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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

How Good Is U.S. Intelligence on Iran?; 'Hotel Rwanda'

Aired November 19, 2004 - 17:00   ET

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

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


WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, message intercepted? What the U.S. government is now hearing about al Qaeda and Iraq.
Standby for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Iranian nukes. How good is U.S. intelligence? Can the world rely on another U.S. warning?

North Korean nukes on the agenda as President Bush heads to a post election summit.

Hotel Rwanda. As a savage genocide raged, he offered shelter from the storm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought I was doing my (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BLITZER: William, rare pictures and an interview as the prince ponders his future. Meantime...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I shall lose a way of life.

BLITZER: England's fox hunters have no future.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Friday, November 19, 2004.

BLITZER: We begin with new warnings and new questions about weapons of mass destruction. Not so long ago, the subject was Iraq, but now the warnings are all about Iran, another charter member of the president's so-called axis of evil. And once again the information is a focus of dispute. For more, let's turn to our national security correspondent, David Ensor -- David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, knowledgeable sources tell us there are questions about the reliability of the intelligence on Iran's nuclear program that Secretary of State Powell spoke of a few days ago. But at the State Department, there's no backing down.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADAM ERELI, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: The secretary did not misspeak. The secretary knows exactly what he is talking about.

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: I have seen some information. And the dissidents have put out more information that suggests that the Iranians are also working on designs one would have to have for putting such a warhead into a missile.

ENSOR: The likely missile in question, a Shahab 3 tested in October by Iran. U.S. officials are angered by a "Washington Post" article saying Powell's information came from an unvetted single source, a walk-in, with more than 1,000 pages of Iranian drawings and technical documents, including a nuclear warhead design and modifications to enable Iranian ballistic missiles to deliver an atomic strike.

KEN POLLACK, SABAN CENTER: It makes collecting against Iran, it makes protecting this source and it makes recruiting other sources infinitely harder, and this is a hard enough topic as it is.

ENSOR: The questions about Powell's comments on intelligence evoked memories of his testimony on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq at the U.N. before the war, weapons that have not been found.

The questions came after an Iranian opposition group, whose supporters demonstrated in Washington Friday, offered evidence it said that Iran is working on nuclear weapons at a newly discovered sight, something Tehran hotly denies.

Critics of the European-Iranian agreement, an exchange of trade incentives for suspension of uranium enrichment, are putting their cards on the table in the run-up to next week's meeting on Iran of the International Atomic Energy Board in Vienna.

DAVID ALBRIGHT, INST. FOR SCIENCE & INTL. SEC.: I do think there's a lot of rock throwing at this agreement right now and I think we have to look at that information very carefully and remember what happened in Iraq when we do that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: But Iran, too, is not helping matters. Western diplomats in Vienna say Iran is rushing to convert some yellowcake into Uranium hexa-fluoride, which is used in both nuclear power and nuclear bombs prior to Monday, which is the day Iran has promised to suspend enrichment activities -- Wolf.

BLITZER: David Ensor, thank you very much.

Another nuclear threat, also a charter member of the president's axis of evil is a key concern as leaders of 21 Asia Pacific nations gather for their annual summit. This year it's in Santiago, Chile. President Bush is due to arrive in just a couple of hours. Protesters though are already waiting for him. Our senior White House correspondent, John King, is covering the president's trip. He's joining us now live -- John.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And Wolf, little progress in the North Korea nuclear standoff and some other issues these past several because leaders around the world wondering would President Bush be re-elected? Now as Mr. Bush makes his way here to Santiago, they know who will be across the table the next four years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice-over): The president's first post-election international trip comes as the White House talks of staying the course, but even some allies same with the new term should also come a new approach. The top White House goal at the Asian Pacific Summit in Chile this year, a unified front in the nuclear showdown with North Korea, but Mr. Bush's partners in the so-called six-party talks, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, all to varying degrees suggest North Korea isn't the only obstacle to progress, and that Mr. Bush could offer security and other incentives.

LEE HAMILTON, WOODROW WILSON CENTER: All of them are urging the United States to get off the dime here and move forward on negotiations.

