now. The top of our (UNINTELLIGIBLE) hurricane field or the category five.

It would be very unusual to have that intensely persist for too much longer. We've looked back at the 50 or 60 years. We've had 20 category five hurricanes in the Atlantic basin and most of those do not last longer than about 30 hours. So, we are forecasting it to weaken here over the next three to five days but it could still be a major hurricane within that period of time.

Now, as far as the forecast goes by Monday we're forecasting it to be well east of the Bahamas and by Wednesday it should be northeast of the northernmost Bahamas but the steering currents are still pretty weak. We'll have to see whether it continues that movement towards the southeast U.S. or it turns left a little bit more to the north.

The good news is we have plenty of time to watch it, take the weekend, look over your hurricane plan and know what you would do if it does head toward your community.

BLITZER: Dr. Mayfield, the Bahamas already just suffered in the past few days from one hurricane. Are you suggesting that people in the Bahamas might be suffering from another one? Excuse me that was Bermuda but Bahamas not that far away.

MAYFIELD: It looks like the core of the hurricane will stay to the east of the Bahamas but it's certainly close enough. I can certainly imagine them putting up tropical storm warnings and maybe a hurricane watch if it stays in this track.

But right now at least they're not looking at a direct hit now and it's a slow-moving hurricane. They've got plenty of time to see how the steering currents set up. We have our NOAA jet flying out there starting tomorrow afternoon to help define the steering currents that feed into the computer models to help us make a better forecast.

BLITZER: So, right now we can't predict North Carolina, Florida, anyplace else, is that what you're saying?

MAYFIELD: That's absolutely right. There's a very good reason we don't want to go beyond five days. There are just too many different steering currents that could set up but the message is that, you know, people not just in the Carolinas and Georgia but even further up the East Coast may have to deal with this sometime in the future but they have plenty of time to watch it.

BLITZER: I suspect, Mr. Mayfield, we'll be speaking often between now and then. Thanks very much, as usual, for joining us.

The standoff between Israel and Yasser Arafat, today's actions after Israel decides in principle to expel the Palestinian leader.

Also, a look at the roadmap to peace in the Middle East from a high point that happened almost exactly ten years ago today.

And later, the CIA reveals a new analysis of the latest Osama bin Laden tape. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Al Qaeda confessions, could the U.S. learn lessons from the French in getting suspected terrorists to open up? That story, much more, coming up on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: You're looking at a live picture of the Mukasa (ph). That's Yasser Arafat's compound, the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah on the West Bank, an incredibly tense moment right now in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Indeed, in the Middle East, Arafat may be at risk following Israel's decision "to remove him" but he's taken full advantage of the situation. For a second straight night the Palestinian Authority president rallied supporters at his West Bank compound offering thanks to those around the world who said that they are standing by him and the Palestinians.

The Israeli move has sparked protests in Jerusalem. About 500 Muslim youths left Noon prayers and stoned Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall. Police dispersed the crowd with tear gas.

The latest flare-up in tensions comes on the even of an important anniversary. Ten years ago tomorrow, Yasser Arafat joined Israeli leaders in presenting a symbol of hope and peace, a handshake that today seems hard to imagine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): It looked spontaneous but it was anything but. President Clinton's aides later disclosing he had actually rehearsed how he would try to bring Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat together for that powerfully symbolic handshake. September 13, 1993, a high moment in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Dr. Kissinger, thank you very much for spending some of this day with us.

I was on the South Lawn of the White House that day reporting on what so many of us had thought would quickly result in real peace after so many decades of war. For a time it indeed did look good.

The next year, President Clinton went to Aqaba to officiate at the signing of the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty bringing Prime Minister Rabin and King Hussein together for yet another upbeat moment. Jordan became the second Arab state, after Egypt, to enter into a formal peace with Israel.

Those were high points. There was a moment near the end of the Clinton administration in 2000 when the Israelis and the Palestinians seemed close to a deal. Mr. Clinton had brought Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak together at Camp David but, in the end, the negotiations collapsed and in the three years since, the situation has gone from hopeful to horrifying.

