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A Grim Milestone in Iraq; U.S. Marine Last Seen in Iraq Now Heading to U.S. Military Base in Germany

Aired July 09, 2004 - 10:00   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We'll get started at CNN headquarters in Atlanta. I'm Daryn Kagan.
Now in the news, a grim milestone in Iraq, the number of coalition troop deaths since the start of the war has past 1,000. That number includes fatalities from combat and non-hostile incidents. The deaths of two U.S. soldiers brought the count to 1,001.

A U.S. Marine last seen in Iraq more than two weeks ago, and who later turned up in Lebanon, is now heading to a U.S. military base in Germany.

Navy investigators are looking into Marine Corporal Hassoun's disappearance. It is unclear exactly how Hassoun was captured by militants in Iraq or how he escaped and made his way to Lebanon.

The U.N. High Court has ruled an Israel security barrier is illegal and that it must come down. The international court also says that Israel must compensate Palestinians whose land was confiscated for construction. The court's opinions are nonbinding, but they can be the basis for the action by the U.N. Security Council.

A little rain and high humidity are giving fire crews in Arizona a break. Firefighters are battling to keep an expanding wildfire away from nearly 100 homes, also away from the Mount Graham International Observatory. Right now, the flames are within a quarter mile now of that observatory.

Keeping you informed, CNN is the most trusted name in news.

Live this hour, the Senate Intelligence Committee is due to release its yearlong report on U.S. intelligence and the blunders have paved America's march to war. Members of both parties describe the report as blunt and hard-hitting.

That report tops our hour. It issues some 100 conclusions on intelligence analysis. Sources say the bottom line, quite simply, too little intelligence, too little analysis. The prewar assessment of Iraq.

For a preview and perspective, we're going to bring in our national security correspondent, David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(APPLAUSE) DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Outgoing Central Intelligence director George Tenet takes a beating in the Senate Intelligence Committee report, just a day after he said farewell at the CIA, after seven years in charge.

GEORGE TENET, FORMER DIRECTOR, CIA: These have been eventful years, filled with exhilaration and triumph, with pain and sorrow, and yes, with questions about our performance.

ENSOR: Sources say the 400-page committee report is blistering about failures of U.S. intelligence gathering and analysis on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and on possible ties to al Qaeda before the war.

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-MI), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: It is an accurate, hard-hitting, and well-deserved critique of the CIA.

JOSEPH CIRINCIONE, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT: George Tenet has a lot of explaining to do, as Desi Arnaz would say.

ENSOR: According to sources, the report says the CIA relied too much on a defector's claim that this was a biological weapons truck. All now agree it is not. That it relied too much on its own nuclear expert, who was convinced that aluminum tubes smuggled in by Saddam's government were for making enriched uranium. Others said he was wrong. That it should have more quickly identified as forgeries documents suggesting Iraq was trying to buy raw uranium in Niger.

DAVID KAY, FMR. IRAQ WEAPONS INSPECTOR: This is a major failing and is going to take presidential action, along with support in the Congress before you're going to straighten it out. It's not going to be internally reformed.

ENSOR (on camera): Democrats are not happy that the report does not cover how the Bush administration may, they say, have misused the intelligence in the run-up to the war. That topic will be covered in another report not likely to come out until after November.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Earlier on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING," a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee discussed the panel's findings. Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss says they that the problems were rooted at the lower levels of the intelligence gathering community, not in the decision-making role held by CIA director George Tenet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R-GA), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: We simply were able to discover that those conclusions were not based on sound facts. And as a result thereof, the information that was given by analysts to the director of the CIA, who then in turn passed that information on to the president as well as to Congress, the information simply wasn't correct. And we're going to be very specific in this report about certain particular instances where that took place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Our next guest is well versed in analyzing intelligence from 1993 to '97. He served as chief weapons inspector for the U.N.'s mission in Iraq. Today he's president and executive director for the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Terence Taylor joining us from Washington.

Terry, good morning. Thank you for being with us.

TERENCE TAYLOR, PRESIDENT, INT'L INST. FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES: Good morning. I was one of the chief inspectors.

KAGAN: OK.

TAYLOR: Not the chief inspector.

KAGAN: We will -- thank you for clarifying that.

So let's go to boiling this all down, the idea that the intelligence was objective but it was careless. Do you think that that's a fair assessment?

TAYLOR: Well, without seeing the whole report, it seems that there is some substance to that. One doesn't know the full range of information was available. The real trick for the analyst is sorting out the enormous amount of data they have, not just from intelligence sources, like human intelligence. But also from the U.N., from the U.N. reports, which is a substantial amount of information there, too. So it's sifting all that, sorting out which is important, which is credible and delivering that to the top management. That's the real hard part.

