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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

U.N. Passes the Hat in Madrid; Will Gulf states contribute to Iraqi reconstruction?

Aired October 23, 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: It's happening right now. The rich nations of the world are meeting in Spain, on the agenda money to build Iraq. So far, U.S. taxpayers have put up billions to pick up the tab. We'll soon find out how much, if any, the Europeans, the Japanese, the oil-rich Arab nations are going to cough up.
Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Passing the hat for Iraq.

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: I appeal to donors to give and give generously.

BLITZER: Will it ease the burden for U.S. troops and taxpayers?

A devastating attack on U.S. forces, 20 years ago today, the suspected mastermind still at large. Will he strike again?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is the best. He's much better than bin Laden.

BLITZER: Wal-Mart raided, hundreds of arrests at stores across the country.

Heading off heart attacks a new test may help doctors save your life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: It's Thursday, October 23, 2003. Hello from New York City, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting.

The United States led the way in toppling Saddam Hussein. Today it's paying the price in the blood of U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq and in the enormous investment needed to rebuild Iraq, U.S. taxpayers so far being stuck with almost all of that tab. We begin with an extraordinary gathering underway right now in Madrid where the United Nations is passing the hat asking others to share in the burden.

Let's go live to CNN's Senior International Correspondent Sheila MacVicar -- Sheila. SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, here in Madrid it's all about money and that will be big money. The bill for the estimated cost of the reconstruction for Iraq is $55 billion. That's $55 billion in reconstruction costs just between now and 2007.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MACVICAR (voice-over): Time to get the checkbooks out, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in Madrid with representatives from more than 50 other countries looking for money, a lot of money.

ANNAN: We are looking to this conference for a signal.

MACVICAR: The U.N. secretary-general said countries may have their doubts about giving money now but now is when Iraq needs the funds.

ANNAN: I know we all look forward to the earliest possible establishment of a sovereign Iraqi government but a start on reconstruction cannot be deferred until that day. It demands our urgent attention now.

MACVICAR: What the Iraqi delegation wants is cold cash and quickly and for those countries like France and Germany, which are saying they do not now have money for Iraq there is a clear threat of future strained relations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A friend in need is a friend indeed. If they want to help (unintelligible), we would welcome that but if they decline then they won't get any preferential treatment in the future.

MACVICAR: There is some not so diplomatic arm twisting going on. What is at stake for the donors is not just the security that reconstruction in Iraq would bring but big business with a potentially wealthy Iraq and that the president of the World Bank says is all part of the process.

JAMES WOLFENSOHN, WORLD BANK PRESIDENT: Everybody is playing all the cards that they have and one of the intangible cards but in the future very tangible cards is the relationship that you build with a government.

MACVICAR: So think of this of paying now to play later.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACVICAR: Wolf, we'll find out what the final tally of this round of fund raising is tomorrow. It will be announced here. It's clear already that it will be far short of the $30 billion or so still needed and still outstanding. Spain's foreign minister telling me a few hours ago that if they get $6 billion here that will be, in her words, a fantastic result -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Sheila MacVicar with the latest on that important story, Sheila thanks very much.

Is the United States paying the price for going it alone in Iraq? Is it time to let others call at least some of the shots?

Professor Shibley Telhami holds the Anwar Sadat chair for peace and development at the University of Maryland. He's also a fellow with the Brookings Institution. Shibley Telhami is joining us now live from Washington.

Shibley, thanks very much for spending some time with us. What will it take for the U.S. to get the oil-rich Arab states, the Europeans, the Japanese to pick up a bigger part of this tab?

SHIBLEY TELHAMI, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: Well, first of all, you know, they see the money as leverage no doubt and, therefore, they want to use that money in order to get sliding control from the U.S. into the U.N. and into Iraq.

The Europeans, particularly the French, the Germans and the Russians when they supported the U.S.-led resolution at the U.N. last week said they are not going to provide more money now because the resolution did not meet their own conditions. So, clearly, they want to use that leverage and I'm not sure that whatever happens at the conference is going to persuade them.

I think when it comes to the Arab Gulf states one of the issues that has to be addressed even before how much they donate is the debt that Iraq has which is a huge debt over $100 billion and some of that is to the Gulf states, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and clearly that I think issue is the one that has to be first on the minds of those people who are thinking about how to reconstruct Iraq.

BLITZER: Well, are they convinced that Iraq, which sits on this enormous amount of oil reserves eventually are going to be able, the Iraqis will be able to repay that enormous debt?

TELHAMI: Well, that's a good question and particularly the issue of whether Iraq is going to remain a unified state which everybody hopes but that is the problem in terms of betting on Iraq's future. This is also what the private sector faces.

A lot of companies are going to jump in to benefit from the service contracts that are going to be abundant just even with the money available, the American money, the World Bank money, the Japanese money but who is going to come in and invest with money that is not going to pay off for five, ten, 15 years if they don't know what the outcome is and that's why people want to use this money to control the outcome in the next years and I think the issue is connected to politics.

BLITZER: Shibley, as you well remember a dozen years ago during the first Gulf War, the Saudis, the Kuwaitis, the other oil-rich Arab nations picked up an enormous amount of what $50 billion or $60 billion that war cost. The U.S. wound up paying very little of it because they thought this was in their best security interest to get the Iraqis out of Kuwait.

Don't they appreciate the fact now that without Saddam Hussein in power they've gained enormously their strategic -- their security interests in that part of the world? Why aren't they coming forward and picking up some of this expense?

TELHAMI: Well, first of all their economic burdens are much greater than they were then. They are facing their own economic crisis and they're going to have to address that. But second, I think, they have -- there are two minds on the Iraq issue.

On the one hand they don't want the U.S. to succeed so well so as to threaten them because many of them fear that they could be next, at least that's the way they're reading the rhetoric here.

But on the other hand they really are fearful of the collapse of Iraq and its economy. It has a lot of consequences for them. So, I think they have an incentive to cooperate. The real issue is at what point do they cooperate and how do they use the leverage to get the results that they want for their own interests?

BLITZER: Shibley Telhami, as usual, thanks very much for joining us.

TELHAMI: My pleasure.

BLITZER: And here is your turn to weigh in on the story. The web question of the day is this. "Will donations from other countries help bring U.S. troops home from Iraq faster"? You can vote right now at cnn.com/wolf. We'll have the results later in this broadcast.

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

The toll among U.S. troops rose further today. IN Ba'Qubah north of Baghdad, a soldier from the Army's 4th Infantry Division was killed, two others were wounded when their convoy was hit by an explosive device. The area has been a hotbed of resistance to the U.S.-led military occupation.

Acting on a tip, military police near a U.S. compound in Baghdad stopped a car containing a bomb and took three men into custody. U.S. soldiers safely detonated the car. Coalition officials say the same source also tipped off troops to a cache of explosives at another location. The site contained devices in various states of assembly.

President Bush is back from his whirlwind tour of Asia and Australia, not all the way back in the Continental United States. He's in Hawaii right now where a visit to Pearl Harbor continues his theme of confronting threats to U.S. security.

Let's go live to Honolulu. CNN's White House Correspondent Dana Bash is standing by -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And, Wolf, the main crux of the president's day here in Hawaii is that tour of Pearl Harbor to take a boat around and look at the USS Arizona at the bottom of the sea and, of course, to pay tribute to those who died there more than 60 years ago. And it not only worked logistically to stop here on the way back from his whirlwind trip in Asia and Arizona but also it worked for the White House because of the obvious parallel between Pearl Harbor and the attacks of September 11th.

The White House also thinks that it provided a good symbolic ending for the main theme of his trip which was the war on terrorism. At every stop, at every meeting that he had with world leaders, individually and at the APEC Summit in Bangkok that was the issue that he pressed for leaders to help him root out terrorism in their countries and around the world -- Wolf.

BLITZER: CNN's Dana Bash with the president in Hawaii, Dana thanks very much.

Wal-Mart arrests, federal officials raid the nation's number one retailer. We'll have a live report; also...

LT. STEVE FRANCIS, YAVAPI CO. SHERIFF'S DEPT.: We believe that it was a random act and that there is a crazy person running around not necessarily.

BLITZER: A young couple murdered in a popular camping area, investigators searching for clues and they're searching for the killer.

