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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Justice Dept. Warns States About Security; Interim Iraqi PM Addresses Congress

Aired September 23, 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, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, a warning from the Justice Department to all 50 states: tighten up security between now and Election Day. The fear, al Qaeda could strike again.
Also happening now, new questions about whether more U.S. troops are needed right now in Iraq.

And are the terrorists turning the British public against Tony Blair?

Standby for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Allawi visit to the Hill.

AYAD ALLAWI, INTERIM IRAQI PRIME MINISTER: I have come here to thank you and to promise you that your sacrifices are not in vain.

BLITZER: Where are those sacrifices leading?

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our only option is victory.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I have a better plan to win than George Bush does.

BLITZER: Gaza gundown. A deadly shoot-out caught on camera.

Given up for dead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're overjoyed and we were stunned.

BLITZER: It was called an unsurvivable crash, but they walked out of the wilderness.

ELTON JOHN, MUSICIAN: Rude, vile, pigs.

BLITZER: Sir Elton in the airport, why's he so unhappy?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Thursday, September 23, 2004.

BLITZER: President Bush certainly doesn't see eye to eye with all the allies. But as Iraq's interim prime minister made the rounds here in Washington today, it was clear these two leaders share common ground.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): President Bush and Prime Minister Allawi emerged from the Oval Office and walked into the Rose Garden speaking with one voice.

BUSH: If we stop fighting the terrorists in Iraq, they would be free to plot and plan attacks elsewhere in America and other free nations.

ALLAWI: Iraq is becoming a frontline for a global fight against terrorists.

BLITZER: Connecting the war in Iraq to the broader war on terror has been a pillar of the president's strategy during this U.S. presidential campaign. And for now, Iraq has emerged as the central issue in the election.

Without mentioning his Democratic challenger by name, the president pointedly used the Allawi visit to go after John Kerry's supposed flip-flops on the Iraq war.

BUSH: I believe a leader must be consistent and clear and not change positions when times get tough and the times have been hard. These are hard times. But I understand that -- what mixed messages do. You can embolden an enemy by sending mixed messages.

BLITZER: On the campaign trail in Columbus, Ohio, Kerry shot right back.

KERRY: I want victory. I want to win. And I have a better plan to win than George Bush does. The president says that things are getting better in Iraq, and we must just stay the same course. Well, I disagree. They're not getting better, and we need to change the course to protect our troops and to win.

BLITZER: On Capitol Hill, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, General John Abizaid, was asked whether more U.S. troops might be needed in Iraq. There are some 138,000 there right now.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, CENTCOM COMMANDER: I think we will need more troops than we currently have to secure the elections process in Iraq that will probably take place in the end of January. But it is our belief that those troops will be Iraqi troops, and they may be additional international troops that arrive to help out as well as part of the United Nations mission. And so I don't foresee a need for more American troops but we can't discount it.

BLITZER: Mr. Bush says General Abizaid has not asked him for more troops.

BUSH: Obviously we could work this out. I mean, if our commanders on the ground feel it's in the interest of the Iraq citizens to provide more troops, we'll talk about it.

BLITZER: For his part, Allawi insisted more U.S. troops are not needed. What's needed, he said, are more Iraqi troops to get the job done. And addressing a joint meeting of the Congress, he insisted that's happening.

ALLAWI: The Iraqi government now commands almost 50,000 armed and combat-ready Iraqis. By January it will be some 145,000, and by the end of next year, some 250,000 Iraqis.

BLITZER: Both the president and the prime minister also insisted things are moving in the right direction in Iraq, despite a recent CIA report suggesting the opposite.

ALLAWI: We are succeeding in Iraq.

BUSH: I saw a poll that said the right track/wrong track in Iraq was better than here in America. That's pretty darn strong. The people see a better future.

KERRY: I think the prime minister is obviously contradicting his own statement of a few days ago where he said the terrorists are pouring into the country. The prime minister and the president are here, obviously, to put their best face on the policy. But the fact is that the CIA estimates, the reporting, the ground operations, and the troops all tell a different story.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: White House officials, led by the vice president, Dick Cheney, later came down very hard on John Kerry for supposedly insulting Prime Minister Allawi while here in Washington.

As we've seen, President Bush and Prime Minister Allawi accentuated the positive today, but are they right about the situation on the ground right now in Iraq? Our senior international correspondent Brent Sadler is in Baghdad with a reality check -- Brent.

BRENT SADLER, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Wolf. Iraqis watching that speech by President Allawi in Congress certainly have mixed opinions today. They look at the life they are leading and quite frankly they tell us on the ground here that it was bad under Saddam Hussein, the situation was appalling, and many Iraqis say their actual lives in terms of what they can do because of the deteriorating security situation is no better.

Sure, they're glad Saddam Hussein is gone, but what has been put in its place is nothing in terms of what they expected post the liberation of Iraq. Others also tell us that they believe that the whole issue of Ayad Allawi in the Congress and later this day at the Rose Garden at the White House really part of a PR blitzes by Mr. Allawi to lend support to President Bush in his hour of need as the political football is kicked about between the two presidential candidates. As far as on-the-ground is concerned, a continuing upsurge in violence. A very deadly month going on right now in terms of the kidnapping and beheading of foreign hostages. That's also raised the specter that some insurgent groups are really trying to shake resolve among supporters of both President Bush and the United States for what he did in launching the war in Iraq, and also for Tony Blair in Britain, the prime minister there under pressure in his own country for the fate of that hostage, perhaps also to be beheaded, we don't know yet, Kenneth Bigley.

So those are the issues. That's how it's being seen on the ground here -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Brent Sadler in Baghdad, thanks, Brent, very much.

The bloody conflict in Iraq is hitting home in northern England where a community waits for word on the fate of a hostage. CNN's Diana Muriel reporting from Liverpool.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Behind the front door of this house in an otherwise anonymous terraced street in northern Liverpool, a very private family endure a very public crisis.

This is the home of 86-year-old Lil Bigley, mother of British contractor Kenneth Bigley, held hostage in Iraq since last week. At a press conference in Liverpool Thursday, Lil Bigley was overcome with emotion as she spoke of her son.

LIL BIGLEY, MOTHER OF HOSTAGE: Send him home to me alive. This family needs him and I need him.

MURIEL: In a video released on the Internet late Wednesday, Bigley begged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to intercede to save his life.

CRAIG BIGLEY, SON OF HOSTAGE: They wish you to say to Ken...

MURIEL: His son Craig, flanked by Bigley's two brothers, then made their own appeal to the hostage takers.

C. BIGLEY: We have heard what you say and want to continue to listen to you. You have proved to the world that you are committed and determined. Be merciful, as we know you can be. Release Ken back to his wife and family. We ask you as a family to be all merciful.

MURIEL: Christian and Muslim leaders in Liverpool also came together at the Parish Church, just a stone's throw from the Bigley home to make this appeal.

REV. JAMES JONES, VICAR: The statements that the captors have made have often referred to their own belief in God, and it's on that ground that we are actually making this appeal to them and that the God whom they believe in is known as the merciful one, and so we're appealing to them on the grounds of their own faith and our own faith in the God of mercy to be merciful, to show mercy, to have compassion in this situation, and to release Mr. Bigley.

AKBAR ALI, MUSLIM CLERIC: In the name of God, the merciful one, we as Muslim and Christian leaders in Liverpool appeal to you as believers to have mercy on Kenneth Bigley.

MURIEL: The crisis unfolding in Iraq has given the conflict there new relevance for the people of this community.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With them living so close it's -- you know, it does bring home the sort of thing that you shouldn't be allowed to get away with things like that.

MURIEL (on camera): So prayers and pleas for mercy from this whole community have gone out to the hostage takers in Iraq. For the Bigley family here in Liverpool, the agonizing wait continues.

