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CNN Live Sunday
U.S. Helicopter Shot Down In Iraq, Both Pilots Killed; 7 Chinese Citizens Taken Hostage In Iraq
Aired April 11, 2004 - 18:00 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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: CNN SUNDAY is ahead, but first these headlines. Al Jazeera is airing video showing eight people identified as hostages being released in Iraq, but no government agencies say they recognize the group as hostages. The strange development comes as Britain confirms the release of one of its citizens taken hostage last week.
Numerous battle casualties confirmed today, bringing the total of U.S. troops killed since Friday to 16. Among the latest were two crew members of an Apache attack helicopter. Military officials say a surface-to-air missile shot the chopper down today west of Baghdad International Airport.
Search crews don't think they'll find any more victims or survivors in the aftermath of a propane explosion in Mexico. Saturday's blast killed eight people and wounded 12 others. 15 people were believed trapped under the rubble of two collapsed buildings. Now officials say it's likely they were not there.
I'm Carol Lin and welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. Ahead this hour, is Janet Jackson overexposed again? She's everywhere, from the infamous Superbowl appearance to "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" last night. How far does a woman need to go to make it in entertainment? A pop culture close-up, coming up.
Also, Tom Watson and his caddy's valiant fight against Lou Gehrig's Disease. Bruce Edwards lost that battle this week, but the story does not end there. We're going to take a closer look at the special relationship between Tom Watson and his caddy and their fight to create awareness of the disease.
Right now developments though continue to unfold rapidly in Iraq. Today, a U.S. attack helicopter was shot down west of Baghdad, bringing the total number of U.S. casualties since Friday to 16. Insurgents have released at least one international hostage. And efforts toward a cease-fire in Fallujah do continue.
The latest now from CNN's Karl Penhaul in Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iraqi insurgents and U.S. troops spent the morning battling for this major highway leading west from Baghdad. A U.S. Army Apache attack helicopter shot down in the fray.
The two crew, members of the 1st Cavalry Division, didn't make it out.
BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN: The pilots have been declared killed in action. We have a quick reaction force on site conducting the recovery of the equipment and the personnel. And our hearts go out to the families.
PENHAUL: Half an hour west of there, U.S. Marines continued to lay siege to the flashpoint city of Fallujah, still under control of Iraqi guerilla fighters.
The Iraqi governing council has broken a tentative cease-fire there, but sporadic clashes were reported during the day. Insurgent forces are dug in downtown. Marines, meanwhile said they would not cede an inch of the territory they had gained on the outskirts. Ready for a fresher assault on rebel positions if their commanders order.
Scant prospect yet of a political deal.
DAN SENOR, COALITION SPOKESMAN: We are trying to suspend hostilities so that the Iraqi governing council delegation can get in and out of Fallujah easily to have discussions with Fallujian leaders. Once we get comfortable with that phase, we can talk about the nature of those discussions that could lead to perhaps something more permanent.
PENHAUL: The waiting continued throughout the day for a group of international hostages seized by insurgent gunmen. No word on the fate of three Japanese born American.
Diplomatic sources, though, did confirm a British contractor, Gary Teeley (ph), kidnapped in southern Iraq, had been released.
Karl Penhaul, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: And right now, this just in. Chinese officials are telling our Beijing correspondent that seven of their citizens have been taken hostage today in Iraq. We're going to get a live report from Jaime FlorCruz any moment now from Beijing. So stay tuned for more, as more hostages are being taken in Iraq.
Well, there were 16 more U.S. military deaths over the weekend in Iraq. President Bush is standing tough, though, resolving to bring democracy to the country. But he's also facing new criticism about his administration's handling of the war. Let's get more now from CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux, live in Crawford, Texas. Suzanne?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, President Bush today acknowledged the difficulties in Iraq, but he said our troops are taking care of business. When he was asked whether or not it was right to add troops, he says it was hard to tell, but that if military command asked for them, they would get them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MALVEAUX (voice-over): Coming off the week in which dozens of Americans and hundreds of Iraqis were killed, President Bush acknowledged the obvious.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It was a tough week last week and my prayers and thoughts are with those who paid the ultimate price for our security.
MALVEAUX: Mr. Bush spent part of his Easter Sunday in Fort Hood, Texas, attending church services and visiting wounded U.S. troops. The president has come under fire this week for responding to the Iraqi turmoil from his Crawford ranch.
DAVID BRODER, "WASHINGTON POST": Of all moments, the president chose this moment to disappear. At a time when the country really needs to hear from a president, from its president and the world needs to hear from the president, he's gone silent on us and it's inexplicable to me.
MALVEAUX: Despite a new surge of Iraqi resistance involving Sunni and Shi'ite, with uprisings in Baghdad and Fallujah, Mr. Bush marginalized their impact.
BUSH: This violence we've seen is a part of a few people trying to stop the progress toward democracy. Fallujah, south of Baghdad, these incidents were basically thrust upon the innocent Iraqi people by gangs, violent gangs.
