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Kerry Speech Focuses on Domestic Agenda; Russian Promises to Strike Back Against Terrorists; Interview with Author Patricia Cornwell

Aired September 08, 2004 - 10:29   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: OK. We spent much of our first half hour together today listening in to Senator John Kerry as he was speaking live in Cincinnati, Ohio, attacking President Bush's handling of the Iraq war. It's same hall, as I mentioned, where the president made his case for war two years ago.
Our Ed Henry is covering the speech in Cincinnati and joins us live now -- Ed?

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

That's right. The venue for the speech was no accident. This is the very spot where President Bush delivered a speech in October of 2002 in which he made the case for war. The major point here from Senator Kerry: He's charging that the president did not live up to the promises in that speech, did not win over enough allies.

And also, two other major goals that Senator Kerry was trying to accomplish here. First of all, he's trying to have a more aggressive tone, trying to really take it to President Bush, especially on Iraq, amid a lot of Democratic rumbling that Senator Kerry has not been fighting back hard enough.

The second thing -- the second goal Senator Kerry was trying to accomplish was an order to try to pivot to the domestic agenda. Even as he's talking about Iraq, Senator Kerry was saying $200 billion spent on this war, but not enough money for after-school programs, not enough money for veteran's healthcare.

The point here is that Senator Kerry is trying to pivot to the domestic agenda. He's been counseled by former President Clinton and other top Democrats to do that, to stay away from national security. So, even as he's talking about Iraq, he is trying to pivot in that direction.

The other major theme that Kerry has been hitting on the road all this week is that the W in George W. Bush stands for wrong choices, wrong direction. We heard that over and over here. I can tell you, though, that Bush campaign officials, even before this speech, were telling me that they think it's a big mistake for John Kerry to go down this road.

These Bush officials pointing out that just two days after the president's speech back in October of 2002, John Kerry himself announced that he would be in favor of the war resolution -- the Iraq war resolution. And the Bush officials now saying that, by their count, this is now the eighth position that John Kerry has taken on Iraq.

One other quick note, there appears to be at least one factual error in Senator Kerry's speech. He said that when President Bush did not get the answers he wanted from the army chief of staff, that chief of staff was fired. We believe he was referring to General Shinseki.

And as our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre points out, Mr. Shinseki was not fired. He was certainly ostracized, criticized for suggesting the administration was not putting enough troops in Iraq, but he retired. He was not fired.

I talked to a Kerry campaign official who insisted they believe that Shinseki was fired, that he retired early and that he was pushed out. So, that will be a debate for another day -- Daryn?

KAGAN: It will. And as my Ed Henry questions will have to wait for another day, too, because it's a little bit difficult for Ed to hear this morning. So, we will keep those for later on.

Ed, thank you. Ed Henry live in Cincinnati, Ohio.

We are going to fit in another break right now. I'm back after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's take a look at the stories happening now in the news. President Bush met last hour with Congressional leaders of the White House to brief them on what intelligence reforms he's looking for. He's also setting timetables. Congress returned to session yesterday with lawmakers proposing their own measures in light of the 9/11 Report and its recommendations.

It's been another volatile day across Iraq, with attacks and violent clashes erupting in at least four cities. Six Iraqis are reported killed in the renewed fighting between rebels and U.S. backed forces in Fallujah. Two more U.S. troops were killed in separate roadside bombings in or near Baghdad. And insurgents launched assassinations attempts on Iraqi officials in Baghdad and Mosul.

Sentencing is scheduled at the top of the hour for Frank Quattrone, an investment banker who was once considered a star on Wall Street. He was convicted of obstructing a government investigation and is expected to be given prison time.

The nation's top economist is appearing right now on Capitol Hill. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is appearing before the House Budget Committee. He's talking about the economy and the deficit. Greenspan is expected to repeat his earlier advice that interest rates will have to go up at a moderate pace.

To world news now, Russian officials are promising to strike back against terrorists following last week's school massacre. Our Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty has more on that story -- Jill? JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Daryn, you know, people here in Russia, and especially down in that region where the hostage massacre took place, have really been transfixed by that video that came out on Russian TV last night. And it went, indeed, around the world. That video shot by the terrorists themselves and showing the inside of the school in which hundreds and hundreds of people died.