KING: APEC is an economic club by name known for its colorful class photos. Security has dominated the agenda in recent years, especially after the 9/11 attacks. But some leaders want to refocus on pocketbook issues and put their stamp on Mr. Bush's second term agenda.

WENDY SHERMAN, FMR. STATE DEPT. COUNSELOR: We are going to see leaders turn to the American president and say, what about your budget deficit? What about the weak dollar? What about rising oil prices in the world?

KING: These summits are largely scripted, but will give Mr. Bush his first opportunity since winning reelection to meet face to face with many of his peers, including a few favorites.

Japan's Koizumi, for example, was a staple of the Bush campaign speech.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I didn't tell him, I was going to tell you, that Elvis is his favorite singer.

KING: Russia's Putin publicly endorsed a second Bush term. And Mr. Bush the first to call the Russian leader Vladimir. But Moscow's announcement of a new nuclear weapon have some thinking it is past time for Mr. Bush to turn tougher with a leader critics say has turned too autocratic.

SHERMAN: The Bush administration is going to have to take the gloves off a little bit and be a little bit more head on about where President Putin is leading his country.

KING: Mr. Bush is the focal point of summit protests, anger over the Iraq war, adding to the more familiar APEC demonstrations, complaining global trade exploits the poor and the environment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: China's economic and political transition as well as trade and immigration debates on this side of the Pacific also among the tough issues the president will confront here at the summit in Santiago. In many ways, you could consider it a warmup for an even more difficult challenge. After his inauguration in January, the president will head across the Atlantic for some fence-mending with European critics -- Wolf.

BLITZER: John King reporting for us from the summit. John, thank you very much.

Meanwhile, the United States is drowning in red ink. That warning today from the Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. He says the growing trade deficit with other countries and the soaring federal budget deficit threaten the U.S. economy. Greenspan warning the U.S. must deal with these causes of its weak dollar or international investors may flee, driving down U.S. markets and driving up interest rates for all of us.

Greenspan addressed a banking conference in Germany. When he speaks, people listen. The stock markets today, including the Dow Jones industrials tumbled down 115 points.

BLITZER: It was one of the justifications for invading Iraq. The country's alleged tie with his al Qaeda. Now the U.S. military's central command is sounding off on the controversial issue once again. Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr with details of a briefing over at the Pentagon that has just concluded -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Wolf, it may now be all coming true, the number two man at the U.S. Central Command, General Lance Smith, told Pentagon reporters this afternoon there may now be evidence that al Qaeda, senior al Qaeda leaders are communicating or trying to, with this man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist who has claimed responsibility for so much violence inside Iraq in recent months.

Let's quickly have a listen to what General Smith had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. LANCE SMITH, CENTCOM: I think there are attempted communications between Zarqawi and bin Laden. Whether or not they have been successful, because of the huge distances involved in those lines of communication, I would say that they probably have not been, but we know for a fact that there are attempted communications between them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: General Smith concluding by saying he doesn't really know yet what it all means, but his belief is that probably al Qaeda is congratulating Zarqawi on creating so much trouble inside Iraq or communicating their philosophy or guidance to him. Not clear yet that al Qaeda is actually conducting or coordinating any operations inside Iraq themselves -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Barbara Starr, reporting for us, thank you, Barbara, very much. Meanwhile, civilians began emerging from the rubble of Falluja today as U.S. forces consolidate their hold on the city. Elsewhere, there were calls to violence. Those calls were answered. Our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson reports from Baghdad.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Among the dead of Falluja, the living look for loved ones. Prayers offered as relatives find and commit their kin for burial. The living, encouraged to continue the fight against Americans. Inside Sunni mosques across Baghdad, the human costs of the Falluja offensive was publicly weighed during holy day prayers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happens happened has made our hearts bleed and filled our eyes with tears.

ROBERTSON: Strident anti-American sermons characterizing the price clerics say should be paid. "God take on Americans. God destroy their camps. God shake their ground under their feet. God make their children orphans. God make their wives widows."

Outside Baghdad's Abu Hanifa (ph) Mosque, in an area long a bastion of Sunni resentment of U.S. forces, Iraqi National Guard and American troops clashed with Friday prayer goers. Two Iraqis were killed and seven wounded. As according to eyewitnesses, worshipers believe the mosque's preacher and two of his deputies were to be arrested. In the east of the city, within hours of the week's main prayers ending, killings resumed. Five police killed as a suicide bomber plowed his explosive-Laden Mercedes into their checkpoint.

