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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Cease-Fire Worked Out in Najaf; Convention Concerns

Aired August 26, 2004 - 17:00 ET

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

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

WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Happening now. With United States Marines awaiting orders, there's late breaking word from the interim Iraqi government in Baghdad on a cease-fire arrangement worked out to try to stop the fighting in Najaf. Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Lifting the siege of a shrine. Has Iraq's top holy man struck a deal with his archrival?

On the president's watch. Why more Americans are living dangerously and desperately.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We now have about 45 million Americans who go to bed every night worried...

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm running against a fellow who's already made over $2.2 trillion worth of new promises.

BLITZER: Convention concerns. Last time, the protests didn't pan out, but this time...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As many as 1,000 or 1,500 people who will come here bent on causing a problem.

BLITZER: Kennedy cousin case. He beat a rape charge a dozen years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was scared, she was threatened. He's a very prominent figure.

BLITZER: Now he's being sued after a relationship.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Thursday, August 26, 2004.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Hundreds of lives have been lost, a city has been ravaged and Iraq's new government has been rocked by the prospect of civil war. Now, a developing story we're following right now. Iraq's senior Shiite leader and a renegade junior cleric have reached an agreement, at least they say so, aimed at ending three weeks of bloody fighting in Najaf. The deal offered by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani would lift the siege of a sacred mosque turned into a stronghold by the rebel leader Muqtada al-Sadr. Let's go live to the scene. CNN's Matthew Chance standing by in Najaf -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Wolf. It's been less than 24 hours since the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, one of the most influential Shia clerics in the world returned to Najaf after being treated for a heart complaint in London. Many people had hoped that his return would offer some kind of hope for a peaceful end to this conflict in Najaf that has been tearing the city to pieces. Few believed though that it would come so soon within just a few hours of him arriving. He made contact through his representatives with those of Muqtada al-Sadr, that renegade junior Shia cleric who's been at the focus of this fighting.

Those two leaders have got together and a peace deal has been reached, which has been accepted by all sides in this conflict, including the Iraqi interim government and the Mehdi army, led, of course, by Muqtada al-Sadr himself.

The terms of that peace deal have been made clear. They've been set out and accepted, as I say, by the interim government. They're calling for Najaf and for Kufa to be made a weapons-free zone, essentially all foreign forces as well. By that they mean the U.S. military, which is here in considerable strength to withdraw from Najaf.

The terms of the agreement say that compensation should be paid to people who have had their houses damaged in the ferocious fighting or have lost loved ones in that ferocious fighting for the past three weeks as well.

And finally the term of that peace agreement, that legitimate elections should be held at some point in the future. That, of course, is something the interim Iraqi government has been trying to organize for early next year. They're scheduled for January. So that agreement is still holding out some hope for Muqtada al-Sadr at least to join the political fray. That possibility is still open to him if he's willing to join mainstream politics, but it also gives the Iraqi government something significant as well. From now on in, that maybe (UNINTELLIGIBLE) militia will be off the streets and security will be in the hands of the Iraqi police -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And the interim government of Iyad Allawi, Matthew, has accepted this deal, a deal that would allow Muqtada al-Sadr to go free, to walk away from this and become part of the so-called political process there? Is that right?

CHANCE: That certainly seems to be the case. In fact, this has been the position of the interim Iraqi government all along. They've always been holding out the olive branch to Muqtada al-Sadr to try and co-opt him, to try and embrace him into the sort of political mainstream, because I think they understand very clearly that Muqtada al-Sadr, despite the arrest warrants against him, despite the harsh words that have been said against him by members of the interim government, there is an understanding that he does have a real constituency in this country. There are a great many Muslim youths, a great many disaffected people that are unhappy with the U.S. presence in this country that look to Muqtada al-Sadr for leadership.

So he does have a constituency. The Iraqi interim government wants to bring that into the mainstream political fold.

BLITZER: Matthew Chance reporting for us from Najaf. Matthew, thank you very much.

It's not the first agreement in Najaf, but can the ayatollah make this one work and what's in it for the rebel leader Muqtada al-Sadr? Our CNN analyst Ken Pollack joining us now from the Saban Center over at the Brookings Institution. Ken, what do you think? What do you think about this deal?

KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Honestly, Wolf, I think that this was a deal that Muqtada al-Sadr has been looking for for some time now. I think it's clear that while, in a grand scheme he has certainly made some progress, you heard Matthew Chance say, he really has garnered a great deal of public support inside of Iraq because of his opposition to the United States, but in a tactical sense, the situation he was in at the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf was a real loser for him. He was in danger of losing some of his best fighters, things were not going his way there, and I think he was looking to make this deal. He wanted something face-saving to get out of the situation he was in. This seems to be what he was looking for all along.

BLITZER: I can understand the interim government of Iyad Allawi making a deal, but from the U.S. perspective, this is the guy who's ordered his so-called Mehdi militia to kill Americans, kill coalition forces. He's got blood on his head. Why should the U.S. move away from its earlier position that he's wanted, dead or alive?

POLLACK: Well, I think there are two reasons for it, Wolf. Neither of them is a terrific reason, but they're very strong practical reasons. First, the United States did not want to assault the shrine of Imam Ali. That's one of the most holy, most sacred sites of Shia Islam. Saddam, of course, did a great deal of damage, and killed a great many people back in 1991 when he retook the shrine after the Shia revolted. No one in the United States military wanted to recreate that scene, so negotiating those folks out of there was always their best deal.

And second, ultimately the United States has to demonstrate that it is willing to follow the lead of the new interim Iraqi government. We have said they are sovereign. If we were to go against them now, it would send a terrible message to all Iraqis, that they're a sham, they're puppets, and we'll disobey whenever we feel like it.

BLITZER: But if he goes free and creates his own political empire if you will, Muqtada al-Sadr, doesn't this encourage other so- called militia leaders to create their own militias elsewhere, whether in Fallujah, or in the north, and sort of re-creating the kind of militias that are all over the place in Afghanistan?

POLLACK: Certainly it does raises that threat. It also raises another threat which is ultimately if Muqtada al-Sadr is free to go about the country and do his thing, and his Mehdi army, even if they are disarmed, are allowed to as well, he can recall them to the colors as soon as he wants to. Putting down your weapons in Iraq is a very temporary thing. It's easy to get new weaponry. And if those people are allowed to walk free from the mosque, which they are going to be allowed to do, at some point in the future, if Muqtada al-Sadr feels the need to, he'll be able to recreate that army pretty quickly.

BLITZER: Ken Pollack, thank you very much.

POLLACK: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: An attack on pipelines in southern Iraq has cut oil exports from that region in half. That's according to a state oil company official. The official says it will take days to repair the damage from the overnight attack near Basra. Iraq's southern pipelines carry 90 percent of the country's exports. The interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has said attacks last month cost the government already $1 billion.

Two downbeat reports here in the United States from the U.S. Census Bureau today have already reverberated on the campaign trail. CNN's Brian Todd joining us now live with a look at these developments -- Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, in the swirl of numbers sent out by the Census Bureau today, two items jump right off the page and have forced the candidates to forget about the debate over political ads for at least a short time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over); Double-barreled bad news on Americans slipping through the social net. Hard numbers provoking harsh rhetoric.

KERRY: We now have about 45 million Americans who go to bed every night worried, wake up in the morning, don't know what choices they're going to make.

TODD: Senator John Kerry jumping on a report from the Census Bureau saying 45 million Americans had no health insurance last year. That's up nearly 1.5 million from the previous year and represents more than 15.5 percent of the country's population, but the number of uninsured has actually been steadily been climbing for 16 years and the numbers from 2003 reflect a smaller increase from the previous census.

Census analyst Daniel Weinberg says this report is typical of a post-recession job market.

DANIEL WEINBERG, U.S. CENSUS BUREAU: Firms are offering less generous plans or fewer firms tending to offer plans. And certainly as people lose jobs, there is a tendency for people to have less health insurance coverage.

TODD: Weinberg says the poverty numbers also show a historical post-recession pattern but those numbers are still staggering. Last year, nearly 37 million Americans lived below the poverty threshold defined as an income of just under $19,000 for a family of four. That's also an increase of more than a million from the previous year. The numbers of poor and uninsured have now risen for three straight years, but in New Mexico, President Bush sticks to a positive message about tax cuts and job creation under his watch.