MALVEAUX: While U.S. commanders are working to stabilize a cease-fire in Fallujah to cool the situation, the coalition provisional authority is losing support from some Iraqis who believed it has allowed chaos to reign.
REND AL-REHIM, IRAQI AMB. TO U.S.: How does the coalition now make law and order a priority without undertaking what is perceived at least in Iraq as punitive action? That is the dilemma for the coalition.
MALVEAUX: Some U.S. lawmakers say the answer is more U.S. troops.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: We're going to have to expand our military presence there. And we're going to have to expand the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army.
MALVEAUX: But the administration and military are satisfied with shuffling those troops already in circulation.
LT. GEN. RICARDO SANCHEZ, U.S. ARMY: At this time, I think what we're seeing is that the forces that we have on the ground are adequate with the management of the redeployment.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Now this week, the president will continue to shore up international support on the issues of Iraq, as well as the Middle East. He's going to be meeting with the leaders of Egypt, Israel, and Britain - Carol?
LIN: All right, thank you very much, Suzanne Malveaux live in Crawford, Texas.
In the meantime, please join us tonight at 10:00 in our primetime show. I interviewed former Defense Secretary William Cohen. He has a specific plan for the United States to exit out of Iraq for the U.N. to take over, and the possibility that the June 30th takeover date for Iraqis may actually change. Join me in our primetime show at 10:00 tonight.
In the meantime, a new CNN/"TIME" magazine poll shows Americans closely divided on the current U.S. military policy in Iraq. 30 percent strongly approve, while 33 percent strongly disapprove. 53 percent say the U.S. was right in going to war with Iraq. 41 percent said the U.S. was wrong. 43 percent say the Bush administration has a clear, well thought out plan to deal with Iraq, but 51 percent say it does not.
Now we want to move on to the 9/11 investigation. The Bush administration is defending itself a day after releasing an intelligence report from August of 2001. It says the report was a warning, nothing more. But critics disagree and say it should have raised more red flags.
Our Elaine Quijano is in Washington with more details on this -- Elaine?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, hello to you. That August 6, 2001, PDB or presidential daily brief noted that al Qaeda members were in the United States, traveling into and out of the U.S. and that an al Qaeda support structure could aid attacks.
Still, the president points out the information lacked specifics crucial to thwarting an attack.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO (voice-over): President Bush maintains the information in the now declassified August 6, 2001, PDB or presidential daily briefing wasn't detailed enough for the U.S. to prevent September 11th.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There was not a time and place of an attack. And it was -- it said Osama bin Laden had designs on America. Well, I knew that. What I wanted to know was, is there anything specifically going to take place in America that we needed to react to?
QUIJANO: But critics, including a Democratic member of the September 11th Commission, say that PDB contained important pieces of the puzzle that should have been taken into context with the spike in intelligence chatter during the summer of 2001.
RICHARD BEN-VENISTE, 9/11 COMMISSIONER: There was a lot of focus overseas, but the CIA author of this PDB, by stressing the fact that bin Laden was determined to strike in the United States was telling the president that we ought to look here, as well.
QUIJANO: For some family members, the declassification of the PDB represents a victory in what they say has been a battle to get cooperation from the president.
CARIE LEMAC, 9/11 FAMILY: When we finally got the commission, we had to fight for it to have subpoena power. We then had to fight to have it extended. We've been coming up against roadblock against roadblock from this administration.
QUIJANO: Other family members defend President Bush's handling of the attacks, before and after they occurred.
BRADLEY BLAKEMAN, 9/11 FAMILY MEMBER: The fact of the matter is things were as tight as they could be. The president did as much as he could do with the information he had at the time.
QUIJANO: This week, the commission turns its attention to law enforcement and intelligence officials, past and present. Among those scheduled to testify, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, as well as Attorney General John Ashcroft, who a source tells CNN is not believed to have received a copy of that August 6th PDB. Ashcroft and others are expected to face tough questions on whether the Justice Department made fighting terrorism a top priority, and what specific steps the FBI took to investigate the terror threats that existed in the summer of 2001.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO: Now the panel's expected to look not only at the FBI, but other agencies and at what one commissioner says were problems getting available information into the hands of those who could make a difference -- Carol?
LIN: All right, thank you very much. Elaine Quijano, live in Washington.
Right now, we want to update you on some breaking news. We started our program with hostages, Chinese hostages being taken in Iraq today. Our Beijing bureau chief Jaime Florcruz joins on the beeper phone with the latest from this from Beijing.
Jaime, what have you learned so far?
JAIME FLORCRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, the Chinois news agency, China's official news agency is reporting that according to the members of China's advanced team in Baghdad, on the 9th -- on the night of April 11th, seven Chinese nationals have been kidnapped and are being detained in central Fallujah. This after they crossed Iraq from Jordan earlier that day. According to the report, these seven Chinese were spotted by foreign -- by four foreign nationals who were earlier detained and released. These foreign nationals, according to the report, may have come from Fujan Province. They are passport holders from China.