And new information on preventing heart attacks, a test that might save you life, an easy test. We'll tell you all about it.

First, though, today's News Quiz.

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BLITZER (voice-over): What is the leading cause of death in America today, cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes, automobile accident, the answer coming up?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Mary Snow. Federal agents raid dozens of Wal-Mart stores making hundreds of arrests. I'll have the details when WOLF BLITZER REPORTS returns right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A federal crackdown on undocumented workers is putting Wal-Mart in an unwanted spotlight. About 250 suspected illegal immigrants were arrested at stores in 21 states earlier today.

Mary Snow of CNN Financial News is covering the story. She's got details -- Mary.

SNOW: Well, Wolf, immigration officials say undocumented workers from Eastern Europe, Mexico and other countries are under arrest tonight. Now, Wal-Mart says these workers were not company employees but work for outside contractors.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (voice-over): Federal agents began their raids in the pre- dawn hours and by the time Operation Rollback was complete about 250 illegal immigrants working on cleaning crews in 61 Wal-Mart stores were under arrest. Immigration officials also descended on the Arkansas headquarters of the world's largest retailer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The issue here is we are trying to understand the investigation. We're trying to understand what the INS is looking for. We're cooperating fully with them.

SNOW: Wal-Mart says it uses more than 100 third-party contractors to perform cleaning services. It says it requires each to use legal workers. But federal law enforcement sources say an undercover probe revealed there were violations and that some Wal-Mart executives and store managers knew about them. The alleged violations led to today's arrest in 21 states with sources saying the largest number occurred in Texas and Pennsylvania.

It's not the first labor issue facing the retail giant. Female workers have filed a discrimination suit. An attorney representing them claims Wal-Mart controls everything down to the heat and music in stores and is skeptical of the retailer's claims that it didn't know about the alleged violations.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wal-Mart's genius and something that Wall Street has always appreciates is the fact that they have this very sophisticated information system and remarkably close monitoring of what's going on in their stores. I think one can be skeptical about the fact that they simply didn't know about undocumented workers.

SNOW: Immigration officials say today's operation stems from a 1998 investigation and that the penalty for hiring illegal workers can run up to $10,000 per person.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: And officials say tonight that the arrests on those immigration violations did not involve criminal charges -- Wolf.

BLITZER: CNN's Mary Snow, thanks Mary very much for that report.

In Arizona it's a grisly who done nit. Police are looking for the killer or killers of two campers. They were found in a remote area shot to death in their sleeping bags.

CNN's Gary Tuchman is monitoring this mystery. He's joining us now from the newsroom in Atlanta -- Gary.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, a 19-year-old woman and a 20-year-old man celebrating their first anniversary as a couple, they decided to return to the site of their first date and that's where this tragedy occurred. Lisa Guereri (ph) and Brandon Rumbaugh (ph) went to a parking area near a campground north of Phoenix in Yavapai County, Arizona. They were sleeping under the stars in the back of a pickup truck owned by Lisa's mother. When they did not return home their frantic families called police. Their bodies were found the next day with fatal gunshot wounds to their heads. There are no suspects, no known motive.

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FRANCIS: It's always tough with any case like this but especially when you look at somebody 19, 20 years old. I mean they're only starting their lives. It's very difficult. I mean we in law enforcement we all have families. We have kids and our hearts go out to the parents of both.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: Authorities in Arizona are pleading with any possible witnesses to call them. They say that's ultimately how they will solve this case -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Gary Tuchman with the latest on that story, horrible story, thanks very much Gary for that.

News now from our Justice Report, Detroit police say they have an apparent vigilante on their hands. Detectives say somebody shot and killed a man who had attacked three people with a metal pipe. The shooter remains at large.

In Fairfax County, Virginia, that's just outside Washington, D.C., a judge has decided not to postpone the trial of the serial sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo. Prosecutors sought the delay in part so they could give a mental health expert time to examine Malvo but the judge rejected the request saying the trial will start as scheduled November 10th.

And the hot, hot story in Morgantown, West Virginia. Investigators are studying videotape to try to identify the people who started dozens of fires there last night. Crowds got way out of hand after the West Virginia University Mountaineers upset Virginia Tech in college football. Some people pelted police and firefighters as well with rocks and bottles.

An extraordinary struggle over a woman's right to live or die. The legal moves intensify in the case of Terri Schiavo; plus this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GRAY DAVIS, FORMER GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA: Life is like a relay race. We each run our part of the race as well as we can and then we pass the baton to the next person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Face-to-face and all smiles but what went on when the cameras weren't watching? We'll tell you.

And it was a suicide bombing that rocked the world, looking back at the Beirut U.S. Marine Corps barracks bombing, 20 years ago today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: California's next governor met today with the man he'll replace for the first time since the state's bitter recall election only two weeks ago.

Our National Correspondent Frank Buckley is in Sacramento with details on the one-on-one conversation between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gray Davis -- Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we detected no leftover campaign animosity or rhetoric during a one-on- one meeting. As you might expect it was a meeting between two cordial and gracious political rivals, their first face-to-face meeting since the bitter campaign that divided California.

Behind closed doors they were going to talk about budget and policy and transition issues. Before that we had a change to lob a few questions at both of the men. We asked Arnold Schwarzenegger how the Schwarzenegger era would look different from the Davis era.

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ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIF. GOV-ELECT: I think that the people have spoken, you know, on the day of the election. They want change and I will provide that change and I'm looking forward to working for the people, be the governor for the people so I think that the people are very optimistic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: Governor Davis has promised a smooth transition still he sounded a bit wistful today about his final days in office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIS: Life is like a relay race. We each run our part of the race as well as we can and then we pass the baton to the next person, which is what I'm doing in this transition.

SCHWARZENEGGER: Thank you very much, thank you governor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: Governor-elect Schwarzenegger wrapping up two days of meetings here. He not only met Governor Davis while he was here but Governor-elect Schwarzenegger also meeting Cruz Bustamante who was one of his opponents, along with legislative leaders. He is still the governor-elect. He's expected to be sworn in, Wolf, on November 17th -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And between now and November 17th what's he planning on doing, anything exciting?

BUCKLEY: Well, a series of transition meetings. He's got hundreds of jobs to fill in his new administration. He just picked a chief of staff. He's got to pick a finance director. He's got a series of issues and then, of course, he's really got to start working on that budget.

Even though he's not the governor yet he's got to have a budget to the printers by the end of December, the budget presented in January, that's a great deal of work to do on this multibillion dollar budget for California so many things to do before even the swearing in ceremony.

BLITZER: I suspect every day is going to be exciting for Arnold Schwarzenegger and his new life. Frank Buckley thanks very much for that.

Life and death battle, a Florida family's struggle over their brain-damaged daughter and wife, the conflict though it intensifies.

Vowing to fight why some U.S. Senators are opposing adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare.

And a new test that could predict if you will suffer a heart attack. This is important information you need to know.

First, though, a look at some other top vacation spots this winter.

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MARION ASNES, "MONEY MAGAZINE" SENIOR EDITOR: "Money Magazine" chose Lenox as a sophisticated vacation. This is a place for people who want to relax. You can ski both downhill and cross country and you can spa at several of the great inns that dot this area and because there are fewer tourists you can get incredible views of some of the great mansions of the gilded age. It is off season and you can get packages through a lot of hotels so that a vacation in the Berkshires in winter is less expensive than you probably think.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just death, dead bodies wherever you looked and rubble all over the place.

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BLITZER: It's been 20 years since hundreds of Americans were killed in a terrorist truck bombing in Beirut, a look back at the tragedy and its suspected mastermind who's still at large. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN.

A decade long legal battle that's tearing a Florida family apart, we'll get to that.

First, though, a quick check of the latest headlines.

The commander of Space Station Alpha says the international outpost is safe. Michael Foale admits there are glitches with a system that measures trace contaminants in air and water but he says the major system that monitors carbon dioxide is working normally and there's no reason to suspect the crew is in any danger.