Diana Muriel, CNN, Liverpool, England.

BLITZER: The demands, pleas and messages from all sides in the crisis are loaded with meaning that goes way beyond the words themselves. Paul Davis reads between the lines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL DAVIS, ITV NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The world is watching Ken Bigley's torment. We share his fear, hear his words, but every word we're hearing has been carefully calculated for maximum impact. The hostage-takers allowed Ken Bigley to appeal to Tony Blair, the family man. "A family like you've got a family, with children like your children," he said. Applying even more pressure on Number 10, the terrorists asked do leaders really care about their people? And there's been diplomatic language from Ken Bigley's family. "We ask you, as a family, to be all merciful," they pleaded with the terrorists.

TERRY WAITE, FORMER HOSTAGE IN LEBANON: There was a main psychological element in this whole business to what is a game and it's a game for real where life is at stake and we see this man standing on the edge of life and everyone around him pleading for it.

DAVIS: In this dreadful business, it seems Ken Bigley has been spared for now at least to pile further pressure on the British prime minister.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please help me. I need you to help me, Mr. Blair because you are the only person now on God's earth that I can speak to.

DAVIS: The hostage-takers use their web site to add to Mr. Blair's discomfort. Will he try to save this hostage or will he not care, they taunt? Do leaders really care about their people, the question apparently aimed at the British electorate. Ken Bigley's family also used carefully chosen words, looking to establish common ground with the terrorists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have proved to the world that you are committed and determined. Be merciful, as we know you can be.

DAVIS: In all this, the prime minister has said nothing. The silence from Number 10 underlining a refusal to be seen to negotiate with terrorists.

WAITE: Tony Blair is a hostage as well as this person, so the way he responds, the British electorate are watching, and Tony Blair can't win this one in actual fact.

DAVIS: A no-win situation for the prime minister but it's the Bigley family that has so much to lose. Paul Davis, ITV News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: In Gaza today, Palestinian gunmen managed to break through the defenses around the Jewish settlement. Two deadly shoot- outs followed, one of them caught on tape. CNN's Guy Raz has the story from Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Handshakes to seal a pact of death. A macabre and familiar ritual chronicling their last moments alive.

In response to the continuing Israeli crimes against our Palestinian people, he says, we launch this operation to show the enemy that we are able to enter their strongholds. Hours later these three young Palestinian fighters were dead.

The fierce gun battle outside the Jewish settlement of Marag (ph) killed three Israeli soldiers as well, the Israeli army's highest one- day death toll in nearly six months.

Earlier, Palestinian women stumbled over the remains of this building, demolished during an Israeli raid on the Han Hunis (ph) refugee camp in Gaza.

Israel says this camp and others are used by Palestinian fighters to launch attacks at nearby Jewish settlements, and Israeli towns like Sterot (ph) outside of Gaza.

But suffering in this region is a two-way street. A memorial to the Israeli dead, killed in a suicide attack in east Jerusalem on Wednesday. The family of suicide bomber Zana Abu Sallam (ph), solemnly removing their belongings from their home in the Palestinian West Bank. Soon after military bulldozers would demolish it.

This latest violence underlines the ongoing debate within Israel on whether to withdraw Jewish settlers from Gaza. Some say the price of occupation simply isn't worth it. Others call any planned pullout a capitulation. Still Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says no one will deter his plan from withdrawing. Guy Raz, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: A new warning from officials here in Washington to every state. Al Qaeda may try to strike again before the elections.

Undercover at the airports. You won't believe what they slipped past the screeners. Has anything really changed?

Plus this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course we are absolutely elated that she's alive, as we were planning her funeral.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Incredible survival. Two people walk away from a plane crash days after their trip ended in disaster.

And later...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELTON JOHN, SINGER: Rude, vile, pigs. You know what that means? Rude, vile, pig. That's what all of you are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Celebrity outbursts. Sir Elton John loses his temper while traveling overseas. We'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: With the campaign in full swing and election day drawing very, very near, the attorney general of the United States, John Ashcroft, has personally appealed for an all-out effort to head off a possible terror attack here in the United States. For more on this, let's turn to our justice correspondent, Kelli Arena.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the attorney general called all 93 U.S. attorneys to make sure that they're doing all that they can to counter what they describe as a very real terror threat. Officials are becoming increasingly concerned as the November 2 election approaches.

Since the spring, counterterrorism officials have repeatedly said that intelligence shows al Qaeda wants to disrupt the Democratic process, but they say there are still no specifics, including when, where, or how. And the attorney general's call last week is part of an overall offensive. CNN has previously reported government officials have said come October, there will be more law enforcement manpower on the streets, more overt surveillance, more aggressive security checks, and more interviews with alleged terrorist sympathizers, informants or others that the FBI thinks may have helpful information. Investigators are also combing through information that has been gathered from recent arrest arrests overseas particularly in Britain and Pakistan to make sure that nothing has been overlooked. As one senior justice official put it, Wolf, this is crunch time. BLITZER: Between now and November 2 we'll all be on alert. Thanks very much, Kelli, for that.

With all the security overall put into place at the nation's airports since 9/11, a new report is revealing some shocking failures in the system. For more on that let's go to our -- CNN's Kathleen Koch.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this is a classified report, but lawmakers who we've spoken with who have seen it were stunned. During a six-month period toward the end last year we're told that undercover investigators were able to slip weapons and explosives past screeners at more than a dozen U.S. airports.

The study, by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general found that improvements were needed in training, equipment, procedures, and supervision. The head of the House Aviation Subcommittee is not pleased.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN MICA (R-FL), AVIATION SUBCMTE. CHMN.: There's no question that we've got to do a better job. We've deployed 46,000 screeners. We've spent billions of dollars. And still the system doesn't work right. There's no question that we need better technology, and Congress has squandered some of that money. And right now as Congress is considering legislation, has cast aside funding for improved explosion detection devices, and that's a problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Chairman Mica is echoing the concerns of many, including the 9/11 Commission, that it is in detecting explosives where the U.S. Aviation system is still particularly vulnerable. Of course, those concerned heightened after the recent downing two of Russian jetliners by women who were believed to have carried explosives onto the planes.

Mica and the IG report would like to see new technology tested like multi view X-ray machines. Those machines use low-level X-rays to give a three-dimensional picture of what is under a passenger's clothing.

Now that of course could raise some privacy concerns. There is new technology, though, that is being tested right now in nine airports, devices that scan documents for explosive residue or test the air around a passenger for similar traces of explosives.

But, Wolf, clearly lawmakers are concerned that after reports like this, action needs to come sooner versus later.

BLITZER: Kathleen Koch, reporting for us. Thanks, Kathleen, very much. Another disturbing story.

And to our viewers, here's your chance to weigh in on this story. Our Web question of the day is this: Do you have confidence in airport screening procedures? You can vote, go to cnn.com/wolf. We'll have the results for you later in this broadcast.

A ruling in what's literally a life and death case. Florida Supreme Court takes a critical stand in a very emotional battle.

Also...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I came back home and the phone rang and it was my daughter Rhonda and she said she just was crying and screaming, she's alive, she's alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: A deadly crash. A stunning twist. And an amazing tale of survival.

Plus, a well-known singer kicked out of country, suspected of terror ties. We'll hear from the former Cat Stevens.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The Florida Supreme Court today struck down a law Governor Jeb Bush has used to keep a brain-damaged woman alive. In a unanimous ruling the court said the law violated the separation of powers between the judicial branch of government and the legislative and executive branches.