It's still not clear why they were in Fallujah. And it's still not clear about their identities and background -- Carol?
LIN: Jaime, do you know what they were doing there to begin with? Are they private contractors? Are they military?
FLORCRUZ: It's still not clear. We only know that according to reports, they are from Fujan Province. South - they are from southern Fujan Province. Most likely, they are private entrepreneurs looking for business opportunities in Iraq -- Carol?
LIN: Now there's a story there. Thank you very much, Jaime Florcruz. We're going to stay on top of this latest hostage situation out of central Fallujah. Seven Chinese foreign nationals taken hostage tonight in Iraq.
Enemy tactics and the price Iraqi civilians and U.S. forces are paying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCAIN: I feel sorry for these young men and women who are having to remain there, but they know their job. And I'm sure they'll do it well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: Still to come, the rules of war, how to take out the enemy while preventing collateral damage. Plus, visits from foreign leaders to the U.S. this week could help could help smooth the friction in the Middle East. Maybe. Details straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN: The Marines were conducting extraordinarily precise operations. They're avoiding any operations that have a risk of collateral damage. The enemy is not. They're going out of their way...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: The U.S. military says Iraqi insurgents are hardly following any traditional rules of engagement. Many are using guerilla warfare tactics and have RPGs and small arms. But why?
CNN contributor and former U.S. Marine Kelly McCann is a security and terrorism expert. His company supplies security for clients inside of Iraq.
Kelly, General Kimmitt was raising a pretty good point. It seems like we're working at a disadvantage out there in the field.
KELLY MCCANN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: We are working at a disadvantage. However, you know, the rules of engagement do state that, for instance, religious places and things like that shouldn't be used for staging military equipment and everything. And we've seen that routinely by the insurgent force. The lack of uniforms, so that you can't define the enemy very well. And the intertwining of the enemy with combatants is very, very difficult. So you've got combatants and non-combatants mixed together intentionally.
If we've got some video that we can show, that basically shows another part of it, Carol wildly firing without regard to where - what they might hit, you can see that the use of the weapon is much like a fulcrum. In this next video you'll see, they're not even sighting. Contrast that with U.S. forces that use their sights so they can precision engaged targets that they discriminate to be combatants. Very important.
LIN: Kelly, I've got to ask you, though, Iraqi civilians have been killed by...
MCCANN: Certainly.
LIN: ...U.S. forces. That's angered a lot of Iraqis. How do you account for that?
MCCANN: Again, you know, the thing is both combatants on a battlefield are responsible for collateral damage. Both the offender and the defender. And the thing is that in fact, you know, when you look at it, basically, if they mix themselves with combatants, it's impossible at all levels to distinguish between two -- in buildings, for instance. I could be taking fire from a building. So if you engaged that building, some innocents could be killed.
LIN: Right. And you raise an interesting point. I mean, they have said that there were jungles in Vietnam, that created a barrier for U.S. troops in that war. In this war, it's a desert, but deserts have cities. And that is the jungle in this case.
MCCANN: Absolutely. Look at this next piece of video. You can see as this humvee basically drives out and that you see the weapons, RPGs that are right here. These are the kinds of weapons that would engage what I'll show you next.
See this humvee right here in the picture, he's exposed. And basically, he'll pull back so that he's not exposed any further. Remember, it is a concrete jungle. For instance, you can't see line of sight, all the three dimensional aspects of the battlefield. You can be engaged from rooftops, but if you're inside a humvee, you can't see up to see that person. It's very dangerous. The RPG then is a very adequate to engage the line of sight, both personnel and armored vehicles.
LIN: You know, these are much like the segments that we were doing before the war and anticipating hand to hand combat in these cities, but with the republican guard.
MCCANN: Absolutely.
LIN: Saddam Hussein's republican guard. Now the troops are up against insurgents and maybe even in some cases ordinary citizens. Likely to see troop deaths going up? MCCANN: Oh, sure. I mean, think of just in the Shi'ia Circle down here with the pilgrimage, if you think about just the way that, for instance, the Shi'ias could basically in this are right here, thousands of pilgrims on their way into this region right here, and the militia being able to just take off the black uniforms, and blend right in, into all those those pilgrims. A very, very challenging situation, Carol.
LIN: Does this mean that the military has to reformulate itself, rather than going in in large units that they split up in smaller strike teams?
MCCANN: They are. And also, intelligence. Develop that grassroots intelligence where actual honest and sincere Iraqis will turn out the insurgents.
LIN: All right. Hearts and minds, winning them over.
MCCANN: Absolutely.
LIN: Thank you very much.
MCCANN: Thanks, Carol.
LIN: Well, just this week alone, 16 Americans lost their lives in the fight for Iraq. We remember those who have made the biggest sacrifice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(bell tolling)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Salute!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: In Israel today, the Lukud party set an April 29th date for a party vote on Israel's controversial plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements. Now this comes ahead of crucial meetings in Washington this week aimed at - well, it may be reviving the peace process, but there's still a controversy there.