BUSH: Because we acted, our economy since last summer has grown at a rate as fast as any nearly in 20 years. Because we acted, we created about 1.5 million new jobs over the past 12 months.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: The president's re-election campaign is pounding on that same message, that those census numbers don't reflect this year and what White House officials predict will be a positive bounce from the president's tax cuts and Medicare reform -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Brian Todd, thanks very much.

The U.S. economy wasn't the only issue on the campaign trail today. There were new developments in the Swift Boat controversy as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Appearing at a rally in Minnesota, John Kerry says he has been completely candid about his service in Vietnam.

KERRY: And I'm absolutely telling you the God's honest truth about what happened and what took place over there.

BLITZER: The Democratic presidential nominee has been put on the defensive by questions about his military medals, questions raised by a group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

A newly released CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup Poll suggested while the accusations have not hurt Kerry's numbers, they may have neutralized any bounce from the Democratic Convention.

Among likely voters, Bush continues to maintain a 50 percent to 47 percent advantage. The poll shows Kerry leading Bush by 1 point among registered voters after trailing by 1 point in early August. All these numbers well within the poll's margin of error suggesting this race is still statistically a dead heat.

The Kerry campaign calls the Swift Boat accusation smears and lies and claims the Bush campaign is behind them, a charge the Bush campaign denies.

Fellow Bush ally and Vietnam veteran John McCain called on the Kerry campaign to stop using him in its ads to attack President Bush, a request accepted by the Kerry campaign.

McCain, in newspaper interviews, promised to voice his objections with President Bush about the Swift Boat ads. The two talked today by phone and the White House asked the senator to help take legal or legislative action against the so-called 527 ads that include the Swift Boat commercials.

In the battleground state of New Mexico, a different Bush ally helped the president's campaign. Republican Rudy Giuliani talked defense while the president talked taxes.

BUSH: There's not enough money to tax the rich to pay for all his promises. If he gets elected, he's going to tax you, but the good news is we're not going to let him get elected.

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FMR. NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: We're no longer just playing defense against terrorism. We're on offense. We're trying to prevent them from hurting us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And to our viewers, here's your chance to weigh in on this story. Our Web "Question of the Day" is this: "Should the government crack down on political advertising by 527 groups." You can vote. Go to cnn.com/wolf. We'll have the results later in this broadcast.

New sexual assault allegations against a member of the Kennedy family, a woman now accusing William Kennedy Smith, speaking out today.

Trying to discredit the defense. The prosecution in the Kobe Bryant case zeros in on the DNA.

And putting up with the protesters. How will New York City control the crowds? A look at the security strategy for the convention coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: New York police and protest organizers have agreed on terms for a huge demonstration on the eve of the Republican National Convention. Protesters taking part in Sunday's event will march past the convention site over at Madison Square Garden to a rally in Lower Manhattan.

But police are bracing for those who may be interested in more than just marching. Let's go live to our homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve, she's already in New York and has more -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, there were two protest actions today and police know this is just the beginning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (voice-over): It was another war, Vietnam, that brought protesters to the streets outside the Chicago Democratic Convention in 1968. The violence there and elsewhere has led police to adopt a different approach to demonstrators. JEFFREY KERN, VANCE INTL. DECISION STRATEGIES: It's based upon not on force, but on a practical level on advance work, preparation and intelligence, finding out how many people -- exactly how many people are expected, what are their goals, what do they want to accomplish?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Isolate, isolate, isolate.

MESERVE: In New York, the preparation has included drills with mock protesters and information gathering using the Internet and undercover operations.

COMMISSIONER RAY KELLY, NEW YORK CITY POLICE: Maybe as many as 1000 or 1500 people who have come here bent on causing a problem.

MESERVE: The most violent protesters bring their own tactics and tools, including these dangerous wrist rockets. Police have studied anarchists' methods at the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle and elsewhere and taken away one key lesson.

ASST. CHIEF JACK MCMANUS, NEW YORK POLICE: The basic rules of engagement would be to move in and extract the troublemakers as quickly as we can, so the -- this negative event, for lack of a better term, doesn't gain momentum.

MESERVE: The NYPD will be deploying 10,000 officers a day and says it is ready to process thousands of arrests quickly if necessary.

KELLY: We have prepared our response to be one of flexibility, of mobility, of being able to move quickly in small tactical groups, but also to mass our resources if necessary.

MCMANUS: How tough we will be? When you have a large group of people that disrupt either pedestrian or vehicular traffic, or destroy property, there's not a lot of time for diplomacy there. So we're prepared to move in quickly and effect arrests.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's important not to block traffic on a sidewalk or a street as well.

MESERVE: Mainstream protest groups are preparing for the next week too, training legal observers to monitor a police force that in the past has been accused of trying to limit protests and free speech.

At an antiwar protest last year, the NYPD contained protesters by using pens that restricted their movement. The police said the pens were needed to give emergency vehicles access, but the New York Civil Liberties Union took them to court. The verdict was mixed.

DONNA LIEBERMAN, N.Y. CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION: The police have the right to regulate to protect the law and order but they don't have a right to turn you into a prisoner simply because you're exercising your right to protest.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MESERVE: Estimates of the number of protesters in New York range into the hundreds of thousands. The vast majority are expected to be peaceful, but the NYPD says it is ready for whatever the next week may bring -- Wolf.

BLITZER: There weren't -- much of the protest in Boston at the Democratic convention obviously it will be much more significant this type around, but in Boston they kept them penned in in that one area. In New York, I take it it's going to be different?

MESERVE: That's right. The protesters here will have much more area over which they will be able to roam, and of course they're expected here in much greater numbers. There were only a couple of hundred protesters that showed up in Boston. As I mentioned, hundreds of thousands potentially here.

BLITZER: A whole different set of problems here. Thanks very much, Jeanne, for that.

And to our viewers, CNN's coverage of the Republican convention will kick off this weekend with an investigative look at the president. You can catch "The Mission Of George W. Bush" Sunday night 8:00 p.m. Eastern. That's followed by a special live edition of "LARRY KING LIVE" and at 10:00 p.m., Judy Woodruff and I will co-anchor "America Votes: A 2004 Special," a preview of the Republican National Convention. I'll be starting our coverage tomorrow, 5:00 p.m. Eastern from Madison Square Garden in New York. Our coverage tomorrow, 5:00 p.m. on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

He's a Kennedy and he's potentially facing another case involving alleged sexual attack. Coming up, why an accuser is stepping forward right now against William Kennedy Smith.

Broken hearts, fallout for the Tampa teacher accused of having sex with her student. We'll hear from her husband. He's breaking his silence.

And looking out for the orphans. They were abandoned in Africa. Why did the State Department wait to take action? It's a question a top U.S. lawmaker wants to know the answer to this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. A federal judge in New York today issued a controversial ruling on a very controversial law involving a certain type of late-term abortion. The judge declared the ban unconstitutional, because the measure lacks a health exception for the mother, a key requirement, the judge said, by the U.S. Supreme Court. The case is one of three challenging the law, which was signed in November. A San Francisco judge has already ruled the law unconstitutional. And a judge in Nebraska is still considering the question.

Joining us now with his medical expertise on this subject, our senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. It's called partial birth abortion by those who criticize this procedure. How rare is it, though?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is a fairly rare procedure. Partial birth abortion I should say first of all is not a medical term, nor is late-term abortion. That makes it a little bit harder to define exactly how many of these are done each year, but take a look at this graphic, Wolf. This will give you a sense, not only of how many of those abortions are performed but how many abortions total. 1.3 million. Look at the bottom line there, Wolf. That's a number of weeks of gestation. When you get to the 21 week mark, sort of a lot of people consider that late-term, you're getting down to 1.5 percent or so of those abortions being performed at that late a stage.

So a relatively small percentage in the scheme of things -- Wolf.

BLITZER: In the scheme of things, if the mother's health is involved, is there a justification, in other words, do some doctors see a need to perform this particular controversial procedure in order to protect the mother's health?

GUPTA: Yes. Some doctors do see a need to perform this procedure to protect the mother's health in certain circumstances. The circumstances might be, for example, considerable bleeding that might jeopardize not only the fertility of the woman but also the life of the woman.

