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CNN Live Saturday

Hurricane Jeanne Sets Sights On Central Florida; Haitian Aid Lines Sites Of Violent Struggle; Family Pleas With Kidnappers To Release British Hostage

Aired September 25, 2004 - 16:00   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.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN center in Atlanta. Welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Here's what's happening now in the news. Florida residents are facing no. 4: Hurricane Jeanne is threatening the Sunshine State after 3 other hurricanes made landfall in Florida this summer. Jeanne has intensified with 115 mph winds. It is expected to make landfall tonight or early tomorrow.
A week after being hit hard by Jeanne, chaos is escalating in Haiti. U.N. forces fired tear gas into crowds of people clamouring desperatetly for food and water. More aid is expected to arrive today. The death toll in Haiti, more than 1,300.

Muslim clerics are in Baghdad trying to gain the release of a British hostage. The delegation from the Muslim Council of Britain arrived in Iraq today. There is no word of the status of hostage Kenneth Bigley. The contract worker was taken from his Baghdad home 9 days ago along with 2 Americans. The Americans were beheaded this week.

Let's begin with yet another huge storm closing in on Florida. Just over 2 months left in the hurricane season, and after Charley, Frances, Ivan and now Jeanne, Floridians must be counting the days until it's all over. But first they have to get past Jeanne.

We begin our coverage with CNN's Susan Candiotti. And she's in West Palm Beach, Florida.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Fredricka. And let's remember we are only halfway through the hurricane season which is not over until the end of November. Of course, September, October being the busiest months.

As you know, forecasters have been talking about tropical storm force winds stretching out about 200 miles from the eye wall of Hurricane Jeanne. And certainly at this time, we're starting to feel the outer bands of that storm.

They're also talking about 5 to 10 inches of rain. And throughout the day, we have cris-crossed Palm Beach County which is well within the possible projected path of Hurricane Jeanne going from the west side of town and now we're over at the marina here in the intercoastal waterway. Perhaps you can see the the world famous Breakers Hotel in the distance over my shoulder here. Again, one of the places we stopped was 1 of 15 shelters that are operating here in Palm Beach County. There is a mandatory evacuation order in effect here for people living in flood-prone areas, as well as in mobile homes.

I am told that five of those 15 shelters are now near capacity. They're opening up another one and about 11,000 people are there so far. However, the capacity is about 27,000 people, and so authorities are wondering, well, where is everybody? About 19,000 showed up for Hurricane Frances. And possible answers? No one knows for sure, either people might be unwisely trying to ride out the storm, or they have found another safe place to be.

One of the people who sought shelter at this high school we visited is Carlos Francisco who came there with his wife and his little baby. They came to the shelter, even though he boarded up his home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLOS FRANCISCO, FLORIDA RESIDENT: This time, there's a lot of debris that they haven't picked up around the house and branches and big trunks of trees are still out in the streets. So it's kind of more hectic. Don't know what's going to happen with that. You've got winds coming that are coming that are higher, so that could cause a missile.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Another spot where he visited was a Home Depot, a home improvement store that was opened for three hours this morning. A steady stream of business there as people were picking up plywood and other last-minute items. But after three hours, even that store closed down to give its employees time to prepare for Hurricane Jeanne, turning away a lot of customers.

We're also seeing long lines at gas stations throughout the county. If you can find a gas station that is still selling gasoline. And of course the governor promises they will have more supplies at the ready, once the storm passes, unlike the last time.

Remember, 90 percent of the people in Palm Beach County, we are told, lost their power for Hurricane Frances. And so people here are certainly prepared to face that possibility when Hurricane Jeanne flies on through. Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: Well, Susan, I wonder, you mention the suspicion that a lot of folks are not going to the shelters, and maybe they are staying in their homes. Do you know whether there is going to be an effort in any certain jurisdictions to go physically knock on doors, to make a final plea to people to get out of those homes and seek higher ground?

CANDIOTTI: Well, I'm afraid -- Fredricka, I think they're past that point. There is the standard rule of thumbb here, that if you choose to stay behind, that's up to you. They don't usually drag people out of their homes, nor arrest them for not leaving despite the fact there is an evacuation order. And of course, even emergency personnel will not go out when tropical storm force winds reaches a stage, usually around 50, 55 miles per hour, because then it puts them at risk.

So these are all of the things that people have been educated about, they have heard it time and again. That's a real possibility. They could in trouble, and if they want to leave, it might be too late.

WHITFIELD: Yes. It should be engrained in everybody's minds by now. Thanks so much, Susan Candiotti.

Well, millions of Floridians have been told to get off on Jeanne's way. Portions of Brevard County are included in the manditory evacuation orders involving 9 Florida counties. And that's where we find Kevin Oliver from affiliate WFTV.

KEVIN OLIVER, WFTV: Fredricka, out here in the coast, we've been watching the waves grow larger and larger here along the Cocoa Beach Pier. In fact, we saw earlier today a pilon that looked like it had broken free already, underneath the pier. The waves have been actually hitting the underside of the pier all morning, and it's only expected to grow higher as the surf gets more rough, as Jeanne approaches.

Now off in the distance here, you can still see a number of people coming out to the beach here and check out the scene. A lot of these people have been asked to leave Cocoa Beach, but they are not, they are not moving inland. In fact, we are not seeing the same numbers of people moving to shelters and moving away from the coast, as we did during Frances and even during Charley.

A lot of people, as we heard earlier, have what they've been calling hurricane fatigue here on the coast. They're simply tired of being evacuating and a lot of people saying they want to stay home. Some people are even saying they can't afford to leave, and so they are just staying in their homes and hoping for the best at this point, despite all of the earlier warnings.

We did hear that about 4,000 people are in shelters across Brevard County at this point, but they were really hoping those numbers would be higher, considering the threat that Jeanne poses to this part of the county. Reporting live from Cocoa Beach, Kevin Oliver for CNN.

WHITFIELD: And, Kevin, are you finding from some of the residents who are deciding to stay there that they are just so annoyed at this diluge of hurricane activity along the Florida coast that they just don't feel like taking the trouble of leaving?

OLIVER: A lot had left and gone so long for Frances. As you might remember, a lot of the people that left here were waiting for Frances to hit, and Frances started moving slower and slower, so a lot of them were in shelters before days before that hurricane came through. And then they had to wait another two days to be able to come back home and check out their property and see what was damaged and what wasn't damaged.

A lot of the people here also saw that there wasn't much damage to their homes even though some of their neighbors lost everything and so they decided, a lot of people have decided, they're just going to chance it and see what happens with this storm.

WHITFIELD: All right, Kevin Oliver of our affiliate WFTV, thanks so much.

Well, let's find out exactly where Hurricane Jeanne is right now. Our meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is tracking the storm from the weather center -- Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, about 100 miles away from Vero Beach right now. But this is not the storm to take likely. We've heard a lot of talk about people being complacent about this storm. I give up. We've just had storm after storm. This is category three hurricane with winds of 115 miles per hour. This is a major hurricane, not something to taken lightly.

We're going to have big problems with storm surge, with flooding, five to ten inches, possibly a little more than that. And the hurricane force winds extend out 70 miles from the eye of this storm. This is going to be affecting a lot of people, a lot of populated areas from West Palm Beach, Miami up towards Melbourne, in to Orlando. Then it will head its way up to Jacksonville and then head into the Carolinas.

So this is not something to sit at home and just say, I don't care, we will see what happens with this one. We want to pay attention.

Now, rain is going to be one of the biggest threats. You can see right now, those rain showers are kind of spotted across the area, but the intensity of them are starting to pick up as some of these outer bands move in.

The forecast rainfall's what's very impressive. Take a look at these numbers between now and Sunday evening, about 9.5 inches possible around Orlando, Ft. Pierce about 4 and a half inches, well over 4 expected in West Palm Beach. And even Miami getting in some of this action.

As you can see, as we extend across the northeast, as we head towards Savannah into Charleston, also expecting to see about 3 to 6 inches of rainfall. We'll have more on the forecast track.

Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jacqui, thanks so much.

Well, as Jeanne barrels towards the east coast of Florida, Governor Jeb Bush has been urging people to evacuate. Let's listen in to him right now.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS) GOV. JEB BUSH, (R) FLORIDA: ...work in anticipation of this storm has been demanding, certainly, and a lot of people have been working very hard. But without that support, a lot of Floridians tomorrow and the next day would not be receiving any assistance at all. And it's important to pause and to reflect on our disaster response efforts and how effective they have been, and how appreciative we are as Floridians that work being done today and yesterday and the day before in anticipation of Hurricane Jeanne will make a difference in the lives of many people.

Now, as you've listened to Ben and Craig talk, now is the time to stay in place on the east coast. The tropical force winds have started up along the east coast. Soon, at some point, the highway patrol will be leaving to go to safety, maybe in the next few hours, depending on how the winds pick up. This is not the time to be traveling. The evacuations should have occurred already and now is the time to find a safe place and stay there.

We are -- Jeanne's westward movement means that our west coast is now under hurricane watches as well. And for the residents along the western coast from Sarasota to Levy County, they should begin to complete their preparation plans right now.