It's the latest development in a long-running battle between the parents and the husband of Terry Schiavo. It's not clear yet whether today's ruling clears the way for removing her feeding tube, but Governor Bush says he's saddened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: I'm disappointed for the moral reasons of the taking of innocent life, and without having, I don't think, a full hearing on the facts of what her intents were.

Now, with that, you know, we will review what the ruling says. We will make a determination if there are any additional steps that can be taken. If there are we will take them, if not we will let the action of the supreme court stand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Also in today's justice report, a new development in the Lori Hacking murder case. Mark Hacking appeared in a Utah courtroom today, and waived his right to a preliminary hearing. He's accused of slaying his wife while she slept and dumping her body in the trash. The next hearing is set for October 29th.

Jurors in the Peterson murder trial saw home video today of Laci Peterson. She's seen smiling and joking with friends at a gathering at her home. The video was seized during the investigation into her disappearance. Her husband Scott is charged with her murder and that of their unborn child.

People are using words like "miracle" and "resurrection" to describe a stunning twist in an otherwise tragic story. It started with the crash of a small plane with five people on board.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LETHA PILKINGTON, RELATIVE: Just so tragic. We've all been just devastated.

BLITZER (voice-over): Families had already started gathering in Kalispell, Montana, after learning that the single engine plane carrying their loved ones had crashed in stormy weather Monday south of Glacier National Park.

Four of the people on board were National Forest Service employees heading from Kalispell to a nearby wilderness station. The fifth was the pilot.

When search and rescue crews found the charred crash site and melted wreckage, it appeared impossible anyone had survived. And that word went out to the families. But two people did survive, 23-year- old Jodee Hogg and 29-year-old Matthew Ramige, both Forest Service employees.

For two days they walked through the wilderness, before being spotted near a highway Wednesday. The news spread quickly.

PILKINGTON: I came back home, and the phone rang and it was my daughter Rhonda and she said -- she just was crying and screaming, she's alive, she's alive.

BLITZER: And no one was more surprised than the local sheriff who upon seeing the melted wreckage declared a total loss of life.

DENISE GERMAN, U.S. FOREST SERVICE: To hear there are two survivors that walk out, I mean, what an amazing story. And we're so delighted, we are so excited that there are two survivors. And at the same time we mourn with the families that have lost loved ones.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Jodee Hogg is hospitalized in Kalispell with burns, a sprained ankle and a back injury. She's expected to be released in a few days. Matthew Ramige was airlifted to a Seattle burn unit where he's in intensive care. Federal officials are investigating.

They're back. Those devastating storms, Jeanne and Ivan, once again threatening the United States.

Plus, the latest developments from Haiti. More than a thousand people are now dead. The situation said to be increasingly desperate.

Elton John unplugged, an outburst at the airport. We'll show you what it was all about.

Plus, a daredevil jump, but not everything went as planned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

It's the storm that simply won't go away, Ivan once again threatening the Gulf Coast. And now forecasters warning Hurricane Jeanne could be a threat to the Southeastern part of the United States as well. We'll get to all of that. First, though, a quick check of some stories now in the news.

The U.S. military has dropped an espionage charge against a Muslim interpreter accused of spying at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The Air Force interpreter pleaded guilty to a lesser charge. No sentence has been announced. It's the third Guantanamo Bay spy case to fall apart this year.

The top general in the Army National Guard says the unit will fall short of its recruiting goal this budget year. The general estimates the number of new enlistees will be almost 10 percent below the target of 56,000. He says fewer active duty troops are joining the Guard when their enlistment is up.

The House of Representatives has voted to bar federal courts from hearing constitutional challenges to the Pledge of Allegiance. The legislation is backed by social conservatives and was approved largely along partisan lines. Congressional aides say it's unlikely to be approved by the U.S. Senate.

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

In northwest Haiti, authorities now say more than 11,000 (sic) people are dead in the aftermath of tropical storm Jeanne. And as the death toll mounts, now approaching actually 1,100, emergency workers say conditions are simply deteriorating.

CNN's Karl Penhaul has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A Haitian woman wades through floodwaters after salvaging her last possessions. Teenager Lifedna Dorleans sits amid the wreckage of what was once her home, preparing a few scraps for dinner. She and her family were lucky to escape alive as Tropical Storm Jeanne churned up a sea of mud and rain. "We found a ladder and went up to a roof. We thought we were going to die," she says. "We stood there but couldn't stay because the water reached us. We jumped from one roof to another to escape," she says.

Many of her neighbors are still camping out on their roofs. Others try in vain to sweep out the tide of destruction.

It will take days yet for the city to dry out. And as it does, United Nations and Haitian officials say the corpses of more victims may emerge. These men point out two bodies decomposing on this swampy patch of ground. "We didn't know them. They were washed down from a neighborhood along way up there," he says."

Hundreds of dead so far discovered in Gonaives are hurriedly being buried in mass graves to avoid possible disease.

(on camera): The floodwaters are beginning to subside now. At one point residents say the water was above roof level. The main challenge now is getting emergency supplies to these people.

(voice-over): Some of these people say the emergency aid effort is slow and they've only had a few mouthfuls of clean drinking water since the storm struck. That desperation was clear when volunteers began distributing soft drinks donated by local Haitian businessmen. After the storm, these people must survive chaos and even fighting if they hope to get enough to eat and drink to make it through the next few days.

Ask Lifedna Dorleans what promise the future holds for her and thousands of other poor Haitians hit by this disaster? "Misery," she says.

Karl Penhaul, CNN, Gonaives, Haiti.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

BLITZER: And just to clarify, more than 1,100, not thousand, 1,100 people are now dead in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Jeanne in Haiti.

They were two of the deadliest and most destructive storms of this hurricane season and after being out of the headlines for a while, Ivan and Jeanne are clearly back in and once again threatening the United States.

CNN meteorologist Orelon Sidney joining us now.

Orelon, tell our viewers how this could happen. We thought they were long gone.

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, well, especially Ivan. Everybody was really breathing a sigh of relief last weekend when it raced up the coast.

I'll show you the track of Ivan and kind of give you an idea of what it looks like happened. Of course, it came across the eastern Caribbean and then made a pretty close brush to Jamaica before it headed through the Yucatan Channel and up to a landfall at Orange Beach, Alabama. And then some of the energy looks like it looped around and actually came back down into the Gulf of Mexico.

Part of the low-level circulation then kicked up into Tropical Storm Ivan once again, 30 miles south-southeast of Cameron, Louisiana. The winds are 45 miles an hour, moving northwest at 8. The winds are not a player here. What we're looking for is the potential for heavy rain and thunderstorms. You can already see them across parts of Louisiana and spreading on into Texas through the next couple of days.

So rain is going to be the story. And we do have flood watches in effect for the parishes in Louisiana and for counties in southeastern Texas. The track now actually takes it quickly to a tropical depression. But look at this. It loops back into the central Texas coast by Saturday, could even make it back into the Gulf of Mexico, believe it or not, but it looks like wind sheer will keep it from developing any further, if that did happen.

Now here's Jeanne. It is currently working its way to the west- northwest pretty slowly now at about eight miles an hour. It's been increasing in forward speed all day, 425 miles of Great Abaco with winds of 105 miles an hour. The track has shifted a little bit further west now. We expect that it could make a pass into eastern Florida by the weekend. Landfall could be somewhere early Sunday morning -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Orelon Sidney explaining it and doing it very well, as she always does, what's going on. Orelon, thank you very much.

The controversy that refuses to die, now it's costing CBS News and CBS business. More fallout from the document drama.

Also, this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELTON JOHN, MUSICIAN: Yes, we'd love to get out of Taiwan if it's full of people like you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: What prompted Elton John's airport outburst? We'll tell you.

Plus, the candidates in corn. We'll explain what this is.