(on camera): The hours after Friday prayers have become some of the most dangerous of the week, this particular holy day, drawing into sharp focus anger over Falluja. This just a few days after government officials arrested anti-government clerics in Mosul. Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Nuclear dispute. Questions about the accuracy of intelligence on Iran. An expert standing by to speak with us to explain what's going on.

Plus, potential drug dangers. Five medications now under scrutiny. Our Mary Snow is standing by with details.

Also ahead...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...I've had a pretty normal life not really big (UNINTELLIGIBLE) fanfare, excitement, things like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Prince William's future. A rare interview with Princess Diana's oldest son as he plans for life after university. And still angry, very angry indeed, as you'll see. The former president of the United States, Bill Clinton, opening up once again about the impeachment process against him and the dark days of his presidency.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: So is Iran secretly pressing ahead with a nuclear weapons program and are U.S. warnings once again being based on faulty intelligence? Joining us now for some perspective Joseph Cirioncione. He's the director of the Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace here in Washington. Thanks for joining us.

Do you believe Iran is secretly trying to develop a nuclear weapons program?

JOSEPH CIRINCIONE, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT: Almost certainly. The question is, how advanced is that effort? So far, we know they have been moving ahead with the race to get the technologies that would put them in a position to make the material and possibly the weapons themselves, but there's no evidence of actual weapons work. There is the rub. Everyone agrees that what Iran is doing has to stop, has to come to a complete pause. The trouble is that the U.S. is saying that they already are doing this weapon work and they have been unable to convince even our closest allies that this charge is true.

BLITZER: Because you read carefully what Secretary of State Colin Powell said, suggesting there may be evidence now that a missile is being designed in order to carry a nuclear warhead.

CIRINCIONE: Right. A very difficult stage. Once you get a bomb, that's one thing, but to make it small and light enough to fit on a missile that's an entirely different technological challenge and Powell just yesterday said that that is, in fact, what's going on. Now, new doubts have been being raised about the intelligence that he's citing for that.

BLITZER: I don't know if there were new doubts in as much as people are saying, you know what? We haven't thoroughly vetted this one so-called walk-in that David Ensor and the "Washington Post" reported about. We have to take a look at the thousand pages of documents and drawings and diagrams that were made available. We have to make sure that this intelligence is authentic. It might be authentic.

CIRINCIONE: It might be authentic but we got burned in this exact way on Iraq. Dissidents coming in, saying that for sure, here is where the weapons, they were hidden here under the hospital, under the school. We ran with it. We went to war over it. It turns out none of that was true.

BLITZER: Do you think Colin Powell, having been burned like he was before the U.N. security council is that reckless, he would utter these words if he didn't have some reason to believe they might be accurate? CIRINCIONE: This has got everybody scratching their heads and when you go over the transcript, you see it came out in bits and pieces after repeated questions from two or three different reporters and I think he said more than he may have intended to say. Once he said it, it got brought in, front page "Washington Post," caught up in the Washington whirlwind and it became a global story.

BLITZER: We heard on this program yesterday from a retired Israeli general who is a key member of Knesset, former deputy chief of staff of the Israeli army. They believe the Israelis -- there's a two-year window now before this has to be resolved peacefully or it will be too late.

CIRINCIONE: Well, two years is a lot better than what they used to say, which is a few months. We know Iran is pursuing efforts to build the technologies to enrich uranium and reprocess plutonium. They're at a very early stage of that. That is even with what they've been doing in the last few days. turning this yellow cake into hexofluoride, that's just the feed stock for centrifuges that are not yet built. This whole process would take a couple of years to complete. That may be what he is referring to. During that time we have a window to negotiate, not just a pause, but a permanent end to the Iranian program.

BLITZER: If you were Iran you'd build a bomb because you see the Iraqis didn't have one they got invaded, North Korea has one, they're not getting invaded.

CIRINCIONE: Iraq was supposed to send a message to other countries. You don't mess around with WMD because if you do we're coming to get you. It seems to have sent the opposite message to Iran and North Korea, who accelerated their programs after the axis of evil speech.