The same goes for our inland residents. I wish I could just tell you that the storm hits the coast and all of a sudden, it magically goes away or it drops its power, but that's not the case. We've already seen how this works with Frances, with Charley and with Ivan, and we know that our inland areas also have significant issues.

And as been mentioned, the hurricane force winds will go as its projected now, all the way up to north, central Florida. And so people -- and the threat of tornados as we've seen in the last six weeks are also very real. So people in the inland areas, the time is running out for them as well to prepare their houses or to evacuate, should they be in a mobile home park or a low-lying area. This is the time to act.

Sustained hurricane force winds are expected all wait through north central Florida. I want to repeat that, because I think there's some notion that these storms are only going to hit the coastal areas. They do. But there won't be storm surges necessarily, but could be significant flooding and significant wind damage.

This is a time that we in Florida have become all too familiar with in the past 6 weeks, which is to wait for the storm. The storms have also made us familiar with something else, which is resilience and resolve. I cannot tell you how proud I am to be governor of a state whose people have met the challenge in the last six weeks.

If you have followed what has gone on, there have been acts of courage, of love, of compassion, of helping a neighbor, making sure that family is safe, and while we tragically have seen a loss of life, because of the efforts not just of the first responders and FEMA and the National Guard and the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, and thousands of people that are acting on their sense of consciousness to help others, neighbors helping neighbors have saved lives as well. And made it possible for us to be able to get through these storms.

That's what makes Florida a very special place. And while we've seen tremendous damage and while, you know, you go to these briefings and you kind of -- it gets a little depressing, I guess. I can assure you that a week from now, Florida's going to be a better place than it is today and I can assure you a month from now it'll be even better place than it is today, and I can assure you a month from now it's going to be even better, and a year from now from the lessons learned, and the ability to rebuild, which we will do, Florida will continue to be the best place to live in the United States.

And so there is support, and there is hope coming for the people that are going to be impacted by this storm. And it'll come quickly, and it'll be sustained. With that, I would like to say a few words in Spanish.

(SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

WHITFIELD: Governor Jeb Bush saying, if you haven't evacuated by now along the Florida east coast, then stay put. It's just entirely too dangerous to try and hit the roads now. Now with Hurricane Jeanne only a few miles away from the coast, and possibility going to hit the coast sometime around midnight. But where exactly might it hit? Let's return to Jacqui Jeras who has a better idea of just what cities along the coast might be targeted -- Jacqui.

JERAS: Well, Fredricka, we've been putting the track here on the eye wall. Right now the center of circulation is about 120 miles east/southeast of Vero Beach. And it's moving just slightly north of due west. And the eye wall, you can see it right there, and check out that rotator there, that's an indication of a possible tornado. So that eye wall, the worst part of the storm, is moving in toward the west and likely making landfall there sometime around the 9:00 hour for tonight.

Now, we still might see some changes in the forward speed. And keep in mind, that this is the eye wall. The eye itself will likely take a couple of hours after that. So anywhere likely between maybe 10:30 until 1:30 in the morning is when we are really looking that the likely making landfall.

Forecast track has it pushing almost due west, and then taking more of a turn up to the north. It will be weakening after it makes landfall, but at that time, we're still concerned that additional strengthening will be possible before it does make its way onshore. Weakens to a tropical storm, and then heads up through the Carolinas.

But the good news is, we were initially considered, Fredricka, that this might be just scraping right along the coast line. It looks like it should be staying over land. And that is some good news -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jacqui Jeras, thanks so much. In the weather center.

Well, Haiti after Jeanne, the number of death rises. And the U.N. fights to keep order at food distribution points.

And some in Florida are asking is living there these days worth the stress?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe, next summer, by then, we'll be happy to be here again, but no, right now, it's -- it makes you think about Flagstaff and anywhere but here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Some Floridians, bottom line: not here, not again.

And, they're the first thing I read when I get up in the morning and the last thing I read at night. Who said that? And what was he talking about?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, welcome back to our coverage of Hurricane Jeanne. It was a tropical storm when when it passed over Haiti a week ago, but the devestation it left behind continues to cause misery today. CNN's Karl Penhaul joins us now -- Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Fredricka, not only the devestation continue here in Haiti 1 week after Tropical Storm Jeanne raked through the city of Gonaives, so does the chaos. The food distribution network here, yes, it's been put in place by United Nations, by independent aid organizations, and also today by the Haitian government, it's complete chaos.

We just witnessed some aid trucks trying to give out food. That was a donation by the Haitian government and independent aid organizations from within Haiti. The Haitian police tried to keep order to start with. After that, the whole thin descended into chaos, very much like the other efforts we've seen throughout the week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PENHAUL (voice-over): They survived the storm, they lost loved ones, and their homes have been destroyed. Now they're hungry and thirsty. Hours of waiting under blazing sun, scuffles to get a place in line. No guarantee of filling their bellies tonight.

"The water took all our stuff, we can't stand it anymore," she says.

Anger, frustration, desperation -- an explosion waiting to happen. Soldiers from the United Nations (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to restore political stability, fire into the air and launch tear gas canisters. They fear a riot is about to erupt, and people are getting crushed.

(on camera): The crowds pulled back for now, but the Argentinean troops here know it's going to be a battle to maintain law and order. They also think somebody in the crowd may have a gun. (voice-over): Troops on the ground call urgently to comrades on rooftops to try and identify armed gang members among the hungry.

"I think gangs want to take advantage and loot the food and provoke riots to discredit the aid effort," he says.

Tempers fray even among the lucky ones who manage to receive their food rations. These women almost came to blows as they try to shell out food in a small bucket.

CECILY BRYANT, CARE INTERNATIONAL: At the moment it's very difficult to assess exactly what the impact has been -- how profound it has been. I mean, most of these families, down here, have very little anyway, and so this is kind of pushing them right over the edge with having something like this happens to them again.

PENHAUL: A short drive away from the chaos of the food handout, parts of Gonaives are still under water. Residents try to push mud out of the church that is now their shelter. Like thousands of others, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) home is destroyed. Some of the neighbors were among the more than 1,200 that died. She escaped with her two children.

"We haven't eaten," she says. She's one of 700 people crammed in the church. She says she's received no food aid and is surving on scraps.

Back in the food distribution center, aid workers say Haitian authorities have done nothing to help the needy. Shortages of drinking water are fueling fears of the outbreak of disease. As if the survivors of Tropical Storm Jeanne don't have enough misery to contend with.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PENHAUL: The kind of chaos that we saw in some of those scenes is continued here in Gonaives throughout the day. At one point, we saw Haitian police aboard one of the aid trucks simply tossing the aid out of the back. Half that aid landed on the ground, Haitian men, some them armed with knives were fighting amongst themselves to see whose got that aid. It really is survival of the fitest here, Fredericka.

WHITFIELD: Wow. And Karl, still with more aid, potentially on the way, still the problem of how it actually gets distributed to people.

PENHAUL: I can't quite hear you, Fredricka, but if I heard you correctly, there are 2 issues here. Yes, the aid: can it get here quick enough? Because if -- clean, drinking water here quick enough, then there's the risk of outbreaks of epidemics. The security situation is also deteriorating. As people get more hungry and more desperate, there's a great a tendency, we've seen, towards violence in the line-ups for aid distribution -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Karl Penhaul in Gonaives. Thanks so much.

Well, Jeanne is the 4th hurricane to threaten Florida in the past six weeks. Many residents still trying to clean up from the last storm, must now prepare for the next one. CNN's John Zarrella has more of what's become a very frustrating routine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Tobi Howell stands watch over a pile of burning debris left over from Hurricane Frances three weeks ago. There's another stack out on the street. With Jeanne knocking at the door, Tobi decided to burn it rather than risk watching it go airborne.

TOBI HOWELL, PALM CITY RESIDENT: People have pieces of their roof, you know, stacks of roof shingles and roof, you know, the metal sheets and the flashing that goes around the side and there's big stacks of lumber and cuttings everywhere, so it could be really dangerous.

ZARRELLA: The Howells live in Palm City near Stewart, Florida. The eye of Hurricane Frances came right over them. They lost power for more than a week. Now they're boarding up again.

So is Paul Pelletier. He took his down after Frances too.

PAUL PELLETIER, PALM CITY RESIDENT: When you come back and you see all the mess and the boards on the wall you're just anxious to get back to a normal life and maybe having these things off of the windows may have been part of that you know.

ZARRELLA: Pelletier lost part of a patio roof during Frances. Instead of finishing cleaning up now he's boarding up and wondering whether life in Florida is worth the stress.

PELLETIER: I'm hoping, you know, two, three months maybe next summer by then we'll be happy to be here again but, no, right now it's -- it makes you think about Flagstaff and anywhere but here.

ZARRELLA: Just about everywhere on Florida's east coast it's deja vu. Cars are stuck in gas lines. In West Palm Beach, homes and businesses are going through the ritual too.