KAGAN: Well, it's interesting how the report does deal with the top management. The ultimate top management being the White House, despite partisan committee ultimately making the decision that the CIA not operating under pressure from the White House?

TAYLOR: Well, that's what they're saying. I think there are two parts of this whole business. One is what the Senate committee focused on, was how the CIA operated in this particular context, and how they handled and analyzed the information. That's what this committee was about. And of course, they're not dealing with how the information was handled. Once it left the intelligence community.

KAGAN: That's where...

TAYLOR: So that's not part of the study.

KAGAN: Time for a different study there.

If we could just go over some of the specifics that we just heard about in David Ensor's report. First of all, the trucks, that we even heard Colin Powell go before the United Nations and make the claim those trucks were used as biological weapons labs. Now they're saying that was not the case.

TAYLOR: Well, that seems to be the case. I think from someone who was involved in the process, there were substantial reasons to believe, not just from that one human intelligence source. But the Iraqi did have some form of mobile laboratories. I certainly saw information to that effect from other sources. Nothing to do with the U.S. intelligence. So there were some...

KAGAN: So, just to jump in here for a second. What you're saying, even if it wasn't that particular truck or those particular types of trucks from your own experience, it was not far off the mark to think that the Iraqis had that type of weaponry.

TAYLOR: No, it wasn't too remote from what the mainstream of us involved in the whole process believed. I'm not saying we had absolutely solid information that this was the case. But there was good reason to believe this. So, it wasn't just the human intelligence resource. I think -- source. So one needs to look at this as a whole. And I look forward to seeing the committee's report to see if they've actually done this.

KAGAN: Well, we're going to hear much more about the report at the bottom of the hour. We invite you to stay with us and we will be back to you. Thank you...

TAYLOR: Thank you very much.

KAGAN: ... Terry Taylor.

CNN will have live coverage of his hour's release of the Senate's Iraq intelligence report. That is scheduled at the bottom of the hour, 10:30 Eastern, 7:30 a.m. Pacific.

The questions over intelligence come amid the Bush administration' warning that new evidence points to a possible terror strike in the U.S., before the presidential elections. Homeland Security officials say that elaborate security plans are already in place for the party's conventions in New York and Boston. And that additional measures are being considered for polling plays.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge appeared earlier on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING," and said that even though the terror alert has not been raised, there is sound reason for the warning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM RIDGE, DIRECTOR, DEPT. HOMELAND SECURITY: And Frankly, the experiences we've had over the past couple of weeks with taking down al Qaeda cells, with our allies in Great Britain, Italy and Jordan, where they not only apprehended the al Qaeda terrorists, but also the means by which they were going to conduct the attacks. The explosives, apparently they were looking to use, truck bombs over there. So we have to act every single day. Not only the people are here but the means to conduct an attacker here.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KAGAN: Ridge says that the White House could later decide to raise the terror alert status from its current level of yellow, midpoint on the five-color scale.

We turn now to the presidential race. Democrat challenger John Kerry says he could restore America's international support, that he says has suffered under the Bush White House. He says the administration's decision to go to war, quote, "burned bridges badly." And Kerry is also fighting Republican charges that newly named running mate John Edwards is too experienced -- actually, too inexperienced for the job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: John Edwards has had six years as a United States senator. But he's had a lifetime of experience and judgment, lifetime of fighting for things, lifetime of family life, lifetime of caring.

You know, Dick Cheney was only a few years in the Congress, and then he held several different kinds of various positions, some executive, some public. Ronald Reagan came to the office as a governor, with no foreign policy experience. George Bush came with zero foreign policy experience, and used Dick Cheney as his buffer to say, well, this will be OK.

I believe what's important is that I picked somebody with the character, with the judgment, with the values to be able to take over as a president, lead this nation if something were to happen to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Kerry also seized the stage and a guitar at this fund- raiser last night in New York's Radio cizzies -- siz -- blah. Try that again. Radio Music City Hall. It raised about $7.5 million and drew such celebrities, as Paul Newman, Meryl Streep and Chevy Chase. This morning, Kerry and Edwards are in Manhattan for two campaign breakfasts. Next, they'll travel on to Virginia and New Mexico, before heading off for Edwards' home state of North Carolina. And that is this weekend.

President Bush spends a day campaigning in Pennsylvania, considered a potentially decisive state in the November election. In fact, this will mark Mr. Bush's 30-trip to the state, which has gone to the Democratic presidential candidates in each of the last three elections.

