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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Coalition Strike Narrowly Misses Zarqawi; Deadly Clash In Yemen Ends In 46 Dead, 35 wounded; BTK Strangler Resurfaces With New Letter

Aired June 25, 2004 - 19:00   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.


ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Good evening. Live from Baghdad, I'm Anderson Cooper.
With 500-pound bombs, the U.S. strikes at a suspected terror target in Iraq.

360 starts now.

ANNOUNCER: Another attempt to kill a terrorist leader narrowly misses its mark. The violent showdown with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

L. Paul Bremer's farewell tour of Iraq, and his regrets about what hasn't been accomplished there.

Politicians behaving badly. You won't believe what's being said in public. Have raw nerves become raw politics?

The debate over "Fahrenheit 9/11." Is Michael Moore getting what he wanted all along, attention?

They grip, they grab, they cross cultures and lines. They're the world's best ads.

Wedding bells for Britney. Sources confirm the pop star's engaged. Will the once-runaway bride go through with it this time?

This is a special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360, with Anderson Cooper reporting from Iraq and Heidi Collins in New York.

COOPER: Good evening again, live from Baghdad.

A relatively quiet Friday here in Iraq. There were a few mortar explosions here in Baghdad just a few hours ago, the dull thuds echoing through these dark, empty streets.

However, today there were calls for a ceasefire. There were even vows of revenge from the new Iraqi government. And there was a very dramatic statement made by the U.S. with 500-pound bombs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): For the third time in a week, the U.S. targeted the terror network of the man they think is behind many of the attacks in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, dropping bombs on a suspected safe house in Fallujah. Pentagon officials believe they came closer than ever to getting Zarqawi, blasting the building just as the man they think was Zarqawi arrived.

A group associated with Zarqawi claimed credit for yesterday's assault across the central and northern parts of the country, which killed nearly 100 people. Government officials say they are ready to fight back.

HAZEM SHALAM AL-KHUZAEI, IRAQI INTERIM DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): Today's the day for the Iraqi people to say to those outlaws and traitors, the time has come for the showdown, and God willing, this showdown will be great.

COOPER: In Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed one and injured seven. Elsewhere, the country was relatively calm. On the way to Friday prayers, worshipers chanted, No, no to terrorism. And in Baghdad's volatile Sadr City, a call for truce. A local cleric read a statement from the Madhi Army, Muqtada al-Sadr's militia.

SHEIKH RA'ID AL-KADHIMI, SADR CITY CLERIC (through translator): For the sake of public interest in considering the sensitive situation the oppressed Iraqi people are under, it was decided to halt military operations within Sadr City.

COOPER: And in Mosul, which bore the brunt of yesterday's assault, many are outraged at the insurgents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They blow up cars and trucks and hurt the people. They hurt the police who are helping this country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, Abu Musab Zarqawi, of course, has been accused of just about every terrorist attack here in Iraq in the last year, murders and brutal beheadings. Today on Capitol Hill, there were talks about the attempts to get him, and from the Pentagon new details about the attempt about the one that got away.

National security correspondent David Ensor reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The official says just as the U.S. planes unleashed 500-pound precision-guided bombs, a convoy of cars pulled up at the house, and a man got out. When the bombs fell, he was knocked to the ground. His guards picked him up alive and put him into a car and sped away. The senior official says the U.S. believes the man was Zarqawi. No one else is believed to travel with so much security in the area.

The massive U.S. effort now to get Zarqawi comes after a slew of terror attacks which Iraqi and American officials attribute to his network. RICHARD ARMITAGE, U.S. DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: We underestimated the degree to which this enemy had a central nervous system. And I think the attacks the other day show that he does have a central nervous system.

PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY: I'd just say, I think there may be more than one central nervous system, and there may be a loose coordination between them. And clearly the old regime people have been coordinating with each other for years.

ENSOR (on camera): Officials declined to say, but the details described by the source suggest the U.S. may have witnesses on the ground or Predator surveillance drones over Fallujah, watching for Zarqawi in particular.

(voice-over): In Fallujah, armed and masked militants read a statement denying that Zarqawi is in their city. "The U.S. occupying forces claim that al-Zarqawi and a group of Arab fighters are in our city to deceive the world," said one, calling it "a game by the American intelligence to hit Islam and Muslims in the city."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: But U.S. officials say they have fresh intelligence indicating that Zarqawi and his gang are apparently using Fallujah as a base for their operations, and that information that they just missed him today came from a senior defense official, Anderson.

COOPER: David Ensor, thanks very much for that reporting today from Washington.

The Irish writer Nulo Whelan (ph) wrote the other day in "The New York Times" that the visit by President George W. Bush to Ireland is unlike any other visit by an American president to that country. The Irish, it can be said, largely love the U.S. and revere American presidents who have been there in the past. Their reception, however, for George W. Bush is said to be different this time.

President Bush arrived in Ireland there today, marking the start of a European trip where Mr. Bush hopes to shore up support for U.S.- Iraq policy with NATO leaders. But right from the start, it is proving to be a tough sell.

CNN's Chris Burns reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The idyllic Irish countryside, locked down in a state of siege. Thousands of troops and police, some in riot gear, are deployed to protect a summit in a castle. Fences and gates stand ready to block off major roads. Tanks parade across the front page of Ireland's major newspapers, shocking the locals across the board about President Bush's visit.

DON FITZGERALD, AIRPORT SHIPPING AGENT: He's more than welcome. We are -- we should be an ally. We're (UNINTELLIGIBLE) ally. BURNS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) aren't you a bit upset about this, "Tanks for Dropping in Dubya"?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, this, this is too much.

BURNS: Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, holding the rotating presidency of the European Union, is warmly welcoming President Bush, highlighting the importance of transatlantic relations, despite any disagreements over Iraq.

Mr. Bush will seek support in stabilizing Iraq, as he will at the NATO summit that follows in Turkey. But even before his visit, a rough reception. An Irish TV interviewer suggested the Irish believe the world has become more dangerous despite his war on terror.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I do believe the world is a safer and becoming a safer place. I know that a free Iraq is going to be necessary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNS: Many Irish politicians disagree with the Iraqi invasion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want them to pull out.

BURNS (on camera): But if they pull out, wouldn't there be chaos?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, if that (UNINTELLIGIBLE), they couldn't pull her out right away, and I'd accept that. Of course there would be chaos, but we would say a gradual pullout.

BURNS (voice-over): Even mayors get involved in geopolitics here, showing just how deep feelings run about Iraq, even in the tranquil Irish countryside.

Chris Burns, CNN, Shannon, Ireland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Paul Bremer has been the top U.S. official here in Iraq over the past year. He is now serving out his final days. I recently went on a tour, an exclusive tour with Paul Bremer into the north, into Kurdish region, a farewell tour of sorts. I'll bring you that report later on on 360 tonight.

For now, let's go to the other day's headlines and Heidi Collins in New York. Good evening, Heidi.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Anderson, we look forward to that report with Paul Bremer

For now, though, a deadly siege. That tops our look at global stories in the uplink. In Yemen, bloody battles in the mountains, 46 followers of an anti-U.S. Muslim cleric are dead after violent clashes with security forces this week. Helicopters hovering over a mountainous area shot up several sites during the siege. Their target, bands of fighters loyal to an extremist Shi'ite Muslim leader. Officials say 35 are hurt, 43 others were taken into custody.

Southeastern Iran now, and a deadly crash. Smoke still rising today after an out-of-control tanker truck slams into six buses filled with passengers, explodes into a fireball. Last night's crash killed 71 people, many of them women and children who burned to death. More than 100 others were hurt. The cause of the crash is not clear.

In China, a pitch-perfect rescue. Seven people are OK today after rescuers pulled them from a pit filled with pitch. Amazing pictures here. It took rescue crews 12 hours to pull three children and four others from the pit full of the thick black substance. None suffered serious injuries.

In Israel, taking pride. Thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate the annual Gay Pride Parade. Colorful floats and flags marked the occasion. One marcher said it's easier to be gay in Israel today than in years past.

And in Mexico City, lions, tigers, and bears, oh, my. It wasn't a circus, but it did cause quite a scene when this little cub fell off a circus truck onto a highway on Wednesday. Officials closed the freeway to catch the little lion. He was rescued unharmed.

And that's tonight's uplink.

360 next, a serial killer resurfaces after decades underground. Find out what chilling clues he left behind.

Plus, Monica Lewinsky fires back. Hear why she's calling Bill Clinton's book revisionist history.

And oops, she's doing it again. Britney Spears engaged. We've got the scoop.

But first, your picks, the most popular stories on CNN.com right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: His mailings are stamped and sealed with a single sinister message, "Bind, torture, kill." For more than 30 years, the serial killer known as the BTK Strangler has lived in the shadows. Now, after decades of silence, police believe the elusive figure is speaking again.