Reminders of Frances, broken signs and downed trees are still everywhere and before the weekend is out yet another storm will likely leave its mark somewhere in Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Overseas, a terrorist tactic hitting home: What is fueling the hostage taking? And what's the business surrounding it? A discussion when we come right back.

And a report from Liverpool, a community waiting to hear about one of its own. And images from Iraq, views from citizens captured on disposable cameras. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Friends and family are paying tribute to Jack Hensley today. The construction worker from Marietta, Georgia, was beheaded earlier this week in Iraq. He and American Eugene Armstrong were kidnapped, held hostage and killed by Islamist militants.

A memorial service was held in Hensley's hometown today. The minister presiding over the service focused on helping others overcome the anger at Hensley death.

The fate of a Briton captured along with Hensley and Armstrong is still uncertain.

Well, pleas are mounting for the release of hostage Kenneth Bigley, the Briton, even as an Islamic Web site is posting claims that he's been killed in Iraq. But those claims have not been verified. In Liverpool, England, his family is agonizing wait. Our Robyn Curnow now has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A call to prayer in a Liverpool mosque. Also, a call for mercy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Islam completely prevents any innocent individual should be targeted, bombed, armed, oppressed, taken captive, tortured or killed.

CURNOW: Kidnapped more than a week ago, Ken Bigley's fate has touched people across Liverpool and beyond, as the reality of what is happening in Iraq hits home. The local newspaper, the "Liverpool Echo," filled with messages of support for Bigley's family from as far away as New Zealand, Belgium and New York.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it is disgusting. I really think it is tragic. I mean, the family must be going through hell. You know, I mean he's not anything to do with the war, is he? He's just working up there a living.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't imagine what family are going through. It's sad that the politics has to affect everyday people who are just trying to go on with their lives.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very sorry for his mother. I know just how she'd feel if it happened to me. But I know there's nothing they can do about it. I do know that. I pray for them.

CURNOW: Behind closed curtains, Bigley's family continues its agonizing wait.

The strain of the ordeal taking its toll on his 86-year-old mother Lil Bigley. Briefly admitted to hospital after she made this impassioned plea to the hostage-takers.

LIL BIGLEY, MOTHER OF KEN BIGLEY: He is only a working man who wants to support his family. Please show mercy to Ken and send him home to me alive.

CURNOW: The family's efforts not just limited to heart-rendering pleas on television.

(on-camera): From Liverpool, relatives are doing everything they can to save Ken Bigley. They've persuaded the Foreign Office to distribute 50,000 pamphlets in Baghdad, in which the family make a personal plea in Arabic to Iraqis for information. Desperate, they say they're exhausting every option available to them. Robyn Curnow, CNN, Liverpool.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Across Iraq, there have been a number of kidnappings since the war began. The hostages come from all walks of life and from some 32 countries. Right now, 48 people are being held hostage; 37 have been killed, four are unaccounted for, 102 have been released, rescued, or managed to escape somehow.

Well, grabbing someone and holding them hostage is not a new terror tactic. It has long been employed by militants. But with advances in communications and the Internet, it's having more of an impact today. Daniel Byman is an assistant professor at Georgetown University, at the Walsh School of Foreign Service -- that's in Washington, D.C. -- and he's a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has some insights into this very brutal business of hostage taking. Good to see you.

DANIEL BYMAN, GEORGETOWN UNIV: Thank you for having me.

WHITFIELD: Well, does it seem as though hostage taking has become even more of an effective tool for terrorists?

BYMAN: The problem for terrorists in the past was that while hostage taking got a lot of media attention, the media attention was largely negative. Any news organization covering it often tended to portray the terrorists as horrible human beings, naturally enough. But today, the terrorists can use the same technologies that we all use -- digital cameras, digital video -- and disseminate footage on the Internet that makes them look good.

They can mix it with footage of children crying from a bombed out building. They can have messages that are proselytizing for their cause. And all this makes their own message from hostage taking much more effective than it was 20, 30 years ago.

WHITFIELD: And it simply means they're able to reach a much greater audience, whether these are people who are on their side or not.

BYMAN: Exactly. Terrorists are trying not only to affect Americans or Britons, or whomever, but also ordinary Iraqis, who may not know which was to go, but they're looking to see if the government in Iraq can maintain order. And when these videos appear that show the helplessness of people, it suggests that the government in Iraq, that the Americans cannot maintain order, and indicates to these Iraqis that they're going to have to work with the militants whether they like it or not.

WHITFIELD: Well, let's look a little bite further into the audiences of these terrorist organizations, who are carrying out these hostage takings, are able to reach. Not only, you mentioned, governments, adversaries such as the U.S. or Iraqi governments, but also, they're able to use it as a recruiting tool, aren't they?

BYMAN: Absolutely. Terrorist groups are engaged in a constant competition with other terrorist groups. There are, in Iraq, dozens of small groups, all of which want money, all of which want recruits. And by showing that they are active, by using hostages to advance their cause with attention, they're able to say to potential recruits, "Join our group, not some other. Give us money, not another group."

WHITFIELD: And say, in the case of Iraq, you also cite one of the audience members is also those Iraqis who are on the fence, those who are particularly intimidated, perhaps, by terrorists or insurgents there, not quite sure whether the western influence is an ally or not.

BYMAN: Absolutely. In Iraq, you have, let's say, an ordinary Iraqi policeman, who may not like the insurgents, but if he knows that, if he cooperates with the government, his family might be killed, he might be killed, he's going to cooperate with them. And hostage taking makes the government look helpless.

So as a result, everyone is going to work with the insurgents if they believe the government cannot protect them, even if they don't like the insurgents.

WHITFIELD: So by virtue of all of these means of conveying the message, the demands that these hostages takers might be making, is it less of their demands being met and more of just simply getting attention?

BYMAN: The terrorist do not expect their demands to be met. From their point of view, this is theater. Their goal is to get attention from the West, from Iraqis, from other radicals, and they've no expectation that the United States or any other government is going to meet their demands.

WHITFIELD: Well, if that's the case, then wouldn't the appeal be coming from a number of family members, then governments might as well try to negotiate just to open up lines of communication, even if they have no intention of appealing to the demands of the hostage takers?

BYMAN: All it does when the government negotiates is drag it out and, again, suggest the government is helpless, that it's at the mercy of the terrorists. This is unfortunate because everyone's heart goes out to the families. But we've seen time and time again that when governments negotiate with terrorists over hostages, it only encourages more hostage taking over time.

WHITFIELD: Daniel Byman, assistant professor at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Thanks so much for joining us from Washington.

BYMAN: Thank you for having me.

WHITFIELD: Coalition forces are trying to strike a blow against militants and rebel factions in Iraq. Seven Iraqis were killed in fighting in Fallujah today. Few details have been released about that military operation. But in another operation, coalition forces used precision air strikes to target what intelligence sources call a known terrorist meeting site connected to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Seven people were killed in that operation as well, at least 10 others wounded.

Often, we see so much violence in Iraq, it's easy to forget that day to day life does go on there. An inventive new project is apparently giving Americans a chance to see the country through the eyes of the Iraqi people. Disposable cameras were given to 10 Iraqis, and here's a look at some of the images they captured.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VOICE OF FRED RITCHIN, DIRECTOR PIXEL PRESS: The people given cameras in Iraq were people known to several foreign journalists who were coming in, and to the people they already knew in Iraq. And they were selected to get a cross-section of some extent of the Iraqi people. So you get a third year English student from a university in Baghdad, a guy who lives in a garbage dump; you get somebody who's a dentist.

They were told explicitly that this is an opportunity to send a message to the American people, to tell them what is going on in Iraq, what is Iraq like, what are some of the hopes, and wishes, and desires of the people in Iraq. By giving the disposable cameras to the civilians, they themselves were able to photograph their friends, their neighbors, their own family, and their own point of view.

Just these little 10 disposable cameras are enough for me to understand that there's a huge slice of this society that I know very, very little about, with all the coverage that I've seen. So this documentary exploration becomes one of saying, "This is what our society is to us. Do not define us by explosions, by pictures of military, by pictures of insurgents, but define us by our daily lives."

There's a photograph of people living in a very poor neighborhood, who named their child Americas on the day of the U.S. invasion. There is a child who has a very serious medical deformity. There's a young woman who's flirtatious. There's kids going to school. There's a guy working in the street. There's people in Fallujah burying their own dead. There's a combination of the very daily kinds of things and some of the more extraordinary things that happen in Iraq.

When you see the guy building, or carrying bricks, or the boy in the schoolyard, or the young woman sort of smiling, then you realize it's another society that's human, and noble, and wonderful. It's wonderful to have snapshots that say, "Forget the spectacular. Forget the shocking. Look at the everyday." And maybe that way, in fact, we'll learn more about what's going on in Iraq. (END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Now, a look at what's happening now in the news. It's getting bigger, faster, and stronger. The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Hurricane Jeanne has strengthened into a category three storm with maximum sustained winds of 115 miles an hour. This will be Florida's fourth hurricane in just six weeks.