CNN's Anna Nidu reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AN NIDU, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Visits with the president of the United States by the Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarek and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon this coming week could kick some life into the peace process. Topping the agenda at both meetings will likely be the unilateral withdrawal of Israel from the Gaza Strip.
While Israel's withdrawal is a step toward achieving the U.S. backed roadmap for peace, the U.S. has not publicly expressed its opinion on the withdrawal plan currently underway.
But David Welch, the current U.S. ambassador to Egypt, has said an Israeli pull out could be the "exclusive key to relaunching the road map." Analysts say any withdrawal will have significant consequences in the region. If Israeli troops roll out one analyst noted, Palestinians will have direct access to another Arab country for the first time since Israel took over the territory in 1967.
Gaza is adjacent to Egypt's eastern border. And that's where President Mubarek's role takes on increased importance. The analysts say Israel will depends on the Egyptians to ensure that weapons are not smuggled across the border of Egypt to militant groups in the territory.
The Palestinian foreign minister Nebu (UNINTELLGIBLE) is scheduled to meet administration officials in Washington later this month. Reports on that pull out plan. Israel says Britain has already expressed its support for the proposal.
An Nidu, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: Well, there's a lot at stake at this week's meeting. I'm joined live now from Washington by Edward Walker. He's president of the Middle East Institute. But perhaps more important to this particular segment, he served as the U.S. ambassador to Israel at a time when the Oslo Peace Accord was just beginning to unravel.
Mr. Ambassador, thank you very much for being with us.
EDWARD WALKER, FMR. U.S. AMB. TO ISRAEL, EGYPT: Thank you.
LIN: What do you think is Ariel Sharon's - what do you think is behind - what's his motive for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip?
WALKER: Well, I like to take him at face value. I think he wants to see if there's some way to move the process forward. It's been stymied for a long time. And Sharon came into power, was elected by his people in order to make the situation better, to reduce the security threat. And it hasn't happened. So he's had plans for a long time that some of these settlements are really a red flag. And they create tensions when they shouldn't be. So...
LIN: Well, let me read to you then what Reuters is reporting, that there may be more than just goodwill at stake here in Gaza. Reuters is reporting that President Bush is planning on giving Ariel Sharon a letter that if Israel fully withdraws from Gaza, that Israel will not have to give up the entire West Bank in a deal with the Palestinians. Does it sound like to you that President Bush is saying that Israel no longer has to return to the 1967 borders in any deal with the Palestinians?
WALKER: Well, if he does say so, he's saying what every president since 1967 has said, because our position has been right from the beginning that there would be at a minimum, minor border rectifications. And then when you go back to the Camp David Summit, and you go back to Taba (ph), those rectifications turned into something a bit larger to include a number of major settlements was some concept of tradeoff. So I don't think that's...
LIN: Can you envision that? Can you envision that the Palestinians get Gaza and Israel gets major portions of the West Bank? Even though four settlements may be withdrawn, that leaves 116 settlements in the West Bank that would remain.
WALKER: Well, I don't think that you're going to find the president of the United States verifying any border for the West Bank. He may say -- he may in some way say that we have never anticipated there'd be full withdrawal from the West Bank. That's been the U.S. position forever. But I don't...
LIN: So how likely is it the Palestinians are not going to sign on to a deal like that. Therefore, the peace process once again is dead?
WALKER: Well, the peace process isn't necessarily dead, because you've got a whole major change in the situation in Gaza. You've got a fundamental change on the question of settlements because settlements for the first time are going to be given up except for the one or two that were into sign on.
LIN: But then consider...
WALKER: I think it's a huge change.
LIN: Well, then consider what might happen. Let's say the Palestinians get full control of Gaza, and I'm still not even sure what that might mean. The Palestinians are planning on holding elections after Israel withdraws. If elections were held on this day, Hamas would win. Would that be acceptable to the United states?
WALKER: Well, first of all, this isn't going to happen today. And it's not going to happen tomorrow. It's going to take a while before this kind of a move can take place.
Second of all, the Palestinians are for the first time trying to come together. If they do come together, between Hamas and Fatah, and are able to develop genuine elections, it's not at all clear that Hamas would win.
And third, I think that it is a possibility that if Hamas becomes a political party, it may dampen the order of some people in Hamas to kill themselves.
LIN: Interesting. So bringing Hamas into the political process may solve the problem for Israel is what you're saying in terms of...
WALKER: I'm saying it could help. I'm saying it could help. It's not going to be the whole solution, of course not.
LIN: All right, thank you very much, Ambassador Edward Walker for joining us. WALKER: You bet.
LIN: We'll see what happens in the meetings on Wednesday.
Well, it's a day of clearing the rubble in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Eight people have been killed in a restaurant explosion across the border. Hear how the community is coping, coming up.