New information now is coming out, and investigators are putting all of this together. They say that there were 32 hostage-takers -- 32 terrorists. And how they came together to do this was carried to President Putin this morning in a briefing from his Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov.

He said, in great detail, that these terrorists met in a forest before they went to the school. They drove three vehicles to that school. And then, after herding all of the parents and the children on the first day of school in from the courtyard into the school, they began setting up explosives.

He says, very interestingly, that there is apparently some dissension in the ranks among the terrorists, and one of them at least said, "Why are we taking a school with schoolchildren?" And he was promptly shot, the prosecutor says, by the ringleader, whose name was the Colonel.

After he shot him, then later, the Colonel detonated a remote control device that killed two of the women who were involved in this hostage-taking -- two women terrorists who were carrying explosives on their person. They were killed, of course, instantly.

And then, finally, another very important development: He said that the main explosion that started on Friday that created a big fire and brought down the ceiling of the gymnasium onto those people and later we saw people running from that building, that that explosion was caused apparently accidentally when the terrorists were repositioning some of the explosives they had in that gym.

Now, the hostage-taking took place exactly a week ago. And people in the region are becoming very angry about the lack of information and slow reports and also about how their security forces have been performing. And there had been demonstrations in that region.

In fact, in one of the towns -- Vladikavkaz -- there were protests. Several thousand people protesting in the streets. And the president of that region, North Ossetia, is saying that he is going to sack the local government and he, himself, is thinking about stepping down.

And then, finally, Daryn, one note: The Russian government actually is offering a reward -- $10 million reward for information leading to the apprehension of the two people that they implicate in this attack. And that would be Shamil Basayev, a warlord, and also Aslan Maskhadov, a rebel leader.

Back to you.

KAGAN: Jill, I want to get back to this point about the Russians saying that they are ready to strike back at these terrorists. When they say that, just how far are the Russians willing to go?

DOUGHERTY: Well, they say -- this came from the Chief of Staff General Yuri Baluyevsky, who said this morning that they are prepared to strike terrorists anywhere in that region.

It's strong talk, but I have to say, Daryn, that many people are saying: Why haven't you been doing this before? And the criticism is really concentrated on the security forces that many people feel did not do their jobs.

KAGAN: Jill Dougherty in Moscow. Jill, thank you.

Last hour at the White House, President Bush met with Congressional leaders from both parties. They were there to discuss intelligence reform and changes recommended by the 9/11 panel. That meeting comes a day after lawmakers unveiled various measures of their own.

Our national security correspondent David Ensor here from Washington to explain more about that. David, good morning.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Well, the stars do seem aligned for intelligence reform in the coming weeks, though there's precious little time on the Congressional calendar to do it.

At a Senate hearing, leaders of the FBI and CIA will be going into the details this morning on Capitol Hill. That's the hearing we see underway right here. Both Republicans and Democrats want intelligence reform before they have to face the voters in November, if at all possible. And as you mentioned, at the White House this morning, the president described what he favors in the way of reform to congressional leaders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We believe that there ought to be a National Intelligence Director who has full budgetary authority. We'll take to members of Congress about how to implement that.

I look forward to working with the members to get a bill to my desk as quickly as possible. It's important we get our intelligence gathering correct. And after all, we're still at war. We've got to find the enemy before they hurt us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENSOR: Yesterday Senators McCain and Lieberman unveiled a bill to enact almost all of the 41 recommendations of the 9/11 Commission for changes to reduce the danger of additional terrorist attacks on this nation. One exception is that the bill does not put the Pentagon in charge of the CIA's paramilitary operations personnel, the man like Johnny Michael Spann, who our viewers may remember was the first man killed in Afghanistan, the CIA paramilitary officer.

Now next week, the Senate holds hearings on the nomination of Congressman Porter Goss to be the next director of Central Intelligence. And assuming he's confirmed, it looks like he will be the last DCI.

The question will be: If Mr. Bush is re-elected, will Goss be the National Intelligence Director, or will he just be the CIA director working for that person. Since the Democrats are saying Goss is too political a choice, it seems likely Mr. Kerry, if elected, would not keep Porter Goss -- Daryn.

KAGAN: A lot of questions still to be answered there, in Washington.

Dr. David Ensor, thank you.