Forecasters say the storm could hit the coast later tonight or early tomorrow morning, possibly between West Palm Beach and Melbourne. Mandatory evacuations apply for several counties on the state's eastern coast. Millions of people have been urged to leave their homes and, if they haven't left by now, to stay put.

And a week later, Jeanne is still having a profound effect on Haiti. United Nations soldiers had to shoot their guns in the air and use tear gas to disperse an angry crowd desperate for food and clean water. The death tool from Hurricane Jeanne has now risen to more than 1,300. Rioting and looting is also on the rise.

And we're moving onto presidential politics, coming up next, and the changing role of bloggers. I chat with the author of "Fear and Laptops on the Campaign Trail."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The president is at the western White House today. He's preparing for the upcoming presidential debates at his Crawford, Texas ranch. And that's where we find Elaine Quijano, who has more on how the president is spending his day. Elaine...

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Fredricka. President Bush, along with several of his top aids are preparing at his ranch here in Crawford, Texas. Now, a senior administration official, though, says the president really has been at this preparation process for some time now. In fact, his officials saying that the president has already held several mock debates, practice sessions, if you will, in order to get ready.

Now, the president decided to come to Crawford, according to this official, because it's a comfortable setting for him, the right place for him to be able to polish off his preparations. And as he did in 2000, the president is enlisting the help of Senator Judd Gregg. Now, he is a Republican from New Hampshire, who plays the part of Senator Kerry in these practice sessions.

Bush aids say the president himself thought Gregg did a great job in the last campaign, and they think he might be even better suited this time because he's from New England, and he's familiar with Senator Kerry. Now, the official says that Gregg is very well prepared and is very tough -- in fact, so tough that he has had some glances, some glares, really, directed his way.

But this official, really, without going into too much detail, just saying that some of these practice sessions, Fredricka, have been lively.

WHITFIELD: So Elaine, besides the mock debates, how else might President Bush be preparing for the upcoming debates?

QUIJANO: Well, the president has materials that he uses, including audiotapes of Senator Kerry's speeches, his statements, his question and answer sessions. And we are told by a senior administration official that he actually listens to them during his travels out on the campaign trail, also while exercising in the White House gym.

So the president really using all of the available resources that he has at his disposal to get ready and get prepared for these debates. Fredricka...

WHITFIELD: All right, Elaine Quijano in Crawford, Texas, thanks so much. Well, the Democratic team is also getting ready for the debates. Senator John Kerry and his running mate John Edwards are both getting some R&R. Kerry is in his home state of Massachusetts after a week of blasting how the president is waging the war on terror and the war in Iraq.

Kerry says Bush went after Saddam Hussein at the cost of capturing Osama bin Laden. Blogging is, apparently, very big on the Internet. Even the Bush and Kerry camps keep their own daily Web journals. Well, what might surprise you is how influential bloggers have become. For more on that, we turn to Matthew Klam, who has written the cover story for The New York Times Magazine this week, called "Fear and Laptops on the Campaign Trail." And he joins us from Washington. Good to see you.

MATTHEW KLAM, NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: Nice to see you too.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, blogging is still fairly new in our vocabulary. So explain what blogging is, and who are the bloggers?

KLAM: A blog is an online diary. It's like a newspaper somebody might make in their living room, but it's updated all day long with their thoughts and opinions on the news as it unfolds. And...

WHITFIELD: And it seems like... oh, go ahead.

KLAM: You were going to ask me, who are bloggers?

WHITFIELD: Yeah.

KLAM: Well, I think that the bloggers who are doing the best work right now, who are the most popular, are the ones on the left. They seem to be a little bit more iconoclastic than the bloggers on the right, and I think they lean a little bit more toward that sort of voicey, edgy kind of attitude that people are attracted to right now.

WHITFIELD: And it seems it was during the caucuses and the primaries when blogging really did become fairly influential. Does it seem as though blogging is going to be equally, or even more so, influential for November? KLAM: I'm not sure. One of the bloggers who I write about, Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos, his traffic tripled in the last few months. He was receiving 350,000 visitors a day during the Republican Convention. If you add his numbers to just one other blogger, this other guy who I write about in the piece, you're at close to half a million readers, and that is more than the Philadelphia Inquirer. It's close to the Boston Globe. So if a newspaper can influence an election, maybe these guys can also.

WHITFIELD: But isn't it rather murky as to, you know, the agenda that any of these bloggers may have? Some have been unbiased journalists. Some are, you know, come more from an advocacy journalism background. And then some, as you mentioned, may have just been working with various campaigns. How confusing might that be for the readers of these blogs to discern fact from fiction, to fantasy.

KLAM: Yes, it is. It's very confusing. I think that one of the things that a lot of bloggers want you to realize is that they are partisan, and they're coming from a perspective, and they want you to take their writing with a grain of salt. But I think we've all seen lately that it's hard to be sure that what you're reading in the newspaper, what you're seeing on, you know, a very well regarded news show is also true.

So I think we're living in an age right now where that stuff is all kind of up in the air. And bloggers believe that news is something that's interpreted. And so...

WHITFIELD: And so, Matthew, where are these readers finding these blogs? It's not as simple as Blogs.com, is it?

KLAM: I guess if you read my piece, you'd see names of a few good blogs...

WHITFIELD: ... out tomorrow.

KLAM: ... and there's a couple of really famous ones that have a lot of traffic. There's a few on Slate, but one by the guy who's sort of the first blogger, Mickey Kaus, who is a very legit journalist, who is now on Slate. And if you go to KosFiles -- that's in my piece too -- it talks about him.

Andrew Sullivan, who is a pretty widely read, nationally known journalist. He's also a blogger. And there are as many blogs as there are grains of sand in the desert.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, Matthew Klam of The New York Times Magazine, the article is "Fear and Laptops on the Campaign Trail." Explain the "fear" part.

KLAM: I think that they are in a very precarious moment right now in the blog world, because some of them are making money. One of the guys I write about, Atrios, quit his job as an economics professor so that he could be a fulltime blogger. I think they all feel a lot of fear because they're working alone. And I think they receive an enormous amount of attention. They get a lot of emails from people. They get some hate mail.

And they're out there, and it's hard to do that without, you know, a big institution behind you.

WHITFIELD: All right, Matthew, we'll be reading more about it in tomorrow's New York Times Magazine article. Thanks so much.

KLAM: Thanks a lot.

WHITFIELD: Well, an affluent county votes to important some medicines from Canada in defiance of federal law. We'll hear from some of the employees when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A check of stories across America now. Four children were killed in a house fire in Chicago last night. Fire officials say there were no parents at the scene. A fire department spokesman describes the blaze as suspicious and says an arson investigation is under way.

A lawyer for Private Lyndie England says the Army will announce on Monday that it will court martial the pregnant reservist. England was seen in pictures of prisoner abuse at the notorious Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq. The attorney doesn't say what the charges will be, but says a military trial may be held in January.

And the mayor of Flint, Michigan is banning some reading. He's banned city employees from reading non-work material during work hours. In fact, a newspaper carrier was detained this week trying to deliver a paper to city hall. The mayor has relented a bit, saying he'll allow deliveries, but the reading ban stays in place.

Well, from banning reading to banning prescription drugs. As drug prices continue to go up, so does the number of Americans buying medications from abroad. CNN's Kathleen Koch has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Montgomery County, Maryland employee Jonathan Bishop takes 12 different drugs twice a day.

JONATHAN BISHOP, MONTGOMERY COUNTY EMPLOYEE: It can total up to be quite a bit. And my wife is not healthy, and she takes just about as many as I do.

KOCH: Prescription drug costs for Bishop and the other 85,000 county employees, retirees, and their families have doubled over the last six years. So leaders in this, one of the most affluent counties in the nation, voted this week to buy drugs from Canada.

TOM PEREZ, MONTGOMERY COUNTY COUNCILMAN: We have a healthcare crisis and we have a fiscal crisis in Montgomery County. Twenty million dollars a year we can save by allowing our employees to purchase their maintenance drugs from Canada.

KOCH: The Maryland county follows about a dozen local and state governments that have chosen to import some medicines from Canada, all in defiance of federal law. Montgomery County's action is a particular slap in the face, since it's home to the Food and Drug Administration, which insists the practice is dangerous.

WILLIAM HUBBARD, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION: Many of the drugs we see coming in from Canadian pharmacies have been made from all over the world, and many are sub-quality. So we're very concerned that people are being misled to think Canadian means as good as U.S. approved, and that's not true, in some cases.

KOCH: But this week, a pharmaceutical company vice president insisted on Capitol Hill that Europeans have been safely reimporting drugs for decades.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: In Europe, reimportation has been done safely for 20 years, and I think many may not have heard that in the past. And I hope that some of the senators who are holding up these bills, once they understand this, may change their mind.

KOCH (on-camera): Supporters of a bipartisan bill to legalize the importation of lower cost drugs have failed to get a Senate vote on the measure.

(voice-over): While the U.S. has seized some imports and shutdown a few companies for selling unapproved foreign drugs, it so far has not challenged local governments buying them. Montgomery County workers hope their program will be given a chance too.