This is the famous book the Israelis put out. When I interviewed Arafat last year at his besieged Ramallah compound he defiantly rejected Israeli accusations he was engaged in terrorism.

I thought it couldn't get much worse but since then it has and now with more terror and the threat of exile it's becoming apparent that the cycle of terrorism and retaliation could easily deteriorate into all out war.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And what a difference a decade makes.

When we come back a settlement in a landmark legal case, coming up what happened when the family of a murdered woman went to court to sue AAA?

Also, why a man convicted in a dog mauling death won't be getting out of prison as planned.

And later, I'll look at the hidden heart condition that killed the popular actor John Ritter.

First, though, a quick look at some other news making headlines around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Typhoon slams Japan, the powerful storm swept through parts of Okinawa killing at least one person and injuring more than 90 others. Attacking wind gusts of more than 85 miles an hour, the typhoon overturned cars and trucks, knocked down power lines, and shattered windows in homes and businesses.

Iraq fallout, a British judge investigating the apparent suicide of a government weapons expert says he'll question the head of the British Broadcasting Corporation next week. Arms expert David Kelly died after being identified as a possible source of a BBC report that said Prime Minister Tony Blair's government had hyped the case for war with Iraq. The crisis is the most serious in Mr. Blair's six years in office.

Iran nuclear deadline, the United Nations nuclear watchdog has set an October 31 deadline for Iran to prove it has no secret nuclear weapons program. Following the vote on the resolution by the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran's delegation stormed out of the meeting.

Amazing robot, a new Japanese humanoid robot is jumping into the record books. Researchers say the robot can jump into a crouched position from a lying position by swinging its arms and legs in one dynamic movement, and that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. Security concerns are postponing the release of a high profile prisoner. Robert Noel along with his wife was convicted of manslaughter for the 2001 death of a San Francisco woman. Diane Whipple was mauled by the couple's dog in the hallway of their San Francisco building.

Prison officials say they decided to delay releasing Noel when they saw a crowd of media waiting outside. His wife Marjorie Knoller is scheduled to be released in March. For more on the case be sure to join Anderson Cooper tonight, "360", that's at 7:00 Eastern only, of course, here on CNN.

There's been an abrupt end to a unique and closely watched case. It pitted AAA against the family of a woman who was raped and murdered.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Melissa Gosule found herself in that predicament so many of us have faced. Her car wouldn't start. It was getting late. She needed a tow and a lift. What happened next devastated her family, horrified so many others and led to nearly four years of recriminations and a lawsuit.

LES GOSULE, MELISSA GOSULE'S FATHER: The loss of a child is something you never get over and it's just been really emotional dealing with it.

BLITZER: July 11, 1999, near the Sagamore Bridge on Cape Cod, Gosule, a 27-year-old school teacher was stranded. Her stepfather called AAA Motor Club. The tow truck driver arrived sometime later and told her he wouldn't be able to take her or her car back to her family's house near Boston for another three or four hours.

Rather than wait, Gosule accepted a ride from a stranger, Michael Gentile. He's now serving a life sentence for stabbing her to death.

GOSULE: No other person who loves someone should ever be in the shoes that we were in.

BLITZER: Gosule's family sued AAA for unspecified damages claiming she died because AAA didn't provide the service that it promises. The tow truck driver was also a defendant; AAA's counterclaim that Gosule had a series of safe options available to her other than to accept a ride from Gentile. In court papers, AAA reportedly said she could have called a taxi or had a relative pick her up. This week, three days into the trial, it was over, a settlement, terms not disclosed.

BOBBY BURCHFIELD, AAA ATTORNEY: The American Automobile Association and AAA Southern New England truly regret the circumstances that led to Melissa's tragic death.

BLITZER: The parties were noncommittal about why they settled but one expert tells CNN that while AAA might have been able to prevail in court the negative publicity might have been too much to bear.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: What a nightmare, what a horror.