Infection as well could possibly be a situation. I talked to some representatives from the Organized Committee Of Obstetricians. They had this statement to say. I can read it for you there. We can put it on the screen as well. They talked specifically about the fact that the -- D&X refers to the type of procedure, that's the partial birth abortion -- "maybe the best or most appropriate procedure in a particular circumstance to save the life or preserve the health of the woman."

And this is the important part here, Wolf. "Only the doctor in consultation with the patient based upon the woman's particular circumstances can make this decision." That is a clear statement by this organization that, listen, this is a doctor and a patient's decision, not a legislative decision and that's what this is coming down to in some ways as well -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Because a lot of times I've heard from supporters of this procedure, saying that if the fetus, for example, even at that late, late stage is no longer viable or is missing vital organs, in order to prevent the woman from being infertile down the road, this is really the only procedure that could be used to avoid that kind of circumstance so the mother could get pregnant down the road again. Have you looked into that suggestion?

GUPTA: I have looked into that quite a bit. There are several different ways of inducing abortion, if you will, later in pregnancy, this is one of them. The one that we're talking about here. Again, it's called the dilatation and extraction procedure, that's the medical name of it. Another way to induce abortion is to give certain medications that might induce abortion of a fetus that is no longer viable. There have been no studies to really show that one is necessarily safer than the other, but a lot of obstetricians that we've talked to and we've done a lot of reporting on this believe that the dilatation and extraction is actually safer over all, all things considered.

So that's why this procedure is talked about so much, in that situation -- Wolf.

BLITZER: I know there are some very, very sensitive feelings on all sides in this debate. The courts weighing in now. We'll see what the higher courts eventually decide. Thank you very much. Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Mystery in Russia. Coming up a day of mourning overshadowed by the question, what caused two Russian jetliners to crash minutes apart?

Also, the prosecution's late challenge to DNA evidence in the Kobe Bryant rape case.

And cleared of rape charges more than ten years ago, William Kennedy Smith is again accused of sexual assault. We'll have a live report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: From our studios in Washington, once again, Wolf Blitzer.

BLITZER: Welcome back.

In the spotlight again, but for all the wrong reasons, William Kennedy Smith once again being accused of a sexual attack. We'll have details. That's coming up.

First, though, a quick check of some other stories now in the news.

Just hours after making a dramatic return to the embattled Iraqi city of Najaf, Iraq's top Shia cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al- Sistani, struck a deal with rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to end three weeks of fighting in Najaf and Kufa. Under the plan, Najaf and Kufa are to become weapons-free cities, and U.S. and all other international forces are to be withdrawn from both cities, leaving security to local police.

Over at the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, a dramatic hearing for a self-confessed al Qaeda member. The Yemeni national who was believed to be a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden defiantly asked to represent himself. His arraignment ended without a future trial date being set.

Russia remembers and honors its victims. It's been a day of official mourning. Flags flew at half-staff for the 89 people who perished in Tuesday's two passenger jet crashes. Officials are working to decode the flight data recorders. An $80 million settlement was reached today in a lawsuit against the operators of a crematory in Georgia where the remains of hundreds of people were mishandled. The suit was filed by 1,700 people who say their relatives' remains were found strewn across the grounds of the crematory.

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

Now to some new developments in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case. An emergency hearing was held today on the reliability of some very important DNA evidence.

Our Chris Lawrence is following the case. He's joining us live from Eagle, Colorado -- Chris.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the judge called the prosecution's motion untimely, coming just 24 hours before the scheduled start of jury selection.

But this battle over DNA evidence could be one of the most important that we've seen so far.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): The DNA expert for the defense concluded the accuser had sex with another man after Bryant, but before her medical exam. The evidence could undermine the credibility of the accuser and the young woman denies this happened. Prosecutors accused the defense team of doctors photocopies and contaminating the DNA samples, but the judge said they hadn't proved it and chastised them for being unprepared.

After a testy exchange, the judge gave the prosecution until Tuesday to explain their objections, but Kobe Bryant's accuser seems determined to persist.

CRAIG SILVERMAN, FORMER DENVER DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: But the strongest part of the prosecution case has been the apparent willingness of this accuser to go forward in the face of unrelenting pressure. One explanation for that could be she was really raped in room 35 on June 30, 2003.

LAWRENCE: Prosecutors lost a bid to exclude the woman's name from trial, but cameras will not be allowed outside of opening and closing arguments, a victory of advocates for victims' rights.

CYNTHIA STONE, COLORADO COALITION AGAINST SEXUAL ASSAULT: You're going to have to talk about these horrific, graphic details about what happened in a courtroom packed with reporters and the man that you're accusing of raping you.

LAWRENCE: Bryant has admitted having sex with the woman at the Vail resort where she worked, but insists it was consensual.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GARRETT: Now, that's testimony we could hear a few weeks down the road at trial.

But first, we have got some new information about jury selection. Out of the nearly 1,000 summons that were sent out, more than 300 have already been excluded because they were either undeliverable or the people had moved out of the area. That means about 500 will show up here tomorrow in four staggered groups throughout the day. They'll answer 82 written questions, go home and then wait to see if they're one of the ones to be called back -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Chris Lawrence, thanks for that update.

More legal trouble for one of the more famous Kennedy cousins. William Kennedy Smith faces a new lawsuit today, this one relating to sexual assault allegations dating back to 1999.

CNN's Jonathan Freed is live in Chicago. He's joining us with details -- Jonathan.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, William Kennedy Smith is a doctor and he's now living in Chicago.

Now, his assistant, his former assistant at the group that he works for, that he heads up, which is a nonprofit organization that helps victims of land mines, his former personal assistant's named is Audra Soulias. Now, she alleges that five years ago on what was her 23rd birthday in January of 1999, that Smith showed up at a party for her that she was having with some co-workers unannounced, that he crashed this party, that he started buying drinks for people, and that he got her drunk, and that as the evening wore on into the early hours of the morning, that he forced her into his home and that's where he sexually assaulted her.

Now, today she held a news conference. They filed a lawsuit yesterday. This is a civil suit, which we should distinguish from the criminal proceedings that happened back in 1991. In the civil suit, where she is asking for $50,000 at least in damages, she says she believes there has been what she calls a conspiracy of silence, that there are many more victims out there and that she wants to put William Kennedy Smith on notice that he's not going to hurt anybody else anymore.

Here's words from the news conference today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AUDRA SOULIAS, PLAINTIFF: On January 16, 1999, my innocence was involuntary taken from me in a manner by someone who I trusted and respected. It was taken in a violent act that will haunt me to the day I die. In fact, I would not have come forward had I not been recontacted by the individual who sexually assaulted me after several years of silence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: Now, Audra Soulias says that this is not about money. She has repeated that several times. She says that she is -- quote -- "encouraging" any other victims to come forward and she believes that there are a number of those out there.

As far as William Kennedy Smith's side is concerned at this point, they have simply issued a denial in a written statement.

BLITZER: Jonathan Freed, thanks very much for that report.

As many of our viewers of course will recall, William Kennedy Smith was facing very similar charges some 13 years ago.

Tom Foreman joining us now with a look back to give us some perspective on these latest allegations.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a lot of perspective to be had here. The fact is whether or not these charges stick and he is found to have done something he should not have done or whether or not they are proven to be false and he's let off the hook on this thing, the simple truth is, this is very bad news for the Kennedy family.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN (voice-over): The new accusations against 43-year-old William Kennedy Smith are much like the charges he faced more than a dozen years ago. In that case, a woman in Florida said she met Smith in a bar, went back to a Kennedy family estate, and when she rebuffed his sexual advances, was raped.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I tried hard to get him off of me, but he slammed me down to the ground.

FOREMAN: Kennedy Smith said the encounter was consensual, telling a family member:

WILLIAM KENNEDY SMITH, DEFENDANT: She sort of -- she sort of snapped.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In what way?

SMITH: She got very, very upset.

FOREMAN: The trial took 10 days, the verdict about 90 minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We find the defendant not guilty.