A story of love and loyalty behind enemy lines culminates today in an emotional reunion. We will have the details.

Plus, the growing mystery around a U.S. Marine corporal who is on his way to Germany. Find out what his family has to say.

And a Senate panel gives its assessment on prewar Iraq War intelligence. We'll have live coverage just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Charles Robert Jenkins is being seen outside of North Korea for the first time in nearly 40 years! The U.S. Army sergeant accused of desertion was reunited in Jakarta today with his Japanese wife. Hitomi Soga married Jenkins 14 years ago, while she was being held in North Korea. She was one of a group of Japanese citizens kidnapped to help the communist regime train spies.

She was allowed to go home to Japan two years ago. But Jenkins, fearing an arrest and extradition to the U.S., did not join her. Well, last week, Japan and North Korea worked out the details of the reunion in Indonesia, which has no extradition treaty with the U.S. Now, there is a new development in the case of the U.S. Marine who has been missing, and believed abducted by extremists in Iraq. Corporal Wassef Hassoun.

Our Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon with new information. And our Miguel Marquez is outside the Hassoun family home in West Jordan, Utah.

Barbara, let's start with you.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, it has been within the last hour that we have seen the photographs, the pictures of the military plane taking off from Beirut International Airport carrying Corporal Wassef Hassoun. His plane, this military plane you are seeing now headed for Landstuhl, Germany, the military hospital there where he will undergo a medical evaluation. And begin the debriefing about what exactly happened to him since he was last seen on the evening of June 19 at his base near Fallujah in Iraq.

We are learning additional details today about this very mysterious case. A spokesman for the U.S. Marine Corps now confirms that in the initial days after Corporal Hassoun's disappearance, the morning of June 20, they did launch a physical search for him. They looked for him when he didn't show up. But then they talked to some of his buddies in and around the base where he was located near Fallujah, and came to the conclusion that he was initially a deserter.

The Marine Corps saying that they privately carried him on the books in those first days as a deserter, that they came to the conclusion, after doing a number of interviews, that he had willingly and deliberately left his military Post. And normally, you know, you cannot be declared a deserter till you're gone for 30 days. But if there is compelling evidence, you can be declared a deserter right away. But of course, then the case took another mysterious turn.

On June 29, that deserter status was changed to captured, after he was seen on that videotape, purportedly in the hands of abductors holding a sword to his head. Then he turns up in Lebanon. And as of today, he is now, his status is returned to military control.

He will go to Landstuhl, but it will be an open question as to whether Corporal Hassoun will make that traditional appearance on the balcony at Landstuhl Hospital, where over the years we have seen released hostages and POWs, we have seen so many people reappear to the American public. At this point, sources say, there is no indication Corporal Hassoun will make one of those appearances -- Daryn.

KAGAN: So, Barbara, even though his location now is known, his status still is very much up in the air?

STARR: Well, his official status is indeed, return to military duty, but with military control, if you will. But certainly now a very significant debriefing and interrogation process to find out what exactly happened to him; because we've learned another additional fact today. Sources are confirming that the U.S. intelligence community was able to get, in the words of one official, a bead. A listen-in, if you will, a location on some of the phone calls that Corporal Hassoun made along the way, until he was returned to military control.

So certainly there was some indication they were able to track his movements at some point through U.S. intelligence assets, through signals intelligence. So he's going to have a lot of discussion with military interrogators about what exactly happened to him.

KAGAN: A lot of talk is still yet to be done. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon.

All right. Now let's go to West Jordan, Utah, the Hassoun family home. The place we've been getting the limited amount of information that we've been able to, up to this point, about Hassoun's whereabouts.

And here is our Miguel Marquez -- Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've actually been getting quite a bit of information about his whereabouts. CNN was sort of, you know, sort of first to report exactly where he was in Lebanon, through sources close to the family. And the family, upon getting the information, the confirmation that he was back in U.S. hands; we expected sort of a joyous reaction. And there was not so much elation as there was concern among family members.

And maybe some of that concern reflected by what Barbara Starr was just talking about in this investigation that is ongoing into the how he disappeared and why he disappeared. The initial -- when I initially talked to a family member here at the home, they expressed concern. Sometime later, the older brother, Mohammed, came out to talk to the press, and finally made a statement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMED HASSOUN, BROTHER: We are very grateful to Allah. All thanks to Allah that we have our brother, Wassef, back in safe hands at the U.S. embassy. And we are very sad to also hear about the news that took place earlier today in Tripoli for the loss of life there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: The other thing that has the Hassoun family concerned is that in Tripoli yesterday, there was rival faction shootings, and trouble between the Hassoun family and another faction that was calling them American agents. And two people, at least two people were killed at that time. The Hassouns are very concerned about anything that they say here may, in fact, cause more trouble for people there. So they are being reticent in talking. It's been 19 days of absolute uncertainty and difficult times for them.