The CIA examines the latest Osama bin Laden videotape. Coming up what new information the CIA has learned from the tape.

Also, the tape released today showing a suspected al Qaeda hijacker.

Later, how Saudi Arabia is fighting suspected terrorists inside its borders. We'll have a special report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Crackdown in Arabia, what made the Saudis take the war on terror to a new level. The answer may not be what you think that story and much more coming up on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

BLITZER: They're not yet certain, but CIA officials are increasingly confident that the voice on an audiotape released this week by Al Jazeera is indeed that of Osama bin Laden. Officials say it's impossible to know when bin Laden may have recorded the tape, which makes no references to events in the last two years. Earlier, officials said the other voice on the tape is that of Ayman Al- Zawahiri, the No. 2 man in al Qaeda. Al Jazeera says the video, which shows the two leaders walking in a mountainous area, was probably shot last spring. U.S. officials tend to doubt that.

Another al Qaeda video today showing up on the Al Jazeera network. With me to help sort through this latest development, CNN's Mike Boettcher, who knows a lot about this.

Tell us all about it, Mike.

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, what we saw today was something similar to what al Qaeda did last year right around 9/11. It was a message recorded from one of the hijacker, actually recorded in December of 2000, what al Qaeda calls it a last will and testaments, which purport to explain why they were going to carry out a mission.

We've seen a couple of these already, and we believe all or almost all of the hijackers recorded them. This ones calms from Sayeed Al-Ghamdi. He was a Saudi, 21 years old, one of the hijackers on United Flight 93 that crashed outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Aside from talking why he was going to take part in an operation -- and he only refers to it as something big that is going to happen, we see a video of Al-Ghamdi firing a submachine gun, a rocket propelled grenade and other weapons all in Afghanistan. The question now is, why are these videos being released? We had one two days ago, Wolf -- you just talked about with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri basically walking -- what appeared to me like a Volksmarch and making comments.

Three things -- and information warfare campaign by al Qaeda, as well a recruitment tool and as well a message for possible recruits out there to bring them to their side.

BLITZER: Sort of to rally the troops around. Is that...

BOETTCHER: Absolutely.

BLITZER: ...one of the goals of this?

BOETTCHER: It's unclear, too, whether messages -- signals are being sent out there about there about operations. If you look at one of the superimposed sections behind Al-Ghamdi in this video, it shows Al-Ghamdi holding an AK -- pardon me, an RPG, a rocket-propelled grenade, and a 747 flying overhead.

BLITZER: It's shocking for us to think of this. But to some people out there, small number but clearly a very dangerous number, this videotape inspires them. They think of these 19 guys as heroes.

BOETTCHER: No, absolutely. And you have to take yourself outside of our society and put yourself in the communities where possible recruits live. These people are considered heroes in their community.

BLITZER: It's shocking but it's important for us to understand. Thanks, Mike.

In the past two years, since 9/11, the United States has captured a number of high-level al Qaeda officials. Some of them are talking. And officials say they're providing valuable information. But how hard is it for the U.S. intelligence community to squeeze this information out of them?

For that, let's turn now to our national security correspondent, David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In recent weeks, senior Pentagon officials have been screening a 1960s film about the French experience with terrorism in Algeria, looking for lessons for the U.S.

The word torture doesn't appear in our order, says the French officer. Questioning is the only valid method in a police action against a clandestine group.

The French said they did not torture. But, back then, they did. As the film shows, the tough French tactics in Algeria backfired. TOM MALINOWSKY, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Those kinds of techniques are wonderful ways of getting false confessions out of innocent people.

ENSOR: President Bush has said the U.S. does not, will not use torture. But what if thousands of lives could be saved? Where do you draw the line? Khalid Shaikh Mohammed? Abu Zubaidayh? Hambali? Ramzi bin Al Shib? All are prisoners of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, a surreal existence, says writer Mark Bowden in "The Atlantic Monthly," in an undisclosed location outside the U.S.