FOREMAN: Now a young woman who worked with Kennedy Smith at a Chicago nonprofit says he attacked her in 1999. Audra Soulias says, on her 23rd birthday, Kennedy Smith, uninvited, joined her and a few friends for dinner, encouraging them to consume excessive amounts of alcohol, which he purchased.

Later, she says, he forced her into a cab, dragged her into his house and bedroom. She allegedly told him: "I want to go home. I need to go home." But, according to her complaint, Kennedy Smith pushed her on to the bed, held her down and proceeded to forcefully remove her clothes and sexually assaulted her, despite her constant pleas to stop. Kennedy Smith has denied it in a statement, saying, unfortunately, my family and my personal history have made me unusually vulnerable to these kinds of allegations." Still, previous accusations may weigh against him.

DAN CAPRA, PROFESSOR, FORDHAM LAW SCHOOL: If something has done something like this before, even by way of credible accusation, not by way of conviction, there's some kind of indication that this jury should consider that this person has a propensity, basically a desire to commit these sexual activities.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: As it seems to always be the case with these types of cases, there are a lot of unanswered questions here. Why didn't she file criminal charges when she could have? Her attorney says she was afraid. Why is she filing now if it's not about the money? Well, he says, because other women have also said they have complaints against him and that she wants to help those other women and get him to stop doing this sort of thing.

It's all very uncertain at this point. Also uncertain, what her relationship was with him after all of this. But, obviously, for the Kennedy family and for him, another very difficult time is starting.

BLITZER: Very difficult, indeed. Thanks very much, Tom Foreman, for that.

American children abandoned in Nigeria, left to survive in truly horrible conditions. Now a top U.S. lawmaker calling on Secretary of State Colin Powell for some accountability.

Plus this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OWEN LAFAVE, HUSBAND OF DEBRA LAFAVE: I knew of her, but I'm hurt and devastated over the situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Speaking out. Hear from the husband of that Florida teacher accused of having sex with her student.

Going for the gold in Athens. Did the U.S. women's soccer team grab the top prize? We'll get to all of that.

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): A bomb hidden in a motorcycle exploded at a busy market in southern Thailand, killing one person and wounding dozens of others. The attack happened as the prime minister was touring a region hit hard by violence in recent months. The government blames the unrest on Islamic militants.

Deadly landslide. A huge wall of mud crashed down in a remote village in northern Taiwan, killing 15 people. Officials say more than 20 homes were buried in just 10 seconds. The landslide was triggered by a typhoon.

Queen's giant. A 7 foot 3'' British soldier is the newest member of Queen Elizabeth's elite guard. In his bearskin headgear, he tops out at 9 feet. The queen, by comparison, is 5 feet, 4''.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: An update now on a story we reported recently, seven American children abandoned at a Nigerian orphanage. As we told you, the children are now back in Texas, but a key U.S. congressman is now directly getting involved.

Our State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel picks up the story -- Andrea.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, there are still lots of unanswered question, but at the heart of this really sad story are seven children, as you said, four of whom are biological siblings -- they were adopted by a woman in Texas about eight years ago -- and then three other children who are also biological siblings adopted by the same woman four years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOPPEL (voice-over): Seven American children between the ages of 8 and 16 discovered by chance by a Texas youth minister at a Nigerian orphanage earlier this month.

PASTOR WARREN BEEMER, CORNERSTONE CHURCH: It just -- it was a very, very desolate-feeling place. It's felt like about the end of the Earth.

KOPPEL: Warren Beemer said the children told him they were from Texas, talked about the Houston Rockets and Yao Ming and told him their adoptive American mother had left them with relatives in Nigeria last October. They eventually landed in an orphanage.

In an August 4 e-mail to his church, Beemer wrote: "Pastor, this place is an unbelievable cesspool. It's a horrible that these children don't deserve to be in."

But what Beemer didn't know was that the U.S. Consulate in Nigeria's capital had already been tipped off to the children's plight on July 30, and immediately confirmed with Nigerian authorities that the children were safe.

J. ADAM ERELI, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: We were informed about their condition, which was good. We talked to their family, and we took the actions that we thought were appropriate. And when we did visit them, I think it was done in a timely way.

KOPPEL: But House Majority Leader Tom DeLay disagrees. In a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell today, DeLay raises questions: "Why, if the consulate had credible reports of American children abandoned in a Nigerian orphanage, did it take eight days for any action to be taken?"

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOPPEL: And, today, the State Department defends its actions as being alert, responsive, and responsible, even loaning thousands of dollars to pay for plane tickets for the seven children to return to Texas two weeks ago.

But this saga is far from over, Wolf. The children are now in Texas foster homes while their adoptive mother is in court fighting to regain custody -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Andrea, why did the mother leave the children in that orphanage in Nigeria in the first place?

KOPPEL: Well, originally, according to what the children have told various officials, including that pastor, they were left with the mother's husband's brother. She married a Nigerian man. She brought them to Nigeria, left them with this man, ostensibly to go to school in Nigeria, because she had taken a job with a subsidiary of Halliburton to work in Iraq.

But the money apparently ran out. There wasn't regular checks coming, and the children landed, found themselves in an orphanage in Nigeria.

BLITZER: What a heartbreaking story, indeed. Thanks, Andrea, very much for updating us on it.

In a moment, a follow-up to that story that shocked the country only several weeks ago, that Tampa teacher accused of having sex with an underage student. Now her husband is speaking out on how he feels about his marriage being torn apart.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAFAVE: She said, you can go to Wal-Mart and get an air mattress and sleep on that tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

An update now on that Florida schoolteacher who was arrested in June for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old middle school student. Now the husband -- the husband -- is speaking out. Here's Samara Sodos of our CNN affiliate WFLA.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAMARA SODOS, WFLA REPORTER: The scrapbook?

OWEN LAFAVE, HUSBAND: The scrapbook.

SODOS (voice-over): When Owen Lafave walked into his Riverview home, it was empty. His wife, Debra, removed the furniture earlier in the day. The Lafaves' marriage is now over, but strong feelings remain.

(on camera): So you still care about her?

LAFAVE: Sure, I do.

SODOS: Do you still love her?

LAFAVE: Sure I do. I do love her, but I'm hurt and devastated over the situation and the path that our life has taken over the past two months.

SODOS (voice-over): Owen Lafave says he planned to stand by his wife, a Hillsborough County middle school teacher, even after she was arrested, accused of having sex with a 14-year-old student.

(on camera): So you believed this her innocence?

LAFAVE: I wanted to support my wife, because that's what I believed was the right thing to do.

SODOS: Did you believe that she was guilty?

LAFAVE: I'm not answering that.

SODOS (voice-over): Owen Lafave is filing for divorce Thursday.

(on camera): Did you tell her that you wanted a divorce?

LAFAVE: Yes. I told her that I would seek a divorce.

SODOS: Was that a mutual agreement?

LAFAVE: Yes, it was.

SODOS (voice-over): Debra Lafave collected the furniture, which belongs to her sister, who passed away three years ago.

LAFAVE: The only thing in the house I had asked to keep, because everything was her sister's for the most part, was for a place to sleep.

SODOS: But Lafave doesn't have a bed.

LAFAVE: You know, the least you can do is leave me something to sleep on, and she said, you can go to Wal-Mart and get an air mattress and sleep on that tonight.

SODOS: Although Owen Lafave says his wife's arrest stunned him:

LAFAVE: I was shocked and obviously absolutely devastated.

SODOS: He still protects her, refusing to disclose what she told him and what he truly believes happened.

LAFAVE: In order to live with myself, this is what I feel is necessary for me to do.

SODOS (on camera): Do you feel like she betrayed you in any sense?

LAFAVE: Oh, absolutely.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: That report from Samara Sodos of our affiliate WFLA down in Florida.

And we're told by our affiliate down there that Owen Lafave did indeed file for divorce today.

Soccer's fab five take to the field in the gold medal run. We'll have details. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in our Web question of the day. Remember, though, this is not a scientific poll.

Up now, our Olympic update. For those of you who don't want to watch it on television, don't watch. The American women are the new soccer champions. They beat Brazil 2-1 in overtime.

Sprinter Shawn Crawford led an American sweep in the 200 meters, winning the fastest time in the world this year.