Don't be surprised if you have problems with your cell phone tomorrow. Thanks to a rare celestial quirk cell phones, pages, and power grids could all be on the fritz around 3:00 p.m. Eastern tomorrow. It all comes from a coronal mass ejection. That's what it's called, a powerful wave of magnetic material from the sun.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The brain-damaged Florida woman at the center of a life-and-death battle is back in a hospice and once again hooked up to a feeding tube by order of the governor, Jeb Bush. But the future for Terri Schiavo is still very uncertain.

CNN national correspondent Susan Candiotti is in Pinellas Park, Florida. She has the latest -- Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Wolf.

Yes, we can tell you that as that legal war goes on, that Terri Schiavo apparently spent a quiet day here at the hospice. According to an attorney for her husband, she does have a new doctor because the one who had been treating her , he says, resigned because of this flap over the reinsertion of the feeding tube.

You will remember that Terri Schiavo returned to this hospice last night in a police-escorted motorcade, returning here by ambulance.

Meantime today, Florida Governor Jeb Bush defending his decision to reinsert that feeding tube at the family's request, even though it effectively overturned a court order. Even a former chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, appointed by a Republican governor calls it -- tells CNN he views this as violation of the separation of two branches, the judiciary, as well as the executive power -- the executive branch. Governor Bush, for his part, maintains that he respects the judiciary but says he did what he had to do.

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GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: This was the right thing to do. And the courts will make the determination. It's on appeal, as I understand it. And they'll make the determination of the constitutionality. But we did what was right and I'm proud of the legislature for responding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Well, attorneys for Terri Schiavo's husband are incensed what Governor Bush -- over what he has done. The courts have ruled that Terri Schiavo told her husband, even though it was not written down, that she did not want to live life in a vegetative state. Now those attorneys describe Terri today, her face being gaunt, having been in effect taken off of feeding tube for at least a week, although they say that her color and complexion are now good and that she has no apparent organ damage.

Now that same attorney does predict that this inevitably will wind up in Florida Supreme Court. And he contends what the governor did was wrong.

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GEORGE FELDS, MICHAEL SCHIAVO'S ATTORNEY: It was not the right thing to do. The -- no one -- no one, whether it's a governor, a senator, a potentate, a dictator, should have the right to override somebody's medical treatment wishes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Terri Schiavo's parents did visit her this day at the hospice. They agreed that she looks much better than she did last night.

It is clear, Wolf, that this legal battle is -- is just far from over. Back to you.

BLITZER: Susan Candiotti with the latest on this heart-wrenching story. Thanks, Susan, very much.

The Schiavo case once again highlights an old ethical dilemma that courts and legislatures have never been able to get a handle on.

Joining us from Montreal to talk about all of this, Arthur Caplan. He's director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Thanks, Arthur, very much for joining us.

This is a case that highlights the need for people to have living wills, as their called, isn't it?

ARTHUR CAPLAN, BIOETHICIST: It is absolutely essential that anyone in the state of Florida, indeed anyone in America, write down two important things. One, who they want to make decisions for them. And, two, whatever it is that they want. If you don't want to wind up in a battle like this, the living will is absolutely the antidote, the preventive solution to this. Unfortunately, Terri Schiavo didn't have that.

BLITZER: So how do you resolve this when you have her husband, her legal guardian with one very firmly stated position insisting she didn't want to be kept alive this way. But her parents, her brother, her sister, taking the exact opposite approach? From an ethicist's point of view, what do you do?

CAPLAN: Well, you know, the principle, Wolf -- and these battles come up. They're not common, but they happen, families fighting. The principle we always go by in making decisions when the person or the patient can't communicate is let the spouse make the call. The argument is that they know best what the person's wishes were. They deal with them on a day-to-day intimate basis. And unless someone can disqualify the husband or wife, they have priority of decision-making.

So whether it's permission to autopsy, permission for organ donation -- even if someone were a Jehovah's witness and came unconscious to the ER, we'd ask the husband or wife is blood transfusion acceptable or not? So not mothers, not sisters, not uncles, not cousins, husbands and wives because of what they know, because of the intimacy of the relationship.

In fact, I have to add, if you looked at what the state has done, Governor Bush and others had talked a lot about respect for the family and family values. In this case, it's that respect for marriage and that's really what's at issue here, is that going to be upheld?

BLITZER: Well, what if the husband or the spouse at any particular case is clearly not thinking straight, not making the right decision, shouldn't there be an opportunity for other loved ones to intervene?

CAPLAN: There absolutely is a need to make sure that you can disqualify a husband or wife. You can come in and say, Look, you don't want this husband in this case making decisions. He stands to collect a lot of money if she dies from life insurance. He's running around and having a romance on the side and that's why he wants to push on.

But the fact is, Wolf, 19 judges looked at claims like that, some made by the parents, some made by others, about this husband, and in every case, Michael Schiavo was seen as still the legitimate guardian. In other words, all the attempts to disqualify him failed.

Now the state has jumped in and said, Well, we don't care -- we don't care about what the judiciary said, we're going to disqualify him. And that's why I'm very certain that that law that was enacted won't hold up.

BLITZER: So you think that -- you think that eventually the courts are going to reject the law and that she's going to be taken off that feeding tube?

CAPLAN: I do. And it's not a fight about quality of life. It isn't a fight about whether or not he's making decisions that somehow or other are compromised. It isn't even really a fight about her being in a vegetative state or not.

What really the battle about is can you control your medical care? Can a Christian scientist say, I don't want any kind of medical care? Can someone who is a Jehovah's witness say, I don't want a blood transfusion. Can you say, if you're suffering from cystic fibrosis or AIDS, stop treating me. I've had enough. It's the defense of the principles of the person's right to control their rate to care, and if they can't speak, then letting their closest relative, their closest loved one, husband or wife, if you will, act as their megaphone. And that's really what's at issue in the case.

BLITZER: All right. Arthur Caplan giving us his assessment of what's going on. Arthur, thanks very much.

CAPLAN: My pleasure, Wolf.

BLITZER: And back to the first point Arthur made, if you don't have a living will, this is a good time to go think about getting a living will and make sure you don't wind up in the same kind of situation, your loved ones battling over what to do about you.

Congressional efforts set to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare are facing a new hurdle. Forty-one senators, including one Republican, are threatening to block the final bill now in conference.

Our Congressional correspondent, Jonathan Karl, is joining us now live from Capitol Hill on the latest on this battle -- Jon.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the action of those 41 senators comes after House and Senate negotiators have been working for months to try to craft a prescription drug benefit for recipients of Medicare.

These Democrats, mostly Democrats, except for Olympia Snowe, the sole Republican, are objecting to several provisions. The biggest provision they don't like is changes that the Medicare bill -- this prescription drug bill -- would make to Medicare itself, subjecting the Medicare program to direct competition with private insurance companies. The Democrats don't like that and they are warning that if that is not changed, that they can kill the bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: We're reaching the final hours. We call on the president to intervene and to exercise judgment in this conference, to indicate that they want a bi-partisan bill. It's still possible. But we're further away from that possibility today than any time since the conference first began.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: Now, it is not over yet. There are still a lot of negotiating going on. They were reacting to a deal that really hasn't been struck yet.

And Wolf, just a few moments ago, I spoke with Senator John Breaux, who is one of the Democrats who has been working with Republicans on this, not one of those to sign the letter, but one of them working on this deal. And he says that he is confident that at the end of this process, probably as soon as next week, that there will be a bill that a bipartisan group of senators here can support and that will have the support to pass the United States Congress.

Not everybody is that confident, but John Breaux is in the room negotiating it. He says it can still be done.

BLITZER: We shall soon find out. CNN's Jonathan Karl on Capitol Hill. An important story affecting lots of Americans out there.

Let's take a live picture now. Let's go to John F. Kennedy Airport here in New York City. You're looking at the Concorde. This is the last Concorde flight from London to New York, British Airways. This supersonic airliner. It's about to touch down in New York City -- the last time a Concorde will have flown from Europe to the United States. There will be one additional Concorde flight tomorrow from New York back to London. That will be the last time a Concorde will fly. They are ending all of these flights. Let's watch this land

A beautiful landing, as usual. The Concorde ending decades of service, Transatlantic service, international service, this British Airways flight making this historic flight from London to John F. Kennedy Airport here in New York City. There will be one more flight tomorrow.