MARK BOWDEN, ATLANTIC MONTHLY: It could be a foreign country. It could be an island. It could be on an aircraft carrier. It's just a place that they won't name.

ENSOR: Wherever he is, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is talking, identifying suspects in the U.S., according to law enforcement officials. But why? The CIA has no comment.

BOWDEN: What appears to be more effective are these techniques which fall under the rubric of coercion -- what I called coercion -- or it's often called "torture lite," which is things -- which are things like sleep deprivation, keeping a person hungry, uncomfortable, tired, disoriented. They won't cause lasting physical damage to the person. And I think under the present circumstances, it's probably the morally correct choice.

ENSOR: Human rights activists say, lite or not, torture is torture. And it's a line they hope the U.S. is not crossing. After all, President Bush condemned Saddam Hussein for using it in his prisons.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning.

MALINOWSKY: How can we say that to the world and stand for the values if, at the same time, we say, Well, there are times when it's OK, when we do it? When it's expedient.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: But no one really knows where American interrogators draw the line. That ambiguity is deliberate. Al Qaeda's leaders can only imagine their fate if caught, which is just the way the CIA wants it - Wolf.

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

In Saudi Arabia, home to 15 of the 9/11 hijackers, a nightmare is becoming reality. Numerous violent clashes between militants and police and last May's suicide bombings that have killed 35 people have shocked the kingdom and forced it face the enemy within.

Our senior international correspondent Sheila MacVicar reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHELIA MACVICAR, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): For months, Saudis have been shocked by what they have seen on their television screens. Pictures of raids broadcast by state television. This one took place in a suburb of the capital, Riyadh; arrests; caches of weapon; and talk of plots.

Plots, say Saudi officials, to blow up government installations and targets, to attack the oil industry, to go after Western interests, including a specific threat against British Airways planes.

MAI YAMANI, ROYAL INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS: It is very serious. If it was serious -- the September 11 two years ago -- it is critical now.

DR. SA'AD AL FAGIH, MOVEMENT FOR ISLAMIC REFORM: If the reports, which came from the Saudi Minister of Interior are correct, then probably three or four major (UNINTELLIGIBLE) have been foiled in the last few weeks. And if some of those circles close to the jihad are credible, then there is still more to come.

MACVICAR: Dr. Al Fagih is a Saudi dissident advocating nonviolence. From his base in London, he monitors what goes on in the kingdom.

AL FAGIH: Two weeks is fast. Three weeks, four weeks, the crackdown was immense. Everybody is a suspect. Everybody. Literally, everybody is a suspect. Everybody is searched. Everybody is questioned. And nobody is safe from us because there were no leads.

MACVICAR: It was only after the triple bombings at housing compounds in Riyadh on May 12, which killed 26 people, most of them Saudis or other Arabs, that the regime acknowledged it had a big problem with militants.

SIMON HENDERSON, SAUDI ANALYST: This is the story in a nutshell of al Qaeda or Islamic terrorists in Saudi Arabia. They ignored it for a while. They paid it off. And it's only now, since May 12, that they're really tackling it head on.

MACVICAR: Life in Saudi Arabia has become more restrictive. There are checkpoints, searches and sometimes, say dissidents, families are put under pressure when women or elderly members are arrested. But it is repression, say analysts, that is starting to backfire.

AL FAGIH: The situation back to square one. People are very angry with the regime. They do not see those measures as -- for the sake of the nation. They see it -- they see them only for the sake of America.

MACVICAR: Dr. Mai Yamani, herself a Saudi, says the government does not know who is loyal and who is not.

YAMANI: Do the royal princes know the extent of the problem or who is a militant and who is a moderate? The only way they would know is they -- if they embark on reforms.

MACVICAR: A big problem in Saudi Arabia, which could become a bigger problem for those in the west.

HENDERSON: If they don't deal with militant Islam, we get hit, perhaps literally, by militant Islam.