On the basketball court, a huge win for U.S. men's basketball. The Americans beat previously undefeated Spain 102-94 in a quarterfinals game.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

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

Aired August 26, 2004 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Happening now. With United States Marines awaiting orders, there's late breaking word from the interim Iraqi government in Baghdad on a cease-fire arrangement worked out to try to stop the fighting in Najaf. Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Lifting the siege of a shrine. Has Iraq's top holy man struck a deal with his archrival?

On the president's watch. Why more Americans are living dangerously and desperately.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We now have about 45 million Americans who go to bed every night worried...

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm running against a fellow who's already made over $2.2 trillion worth of new promises.

BLITZER: Convention concerns. Last time, the protests didn't pan out, but this time...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As many as 1,000 or 1,500 people who will come here bent on causing a problem.

BLITZER: Kennedy cousin case. He beat a rape charge a dozen years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was scared, she was threatened. He's a very prominent figure.

BLITZER: Now he's being sued after a relationship.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Thursday, August 26, 2004.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Hundreds of lives have been lost, a city has been ravaged and Iraq's new government has been rocked by the prospect of civil war. Now, a developing story we're following right now. Iraq's senior Shiite leader and a renegade junior cleric have reached an agreement, at least they say so, aimed at ending three weeks of bloody fighting in Najaf. The deal offered by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani would lift the siege of a sacred mosque turned into a stronghold by the rebel leader Muqtada al-Sadr. Let's go live to the scene. CNN's Matthew Chance standing by in Najaf -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Wolf. It's been less than 24 hours since the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, one of the most influential Shia clerics in the world returned to Najaf after being treated for a heart complaint in London. Many people had hoped that his return would offer some kind of hope for a peaceful end to this conflict in Najaf that has been tearing the city to pieces. Few believed though that it would come so soon within just a few hours of him arriving. He made contact through his representatives with those of Muqtada al-Sadr, that renegade junior Shia cleric who's been at the focus of this fighting.

Those two leaders have got together and a peace deal has been reached, which has been accepted by all sides in this conflict, including the Iraqi interim government and the Mehdi army, led, of course, by Muqtada al-Sadr himself.

The terms of that peace deal have been made clear. They've been set out and accepted, as I say, by the interim government. They're calling for Najaf and for Kufa to be made a weapons-free zone, essentially all foreign forces as well. By that they mean the U.S. military, which is here in considerable strength to withdraw from Najaf.

The terms of the agreement say that compensation should be paid to people who have had their houses damaged in the ferocious fighting or have lost loved ones in that ferocious fighting for the past three weeks as well.

And finally the term of that peace agreement, that legitimate elections should be held at some point in the future. That, of course, is something the interim Iraqi government has been trying to organize for early next year. They're scheduled for January. So that agreement is still holding out some hope for Muqtada al-Sadr at least to join the political fray. That possibility is still open to him if he's willing to join mainstream politics, but it also gives the Iraqi government something significant as well. From now on in, that maybe (UNINTELLIGIBLE) militia will be off the streets and security will be in the hands of the Iraqi police -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And the interim government of Iyad Allawi, Matthew, has accepted this deal, a deal that would allow Muqtada al-Sadr to go free, to walk away from this and become part of the so-called political process there? Is that right?

CHANCE: That certainly seems to be the case. In fact, this has been the position of the interim Iraqi government all along. They've always been holding out the olive branch to Muqtada al-Sadr to try and co-opt him, to try and embrace him into the sort of political mainstream, because I think they understand very clearly that Muqtada al-Sadr, despite the arrest warrants against him, despite the harsh words that have been said against him by members of the interim government, there is an understanding that he does have a real constituency in this country. There are a great many Muslim youths, a great many disaffected people that are unhappy with the U.S. presence in this country that look to Muqtada al-Sadr for leadership.

So he does have a constituency. The Iraqi interim government wants to bring that into the mainstream political fold.

BLITZER: Matthew Chance reporting for us from Najaf. Matthew, thank you very much.

It's not the first agreement in Najaf, but can the ayatollah make this one work and what's in it for the rebel leader Muqtada al-Sadr? Our CNN analyst Ken Pollack joining us now from the Saban Center over at the Brookings Institution. Ken, what do you think? What do you think about this deal?

KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Honestly, Wolf, I think that this was a deal that Muqtada al-Sadr has been looking for for some time now. I think it's clear that while, in a grand scheme he has certainly made some progress, you heard Matthew Chance say, he really has garnered a great deal of public support inside of Iraq because of his opposition to the United States, but in a tactical sense, the situation he was in at the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf was a real loser for him. He was in danger of losing some of his best fighters, things were not going his way there, and I think he was looking to make this deal. He wanted something face-saving to get out of the situation he was in. This seems to be what he was looking for all along.

BLITZER: I can understand the interim government of Iyad Allawi making a deal, but from the U.S. perspective, this is the guy who's ordered his so-called Mehdi militia to kill Americans, kill coalition forces. He's got blood on his head. Why should the U.S. move away from its earlier position that he's wanted, dead or alive?

POLLACK: Well, I think there are two reasons for it, Wolf. Neither of them is a terrific reason, but they're very strong practical reasons. First, the United States did not want to assault the shrine of Imam Ali. That's one of the most holy, most sacred sites of Shia Islam. Saddam, of course, did a great deal of damage, and killed a great many people back in 1991 when he retook the shrine after the Shia revolted. No one in the United States military wanted to recreate that scene, so negotiating those folks out of there was always their best deal.

And second, ultimately the United States has to demonstrate that it is willing to follow the lead of the new interim Iraqi government. We have said they are sovereign. If we were to go against them now, it would send a terrible message to all Iraqis, that they're a sham, they're puppets, and we'll disobey whenever we feel like it.

BLITZER: But if he goes free and creates his own political empire if you will, Muqtada al-Sadr, doesn't this encourage other so- called militia leaders to create their own militias elsewhere, whether in Fallujah, or in the north, and sort of re-creating the kind of militias that are all over the place in Afghanistan?

POLLACK: Certainly it does raises that threat. It also raises another threat which is ultimately if Muqtada al-Sadr is free to go about the country and do his thing, and his Mehdi army, even if they are disarmed, are allowed to as well, he can recall them to the colors as soon as he wants to. Putting down your weapons in Iraq is a very temporary thing. It's easy to get new weaponry. And if those people are allowed to walk free from the mosque, which they are going to be allowed to do, at some point in the future, if Muqtada al-Sadr feels the need to, he'll be able to recreate that army pretty quickly.

BLITZER: Ken Pollack, thank you very much.

POLLACK: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: An attack on pipelines in southern Iraq has cut oil exports from that region in half. That's according to a state oil company official. The official says it will take days to repair the damage from the overnight attack near Basra. Iraq's southern pipelines carry 90 percent of the country's exports. The interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has said attacks last month cost the government already $1 billion.

Two downbeat reports here in the United States from the U.S. Census Bureau today have already reverberated on the campaign trail. CNN's Brian Todd joining us now live with a look at these developments -- Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, in the swirl of numbers sent out by the Census Bureau today, two items jump right off the page and have forced the candidates to forget about the debate over political ads for at least a short time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over); Double-barreled bad news on Americans slipping through the social net. Hard numbers provoking harsh rhetoric.

KERRY: We now have about 45 million Americans who go to bed every night worried, wake up in the morning, don't know what choices they're going to make.

TODD: Senator John Kerry jumping on a report from the Census Bureau saying 45 million Americans had no health insurance last year. That's up nearly 1.5 million from the previous year and represents more than 15.5 percent of the country's population, but the number of uninsured has actually been steadily been climbing for 16 years and the numbers from 2003 reflect a smaller increase from the previous census.

Census analyst Daniel Weinberg says this report is typical of a post-recession job market.

DANIEL WEINBERG, U.S. CENSUS BUREAU: Firms are offering less generous plans or fewer firms tending to offer plans. And certainly as people lose jobs, there is a tendency for people to have less health insurance coverage.

TODD: Weinberg says the poverty numbers also show a historical post-recession pattern but those numbers are still staggering. Last year, nearly 37 million Americans lived below the poverty threshold defined as an income of just under $19,000 for a family of four. That's also an increase of more than a million from the previous year. The numbers of poor and uninsured have now risen for three straight years, but in New Mexico, President Bush sticks to a positive message about tax cuts and job creation under his watch.