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Venezuelan troops stormed a prison west of the capital after inmates rioted and set fire to administrative buildings. Officials say six prisoners were killed when rival gangs clashed with guns, knives and machetes; 35 others are reported wounded.

Protest turns violent. Peruvian police responded to rock- throwing student protesters with tear gas and water cannons. Dozens of protesters were reportedly injured and nine were arrested. They were demonstrating against alleged corruption in the university system.

Totally shocked, that's how the recording artist formerly known as Cat Stevens described his reaction to being barred from the United States. The singer, who converted to Islam and changed his name more than 25 years ago, is on a security watch list because of alleged ties to potential terrorists. He calls that ridiculous.

YUSUF ISLAM, FORMER MUSICIAN: You know, the whole thing is totally ridiculous. Everybody knows who I am, you know. I'm no secret figure. Everybody knows my campaigning for charity, for peace, and there's GOT to be a whole lot of explanations. Hopefully, they will be there.

BLITZER: Daredevil released. Authorities in Panama have deported an Austrian man who parachuted from a bridge over the Panama Canal this month. Upon landing, he was arrested and detained for almost two weeks.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The controversy refuses to die over those disputed documents used by CBS News in a report questioning President Bush's National Guard service. Mr. Bush himself appeared to allude to the scandal while taking questions at a White House news conference earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Is anybody here from CBS? Robert, there you are, please. Happy to be here. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: John Roberts, the CBS News White House correspondent.

Meanwhile, there's fresh fallout, including some lost business for CBS.

Howard Kurtz of "The Washington Post" and CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES" is joining us now live with more.

What did you make -- under normal circumstances, the president clearly wants to give all the networks an opportunity to ask a question. And under normal circumstances, that would not have been a big deal. Today, it was sort of cute the way that unfolded, Howard.

HOWARD KURTZ, "RELIABLE SOURCES": Well, I could give you the psychobabble explanation, Wolf, which is that George W. Bush has been waiting 14 years to get even with CBS and Dan Rather since that famous on-air shouting match over Iran-Contra that the anchor engaged in with his father when he was vice president.

But the fact is, look, a Republican would love to run against Dan Rather. He's not real popular in the red states. It plays into the administration argument that the mainstream media, typified by Rather, or are biased against the president. In fact, I was looking at the cover of the conservative "Weekly Standard" magazine. I hope you can see that. They've got a big picture of Kerry with Dan Rather and Kitty Kelley. They would love to get them all up there as targets.

BLITZER: "The Weekly Standard" being a conservative publication here in Washington.

Now, I understand there's a little controversy emerging over Dick Thornburgh, the former U.S. attorney general who's now been asked by CBS News to participate in this investigation into what went wrong. Tell our viewers what's happening.

KURTZ: Well, Thornburgh, one of two panelists picked by CBS to investigate this mess and, of course, a former Republican governor of Pennsylvania, some at CBS sympathetic to Dan Rather perhaps are saying, why Thornburgh?

A, he is a Republican. Interestingly, he also got into a lawsuit with Karl Rove a decade ago over some unpaid bills from one of his campaigns. But, more importantly, Dick Thornburgh in the first Bush administration was appointed by the father of the current president, who's, of course, at the heart of this National Guard story and this National Guard controversy. So some are just wondering, although he has a lot of stature as a former attorney general, whether or not he might not take the most fair and balanced approach, shall we say.

BLITZER: But doesn't he bring a lot of credibility to whatever they come up with, conservatives, Republicans? If Dick Thornburgh signs up on it, you have to assume it would be the right thing, right?

KURTZ: Well, that would be the plus side in terms of making the public believe that this is going to be a thorough and aggressive investigation.

But I suspect that some at CBS maybe worry that it might be a little bit too thorough and too aggressive an investigation, because there's a lot of nervousness there about who might lose their jobs and who might be sacrificed just to put this matter behind CBS.

BLITZER: What about the affiliates, the CBS affiliates around the country? There has been fallout.

KURTZ: Absolutely.

They have been inundated, I am told, across the country with calls from angry viewers who are upset about CBS and Rather and "60 Minutes." I had an extraordinary interview, Wolf, with the station manager in Roanoke, Virginia, a guy name Bob Lee, who is the head of the CBS Affiliates Association.

He said there is a body of people that just intensely dislike Dan Rather and see an opportunity to demand his immediate resignation or that he be shot. And he went on to tell me that viewers have been vocal that we are so tarnished by this lapse of judgment at the network that they may take their viewing elsewhere. Now, the affiliates, they're the ones that make the money for CBS-Viacom. And so if they're unhappy, that has to be taken pretty seriously by the top corporate suits at the corporation.

BLITZER: All right, I suspect this is not going to go away, this story, any time soon. Howard Kurtz doing some excellent reporting for us -- Howie, thanks very much.

KURTZ: Thank you.

BLITZER: And we have a very important programming note to our viewers. Please tune in to a special edition of "RELIABLE SOURCES," an hour-long special edition, this Sunday morning focusing in on the turmoil at CBS News, Sunday morning, 11:00 a.m. Eastern, 8:00 Pacific, only here on CNN.

A pop star loses his temper at an airport. Find out what's behind this public outburst by the singer Sir Elton John. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Rude, vile pigs. That's not the title of an Elton John song, but that's what the legendary rocker called reporters and photographers during a visit to Taiwan.

Our Brian Todd has been looking into this story.

Brian, what is going on?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, this unfolded early today in Taipei near -- evidently near the end of what has been a very long road trip.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): To be very British about it, Sir Elton is not amused.

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) off! (EXPLETIVE DELETED) We'll throw you through the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) window!

TODD: As he tried to make his way through Taipei's Chiang Kai- shek International Airport early Thursday, Elton John seemed to have had enough of traveling, customs, and most of all the paparazzi.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move. Move. Move.

JOHN: You've had a great (INAUDIBLE) We come to Taiwan and (EXPLETIVE DELETED) thanks to you guys.

TODD: At one point, the informal rapport got a little personal.

JOHN: Rude, vile pigs. You know what I mean, rude, vile pigs. That's what all of you are. (CROSSTALK)

JOHN: Yes, we would love to get out of Taiwan if it's full of people like you.

TODD: It's not the first time the rocket man has had a run-in with fans and paparazzi. After this incident, his publicist issued a statement saying he had been besieged by hordes of photographers and TV crews as soon as he disembarked from his private plane and -- quote -- "The local police and security at the airport failed to protect Elton John from the ensuing chaos."

We tried to reach airport officials, but possibly because of the time difference, they couldn't get anyone to respond. At his concert later Thursday, Sir Elton reportedly told fans the photographers were the rudest people he'd ever met, and he meant every word he'd said to them. Now we're wondering if Taipei will be on any of his future tours.

JOHN: Pig. Pig.

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN: I don't care...

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Well, you had to feel for that guy on the phone right in front of him, whatever kind of call he was trying to make.

We also checked on procedures for getting celebrities through airports without creating a scene. We spoke to officials at two major U.S. airports and to the Transportation Security Administration. They all said it's usually the airline's responsibility to coordinate that with the celebrity.

But two factors at work here. No. 1, Elton John was not at a U.S. airport. And, No. 2, he was traveling on a private plane, so a bit of a fluid situation there.

BLITZER: A little testy, indeed.

TODD: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Brian Todd, for that.

The results of our Web question of the day, that's coming up next.

Plus, weaving your way through the election process, literally. We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in our Web question of the day. Take a look at this, though, remember, it's not a scientific poll.

If the presidential campaign has you going around in circles, our picture of the day is just for you. A cornfield maze in southern Wisconsin features caricatures of President Bush and Democrat John Kerry. It doesn't look easy, but, then again, it may be easier than finding your way through this year's campaign rhetoric.