BISHOP: I think it will work as long as the process is followed properly.

KOCH: Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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 25, 2004 - 16:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN center in Atlanta. Welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Here's what's happening now in the news. Florida residents are facing no. 4: Hurricane Jeanne is threatening the Sunshine State after 3 other hurricanes made landfall in Florida this summer. Jeanne has intensified with 115 mph winds. It is expected to make landfall tonight or early tomorrow.
A week after being hit hard by Jeanne, chaos is escalating in Haiti. U.N. forces fired tear gas into crowds of people clamouring desperatetly for food and water. More aid is expected to arrive today. The death toll in Haiti, more than 1,300.

Muslim clerics are in Baghdad trying to gain the release of a British hostage. The delegation from the Muslim Council of Britain arrived in Iraq today. There is no word of the status of hostage Kenneth Bigley. The contract worker was taken from his Baghdad home 9 days ago along with 2 Americans. The Americans were beheaded this week.

Let's begin with yet another huge storm closing in on Florida. Just over 2 months left in the hurricane season, and after Charley, Frances, Ivan and now Jeanne, Floridians must be counting the days until it's all over. But first they have to get past Jeanne.

We begin our coverage with CNN's Susan Candiotti. And she's in West Palm Beach, Florida.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Fredricka. And let's remember we are only halfway through the hurricane season which is not over until the end of November. Of course, September, October being the busiest months.

As you know, forecasters have been talking about tropical storm force winds stretching out about 200 miles from the eye wall of Hurricane Jeanne. And certainly at this time, we're starting to feel the outer bands of that storm.

They're also talking about 5 to 10 inches of rain. And throughout the day, we have cris-crossed Palm Beach County which is well within the possible projected path of Hurricane Jeanne going from the west side of town and now we're over at the marina here in the intercoastal waterway. Perhaps you can see the the world famous Breakers Hotel in the distance over my shoulder here. Again, one of the places we stopped was 1 of 15 shelters that are operating here in Palm Beach County. There is a mandatory evacuation order in effect here for people living in flood-prone areas, as well as in mobile homes.

I am told that five of those 15 shelters are now near capacity. They're opening up another one and about 11,000 people are there so far. However, the capacity is about 27,000 people, and so authorities are wondering, well, where is everybody? About 19,000 showed up for Hurricane Frances. And possible answers? No one knows for sure, either people might be unwisely trying to ride out the storm, or they have found another safe place to be.

One of the people who sought shelter at this high school we visited is Carlos Francisco who came there with his wife and his little baby. They came to the shelter, even though he boarded up his home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLOS FRANCISCO, FLORIDA RESIDENT: This time, there's a lot of debris that they haven't picked up around the house and branches and big trunks of trees are still out in the streets. So it's kind of more hectic. Don't know what's going to happen with that. You've got winds coming that are coming that are higher, so that could cause a missile.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Another spot where he visited was a Home Depot, a home improvement store that was opened for three hours this morning. A steady stream of business there as people were picking up plywood and other last-minute items. But after three hours, even that store closed down to give its employees time to prepare for Hurricane Jeanne, turning away a lot of customers.

We're also seeing long lines at gas stations throughout the county. If you can find a gas station that is still selling gasoline. And of course the governor promises they will have more supplies at the ready, once the storm passes, unlike the last time.

Remember, 90 percent of the people in Palm Beach County, we are told, lost their power for Hurricane Frances. And so people here are certainly prepared to face that possibility when Hurricane Jeanne flies on through. Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: Well, Susan, I wonder, you mention the suspicion that a lot of folks are not going to the shelters, and maybe they are staying in their homes. Do you know whether there is going to be an effort in any certain jurisdictions to go physically knock on doors, to make a final plea to people to get out of those homes and seek higher ground?

CANDIOTTI: Well, I'm afraid -- Fredricka, I think they're past that point. There is the standard rule of thumbb here, that if you choose to stay behind, that's up to you. They don't usually drag people out of their homes, nor arrest them for not leaving despite the fact there is an evacuation order. And of course, even emergency personnel will not go out when tropical storm force winds reaches a stage, usually around 50, 55 miles per hour, because then it puts them at risk.

So these are all of the things that people have been educated about, they have heard it time and again. That's a real possibility. They could in trouble, and if they want to leave, it might be too late.

WHITFIELD: Yes. It should be engrained in everybody's minds by now. Thanks so much, Susan Candiotti.

Well, millions of Floridians have been told to get off on Jeanne's way. Portions of Brevard County are included in the manditory evacuation orders involving 9 Florida counties. And that's where we find Kevin Oliver from affiliate WFTV.

KEVIN OLIVER, WFTV: Fredricka, out here in the coast, we've been watching the waves grow larger and larger here along the Cocoa Beach Pier. In fact, we saw earlier today a pilon that looked like it had broken free already, underneath the pier. The waves have been actually hitting the underside of the pier all morning, and it's only expected to grow higher as the surf gets more rough, as Jeanne approaches.

Now off in the distance here, you can still see a number of people coming out to the beach here and check out the scene. A lot of these people have been asked to leave Cocoa Beach, but they are not, they are not moving inland. In fact, we are not seeing the same numbers of people moving to shelters and moving away from the coast, as we did during Frances and even during Charley.

A lot of people, as we heard earlier, have what they've been calling hurricane fatigue here on the coast. They're simply tired of being evacuating and a lot of people saying they want to stay home. Some people are even saying they can't afford to leave, and so they are just staying in their homes and hoping for the best at this point, despite all of the earlier warnings.

We did hear that about 4,000 people are in shelters across Brevard County at this point, but they were really hoping those numbers would be higher, considering the threat that Jeanne poses to this part of the county. Reporting live from Cocoa Beach, Kevin Oliver for CNN.

WHITFIELD: And, Kevin, are you finding from some of the residents who are deciding to stay there that they are just so annoyed at this diluge of hurricane activity along the Florida coast that they just don't feel like taking the trouble of leaving?

OLIVER: A lot had left and gone so long for Frances. As you might remember, a lot of the people that left here were waiting for Frances to hit, and Frances started moving slower and slower, so a lot of them were in shelters before days before that hurricane came through. And then they had to wait another two days to be able to come back home and check out their property and see what was damaged and what wasn't damaged.

A lot of the people here also saw that there wasn't much damage to their homes even though some of their neighbors lost everything and so they decided, a lot of people have decided, they're just going to chance it and see what happens with this storm.

WHITFIELD: All right, Kevin Oliver of our affiliate WFTV, thanks so much.

Well, let's find out exactly where Hurricane Jeanne is right now. Our meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is tracking the storm from the weather center -- Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, about 100 miles away from Vero Beach right now. But this is not the storm to take likely. We've heard a lot of talk about people being complacent about this storm. I give up. We've just had storm after storm. This is category three hurricane with winds of 115 miles per hour. This is a major hurricane, not something to taken lightly.

We're going to have big problems with storm surge, with flooding, five to ten inches, possibly a little more than that. And the hurricane force winds extend out 70 miles from the eye of this storm. This is going to be affecting a lot of people, a lot of populated areas from West Palm Beach, Miami up towards Melbourne, in to Orlando. Then it will head its way up to Jacksonville and then head into the Carolinas.

So this is not something to sit at home and just say, I don't care, we will see what happens with this one. We want to pay attention.

Now, rain is going to be one of the biggest threats. You can see right now, those rain showers are kind of spotted across the area, but the intensity of them are starting to pick up as some of these outer bands move in.

The forecast rainfall's what's very impressive. Take a look at these numbers between now and Sunday evening, about 9.5 inches possible around Orlando, Ft. Pierce about 4 and a half inches, well over 4 expected in West Palm Beach. And even Miami getting in some of this action.

As you can see, as we extend across the northeast, as we head towards Savannah into Charleston, also expecting to see about 3 to 6 inches of rainfall. We'll have more on the forecast track.

Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jacqui, thanks so much.

Well, as Jeanne barrels towards the east coast of Florida, Governor Jeb Bush has been urging people to evacuate. Let's listen in to him right now.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS) GOV. JEB BUSH, (R) FLORIDA: ...work in anticipation of this storm has been demanding, certainly, and a lot of people have been working very hard. But without that support, a lot of Floridians tomorrow and the next day would not be receiving any assistance at all. And it's important to pause and to reflect on our disaster response efforts and how effective they have been, and how appreciative we are as Floridians that work being done today and yesterday and the day before in anticipation of Hurricane Jeanne will make a difference in the lives of many people.

Now, as you've listened to Ben and Craig talk, now is the time to stay in place on the east coast. The tropical force winds have started up along the east coast. Soon, at some point, the highway patrol will be leaving to go to safety, maybe in the next few hours, depending on how the winds pick up. This is not the time to be traveling. The evacuations should have occurred already and now is the time to find a safe place and stay there.

We are -- Jeanne's westward movement means that our west coast is now under hurricane watches as well. And for the residents along the western coast from Sarasota to Levy County, they should begin to complete their preparation plans right now.