We'll take a closer look tomorrow at this incredible aircraft. A lot of history you're watching right now. We'll continue to monitor the last flight tomorrow of the Concorde.

The scars left behind can't be measured in words. Tonight, remembering the U.S. Marines who died in this Beirut bombing 20 years ago today. And as Americans remember their fallen comrades, he remains a wanted man. Exactly 20 years later we'll tell you where people think he might be.

Then, it takes more than exercise and a good diet. We'll tell you about a test that could help us get a jump on heart disease. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Nice day here in New York City. Welcome back. We're reporting today from New York.

A somber anniversary at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington remembering the 220 U.S. marines and 21 other service members killed in the truck bombing of a marine barracks in Beirut on this day in 1983.

Following an earlier attack on the U.S. embassy, the barracks bombing signaled to Americans before there was a war on terror that terrorists were at war with the United States. CNN's Beirut bureau chief Brent Sadler reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Sickening images of dead American marines blown up in Beirut during Lebanon's civil war 20 years ago. They served as peacekeepers, but some marines felt trapped in a cauldron of chaos and hate scrawling their thoughts on this wall, blasted by the bomb.

NICHOLAS BLANDFORD, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: It was a devastating strike, the largest none nuclear explosion since the Second World War.

SADLER: And like the deadly suicide bombing of the U.S. embassy also in Beirut just six months earlier a blueprint for two decades of evolving tactics and terror.

WALID JUMBLATT, LEBANESE DRUZE LEADER: Well, it's the available weapon for the pulse against the mighty rich is what's happening now in Israel, in Palestine. In Iraq.

SADLER: A weapon claims this scholar that's designed to cause shock and rage, and to force a change in U.S. policy. As in Lebanon, she says, with the subsequent withdrawal of U.S. troops.

JUDITH HARIO, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR: Maximum impact, maximum demonstrated lesson. You know. How easy it was to deal a blow to the greatest power on Earth.

SADLER: Her Lebanese husband who helped marines in rescue efforts after the explosion says it's a lesson that is unlikely to be forgotten.

ANTON HARIO, EYEWITNESS: Just dead. Dead bodies wherever you looked. And rubble all over the place.

SADLER: The U.S. holds Iran and what it calls Hezbollah terrorists responsible for both the marines and embassy carnage. Today, though, Hezbollah is an influential political party in Lebanon collecting donations in front of an American fast food outlet every week in a city where U.S. interests are still closely guarded.

All traces of the marine barracks attack have vanished beneath these buildings in a new airport complex. As for the old U.S. embassy bomb site on Beirut's sea front, it's been turned into a car park. U.S. diplomats now work out of a fortress-like compound outside the city for security reasons. One of many lessons learned from those deadly days. Brent Sadler, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The 1983 bombings were followed by a string of deadly terror attacks. Many of them are believed linked to one man who may still be planning yet more atrocities. CNN's Mike Boettcher was in Beirut in 1983. He's joining us live with more on the hunt for the mastermind -- Mike.

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, I remember back 20 years ago when the marines came, they were treated as heroes. But it didn't take long for them to be targets. And The man who targeted them, Imad Mugniyah, is still being sought 20 years later. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOETTCHER (voice-over): October 23, 1983, does not resonate the way September 11, 2001 does, nor are these images seared into the collective world consciousness the way the events of 9/11 are. But inside top secret offices at the Pentagon and the CIA, they have not forgotten.

For 20 years, they have pursued this man. Imad Mugniyah, the Lebanese Hezbollah operative believed to be the mastermind of the marine barracks bombing. He is still at large.

He's wanted for what he did then and could do now. Cofer Black, now the State Department's ambassador for counter terrorism, pursued Mugniyah back in the days when Black ran the CIA's counter terrorism center.

COFER BLACK, AMB. COUNTER TERRORISM: The FBI considers Imad Mugniyah one of their 22 most wanted terrorists. Resources are allocated. The guy is a criminal, he is a murderer.

BOETTCHER: Unlike bin Laden who keeps up a public presence even while the U.S. man hunt for him continues, Mugniyah rarely shows himself outside his inner circle. He hides out in both Lebanon and Iran. There are few photographs of him.

ROBERT BAER, FRM. CIA: Is he good. He is the best. He's much better than bin Laden.

BOETTCHER: Robert Baer, a former CIA man who pursued Mugniyah in Lebanon, collected one of the few pictures of him.

BAER: Within 24 hours after we made a photocopy of it, we went back to get the original and it was gone. So Imad Mugniyah, we figured out very early on, runs an intelligence network in Lebanon like you wouldn't believe.

BOETTCHER: Mugniyah, in collaboration with Iran, according to U.S. intelligence sources, is also believed responsible for the hijacking of TWA 847, the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, and a long list of other terrorist acts, including the kidnapping of westerners in Beirut in the mid and late 1980s. And many terrorism analysts think he may see in Iraq a chance to again demonstrate a position of strength by once more striking American targets.

BAER: It wouldn't surprise me if today he is working with bin Laden or al Qaeda or whatever is left of it in Iraq. Simply because it's decisive battle. And any time there is a decisive battle, Muslims will unify. Believers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOETTCHER: In our interview with Cofer Black, the counter terrorism ambassador for the State Department, he had a message for him. He had a message for Mugniyah, he said, quote, "Don't mess with us. We will never forget you. We will eventually bring you to justice." And Wolf by the way, we'll have more of that interview with, Ambassador Black, Monday on your show.

BLITZER: Thanks very much. CNN's Mike Boettcher, doing some excellent reporting for us as he always does.

It could be a real life saver, a potential medical break-through to keep you healthy could be in a simple blood test. We'll have details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Earlier we asked, what is the leading cause of death in America today?

The answer, coronary heart disease. According to the American Heart Association, coronary heart disease caused approximately 515,000 deaths in the year 2000. This year, an estimated 1.1 million Americans will have a new or recurrent coronary attack.

On the heartbeat, what are your chances of suffering a heart attack?

Is there any way to know if you're at risk?

There is a new simple test which can tell you if you're a likely candidate. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has her finger on the pulse of this story as she has on so many of our medical stories. She is joining us now live from the CNN center in Atlanta -- Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, there is a lot of excitement about this new blood test that doctors have been doing in an experimental way to see if patients are ripe for heart attack or not. Here is how it would be used. Patients come in to the ER with chest pain and doctors wonder, is this person having a heart attack or maybe about to have one or is it really maybe not of such concern. And right now with this new test they can predict with a high level of accuracy if someone is about to have a heart attack.

Let's take a look at the numbers, because they are pretty striking. This new test when used in conjunction with the current tests out there, can predict with 95 percent accuracy if someone will be having a heart attack in the next six months. The current tests, the ones that are used as we speak are only 50 percent accurate at predicting whether or not someone is going to have a heart attack. It's very important to make this prediction accurately, because if someone is at high risk for having a heart attack, they would send them directly to the catheter lab or perhaps give them drugs so the person won't go on to have that heart attack -- Wolf.

How does the test work -- Elizabeth.

COHEN: It's very interesting. Many of us have plaque in our arteries. It's just there and sometimes it's actually relatively harmless. But some people have an inflammatory process that goes on in that plaque, and then what can happen is that vessel, as you can see, gets plugged up. And what the test does is detects whether or not that inflammatory process is going on.

BLITZER: That's important medical information a lot of us need to know. Thanks, Elizabeth Cohen for bringing it to us.

The results of our hot "Web Question" of the day when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

There you see the result of our "Web Question of the Day," 43 percent of you say yes, 57 percent of you say no. Remember this is not a scientific poll.

Lets get to some of your e-mail right now.

Robert writes this, "I was a U.S. Marine in Beirut with the 32nd MLIA and was at that airport and yes we all felt very vulnerable. We were there are peacekeepers and should have been seen as such, but were not. I was proud to serve in Beirut."

Guy writes this, "Being a former Marine who was stationed at the Beirut airport during the bombing, this is certainly a sad day for my fellow Marines and all of America. Our participation as peacekeepers in Lebanon was an impossible mission with no clear objective. Our nonresponse energized the buildup of terrorist groups around the world which of course peaked on September 11."