And we're going to take a break. A lot more news and a look at weather ahead after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: All right, if you get to the point where you need to set down the remote and pick up a good book, Dr. Kay Scarpetta has a tale to tell. She is the literary creation of Chris Cornwell, the world's No. 1 bestselling crime writer, and the author of "Trace."

Patricia Cornwell is joining us me from New York City, with a preview of her newest book.

Good morning. Good to see you again.

PATRICIA CORNWELL, AUTHOR, "TRACE": Good morning. Nice to be here.

KAGAN: Dr. Scarpetta is back. Poor thing, she's having a few problems, isn't she?

CORNWELL: Well, I don't think she's ever been accused of having an easy life.

KAGAN: Yes, there's that.

CORNWELL: Yes, tough case, tough personal life, tough everything.

KAGAN: Sometimes we can all associate with that. So she's been in South Florida, kind of freelancing. Now she heads back to her old home, to Richmond, Virginia, but things aren't quite like she expected to find them when she goes back home.

CORNWELL: No, in the first place, you have to wonder what's going on when you get called back in a consultant on a case in an area where you're fired from your job, and that's what's happened to her. So you wonder, is this a political set-up? And of course, it is, not to mention it's one of the most difficult case in her career, you know, 14-year-old girl who seems to have died from natural causes in bed, but of course we know that's not what happened. And so it's a very intricate, and actually a very disturbing and creepy story.

KAGAN: Last time we talked, you had just written your book trying to solve the murders, the Jack the Ripper murders in England. Why was it time now to bring Dr. Scarpetta back?

CORNWELL: Well, really, the ripper investigation was simply a diversion from my normal activities, which you know my normal activities is fiction writing. And when I had a chance to work on that real case and did, and brought it to resolution, I've simply have gone back to doing what I've always done, which is my novels.

So, I never -- Scarpetta was just replaced very temporarily by a real investigation.

KAGAN: Kind of interesting when you use the world "normal," your normal life.

CORNWELL: Well, I know. Such as it is.

KAGAN: Not a lot normal there, Patricia.

CORNWELL: As you're probably right.

KAGAN: Yeah. But it felt good to get back to her and to her character?

CORNWELL; Oh, always, always. I love to write about these characters, and I love to come up with an unusual scenario and unusual cases, and to show people areas of forensic science and medicine and police investigation that they might not be familiar with, such as trace evidence, which is simply a microscopic investigation. People leave things behind that they're not aware of, and I want to know what those things are and what they might tell us.

KAGAN: There's a real-life mystery that's kind of coming to light in Kansas City in recent day. The story of -- they're not calling a serial killer, but a number of related deaths, maybe as many as six, a number of African-American women who has been murdered, and a mystery caller who's calling in to the police there.

Do you follow cases like that? Are you inspired by them?

CORNWELL: Well, I always follow cases like that, because you know, these are the real things going on out there. And I'm interested in them. They move me emotionally. I get upset by them. It's their tragedies. And in cases like the one you're just talking about, I already want to know what kinds of injuries are they finding associated with these remains? Is there a certain, you know, pattern that they're seeing? Is there any evidence?

And of course, it is very peculiar when somebody is calling about a case like that. What are they doing about that? But what might the body still have to say if you're able to understand the very silent language they speak? That's what I want to know.

KAGAN: Right. Unfortunately, in at least two of the case, two of the bodies are so badly decomposed, even difficult to identify the women.

CORNWELL: That's right.

KAGAN: So, the new book is called "Trace." What's next for you?

CORNWELL: Well, I'm working on the one that's to follow that, that right now the working title is "Predator." It's the next Scarpetta novel, and I'm very much involved in that at the moment.

I'm doing all kinds of very interesting research into genetics and also into the human -- into the brain and why people do what they do.

KAGAN: Well, you've made a career out of that. Next book coming around, you'll have to stop by again and tell us about that

CORNWELL: I would love to. Thank you so much.

KAGAN: All right, good luck. Patricia Cornwell -- the new book is called "Trace." Kay Scarpetta is back. Thanks so much.

We're going to take a break, and we'll be back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: All right. About an hour from right now, people in Oregon, Nevada, and Utah, if they look to the northwest, can see a piece of the Genesis satellite as it reenters the earth's atmosphere. And then, just a few minutes later, a helicopter is going to try to snag parts of it from midair.