Janeane Kiesling of CNN affiliate KAKE has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LT. KEN LANDWEHR, WICHITA POLICE: We truly feel that he is trying to communicate with us. JANEANE KIESLING, KAKE-TV: There are now three confirmed contacts from BTK. The most recent was received by police earlier this month. All police will say is, it detailed the Otero family murders.

It was January 15, 1974, when three of the Otero children returned home from school and found their parents and two siblings murdered.

The FBI also confirmed this letter received by KAKE-TV May 5 is the killer's second confirmed contact. Inside, three pieces of paper, one titled "The BTK Story" was followed by 13 titles of chapters, including "Mo ID Ruse (ph). Which brings us to the next page, which contained copies of two ID badges, one from a retired Southwestern Bell employee, the second of a Wichita public schools employee.

The last page of the KAKE letter was titled "Chapter 8," a word puzzle full of numbers, possibly addresses and phone numbers, and words like "old," "help," and again, "Fake ID."

The third letter and the first known communication from the killer after decades of silence was sent to the "Wichita Eagle" in February. It had pictures of Vicky Wagearly's (ph) body. A 1986 homicide that before that time was not linked to the serial killer.

Despite his letters and more than 2,200 tips, it appears BTK continues to control the tempo of the case.

LANDWEHR: This is one of the most challenging cases that I've ever been involved with.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Here to talk about the bizarre new developments in the case is psychologist Howard Brodsky, who was consulted about the case during the 1970s. He is live in Wichita, Kansas, tonight, the scene of those killings.

I want to begin with asking about these letters. Why is it, do you think, that the letters are coming forward once again after all those years?

HOWARD BRODSKY, PSYCHOLOGIST: Right. We had assumed that he'd died, he'd moved away. And he is telling us that he's very much alive and probably living in our community. So we suspect that he has some kind of need for publicity at this time.

COLLINS: Well, he seems to be quite a bit of a wordsmith, if you will, playing some games here. He's included, as we saw in the piece, word puzzles and all kinds of different things. What do you make of that?

BRODSKY: Well, I think very much he is a crafty sort of person, and he's interested in this kind of attention, and that he's kind of goading us. He's saying he's brighter than we are, that he can give all these clues, but we can't possibly figure them all out and figure out who he is.

COLLINS: But you have thought for quite some time, of course, talking back about the 1970s, when the first murders happened with the Otero family, that he was already on a path to becoming a serial killer. How so?

BRODSKY: Well, I'm not so sure that that is correct. I think that we will find out that the Otero murders had a motive which involved his life, and the successive murders were just him playing out this role of the serial murderer. So my theory is that he's going to have some connection with that first murder, that there will be some kind of more traditional motive, and the others recreate the act in some way for him.

COLLINS: The victims were all strangled, though. What does that tell you?

BRODSKY: Well, I think it's a power move. It's something that you can virtually look into somebody's eyes and take their life away from them while they're struggling for breath. So it's the kind of nastiness, sinister behavior that we're seeing in this guy.

COLLINS: And something somewhat interesting here, too, we know that he masturbated on some of the victims, but he did not actually sexually assault them. Does that surprise you? Are those two types of actions usually linked?

BRODSKY: Well, we don't think of these as strictly sexually motivated crimes, and the sexual behavior just seems to be something that he adds on.

COLLINS: So let me ask you, then, do you think that we will hear from the BTK killer again?

BRODSKY: Oh, yes, he's not going to let this drop. He's reopened it, and he wants the attention, and we'll hear more from him.

COLLINS: Will he kill again?

BRODSKY: Well, and that's open to a lot of dispute. If we give him the attention that he craves, we're hoping that that's sufficient. I think if we stop giving him the attention that he's demanding, that's kind of worrisome.

There's also a factor that he's quite a bit older now. He's been at this 30 years, and men in their later ages generally don't act out the kind of aggressive patterns that they might have acted out when they were younger.

COLLINS: From Wichita, Kansas, tonight, Howard Brodsky, thanks so much fur your time.

BRODSKY: Thank you.

COLLINS: 360 next, Monica Lewinsky tells her side of the story. Find out what she says about Bill Clinton and his new book. Also tonight, Cheney's F-bomb. Hear what the vice president has to say about his shock and awe on Capitol Hill.

And a little later, my gosh, she's doing it again. Britney Spears gets engaged. Will the nuptials last more than two days this time? Find out who her fiance is after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Even if you haven't read the book, you've certainly heard over and over again President Clinton explaining his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

But we haven't heard from the woman herself, until now. Monica Lewinsky is -- Monica Lewinsky, that is, is speaking out to the British press, because she can. And her words for her former flame are less than kind.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS (voice-over): Monica Lewinsky is firing back at the man she says used her and desecrated her character, saying, "He has said that he did it because he could. But when it started, it was because he wanted it to."

In an interview with Britain's "Daily Mail" newspaper and the ITV-1 Channel, she calls former president Bill Clinton "a revisionist" and "horrible." He says he's been misunderstood.

CLINTON: Everybody who reads it in the book will see that I was rebuking myself, not being flippant.

COLLINS: She again discusses their intimate Oval Office acts, offering a few new tawdry details, something the president left out of his book, a book Monica says makes her feel like "an insignificant piece of dirt."

The president, talking on the "Today" show, had kind words for the former White House intern.

CLINTON: And none of it would have happened if I hadn't done anything wrong, so I feel terrible about it. She is a really intelligent person and a fundamentally good person.

COLLINS: But that's not enough for Monica, who asks, "What if this had happened to Chelsea? How would she feel if she was trashed by the person she had had the relationship with -- a person who denied it to save himself -- if she was called a liar, a stalker, crazy, stupid?" According to the report, Monica still has presents the president gave her, still listens to messages he left on her answering machine, which she offers to play just to prove "that it really was something."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Today's buzz is this, who treated Monica Lewinsky worse, Bill Clinton or the media? Log on to CNN.com/360 to vote. We'll have the results coming up at end of the show.

Condoleezza Rice questioned in a CIA leak investigation. That tops our look at news cross-country. Washington, a U.S. official revealed Rice was questioned at an early stage in the investigation into who in the administration leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, had criticized the war in Iraq. The president was questioned for more than an hour yesterday.

Chicago, Illinois, campaign collapse. Republican Jack Ryan dropped out of the race for the U.S. Senate. Ryan, who's been struggling for political survival since Monday, when his divorce records were released. In them his ex-wife claimed he took her to sex clubs and tried to pressure her to perform sex acts while others watched. Ryan has denied the allegations.

Eagle, Colorado, trial date set for Kobe Bryant. Mark your calendar for August 27. The NBA star is accused of raping a woman last summer. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

New York, Martha Stewart sentencing delayed again. It's being pushed back a week to July 16. The announcement comes one day after prosecutors filed papers opposing Stewart's request for a new trial. Stewart's legal team says her conviction should be thrown out because an ink expert for the government allegedly lied on the stand.

Santa Maria, California, media requests denied in the Michael Jackson case. The judge won't unseal grand jury transcripts or search warrants.

And that's a look at stories cross-country tonight.

ANNOUNCER: L. Paul Bremer's farewell tour of Iraq and his regrets about what hasn't been accomplished there.

The debate over "Fahrenheit 9/11." Is Michael Moore getting what he wanted all along, attention?

Wedding bells for Britney. Sources confirm the pop star's engaged. Will the once-runaway bride go through with it this time?

This special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360 continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back. I'm Anderson Cooper, live in Baghdad. It is Saturday morning here, a few hours before dawn. It has been a very relatively quiet 24 hours, although a very violent week indeed.

Earlier this week, I had the chance to tour part of the country for two days with Ambassador Paul Bremer, the top U.S. official in charge in Iraq over the past year. On Wednesday, he gives up power, hands over power from the U.S. to the new Iraq interim government. That is (UNINTELLIGIBLE) happens on Wednesday. But so far, Ambassador Bremer is not slowing down.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): U.S. Ambassador Paul Bremer travels fast. His convoy of Black Hawk helicopters flies just 50 feet off the ground, low, so insurgents' rockets are rendered ineffective.

In his final week here, Bremer continues to work 18-hour days, dotting his I's, crossing his T's, traveling the country, saying good- bye.

PAUL BREMER, U.S. CIVILIAN ADMINISTRATOR: I think the most important thing that's happened over the last year is change in the political and economic structure of Iraq. There's a lot more to do, obviously, but they basically have got a path before them now which, if they can carry it out, takes them to democracy.

COOPER: Democracy is one thing. Security, quite another. Bremer is always surrounded by an army of aggressive, gun-toting guards.

Traveling with him is like trying to stay inside a fast-moving bubble. There are meetings and lunches, news conferences and photo- ops, all conducted at breakneck speed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got to get him moved.