A reminder we are on ever weekday, 5:00 p.m. Eastern. Also noon Eastern, twice a day noon and 5:00 p.m. Eastern. See you tomorrow. Thanks very much for watching. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

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





to Iraqi reconstruction?>


Aired October 23, 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: It's happening right now. The rich nations of the world are meeting in Spain, on the agenda money to build Iraq. So far, U.S. taxpayers have put up billions to pick up the tab. We'll soon find out how much, if any, the Europeans, the Japanese, the oil-rich Arab nations are going to cough up.
Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Passing the hat for Iraq.

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: I appeal to donors to give and give generously.

BLITZER: Will it ease the burden for U.S. troops and taxpayers?

A devastating attack on U.S. forces, 20 years ago today, the suspected mastermind still at large. Will he strike again?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is the best. He's much better than bin Laden.

BLITZER: Wal-Mart raided, hundreds of arrests at stores across the country.

Heading off heart attacks a new test may help doctors save your life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: It's Thursday, October 23, 2003. Hello from New York City, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting.

The United States led the way in toppling Saddam Hussein. Today it's paying the price in the blood of U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq and in the enormous investment needed to rebuild Iraq, U.S. taxpayers so far being stuck with almost all of that tab. We begin with an extraordinary gathering underway right now in Madrid where the United Nations is passing the hat asking others to share in the burden.

Let's go live to CNN's Senior International Correspondent Sheila MacVicar -- Sheila. SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, here in Madrid it's all about money and that will be big money. The bill for the estimated cost of the reconstruction for Iraq is $55 billion. That's $55 billion in reconstruction costs just between now and 2007.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MACVICAR (voice-over): Time to get the checkbooks out, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in Madrid with representatives from more than 50 other countries looking for money, a lot of money.

ANNAN: We are looking to this conference for a signal.

MACVICAR: The U.N. secretary-general said countries may have their doubts about giving money now but now is when Iraq needs the funds.

ANNAN: I know we all look forward to the earliest possible establishment of a sovereign Iraqi government but a start on reconstruction cannot be deferred until that day. It demands our urgent attention now.

MACVICAR: What the Iraqi delegation wants is cold cash and quickly and for those countries like France and Germany, which are saying they do not now have money for Iraq there is a clear threat of future strained relations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A friend in need is a friend indeed. If they want to help (unintelligible), we would welcome that but if they decline then they won't get any preferential treatment in the future.

MACVICAR: There is some not so diplomatic arm twisting going on. What is at stake for the donors is not just the security that reconstruction in Iraq would bring but big business with a potentially wealthy Iraq and that the president of the World Bank says is all part of the process.

JAMES WOLFENSOHN, WORLD BANK PRESIDENT: Everybody is playing all the cards that they have and one of the intangible cards but in the future very tangible cards is the relationship that you build with a government.

MACVICAR: So think of this of paying now to play later.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACVICAR: Wolf, we'll find out what the final tally of this round of fund raising is tomorrow. It will be announced here. It's clear already that it will be far short of the $30 billion or so still needed and still outstanding. Spain's foreign minister telling me a few hours ago that if they get $6 billion here that will be, in her words, a fantastic result -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Sheila MacVicar with the latest on that important story, Sheila thanks very much.

Is the United States paying the price for going it alone in Iraq? Is it time to let others call at least some of the shots?

Professor Shibley Telhami holds the Anwar Sadat chair for peace and development at the University of Maryland. He's also a fellow with the Brookings Institution. Shibley Telhami is joining us now live from Washington.

Shibley, thanks very much for spending some time with us. What will it take for the U.S. to get the oil-rich Arab states, the Europeans, the Japanese to pick up a bigger part of this tab?

SHIBLEY TELHAMI, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: Well, first of all, you know, they see the money as leverage no doubt and, therefore, they want to use that money in order to get sliding control from the U.S. into the U.N. and into Iraq.

The Europeans, particularly the French, the Germans and the Russians when they supported the U.S.-led resolution at the U.N. last week said they are not going to provide more money now because the resolution did not meet their own conditions. So, clearly, they want to use that leverage and I'm not sure that whatever happens at the conference is going to persuade them.

I think when it comes to the Arab Gulf states one of the issues that has to be addressed even before how much they donate is the debt that Iraq has which is a huge debt over $100 billion and some of that is to the Gulf states, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and clearly that I think issue is the one that has to be first on the minds of those people who are thinking about how to reconstruct Iraq.

BLITZER: Well, are they convinced that Iraq, which sits on this enormous amount of oil reserves eventually are going to be able, the Iraqis will be able to repay that enormous debt?

TELHAMI: Well, that's a good question and particularly the issue of whether Iraq is going to remain a unified state which everybody hopes but that is the problem in terms of betting on Iraq's future. This is also what the private sector faces.

A lot of companies are going to jump in to benefit from the service contracts that are going to be abundant just even with the money available, the American money, the World Bank money, the Japanese money but who is going to come in and invest with money that is not going to pay off for five, ten, 15 years if they don't know what the outcome is and that's why people want to use this money to control the outcome in the next years and I think the issue is connected to politics.

BLITZER: Shibley, as you well remember a dozen years ago during the first Gulf War, the Saudis, the Kuwaitis, the other oil-rich Arab nations picked up an enormous amount of what $50 billion or $60 billion that war cost. The U.S. wound up paying very little of it because they thought this was in their best security interest to get the Iraqis out of Kuwait.

Don't they appreciate the fact now that without Saddam Hussein in power they've gained enormously their strategic -- their security interests in that part of the world? Why aren't they coming forward and picking up some of this expense?

TELHAMI: Well, first of all their economic burdens are much greater than they were then. They are facing their own economic crisis and they're going to have to address that. But second, I think, they have -- there are two minds on the Iraq issue.

On the one hand they don't want the U.S. to succeed so well so as to threaten them because many of them fear that they could be next, at least that's the way they're reading the rhetoric here.

But on the other hand they really are fearful of the collapse of Iraq and its economy. It has a lot of consequences for them. So, I think they have an incentive to cooperate. The real issue is at what point do they cooperate and how do they use the leverage to get the results that they want for their own interests?

BLITZER: Shibley Telhami, as usual, thanks very much for joining us.

TELHAMI: My pleasure.

BLITZER: And here is your turn to weigh in on the story. The web question of the day is this. "Will donations from other countries help bring U.S. troops home from Iraq faster"? You can vote right now at cnn.com/wolf. We'll have the results later in this broadcast.

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

The toll among U.S. troops rose further today. IN Ba'Qubah north of Baghdad, a soldier from the Army's 4th Infantry Division was killed, two others were wounded when their convoy was hit by an explosive device. The area has been a hotbed of resistance to the U.S.-led military occupation.

Acting on a tip, military police near a U.S. compound in Baghdad stopped a car containing a bomb and took three men into custody. U.S. soldiers safely detonated the car. Coalition officials say the same source also tipped off troops to a cache of explosives at another location. The site contained devices in various states of assembly.

President Bush is back from his whirlwind tour of Asia and Australia, not all the way back in the Continental United States. He's in Hawaii right now where a visit to Pearl Harbor continues his theme of confronting threats to U.S. security.

Let's go live to Honolulu. CNN's White House Correspondent Dana Bash is standing by -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And, Wolf, the main crux of the president's day here in Hawaii is that tour of Pearl Harbor to take a boat around and look at the USS Arizona at the bottom of the sea and, of course, to pay tribute to those who died there more than 60 years ago. And it not only worked logistically to stop here on the way back from his whirlwind trip in Asia and Arizona but also it worked for the White House because of the obvious parallel between Pearl Harbor and the attacks of September 11th.

The White House also thinks that it provided a good symbolic ending for the main theme of his trip which was the war on terrorism. At every stop, at every meeting that he had with world leaders, individually and at the APEC Summit in Bangkok that was the issue that he pressed for leaders to help him root out terrorism in their countries and around the world -- Wolf.

BLITZER: CNN's Dana Bash with the president in Hawaii, Dana thanks very much.

Wal-Mart arrests, federal officials raid the nation's number one retailer. We'll have a live report; also...

LT. STEVE FRANCIS, YAVAPI CO. SHERIFF'S DEPT.: We believe that it was a random act and that there is a crazy person running around not necessarily.

BLITZER: A young couple murdered in a popular camping area, investigators searching for clues and they're searching for the killer.