LIN: Thank you, Alina. Also in the news, call it a swimsuit malfunction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANET JACKSON: Playing in the pool.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: OK, seems like she's had this problem for years. Still to come, though, Janet Jackson poking fun at her malfunctioning wardrobe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired April 11, 2004 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: CNN SUNDAY is ahead, but first these headlines. Al Jazeera is airing video showing eight people identified as hostages being released in Iraq, but no government agencies say they recognize the group as hostages. The strange development comes as Britain confirms the release of one of its citizens taken hostage last week.
Numerous battle casualties confirmed today, bringing the total of U.S. troops killed since Friday to 16. Among the latest were two crew members of an Apache attack helicopter. Military officials say a surface-to-air missile shot the chopper down today west of Baghdad International Airport.
Search crews don't think they'll find any more victims or survivors in the aftermath of a propane explosion in Mexico. Saturday's blast killed eight people and wounded 12 others. 15 people were believed trapped under the rubble of two collapsed buildings. Now officials say it's likely they were not there.
I'm Carol Lin and welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. Ahead this hour, is Janet Jackson overexposed again? She's everywhere, from the infamous Superbowl appearance to "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" last night. How far does a woman need to go to make it in entertainment? A pop culture close-up, coming up.
Also, Tom Watson and his caddy's valiant fight against Lou Gehrig's Disease. Bruce Edwards lost that battle this week, but the story does not end there. We're going to take a closer look at the special relationship between Tom Watson and his caddy and their fight to create awareness of the disease.
Right now developments though continue to unfold rapidly in Iraq. Today, a U.S. attack helicopter was shot down west of Baghdad, bringing the total number of U.S. casualties since Friday to 16. Insurgents have released at least one international hostage. And efforts toward a cease-fire in Fallujah do continue.
The latest now from CNN's Karl Penhaul in Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iraqi insurgents and U.S. troops spent the morning battling for this major highway leading west from Baghdad. A U.S. Army Apache attack helicopter shot down in the fray.
The two crew, members of the 1st Cavalry Division, didn't make it out.
BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN: The pilots have been declared killed in action. We have a quick reaction force on site conducting the recovery of the equipment and the personnel. And our hearts go out to the families.
PENHAUL: Half an hour west of there, U.S. Marines continued to lay siege to the flashpoint city of Fallujah, still under control of Iraqi guerilla fighters.
The Iraqi governing council has broken a tentative cease-fire there, but sporadic clashes were reported during the day. Insurgent forces are dug in downtown. Marines, meanwhile said they would not cede an inch of the territory they had gained on the outskirts. Ready for a fresher assault on rebel positions if their commanders order.
Scant prospect yet of a political deal.
DAN SENOR, COALITION SPOKESMAN: We are trying to suspend hostilities so that the Iraqi governing council delegation can get in and out of Fallujah easily to have discussions with Fallujian leaders. Once we get comfortable with that phase, we can talk about the nature of those discussions that could lead to perhaps something more permanent.
PENHAUL: The waiting continued throughout the day for a group of international hostages seized by insurgent gunmen. No word on the fate of three Japanese born American.
Diplomatic sources, though, did confirm a British contractor, Gary Teeley (ph), kidnapped in southern Iraq, had been released.
Karl Penhaul, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: And right now, this just in. Chinese officials are telling our Beijing correspondent that seven of their citizens have been taken hostage today in Iraq. We're going to get a live report from Jaime FlorCruz any moment now from Beijing. So stay tuned for more, as more hostages are being taken in Iraq.
Well, there were 16 more U.S. military deaths over the weekend in Iraq. President Bush is standing tough, though, resolving to bring democracy to the country. But he's also facing new criticism about his administration's handling of the war. Let's get more now from CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux, live in Crawford, Texas. Suzanne?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, President Bush today acknowledged the difficulties in Iraq, but he said our troops are taking care of business. When he was asked whether or not it was right to add troops, he says it was hard to tell, but that if military command asked for them, they would get them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MALVEAUX (voice-over): Coming off the week in which dozens of Americans and hundreds of Iraqis were killed, President Bush acknowledged the obvious.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It was a tough week last week and my prayers and thoughts are with those who paid the ultimate price for our security.
MALVEAUX: Mr. Bush spent part of his Easter Sunday in Fort Hood, Texas, attending church services and visiting wounded U.S. troops. The president has come under fire this week for responding to the Iraqi turmoil from his Crawford ranch.
DAVID BRODER, "WASHINGTON POST": Of all moments, the president chose this moment to disappear. At a time when the country really needs to hear from a president, from its president and the world needs to hear from the president, he's gone silent on us and it's inexplicable to me.
MALVEAUX: Despite a new surge of Iraqi resistance involving Sunni and Shi'ite, with uprisings in Baghdad and Fallujah, Mr. Bush marginalized their impact.
BUSH: This violence we've seen is a part of a few people trying to stop the progress toward democracy. Fallujah, south of Baghdad, these incidents were basically thrust upon the innocent Iraqi people by gangs, violent gangs.
MALVEAUX: While U.S. commanders are working to stabilize a cease-fire in Fallujah to cool the situation, the coalition provisional authority is losing support from some Iraqis who believed it has allowed chaos to reign.