BREMER: I don't like not being able to get out among the people. I'm a professional diplomat and I've spent a lot of my -- most of my adult life living abroad and trying to get to know the country where I live. It's obviously hard to do when you have so much security around you.

COOPER: Security is an issue for everyone in Iraq. The country's military and police are poorly trained, poorly equipped and repeatedly have failed to put up a fight.

BREMER: I think the biggest problem we've had, obviously, is security. It's a disappointment that we haven't been able to have a more stable and secure environment in place here. I think they're -- we, undoubtedly, had to do or should have done the buildup of the Iraqi security forces in a better way.

COOPER: Critics say Bremer was either too political or simply naive, underestimating Iraqi opposition in the country's economic devastation. BREMER: I think my biggest regret is that we're not able to mobilize a lot of the heavy duty reconstruction more quickly and largely it's because of the very complicated contracting provisions that are part of our law.

COOPER: Of the 18.4 billion dollars allocated by Congress for reconstruction, less than 4 billion had been spent by the first of this month.

Bremer leaves hopeful he says for the future of Iraq, but right now that future appears uncertain, indeed.

BREMER: I think the American people can be proud of what we've done here. I think the people -- the families who have lost sons and daughters here, they've been involved in a noble enterprise, freeing this country from a terrible tyranny and putting them on the path to success and I think we can feel good about that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Ambassador Paul Bremer.

And so the torch will be passed on Wednesday and those who are supposed to accept it are even now being supplied and trained by the country they are taking the torch from.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iraqi forces have just received an emergency delivery from the United States, 56,000 sets of body armor with another 12,000 to follow next week. Sixty thousand Kevlar helmets, more than 600 radios and 1 000 vehicles. Plus, heavy machine guns, RPGs and ammunition. Welcome news at training bases like this one run by a unit of the Arkansas National Guard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've secured the freedom of Iraq, but it's these people, these soldiers that we're training now that are going to have to fight to keep it and that's what we're trying to prepare them for.

AMANPOUR: Meantime, more Iraqi police and army check points are going up around Baghdad with U.S. Military support it's a firewall against insurgents, the U.S. admits are a serious threat. Up north in Mosul, U.S. commanders say they're pleased that it was Iraqi forces who responded first to the suicide bombings that killed more than 60 people on Thursday.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: I'll have more from Iraq later on in the program tonight. Right now let's go back to New York and Heidi Collins -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, Anderson, thanks

Harry Potter has the magic and Shrek has the humor, but no one has the buzz like Michael Moore. His movie opens nationwide today with the kind of publicity and controversy that would make any Hollywood producer jealous. And for his critics, Moore has two words, thank you.

CNN's Adaora Udoji explains.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael Moore went looking for a fight. He got one in "Fahrenheit 9/11" his movie attacking President Bush's Iraq war, accusing him of cronyism and deceit.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you. Now watch this drive.

UDOJI: As the movie's hype hits a crescendo, opening nationwide, the White House is pushing back, calling his views radical.

DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: This is a film that doesn't require us to actually view it to know that it's filled with, with factual inaccuracies. One group of Bush supporters, citizen united went further filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, urging it to yank the movie's broadcast ads next month.

DAVID M. BOSSIL: We got a clip of President Bush and other federal candidates for office are subject to the restrictions and regulatory requirements of federal campaign law.

UDOJI: They argue the images amount to illegal partisan advertising, barred so close to the Republican National Convention.

MOORE: It's a violation of my first amendment rights that I cannot advertise my movie? It's a movie.

UDOJI: But Moore's been riding the hoopla train for weeks, winning the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film festival, tangling with Disney which refused to distribute it. Always irreverent he's thanking the critics.

MOORE: They've only done the film a huge favor. I can't thank them enough because of the publicity it's given to the film, I mean, I couldn't even put a dollar on it.

UDOJI: Translation, more eyes to see his version of the Bush White House, more votes he hopes against the president in November and no doubt, more money in his pockets.

Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Joining us now debate the merits of the movie is Mark Green, president of the New Democracy Project and author of the book on Bush "How George W. Bush Misleads America." And from Seattle, film critic and conservative talk show host Michael Medved. Gentleman, thanks so much for being here tonight.

Michael, you have called this movie ridiculous. You say it's a left-wing message, but whether or not you agree with Michael Moore's assertions what's wrong with the way that he questions authority?

MICHAEL MEDVED, MOVIE CRITIC: Well, I'll tell you what. The trouble with the movie is not that it takes a left-wing point of view, it's that in the context of Hollywood that's the only point of view that you hear this movie and all of the attention to it highlights the fact there is absolutely no balance in the entertainment industry. The movie was released the day after a huge fund raising concert at the Disney Hall in Los Angeles for John Kerry. A concert featuring Whoopie Goldberg and Billie Crystal and Barbara Streisand and Neil Diamond.

It's part of a concentrated effort by the entertainment industry to campaign for Kerry. If it were balanced it would be fair, but where are the conservative documentaries. Where are the conservative studio projects? Where are the projects where Mr. Green might come on and say wait a minute, this isn't true, this isn't fair from a right wing point of view, those projects don't exist in the entertainment industry and that's a problem.

COLLINS: OK, Mark is this a conspiracy among Hollywooders?

MARK GREEN, NEW DEMOCRACY PROJECT: That was pretty funny. Republicans and conservatives control the White House, the Senate, the House, the Supreme Court, all talk radio. And so liberals say there's have an Air America, let's fight back.

MEDVED: Which is fine.

COLLINS: One second. I didn't interrupt you. So here comes along, Michael Moore, very successful documentary filmmaker with a point of view and he produces this movie and suddenly the whining and fetching from people like Mike start up. I don't remember liberals trying to boycott Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" which is Hollywood.

MEDVED: That's not a conservative movie that's a religious move.

(CROSSTALK)

COLLINS: Michael let him finish. OK, real quickly.

GREEN: One last point. To prove Michael's wrong about the conspiracy because the film over opened after John Kerry's fund-raiser in L.A. That fund-raiser was scheduled three weeks ago, but was postponed because of Ronald Reagan's death, where's the conspiracy?

COLLINS: All right, listen let me get to film for just a minute, because there are some people I'm sure who have not seen it, and it's only been out for a day. Of course, Moore takes Bush to task for how he prepared and handled the war. So, I want to show a quick clip and get your reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any of us would do, he went on vacation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Mark, is that fair?

I mean, isn't this movie full of many distortions and manipulations, edits if you will.

GREEN: Mike had an interesting point when he said it wasn't balanced. It's not balanced, but it is fair.

COLLINS: Is it true? Is it factual?

GREEN: Fine. Balanced as to say although nothing that Bush said about going into the war or since the war or creating -- turning allies into adversaries, creating more terrorist. On the other hand, he's very personable and he really believes in his resolution. Michael Moore didn't waste his time with the second part because there were so many Republicans to say it. But it is far for one reason, what Michael Moore said about George W. Bush, that nothing he said before the war turned out to be true, the Saudi family and the Bush families connections, the consequences 10,000 casualties coming back to America which is not covered by many of the established media, that's true. Michael Moore is way more accurate in an hour and a half than George Bush has been in three and a half years.

MEDVED: OK, let's talk about some specifics Mark Green. You talk about the Saudi connection, what relevance is that?

How can Michael Moore possibly argue, and this is my problem with the film, it's full of internal contradictions. The first third of the film is all about the connection between Bush and the Saudi, implying that the Saudis control George Bush. You know well very because you're a sophisticated guy, the Saudi Government was opposed to the war. If the Saudi Government really controlled George Bush, then how can -- then how can we have gone to war against the wishes of the Saudi government?

GREEN: Fine, let me take that point.

MEDVED: Go.

COLLINS: Quickly.

GREEN: First, I wish you'd spend a teeny bit of time asking why bush said that Saddam and al Qaeda were cahoots when the 9/11 Commission.

MEDVED: You just dodge the question.

GREEN: But on Saudi Arabia it's quite simple. If Bill Clinton had breakfast with Gadhafi's relatives...

(CROSSTALK)

MEDVED: Don't dodge the question, the question is a confrontation.

GREEN: 15 of 19 attackers were Saudis, we are often sending young men and women abroad to fight for oil, because it's an economic resource and because we're not energy independent.

MEDVED: Mark Green, was a Saudi government in favor of the war or opposed to the war, which one?

COLLINS: Last answer.

GREEN: It's a binary point, George W. Bush misled us into a war.

MEDVED: The Saudi government was opposed to the war, Mark Green.

GREEN: The issue was not Saudi. The issue -- you're making the issue of Saudi Arabia. The issue is Bush.

COLLINS: Time out. The end, unfortunately, so out of time. To the both of you, we appreciate your time so much. Mark Green and Michael Medved, thanks, gentlemen once again.