The same goes for our inland residents. I wish I could just tell you that the storm hits the coast and all of a sudden, it magically goes away or it drops its power, but that's not the case. We've already seen how this works with Frances, with Charley and with Ivan, and we know that our inland areas also have significant issues.

And as been mentioned, the hurricane force winds will go as its projected now, all the way up to north, central Florida. And so people -- and the threat of tornados as we've seen in the last six weeks are also very real. So people in the inland areas, the time is running out for them as well to prepare their houses or to evacuate, should they be in a mobile home park or a low-lying area. This is the time to act.

Sustained hurricane force winds are expected all wait through north central Florida. I want to repeat that, because I think there's some notion that these storms are only going to hit the coastal areas. They do. But there won't be storm surges necessarily, but could be significant flooding and significant wind damage.

This is a time that we in Florida have become all too familiar with in the past 6 weeks, which is to wait for the storm. The storms have also made us familiar with something else, which is resilience and resolve. I cannot tell you how proud I am to be governor of a state whose people have met the challenge in the last six weeks.

If you have followed what has gone on, there have been acts of courage, of love, of compassion, of helping a neighbor, making sure that family is safe, and while we tragically have seen a loss of life, because of the efforts not just of the first responders and FEMA and the National Guard and the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, and thousands of people that are acting on their sense of consciousness to help others, neighbors helping neighbors have saved lives as well. And made it possible for us to be able to get through these storms.

That's what makes Florida a very special place. And while we've seen tremendous damage and while, you know, you go to these briefings and you kind of -- it gets a little depressing, I guess. I can assure you that a week from now, Florida's going to be a better place than it is today and I can assure you a month from now it'll be even better place than it is today, and I can assure you a month from now it's going to be even better, and a year from now from the lessons learned, and the ability to rebuild, which we will do, Florida will continue to be the best place to live in the United States.

And so there is support, and there is hope coming for the people that are going to be impacted by this storm. And it'll come quickly, and it'll be sustained. With that, I would like to say a few words in Spanish.

(SPEAKING IN SPANISH)

WHITFIELD: Governor Jeb Bush saying, if you haven't evacuated by now along the Florida east coast, then stay put. It's just entirely too dangerous to try and hit the roads now. Now with Hurricane Jeanne only a few miles away from the coast, and possibility going to hit the coast sometime around midnight. But where exactly might it hit? Let's return to Jacqui Jeras who has a better idea of just what cities along the coast might be targeted -- Jacqui.

JERAS: Well, Fredricka, we've been putting the track here on the eye wall. Right now the center of circulation is about 120 miles east/southeast of Vero Beach. And it's moving just slightly north of due west. And the eye wall, you can see it right there, and check out that rotator there, that's an indication of a possible tornado. So that eye wall, the worst part of the storm, is moving in toward the west and likely making landfall there sometime around the 9:00 hour for tonight.

Now, we still might see some changes in the forward speed. And keep in mind, that this is the eye wall. The eye itself will likely take a couple of hours after that. So anywhere likely between maybe 10:30 until 1:30 in the morning is when we are really looking that the likely making landfall.

Forecast track has it pushing almost due west, and then taking more of a turn up to the north. It will be weakening after it makes landfall, but at that time, we're still concerned that additional strengthening will be possible before it does make its way onshore. Weakens to a tropical storm, and then heads up through the Carolinas.

But the good news is, we were initially considered, Fredricka, that this might be just scraping right along the coast line. It looks like it should be staying over land. And that is some good news -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jacqui Jeras, thanks so much. In the weather center.

Well, Haiti after Jeanne, the number of death rises. And the U.N. fights to keep order at food distribution points.

And some in Florida are asking is living there these days worth the stress?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe, next summer, by then, we'll be happy to be here again, but no, right now, it's -- it makes you think about Flagstaff and anywhere but here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Some Floridians, bottom line: not here, not again.

And, they're the first thing I read when I get up in the morning and the last thing I read at night. Who said that? And what was he talking about?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, welcome back to our coverage of Hurricane Jeanne. It was a tropical storm when when it passed over Haiti a week ago, but the devestation it left behind continues to cause misery today. CNN's Karl Penhaul joins us now -- Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Fredricka, not only the devestation continue here in Haiti 1 week after Tropical Storm Jeanne raked through the city of Gonaives, so does the chaos. The food distribution network here, yes, it's been put in place by United Nations, by independent aid organizations, and also today by the Haitian government, it's complete chaos.

We just witnessed some aid trucks trying to give out food. That was a donation by the Haitian government and independent aid organizations from within Haiti. The Haitian police tried to keep order to start with. After that, the whole thin descended into chaos, very much like the other efforts we've seen throughout the week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PENHAUL (voice-over): They survived the storm, they lost loved ones, and their homes have been destroyed. Now they're hungry and thirsty. Hours of waiting under blazing sun, scuffles to get a place in line. No guarantee of filling their bellies tonight.

"The water took all our stuff, we can't stand it anymore," she says.

Anger, frustration, desperation -- an explosion waiting to happen. Soldiers from the United Nations (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to restore political stability, fire into the air and launch tear gas canisters. They fear a riot is about to erupt, and people are getting crushed.

(on camera): The crowds pulled back for now, but the Argentinean troops here know it's going to be a battle to maintain law and order. They also think somebody in the crowd may have a gun. (voice-over): Troops on the ground call urgently to comrades on rooftops to try and identify armed gang members among the hungry.

"I think gangs want to take advantage and loot the food and provoke riots to discredit the aid effort," he says.

Tempers fray even among the lucky ones who manage to receive their food rations. These women almost came to blows as they try to shell out food in a small bucket.

CECILY BRYANT, CARE INTERNATIONAL: At the moment it's very difficult to assess exactly what the impact has been -- how profound it has been. I mean, most of these families, down here, have very little anyway, and so this is kind of pushing them right over the edge with having something like this happens to them again.

PENHAUL: A short drive away from the chaos of the food handout, parts of Gonaives are still under water. Residents try to push mud out of the church that is now their shelter. Like thousands of others, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) home is destroyed. Some of the neighbors were among the more than 1,200 that died. She escaped with her two children.

"We haven't eaten," she says. She's one of 700 people crammed in the church. She says she's received no food aid and is surving on scraps.

Back in the food distribution center, aid workers say Haitian authorities have done nothing to help the needy. Shortages of drinking water are fueling fears of the outbreak of disease. As if the survivors of Tropical Storm Jeanne don't have enough misery to contend with.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PENHAUL: The kind of chaos that we saw in some of those scenes is continued here in Gonaives throughout the day. At one point, we saw Haitian police aboard one of the aid trucks simply tossing the aid out of the back. Half that aid landed on the ground, Haitian men, some them armed with knives were fighting amongst themselves to see whose got that aid. It really is survival of the fitest here, Fredericka.

WHITFIELD: Wow. And Karl, still with more aid, potentially on the way, still the problem of how it actually gets distributed to people.

PENHAUL: I can't quite hear you, Fredricka, but if I heard you correctly, there are 2 issues here. Yes, the aid: can it get here quick enough? Because if -- clean, drinking water here quick enough, then there's the risk of outbreaks of epidemics. The security situation is also deteriorating. As people get more hungry and more desperate, there's a great a tendency, we've seen, towards violence in the line-ups for aid distribution -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Karl Penhaul in Gonaives. Thanks so much.

Well, Jeanne is the 4th hurricane to threaten Florida in the past six weeks. Many residents still trying to clean up from the last storm, must now prepare for the next one. CNN's John Zarrella has more of what's become a very frustrating routine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Tobi Howell stands watch over a pile of burning debris left over from Hurricane Frances three weeks ago. There's another stack out on the street. With Jeanne knocking at the door, Tobi decided to burn it rather than risk watching it go airborne.

TOBI HOWELL, PALM CITY RESIDENT: People have pieces of their roof, you know, stacks of roof shingles and roof, you know, the metal sheets and the flashing that goes around the side and there's big stacks of lumber and cuttings everywhere, so it could be really dangerous.

ZARRELLA: The Howells live in Palm City near Stewart, Florida. The eye of Hurricane Frances came right over them. They lost power for more than a week. Now they're boarding up again.

So is Paul Pelletier. He took his down after Frances too.

PAUL PELLETIER, PALM CITY RESIDENT: When you come back and you see all the mess and the boards on the wall you're just anxious to get back to a normal life and maybe having these things off of the windows may have been part of that you know.

ZARRELLA: Pelletier lost part of a patio roof during Frances. Instead of finishing cleaning up now he's boarding up and wondering whether life in Florida is worth the stress.

PELLETIER: I'm hoping, you know, two, three months maybe next summer by then we'll be happy to be here again but, no, right now it's -- it makes you think about Flagstaff and anywhere but here.

ZARRELLA: Just about everywhere on Florida's east coast it's deja vu. Cars are stuck in gas lines. In West Palm Beach, homes and businesses are going through the ritual too.

Reminders of Frances, broken signs and downed trees are still everywhere and before the weekend is out yet another storm will likely leave its mark somewhere in Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Overseas, a terrorist tactic hitting home: What is fueling the hostage taking? And what's the business surrounding it? A discussion when we come right back.