BUSH: Because we acted, our economy since last summer has grown at a rate as fast as any nearly in 20 years. Because we acted, we created about 1.5 million new jobs over the past 12 months.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: The president's re-election campaign is pounding on that same message, that those census numbers don't reflect this year and what White House officials predict will be a positive bounce from the president's tax cuts and Medicare reform -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Brian Todd, thanks very much.

The U.S. economy wasn't the only issue on the campaign trail today. There were new developments in the Swift Boat controversy as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Appearing at a rally in Minnesota, John Kerry says he has been completely candid about his service in Vietnam.

KERRY: And I'm absolutely telling you the God's honest truth about what happened and what took place over there.

BLITZER: The Democratic presidential nominee has been put on the defensive by questions about his military medals, questions raised by a group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

A newly released CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup Poll suggested while the accusations have not hurt Kerry's numbers, they may have neutralized any bounce from the Democratic Convention.

Among likely voters, Bush continues to maintain a 50 percent to 47 percent advantage. The poll shows Kerry leading Bush by 1 point among registered voters after trailing by 1 point in early August. All these numbers well within the poll's margin of error suggesting this race is still statistically a dead heat.

The Kerry campaign calls the Swift Boat accusation smears and lies and claims the Bush campaign is behind them, a charge the Bush campaign denies.

Fellow Bush ally and Vietnam veteran John McCain called on the Kerry campaign to stop using him in its ads to attack President Bush, a request accepted by the Kerry campaign.

McCain, in newspaper interviews, promised to voice his objections with President Bush about the Swift Boat ads. The two talked today by phone and the White House asked the senator to help take legal or legislative action against the so-called 527 ads that include the Swift Boat commercials.

In the battleground state of New Mexico, a different Bush ally helped the president's campaign. Republican Rudy Giuliani talked defense while the president talked taxes.

BUSH: There's not enough money to tax the rich to pay for all his promises. If he gets elected, he's going to tax you, but the good news is we're not going to let him get elected.

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FMR. NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: We're no longer just playing defense against terrorism. We're on offense. We're trying to prevent them from hurting us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And to our viewers, here's your chance to weigh in on this story. Our Web "Question of the Day" is this: "Should the government crack down on political advertising by 527 groups." You can vote. Go to cnn.com/wolf. We'll have the results later in this broadcast.

New sexual assault allegations against a member of the Kennedy family, a woman now accusing William Kennedy Smith, speaking out today.

Trying to discredit the defense. The prosecution in the Kobe Bryant case zeros in on the DNA.

And putting up with the protesters. How will New York City control the crowds? A look at the security strategy for the convention coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: New York police and protest organizers have agreed on terms for a huge demonstration on the eve of the Republican National Convention. Protesters taking part in Sunday's event will march past the convention site over at Madison Square Garden to a rally in Lower Manhattan.

But police are bracing for those who may be interested in more than just marching. Let's go live to our homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve, she's already in New York and has more -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, there were two protest actions today and police know this is just the beginning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (voice-over): It was another war, Vietnam, that brought protesters to the streets outside the Chicago Democratic Convention in 1968. The violence there and elsewhere has led police to adopt a different approach to demonstrators. JEFFREY KERN, VANCE INTL. DECISION STRATEGIES: It's based upon not on force, but on a practical level on advance work, preparation and intelligence, finding out how many people -- exactly how many people are expected, what are their goals, what do they want to accomplish?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Isolate, isolate, isolate.

MESERVE: In New York, the preparation has included drills with mock protesters and information gathering using the Internet and undercover operations.

COMMISSIONER RAY KELLY, NEW YORK CITY POLICE: Maybe as many as 1000 or 1500 people who have come here bent on causing a problem.

MESERVE: The most violent protesters bring their own tactics and tools, including these dangerous wrist rockets. Police have studied anarchists' methods at the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle and elsewhere and taken away one key lesson.

ASST. CHIEF JACK MCMANUS, NEW YORK POLICE: The basic rules of engagement would be to move in and extract the troublemakers as quickly as we can, so the -- this negative event, for lack of a better term, doesn't gain momentum.

MESERVE: The NYPD will be deploying 10,000 officers a day and says it is ready to process thousands of arrests quickly if necessary.

KELLY: We have prepared our response to be one of flexibility, of mobility, of being able to move quickly in small tactical groups, but also to mass our resources if necessary.

MCMANUS: How tough we will be? When you have a large group of people that disrupt either pedestrian or vehicular traffic, or destroy property, there's not a lot of time for diplomacy there. So we're prepared to move in quickly and effect arrests.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's important not to block traffic on a sidewalk or a street as well.

MESERVE: Mainstream protest groups are preparing for the next week too, training legal observers to monitor a police force that in the past has been accused of trying to limit protests and free speech.

At an antiwar protest last year, the NYPD contained protesters by using pens that restricted their movement. The police said the pens were needed to give emergency vehicles access, but the New York Civil Liberties Union took them to court. The verdict was mixed.

DONNA LIEBERMAN, N.Y. CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION: The police have the right to regulate to protect the law and order but they don't have a right to turn you into a prisoner simply because you're exercising your right to protest.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MESERVE: Estimates of the number of protesters in New York range into the hundreds of thousands. The vast majority are expected to be peaceful, but the NYPD says it is ready for whatever the next week may bring -- Wolf.

BLITZER: There weren't -- much of the protest in Boston at the Democratic convention obviously it will be much more significant this type around, but in Boston they kept them penned in in that one area. In New York, I take it it's going to be different?

MESERVE: That's right. The protesters here will have much more area over which they will be able to roam, and of course they're expected here in much greater numbers. There were only a couple of hundred protesters that showed up in Boston. As I mentioned, hundreds of thousands potentially here.

BLITZER: A whole different set of problems here. Thanks very much, Jeanne, for that.

And to our viewers, CNN's coverage of the Republican convention will kick off this weekend with an investigative look at the president. You can catch "The Mission Of George W. Bush" Sunday night 8:00 p.m. Eastern. That's followed by a special live edition of "LARRY KING LIVE" and at 10:00 p.m., Judy Woodruff and I will co-anchor "America Votes: A 2004 Special," a preview of the Republican National Convention. I'll be starting our coverage tomorrow, 5:00 p.m. Eastern from Madison Square Garden in New York. Our coverage tomorrow, 5:00 p.m. on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

He's a Kennedy and he's potentially facing another case involving alleged sexual attack. Coming up, why an accuser is stepping forward right now against William Kennedy Smith.

Broken hearts, fallout for the Tampa teacher accused of having sex with her student. We'll hear from her husband. He's breaking his silence.

And looking out for the orphans. They were abandoned in Africa. Why did the State Department wait to take action? It's a question a top U.S. lawmaker wants to know the answer to this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. A federal judge in New York today issued a controversial ruling on a very controversial law involving a certain type of late-term abortion. The judge declared the ban unconstitutional, because the measure lacks a health exception for the mother, a key requirement, the judge said, by the U.S. Supreme Court. The case is one of three challenging the law, which was signed in November. A San Francisco judge has already ruled the law unconstitutional. And a judge in Nebraska is still considering the question.

Joining us now with his medical expertise on this subject, our senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. It's called partial birth abortion by those who criticize this procedure. How rare is it, though?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is a fairly rare procedure. Partial birth abortion I should say first of all is not a medical term, nor is late-term abortion. That makes it a little bit harder to define exactly how many of these are done each year, but take a look at this graphic, Wolf. This will give you a sense, not only of how many of those abortions are performed but how many abortions total. 1.3 million. Look at the bottom line there, Wolf. That's a number of weeks of gestation. When you get to the 21 week mark, sort of a lot of people consider that late-term, you're getting down to 1.5 percent or so of those abortions being performed at that late a stage.

So a relatively small percentage in the scheme of things -- Wolf.

BLITZER: In the scheme of things, if the mother's health is involved, is there a justification, in other words, do some doctors see a need to perform this particular controversial procedure in order to protect the mother's health?

GUPTA: Yes. Some doctors do see a need to perform this procedure to protect the mother's health in certain circumstances. The circumstances might be, for example, considerable bleeding that might jeopardize not only the fertility of the woman but also the life of the woman.