True or false, politicians are cool, calm and selected? True, mostly, bue not alwasy. And when they're not cool, calm and collected that really is raw politics.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS (voice-over): It happened the other day, though not where the public could hear it, vice president Dick Cheney and Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy were on the Senate floor together for a class photo and ended up having words with one another, as people used to say.

One of the words from the vice president to the senator was the top, all-purpose four letter expletive in the english language, used in this case as a suggestion. Score one for temper. And here's another.

BILL CLINTON, FRM. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One of the reasons he got away with it? Is because people like you only ask people like me the questions and gave him a complete free ride.

COLLINS: You think a man who's been asked as many questions as Bill Clinton would have developed thick skin by now, but a BBC reporter somehow managed to get under that thick skin and got himself pretty well barked at as a result. CLINTON: Any abuse they want to do, they indicted all these little people of Arkansas. What did you care about them, their not famous, who cares if their lives were trampled, who cares if their children are humiliated, who cares if Starr sends FBI agents to their school and rip them out of their school to humiliate them and try to force their parents to lie about me.

COLLINS: Don't misunderstand though, sitting presidentings could lose it too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't think, there are terrorist bombings every single day. Its now a daily event. It wasn't like that two years ago.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What was it like, September 11, 2001. It was a relative calm...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But is your response to Iraq...

BUSH: Let me finish. Let me finish, please. You ask the questions and I'll answer them, if you don't mind.

COLLINS: Even with the script to read from, presidents can resort to the unpresidential.

RICHARD NIXON, FRM. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've learned every cent, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got.

COLLINS: And Ab Lincoln's monument has one of the great man's hands relaxed and the other clenched into a tight fist, you'd never know, honest abe could have had a temper, too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: By the way, in case you're wondering whether the vice president feels contrite about the language he used on the Senate floor, we'd say it doesn't sound like it. Here's what he said on Fox News Channel's "Your World" with Nick Cavuto.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think a lot of my colleagues felt that what I'd said badly needed to be said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Neil Cavuto, pardon me. Well, from the other side there was this from a spokesman for Senator Leahy. Quote, "it appears the vice president's previous calls for civility are now inoperative."

360 next, Britney Spears engaged: she takes a step closer to walking down the aisle again. Find out if she's really for real this time. And a little later, 30-second sensations: the world's best commercials are announced. The winners, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COLLINS: A knee injury put an end to her tour, but Britney Spears still knows how to get attention. She's doing it with a new tune, the title "Here Comes the Bride." The pop diva is engaged to her boyfriend/dancer. And after only six months since her first marriage was annulled, leaving many saying oops! Not again. D.J. Sigismend is a staff editor at "US Weekly," he joins us now tonight for this semibreaking news.

D.J. SIGESMUND, US WEEKLY: It broke today, just a few hours ago.

COLLINS: OK, so like we said, she was married the the first time for like 55 hours.

SIGESMUND: Exactly. That was just January.

COLLINS: Is this one going to last?

SIGESMUND: Well, let's talk about Kevin Federling for a second. They've only been dating for 2 months and they've been traveling the whole time. He flew to Europe to be with her in August -- I'm sorry in April and here it is the end of June and they're engaged.

COLLINS: And they are in love.

SIGESMUND: And they're deeply in love. But remember, Kevin also has a 2-year-old with Shar Jackson who is a former star of Moesha and Shar is actually pregnant, eight months pregnant with his second child with her. She is due in August and he plans to be there, so maybe Britney, the whole gang will be there.

COLLINS: This is ex-girlfriend, correct?

SIGESMUND: This is his ex-girlfriend, the one he left Britney Spears for -- I'm sorry, the one that he left for Britney Spears, exactly.

Where do I go from here, really.

COLLINS: I'm kind of at a loss for questions.

Is this another J. Lo?

SIGESMUND: I feel like she's verging on Courtney Love type antics now. It's sort of what will she do next? She injured her knee so she called off the tour and she's sort of been, I don't know, acting sort of crazy more like Courtney. The marriages a little bit more like J. Lo, but I don't know. It's hard to say, really what is going to with her.

COLLINS: Will the fascination with her, by her fans, do you think it will start to dissipate with behaviors like this?

SIGESMUND: What happens is she grew up, she was a Mouseketeer, right? And then she was a role model for a lot of young girls and she was a controversial role model, because of the belly button bearing and all that, but she said she was a virgin, she wanted to stay a virgin for a long time. And there were a lot of people who followed her, a lot of young women who followed her.

But over the last few years, things have gotten a little crazier and I think that she has lost a lot of her fan base, because of her increasingly strange antics.

COLLINS: And we just saw some pictures of Justin Timberlake. Quickly now, I understand that this guy Kevin guy kind of looks like him? Hmm.

SIGESMUND: He's kind of an identical-- I wouldn't say identical twin to Justin, but he's a little bit of a ringer for Justin Timberlake.

COLLINS: Right, interesting. D.J. Sigesmudn, as always, thanks so much.

SIGESMUND: Thank you, Heidi.

COLLINS: 360 next. A good reason to watch commercials, a showcase of the very best in the world. And a little later just a couple of white chicks in a new comedy. We'll check it out in the Weekender.

But first, today's "Buzz". "Who treated Monica Lewinsky worse? Bill Clinton or the media?" Log on to CNN.com/360 to vote now. Results when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

From "where's the beef" to "wasssup"?

There are some commercials that leave an impression and a pretty good one at that. Ads from Across the world are being honored at the Cannes Advertising festival this week and here's CNN's Jason Bellini with that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A Brazilian ad for a gym doesn't need a single word to get its point across.

The connection between beer and babes is apparently universal as well.

(on camera): The world's best commercials, it seems are those that have you wondering what's this ad for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SINGING)

BELLINI (voice-over): This is a British ad for Pop Noodle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SINGING)

BELLINI: Much of the buzz this year at Cannes concerns the cyber ad category.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a lot of brass comment around subservientchicken.com. A man dressed in a chicken suit on a Web cam.

BELLINI: Burger King's chicken won a bronze medal and perhaps new customers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It gives Burger King a little bit of an edge.

BELLINI: Other universal themes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, how do I look.

BELLINI: The sexy. And the absurd.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today we salute you, Mr. Giant taco salad inventor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Giant taco salad inventor.

BELLINI: Help solve the global challenge of the 21st century -- capturing people's attention.

Jason Bellini, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Spiderman 2 opens nationwide next week and by that time, all of the hoopla over Michael Moore's new film should die down or not.

Let's take a look in the "Weekender."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUSH: Call you the elite. I call you my base.

COLLINS (voice-over): It's safe to say Michael Moore doesn't like President Bush, that's obvious from the first frame of "Fahrenheit 9/11." Moore's scathing and unabashedly one-sided view of the war in Iraq, the war on terror and pretty much every policy from the Bush administration. But you probably knew that already so let's move on to see what else is new.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brittany and Tiffany Wilson checking in sorry.

COLLINS: Like, "White Chicks." Marlon and Shawn Wayans star as FBI agents who disguise themselves as, well, white chicks, to stop a kidnapping plot. It's like some like it hot only with scarier makeup.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whatever!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see you.

COLLINS: For cat lover, there's "Two Brothers." A sweet and cuddly family film about two tiger cubs who are separated at birth and years later are reunited. Though not by Oprah.

On TV this weekend, everyday people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just trying to make conversation. It's an old fashion past time. This HBO original which airs tomorrow night takes on class and race relations over the course of one day at a Brooklyn diner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's it like at the North Pole?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like the suburbs. Now get off my lap.

COLLINS: New DVD, "Bad Santa," Billy Bob Thornton is a burned out department store Santa, who instead of giving presents to kids, steals from just about everyone. Ho, ho, ho.

In concert, Eric Clapton, slow hand will perform tomorrow night at Philadelphia's Wachovia Center. Expect plenty of blues, rock and amazing soulful guitar solos. After working the northeast he heads west.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Time now for "The Buzz." Who treated Monica Lewinsky worse, Bill Clinton or the media? Twelve percent say Bill Clinton, 88 percent said it was the media. This is not a scientific poll, but it is your "Buzz."

360 next, Anderson Cooper live from Baghdad. He's taking national independence to "The Nth Degree."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Finally tonight, taking a grand width to "The Nth Degree." Here's what we have to hope. We have to hope that the 30th of June in Iraq, just five days away now, is some day like the 4th of July in America. We have to hope that the bombs bursting in air in Baghdad won't be bombs at all. They'll be roman candles and bottle rockets. We have to hope that the noise will not be of gunfire as it is now, as it just was a few seconds ago, but of firecrackers. We have to hope that the 30th of June like the 4th of July will be a day to remember and to celebrate principles that held no matter what, the unshakeable bedrock on which everything else is built. That's what we have to hope, much more than that, however, that is what they have to hope. I'll be from Baghdad all this week. Thanks for watching us tonight. Coming up next, "PAULA ZAHN 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


Aired June 25, 2004 - 19:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Good evening. Live from Baghdad, I'm Anderson Cooper.
With 500-pound bombs, the U.S. strikes at a suspected terror target in Iraq.