And new information on preventing heart attacks, a test that might save you life, an easy test. We'll tell you all about it.

First, though, today's News Quiz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER (voice-over): What is the leading cause of death in America today, cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes, automobile accident, the answer coming up?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Mary Snow. Federal agents raid dozens of Wal-Mart stores making hundreds of arrests. I'll have the details when WOLF BLITZER REPORTS returns right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A federal crackdown on undocumented workers is putting Wal-Mart in an unwanted spotlight. About 250 suspected illegal immigrants were arrested at stores in 21 states earlier today.

Mary Snow of CNN Financial News is covering the story. She's got details -- Mary.

SNOW: Well, Wolf, immigration officials say undocumented workers from Eastern Europe, Mexico and other countries are under arrest tonight. Now, Wal-Mart says these workers were not company employees but work for outside contractors.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (voice-over): Federal agents began their raids in the pre- dawn hours and by the time Operation Rollback was complete about 250 illegal immigrants working on cleaning crews in 61 Wal-Mart stores were under arrest. Immigration officials also descended on the Arkansas headquarters of the world's largest retailer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The issue here is we are trying to understand the investigation. We're trying to understand what the INS is looking for. We're cooperating fully with them.

SNOW: Wal-Mart says it uses more than 100 third-party contractors to perform cleaning services. It says it requires each to use legal workers. But federal law enforcement sources say an undercover probe revealed there were violations and that some Wal-Mart executives and store managers knew about them. The alleged violations led to today's arrest in 21 states with sources saying the largest number occurred in Texas and Pennsylvania.

It's not the first labor issue facing the retail giant. Female workers have filed a discrimination suit. An attorney representing them claims Wal-Mart controls everything down to the heat and music in stores and is skeptical of the retailer's claims that it didn't know about the alleged violations.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wal-Mart's genius and something that Wall Street has always appreciates is the fact that they have this very sophisticated information system and remarkably close monitoring of what's going on in their stores. I think one can be skeptical about the fact that they simply didn't know about undocumented workers.

SNOW: Immigration officials say today's operation stems from a 1998 investigation and that the penalty for hiring illegal workers can run up to $10,000 per person.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: And officials say tonight that the arrests on those immigration violations did not involve criminal charges -- Wolf.

BLITZER: CNN's Mary Snow, thanks Mary very much for that report.

In Arizona it's a grisly who done nit. Police are looking for the killer or killers of two campers. They were found in a remote area shot to death in their sleeping bags.

CNN's Gary Tuchman is monitoring this mystery. He's joining us now from the newsroom in Atlanta -- Gary.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, a 19-year-old woman and a 20-year-old man celebrating their first anniversary as a couple, they decided to return to the site of their first date and that's where this tragedy occurred. Lisa Guereri (ph) and Brandon Rumbaugh (ph) went to a parking area near a campground north of Phoenix in Yavapai County, Arizona. They were sleeping under the stars in the back of a pickup truck owned by Lisa's mother. When they did not return home their frantic families called police. Their bodies were found the next day with fatal gunshot wounds to their heads. There are no suspects, no known motive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCIS: It's always tough with any case like this but especially when you look at somebody 19, 20 years old. I mean they're only starting their lives. It's very difficult. I mean we in law enforcement we all have families. We have kids and our hearts go out to the parents of both.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: Authorities in Arizona are pleading with any possible witnesses to call them. They say that's ultimately how they will solve this case -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Gary Tuchman with the latest on that story, horrible story, thanks very much Gary for that.

News now from our Justice Report, Detroit police say they have an apparent vigilante on their hands. Detectives say somebody shot and killed a man who had attacked three people with a metal pipe. The shooter remains at large.

In Fairfax County, Virginia, that's just outside Washington, D.C., a judge has decided not to postpone the trial of the serial sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo. Prosecutors sought the delay in part so they could give a mental health expert time to examine Malvo but the judge rejected the request saying the trial will start as scheduled November 10th.

And the hot, hot story in Morgantown, West Virginia. Investigators are studying videotape to try to identify the people who started dozens of fires there last night. Crowds got way out of hand after the West Virginia University Mountaineers upset Virginia Tech in college football. Some people pelted police and firefighters as well with rocks and bottles.

An extraordinary struggle over a woman's right to live or die. The legal moves intensify in the case of Terri Schiavo; plus this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GRAY DAVIS, FORMER GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA: Life is like a relay race. We each run our part of the race as well as we can and then we pass the baton to the next person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Face-to-face and all smiles but what went on when the cameras weren't watching? We'll tell you.

And it was a suicide bombing that rocked the world, looking back at the Beirut U.S. Marine Corps barracks bombing, 20 years ago today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: California's next governor met today with the man he'll replace for the first time since the state's bitter recall election only two weeks ago.

Our National Correspondent Frank Buckley is in Sacramento with details on the one-on-one conversation between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gray Davis -- Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we detected no leftover campaign animosity or rhetoric during a one-on- one meeting. As you might expect it was a meeting between two cordial and gracious political rivals, their first face-to-face meeting since the bitter campaign that divided California.

Behind closed doors they were going to talk about budget and policy and transition issues. Before that we had a change to lob a few questions at both of the men. We asked Arnold Schwarzenegger how the Schwarzenegger era would look different from the Davis era.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIF. GOV-ELECT: I think that the people have spoken, you know, on the day of the election. They want change and I will provide that change and I'm looking forward to working for the people, be the governor for the people so I think that the people are very optimistic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: Governor Davis has promised a smooth transition still he sounded a bit wistful today about his final days in office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIS: Life is like a relay race. We each run our part of the race as well as we can and then we pass the baton to the next person, which is what I'm doing in this transition.

SCHWARZENEGGER: Thank you very much, thank you governor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: Governor-elect Schwarzenegger wrapping up two days of meetings here. He not only met Governor Davis while he was here but Governor-elect Schwarzenegger also meeting Cruz Bustamante who was one of his opponents, along with legislative leaders. He is still the governor-elect. He's expected to be sworn in, Wolf, on November 17th -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And between now and November 17th what's he planning on doing, anything exciting?

BUCKLEY: Well, a series of transition meetings. He's got hundreds of jobs to fill in his new administration. He just picked a chief of staff. He's got to pick a finance director. He's got a series of issues and then, of course, he's really got to start working on that budget.

Even though he's not the governor yet he's got to have a budget to the printers by the end of December, the budget presented in January, that's a great deal of work to do on this multibillion dollar budget for California so many things to do before even the swearing in ceremony.

BLITZER: I suspect every day is going to be exciting for Arnold Schwarzenegger and his new life. Frank Buckley thanks very much for that.

Life and death battle, a Florida family's struggle over their brain-damaged daughter and wife, the conflict though it intensifies.

Vowing to fight why some U.S. Senators are opposing adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare.

And a new test that could predict if you will suffer a heart attack. This is important information you need to know.

First, though, a look at some other top vacation spots this winter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARION ASNES, "MONEY MAGAZINE" SENIOR EDITOR: "Money Magazine" chose Lenox as a sophisticated vacation. This is a place for people who want to relax. You can ski both downhill and cross country and you can spa at several of the great inns that dot this area and because there are fewer tourists you can get incredible views of some of the great mansions of the gilded age. It is off season and you can get packages through a lot of hotels so that a vacation in the Berkshires in winter is less expensive than you probably think.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just death, dead bodies wherever you looked and rubble all over the place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: It's been 20 years since hundreds of Americans were killed in a terrorist truck bombing in Beirut, a look back at the tragedy and its suspected mastermind who's still at large. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN.

A decade long legal battle that's tearing a Florida family apart, we'll get to that.

First, though, a quick check of the latest headlines.

The commander of Space Station Alpha says the international outpost is safe. Michael Foale admits there are glitches with a system that measures trace contaminants in air and water but he says the major system that monitors carbon dioxide is working normally and there's no reason to suspect the crew is in any danger.

Don't be surprised if you have problems with your cell phone tomorrow. Thanks to a rare celestial quirk cell phones, pages, and power grids could all be on the fritz around 3:00 p.m. Eastern tomorrow. It all comes from a coronal mass ejection. That's what it's called, a powerful wave of magnetic material from the sun.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The brain-damaged Florida woman at the center of a life-and-death battle is back in a hospice and once again hooked up to a feeding tube by order of the governor, Jeb Bush. But the future for Terri Schiavo is still very uncertain.