MACVICAR: The war against militants who believe that just as their predecessors vanquished the Soviets from Afghanistan, that they can drive the Americans and their allies from Iraq, the westerns from Saudi Arabia and bring to an end the rule of the house of Saud. The Saudis now acknowledge it will be a long and difficult war.

Sheila MacVicar, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And the man in black loses his long battle with a series of health problems.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Just ahead, the great career of Johnny Cash and how fans are remembering him.

Also, Pope John Paul looking extremely frail. A look at the health precautions the Vatican brings whenever the pontiff travels.

And children of the holocaust, a new exhibit showcases how some survived by hiding throughout the war.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Day two of what's proving to be a difficult trip to Slovakia for Pope John Paul II. Yesterday, for the first time, he was unable to finish his arrival remarks. Later, his aides were seen toting medical equipment, for the first time also. The pontiff looked somewhat better today as he celebrated a two-hour mass, but he read only a small part of his sermon.

Next week at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. an especially heart-wrenching exhibit will open to the public. It tells the stories of Jewish children forced to go into hiding or change their identities to escape the Nazis. Here's is a look at the exhibit. It is entitled "Life and Shadows: Hidden Children In The Holocaust" as told by curator Steven Luckert.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVEN LUCKERT, HOLOCAUST MUSEUM: The exhibition "Life and Shadows: Hidden Children In The Holocaust" details the dilemmas, the challenges, the choices that hidden children and their family had to make to survive during one of the darkest eras of mankind's history, the Holocaust.

Some went into hiding with their parents. Some had to go into hiding alone. Some never knew their parents. Another challenge that Jewish children in hiding faced, and that was the posing as a non-Jew, as a Christian.

It is a tiny snapshot. It shows a group of children in this -- at this Catholic orphanage. You see a nun in the background. In the midst are some Jewish children. One of the nuns at the orphanage told this girl that she looked too Jewish. So what she did is she scratched her face out of the photograph.

Here we have one particular case of a boy who was dressed as a girl. There are his false birth and baptismal certificate that is states that he is a girl.

We have a rather unique story about a boy in occupied Poland who was physically hidden during the war but for the years that they were in hiding, the boy hid in this wardrobe or behind it, sitting in this chair so that there were very real dangers of discovery here. This child survived for years in hiding.

Life in hiding was never safe. There was always a danger of discovery that even up until the very end of the war, the Nazis kept up their effort to discover every Jew in hiding and to kill them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And our appreciation to the curator Steven Luckert for that. This, exhibit, by the way, opens to the public next Friday, September 19. It runs through May 12 and will then travel to different locations around the United States.

The hidden heart condition that killed the actor John Ritter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RITTER: I'm happy right now.

SUZANNE SOMERS, ACTRESS: That doesn't count.

RITTER: Why?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: How someone who appeared so healthy could die so quickly. That story after the break.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Also, the passing of one of the greatest country music singers of all time. A live report looking at the amazing career of Johnny Cash.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Friends and colleagues are using words like stunning and unbelievable to describe their reaction to the death of John Ritter. The 54-year-old actor died unexpectedly last night in a Los Angeles area hospital. His publicist said he suffered from a tear in the main artery from the heart. What's called an aortic dissection. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has more now on the condition that killed the popular veteran performer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RITTER: Hey, Janet, I don't need any fake guru to make me look foolish.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We first knew John Ritter as the goofy Jack Tripper in the 1970s sitcom "Three's Company." Children recognize him as the voice of the Clifford the Big Red Dog. Most recently, audiences got to know him as the dad in the current series "Eight Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter." He was the star of a small screen bringing laughter to households across the nation.

And then, suddenly, he was the victim of a devastating cardiac event known as aortic dissection. The aorta i the main artery taking blood away from the heart. In a dissection, it tears and the tear keeps getting bigger and bigger. If it happens near the heart, the death rate is 1 percent per hour, meaning half of all victims will die within two days if left untreated.