And a report from Liverpool, a community waiting to hear about one of its own. And images from Iraq, views from citizens captured on disposable cameras. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Friends and family are paying tribute to Jack Hensley today. The construction worker from Marietta, Georgia, was beheaded earlier this week in Iraq. He and American Eugene Armstrong were kidnapped, held hostage and killed by Islamist militants.

A memorial service was held in Hensley's hometown today. The minister presiding over the service focused on helping others overcome the anger at Hensley death.

The fate of a Briton captured along with Hensley and Armstrong is still uncertain.

Well, pleas are mounting for the release of hostage Kenneth Bigley, the Briton, even as an Islamic Web site is posting claims that he's been killed in Iraq. But those claims have not been verified. In Liverpool, England, his family is agonizing wait. Our Robyn Curnow now has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A call to prayer in a Liverpool mosque. Also, a call for mercy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Islam completely prevents any innocent individual should be targeted, bombed, armed, oppressed, taken captive, tortured or killed.

CURNOW: Kidnapped more than a week ago, Ken Bigley's fate has touched people across Liverpool and beyond, as the reality of what is happening in Iraq hits home. The local newspaper, the "Liverpool Echo," filled with messages of support for Bigley's family from as far away as New Zealand, Belgium and New York.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it is disgusting. I really think it is tragic. I mean, the family must be going through hell. You know, I mean he's not anything to do with the war, is he? He's just working up there a living.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't imagine what family are going through. It's sad that the politics has to affect everyday people who are just trying to go on with their lives.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very sorry for his mother. I know just how she'd feel if it happened to me. But I know there's nothing they can do about it. I do know that. I pray for them.

CURNOW: Behind closed curtains, Bigley's family continues its agonizing wait.

The strain of the ordeal taking its toll on his 86-year-old mother Lil Bigley. Briefly admitted to hospital after she made this impassioned plea to the hostage-takers.

LIL BIGLEY, MOTHER OF KEN BIGLEY: He is only a working man who wants to support his family. Please show mercy to Ken and send him home to me alive.

CURNOW: The family's efforts not just limited to heart-rendering pleas on television.

(on-camera): From Liverpool, relatives are doing everything they can to save Ken Bigley. They've persuaded the Foreign Office to distribute 50,000 pamphlets in Baghdad, in which the family make a personal plea in Arabic to Iraqis for information. Desperate, they say they're exhausting every option available to them. Robyn Curnow, CNN, Liverpool.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Across Iraq, there have been a number of kidnappings since the war began. The hostages come from all walks of life and from some 32 countries. Right now, 48 people are being held hostage; 37 have been killed, four are unaccounted for, 102 have been released, rescued, or managed to escape somehow.

Well, grabbing someone and holding them hostage is not a new terror tactic. It has long been employed by militants. But with advances in communications and the Internet, it's having more of an impact today. Daniel Byman is an assistant professor at Georgetown University, at the Walsh School of Foreign Service -- that's in Washington, D.C. -- and he's a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has some insights into this very brutal business of hostage taking. Good to see you.

DANIEL BYMAN, GEORGETOWN UNIV: Thank you for having me.

WHITFIELD: Well, does it seem as though hostage taking has become even more of an effective tool for terrorists?

BYMAN: The problem for terrorists in the past was that while hostage taking got a lot of media attention, the media attention was largely negative. Any news organization covering it often tended to portray the terrorists as horrible human beings, naturally enough. But today, the terrorists can use the same technologies that we all use -- digital cameras, digital video -- and disseminate footage on the Internet that makes them look good.

They can mix it with footage of children crying from a bombed out building. They can have messages that are proselytizing for their cause. And all this makes their own message from hostage taking much more effective than it was 20, 30 years ago.

WHITFIELD: And it simply means they're able to reach a much greater audience, whether these are people who are on their side or not.

BYMAN: Exactly. Terrorists are trying not only to affect Americans or Britons, or whomever, but also ordinary Iraqis, who may not know which was to go, but they're looking to see if the government in Iraq can maintain order. And when these videos appear that show the helplessness of people, it suggests that the government in Iraq, that the Americans cannot maintain order, and indicates to these Iraqis that they're going to have to work with the militants whether they like it or not.

WHITFIELD: Well, let's look a little bite further into the audiences of these terrorist organizations, who are carrying out these hostage takings, are able to reach. Not only, you mentioned, governments, adversaries such as the U.S. or Iraqi governments, but also, they're able to use it as a recruiting tool, aren't they?

BYMAN: Absolutely. Terrorist groups are engaged in a constant competition with other terrorist groups. There are, in Iraq, dozens of small groups, all of which want money, all of which want recruits. And by showing that they are active, by using hostages to advance their cause with attention, they're able to say to potential recruits, "Join our group, not some other. Give us money, not another group."

WHITFIELD: And say, in the case of Iraq, you also cite one of the audience members is also those Iraqis who are on the fence, those who are particularly intimidated, perhaps, by terrorists or insurgents there, not quite sure whether the western influence is an ally or not.

BYMAN: Absolutely. In Iraq, you have, let's say, an ordinary Iraqi policeman, who may not like the insurgents, but if he knows that, if he cooperates with the government, his family might be killed, he might be killed, he's going to cooperate with them. And hostage taking makes the government look helpless.

So as a result, everyone is going to work with the insurgents if they believe the government cannot protect them, even if they don't like the insurgents.

WHITFIELD: So by virtue of all of these means of conveying the message, the demands that these hostages takers might be making, is it less of their demands being met and more of just simply getting attention?

BYMAN: The terrorist do not expect their demands to be met. From their point of view, this is theater. Their goal is to get attention from the West, from Iraqis, from other radicals, and they've no expectation that the United States or any other government is going to meet their demands.

WHITFIELD: Well, if that's the case, then wouldn't the appeal be coming from a number of family members, then governments might as well try to negotiate just to open up lines of communication, even if they have no intention of appealing to the demands of the hostage takers?

BYMAN: All it does when the government negotiates is drag it out and, again, suggest the government is helpless, that it's at the mercy of the terrorists. This is unfortunate because everyone's heart goes out to the families. But we've seen time and time again that when governments negotiate with terrorists over hostages, it only encourages more hostage taking over time.

WHITFIELD: Daniel Byman, assistant professor at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Thanks so much for joining us from Washington.

BYMAN: Thank you for having me.

WHITFIELD: Coalition forces are trying to strike a blow against militants and rebel factions in Iraq. Seven Iraqis were killed in fighting in Fallujah today. Few details have been released about that military operation. But in another operation, coalition forces used precision air strikes to target what intelligence sources call a known terrorist meeting site connected to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Seven people were killed in that operation as well, at least 10 others wounded.

Often, we see so much violence in Iraq, it's easy to forget that day to day life does go on there. An inventive new project is apparently giving Americans a chance to see the country through the eyes of the Iraqi people. Disposable cameras were given to 10 Iraqis, and here's a look at some of the images they captured.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VOICE OF FRED RITCHIN, DIRECTOR PIXEL PRESS: The people given cameras in Iraq were people known to several foreign journalists who were coming in, and to the people they already knew in Iraq. And they were selected to get a cross-section of some extent of the Iraqi people. So you get a third year English student from a university in Baghdad, a guy who lives in a garbage dump; you get somebody who's a dentist.

They were told explicitly that this is an opportunity to send a message to the American people, to tell them what is going on in Iraq, what is Iraq like, what are some of the hopes, and wishes, and desires of the people in Iraq. By giving the disposable cameras to the civilians, they themselves were able to photograph their friends, their neighbors, their own family, and their own point of view.

Just these little 10 disposable cameras are enough for me to understand that there's a huge slice of this society that I know very, very little about, with all the coverage that I've seen. So this documentary exploration becomes one of saying, "This is what our society is to us. Do not define us by explosions, by pictures of military, by pictures of insurgents, but define us by our daily lives."

There's a photograph of people living in a very poor neighborhood, who named their child Americas on the day of the U.S. invasion. There is a child who has a very serious medical deformity. There's a young woman who's flirtatious. There's kids going to school. There's a guy working in the street. There's people in Fallujah burying their own dead. There's a combination of the very daily kinds of things and some of the more extraordinary things that happen in Iraq.

When you see the guy building, or carrying bricks, or the boy in the schoolyard, or the young woman sort of smiling, then you realize it's another society that's human, and noble, and wonderful. It's wonderful to have snapshots that say, "Forget the spectacular. Forget the shocking. Look at the everyday." And maybe that way, in fact, we'll learn more about what's going on in Iraq. (END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Now, a look at what's happening now in the news. It's getting bigger, faster, and stronger. The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Hurricane Jeanne has strengthened into a category three storm with maximum sustained winds of 115 miles an hour. This will be Florida's fourth hurricane in just six weeks.

Forecasters say the storm could hit the coast later tonight or early tomorrow morning, possibly between West Palm Beach and Melbourne. Mandatory evacuations apply for several counties on the state's eastern coast. Millions of people have been urged to leave their homes and, if they haven't left by now, to stay put.