Why are they doing all this? Space correspondent Miles O'Brien here to explain why NASA is trying to catch a falling star.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Catching a falling star, catching rays, here comes the sun -- whatever you like.

If you're in the northwest, I invite you, in about an hour's time, to step outside and -- how many times in your life can you predict a streaking meteor? This is one of those occasions as Genesis -- a small capsule about five foot in diameter, looks like a Frisbee, more or less -- will streak in, on its way to this rather odd helicopter capture.

First, let me show you exactly where you need to be looking. Take a look at some of our satellite imagery, our keyhole technology. We're going to zoom in on the entry point, which is right across Oregon, a little piece of Idaho, into Nevada. It comes right across pretty much like that, OK? And it's going to happen in about an hour's time. You're going to see this incredible streak. It's going to be moving at 25,000 miles per hour. That's fast.

Now, as it comes in, it's going to make its way to an Air Force testing ground in Utah. It's the largest contiguous space that is used for just that in the continental United States -- 25 miles wide -- it's 25 miles long, six miles wide. Plenty of room there for this Genesis capsule.

Now, as it gets closer to the ground, a parachute will deploy. there you see the spacecraft itself. This is the Genesis spacecraft, which has been in a spot facing the sun for about 800 days, capturing pieces of the solar wind -- microscopic pieces of the solar wind -- which scientist will use to tell precisely how solar systems, such as ours, formed. It's kind of like really the recipe for all that we see around us.

As it gets closer, helicopters like these -- two of them, with 18-and-a-half-foot hooks attached to the bottom -- will try to snag Genesis as it comes down with its parachute. The theory here is that these collectors of the solar wind, made of silicon and diamonds and sapphires and all kinds of precious metals, are so fragile that scientists don't want it to impact on the ground.

The pilots are Hollywood stunt pilots. Let's listen to what Dan Rudert, one of them, has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN RUDERT, HELICOPTER STUNT PILOT: When Genesis reenters the Earth's atmosphere, it comes in on a parachute. And we have special hooks rigged that we come across the parachute and grab it with a hook out of the air. And then, it turns into like a suspended line underneath the helicopter, where we fly it as an external load. We gently place it on the ground out in the desert.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Rudert is the back-up pilot. The lead pilot, Cliff Fleming, he and -- the two of them have tried this 17 times over the years, and they are 17 for 17. Of course, the 18th try is the one that counts, Daryn. No second takes on this one. It's a $264 million package. You don't want to drop it.

KAGAN: No, not exactly. And I understand one of the challenges for the pilots -- they're so high up, they have nothing to kind of give them a perspective in terms of how fast they're going.

O'BRIEN: The truth is, there are a lot of helicopter pilots who are truly acrophobic; they really don't like being up that high. And this is very unusual for them. They don't have the points of reference they're used to.

KAGAN: All right, much more ahead. Miles, thank you.

CNN will have live coverage of that capture attempt. You watch it right here at 12:15 p.m. Eastern, 9:15 a.m. Pacific.

And meanwhile, the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right now.

We're going to go ahead and start with a look at what is happening now in the news. President Bush returns to Florida today to tour the latest damage from Hurricane Frances. He comes bearing some $2 billion in disaster relief. That emergency aid also goes to help victims of Hurricane Charley three-and-a-half weeks ago.

Democratic Challenger John Kerry is in Ohio this morning, taking the Bush administration to task for what Kerry calls miscalculations and wrong choices in the Iraq war. Kerry delivered his speech at the Cincinnati Museum Center. That is the same location where President Bush outlined his case for going to war with Iraq nearly two years ago. Later today, Kerry will campaign in Rochester, Minnesota.

It's been another volatile day across Iraq, with attacks and violent clashes erupting in at least four cities. Six Iraqis are reported killed in the renewed fighting between rebels and U.S. backed forces in Fallujah. Two more U.S. troops were killed in separate roadside bombings in or near Baghdad. And insurgents launched assassination attempts on Iraqi officials in Baghdad and Mosul.

The national debate over abortion could be headed back to the U.S. Supreme Court. A federal judge in Nebraska says the ban on a controversial type of late-term abortion is unconstitutional. President Bush signed the partial-birth abortion ban act last year, but that law has not been enforced because of legal challenges. Today's decision echoes earlier judicial opinions in New York and San Francisco that also found the law unconstitutional.