Blood builds up against the wall of the artery and eventually it can rupture. Imagine the artery unzipping. Aortic dissections affects one out of every 5,000 people, mostly often men between ages 40 and 70. The cause is unknown, but certain factors make you more vulnerable such as: hardening of the arteries, high blood pressure -- the most important risk factor -- and injury to the chest.

Symptoms include sudden severe chest pain, confusion, rapid pulse rate and dizziness.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: Now, aortic dissections, Wolf, can be very hard to diagnose because it looks like different things, but once they do diagnose it, they can try to treat it with surgery or drugs or both of them.

BLITZER: Presumably, this could happen to anyone, even if they seem to be so healthy?

COHEN: Absolutely. It could happen to a seemingly healthy person, but really, probably not. There are things to look for. Seemingly is the operative word here. Someone may have high blood pressure. They might even be born with a heart defect and not know. So, most of the time, they do find there is a reason why someone has had this happen.

BLITZER: All right, Elizabeth Cohen as usual. Thanks very much.

COHEN: Thank you.

BLITZER: We'll have much more on the life of John Ritter on "LARRY KING LIVE" tonight. His guest, one of Ritter's co-stars on "Three's Company", Suzanne Somers. That's at 9 p.m. Eastern, tonight.

The music world legend and icon, known as the Man in Black has died.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Johnny Cash's deep and brooding voice moved countless fans for almost 50 years, died today in Nashville of complications of diabetes. Cash was 71. He was a member of the Country Music Rock and Roll and Songwriters Halls of Fame. CNN's Ed Lavandera is over at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. He's joining us now live -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf. We are told by sources close to the Johnny Cash family that funeral arrangements are being finalized at this hour. We do understand that there will be some private memorial service that will be planned here in the next few days. But we also understand that there are plans in the works to hold some sort of public memorial as well for Johnny Cash.

Here at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Johnny Cash's plaque draped by in a black cloth surrounded by red roses, as hundreds of people have come here to pay their respects. Signing a book just underneath that plaque, officials here at the museum say, will be forwarded to the family.

Johnny Cash, an incredible legacy, very hard to put into words what he has meant to the industry. One of three performers to be included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame. The other two, Hank Williams and Elvis Presley. Johnny Cash received ten Grammy awards and a lifetime achievement award. A man who has left a tremendous legacy, not only in country music, but in all of music and popular culture -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Great, there's no doubt about it. Our deepest condolences to the family. Ed Lavandera, thanks, Ed very much.

And in just a moment, a CNN unveiling of sorts. But first, our hot Web question of the day. It's this, what's your favorite Johnny Cash song? "Ring of Fire", "Boy Named Sue", "Fulsom Prison Blues." You can vote right now. Go to CNN.com/wolf. We'll have the results when we come back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) (MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Back in my stomping grounds, namely CNN's Washington D.C. Bureau, it's a very special day indeed. We are unveiling the new state of the art Washington news room and studio today. At the risk of sounding a little bit like the "Home and Garden Channel", here's a look. It is a pod like design with clustered seating and the best high tech features, plasma screens at virtually every work station, Compaq computers and a great new studio that utilizes our view of the U.S. Capitol.

We had to move the news room down 1 floor and then back up again. But news gathering, of course, was never, ever interrupted. The best digs, of course, for the best journalists in the business.

Here's how you're weighing in on our Web question of the day. We've been asking you this question, what's your favorite Johnny Cash song? Look at this, 62 percent of you say "Ring of Fire", 22 percent of you said "Boy Named Sue, 18 percent of you said "Fulsom Prison Blues". My favorite, "I Walked A Line". As always we remind you this is not a scientific poll.

I'll see you, of course, every week day, 5:00 p.m. Eastern as well as Noon Eastern. Sunday -- this Sunday on "LATE EDITION", the last word in Sunday talk. I'll see you then.

Until then, thanks very much for watching.

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





Forced to Confront Terrorists Within; Johnny Cash, John Ritter Die>