CNN national correspondent Susan Candiotti is in Pinellas Park, Florida. She has the latest -- Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Wolf.

Yes, we can tell you that as that legal war goes on, that Terri Schiavo apparently spent a quiet day here at the hospice. According to an attorney for her husband, she does have a new doctor because the one who had been treating her , he says, resigned because of this flap over the reinsertion of the feeding tube.

You will remember that Terri Schiavo returned to this hospice last night in a police-escorted motorcade, returning here by ambulance.

Meantime today, Florida Governor Jeb Bush defending his decision to reinsert that feeding tube at the family's request, even though it effectively overturned a court order. Even a former chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, appointed by a Republican governor calls it -- tells CNN he views this as violation of the separation of two branches, the judiciary, as well as the executive power -- the executive branch. Governor Bush, for his part, maintains that he respects the judiciary but says he did what he had to do.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: This was the right thing to do. And the courts will make the determination. It's on appeal, as I understand it. And they'll make the determination of the constitutionality. But we did what was right and I'm proud of the legislature for responding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Well, attorneys for Terri Schiavo's husband are incensed what Governor Bush -- over what he has done. The courts have ruled that Terri Schiavo told her husband, even though it was not written down, that she did not want to live life in a vegetative state. Now those attorneys describe Terri today, her face being gaunt, having been in effect taken off of feeding tube for at least a week, although they say that her color and complexion are now good and that she has no apparent organ damage.

Now that same attorney does predict that this inevitably will wind up in Florida Supreme Court. And he contends what the governor did was wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE FELDS, MICHAEL SCHIAVO'S ATTORNEY: It was not the right thing to do. The -- no one -- no one, whether it's a governor, a senator, a potentate, a dictator, should have the right to override somebody's medical treatment wishes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Terri Schiavo's parents did visit her this day at the hospice. They agreed that she looks much better than she did last night.

It is clear, Wolf, that this legal battle is -- is just far from over. Back to you.

BLITZER: Susan Candiotti with the latest on this heart-wrenching story. Thanks, Susan, very much.

The Schiavo case once again highlights an old ethical dilemma that courts and legislatures have never been able to get a handle on.

Joining us from Montreal to talk about all of this, Arthur Caplan. He's director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Thanks, Arthur, very much for joining us.

This is a case that highlights the need for people to have living wills, as their called, isn't it?

ARTHUR CAPLAN, BIOETHICIST: It is absolutely essential that anyone in the state of Florida, indeed anyone in America, write down two important things. One, who they want to make decisions for them. And, two, whatever it is that they want. If you don't want to wind up in a battle like this, the living will is absolutely the antidote, the preventive solution to this. Unfortunately, Terri Schiavo didn't have that.

BLITZER: So how do you resolve this when you have her husband, her legal guardian with one very firmly stated position insisting she didn't want to be kept alive this way. But her parents, her brother, her sister, taking the exact opposite approach? From an ethicist's point of view, what do you do?

CAPLAN: Well, you know, the principle, Wolf -- and these battles come up. They're not common, but they happen, families fighting. The principle we always go by in making decisions when the person or the patient can't communicate is let the spouse make the call. The argument is that they know best what the person's wishes were. They deal with them on a day-to-day intimate basis. And unless someone can disqualify the husband or wife, they have priority of decision-making.

So whether it's permission to autopsy, permission for organ donation -- even if someone were a Jehovah's witness and came unconscious to the ER, we'd ask the husband or wife is blood transfusion acceptable or not? So not mothers, not sisters, not uncles, not cousins, husbands and wives because of what they know, because of the intimacy of the relationship.

In fact, I have to add, if you looked at what the state has done, Governor Bush and others had talked a lot about respect for the family and family values. In this case, it's that respect for marriage and that's really what's at issue here, is that going to be upheld?

BLITZER: Well, what if the husband or the spouse at any particular case is clearly not thinking straight, not making the right decision, shouldn't there be an opportunity for other loved ones to intervene?

CAPLAN: There absolutely is a need to make sure that you can disqualify a husband or wife. You can come in and say, Look, you don't want this husband in this case making decisions. He stands to collect a lot of money if she dies from life insurance. He's running around and having a romance on the side and that's why he wants to push on.

But the fact is, Wolf, 19 judges looked at claims like that, some made by the parents, some made by others, about this husband, and in every case, Michael Schiavo was seen as still the legitimate guardian. In other words, all the attempts to disqualify him failed.

Now the state has jumped in and said, Well, we don't care -- we don't care about what the judiciary said, we're going to disqualify him. And that's why I'm very certain that that law that was enacted won't hold up.

BLITZER: So you think that -- you think that eventually the courts are going to reject the law and that she's going to be taken off that feeding tube?

CAPLAN: I do. And it's not a fight about quality of life. It isn't a fight about whether or not he's making decisions that somehow or other are compromised. It isn't even really a fight about her being in a vegetative state or not.

What really the battle about is can you control your medical care? Can a Christian scientist say, I don't want any kind of medical care? Can someone who is a Jehovah's witness say, I don't want a blood transfusion. Can you say, if you're suffering from cystic fibrosis or AIDS, stop treating me. I've had enough. It's the defense of the principles of the person's right to control their rate to care, and if they can't speak, then letting their closest relative, their closest loved one, husband or wife, if you will, act as their megaphone. And that's really what's at issue in the case.

BLITZER: All right. Arthur Caplan giving us his assessment of what's going on. Arthur, thanks very much.

CAPLAN: My pleasure, Wolf.

BLITZER: And back to the first point Arthur made, if you don't have a living will, this is a good time to go think about getting a living will and make sure you don't wind up in the same kind of situation, your loved ones battling over what to do about you.

Congressional efforts set to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare are facing a new hurdle. Forty-one senators, including one Republican, are threatening to block the final bill now in conference.

Our Congressional correspondent, Jonathan Karl, is joining us now live from Capitol Hill on the latest on this battle -- Jon.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the action of those 41 senators comes after House and Senate negotiators have been working for months to try to craft a prescription drug benefit for recipients of Medicare.

These Democrats, mostly Democrats, except for Olympia Snowe, the sole Republican, are objecting to several provisions. The biggest provision they don't like is changes that the Medicare bill -- this prescription drug bill -- would make to Medicare itself, subjecting the Medicare program to direct competition with private insurance companies. The Democrats don't like that and they are warning that if that is not changed, that they can kill the bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: We're reaching the final hours. We call on the president to intervene and to exercise judgment in this conference, to indicate that they want a bi-partisan bill. It's still possible. But we're further away from that possibility today than any time since the conference first began.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: Now, it is not over yet. There are still a lot of negotiating going on. They were reacting to a deal that really hasn't been struck yet.

And Wolf, just a few moments ago, I spoke with Senator John Breaux, who is one of the Democrats who has been working with Republicans on this, not one of those to sign the letter, but one of them working on this deal. And he says that he is confident that at the end of this process, probably as soon as next week, that there will be a bill that a bipartisan group of senators here can support and that will have the support to pass the United States Congress.

Not everybody is that confident, but John Breaux is in the room negotiating it. He says it can still be done.

BLITZER: We shall soon find out. CNN's Jonathan Karl on Capitol Hill. An important story affecting lots of Americans out there.

Let's take a live picture now. Let's go to John F. Kennedy Airport here in New York City. You're looking at the Concorde. This is the last Concorde flight from London to New York, British Airways. This supersonic airliner. It's about to touch down in New York City -- the last time a Concorde will have flown from Europe to the United States. There will be one additional Concorde flight tomorrow from New York back to London. That will be the last time a Concorde will fly. They are ending all of these flights. Let's watch this land

A beautiful landing, as usual. The Concorde ending decades of service, Transatlantic service, international service, this British Airways flight making this historic flight from London to John F. Kennedy Airport here in New York City. There will be one more flight tomorrow.

We'll take a closer look tomorrow at this incredible aircraft. A lot of history you're watching right now. We'll continue to monitor the last flight tomorrow of the Concorde.