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

We are just two ticks away from 11:00 a.m. on the east coast and 8:00 a.m. on the west coast. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.

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Aired September 8, 2004 - 10:29   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: OK. We spent much of our first half hour together today listening in to Senator John Kerry as he was speaking live in Cincinnati, Ohio, attacking President Bush's handling of the Iraq war. It's same hall, as I mentioned, where the president made his case for war two years ago.
Our Ed Henry is covering the speech in Cincinnati and joins us live now -- Ed?

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

That's right. The venue for the speech was no accident. This is the very spot where President Bush delivered a speech in October of 2002 in which he made the case for war. The major point here from Senator Kerry: He's charging that the president did not live up to the promises in that speech, did not win over enough allies.

And also, two other major goals that Senator Kerry was trying to accomplish here. First of all, he's trying to have a more aggressive tone, trying to really take it to President Bush, especially on Iraq, amid a lot of Democratic rumbling that Senator Kerry has not been fighting back hard enough.

The second thing -- the second goal Senator Kerry was trying to accomplish was an order to try to pivot to the domestic agenda. Even as he's talking about Iraq, Senator Kerry was saying $200 billion spent on this war, but not enough money for after-school programs, not enough money for veteran's healthcare.

The point here is that Senator Kerry is trying to pivot to the domestic agenda. He's been counseled by former President Clinton and other top Democrats to do that, to stay away from national security. So, even as he's talking about Iraq, he is trying to pivot in that direction.

The other major theme that Kerry has been hitting on the road all this week is that the W in George W. Bush stands for wrong choices, wrong direction. We heard that over and over here. I can tell you, though, that Bush campaign officials, even before this speech, were telling me that they think it's a big mistake for John Kerry to go down this road.

These Bush officials pointing out that just two days after the president's speech back in October of 2002, John Kerry himself announced that he would be in favor of the war resolution -- the Iraq war resolution. And the Bush officials now saying that, by their count, this is now the eighth position that John Kerry has taken on Iraq.

One other quick note, there appears to be at least one factual error in Senator Kerry's speech. He said that when President Bush did not get the answers he wanted from the army chief of staff, that chief of staff was fired. We believe he was referring to General Shinseki.

And as our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre points out, Mr. Shinseki was not fired. He was certainly ostracized, criticized for suggesting the administration was not putting enough troops in Iraq, but he retired. He was not fired.

I talked to a Kerry campaign official who insisted they believe that Shinseki was fired, that he retired early and that he was pushed out. So, that will be a debate for another day -- Daryn?

KAGAN: It will. And as my Ed Henry questions will have to wait for another day, too, because it's a little bit difficult for Ed to hear this morning. So, we will keep those for later on.

Ed, thank you. Ed Henry live in Cincinnati, Ohio.

We are going to fit in another break right now. I'm back after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's take a look at the stories happening now in the news. President Bush met last hour with Congressional leaders of the White House to brief them on what intelligence reforms he's looking for. He's also setting timetables. Congress returned to session yesterday with lawmakers proposing their own measures in light of the 9/11 Report and its recommendations.

It's been another volatile day across Iraq, with attacks and violent clashes erupting in at least four cities. Six Iraqis are reported killed in the renewed fighting between rebels and U.S. backed forces in Fallujah. Two more U.S. troops were killed in separate roadside bombings in or near Baghdad. And insurgents launched assassinations attempts on Iraqi officials in Baghdad and Mosul.

Sentencing is scheduled at the top of the hour for Frank Quattrone, an investment banker who was once considered a star on Wall Street. He was convicted of obstructing a government investigation and is expected to be given prison time.

The nation's top economist is appearing right now on Capitol Hill. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is appearing before the House Budget Committee. He's talking about the economy and the deficit. Greenspan is expected to repeat his earlier advice that interest rates will have to go up at a moderate pace.

To world news now, Russian officials are promising to strike back against terrorists following last week's school massacre. Our Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty has more on that story -- Jill? JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Daryn, you know, people here in Russia, and especially down in that region where the hostage massacre took place, have really been transfixed by that video that came out on Russian TV last night. And it went, indeed, around the world. That video shot by the terrorists themselves and showing the inside of the school in which hundreds and hundreds of people died.

New information now is coming out, and investigators are putting all of this together. They say that there were 32 hostage-takers -- 32 terrorists. And how they came together to do this was carried to President Putin this morning in a briefing from his Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov.