And a week later, Jeanne is still having a profound effect on Haiti. United Nations soldiers had to shoot their guns in the air and use tear gas to disperse an angry crowd desperate for food and clean water. The death tool from Hurricane Jeanne has now risen to more than 1,300. Rioting and looting is also on the rise.

And we're moving onto presidential politics, coming up next, and the changing role of bloggers. I chat with the author of "Fear and Laptops on the Campaign Trail."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The president is at the western White House today. He's preparing for the upcoming presidential debates at his Crawford, Texas ranch. And that's where we find Elaine Quijano, who has more on how the president is spending his day. Elaine...

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Fredricka. President Bush, along with several of his top aids are preparing at his ranch here in Crawford, Texas. Now, a senior administration official, though, says the president really has been at this preparation process for some time now. In fact, his officials saying that the president has already held several mock debates, practice sessions, if you will, in order to get ready.

Now, the president decided to come to Crawford, according to this official, because it's a comfortable setting for him, the right place for him to be able to polish off his preparations. And as he did in 2000, the president is enlisting the help of Senator Judd Gregg. Now, he is a Republican from New Hampshire, who plays the part of Senator Kerry in these practice sessions.

Bush aids say the president himself thought Gregg did a great job in the last campaign, and they think he might be even better suited this time because he's from New England, and he's familiar with Senator Kerry. Now, the official says that Gregg is very well prepared and is very tough -- in fact, so tough that he has had some glances, some glares, really, directed his way.

But this official, really, without going into too much detail, just saying that some of these practice sessions, Fredricka, have been lively.

WHITFIELD: So Elaine, besides the mock debates, how else might President Bush be preparing for the upcoming debates?

QUIJANO: Well, the president has materials that he uses, including audiotapes of Senator Kerry's speeches, his statements, his question and answer sessions. And we are told by a senior administration official that he actually listens to them during his travels out on the campaign trail, also while exercising in the White House gym.

So the president really using all of the available resources that he has at his disposal to get ready and get prepared for these debates. Fredricka...

WHITFIELD: All right, Elaine Quijano in Crawford, Texas, thanks so much. Well, the Democratic team is also getting ready for the debates. Senator John Kerry and his running mate John Edwards are both getting some R&R. Kerry is in his home state of Massachusetts after a week of blasting how the president is waging the war on terror and the war in Iraq.

Kerry says Bush went after Saddam Hussein at the cost of capturing Osama bin Laden. Blogging is, apparently, very big on the Internet. Even the Bush and Kerry camps keep their own daily Web journals. Well, what might surprise you is how influential bloggers have become. For more on that, we turn to Matthew Klam, who has written the cover story for The New York Times Magazine this week, called "Fear and Laptops on the Campaign Trail." And he joins us from Washington. Good to see you.

MATTHEW KLAM, NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: Nice to see you too.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, blogging is still fairly new in our vocabulary. So explain what blogging is, and who are the bloggers?

KLAM: A blog is an online diary. It's like a newspaper somebody might make in their living room, but it's updated all day long with their thoughts and opinions on the news as it unfolds. And...

WHITFIELD: And it seems like... oh, go ahead.

KLAM: You were going to ask me, who are bloggers?

WHITFIELD: Yeah.

KLAM: Well, I think that the bloggers who are doing the best work right now, who are the most popular, are the ones on the left. They seem to be a little bit more iconoclastic than the bloggers on the right, and I think they lean a little bit more toward that sort of voicey, edgy kind of attitude that people are attracted to right now.

WHITFIELD: And it seems it was during the caucuses and the primaries when blogging really did become fairly influential. Does it seem as though blogging is going to be equally, or even more so, influential for November? KLAM: I'm not sure. One of the bloggers who I write about, Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos, his traffic tripled in the last few months. He was receiving 350,000 visitors a day during the Republican Convention. If you add his numbers to just one other blogger, this other guy who I write about in the piece, you're at close to half a million readers, and that is more than the Philadelphia Inquirer. It's close to the Boston Globe. So if a newspaper can influence an election, maybe these guys can also.

WHITFIELD: But isn't it rather murky as to, you know, the agenda that any of these bloggers may have? Some have been unbiased journalists. Some are, you know, come more from an advocacy journalism background. And then some, as you mentioned, may have just been working with various campaigns. How confusing might that be for the readers of these blogs to discern fact from fiction, to fantasy.

KLAM: Yes, it is. It's very confusing. I think that one of the things that a lot of bloggers want you to realize is that they are partisan, and they're coming from a perspective, and they want you to take their writing with a grain of salt. But I think we've all seen lately that it's hard to be sure that what you're reading in the newspaper, what you're seeing on, you know, a very well regarded news show is also true.

So I think we're living in an age right now where that stuff is all kind of up in the air. And bloggers believe that news is something that's interpreted. And so...

WHITFIELD: And so, Matthew, where are these readers finding these blogs? It's not as simple as Blogs.com, is it?

KLAM: I guess if you read my piece, you'd see names of a few good blogs...

WHITFIELD: ... out tomorrow.

KLAM: ... and there's a couple of really famous ones that have a lot of traffic. There's a few on Slate, but one by the guy who's sort of the first blogger, Mickey Kaus, who is a very legit journalist, who is now on Slate. And if you go to KosFiles -- that's in my piece too -- it talks about him.

Andrew Sullivan, who is a pretty widely read, nationally known journalist. He's also a blogger. And there are as many blogs as there are grains of sand in the desert.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, Matthew Klam of The New York Times Magazine, the article is "Fear and Laptops on the Campaign Trail." Explain the "fear" part.

KLAM: I think that they are in a very precarious moment right now in the blog world, because some of them are making money. One of the guys I write about, Atrios, quit his job as an economics professor so that he could be a fulltime blogger. I think they all feel a lot of fear because they're working alone. And I think they receive an enormous amount of attention. They get a lot of emails from people. They get some hate mail.

And they're out there, and it's hard to do that without, you know, a big institution behind you.

WHITFIELD: All right, Matthew, we'll be reading more about it in tomorrow's New York Times Magazine article. Thanks so much.

KLAM: Thanks a lot.

WHITFIELD: Well, an affluent county votes to important some medicines from Canada in defiance of federal law. We'll hear from some of the employees when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A check of stories across America now. Four children were killed in a house fire in Chicago last night. Fire officials say there were no parents at the scene. A fire department spokesman describes the blaze as suspicious and says an arson investigation is under way.

A lawyer for Private Lyndie England says the Army will announce on Monday that it will court martial the pregnant reservist. England was seen in pictures of prisoner abuse at the notorious Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq. The attorney doesn't say what the charges will be, but says a military trial may be held in January.

And the mayor of Flint, Michigan is banning some reading. He's banned city employees from reading non-work material during work hours. In fact, a newspaper carrier was detained this week trying to deliver a paper to city hall. The mayor has relented a bit, saying he'll allow deliveries, but the reading ban stays in place.

Well, from banning reading to banning prescription drugs. As drug prices continue to go up, so does the number of Americans buying medications from abroad. CNN's Kathleen Koch has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Montgomery County, Maryland employee Jonathan Bishop takes 12 different drugs twice a day.

JONATHAN BISHOP, MONTGOMERY COUNTY EMPLOYEE: It can total up to be quite a bit. And my wife is not healthy, and she takes just about as many as I do.

KOCH: Prescription drug costs for Bishop and the other 85,000 county employees, retirees, and their families have doubled over the last six years. So leaders in this, one of the most affluent counties in the nation, voted this week to buy drugs from Canada.

TOM PEREZ, MONTGOMERY COUNTY COUNCILMAN: We have a healthcare crisis and we have a fiscal crisis in Montgomery County. Twenty million dollars a year we can save by allowing our employees to purchase their maintenance drugs from Canada.

KOCH: The Maryland county follows about a dozen local and state governments that have chosen to import some medicines from Canada, all in defiance of federal law. Montgomery County's action is a particular slap in the face, since it's home to the Food and Drug Administration, which insists the practice is dangerous.

WILLIAM HUBBARD, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION: Many of the drugs we see coming in from Canadian pharmacies have been made from all over the world, and many are sub-quality. So we're very concerned that people are being misled to think Canadian means as good as U.S. approved, and that's not true, in some cases.

KOCH: But this week, a pharmaceutical company vice president insisted on Capitol Hill that Europeans have been safely reimporting drugs for decades.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: In Europe, reimportation has been done safely for 20 years, and I think many may not have heard that in the past. And I hope that some of the senators who are holding up these bills, once they understand this, may change their mind.

KOCH (on-camera): Supporters of a bipartisan bill to legalize the importation of lower cost drugs have failed to get a Senate vote on the measure.

(voice-over): While the U.S. has seized some imports and shutdown a few companies for selling unapproved foreign drugs, it so far has not challenged local governments buying them. Montgomery County workers hope their program will be given a chance too.

BISHOP: I think it will work as long as the process is followed properly.

KOCH: Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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