The scars left behind can't be measured in words. Tonight, remembering the U.S. Marines who died in this Beirut bombing 20 years ago today. And as Americans remember their fallen comrades, he remains a wanted man. Exactly 20 years later we'll tell you where people think he might be.

Then, it takes more than exercise and a good diet. We'll tell you about a test that could help us get a jump on heart disease. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Nice day here in New York City. Welcome back. We're reporting today from New York.

A somber anniversary at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington remembering the 220 U.S. marines and 21 other service members killed in the truck bombing of a marine barracks in Beirut on this day in 1983.

Following an earlier attack on the U.S. embassy, the barracks bombing signaled to Americans before there was a war on terror that terrorists were at war with the United States. CNN's Beirut bureau chief Brent Sadler reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Sickening images of dead American marines blown up in Beirut during Lebanon's civil war 20 years ago. They served as peacekeepers, but some marines felt trapped in a cauldron of chaos and hate scrawling their thoughts on this wall, blasted by the bomb.

NICHOLAS BLANDFORD, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: It was a devastating strike, the largest none nuclear explosion since the Second World War.

SADLER: And like the deadly suicide bombing of the U.S. embassy also in Beirut just six months earlier a blueprint for two decades of evolving tactics and terror.

WALID JUMBLATT, LEBANESE DRUZE LEADER: Well, it's the available weapon for the pulse against the mighty rich is what's happening now in Israel, in Palestine. In Iraq.

SADLER: A weapon claims this scholar that's designed to cause shock and rage, and to force a change in U.S. policy. As in Lebanon, she says, with the subsequent withdrawal of U.S. troops.

JUDITH HARIO, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR: Maximum impact, maximum demonstrated lesson. You know. How easy it was to deal a blow to the greatest power on Earth.

SADLER: Her Lebanese husband who helped marines in rescue efforts after the explosion says it's a lesson that is unlikely to be forgotten.

ANTON HARIO, EYEWITNESS: Just dead. Dead bodies wherever you looked. And rubble all over the place.

SADLER: The U.S. holds Iran and what it calls Hezbollah terrorists responsible for both the marines and embassy carnage. Today, though, Hezbollah is an influential political party in Lebanon collecting donations in front of an American fast food outlet every week in a city where U.S. interests are still closely guarded.

All traces of the marine barracks attack have vanished beneath these buildings in a new airport complex. As for the old U.S. embassy bomb site on Beirut's sea front, it's been turned into a car park. U.S. diplomats now work out of a fortress-like compound outside the city for security reasons. One of many lessons learned from those deadly days. Brent Sadler, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The 1983 bombings were followed by a string of deadly terror attacks. Many of them are believed linked to one man who may still be planning yet more atrocities. CNN's Mike Boettcher was in Beirut in 1983. He's joining us live with more on the hunt for the mastermind -- Mike.

MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, I remember back 20 years ago when the marines came, they were treated as heroes. But it didn't take long for them to be targets. And The man who targeted them, Imad Mugniyah, is still being sought 20 years later. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOETTCHER (voice-over): October 23, 1983, does not resonate the way September 11, 2001 does, nor are these images seared into the collective world consciousness the way the events of 9/11 are. But inside top secret offices at the Pentagon and the CIA, they have not forgotten.

For 20 years, they have pursued this man. Imad Mugniyah, the Lebanese Hezbollah operative believed to be the mastermind of the marine barracks bombing. He is still at large.

He's wanted for what he did then and could do now. Cofer Black, now the State Department's ambassador for counter terrorism, pursued Mugniyah back in the days when Black ran the CIA's counter terrorism center.

COFER BLACK, AMB. COUNTER TERRORISM: The FBI considers Imad Mugniyah one of their 22 most wanted terrorists. Resources are allocated. The guy is a criminal, he is a murderer.

BOETTCHER: Unlike bin Laden who keeps up a public presence even while the U.S. man hunt for him continues, Mugniyah rarely shows himself outside his inner circle. He hides out in both Lebanon and Iran. There are few photographs of him.

ROBERT BAER, FRM. CIA: Is he good. He is the best. He's much better than bin Laden.

BOETTCHER: Robert Baer, a former CIA man who pursued Mugniyah in Lebanon, collected one of the few pictures of him.

BAER: Within 24 hours after we made a photocopy of it, we went back to get the original and it was gone. So Imad Mugniyah, we figured out very early on, runs an intelligence network in Lebanon like you wouldn't believe.

BOETTCHER: Mugniyah, in collaboration with Iran, according to U.S. intelligence sources, is also believed responsible for the hijacking of TWA 847, the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, and a long list of other terrorist acts, including the kidnapping of westerners in Beirut in the mid and late 1980s. And many terrorism analysts think he may see in Iraq a chance to again demonstrate a position of strength by once more striking American targets.

BAER: It wouldn't surprise me if today he is working with bin Laden or al Qaeda or whatever is left of it in Iraq. Simply because it's decisive battle. And any time there is a decisive battle, Muslims will unify. Believers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOETTCHER: In our interview with Cofer Black, the counter terrorism ambassador for the State Department, he had a message for him. He had a message for Mugniyah, he said, quote, "Don't mess with us. We will never forget you. We will eventually bring you to justice." And Wolf by the way, we'll have more of that interview with, Ambassador Black, Monday on your show.

BLITZER: Thanks very much. CNN's Mike Boettcher, doing some excellent reporting for us as he always does.

It could be a real life saver, a potential medical break-through to keep you healthy could be in a simple blood test. We'll have details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Earlier we asked, what is the leading cause of death in America today?

The answer, coronary heart disease. According to the American Heart Association, coronary heart disease caused approximately 515,000 deaths in the year 2000. This year, an estimated 1.1 million Americans will have a new or recurrent coronary attack.

On the heartbeat, what are your chances of suffering a heart attack?

Is there any way to know if you're at risk?

There is a new simple test which can tell you if you're a likely candidate. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has her finger on the pulse of this story as she has on so many of our medical stories. She is joining us now live from the CNN center in Atlanta -- Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, there is a lot of excitement about this new blood test that doctors have been doing in an experimental way to see if patients are ripe for heart attack or not. Here is how it would be used. Patients come in to the ER with chest pain and doctors wonder, is this person having a heart attack or maybe about to have one or is it really maybe not of such concern. And right now with this new test they can predict with a high level of accuracy if someone is about to have a heart attack.

Let's take a look at the numbers, because they are pretty striking. This new test when used in conjunction with the current tests out there, can predict with 95 percent accuracy if someone will be having a heart attack in the next six months. The current tests, the ones that are used as we speak are only 50 percent accurate at predicting whether or not someone is going to have a heart attack. It's very important to make this prediction accurately, because if someone is at high risk for having a heart attack, they would send them directly to the catheter lab or perhaps give them drugs so the person won't go on to have that heart attack -- Wolf.

How does the test work -- Elizabeth.

COHEN: It's very interesting. Many of us have plaque in our arteries. It's just there and sometimes it's actually relatively harmless. But some people have an inflammatory process that goes on in that plaque, and then what can happen is that vessel, as you can see, gets plugged up. And what the test does is detects whether or not that inflammatory process is going on.

BLITZER: That's important medical information a lot of us need to know. Thanks, Elizabeth Cohen for bringing it to us.

The results of our hot "Web Question" of the day when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

There you see the result of our "Web Question of the Day," 43 percent of you say yes, 57 percent of you say no. Remember this is not a scientific poll.

Lets get to some of your e-mail right now.

Robert writes this, "I was a U.S. Marine in Beirut with the 32nd MLIA and was at that airport and yes we all felt very vulnerable. We were there are peacekeepers and should have been seen as such, but were not. I was proud to serve in Beirut."

Guy writes this, "Being a former Marine who was stationed at the Beirut airport during the bombing, this is certainly a sad day for my fellow Marines and all of America. Our participation as peacekeepers in Lebanon was an impossible mission with no clear objective. Our nonresponse energized the buildup of terrorist groups around the world which of course peaked on September 11."

A reminder we are on ever weekday, 5:00 p.m. Eastern. Also noon Eastern, twice a day noon and 5:00 p.m. Eastern. See you tomorrow. Thanks very much for watching. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

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





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