He said, in great detail, that these terrorists met in a forest before they went to the school. They drove three vehicles to that school. And then, after herding all of the parents and the children on the first day of school in from the courtyard into the school, they began setting up explosives.

He says, very interestingly, that there is apparently some dissension in the ranks among the terrorists, and one of them at least said, "Why are we taking a school with schoolchildren?" And he was promptly shot, the prosecutor says, by the ringleader, whose name was the Colonel.

After he shot him, then later, the Colonel detonated a remote control device that killed two of the women who were involved in this hostage-taking -- two women terrorists who were carrying explosives on their person. They were killed, of course, instantly.

And then, finally, another very important development: He said that the main explosion that started on Friday that created a big fire and brought down the ceiling of the gymnasium onto those people and later we saw people running from that building, that that explosion was caused apparently accidentally when the terrorists were repositioning some of the explosives they had in that gym.

Now, the hostage-taking took place exactly a week ago. And people in the region are becoming very angry about the lack of information and slow reports and also about how their security forces have been performing. And there had been demonstrations in that region.

In fact, in one of the towns -- Vladikavkaz -- there were protests. Several thousand people protesting in the streets. And the president of that region, North Ossetia, is saying that he is going to sack the local government and he, himself, is thinking about stepping down.

And then, finally, Daryn, one note: The Russian government actually is offering a reward -- $10 million reward for information leading to the apprehension of the two people that they implicate in this attack. And that would be Shamil Basayev, a warlord, and also Aslan Maskhadov, a rebel leader.

Back to you.

KAGAN: Jill, I want to get back to this point about the Russians saying that they are ready to strike back at these terrorists. When they say that, just how far are the Russians willing to go?

DOUGHERTY: Well, they say -- this came from the Chief of Staff General Yuri Baluyevsky, who said this morning that they are prepared to strike terrorists anywhere in that region.

It's strong talk, but I have to say, Daryn, that many people are saying: Why haven't you been doing this before? And the criticism is really concentrated on the security forces that many people feel did not do their jobs.

KAGAN: Jill Dougherty in Moscow. Jill, thank you.

Last hour at the White House, President Bush met with Congressional leaders from both parties. They were there to discuss intelligence reform and changes recommended by the 9/11 panel. That meeting comes a day after lawmakers unveiled various measures of their own.

Our national security correspondent David Ensor here from Washington to explain more about that. David, good morning.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Well, the stars do seem aligned for intelligence reform in the coming weeks, though there's precious little time on the Congressional calendar to do it.

At a Senate hearing, leaders of the FBI and CIA will be going into the details this morning on Capitol Hill. That's the hearing we see underway right here. Both Republicans and Democrats want intelligence reform before they have to face the voters in November, if at all possible. And as you mentioned, at the White House this morning, the president described what he favors in the way of reform to congressional leaders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We believe that there ought to be a National Intelligence Director who has full budgetary authority. We'll take to members of Congress about how to implement that.

I look forward to working with the members to get a bill to my desk as quickly as possible. It's important we get our intelligence gathering correct. And after all, we're still at war. We've got to find the enemy before they hurt us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENSOR: Yesterday Senators McCain and Lieberman unveiled a bill to enact almost all of the 41 recommendations of the 9/11 Commission for changes to reduce the danger of additional terrorist attacks on this nation. One exception is that the bill does not put the Pentagon in charge of the CIA's paramilitary operations personnel, the man like Johnny Michael Spann, who our viewers may remember was the first man killed in Afghanistan, the CIA paramilitary officer.

Now next week, the Senate holds hearings on the nomination of Congressman Porter Goss to be the next director of Central Intelligence. And assuming he's confirmed, it looks like he will be the last DCI.

The question will be: If Mr. Bush is re-elected, will Goss be the National Intelligence Director, or will he just be the CIA director working for that person. Since the Democrats are saying Goss is too political a choice, it seems likely Mr. Kerry, if elected, would not keep Porter Goss -- Daryn.

KAGAN: A lot of questions still to be answered there, in Washington.

Dr. David Ensor, thank you.

And we're going to take a break. A lot more news and a look at weather ahead after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: All right, if you get to the point where you need to set down the remote and pick up a good book, Dr. Kay Scarpetta has a tale to tell. She is the literary creation of Chris Cornwell, the world's No. 1 bestselling crime writer, and the author of "Trace."