That's it for me.

"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 September 23, 2004 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, a warning from the Justice Department to all 50 states: tighten up security between now and Election Day. The fear, al Qaeda could strike again.
Also happening now, new questions about whether more U.S. troops are needed right now in Iraq.

And are the terrorists turning the British public against Tony Blair?

Standby for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Allawi visit to the Hill.

AYAD ALLAWI, INTERIM IRAQI PRIME MINISTER: I have come here to thank you and to promise you that your sacrifices are not in vain.

BLITZER: Where are those sacrifices leading?

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our only option is victory.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I have a better plan to win than George Bush does.

BLITZER: Gaza gundown. A deadly shoot-out caught on camera.

Given up for dead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're overjoyed and we were stunned.

BLITZER: It was called an unsurvivable crash, but they walked out of the wilderness.

ELTON JOHN, MUSICIAN: Rude, vile, pigs.

BLITZER: Sir Elton in the airport, why's he so unhappy?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Thursday, September 23, 2004.

BLITZER: President Bush certainly doesn't see eye to eye with all the allies. But as Iraq's interim prime minister made the rounds here in Washington today, it was clear these two leaders share common ground.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): President Bush and Prime Minister Allawi emerged from the Oval Office and walked into the Rose Garden speaking with one voice.

BUSH: If we stop fighting the terrorists in Iraq, they would be free to plot and plan attacks elsewhere in America and other free nations.

ALLAWI: Iraq is becoming a frontline for a global fight against terrorists.

BLITZER: Connecting the war in Iraq to the broader war on terror has been a pillar of the president's strategy during this U.S. presidential campaign. And for now, Iraq has emerged as the central issue in the election.

Without mentioning his Democratic challenger by name, the president pointedly used the Allawi visit to go after John Kerry's supposed flip-flops on the Iraq war.

BUSH: I believe a leader must be consistent and clear and not change positions when times get tough and the times have been hard. These are hard times. But I understand that -- what mixed messages do. You can embolden an enemy by sending mixed messages.

BLITZER: On the campaign trail in Columbus, Ohio, Kerry shot right back.

KERRY: I want victory. I want to win. And I have a better plan to win than George Bush does. The president says that things are getting better in Iraq, and we must just stay the same course. Well, I disagree. They're not getting better, and we need to change the course to protect our troops and to win.

BLITZER: On Capitol Hill, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, General John Abizaid, was asked whether more U.S. troops might be needed in Iraq. There are some 138,000 there right now.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, CENTCOM COMMANDER: I think we will need more troops than we currently have to secure the elections process in Iraq that will probably take place in the end of January. But it is our belief that those troops will be Iraqi troops, and they may be additional international troops that arrive to help out as well as part of the United Nations mission. And so I don't foresee a need for more American troops but we can't discount it.

BLITZER: Mr. Bush says General Abizaid has not asked him for more troops.

BUSH: Obviously we could work this out. I mean, if our commanders on the ground feel it's in the interest of the Iraq citizens to provide more troops, we'll talk about it.

BLITZER: For his part, Allawi insisted more U.S. troops are not needed. What's needed, he said, are more Iraqi troops to get the job done. And addressing a joint meeting of the Congress, he insisted that's happening.

ALLAWI: The Iraqi government now commands almost 50,000 armed and combat-ready Iraqis. By January it will be some 145,000, and by the end of next year, some 250,000 Iraqis.

BLITZER: Both the president and the prime minister also insisted things are moving in the right direction in Iraq, despite a recent CIA report suggesting the opposite.

ALLAWI: We are succeeding in Iraq.

BUSH: I saw a poll that said the right track/wrong track in Iraq was better than here in America. That's pretty darn strong. The people see a better future.

KERRY: I think the prime minister is obviously contradicting his own statement of a few days ago where he said the terrorists are pouring into the country. The prime minister and the president are here, obviously, to put their best face on the policy. But the fact is that the CIA estimates, the reporting, the ground operations, and the troops all tell a different story.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: White House officials, led by the vice president, Dick Cheney, later came down very hard on John Kerry for supposedly insulting Prime Minister Allawi while here in Washington.

As we've seen, President Bush and Prime Minister Allawi accentuated the positive today, but are they right about the situation on the ground right now in Iraq? Our senior international correspondent Brent Sadler is in Baghdad with a reality check -- Brent.

BRENT SADLER, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Wolf. Iraqis watching that speech by President Allawi in Congress certainly have mixed opinions today. They look at the life they are leading and quite frankly they tell us on the ground here that it was bad under Saddam Hussein, the situation was appalling, and many Iraqis say their actual lives in terms of what they can do because of the deteriorating security situation is no better.

Sure, they're glad Saddam Hussein is gone, but what has been put in its place is nothing in terms of what they expected post the liberation of Iraq. Others also tell us that they believe that the whole issue of Ayad Allawi in the Congress and later this day at the Rose Garden at the White House really part of a PR blitzes by Mr. Allawi to lend support to President Bush in his hour of need as the political football is kicked about between the two presidential candidates. As far as on-the-ground is concerned, a continuing upsurge in violence. A very deadly month going on right now in terms of the kidnapping and beheading of foreign hostages. That's also raised the specter that some insurgent groups are really trying to shake resolve among supporters of both President Bush and the United States for what he did in launching the war in Iraq, and also for Tony Blair in Britain, the prime minister there under pressure in his own country for the fate of that hostage, perhaps also to be beheaded, we don't know yet, Kenneth Bigley.

So those are the issues. That's how it's being seen on the ground here -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Brent Sadler in Baghdad, thanks, Brent, very much.

The bloody conflict in Iraq is hitting home in northern England where a community waits for word on the fate of a hostage. CNN's Diana Muriel reporting from Liverpool.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Behind the front door of this house in an otherwise anonymous terraced street in northern Liverpool, a very private family endure a very public crisis.

This is the home of 86-year-old Lil Bigley, mother of British contractor Kenneth Bigley, held hostage in Iraq since last week. At a press conference in Liverpool Thursday, Lil Bigley was overcome with emotion as she spoke of her son.

LIL BIGLEY, MOTHER OF HOSTAGE: Send him home to me alive. This family needs him and I need him.

MURIEL: In a video released on the Internet late Wednesday, Bigley begged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to intercede to save his life.

CRAIG BIGLEY, SON OF HOSTAGE: They wish you to say to Ken...

MURIEL: His son Craig, flanked by Bigley's two brothers, then made their own appeal to the hostage takers.

C. BIGLEY: We have heard what you say and want to continue to listen to you. You have proved to the world that you are committed and determined. Be merciful, as we know you can be. Release Ken back to his wife and family. We ask you as a family to be all merciful.

MURIEL: Christian and Muslim leaders in Liverpool also came together at the Parish Church, just a stone's throw from the Bigley home to make this appeal.

REV. JAMES JONES, VICAR: The statements that the captors have made have often referred to their own belief in God, and it's on that ground that we are actually making this appeal to them and that the God whom they believe in is known as the merciful one, and so we're appealing to them on the grounds of their own faith and our own faith in the God of mercy to be merciful, to show mercy, to have compassion in this situation, and to release Mr. Bigley.

AKBAR ALI, MUSLIM CLERIC: In the name of God, the merciful one, we as Muslim and Christian leaders in Liverpool appeal to you as believers to have mercy on Kenneth Bigley.

MURIEL: The crisis unfolding in Iraq has given the conflict there new relevance for the people of this community.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With them living so close it's -- you know, it does bring home the sort of thing that you shouldn't be allowed to get away with things like that.

MURIEL (on camera): So prayers and pleas for mercy from this whole community have gone out to the hostage takers in Iraq. For the Bigley family here in Liverpool, the agonizing wait continues.