REND AL-REHIM, IRAQI AMB. TO U.S.: How does the coalition now make law and order a priority without undertaking what is perceived at least in Iraq as punitive action? That is the dilemma for the coalition.
MALVEAUX: Some U.S. lawmakers say the answer is more U.S. troops.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: We're going to have to expand our military presence there. And we're going to have to expand the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army.
MALVEAUX: But the administration and military are satisfied with shuffling those troops already in circulation.
LT. GEN. RICARDO SANCHEZ, U.S. ARMY: At this time, I think what we're seeing is that the forces that we have on the ground are adequate with the management of the redeployment.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Now this week, the president will continue to shore up international support on the issues of Iraq, as well as the Middle East. He's going to be meeting with the leaders of Egypt, Israel, and Britain - Carol?
LIN: All right, thank you very much, Suzanne Malveaux live in Crawford, Texas.
In the meantime, please join us tonight at 10:00 in our primetime show. I interviewed former Defense Secretary William Cohen. He has a specific plan for the United States to exit out of Iraq for the U.N. to take over, and the possibility that the June 30th takeover date for Iraqis may actually change. Join me in our primetime show at 10:00 tonight.
In the meantime, a new CNN/"TIME" magazine poll shows Americans closely divided on the current U.S. military policy in Iraq. 30 percent strongly approve, while 33 percent strongly disapprove. 53 percent say the U.S. was right in going to war with Iraq. 41 percent said the U.S. was wrong. 43 percent say the Bush administration has a clear, well thought out plan to deal with Iraq, but 51 percent say it does not.
Now we want to move on to the 9/11 investigation. The Bush administration is defending itself a day after releasing an intelligence report from August of 2001. It says the report was a warning, nothing more. But critics disagree and say it should have raised more red flags.
Our Elaine Quijano is in Washington with more details on this -- Elaine?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, hello to you. That August 6, 2001, PDB or presidential daily brief noted that al Qaeda members were in the United States, traveling into and out of the U.S. and that an al Qaeda support structure could aid attacks.
Still, the president points out the information lacked specifics crucial to thwarting an attack.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO (voice-over): President Bush maintains the information in the now declassified August 6, 2001, PDB or presidential daily briefing wasn't detailed enough for the U.S. to prevent September 11th.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There was not a time and place of an attack. And it was -- it said Osama bin Laden had designs on America. Well, I knew that. What I wanted to know was, is there anything specifically going to take place in America that we needed to react to?
QUIJANO: But critics, including a Democratic member of the September 11th Commission, say that PDB contained important pieces of the puzzle that should have been taken into context with the spike in intelligence chatter during the summer of 2001.
RICHARD BEN-VENISTE, 9/11 COMMISSIONER: There was a lot of focus overseas, but the CIA author of this PDB, by stressing the fact that bin Laden was determined to strike in the United States was telling the president that we ought to look here, as well.
QUIJANO: For some family members, the declassification of the PDB represents a victory in what they say has been a battle to get cooperation from the president.
CARIE LEMAC, 9/11 FAMILY: When we finally got the commission, we had to fight for it to have subpoena power. We then had to fight to have it extended. We've been coming up against roadblock against roadblock from this administration.
QUIJANO: Other family members defend President Bush's handling of the attacks, before and after they occurred.
BRADLEY BLAKEMAN, 9/11 FAMILY MEMBER: The fact of the matter is things were as tight as they could be. The president did as much as he could do with the information he had at the time.
QUIJANO: This week, the commission turns its attention to law enforcement and intelligence officials, past and present. Among those scheduled to testify, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, as well as Attorney General John Ashcroft, who a source tells CNN is not believed to have received a copy of that August 6th PDB. Ashcroft and others are expected to face tough questions on whether the Justice Department made fighting terrorism a top priority, and what specific steps the FBI took to investigate the terror threats that existed in the summer of 2001.
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QUIJANO: Now the panel's expected to look not only at the FBI, but other agencies and at what one commissioner says were problems getting available information into the hands of those who could make a difference -- Carol?
LIN: All right, thank you very much. Elaine Quijano, live in Washington.
Right now, we want to update you on some breaking news. We started our program with hostages, Chinese hostages being taken in Iraq today. Our Beijing bureau chief Jaime Florcruz joins on the beeper phone with the latest from this from Beijing.
Jaime, what have you learned so far?
JAIME FLORCRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, the Chinois news agency, China's official news agency is reporting that according to the members of China's advanced team in Baghdad, on the 9th -- on the night of April 11th, seven Chinese nationals have been kidnapped and are being detained in central Fallujah. This after they crossed Iraq from Jordan earlier that day. According to the report, these seven Chinese were spotted by foreign -- by four foreign nationals who were earlier detained and released. These foreign nationals, according to the report, may have come from Fujan Province. They are passport holders from China.
It's still not clear why they were in Fallujah. And it's still not clear about their identities and background -- Carol?