Back to you.

KAGAN: Very difficult time for that family in West Jordan, Utah. Miguel, thank you.

The Iraq War and intelligence failures, is it all the CIA's fault? We will have live coverage of the U.S. Senate findings. And we will be live with that in just a moment.

Right now, a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: They are your best friends, a comfort at the end of the day loving you when no one else seems to care. And yet, CNNFN Gerri Willis says family pets can take a big bite out off your pocketbook.

GERRI WILLIS, CNNFN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: That's right.

KAGAN: Today, a topic that is so near and dear to my heart. "Top Five Tips," the real costs of owning a pet.

WILLIS: Well, Daryn, then you know those fur balls do have a price tag, right?

KAGAN: Oh, do they ever! Yes.

WILLIS: Well, look. You've got to keep a leash on costs. How do you do that? Understand that the No. 1 reason that pets get returned to the animal shelter, Daryn, it's because they cost too much money. Take a look at these numbers. Small dogs, a little, tiny puppy! Small dog, $800 a year; that's what it's going to cost you to maintain the dog. I'm not even talking about how much you pay to buy the dog in the first place. And even if you get a smaller pet, like a cat or a rabbit or a guinea pig, you're still looking at a lot of dough -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Fifty dollars at the local pound, you can save a lot of money. A lot of stray animals out there. OK. I have to interject my own little pet owner comments in here.

WILLIS: Oh, good.

KAGAN: Going to the vet. This can be a place that the bills really do run up high.

WILLIS: That's right. You know, you want to think maybe about pet insurance. Here is why, Daryn. Pet insurance costs $25 a month, give or take, depending on who you get it from. And you could be paying thousands of dollars to, you know, anything from brain surgery to getting a vaccination, right? So you want to think about getting pet insurance, no matter what breed you're buying, there is always something that goes wrong with an animal.

Small dogs have their problems with breathing; larger dogs have problems with their bones and their hips. So it's always something. And now there's pet insurance, which is a solution to the problem.

KAGAN: All right. Let's talk about training your dog. The best advice I got when I got a dog, my brother said the dog doesn't need training. The owner needs training!

WILLIS: Oh, that's funny.

KAGAN: Somebody does.

WILLIS: What kind of dog do you have, Daryn?

KAGAN: She is a southern mix, shall we say. She comes from the local Humane Society.

WILLIS: OK. I respect that. Well, you need to invest in your pup, as you probably already know. Prevention is always important. If you have obedience training for just 75 to $150 for six to eight weeks of classes, you'll go a long way to prevent costs of your own home, whether to repair the carpet or furniture or whatever.

Also, you want to think about life span feeding. A lot of the foods that you get at the grocery store, they are not always mixed in the same way. They're not always predictable or reliable. But if you get the life cycle foods, it's much better for your dog.

KAGAN: And No. 4 is also with the vet. Preventive health care, make sure you get your vaccinations.

Let's skip to No. 5, get real. Even Fido might need a budget.

WILLIS: That's right. Well, you know, do you want to buy the Burberry coat at Sacs for your dog?

KAGAN: Yes, I do.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIS: Well, it's far easier not to spend that extra money. Make sure you're taking preventive measures. Getting the vaccination at the local pet shelter is a far safer, easier, cheaper way to go. Make sure that do you all of the preventive maintenance that you would if you had a child growing up in your house.

KAGAN: I'm just going to throw in No. 6, budget in spay or neutering your dog, as well. Too many animals dying in our animal shelter today.

WILLIS: Beautiful suggestion, Daryn.

KAGAN: My own little comment there. Gerri, thank you.

WILLIS: Thank you.

KAGAN: You have a great weekend. We'll see you next week.

Well, just moments from now, the Senate releases its report on intelligence and the Iraq War. We will have live coverage straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Here are some stories we're covering on CNN.

Right now, a live picture. Within minutes, a hard-hitting review of the CIA will be released by the Senate Intelligence Committee; it's expected to paint an unflattering picture of intelligence agency, in its assessment of pre-war Iraq. We will bring that to you live in just a moment.

Meanwhile, in other headlines, the U.S. military now says the insurgency in Iraq is larger than previously thought and mostly domestic. Officials told the Associated Press there may be as many as 20,000 full and part-time fighters led by well armed Sunni Muslims, angry over loosing power.