Infection as well could possibly be a situation. I talked to some representatives from the Organized Committee Of Obstetricians. They had this statement to say. I can read it for you there. We can put it on the screen as well. They talked specifically about the fact that the -- D&X refers to the type of procedure, that's the partial birth abortion -- "maybe the best or most appropriate procedure in a particular circumstance to save the life or preserve the health of the woman."

And this is the important part here, Wolf. "Only the doctor in consultation with the patient based upon the woman's particular circumstances can make this decision." That is a clear statement by this organization that, listen, this is a doctor and a patient's decision, not a legislative decision and that's what this is coming down to in some ways as well -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Because a lot of times I've heard from supporters of this procedure, saying that if the fetus, for example, even at that late, late stage is no longer viable or is missing vital organs, in order to prevent the woman from being infertile down the road, this is really the only procedure that could be used to avoid that kind of circumstance so the mother could get pregnant down the road again. Have you looked into that suggestion?

GUPTA: I have looked into that quite a bit. There are several different ways of inducing abortion, if you will, later in pregnancy, this is one of them. The one that we're talking about here. Again, it's called the dilatation and extraction procedure, that's the medical name of it. Another way to induce abortion is to give certain medications that might induce abortion of a fetus that is no longer viable. There have been no studies to really show that one is necessarily safer than the other, but a lot of obstetricians that we've talked to and we've done a lot of reporting on this believe that the dilatation and extraction is actually safer over all, all things considered.

So that's why this procedure is talked about so much, in that situation -- Wolf.

BLITZER: I know there are some very, very sensitive feelings on all sides in this debate. The courts weighing in now. We'll see what the higher courts eventually decide. Thank you very much. Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Mystery in Russia. Coming up a day of mourning overshadowed by the question, what caused two Russian jetliners to crash minutes apart?

Also, the prosecution's late challenge to DNA evidence in the Kobe Bryant rape case.

And cleared of rape charges more than ten years ago, William Kennedy Smith is again accused of sexual assault. We'll have a live report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: From our studios in Washington, once again, Wolf Blitzer.

BLITZER: Welcome back.

In the spotlight again, but for all the wrong reasons, William Kennedy Smith once again being accused of a sexual attack. We'll have details. That's coming up.

First, though, a quick check of some other stories now in the news.

Just hours after making a dramatic return to the embattled Iraqi city of Najaf, Iraq's top Shia cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al- Sistani, struck a deal with rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to end three weeks of fighting in Najaf and Kufa. Under the plan, Najaf and Kufa are to become weapons-free cities, and U.S. and all other international forces are to be withdrawn from both cities, leaving security to local police.

Over at the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, a dramatic hearing for a self-confessed al Qaeda member. The Yemeni national who was believed to be a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden defiantly asked to represent himself. His arraignment ended without a future trial date being set.

Russia remembers and honors its victims. It's been a day of official mourning. Flags flew at half-staff for the 89 people who perished in Tuesday's two passenger jet crashes. Officials are working to decode the flight data recorders. An $80 million settlement was reached today in a lawsuit against the operators of a crematory in Georgia where the remains of hundreds of people were mishandled. The suit was filed by 1,700 people who say their relatives' remains were found strewn across the grounds of the crematory.

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

Now to some new developments in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case. An emergency hearing was held today on the reliability of some very important DNA evidence.

Our Chris Lawrence is following the case. He's joining us live from Eagle, Colorado -- Chris.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the judge called the prosecution's motion untimely, coming just 24 hours before the scheduled start of jury selection.

But this battle over DNA evidence could be one of the most important that we've seen so far.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): The DNA expert for the defense concluded the accuser had sex with another man after Bryant, but before her medical exam. The evidence could undermine the credibility of the accuser and the young woman denies this happened. Prosecutors accused the defense team of doctors photocopies and contaminating the DNA samples, but the judge said they hadn't proved it and chastised them for being unprepared.

After a testy exchange, the judge gave the prosecution until Tuesday to explain their objections, but Kobe Bryant's accuser seems determined to persist.

CRAIG SILVERMAN, FORMER DENVER DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: But the strongest part of the prosecution case has been the apparent willingness of this accuser to go forward in the face of unrelenting pressure. One explanation for that could be she was really raped in room 35 on June 30, 2003.

LAWRENCE: Prosecutors lost a bid to exclude the woman's name from trial, but cameras will not be allowed outside of opening and closing arguments, a victory of advocates for victims' rights.

CYNTHIA STONE, COLORADO COALITION AGAINST SEXUAL ASSAULT: You're going to have to talk about these horrific, graphic details about what happened in a courtroom packed with reporters and the man that you're accusing of raping you.

LAWRENCE: Bryant has admitted having sex with the woman at the Vail resort where she worked, but insists it was consensual.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GARRETT: Now, that's testimony we could hear a few weeks down the road at trial.

But first, we have got some new information about jury selection. Out of the nearly 1,000 summons that were sent out, more than 300 have already been excluded because they were either undeliverable or the people had moved out of the area. That means about 500 will show up here tomorrow in four staggered groups throughout the day. They'll answer 82 written questions, go home and then wait to see if they're one of the ones to be called back -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Chris Lawrence, thanks for that update.

More legal trouble for one of the more famous Kennedy cousins. William Kennedy Smith faces a new lawsuit today, this one relating to sexual assault allegations dating back to 1999.

CNN's Jonathan Freed is live in Chicago. He's joining us with details -- Jonathan.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, William Kennedy Smith is a doctor and he's now living in Chicago.

Now, his assistant, his former assistant at the group that he works for, that he heads up, which is a nonprofit organization that helps victims of land mines, his former personal assistant's named is Audra Soulias. Now, she alleges that five years ago on what was her 23rd birthday in January of 1999, that Smith showed up at a party for her that she was having with some co-workers unannounced, that he crashed this party, that he started buying drinks for people, and that he got her drunk, and that as the evening wore on into the early hours of the morning, that he forced her into his home and that's where he sexually assaulted her.

Now, today she held a news conference. They filed a lawsuit yesterday. This is a civil suit, which we should distinguish from the criminal proceedings that happened back in 1991. In the civil suit, where she is asking for $50,000 at least in damages, she says she believes there has been what she calls a conspiracy of silence, that there are many more victims out there and that she wants to put William Kennedy Smith on notice that he's not going to hurt anybody else anymore.

Here's words from the news conference today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AUDRA SOULIAS, PLAINTIFF: On January 16, 1999, my innocence was involuntary taken from me in a manner by someone who I trusted and respected. It was taken in a violent act that will haunt me to the day I die. In fact, I would not have come forward had I not been recontacted by the individual who sexually assaulted me after several years of silence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: Now, Audra Soulias says that this is not about money. She has repeated that several times. She says that she is -- quote -- "encouraging" any other victims to come forward and she believes that there are a number of those out there.

As far as William Kennedy Smith's side is concerned at this point, they have simply issued a denial in a written statement.

BLITZER: Jonathan Freed, thanks very much for that report.

As many of our viewers of course will recall, William Kennedy Smith was facing very similar charges some 13 years ago.

Tom Foreman joining us now with a look back to give us some perspective on these latest allegations.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a lot of perspective to be had here. The fact is whether or not these charges stick and he is found to have done something he should not have done or whether or not they are proven to be false and he's let off the hook on this thing, the simple truth is, this is very bad news for the Kennedy family.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN (voice-over): The new accusations against 43-year-old William Kennedy Smith are much like the charges he faced more than a dozen years ago. In that case, a woman in Florida said she met Smith in a bar, went back to a Kennedy family estate, and when she rebuffed his sexual advances, was raped.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I tried hard to get him off of me, but he slammed me down to the ground.

FOREMAN: Kennedy Smith said the encounter was consensual, telling a family member:

WILLIAM KENNEDY SMITH, DEFENDANT: She sort of -- she sort of snapped.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In what way?

SMITH: She got very, very upset.

FOREMAN: The trial took 10 days, the verdict about 90 minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We find the defendant not guilty.

FOREMAN: Now a young woman who worked with Kennedy Smith at a Chicago nonprofit says he attacked her in 1999. Audra Soulias says, on her 23rd birthday, Kennedy Smith, uninvited, joined her and a few friends for dinner, encouraging them to consume excessive amounts of alcohol, which he purchased.