LIN: Jaime, do you know what they were doing there to begin with? Are they private contractors? Are they military?
FLORCRUZ: It's still not clear. We only know that according to reports, they are from Fujan Province. South - they are from southern Fujan Province. Most likely, they are private entrepreneurs looking for business opportunities in Iraq -- Carol?
LIN: Now there's a story there. Thank you very much, Jaime Florcruz. We're going to stay on top of this latest hostage situation out of central Fallujah. Seven Chinese foreign nationals taken hostage tonight in Iraq.
Enemy tactics and the price Iraqi civilians and U.S. forces are paying.
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MCCAIN: I feel sorry for these young men and women who are having to remain there, but they know their job. And I'm sure they'll do it well.
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LIN: Still to come, the rules of war, how to take out the enemy while preventing collateral damage. Plus, visits from foreign leaders to the U.S. this week could help could help smooth the friction in the Middle East. Maybe. Details straight ahead.
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BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN: The Marines were conducting extraordinarily precise operations. They're avoiding any operations that have a risk of collateral damage. The enemy is not. They're going out of their way...
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LIN: The U.S. military says Iraqi insurgents are hardly following any traditional rules of engagement. Many are using guerilla warfare tactics and have RPGs and small arms. But why?
CNN contributor and former U.S. Marine Kelly McCann is a security and terrorism expert. His company supplies security for clients inside of Iraq.
Kelly, General Kimmitt was raising a pretty good point. It seems like we're working at a disadvantage out there in the field.
KELLY MCCANN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: We are working at a disadvantage. However, you know, the rules of engagement do state that, for instance, religious places and things like that shouldn't be used for staging military equipment and everything. And we've seen that routinely by the insurgent force. The lack of uniforms, so that you can't define the enemy very well. And the intertwining of the enemy with combatants is very, very difficult. So you've got combatants and non-combatants mixed together intentionally.
If we've got some video that we can show, that basically shows another part of it, Carol wildly firing without regard to where - what they might hit, you can see that the use of the weapon is much like a fulcrum. In this next video you'll see, they're not even sighting. Contrast that with U.S. forces that use their sights so they can precision engaged targets that they discriminate to be combatants. Very important.
LIN: Kelly, I've got to ask you, though, Iraqi civilians have been killed by...
MCCANN: Certainly.
LIN: ...U.S. forces. That's angered a lot of Iraqis. How do you account for that?
MCCANN: Again, you know, the thing is both combatants on a battlefield are responsible for collateral damage. Both the offender and the defender. And the thing is that in fact, you know, when you look at it, basically, if they mix themselves with combatants, it's impossible at all levels to distinguish between two -- in buildings, for instance. I could be taking fire from a building. So if you engaged that building, some innocents could be killed.
LIN: Right. And you raise an interesting point. I mean, they have said that there were jungles in Vietnam, that created a barrier for U.S. troops in that war. In this war, it's a desert, but deserts have cities. And that is the jungle in this case.
MCCANN: Absolutely. Look at this next piece of video. You can see as this humvee basically drives out and that you see the weapons, RPGs that are right here. These are the kinds of weapons that would engage what I'll show you next.
See this humvee right here in the picture, he's exposed. And basically, he'll pull back so that he's not exposed any further. Remember, it is a concrete jungle. For instance, you can't see line of sight, all the three dimensional aspects of the battlefield. You can be engaged from rooftops, but if you're inside a humvee, you can't see up to see that person. It's very dangerous. The RPG then is a very adequate to engage the line of sight, both personnel and armored vehicles.
LIN: You know, these are much like the segments that we were doing before the war and anticipating hand to hand combat in these cities, but with the republican guard.
MCCANN: Absolutely.
LIN: Saddam Hussein's republican guard. Now the troops are up against insurgents and maybe even in some cases ordinary citizens. Likely to see troop deaths going up? MCCANN: Oh, sure. I mean, think of just in the Shi'ia Circle down here with the pilgrimage, if you think about just the way that, for instance, the Shi'ias could basically in this are right here, thousands of pilgrims on their way into this region right here, and the militia being able to just take off the black uniforms, and blend right in, into all those those pilgrims. A very, very challenging situation, Carol.
LIN: Does this mean that the military has to reformulate itself, rather than going in in large units that they split up in smaller strike teams?
MCCANN: They are. And also, intelligence. Develop that grassroots intelligence where actual honest and sincere Iraqis will turn out the insurgents.
LIN: All right. Hearts and minds, winning them over.
MCCANN: Absolutely.
LIN: Thank you very much.
MCCANN: Thanks, Carol.
LIN: Well, just this week alone, 16 Americans lost their lives in the fight for Iraq. We remember those who have made the biggest sacrifice.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Salute!
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LIN: In Israel today, the Lukud party set an April 29th date for a party vote on Israel's controversial plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements. Now this comes ahead of crucial meetings in Washington this week aimed at - well, it may be reviving the peace process, but there's still a controversy there.
CNN's Anna Nidu reports.