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Aired July 9, 2004 - 10:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We'll get started at CNN headquarters in Atlanta. I'm Daryn Kagan.
Now in the news, a grim milestone in Iraq, the number of coalition troop deaths since the start of the war has past 1,000. That number includes fatalities from combat and non-hostile incidents. The deaths of two U.S. soldiers brought the count to 1,001.

A U.S. Marine last seen in Iraq more than two weeks ago, and who later turned up in Lebanon, is now heading to a U.S. military base in Germany.

Navy investigators are looking into Marine Corporal Hassoun's disappearance. It is unclear exactly how Hassoun was captured by militants in Iraq or how he escaped and made his way to Lebanon.

The U.N. High Court has ruled an Israel security barrier is illegal and that it must come down. The international court also says that Israel must compensate Palestinians whose land was confiscated for construction. The court's opinions are nonbinding, but they can be the basis for the action by the U.N. Security Council.

A little rain and high humidity are giving fire crews in Arizona a break. Firefighters are battling to keep an expanding wildfire away from nearly 100 homes, also away from the Mount Graham International Observatory. Right now, the flames are within a quarter mile now of that observatory.

Keeping you informed, CNN is the most trusted name in news.

Live this hour, the Senate Intelligence Committee is due to release its yearlong report on U.S. intelligence and the blunders have paved America's march to war. Members of both parties describe the report as blunt and hard-hitting.

That report tops our hour. It issues some 100 conclusions on intelligence analysis. Sources say the bottom line, quite simply, too little intelligence, too little analysis. The prewar assessment of Iraq.

For a preview and perspective, we're going to bring in our national security correspondent, David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(APPLAUSE) DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Outgoing Central Intelligence director George Tenet takes a beating in the Senate Intelligence Committee report, just a day after he said farewell at the CIA, after seven years in charge.

GEORGE TENET, FORMER DIRECTOR, CIA: These have been eventful years, filled with exhilaration and triumph, with pain and sorrow, and yes, with questions about our performance.

ENSOR: Sources say the 400-page committee report is blistering about failures of U.S. intelligence gathering and analysis on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and on possible ties to al Qaeda before the war.

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-MI), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: It is an accurate, hard-hitting, and well-deserved critique of the CIA.

JOSEPH CIRINCIONE, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT: George Tenet has a lot of explaining to do, as Desi Arnaz would say.

ENSOR: According to sources, the report says the CIA relied too much on a defector's claim that this was a biological weapons truck. All now agree it is not. That it relied too much on its own nuclear expert, who was convinced that aluminum tubes smuggled in by Saddam's government were for making enriched uranium. Others said he was wrong. That it should have more quickly identified as forgeries documents suggesting Iraq was trying to buy raw uranium in Niger.

DAVID KAY, FMR. IRAQ WEAPONS INSPECTOR: This is a major failing and is going to take presidential action, along with support in the Congress before you're going to straighten it out. It's not going to be internally reformed.

ENSOR (on camera): Democrats are not happy that the report does not cover how the Bush administration may, they say, have misused the intelligence in the run-up to the war. That topic will be covered in another report not likely to come out until after November.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Earlier on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING," a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee discussed the panel's findings. Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss says they that the problems were rooted at the lower levels of the intelligence gathering community, not in the decision-making role held by CIA director George Tenet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R-GA), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: We simply were able to discover that those conclusions were not based on sound facts. And as a result thereof, the information that was given by analysts to the director of the CIA, who then in turn passed that information on to the president as well as to Congress, the information simply wasn't correct. And we're going to be very specific in this report about certain particular instances where that took place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Our next guest is well versed in analyzing intelligence from 1993 to '97. He served as chief weapons inspector for the U.N.'s mission in Iraq. Today he's president and executive director for the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Terence Taylor joining us from Washington.

Terry, good morning. Thank you for being with us.

TERENCE TAYLOR, PRESIDENT, INT'L INST. FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES: Good morning. I was one of the chief inspectors.

KAGAN: OK.

TAYLOR: Not the chief inspector.

KAGAN: We will -- thank you for clarifying that.

So let's go to boiling this all down, the idea that the intelligence was objective but it was careless. Do you think that that's a fair assessment?

TAYLOR: Well, without seeing the whole report, it seems that there is some substance to that. One doesn't know the full range of information was available. The real trick for the analyst is sorting out the enormous amount of data they have, not just from intelligence sources, like human intelligence. But also from the U.N., from the U.N. reports, which is a substantial amount of information there, too. So it's sifting all that, sorting out which is important, which is credible and delivering that to the top management. That's the real hard part.