Diana Muriel, CNN, Liverpool, England.

BLITZER: The demands, pleas and messages from all sides in the crisis are loaded with meaning that goes way beyond the words themselves. Paul Davis reads between the lines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL DAVIS, ITV NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The world is watching Ken Bigley's torment. We share his fear, hear his words, but every word we're hearing has been carefully calculated for maximum impact. The hostage-takers allowed Ken Bigley to appeal to Tony Blair, the family man. "A family like you've got a family, with children like your children," he said. Applying even more pressure on Number 10, the terrorists asked do leaders really care about their people? And there's been diplomatic language from Ken Bigley's family. "We ask you, as a family, to be all merciful," they pleaded with the terrorists.

TERRY WAITE, FORMER HOSTAGE IN LEBANON: There was a main psychological element in this whole business to what is a game and it's a game for real where life is at stake and we see this man standing on the edge of life and everyone around him pleading for it.

DAVIS: In this dreadful business, it seems Ken Bigley has been spared for now at least to pile further pressure on the British prime minister.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please help me. I need you to help me, Mr. Blair because you are the only person now on God's earth that I can speak to.

DAVIS: The hostage-takers use their web site to add to Mr. Blair's discomfort. Will he try to save this hostage or will he not care, they taunt? Do leaders really care about their people, the question apparently aimed at the British electorate. Ken Bigley's family also used carefully chosen words, looking to establish common ground with the terrorists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have proved to the world that you are committed and determined. Be merciful, as we know you can be.

DAVIS: In all this, the prime minister has said nothing. The silence from Number 10 underlining a refusal to be seen to negotiate with terrorists.

WAITE: Tony Blair is a hostage as well as this person, so the way he responds, the British electorate are watching, and Tony Blair can't win this one in actual fact.

DAVIS: A no-win situation for the prime minister but it's the Bigley family that has so much to lose. Paul Davis, ITV News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: In Gaza today, Palestinian gunmen managed to break through the defenses around the Jewish settlement. Two deadly shoot- outs followed, one of them caught on tape. CNN's Guy Raz has the story from Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Handshakes to seal a pact of death. A macabre and familiar ritual chronicling their last moments alive.

In response to the continuing Israeli crimes against our Palestinian people, he says, we launch this operation to show the enemy that we are able to enter their strongholds. Hours later these three young Palestinian fighters were dead.

The fierce gun battle outside the Jewish settlement of Marag (ph) killed three Israeli soldiers as well, the Israeli army's highest one- day death toll in nearly six months.

Earlier, Palestinian women stumbled over the remains of this building, demolished during an Israeli raid on the Han Hunis (ph) refugee camp in Gaza.

Israel says this camp and others are used by Palestinian fighters to launch attacks at nearby Jewish settlements, and Israeli towns like Sterot (ph) outside of Gaza.

But suffering in this region is a two-way street. A memorial to the Israeli dead, killed in a suicide attack in east Jerusalem on Wednesday. The family of suicide bomber Zana Abu Sallam (ph), solemnly removing their belongings from their home in the Palestinian West Bank. Soon after military bulldozers would demolish it.

This latest violence underlines the ongoing debate within Israel on whether to withdraw Jewish settlers from Gaza. Some say the price of occupation simply isn't worth it. Others call any planned pullout a capitulation. Still Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says no one will deter his plan from withdrawing. Guy Raz, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: A new warning from officials here in Washington to every state. Al Qaeda may try to strike again before the elections.

Undercover at the airports. You won't believe what they slipped past the screeners. Has anything really changed?

Plus this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course we are absolutely elated that she's alive, as we were planning her funeral.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Incredible survival. Two people walk away from a plane crash days after their trip ended in disaster.

And later...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELTON JOHN, SINGER: Rude, vile, pigs. You know what that means? Rude, vile, pig. That's what all of you are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Celebrity outbursts. Sir Elton John loses his temper while traveling overseas. We'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: With the campaign in full swing and election day drawing very, very near, the attorney general of the United States, John Ashcroft, has personally appealed for an all-out effort to head off a possible terror attack here in the United States. For more on this, let's turn to our justice correspondent, Kelli Arena.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the attorney general called all 93 U.S. attorneys to make sure that they're doing all that they can to counter what they describe as a very real terror threat. Officials are becoming increasingly concerned as the November 2 election approaches.

Since the spring, counterterrorism officials have repeatedly said that intelligence shows al Qaeda wants to disrupt the Democratic process, but they say there are still no specifics, including when, where, or how. And the attorney general's call last week is part of an overall offensive. CNN has previously reported government officials have said come October, there will be more law enforcement manpower on the streets, more overt surveillance, more aggressive security checks, and more interviews with alleged terrorist sympathizers, informants or others that the FBI thinks may have helpful information. Investigators are also combing through information that has been gathered from recent arrest arrests overseas particularly in Britain and Pakistan to make sure that nothing has been overlooked. As one senior justice official put it, Wolf, this is crunch time. BLITZER: Between now and November 2 we'll all be on alert. Thanks very much, Kelli, for that.

With all the security overall put into place at the nation's airports since 9/11, a new report is revealing some shocking failures in the system. For more on that let's go to our -- CNN's Kathleen Koch.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this is a classified report, but lawmakers who we've spoken with who have seen it were stunned. During a six-month period toward the end last year we're told that undercover investigators were able to slip weapons and explosives past screeners at more than a dozen U.S. airports.

The study, by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general found that improvements were needed in training, equipment, procedures, and supervision. The head of the House Aviation Subcommittee is not pleased.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN MICA (R-FL), AVIATION SUBCMTE. CHMN.: There's no question that we've got to do a better job. We've deployed 46,000 screeners. We've spent billions of dollars. And still the system doesn't work right. There's no question that we need better technology, and Congress has squandered some of that money. And right now as Congress is considering legislation, has cast aside funding for improved explosion detection devices, and that's a problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Chairman Mica is echoing the concerns of many, including the 9/11 Commission, that it is in detecting explosives where the U.S. Aviation system is still particularly vulnerable. Of course, those concerned heightened after the recent downing two of Russian jetliners by women who were believed to have carried explosives onto the planes.

Mica and the IG report would like to see new technology tested like multi view X-ray machines. Those machines use low-level X-rays to give a three-dimensional picture of what is under a passenger's clothing.

Now that of course could raise some privacy concerns. There is new technology, though, that is being tested right now in nine airports, devices that scan documents for explosive residue or test the air around a passenger for similar traces of explosives.

But, Wolf, clearly lawmakers are concerned that after reports like this, action needs to come sooner versus later.

BLITZER: Kathleen Koch, reporting for us. Thanks, Kathleen, very much. Another disturbing story.

And to our viewers, here's your chance to weigh in on this story. Our Web question of the day is this: Do you have confidence in airport screening procedures? You can vote, go to cnn.com/wolf. We'll have the results for you later in this broadcast.

A ruling in what's literally a life and death case. Florida Supreme Court takes a critical stand in a very emotional battle.

Also...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I came back home and the phone rang and it was my daughter Rhonda and she said she just was crying and screaming, she's alive, she's alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: A deadly crash. A stunning twist. And an amazing tale of survival.

Plus, a well-known singer kicked out of country, suspected of terror ties. We'll hear from the former Cat Stevens.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The Florida Supreme Court today struck down a law Governor Jeb Bush has used to keep a brain-damaged woman alive. In a unanimous ruling the court said the law violated the separation of powers between the judicial branch of government and the legislative and executive branches.

It's the latest development in a long-running battle between the parents and the husband of Terry Schiavo. It's not clear yet whether today's ruling clears the way for removing her feeding tube, but Governor Bush says he's saddened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: I'm disappointed for the moral reasons of the taking of innocent life, and without having, I don't think, a full hearing on the facts of what her intents were.