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AN NIDU, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Visits with the president of the United States by the Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarek and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon this coming week could kick some life into the peace process. Topping the agenda at both meetings will likely be the unilateral withdrawal of Israel from the Gaza Strip.
While Israel's withdrawal is a step toward achieving the U.S. backed roadmap for peace, the U.S. has not publicly expressed its opinion on the withdrawal plan currently underway.
But David Welch, the current U.S. ambassador to Egypt, has said an Israeli pull out could be the "exclusive key to relaunching the road map." Analysts say any withdrawal will have significant consequences in the region. If Israeli troops roll out one analyst noted, Palestinians will have direct access to another Arab country for the first time since Israel took over the territory in 1967.
Gaza is adjacent to Egypt's eastern border. And that's where President Mubarek's role takes on increased importance. The analysts say Israel will depends on the Egyptians to ensure that weapons are not smuggled across the border of Egypt to militant groups in the territory.
The Palestinian foreign minister Nebu (UNINTELLGIBLE) is scheduled to meet administration officials in Washington later this month. Reports on that pull out plan. Israel says Britain has already expressed its support for the proposal.
An Nidu, CNN.
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LIN: Well, there's a lot at stake at this week's meeting. I'm joined live now from Washington by Edward Walker. He's president of the Middle East Institute. But perhaps more important to this particular segment, he served as the U.S. ambassador to Israel at a time when the Oslo Peace Accord was just beginning to unravel.
Mr. Ambassador, thank you very much for being with us.
EDWARD WALKER, FMR. U.S. AMB. TO ISRAEL, EGYPT: Thank you.
LIN: What do you think is Ariel Sharon's - what do you think is behind - what's his motive for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip?
WALKER: Well, I like to take him at face value. I think he wants to see if there's some way to move the process forward. It's been stymied for a long time. And Sharon came into power, was elected by his people in order to make the situation better, to reduce the security threat. And it hasn't happened. So he's had plans for a long time that some of these settlements are really a red flag. And they create tensions when they shouldn't be. So...
LIN: Well, let me read to you then what Reuters is reporting, that there may be more than just goodwill at stake here in Gaza. Reuters is reporting that President Bush is planning on giving Ariel Sharon a letter that if Israel fully withdraws from Gaza, that Israel will not have to give up the entire West Bank in a deal with the Palestinians. Does it sound like to you that President Bush is saying that Israel no longer has to return to the 1967 borders in any deal with the Palestinians?
WALKER: Well, if he does say so, he's saying what every president since 1967 has said, because our position has been right from the beginning that there would be at a minimum, minor border rectifications. And then when you go back to the Camp David Summit, and you go back to Taba (ph), those rectifications turned into something a bit larger to include a number of major settlements was some concept of tradeoff. So I don't think that's...
LIN: Can you envision that? Can you envision that the Palestinians get Gaza and Israel gets major portions of the West Bank? Even though four settlements may be withdrawn, that leaves 116 settlements in the West Bank that would remain.
WALKER: Well, I don't think that you're going to find the president of the United States verifying any border for the West Bank. He may say -- he may in some way say that we have never anticipated there'd be full withdrawal from the West Bank. That's been the U.S. position forever. But I don't...
LIN: So how likely is it the Palestinians are not going to sign on to a deal like that. Therefore, the peace process once again is dead?
WALKER: Well, the peace process isn't necessarily dead, because you've got a whole major change in the situation in Gaza. You've got a fundamental change on the question of settlements because settlements for the first time are going to be given up except for the one or two that were into sign on.
LIN: But then consider...
WALKER: I think it's a huge change.
LIN: Well, then consider what might happen. Let's say the Palestinians get full control of Gaza, and I'm still not even sure what that might mean. The Palestinians are planning on holding elections after Israel withdraws. If elections were held on this day, Hamas would win. Would that be acceptable to the United states?
WALKER: Well, first of all, this isn't going to happen today. And it's not going to happen tomorrow. It's going to take a while before this kind of a move can take place.
Second of all, the Palestinians are for the first time trying to come together. If they do come together, between Hamas and Fatah, and are able to develop genuine elections, it's not at all clear that Hamas would win.
And third, I think that it is a possibility that if Hamas becomes a political party, it may dampen the order of some people in Hamas to kill themselves.
LIN: Interesting. So bringing Hamas into the political process may solve the problem for Israel is what you're saying in terms of...
WALKER: I'm saying it could help. I'm saying it could help. It's not going to be the whole solution, of course not.
LIN: All right, thank you very much, Ambassador Edward Walker for joining us. WALKER: You bet.
LIN: We'll see what happens in the meetings on Wednesday.
Well, it's a day of clearing the rubble in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Eight people have been killed in a restaurant explosion across the border. Hear how the community is coping, coming up.
LIN: Thank you, Alina. Also in the news, call it a swimsuit malfunction.
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JANET JACKSON: Playing in the pool.
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LIN: OK, seems like she's had this problem for years. Still to come, though, Janet Jackson poking fun at her malfunctioning wardrobe.
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