360 starts now.

ANNOUNCER: Another attempt to kill a terrorist leader narrowly misses its mark. The violent showdown with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

L. Paul Bremer's farewell tour of Iraq, and his regrets about what hasn't been accomplished there.

Politicians behaving badly. You won't believe what's being said in public. Have raw nerves become raw politics?

The debate over "Fahrenheit 9/11." Is Michael Moore getting what he wanted all along, attention?

They grip, they grab, they cross cultures and lines. They're the world's best ads.

Wedding bells for Britney. Sources confirm the pop star's engaged. Will the once-runaway bride go through with it this time?

This is a special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360, with Anderson Cooper reporting from Iraq and Heidi Collins in New York.

COOPER: Good evening again, live from Baghdad.

A relatively quiet Friday here in Iraq. There were a few mortar explosions here in Baghdad just a few hours ago, the dull thuds echoing through these dark, empty streets.

However, today there were calls for a ceasefire. There were even vows of revenge from the new Iraqi government. And there was a very dramatic statement made by the U.S. with 500-pound bombs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): For the third time in a week, the U.S. targeted the terror network of the man they think is behind many of the attacks in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, dropping bombs on a suspected safe house in Fallujah. Pentagon officials believe they came closer than ever to getting Zarqawi, blasting the building just as the man they think was Zarqawi arrived.

A group associated with Zarqawi claimed credit for yesterday's assault across the central and northern parts of the country, which killed nearly 100 people. Government officials say they are ready to fight back.

HAZEM SHALAM AL-KHUZAEI, IRAQI INTERIM DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): Today's the day for the Iraqi people to say to those outlaws and traitors, the time has come for the showdown, and God willing, this showdown will be great.

COOPER: In Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed one and injured seven. Elsewhere, the country was relatively calm. On the way to Friday prayers, worshipers chanted, No, no to terrorism. And in Baghdad's volatile Sadr City, a call for truce. A local cleric read a statement from the Madhi Army, Muqtada al-Sadr's militia.

SHEIKH RA'ID AL-KADHIMI, SADR CITY CLERIC (through translator): For the sake of public interest in considering the sensitive situation the oppressed Iraqi people are under, it was decided to halt military operations within Sadr City.

COOPER: And in Mosul, which bore the brunt of yesterday's assault, many are outraged at the insurgents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They blow up cars and trucks and hurt the people. They hurt the police who are helping this country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, Abu Musab Zarqawi, of course, has been accused of just about every terrorist attack here in Iraq in the last year, murders and brutal beheadings. Today on Capitol Hill, there were talks about the attempts to get him, and from the Pentagon new details about the attempt about the one that got away.

National security correspondent David Ensor reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The official says just as the U.S. planes unleashed 500-pound precision-guided bombs, a convoy of cars pulled up at the house, and a man got out. When the bombs fell, he was knocked to the ground. His guards picked him up alive and put him into a car and sped away. The senior official says the U.S. believes the man was Zarqawi. No one else is believed to travel with so much security in the area.

The massive U.S. effort now to get Zarqawi comes after a slew of terror attacks which Iraqi and American officials attribute to his network. RICHARD ARMITAGE, U.S. DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: We underestimated the degree to which this enemy had a central nervous system. And I think the attacks the other day show that he does have a central nervous system.

PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY: I'd just say, I think there may be more than one central nervous system, and there may be a loose coordination between them. And clearly the old regime people have been coordinating with each other for years.

ENSOR (on camera): Officials declined to say, but the details described by the source suggest the U.S. may have witnesses on the ground or Predator surveillance drones over Fallujah, watching for Zarqawi in particular.

(voice-over): In Fallujah, armed and masked militants read a statement denying that Zarqawi is in their city. "The U.S. occupying forces claim that al-Zarqawi and a group of Arab fighters are in our city to deceive the world," said one, calling it "a game by the American intelligence to hit Islam and Muslims in the city."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: But U.S. officials say they have fresh intelligence indicating that Zarqawi and his gang are apparently using Fallujah as a base for their operations, and that information that they just missed him today came from a senior defense official, Anderson.

COOPER: David Ensor, thanks very much for that reporting today from Washington.

The Irish writer Nulo Whelan (ph) wrote the other day in "The New York Times" that the visit by President George W. Bush to Ireland is unlike any other visit by an American president to that country. The Irish, it can be said, largely love the U.S. and revere American presidents who have been there in the past. Their reception, however, for George W. Bush is said to be different this time.

President Bush arrived in Ireland there today, marking the start of a European trip where Mr. Bush hopes to shore up support for U.S.- Iraq policy with NATO leaders. But right from the start, it is proving to be a tough sell.

CNN's Chris Burns reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The idyllic Irish countryside, locked down in a state of siege. Thousands of troops and police, some in riot gear, are deployed to protect a summit in a castle. Fences and gates stand ready to block off major roads. Tanks parade across the front page of Ireland's major newspapers, shocking the locals across the board about President Bush's visit.

DON FITZGERALD, AIRPORT SHIPPING AGENT: He's more than welcome. We are -- we should be an ally. We're (UNINTELLIGIBLE) ally. BURNS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) aren't you a bit upset about this, "Tanks for Dropping in Dubya"?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, this, this is too much.

BURNS: Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, holding the rotating presidency of the European Union, is warmly welcoming President Bush, highlighting the importance of transatlantic relations, despite any disagreements over Iraq.

Mr. Bush will seek support in stabilizing Iraq, as he will at the NATO summit that follows in Turkey. But even before his visit, a rough reception. An Irish TV interviewer suggested the Irish believe the world has become more dangerous despite his war on terror.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I do believe the world is a safer and becoming a safer place. I know that a free Iraq is going to be necessary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNS: Many Irish politicians disagree with the Iraqi invasion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want them to pull out.

BURNS (on camera): But if they pull out, wouldn't there be chaos?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, if that (UNINTELLIGIBLE), they couldn't pull her out right away, and I'd accept that. Of course there would be chaos, but we would say a gradual pullout.

BURNS (voice-over): Even mayors get involved in geopolitics here, showing just how deep feelings run about Iraq, even in the tranquil Irish countryside.

Chris Burns, CNN, Shannon, Ireland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Paul Bremer has been the top U.S. official here in Iraq over the past year. He is now serving out his final days. I recently went on a tour, an exclusive tour with Paul Bremer into the north, into Kurdish region, a farewell tour of sorts. I'll bring you that report later on on 360 tonight.

For now, let's go to the other day's headlines and Heidi Collins in New York. Good evening, Heidi.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Anderson, we look forward to that report with Paul Bremer

For now, though, a deadly siege. That tops our look at global stories in the uplink. In Yemen, bloody battles in the mountains, 46 followers of an anti-U.S. Muslim cleric are dead after violent clashes with security forces this week. Helicopters hovering over a mountainous area shot up several sites during the siege. Their target, bands of fighters loyal to an extremist Shi'ite Muslim leader. Officials say 35 are hurt, 43 others were taken into custody.

Southeastern Iran now, and a deadly crash. Smoke still rising today after an out-of-control tanker truck slams into six buses filled with passengers, explodes into a fireball. Last night's crash killed 71 people, many of them women and children who burned to death. More than 100 others were hurt. The cause of the crash is not clear.

In China, a pitch-perfect rescue. Seven people are OK today after rescuers pulled them from a pit filled with pitch. Amazing pictures here. It took rescue crews 12 hours to pull three children and four others from the pit full of the thick black substance. None suffered serious injuries.

In Israel, taking pride. Thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate the annual Gay Pride Parade. Colorful floats and flags marked the occasion. One marcher said it's easier to be gay in Israel today than in years past.

And in Mexico City, lions, tigers, and bears, oh, my. It wasn't a circus, but it did cause quite a scene when this little cub fell off a circus truck onto a highway on Wednesday. Officials closed the freeway to catch the little lion. He was rescued unharmed.

And that's tonight's uplink.

360 next, a serial killer resurfaces after decades underground. Find out what chilling clues he left behind.

Plus, Monica Lewinsky fires back. Hear why she's calling Bill Clinton's book revisionist history.

And oops, she's doing it again. Britney Spears engaged. We've got the scoop.

But first, your picks, the most popular stories on CNN.com right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: His mailings are stamped and sealed with a single sinister message, "Bind, torture, kill." For more than 30 years, the serial killer known as the BTK Strangler has lived in the shadows. Now, after decades of silence, police believe the elusive figure is speaking again.