Patricia Cornwell is joining us me from New York City, with a preview of her newest book.

Good morning. Good to see you again.

PATRICIA CORNWELL, AUTHOR, "TRACE": Good morning. Nice to be here.

KAGAN: Dr. Scarpetta is back. Poor thing, she's having a few problems, isn't she?

CORNWELL: Well, I don't think she's ever been accused of having an easy life.

KAGAN: Yes, there's that.

CORNWELL: Yes, tough case, tough personal life, tough everything.

KAGAN: Sometimes we can all associate with that. So she's been in South Florida, kind of freelancing. Now she heads back to her old home, to Richmond, Virginia, but things aren't quite like she expected to find them when she goes back home.

CORNWELL: No, in the first place, you have to wonder what's going on when you get called back in a consultant on a case in an area where you're fired from your job, and that's what's happened to her. So you wonder, is this a political set-up? And of course, it is, not to mention it's one of the most difficult case in her career, you know, 14-year-old girl who seems to have died from natural causes in bed, but of course we know that's not what happened. And so it's a very intricate, and actually a very disturbing and creepy story.

KAGAN: Last time we talked, you had just written your book trying to solve the murders, the Jack the Ripper murders in England. Why was it time now to bring Dr. Scarpetta back?

CORNWELL: Well, really, the ripper investigation was simply a diversion from my normal activities, which you know my normal activities is fiction writing. And when I had a chance to work on that real case and did, and brought it to resolution, I've simply have gone back to doing what I've always done, which is my novels.

So, I never -- Scarpetta was just replaced very temporarily by a real investigation.

KAGAN: Kind of interesting when you use the world "normal," your normal life.

CORNWELL: Well, I know. Such as it is.

KAGAN: Not a lot normal there, Patricia.

CORNWELL: As you're probably right.

KAGAN: Yeah. But it felt good to get back to her and to her character?

CORNWELL; Oh, always, always. I love to write about these characters, and I love to come up with an unusual scenario and unusual cases, and to show people areas of forensic science and medicine and police investigation that they might not be familiar with, such as trace evidence, which is simply a microscopic investigation. People leave things behind that they're not aware of, and I want to know what those things are and what they might tell us.

KAGAN: There's a real-life mystery that's kind of coming to light in Kansas City in recent day. The story of -- they're not calling a serial killer, but a number of related deaths, maybe as many as six, a number of African-American women who has been murdered, and a mystery caller who's calling in to the police there.

Do you follow cases like that? Are you inspired by them?

CORNWELL: Well, I always follow cases like that, because you know, these are the real things going on out there. And I'm interested in them. They move me emotionally. I get upset by them. It's their tragedies. And in cases like the one you're just talking about, I already want to know what kinds of injuries are they finding associated with these remains? Is there a certain, you know, pattern that they're seeing? Is there any evidence?

And of course, it is very peculiar when somebody is calling about a case like that. What are they doing about that? But what might the body still have to say if you're able to understand the very silent language they speak? That's what I want to know.

KAGAN: Right. Unfortunately, in at least two of the case, two of the bodies are so badly decomposed, even difficult to identify the women.

CORNWELL: That's right.

KAGAN: So, the new book is called "Trace." What's next for you?

CORNWELL: Well, I'm working on the one that's to follow that, that right now the working title is "Predator." It's the next Scarpetta novel, and I'm very much involved in that at the moment.

I'm doing all kinds of very interesting research into genetics and also into the human -- into the brain and why people do what they do.

KAGAN: Well, you've made a career out of that. Next book coming around, you'll have to stop by again and tell us about that

CORNWELL: I would love to. Thank you so much.

KAGAN: All right, good luck. Patricia Cornwell -- the new book is called "Trace." Kay Scarpetta is back. Thanks so much.

We're going to take a break, and we'll be back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: All right. About an hour from right now, people in Oregon, Nevada, and Utah, if they look to the northwest, can see a piece of the Genesis satellite as it reenters the earth's atmosphere. And then, just a few minutes later, a helicopter is going to try to snag parts of it from midair.

Why are they doing all this? Space correspondent Miles O'Brien here to explain why NASA is trying to catch a falling star.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Catching a falling star, catching rays, here comes the sun -- whatever you like.