BLITZER: It did work with Libya and Gadhafi, though? They got scared.

CIRINCIONE: The combination of force and diplomacy. That's what's missing here. We have the force, but where is the diplomacy? That's what our allies are telling us on North Korea, that's what the Europeans are telling us on Iran. It's time for the U.S. to get engaged in these negotiations. Give them a try.

BLITZER: Thanks for joining us.

CIRINCIONE: My pleasure. Thank you.

BLITZER: Important subject, indeed. We'll be talking a lot about it down the road. Here is your chance to weigh in on this important story. Our web question of the day is this. Do you think Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons? Vote right now. Go to CNN.com/wolf. We'll have the results later in the broadcast.

Efforts to end the violence. A potentially historic agreement between warring factions in Sudan. That's coming up.

Also, this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, to the hotel. We'll take care of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: A truly incredible motion picture, "Remembering Rwanda." It's about to come out. The powerful story of a man who saved more than 1,200 lives during the 1994 genocide. Brian Todd has details.

Plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My life is not worth living. It's as simple as that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The end of the hunt. Hundreds of years of fox hunting in England now set to become history.

And Condoleezza Rice's health. An update on the nominee for secretary of state. She had surgery earlier today. We'll tell you how she's doing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Fresh efforts are under way to end the 21-year-old civil war in southern Sudan. Government officials and rebel leaders appeared before a special meeting of the United Nations security council held in Nairobi today promising to finalize a peace deal by the end of the year. However, there are still numerous details to work out and previous deadlines have been missed. The agreement does not cover violence in the Darfur region, where the United States says Arab militias are simply engaged in what the U.S. officially now calls genocide.

The violence that raged across Rwanda a decade ago, the subject of an important new movie. But rather than focus on the genocide, it focuses in on one man who found himself thrust into an unlikely role in a surreal world. Brian Todd has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Can you pick out the hero in this group? Try the nondescript middle-aged grandfather on the right. Place him back 10 years as his country descends into madness.

April 1994, two presidents are assassinated, a peace accord collapses, Rwanda crumbles with it. Smoldering resentment between ethnic Hutus and their rival Tutsis explodes into a surreal murderous rampage. Hutu extremists begin butchering Tutsis and moderate Hutus. In three months more than 800,000 people are slaughtered.

Paul Rusesabagina is in the middle of it. A manager of a four star hotel in the capital, Kigali, he is a moderate Hutu, his wife a Tutsi. He begins the enormous task of protecting her and taking in others at the same time.

PAUL RUSESABAGINA, FMR. HOTEL MANAGER: I thought I was doing my right job, my day-to-day life. A manager's life. A manager's job.

TODD: The new film "Hotel Rwanda" chronicles the genocide in Rusesabagina's footsteps. Played by Don Cheadle, this unassuming, somewhat naive businessman is at first bewildered by the chaos outside his hotel's gates, then watches his friends turn into killers.

DON CHEADLE, ACTOR: You do not honestly believe you can kill them all?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And why not?

TODD: As the corpses pile up and the westerners get out, Rusesabagina starts taking in people desperate for any shelter.

CHEADLE: Go inside. Go inside the hotel, all of you.

TODD: With little protection and dwindling supplies, he houses more than 1,200 people and wards off their attackers.

Paul Rusesabagina told me he often used some pretty basic psychology to save lives. If you want to control someone, he said, keep him close to you. To keep militia men at bay, he often spoke directly to them as they came to his hotel. He charmed them into being distracted and moving on.

Sometimes it meant serving them drinks and food, other times, it called for a frantic bribe.

CHEADLE: Just from him doing the things that he knew how to do moment to moment. It's not some mythic figure. It's just a common, everyday man. I think that's what people are connecting to.

TODD: Consciously avoiding scenes of graphic violence the film makers weave a personal thriller with a central character who overcomes his own doubts and mistakes and the betrayal of friends and nations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No Rwandans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

TODD: Today, Paul Rusesabagina seems almost unfathomably cheerful and normal, living in Belgium with his family, running a trucking company in Zambia, receiving honors and ovations, staying on message.