KAGAN: Well, it's interesting how the report does deal with the top management. The ultimate top management being the White House, despite partisan committee ultimately making the decision that the CIA not operating under pressure from the White House?

TAYLOR: Well, that's what they're saying. I think there are two parts of this whole business. One is what the Senate committee focused on, was how the CIA operated in this particular context, and how they handled and analyzed the information. That's what this committee was about. And of course, they're not dealing with how the information was handled. Once it left the intelligence community.

KAGAN: That's where...

TAYLOR: So that's not part of the study.

KAGAN: Time for a different study there.

If we could just go over some of the specifics that we just heard about in David Ensor's report. First of all, the trucks, that we even heard Colin Powell go before the United Nations and make the claim those trucks were used as biological weapons labs. Now they're saying that was not the case.

TAYLOR: Well, that seems to be the case. I think from someone who was involved in the process, there were substantial reasons to believe, not just from that one human intelligence source. But the Iraqi did have some form of mobile laboratories. I certainly saw information to that effect from other sources. Nothing to do with the U.S. intelligence. So there were some...

KAGAN: So, just to jump in here for a second. What you're saying, even if it wasn't that particular truck or those particular types of trucks from your own experience, it was not far off the mark to think that the Iraqis had that type of weaponry.

TAYLOR: No, it wasn't too remote from what the mainstream of us involved in the whole process believed. I'm not saying we had absolutely solid information that this was the case. But there was good reason to believe this. So, it wasn't just the human intelligence resource. I think -- source. So one needs to look at this as a whole. And I look forward to seeing the committee's report to see if they've actually done this.

KAGAN: Well, we're going to hear much more about the report at the bottom of the hour. We invite you to stay with us and we will be back to you. Thank you...

TAYLOR: Thank you very much.

KAGAN: ... Terry Taylor.

CNN will have live coverage of his hour's release of the Senate's Iraq intelligence report. That is scheduled at the bottom of the hour, 10:30 Eastern, 7:30 a.m. Pacific.

The questions over intelligence come amid the Bush administration' warning that new evidence points to a possible terror strike in the U.S., before the presidential elections. Homeland Security officials say that elaborate security plans are already in place for the party's conventions in New York and Boston. And that additional measures are being considered for polling plays.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge appeared earlier on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING," and said that even though the terror alert has not been raised, there is sound reason for the warning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM RIDGE, DIRECTOR, DEPT. HOMELAND SECURITY: And Frankly, the experiences we've had over the past couple of weeks with taking down al Qaeda cells, with our allies in Great Britain, Italy and Jordan, where they not only apprehended the al Qaeda terrorists, but also the means by which they were going to conduct the attacks. The explosives, apparently they were looking to use, truck bombs over there. So we have to act every single day. Not only the people are here but the means to conduct an attacker here.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KAGAN: Ridge says that the White House could later decide to raise the terror alert status from its current level of yellow, midpoint on the five-color scale.

We turn now to the presidential race. Democrat challenger John Kerry says he could restore America's international support, that he says has suffered under the Bush White House. He says the administration's decision to go to war, quote, "burned bridges badly." And Kerry is also fighting Republican charges that newly named running mate John Edwards is too experienced -- actually, too inexperienced for the job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: John Edwards has had six years as a United States senator. But he's had a lifetime of experience and judgment, lifetime of fighting for things, lifetime of family life, lifetime of caring.

You know, Dick Cheney was only a few years in the Congress, and then he held several different kinds of various positions, some executive, some public. Ronald Reagan came to the office as a governor, with no foreign policy experience. George Bush came with zero foreign policy experience, and used Dick Cheney as his buffer to say, well, this will be OK.

I believe what's important is that I picked somebody with the character, with the judgment, with the values to be able to take over as a president, lead this nation if something were to happen to me.

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KAGAN: Kerry also seized the stage and a guitar at this fund- raiser last night in New York's Radio cizzies -- siz -- blah. Try that again. Radio Music City Hall. It raised about $7.5 million and drew such celebrities, as Paul Newman, Meryl Streep and Chevy Chase. This morning, Kerry and Edwards are in Manhattan for two campaign breakfasts. Next, they'll travel on to Virginia and New Mexico, before heading off for Edwards' home state of North Carolina. And that is this weekend.

President Bush spends a day campaigning in Pennsylvania, considered a potentially decisive state in the November election. In fact, this will mark Mr. Bush's 30-trip to the state, which has gone to the Democratic presidential candidates in each of the last three elections.

A story of love and loyalty behind enemy lines culminates today in an emotional reunion. We will have the details.