Now, with that, you know, we will review what the ruling says. We will make a determination if there are any additional steps that can be taken. If there are we will take them, if not we will let the action of the supreme court stand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Also in today's justice report, a new development in the Lori Hacking murder case. Mark Hacking appeared in a Utah courtroom today, and waived his right to a preliminary hearing. He's accused of slaying his wife while she slept and dumping her body in the trash. The next hearing is set for October 29th.

Jurors in the Peterson murder trial saw home video today of Laci Peterson. She's seen smiling and joking with friends at a gathering at her home. The video was seized during the investigation into her disappearance. Her husband Scott is charged with her murder and that of their unborn child.

People are using words like "miracle" and "resurrection" to describe a stunning twist in an otherwise tragic story. It started with the crash of a small plane with five people on board.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LETHA PILKINGTON, RELATIVE: Just so tragic. We've all been just devastated.

BLITZER (voice-over): Families had already started gathering in Kalispell, Montana, after learning that the single engine plane carrying their loved ones had crashed in stormy weather Monday south of Glacier National Park.

Four of the people on board were National Forest Service employees heading from Kalispell to a nearby wilderness station. The fifth was the pilot.

When search and rescue crews found the charred crash site and melted wreckage, it appeared impossible anyone had survived. And that word went out to the families. But two people did survive, 23-year- old Jodee Hogg and 29-year-old Matthew Ramige, both Forest Service employees.

For two days they walked through the wilderness, before being spotted near a highway Wednesday. The news spread quickly.

PILKINGTON: I came back home, and the phone rang and it was my daughter Rhonda and she said -- she just was crying and screaming, she's alive, she's alive.

BLITZER: And no one was more surprised than the local sheriff who upon seeing the melted wreckage declared a total loss of life.

DENISE GERMAN, U.S. FOREST SERVICE: To hear there are two survivors that walk out, I mean, what an amazing story. And we're so delighted, we are so excited that there are two survivors. And at the same time we mourn with the families that have lost loved ones.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Jodee Hogg is hospitalized in Kalispell with burns, a sprained ankle and a back injury. She's expected to be released in a few days. Matthew Ramige was airlifted to a Seattle burn unit where he's in intensive care. Federal officials are investigating.

They're back. Those devastating storms, Jeanne and Ivan, once again threatening the United States.

Plus, the latest developments from Haiti. More than a thousand people are now dead. The situation said to be increasingly desperate.

Elton John unplugged, an outburst at the airport. We'll show you what it was all about.

Plus, a daredevil jump, but not everything went as planned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

It's the storm that simply won't go away, Ivan once again threatening the Gulf Coast. And now forecasters warning Hurricane Jeanne could be a threat to the Southeastern part of the United States as well. We'll get to all of that. First, though, a quick check of some stories now in the news.

The U.S. military has dropped an espionage charge against a Muslim interpreter accused of spying at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The Air Force interpreter pleaded guilty to a lesser charge. No sentence has been announced. It's the third Guantanamo Bay spy case to fall apart this year.

The top general in the Army National Guard says the unit will fall short of its recruiting goal this budget year. The general estimates the number of new enlistees will be almost 10 percent below the target of 56,000. He says fewer active duty troops are joining the Guard when their enlistment is up.

The House of Representatives has voted to bar federal courts from hearing constitutional challenges to the Pledge of Allegiance. The legislation is backed by social conservatives and was approved largely along partisan lines. Congressional aides say it's unlikely to be approved by the U.S. Senate.

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

In northwest Haiti, authorities now say more than 11,000 (sic) people are dead in the aftermath of tropical storm Jeanne. And as the death toll mounts, now approaching actually 1,100, emergency workers say conditions are simply deteriorating.

CNN's Karl Penhaul has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A Haitian woman wades through floodwaters after salvaging her last possessions. Teenager Lifedna Dorleans sits amid the wreckage of what was once her home, preparing a few scraps for dinner. She and her family were lucky to escape alive as Tropical Storm Jeanne churned up a sea of mud and rain. "We found a ladder and went up to a roof. We thought we were going to die," she says. "We stood there but couldn't stay because the water reached us. We jumped from one roof to another to escape," she says.

Many of her neighbors are still camping out on their roofs. Others try in vain to sweep out the tide of destruction.

It will take days yet for the city to dry out. And as it does, United Nations and Haitian officials say the corpses of more victims may emerge. These men point out two bodies decomposing on this swampy patch of ground. "We didn't know them. They were washed down from a neighborhood along way up there," he says."

Hundreds of dead so far discovered in Gonaives are hurriedly being buried in mass graves to avoid possible disease.

(on camera): The floodwaters are beginning to subside now. At one point residents say the water was above roof level. The main challenge now is getting emergency supplies to these people.

(voice-over): Some of these people say the emergency aid effort is slow and they've only had a few mouthfuls of clean drinking water since the storm struck. That desperation was clear when volunteers began distributing soft drinks donated by local Haitian businessmen. After the storm, these people must survive chaos and even fighting if they hope to get enough to eat and drink to make it through the next few days.

Ask Lifedna Dorleans what promise the future holds for her and thousands of other poor Haitians hit by this disaster? "Misery," she says.

Karl Penhaul, CNN, Gonaives, Haiti.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

BLITZER: And just to clarify, more than 1,100, not thousand, 1,100 people are now dead in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Jeanne in Haiti.

They were two of the deadliest and most destructive storms of this hurricane season and after being out of the headlines for a while, Ivan and Jeanne are clearly back in and once again threatening the United States.

CNN meteorologist Orelon Sidney joining us now.

Orelon, tell our viewers how this could happen. We thought they were long gone.

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, well, especially Ivan. Everybody was really breathing a sigh of relief last weekend when it raced up the coast.

I'll show you the track of Ivan and kind of give you an idea of what it looks like happened. Of course, it came across the eastern Caribbean and then made a pretty close brush to Jamaica before it headed through the Yucatan Channel and up to a landfall at Orange Beach, Alabama. And then some of the energy looks like it looped around and actually came back down into the Gulf of Mexico.

Part of the low-level circulation then kicked up into Tropical Storm Ivan once again, 30 miles south-southeast of Cameron, Louisiana. The winds are 45 miles an hour, moving northwest at 8. The winds are not a player here. What we're looking for is the potential for heavy rain and thunderstorms. You can already see them across parts of Louisiana and spreading on into Texas through the next couple of days.

So rain is going to be the story. And we do have flood watches in effect for the parishes in Louisiana and for counties in southeastern Texas. The track now actually takes it quickly to a tropical depression. But look at this. It loops back into the central Texas coast by Saturday, could even make it back into the Gulf of Mexico, believe it or not, but it looks like wind sheer will keep it from developing any further, if that did happen.

Now here's Jeanne. It is currently working its way to the west- northwest pretty slowly now at about eight miles an hour. It's been increasing in forward speed all day, 425 miles of Great Abaco with winds of 105 miles an hour. The track has shifted a little bit further west now. We expect that it could make a pass into eastern Florida by the weekend. Landfall could be somewhere early Sunday morning -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Orelon Sidney explaining it and doing it very well, as she always does, what's going on. Orelon, thank you very much.

The controversy that refuses to die, now it's costing CBS News and CBS business. More fallout from the document drama.

Also, this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELTON JOHN, MUSICIAN: Yes, we'd love to get out of Taiwan if it's full of people like you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: What prompted Elton John's airport outburst? We'll tell you.

Plus, the candidates in corn. We'll explain what this is.