Janeane Kiesling of CNN affiliate KAKE has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LT. KEN LANDWEHR, WICHITA POLICE: We truly feel that he is trying to communicate with us. JANEANE KIESLING, KAKE-TV: There are now three confirmed contacts from BTK. The most recent was received by police earlier this month. All police will say is, it detailed the Otero family murders.

It was January 15, 1974, when three of the Otero children returned home from school and found their parents and two siblings murdered.

The FBI also confirmed this letter received by KAKE-TV May 5 is the killer's second confirmed contact. Inside, three pieces of paper, one titled "The BTK Story" was followed by 13 titles of chapters, including "Mo ID Ruse (ph). Which brings us to the next page, which contained copies of two ID badges, one from a retired Southwestern Bell employee, the second of a Wichita public schools employee.

The last page of the KAKE letter was titled "Chapter 8," a word puzzle full of numbers, possibly addresses and phone numbers, and words like "old," "help," and again, "Fake ID."

The third letter and the first known communication from the killer after decades of silence was sent to the "Wichita Eagle" in February. It had pictures of Vicky Wagearly's (ph) body. A 1986 homicide that before that time was not linked to the serial killer.

Despite his letters and more than 2,200 tips, it appears BTK continues to control the tempo of the case.

LANDWEHR: This is one of the most challenging cases that I've ever been involved with.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Here to talk about the bizarre new developments in the case is psychologist Howard Brodsky, who was consulted about the case during the 1970s. He is live in Wichita, Kansas, tonight, the scene of those killings.

I want to begin with asking about these letters. Why is it, do you think, that the letters are coming forward once again after all those years?

HOWARD BRODSKY, PSYCHOLOGIST: Right. We had assumed that he'd died, he'd moved away. And he is telling us that he's very much alive and probably living in our community. So we suspect that he has some kind of need for publicity at this time.

COLLINS: Well, he seems to be quite a bit of a wordsmith, if you will, playing some games here. He's included, as we saw in the piece, word puzzles and all kinds of different things. What do you make of that?

BRODSKY: Well, I think very much he is a crafty sort of person, and he's interested in this kind of attention, and that he's kind of goading us. He's saying he's brighter than we are, that he can give all these clues, but we can't possibly figure them all out and figure out who he is.

COLLINS: But you have thought for quite some time, of course, talking back about the 1970s, when the first murders happened with the Otero family, that he was already on a path to becoming a serial killer. How so?

BRODSKY: Well, I'm not so sure that that is correct. I think that we will find out that the Otero murders had a motive which involved his life, and the successive murders were just him playing out this role of the serial murderer. So my theory is that he's going to have some connection with that first murder, that there will be some kind of more traditional motive, and the others recreate the act in some way for him.

COLLINS: The victims were all strangled, though. What does that tell you?

BRODSKY: Well, I think it's a power move. It's something that you can virtually look into somebody's eyes and take their life away from them while they're struggling for breath. So it's the kind of nastiness, sinister behavior that we're seeing in this guy.

COLLINS: And something somewhat interesting here, too, we know that he masturbated on some of the victims, but he did not actually sexually assault them. Does that surprise you? Are those two types of actions usually linked?

BRODSKY: Well, we don't think of these as strictly sexually motivated crimes, and the sexual behavior just seems to be something that he adds on.

COLLINS: So let me ask you, then, do you think that we will hear from the BTK killer again?

BRODSKY: Oh, yes, he's not going to let this drop. He's reopened it, and he wants the attention, and we'll hear more from him.

COLLINS: Will he kill again?

BRODSKY: Well, and that's open to a lot of dispute. If we give him the attention that he craves, we're hoping that that's sufficient. I think if we stop giving him the attention that he's demanding, that's kind of worrisome.

There's also a factor that he's quite a bit older now. He's been at this 30 years, and men in their later ages generally don't act out the kind of aggressive patterns that they might have acted out when they were younger.

COLLINS: From Wichita, Kansas, tonight, Howard Brodsky, thanks so much fur your time.

BRODSKY: Thank you.

COLLINS: 360 next, Monica Lewinsky tells her side of the story. Find out what she says about Bill Clinton and his new book. Also tonight, Cheney's F-bomb. Hear what the vice president has to say about his shock and awe on Capitol Hill.

And a little later, my gosh, she's doing it again. Britney Spears gets engaged. Will the nuptials last more than two days this time? Find out who her fiance is after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Even if you haven't read the book, you've certainly heard over and over again President Clinton explaining his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

But we haven't heard from the woman herself, until now. Monica Lewinsky is -- Monica Lewinsky, that is, is speaking out to the British press, because she can. And her words for her former flame are less than kind.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS (voice-over): Monica Lewinsky is firing back at the man she says used her and desecrated her character, saying, "He has said that he did it because he could. But when it started, it was because he wanted it to."

In an interview with Britain's "Daily Mail" newspaper and the ITV-1 Channel, she calls former president Bill Clinton "a revisionist" and "horrible." He says he's been misunderstood.

CLINTON: Everybody who reads it in the book will see that I was rebuking myself, not being flippant.

COLLINS: She again discusses their intimate Oval Office acts, offering a few new tawdry details, something the president left out of his book, a book Monica says makes her feel like "an insignificant piece of dirt."

The president, talking on the "Today" show, had kind words for the former White House intern.

CLINTON: And none of it would have happened if I hadn't done anything wrong, so I feel terrible about it. She is a really intelligent person and a fundamentally good person.

COLLINS: But that's not enough for Monica, who asks, "What if this had happened to Chelsea? How would she feel if she was trashed by the person she had had the relationship with -- a person who denied it to save himself -- if she was called a liar, a stalker, crazy, stupid?" According to the report, Monica still has presents the president gave her, still listens to messages he left on her answering machine, which she offers to play just to prove "that it really was something."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Today's buzz is this, who treated Monica Lewinsky worse, Bill Clinton or the media? Log on to CNN.com/360 to vote. We'll have the results coming up at end of the show.

Condoleezza Rice questioned in a CIA leak investigation. That tops our look at news cross-country. Washington, a U.S. official revealed Rice was questioned at an early stage in the investigation into who in the administration leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, had criticized the war in Iraq. The president was questioned for more than an hour yesterday.

Chicago, Illinois, campaign collapse. Republican Jack Ryan dropped out of the race for the U.S. Senate. Ryan, who's been struggling for political survival since Monday, when his divorce records were released. In them his ex-wife claimed he took her to sex clubs and tried to pressure her to perform sex acts while others watched. Ryan has denied the allegations.

Eagle, Colorado, trial date set for Kobe Bryant. Mark your calendar for August 27. The NBA star is accused of raping a woman last summer. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

New York, Martha Stewart sentencing delayed again. It's being pushed back a week to July 16. The announcement comes one day after prosecutors filed papers opposing Stewart's request for a new trial. Stewart's legal team says her conviction should be thrown out because an ink expert for the government allegedly lied on the stand.

Santa Maria, California, media requests denied in the Michael Jackson case. The judge won't unseal grand jury transcripts or search warrants.

And that's a look at stories cross-country tonight.

ANNOUNCER: L. Paul Bremer's farewell tour of Iraq and his regrets about what hasn't been accomplished there.

The debate over "Fahrenheit 9/11." Is Michael Moore getting what he wanted all along, attention?

Wedding bells for Britney. Sources confirm the pop star's engaged. Will the once-runaway bride go through with it this time?

This special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360 continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back. I'm Anderson Cooper, live in Baghdad. It is Saturday morning here, a few hours before dawn. It has been a very relatively quiet 24 hours, although a very violent week indeed.

Earlier this week, I had the chance to tour part of the country for two days with Ambassador Paul Bremer, the top U.S. official in charge in Iraq over the past year. On Wednesday, he gives up power, hands over power from the U.S. to the new Iraq interim government. That is (UNINTELLIGIBLE) happens on Wednesday. But so far, Ambassador Bremer is not slowing down.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): U.S. Ambassador Paul Bremer travels fast. His convoy of Black Hawk helicopters flies just 50 feet off the ground, low, so insurgents' rockets are rendered ineffective.

In his final week here, Bremer continues to work 18-hour days, dotting his I's, crossing his T's, traveling the country, saying good- bye.

PAUL BREMER, U.S. CIVILIAN ADMINISTRATOR: I think the most important thing that's happened over the last year is change in the political and economic structure of Iraq. There's a lot more to do, obviously, but they basically have got a path before them now which, if they can carry it out, takes them to democracy.

COOPER: Democracy is one thing. Security, quite another. Bremer is always surrounded by an army of aggressive, gun-toting guards.

Traveling with him is like trying to stay inside a fast-moving bubble. There are meetings and lunches, news conferences and photo- ops, all conducted at breakneck speed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got to get him moved.

BREMER: I don't like not being able to get out among the people. I'm a professional diplomat and I've spent a lot of my -- most of my adult life living abroad and trying to get to know the country where I live. It's obviously hard to do when you have so much security around you.