Plus, the growing mystery around a U.S. Marine corporal who is on his way to Germany. Find out what his family has to say.

And a Senate panel gives its assessment on prewar Iraq War intelligence. We'll have live coverage just ahead.

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KAGAN: Charles Robert Jenkins is being seen outside of North Korea for the first time in nearly 40 years! The U.S. Army sergeant accused of desertion was reunited in Jakarta today with his Japanese wife. Hitomi Soga married Jenkins 14 years ago, while she was being held in North Korea. She was one of a group of Japanese citizens kidnapped to help the communist regime train spies.

She was allowed to go home to Japan two years ago. But Jenkins, fearing an arrest and extradition to the U.S., did not join her. Well, last week, Japan and North Korea worked out the details of the reunion in Indonesia, which has no extradition treaty with the U.S. Now, there is a new development in the case of the U.S. Marine who has been missing, and believed abducted by extremists in Iraq. Corporal Wassef Hassoun.

Our Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon with new information. And our Miguel Marquez is outside the Hassoun family home in West Jordan, Utah.

Barbara, let's start with you.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, it has been within the last hour that we have seen the photographs, the pictures of the military plane taking off from Beirut International Airport carrying Corporal Wassef Hassoun. His plane, this military plane you are seeing now headed for Landstuhl, Germany, the military hospital there where he will undergo a medical evaluation. And begin the debriefing about what exactly happened to him since he was last seen on the evening of June 19 at his base near Fallujah in Iraq.

We are learning additional details today about this very mysterious case. A spokesman for the U.S. Marine Corps now confirms that in the initial days after Corporal Hassoun's disappearance, the morning of June 20, they did launch a physical search for him. They looked for him when he didn't show up. But then they talked to some of his buddies in and around the base where he was located near Fallujah, and came to the conclusion that he was initially a deserter.

The Marine Corps saying that they privately carried him on the books in those first days as a deserter, that they came to the conclusion, after doing a number of interviews, that he had willingly and deliberately left his military Post. And normally, you know, you cannot be declared a deserter till you're gone for 30 days. But if there is compelling evidence, you can be declared a deserter right away. But of course, then the case took another mysterious turn.

On June 29, that deserter status was changed to captured, after he was seen on that videotape, purportedly in the hands of abductors holding a sword to his head. Then he turns up in Lebanon. And as of today, he is now, his status is returned to military control.

He will go to Landstuhl, but it will be an open question as to whether Corporal Hassoun will make that traditional appearance on the balcony at Landstuhl Hospital, where over the years we have seen released hostages and POWs, we have seen so many people reappear to the American public. At this point, sources say, there is no indication Corporal Hassoun will make one of those appearances -- Daryn.

KAGAN: So, Barbara, even though his location now is known, his status still is very much up in the air?

STARR: Well, his official status is indeed, return to military duty, but with military control, if you will. But certainly now a very significant debriefing and interrogation process to find out what exactly happened to him; because we've learned another additional fact today. Sources are confirming that the U.S. intelligence community was able to get, in the words of one official, a bead. A listen-in, if you will, a location on some of the phone calls that Corporal Hassoun made along the way, until he was returned to military control.

So certainly there was some indication they were able to track his movements at some point through U.S. intelligence assets, through signals intelligence. So he's going to have a lot of discussion with military interrogators about what exactly happened to him.

KAGAN: A lot of talk is still yet to be done. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon.

All right. Now let's go to West Jordan, Utah, the Hassoun family home. The place we've been getting the limited amount of information that we've been able to, up to this point, about Hassoun's whereabouts.

And here is our Miguel Marquez -- Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've actually been getting quite a bit of information about his whereabouts. CNN was sort of, you know, sort of first to report exactly where he was in Lebanon, through sources close to the family. And the family, upon getting the information, the confirmation that he was back in U.S. hands; we expected sort of a joyous reaction. And there was not so much elation as there was concern among family members.

And maybe some of that concern reflected by what Barbara Starr was just talking about in this investigation that is ongoing into the how he disappeared and why he disappeared. The initial -- when I initially talked to a family member here at the home, they expressed concern. Sometime later, the older brother, Mohammed, came out to talk to the press, and finally made a statement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMED HASSOUN, BROTHER: We are very grateful to Allah. All thanks to Allah that we have our brother, Wassef, back in safe hands at the U.S. embassy. And we are very sad to also hear about the news that took place earlier today in Tripoli for the loss of life there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: The other thing that has the Hassoun family concerned is that in Tripoli yesterday, there was rival faction shootings, and trouble between the Hassoun family and another faction that was calling them American agents. And two people, at least two people were killed at that time. The Hassouns are very concerned about anything that they say here may, in fact, cause more trouble for people there. So they are being reticent in talking. It's been 19 days of absolute uncertainty and difficult times for them.