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Venezuelan troops stormed a prison west of the capital after inmates rioted and set fire to administrative buildings. Officials say six prisoners were killed when rival gangs clashed with guns, knives and machetes; 35 others are reported wounded.

Protest turns violent. Peruvian police responded to rock- throwing student protesters with tear gas and water cannons. Dozens of protesters were reportedly injured and nine were arrested. They were demonstrating against alleged corruption in the university system.

Totally shocked, that's how the recording artist formerly known as Cat Stevens described his reaction to being barred from the United States. The singer, who converted to Islam and changed his name more than 25 years ago, is on a security watch list because of alleged ties to potential terrorists. He calls that ridiculous.

YUSUF ISLAM, FORMER MUSICIAN: You know, the whole thing is totally ridiculous. Everybody knows who I am, you know. I'm no secret figure. Everybody knows my campaigning for charity, for peace, and there's GOT to be a whole lot of explanations. Hopefully, they will be there.

BLITZER: Daredevil released. Authorities in Panama have deported an Austrian man who parachuted from a bridge over the Panama Canal this month. Upon landing, he was arrested and detained for almost two weeks.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The controversy refuses to die over those disputed documents used by CBS News in a report questioning President Bush's National Guard service. Mr. Bush himself appeared to allude to the scandal while taking questions at a White House news conference earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Is anybody here from CBS? Robert, there you are, please. Happy to be here. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: John Roberts, the CBS News White House correspondent.

Meanwhile, there's fresh fallout, including some lost business for CBS.

Howard Kurtz of "The Washington Post" and CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES" is joining us now live with more.

What did you make -- under normal circumstances, the president clearly wants to give all the networks an opportunity to ask a question. And under normal circumstances, that would not have been a big deal. Today, it was sort of cute the way that unfolded, Howard.

HOWARD KURTZ, "RELIABLE SOURCES": Well, I could give you the psychobabble explanation, Wolf, which is that George W. Bush has been waiting 14 years to get even with CBS and Dan Rather since that famous on-air shouting match over Iran-Contra that the anchor engaged in with his father when he was vice president.

But the fact is, look, a Republican would love to run against Dan Rather. He's not real popular in the red states. It plays into the administration argument that the mainstream media, typified by Rather, or are biased against the president. In fact, I was looking at the cover of the conservative "Weekly Standard" magazine. I hope you can see that. They've got a big picture of Kerry with Dan Rather and Kitty Kelley. They would love to get them all up there as targets.

BLITZER: "The Weekly Standard" being a conservative publication here in Washington.

Now, I understand there's a little controversy emerging over Dick Thornburgh, the former U.S. attorney general who's now been asked by CBS News to participate in this investigation into what went wrong. Tell our viewers what's happening.

KURTZ: Well, Thornburgh, one of two panelists picked by CBS to investigate this mess and, of course, a former Republican governor of Pennsylvania, some at CBS sympathetic to Dan Rather perhaps are saying, why Thornburgh?

A, he is a Republican. Interestingly, he also got into a lawsuit with Karl Rove a decade ago over some unpaid bills from one of his campaigns. But, more importantly, Dick Thornburgh in the first Bush administration was appointed by the father of the current president, who's, of course, at the heart of this National Guard story and this National Guard controversy. So some are just wondering, although he has a lot of stature as a former attorney general, whether or not he might not take the most fair and balanced approach, shall we say.

BLITZER: But doesn't he bring a lot of credibility to whatever they come up with, conservatives, Republicans? If Dick Thornburgh signs up on it, you have to assume it would be the right thing, right?

KURTZ: Well, that would be the plus side in terms of making the public believe that this is going to be a thorough and aggressive investigation.

But I suspect that some at CBS maybe worry that it might be a little bit too thorough and too aggressive an investigation, because there's a lot of nervousness there about who might lose their jobs and who might be sacrificed just to put this matter behind CBS.

BLITZER: What about the affiliates, the CBS affiliates around the country? There has been fallout.

KURTZ: Absolutely.

They have been inundated, I am told, across the country with calls from angry viewers who are upset about CBS and Rather and "60 Minutes." I had an extraordinary interview, Wolf, with the station manager in Roanoke, Virginia, a guy name Bob Lee, who is the head of the CBS Affiliates Association.

He said there is a body of people that just intensely dislike Dan Rather and see an opportunity to demand his immediate resignation or that he be shot. And he went on to tell me that viewers have been vocal that we are so tarnished by this lapse of judgment at the network that they may take their viewing elsewhere. Now, the affiliates, they're the ones that make the money for CBS-Viacom. And so if they're unhappy, that has to be taken pretty seriously by the top corporate suits at the corporation.

BLITZER: All right, I suspect this is not going to go away, this story, any time soon. Howard Kurtz doing some excellent reporting for us -- Howie, thanks very much.

KURTZ: Thank you.

BLITZER: And we have a very important programming note to our viewers. Please tune in to a special edition of "RELIABLE SOURCES," an hour-long special edition, this Sunday morning focusing in on the turmoil at CBS News, Sunday morning, 11:00 a.m. Eastern, 8:00 Pacific, only here on CNN.

A pop star loses his temper at an airport. Find out what's behind this public outburst by the singer Sir Elton John. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Rude, vile pigs. That's not the title of an Elton John song, but that's what the legendary rocker called reporters and photographers during a visit to Taiwan.

Our Brian Todd has been looking into this story.

Brian, what is going on?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, this unfolded early today in Taipei near -- evidently near the end of what has been a very long road trip.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): To be very British about it, Sir Elton is not amused.

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) off! (EXPLETIVE DELETED) We'll throw you through the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) window!

TODD: As he tried to make his way through Taipei's Chiang Kai- shek International Airport early Thursday, Elton John seemed to have had enough of traveling, customs, and most of all the paparazzi.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move. Move. Move.

JOHN: You've had a great (INAUDIBLE) We come to Taiwan and (EXPLETIVE DELETED) thanks to you guys.

TODD: At one point, the informal rapport got a little personal.

JOHN: Rude, vile pigs. You know what I mean, rude, vile pigs. That's what all of you are. (CROSSTALK)

JOHN: Yes, we would love to get out of Taiwan if it's full of people like you.

TODD: It's not the first time the rocket man has had a run-in with fans and paparazzi. After this incident, his publicist issued a statement saying he had been besieged by hordes of photographers and TV crews as soon as he disembarked from his private plane and -- quote -- "The local police and security at the airport failed to protect Elton John from the ensuing chaos."

We tried to reach airport officials, but possibly because of the time difference, they couldn't get anyone to respond. At his concert later Thursday, Sir Elton reportedly told fans the photographers were the rudest people he'd ever met, and he meant every word he'd said to them. Now we're wondering if Taipei will be on any of his future tours.

JOHN: Pig. Pig.

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN: I don't care...

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Well, you had to feel for that guy on the phone right in front of him, whatever kind of call he was trying to make.

We also checked on procedures for getting celebrities through airports without creating a scene. We spoke to officials at two major U.S. airports and to the Transportation Security Administration. They all said it's usually the airline's responsibility to coordinate that with the celebrity.

But two factors at work here. No. 1, Elton John was not at a U.S. airport. And, No. 2, he was traveling on a private plane, so a bit of a fluid situation there.

BLITZER: A little testy, indeed.

TODD: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Brian Todd, for that.

The results of our Web question of the day, that's coming up next.

Plus, weaving your way through the election process, literally. We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in our Web question of the day. Take a look at this, though, remember, it's not a scientific poll.

If the presidential campaign has you going around in circles, our picture of the day is just for you. A cornfield maze in southern Wisconsin features caricatures of President Bush and Democrat John Kerry. It doesn't look easy, but, then again, it may be easier than finding your way through this year's campaign rhetoric.

That's it for me.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

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