If you're in the northwest, I invite you, in about an hour's time, to step outside and -- how many times in your life can you predict a streaking meteor? This is one of those occasions as Genesis -- a small capsule about five foot in diameter, looks like a Frisbee, more or less -- will streak in, on its way to this rather odd helicopter capture.

First, let me show you exactly where you need to be looking. Take a look at some of our satellite imagery, our keyhole technology. We're going to zoom in on the entry point, which is right across Oregon, a little piece of Idaho, into Nevada. It comes right across pretty much like that, OK? And it's going to happen in about an hour's time. You're going to see this incredible streak. It's going to be moving at 25,000 miles per hour. That's fast.

Now, as it comes in, it's going to make its way to an Air Force testing ground in Utah. It's the largest contiguous space that is used for just that in the continental United States -- 25 miles wide -- it's 25 miles long, six miles wide. Plenty of room there for this Genesis capsule.

Now, as it gets closer to the ground, a parachute will deploy. there you see the spacecraft itself. This is the Genesis spacecraft, which has been in a spot facing the sun for about 800 days, capturing pieces of the solar wind -- microscopic pieces of the solar wind -- which scientist will use to tell precisely how solar systems, such as ours, formed. It's kind of like really the recipe for all that we see around us.

As it gets closer, helicopters like these -- two of them, with 18-and-a-half-foot hooks attached to the bottom -- will try to snag Genesis as it comes down with its parachute. The theory here is that these collectors of the solar wind, made of silicon and diamonds and sapphires and all kinds of precious metals, are so fragile that scientists don't want it to impact on the ground.

The pilots are Hollywood stunt pilots. Let's listen to what Dan Rudert, one of them, has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN RUDERT, HELICOPTER STUNT PILOT: When Genesis reenters the Earth's atmosphere, it comes in on a parachute. And we have special hooks rigged that we come across the parachute and grab it with a hook out of the air. And then, it turns into like a suspended line underneath the helicopter, where we fly it as an external load. We gently place it on the ground out in the desert.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Rudert is the back-up pilot. The lead pilot, Cliff Fleming, he and -- the two of them have tried this 17 times over the years, and they are 17 for 17. Of course, the 18th try is the one that counts, Daryn. No second takes on this one. It's a $264 million package. You don't want to drop it.

KAGAN: No, not exactly. And I understand one of the challenges for the pilots -- they're so high up, they have nothing to kind of give them a perspective in terms of how fast they're going.

O'BRIEN: The truth is, there are a lot of helicopter pilots who are truly acrophobic; they really don't like being up that high. And this is very unusual for them. They don't have the points of reference they're used to.

KAGAN: All right, much more ahead. Miles, thank you.

CNN will have live coverage of that capture attempt. You watch it right here at 12:15 p.m. Eastern, 9:15 a.m. Pacific.

And meanwhile, the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right now.

We're going to go ahead and start with a look at what is happening now in the news. President Bush returns to Florida today to tour the latest damage from Hurricane Frances. He comes bearing some $2 billion in disaster relief. That emergency aid also goes to help victims of Hurricane Charley three-and-a-half weeks ago.

Democratic Challenger John Kerry is in Ohio this morning, taking the Bush administration to task for what Kerry calls miscalculations and wrong choices in the Iraq war. Kerry delivered his speech at the Cincinnati Museum Center. That is the same location where President Bush outlined his case for going to war with Iraq nearly two years ago. Later today, Kerry will campaign in Rochester, Minnesota.

It's been another volatile day across Iraq, with attacks and violent clashes erupting in at least four cities. Six Iraqis are reported killed in the renewed fighting between rebels and U.S. backed forces in Fallujah. Two more U.S. troops were killed in separate roadside bombings in or near Baghdad. And insurgents launched assassination attempts on Iraqi officials in Baghdad and Mosul.

The national debate over abortion could be headed back to the U.S. Supreme Court. A federal judge in Nebraska says the ban on a controversial type of late-term abortion is unconstitutional. President Bush signed the partial-birth abortion ban act last year, but that law has not been enforced because of legal challenges. Today's decision echoes earlier judicial opinions in New York and San Francisco that also found the law unconstitutional.

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

We are just two ticks away from 11:00 a.m. on the east coast and 8:00 a.m. on the west coast. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.

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