COOPER: Security is an issue for everyone in Iraq. The country's military and police are poorly trained, poorly equipped and repeatedly have failed to put up a fight.

BREMER: I think the biggest problem we've had, obviously, is security. It's a disappointment that we haven't been able to have a more stable and secure environment in place here. I think they're -- we, undoubtedly, had to do or should have done the buildup of the Iraqi security forces in a better way.

COOPER: Critics say Bremer was either too political or simply naive, underestimating Iraqi opposition in the country's economic devastation. BREMER: I think my biggest regret is that we're not able to mobilize a lot of the heavy duty reconstruction more quickly and largely it's because of the very complicated contracting provisions that are part of our law.

COOPER: Of the 18.4 billion dollars allocated by Congress for reconstruction, less than 4 billion had been spent by the first of this month.

Bremer leaves hopeful he says for the future of Iraq, but right now that future appears uncertain, indeed.

BREMER: I think the American people can be proud of what we've done here. I think the people -- the families who have lost sons and daughters here, they've been involved in a noble enterprise, freeing this country from a terrible tyranny and putting them on the path to success and I think we can feel good about that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Ambassador Paul Bremer.

And so the torch will be passed on Wednesday and those who are supposed to accept it are even now being supplied and trained by the country they are taking the torch from.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iraqi forces have just received an emergency delivery from the United States, 56,000 sets of body armor with another 12,000 to follow next week. Sixty thousand Kevlar helmets, more than 600 radios and 1 000 vehicles. Plus, heavy machine guns, RPGs and ammunition. Welcome news at training bases like this one run by a unit of the Arkansas National Guard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've secured the freedom of Iraq, but it's these people, these soldiers that we're training now that are going to have to fight to keep it and that's what we're trying to prepare them for.

AMANPOUR: Meantime, more Iraqi police and army check points are going up around Baghdad with U.S. Military support it's a firewall against insurgents, the U.S. admits are a serious threat. Up north in Mosul, U.S. commanders say they're pleased that it was Iraqi forces who responded first to the suicide bombings that killed more than 60 people on Thursday.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: I'll have more from Iraq later on in the program tonight. Right now let's go back to New York and Heidi Collins -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, Anderson, thanks

Harry Potter has the magic and Shrek has the humor, but no one has the buzz like Michael Moore. His movie opens nationwide today with the kind of publicity and controversy that would make any Hollywood producer jealous. And for his critics, Moore has two words, thank you.

CNN's Adaora Udoji explains.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael Moore went looking for a fight. He got one in "Fahrenheit 9/11" his movie attacking President Bush's Iraq war, accusing him of cronyism and deceit.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you. Now watch this drive.

UDOJI: As the movie's hype hits a crescendo, opening nationwide, the White House is pushing back, calling his views radical.

DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: This is a film that doesn't require us to actually view it to know that it's filled with, with factual inaccuracies. One group of Bush supporters, citizen united went further filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, urging it to yank the movie's broadcast ads next month.

DAVID M. BOSSIL: We got a clip of President Bush and other federal candidates for office are subject to the restrictions and regulatory requirements of federal campaign law.

UDOJI: They argue the images amount to illegal partisan advertising, barred so close to the Republican National Convention.

MOORE: It's a violation of my first amendment rights that I cannot advertise my movie? It's a movie.

UDOJI: But Moore's been riding the hoopla train for weeks, winning the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film festival, tangling with Disney which refused to distribute it. Always irreverent he's thanking the critics.

MOORE: They've only done the film a huge favor. I can't thank them enough because of the publicity it's given to the film, I mean, I couldn't even put a dollar on it.

UDOJI: Translation, more eyes to see his version of the Bush White House, more votes he hopes against the president in November and no doubt, more money in his pockets.

Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Joining us now debate the merits of the movie is Mark Green, president of the New Democracy Project and author of the book on Bush "How George W. Bush Misleads America." And from Seattle, film critic and conservative talk show host Michael Medved. Gentleman, thanks so much for being here tonight.

Michael, you have called this movie ridiculous. You say it's a left-wing message, but whether or not you agree with Michael Moore's assertions what's wrong with the way that he questions authority?

MICHAEL MEDVED, MOVIE CRITIC: Well, I'll tell you what. The trouble with the movie is not that it takes a left-wing point of view, it's that in the context of Hollywood that's the only point of view that you hear this movie and all of the attention to it highlights the fact there is absolutely no balance in the entertainment industry. The movie was released the day after a huge fund raising concert at the Disney Hall in Los Angeles for John Kerry. A concert featuring Whoopie Goldberg and Billie Crystal and Barbara Streisand and Neil Diamond.

It's part of a concentrated effort by the entertainment industry to campaign for Kerry. If it were balanced it would be fair, but where are the conservative documentaries. Where are the conservative studio projects? Where are the projects where Mr. Green might come on and say wait a minute, this isn't true, this isn't fair from a right wing point of view, those projects don't exist in the entertainment industry and that's a problem.

COLLINS: OK, Mark is this a conspiracy among Hollywooders?

MARK GREEN, NEW DEMOCRACY PROJECT: That was pretty funny. Republicans and conservatives control the White House, the Senate, the House, the Supreme Court, all talk radio. And so liberals say there's have an Air America, let's fight back.

MEDVED: Which is fine.

COLLINS: One second. I didn't interrupt you. So here comes along, Michael Moore, very successful documentary filmmaker with a point of view and he produces this movie and suddenly the whining and fetching from people like Mike start up. I don't remember liberals trying to boycott Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" which is Hollywood.

MEDVED: That's not a conservative movie that's a religious move.

(CROSSTALK)

COLLINS: Michael let him finish. OK, real quickly.

GREEN: One last point. To prove Michael's wrong about the conspiracy because the film over opened after John Kerry's fund-raiser in L.A. That fund-raiser was scheduled three weeks ago, but was postponed because of Ronald Reagan's death, where's the conspiracy?

COLLINS: All right, listen let me get to film for just a minute, because there are some people I'm sure who have not seen it, and it's only been out for a day. Of course, Moore takes Bush to task for how he prepared and handled the war. So, I want to show a quick clip and get your reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any of us would do, he went on vacation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Mark, is that fair?

I mean, isn't this movie full of many distortions and manipulations, edits if you will.

GREEN: Mike had an interesting point when he said it wasn't balanced. It's not balanced, but it is fair.

COLLINS: Is it true? Is it factual?

GREEN: Fine. Balanced as to say although nothing that Bush said about going into the war or since the war or creating -- turning allies into adversaries, creating more terrorist. On the other hand, he's very personable and he really believes in his resolution. Michael Moore didn't waste his time with the second part because there were so many Republicans to say it. But it is far for one reason, what Michael Moore said about George W. Bush, that nothing he said before the war turned out to be true, the Saudi family and the Bush families connections, the consequences 10,000 casualties coming back to America which is not covered by many of the established media, that's true. Michael Moore is way more accurate in an hour and a half than George Bush has been in three and a half years.

MEDVED: OK, let's talk about some specifics Mark Green. You talk about the Saudi connection, what relevance is that?

How can Michael Moore possibly argue, and this is my problem with the film, it's full of internal contradictions. The first third of the film is all about the connection between Bush and the Saudi, implying that the Saudis control George Bush. You know well very because you're a sophisticated guy, the Saudi Government was opposed to the war. If the Saudi Government really controlled George Bush, then how can -- then how can we have gone to war against the wishes of the Saudi government?

GREEN: Fine, let me take that point.

MEDVED: Go.

COLLINS: Quickly.

GREEN: First, I wish you'd spend a teeny bit of time asking why bush said that Saddam and al Qaeda were cahoots when the 9/11 Commission.

MEDVED: You just dodge the question.

GREEN: But on Saudi Arabia it's quite simple. If Bill Clinton had breakfast with Gadhafi's relatives...

(CROSSTALK)

MEDVED: Don't dodge the question, the question is a confrontation.

GREEN: 15 of 19 attackers were Saudis, we are often sending young men and women abroad to fight for oil, because it's an economic resource and because we're not energy independent.

MEDVED: Mark Green, was a Saudi government in favor of the war or opposed to the war, which one?

COLLINS: Last answer.

GREEN: It's a binary point, George W. Bush misled us into a war.

MEDVED: The Saudi government was opposed to the war, Mark Green.

GREEN: The issue was not Saudi. The issue -- you're making the issue of Saudi Arabia. The issue is Bush.

COLLINS: Time out. The end, unfortunately, so out of time. To the both of you, we appreciate your time so much. Mark Green and Michael Medved, thanks, gentlemen once again.