Later, she says, he forced her into a cab, dragged her into his house and bedroom. She allegedly told him: "I want to go home. I need to go home." But, according to her complaint, Kennedy Smith pushed her on to the bed, held her down and proceeded to forcefully remove her clothes and sexually assaulted her, despite her constant pleas to stop. Kennedy Smith has denied it in a statement, saying, unfortunately, my family and my personal history have made me unusually vulnerable to these kinds of allegations." Still, previous accusations may weigh against him.

DAN CAPRA, PROFESSOR, FORDHAM LAW SCHOOL: If something has done something like this before, even by way of credible accusation, not by way of conviction, there's some kind of indication that this jury should consider that this person has a propensity, basically a desire to commit these sexual activities.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: As it seems to always be the case with these types of cases, there are a lot of unanswered questions here. Why didn't she file criminal charges when she could have? Her attorney says she was afraid. Why is she filing now if it's not about the money? Well, he says, because other women have also said they have complaints against him and that she wants to help those other women and get him to stop doing this sort of thing.

It's all very uncertain at this point. Also uncertain, what her relationship was with him after all of this. But, obviously, for the Kennedy family and for him, another very difficult time is starting.

BLITZER: Very difficult, indeed. Thanks very much, Tom Foreman, for that.

American children abandoned in Nigeria, left to survive in truly horrible conditions. Now a top U.S. lawmaker calling on Secretary of State Colin Powell for some accountability.

Plus this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OWEN LAFAVE, HUSBAND OF DEBRA LAFAVE: I knew of her, but I'm hurt and devastated over the situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Speaking out. Hear from the husband of that Florida teacher accused of having sex with her student.

Going for the gold in Athens. Did the U.S. women's soccer team grab the top prize? We'll get to all of that.

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): A bomb hidden in a motorcycle exploded at a busy market in southern Thailand, killing one person and wounding dozens of others. The attack happened as the prime minister was touring a region hit hard by violence in recent months. The government blames the unrest on Islamic militants.

Deadly landslide. A huge wall of mud crashed down in a remote village in northern Taiwan, killing 15 people. Officials say more than 20 homes were buried in just 10 seconds. The landslide was triggered by a typhoon.

Queen's giant. A 7 foot 3'' British soldier is the newest member of Queen Elizabeth's elite guard. In his bearskin headgear, he tops out at 9 feet. The queen, by comparison, is 5 feet, 4''.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: An update now on a story we reported recently, seven American children abandoned at a Nigerian orphanage. As we told you, the children are now back in Texas, but a key U.S. congressman is now directly getting involved.

Our State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel picks up the story -- Andrea.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, there are still lots of unanswered question, but at the heart of this really sad story are seven children, as you said, four of whom are biological siblings -- they were adopted by a woman in Texas about eight years ago -- and then three other children who are also biological siblings adopted by the same woman four years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOPPEL (voice-over): Seven American children between the ages of 8 and 16 discovered by chance by a Texas youth minister at a Nigerian orphanage earlier this month.

PASTOR WARREN BEEMER, CORNERSTONE CHURCH: It just -- it was a very, very desolate-feeling place. It's felt like about the end of the Earth.

KOPPEL: Warren Beemer said the children told him they were from Texas, talked about the Houston Rockets and Yao Ming and told him their adoptive American mother had left them with relatives in Nigeria last October. They eventually landed in an orphanage.

In an August 4 e-mail to his church, Beemer wrote: "Pastor, this place is an unbelievable cesspool. It's a horrible that these children don't deserve to be in."

But what Beemer didn't know was that the U.S. Consulate in Nigeria's capital had already been tipped off to the children's plight on July 30, and immediately confirmed with Nigerian authorities that the children were safe.

J. ADAM ERELI, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: We were informed about their condition, which was good. We talked to their family, and we took the actions that we thought were appropriate. And when we did visit them, I think it was done in a timely way.

KOPPEL: But House Majority Leader Tom DeLay disagrees. In a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell today, DeLay raises questions: "Why, if the consulate had credible reports of American children abandoned in a Nigerian orphanage, did it take eight days for any action to be taken?"

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOPPEL: And, today, the State Department defends its actions as being alert, responsive, and responsible, even loaning thousands of dollars to pay for plane tickets for the seven children to return to Texas two weeks ago.

But this saga is far from over, Wolf. The children are now in Texas foster homes while their adoptive mother is in court fighting to regain custody -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Andrea, why did the mother leave the children in that orphanage in Nigeria in the first place?

KOPPEL: Well, originally, according to what the children have told various officials, including that pastor, they were left with the mother's husband's brother. She married a Nigerian man. She brought them to Nigeria, left them with this man, ostensibly to go to school in Nigeria, because she had taken a job with a subsidiary of Halliburton to work in Iraq.

But the money apparently ran out. There wasn't regular checks coming, and the children landed, found themselves in an orphanage in Nigeria.

BLITZER: What a heartbreaking story, indeed. Thanks, Andrea, very much for updating us on it.

In a moment, a follow-up to that story that shocked the country only several weeks ago, that Tampa teacher accused of having sex with an underage student. Now her husband is speaking out on how he feels about his marriage being torn apart.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAFAVE: She said, you can go to Wal-Mart and get an air mattress and sleep on that tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

An update now on that Florida schoolteacher who was arrested in June for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old middle school student. Now the husband -- the husband -- is speaking out. Here's Samara Sodos of our CNN affiliate WFLA.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAMARA SODOS, WFLA REPORTER: The scrapbook?

OWEN LAFAVE, HUSBAND: The scrapbook.

SODOS (voice-over): When Owen Lafave walked into his Riverview home, it was empty. His wife, Debra, removed the furniture earlier in the day. The Lafaves' marriage is now over, but strong feelings remain.

(on camera): So you still care about her?

LAFAVE: Sure, I do.

SODOS: Do you still love her?

LAFAVE: Sure I do. I do love her, but I'm hurt and devastated over the situation and the path that our life has taken over the past two months.

SODOS (voice-over): Owen Lafave says he planned to stand by his wife, a Hillsborough County middle school teacher, even after she was arrested, accused of having sex with a 14-year-old student.

(on camera): So you believed this her innocence?

LAFAVE: I wanted to support my wife, because that's what I believed was the right thing to do.

SODOS: Did you believe that she was guilty?

LAFAVE: I'm not answering that.

SODOS (voice-over): Owen Lafave is filing for divorce Thursday.

(on camera): Did you tell her that you wanted a divorce?

LAFAVE: Yes. I told her that I would seek a divorce.

SODOS: Was that a mutual agreement?

LAFAVE: Yes, it was.

SODOS (voice-over): Debra Lafave collected the furniture, which belongs to her sister, who passed away three years ago.

LAFAVE: The only thing in the house I had asked to keep, because everything was her sister's for the most part, was for a place to sleep.

SODOS: But Lafave doesn't have a bed.

LAFAVE: You know, the least you can do is leave me something to sleep on, and she said, you can go to Wal-Mart and get an air mattress and sleep on that tonight.

SODOS: Although Owen Lafave says his wife's arrest stunned him:

LAFAVE: I was shocked and obviously absolutely devastated.

SODOS: He still protects her, refusing to disclose what she told him and what he truly believes happened.

LAFAVE: In order to live with myself, this is what I feel is necessary for me to do.

SODOS (on camera): Do you feel like she betrayed you in any sense?

LAFAVE: Oh, absolutely.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: That report from Samara Sodos of our affiliate WFLA down in Florida.

And we're told by our affiliate down there that Owen Lafave did indeed file for divorce today.

Soccer's fab five take to the field in the gold medal run. We'll have details. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in our Web question of the day. Remember, though, this is not a scientific poll.

Up now, our Olympic update. For those of you who don't want to watch it on television, don't watch. The American women are the new soccer champions. They beat Brazil 2-1 in overtime.

Sprinter Shawn Crawford led an American sweep in the 200 meters, winning the fastest time in the world this year.

On the basketball court, a huge win for U.S. men's basketball. The Americans beat previously undefeated Spain 102-94 in a quarterfinals game.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

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