Back to you.

KAGAN: Very difficult time for that family in West Jordan, Utah. Miguel, thank you.

The Iraq War and intelligence failures, is it all the CIA's fault? We will have live coverage of the U.S. Senate findings. And we will be live with that in just a moment.

Right now, a quick break.

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KAGAN: They are your best friends, a comfort at the end of the day loving you when no one else seems to care. And yet, CNNFN Gerri Willis says family pets can take a big bite out off your pocketbook.

GERRI WILLIS, CNNFN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: That's right.

KAGAN: Today, a topic that is so near and dear to my heart. "Top Five Tips," the real costs of owning a pet.

WILLIS: Well, Daryn, then you know those fur balls do have a price tag, right?

KAGAN: Oh, do they ever! Yes.

WILLIS: Well, look. You've got to keep a leash on costs. How do you do that? Understand that the No. 1 reason that pets get returned to the animal shelter, Daryn, it's because they cost too much money. Take a look at these numbers. Small dogs, a little, tiny puppy! Small dog, $800 a year; that's what it's going to cost you to maintain the dog. I'm not even talking about how much you pay to buy the dog in the first place. And even if you get a smaller pet, like a cat or a rabbit or a guinea pig, you're still looking at a lot of dough -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Fifty dollars at the local pound, you can save a lot of money. A lot of stray animals out there. OK. I have to interject my own little pet owner comments in here.

WILLIS: Oh, good.

KAGAN: Going to the vet. This can be a place that the bills really do run up high.

WILLIS: That's right. You know, you want to think maybe about pet insurance. Here is why, Daryn. Pet insurance costs $25 a month, give or take, depending on who you get it from. And you could be paying thousands of dollars to, you know, anything from brain surgery to getting a vaccination, right? So you want to think about getting pet insurance, no matter what breed you're buying, there is always something that goes wrong with an animal.

Small dogs have their problems with breathing; larger dogs have problems with their bones and their hips. So it's always something. And now there's pet insurance, which is a solution to the problem.

KAGAN: All right. Let's talk about training your dog. The best advice I got when I got a dog, my brother said the dog doesn't need training. The owner needs training!

WILLIS: Oh, that's funny.

KAGAN: Somebody does.

WILLIS: What kind of dog do you have, Daryn?

KAGAN: She is a southern mix, shall we say. She comes from the local Humane Society.

WILLIS: OK. I respect that. Well, you need to invest in your pup, as you probably already know. Prevention is always important. If you have obedience training for just 75 to $150 for six to eight weeks of classes, you'll go a long way to prevent costs of your own home, whether to repair the carpet or furniture or whatever.

Also, you want to think about life span feeding. A lot of the foods that you get at the grocery store, they are not always mixed in the same way. They're not always predictable or reliable. But if you get the life cycle foods, it's much better for your dog.

KAGAN: And No. 4 is also with the vet. Preventive health care, make sure you get your vaccinations.

Let's skip to No. 5, get real. Even Fido might need a budget.

WILLIS: That's right. Well, you know, do you want to buy the Burberry coat at Sacs for your dog?

KAGAN: Yes, I do.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIS: Well, it's far easier not to spend that extra money. Make sure you're taking preventive measures. Getting the vaccination at the local pet shelter is a far safer, easier, cheaper way to go. Make sure that do you all of the preventive maintenance that you would if you had a child growing up in your house.

KAGAN: I'm just going to throw in No. 6, budget in spay or neutering your dog, as well. Too many animals dying in our animal shelter today.

WILLIS: Beautiful suggestion, Daryn.

KAGAN: My own little comment there. Gerri, thank you.

WILLIS: Thank you.

KAGAN: You have a great weekend. We'll see you next week.

Well, just moments from now, the Senate releases its report on intelligence and the Iraq War. We will have live coverage straight ahead.

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KAGAN: Here are some stories we're covering on CNN.

Right now, a live picture. Within minutes, a hard-hitting review of the CIA will be released by the Senate Intelligence Committee; it's expected to paint an unflattering picture of intelligence agency, in its assessment of pre-war Iraq. We will bring that to you live in just a moment.

Meanwhile, in other headlines, the U.S. military now says the insurgency in Iraq is larger than previously thought and mostly domestic. Officials told the Associated Press there may be as many as 20,000 full and part-time fighters led by well armed Sunni Muslims, angry over loosing power.

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