True or false, politicians are cool, calm and selected? True, mostly, bue not alwasy. And when they're not cool, calm and collected that really is raw politics.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS (voice-over): It happened the other day, though not where the public could hear it, vice president Dick Cheney and Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy were on the Senate floor together for a class photo and ended up having words with one another, as people used to say.

One of the words from the vice president to the senator was the top, all-purpose four letter expletive in the english language, used in this case as a suggestion. Score one for temper. And here's another.

BILL CLINTON, FRM. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One of the reasons he got away with it? Is because people like you only ask people like me the questions and gave him a complete free ride.

COLLINS: You think a man who's been asked as many questions as Bill Clinton would have developed thick skin by now, but a BBC reporter somehow managed to get under that thick skin and got himself pretty well barked at as a result. CLINTON: Any abuse they want to do, they indicted all these little people of Arkansas. What did you care about them, their not famous, who cares if their lives were trampled, who cares if their children are humiliated, who cares if Starr sends FBI agents to their school and rip them out of their school to humiliate them and try to force their parents to lie about me.

COLLINS: Don't misunderstand though, sitting presidentings could lose it too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't think, there are terrorist bombings every single day. Its now a daily event. It wasn't like that two years ago.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What was it like, September 11, 2001. It was a relative calm...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But is your response to Iraq...

BUSH: Let me finish. Let me finish, please. You ask the questions and I'll answer them, if you don't mind.

COLLINS: Even with the script to read from, presidents can resort to the unpresidential.

RICHARD NIXON, FRM. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've learned every cent, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got.

COLLINS: And Ab Lincoln's monument has one of the great man's hands relaxed and the other clenched into a tight fist, you'd never know, honest abe could have had a temper, too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: By the way, in case you're wondering whether the vice president feels contrite about the language he used on the Senate floor, we'd say it doesn't sound like it. Here's what he said on Fox News Channel's "Your World" with Nick Cavuto.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think a lot of my colleagues felt that what I'd said badly needed to be said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Neil Cavuto, pardon me. Well, from the other side there was this from a spokesman for Senator Leahy. Quote, "it appears the vice president's previous calls for civility are now inoperative."

360 next, Britney Spears engaged: she takes a step closer to walking down the aisle again. Find out if she's really for real this time. And a little later, 30-second sensations: the world's best commercials are announced. The winners, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COLLINS: A knee injury put an end to her tour, but Britney Spears still knows how to get attention. She's doing it with a new tune, the title "Here Comes the Bride." The pop diva is engaged to her boyfriend/dancer. And after only six months since her first marriage was annulled, leaving many saying oops! Not again. D.J. Sigismend is a staff editor at "US Weekly," he joins us now tonight for this semibreaking news.

D.J. SIGESMUND, US WEEKLY: It broke today, just a few hours ago.

COLLINS: OK, so like we said, she was married the the first time for like 55 hours.

SIGESMUND: Exactly. That was just January.

COLLINS: Is this one going to last?

SIGESMUND: Well, let's talk about Kevin Federling for a second. They've only been dating for 2 months and they've been traveling the whole time. He flew to Europe to be with her in August -- I'm sorry in April and here it is the end of June and they're engaged.

COLLINS: And they are in love.

SIGESMUND: And they're deeply in love. But remember, Kevin also has a 2-year-old with Shar Jackson who is a former star of Moesha and Shar is actually pregnant, eight months pregnant with his second child with her. She is due in August and he plans to be there, so maybe Britney, the whole gang will be there.

COLLINS: This is ex-girlfriend, correct?

SIGESMUND: This is his ex-girlfriend, the one he left Britney Spears for -- I'm sorry, the one that he left for Britney Spears, exactly.

Where do I go from here, really.

COLLINS: I'm kind of at a loss for questions.

Is this another J. Lo?

SIGESMUND: I feel like she's verging on Courtney Love type antics now. It's sort of what will she do next? She injured her knee so she called off the tour and she's sort of been, I don't know, acting sort of crazy more like Courtney. The marriages a little bit more like J. Lo, but I don't know. It's hard to say, really what is going to with her.

COLLINS: Will the fascination with her, by her fans, do you think it will start to dissipate with behaviors like this?

SIGESMUND: What happens is she grew up, she was a Mouseketeer, right? And then she was a role model for a lot of young girls and she was a controversial role model, because of the belly button bearing and all that, but she said she was a virgin, she wanted to stay a virgin for a long time. And there were a lot of people who followed her, a lot of young women who followed her.

But over the last few years, things have gotten a little crazier and I think that she has lost a lot of her fan base, because of her increasingly strange antics.

COLLINS: And we just saw some pictures of Justin Timberlake. Quickly now, I understand that this guy Kevin guy kind of looks like him? Hmm.

SIGESMUND: He's kind of an identical-- I wouldn't say identical twin to Justin, but he's a little bit of a ringer for Justin Timberlake.

COLLINS: Right, interesting. D.J. Sigesmudn, as always, thanks so much.

SIGESMUND: Thank you, Heidi.

COLLINS: 360 next. A good reason to watch commercials, a showcase of the very best in the world. And a little later just a couple of white chicks in a new comedy. We'll check it out in the Weekender.

But first, today's "Buzz". "Who treated Monica Lewinsky worse? Bill Clinton or the media?" Log on to CNN.com/360 to vote now. Results when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

From "where's the beef" to "wasssup"?

There are some commercials that leave an impression and a pretty good one at that. Ads from Across the world are being honored at the Cannes Advertising festival this week and here's CNN's Jason Bellini with that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A Brazilian ad for a gym doesn't need a single word to get its point across.

The connection between beer and babes is apparently universal as well.

(on camera): The world's best commercials, it seems are those that have you wondering what's this ad for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SINGING)

BELLINI (voice-over): This is a British ad for Pop Noodle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SINGING)

BELLINI: Much of the buzz this year at Cannes concerns the cyber ad category.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a lot of brass comment around subservientchicken.com. A man dressed in a chicken suit on a Web cam.

BELLINI: Burger King's chicken won a bronze medal and perhaps new customers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It gives Burger King a little bit of an edge.

BELLINI: Other universal themes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, how do I look.

BELLINI: The sexy. And the absurd.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today we salute you, Mr. Giant taco salad inventor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Giant taco salad inventor.

BELLINI: Help solve the global challenge of the 21st century -- capturing people's attention.

Jason Bellini, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Spiderman 2 opens nationwide next week and by that time, all of the hoopla over Michael Moore's new film should die down or not.

Let's take a look in the "Weekender."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUSH: Call you the elite. I call you my base.

COLLINS (voice-over): It's safe to say Michael Moore doesn't like President Bush, that's obvious from the first frame of "Fahrenheit 9/11." Moore's scathing and unabashedly one-sided view of the war in Iraq, the war on terror and pretty much every policy from the Bush administration. But you probably knew that already so let's move on to see what else is new.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brittany and Tiffany Wilson checking in sorry.

COLLINS: Like, "White Chicks." Marlon and Shawn Wayans star as FBI agents who disguise themselves as, well, white chicks, to stop a kidnapping plot. It's like some like it hot only with scarier makeup.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whatever!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see you.

COLLINS: For cat lover, there's "Two Brothers." A sweet and cuddly family film about two tiger cubs who are separated at birth and years later are reunited. Though not by Oprah.

On TV this weekend, everyday people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just trying to make conversation. It's an old fashion past time. This HBO original which airs tomorrow night takes on class and race relations over the course of one day at a Brooklyn diner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's it like at the North Pole?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like the suburbs. Now get off my lap.

COLLINS: New DVD, "Bad Santa," Billy Bob Thornton is a burned out department store Santa, who instead of giving presents to kids, steals from just about everyone. Ho, ho, ho.

In concert, Eric Clapton, slow hand will perform tomorrow night at Philadelphia's Wachovia Center. Expect plenty of blues, rock and amazing soulful guitar solos. After working the northeast he heads west.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Time now for "The Buzz." Who treated Monica Lewinsky worse, Bill Clinton or the media? Twelve percent say Bill Clinton, 88 percent said it was the media. This is not a scientific poll, but it is your "Buzz."

360 next, Anderson Cooper live from Baghdad. He's taking national independence to "The Nth Degree."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Finally tonight, taking a grand width to "The Nth Degree." Here's what we have to hope. We have to hope that the 30th of June in Iraq, just five days away now, is some day like the 4th of July in America. We have to hope that the bombs bursting in air in Baghdad won't be bombs at all. They'll be roman candles and bottle rockets. We have to hope that the noise will not be of gunfire as it is now, as it just was a few seconds ago, but of firecrackers. We have to hope that the 30th of June like the 4th of July will be a day to remember and to celebrate principles that held no matter what, the unshakeable bedrock on which everything else is built. That's what we have to hope, much more than that, however, that is what they have to hope. I'll be from Baghdad all this week. Thanks for watching us tonight. Coming up next, "PAULA ZAHN NOW."

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