RUSESABAGINA: What people say should be put into fact, not only into words. If it is never again, they have to make it never again.

TODD: Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: He has been compared to Oscar Schindler, who rescued thousands of Jews during the genocide of the Holocaust during World War II. In fact, the movie "Hotel Rwanda" was shown last night at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum here in Washington, D.C. It releases nationally later in December.

Vioxx backlash. New concerns about the safety of other widely used prescription drugs.

Plus, the private prince. A rare look at the everyday life of the man who will be king.

Also this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a way of life. I am nearly 70 and I have hunted all my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Britain's hunters prepare to fight a sweeping ban on their favorite sport.

And a very passionate reaction from Bill Clinton. A look at the question that set him off and the scandal that continues to dog him. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

A veteran FDA scientists names five drugs, yes, five drugs, that could pose risks to your health. We'll get to that.

First, though, a check of Some other stories making news right now.

With a round of applause and hugs from both sides of the aisle, the Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle, is heading home to South Dakota after a quarter-century on Capitol Hill. Daschle, who lost a bitter reelection battle, delivered his final speech from the floor, calling on colleagues to keep looking for common ground.

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice is said to be resting comfortably in a Washington, D.C., hospital, where she was treated for uterine fibroids this morning. A spokesman says she will stay in the hospital overnight and return to work Monday. Hearings on her nomination for secretary of state are expected to start next month.

It started with the withdrawal of Vioxx and now concern over hidden prescription drug dangers is growing.

CNN's Mary Snow is joining us now live from New York with more -- Mary.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, ever since Merck had to pull its painkiller because of safety concerns, the question has become, is there another Vioxx out there? An FDA scientist says there may be. And he has named five drugs he says should come under greater scrutiny.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (voice-over): Ripple effects from the withdrawal of Merck's Vioxx are reaching further into America's medicine cabinets. A veteran FDA scientist who told Congress Thursday that the FDA failed to protect America from the dangers of Vioxx has targeted five other drugs that he says can pose risks, the arthritis medicine Bextra, cholesterol drug Crestor, Serevent for asthma, weight loss Meridia and acne drug Accutane.

DAVID GRAHAM, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION: I think that Accutane is another drug that represents, in my view, a 20-year regulatory failure by FDA.

DR. SANDRA KWEDER, FDA: That is not the FDA I know. We work extremely closely with our colleagues in the Office of Drug Safety.

SNOW: The FDA is standing by the safety of the drugs in question. CNN contacted the companies involved and all made statements standing by their drugs. But the Vioxx backlash is triggering new nervousness on old drugs, like Accutane. That acne drug has been on the market for 23 years. Accutane can cause birth defects, and that is on the label. But critics say the drug is overprescribed.

DR. SIDNEY WOLFE, DIRECTOR, PUBLIC CITIZEN: I would say that only about a fifth or a tenth of the people now getting this drug actually have the severe kind of acne for which this risky drug is merited. It's the other 80 percent or so of people who don't have that severe acne and they're taking a drug that is probably as potent a birth defect causing drug as any on the market.

SNOW: A spokesperson for Roche, the maker of Accutane, says -- quote -- "This is a risk that is well known. Manufacturers have tried repeatedly to do the best we can to ensure the safety of this drug."

For patients, the warnings can cause fear. But some doctors say it's not a bad thing that there's some nervousness about drugs.

DR. JERRY AVORN, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL: I think that's also a healthy thing, because we need to have more of a questioning attitude, certainly on the part of patients, who shouldn't just see whatever drug commercial is on television or glossy ad and think, I want that. It must be good for me.

(END VIDEOTAPE) SNOW: And some in the medical community, like Dr. Avorn, say it's not only the patients who should be questioning the medications, but the doctors who are prescribing them -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Mary Snow reporting for us from New York, Mary, thank you very much.

Like other college students, Britain's Prince William is now pondering his future. The royal family has released a rare interview and some pictures.

CNN's Diana Muriel has our story from London.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MURIEL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): An ordinary student on his way to lectures, but Prince William is no ordinary student. He is second in line to the British throne. These pictures offer a glimpse of the young prince's life at university. Like many students, he's behind in his courses.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what about the glacial essay?

PRINCE WILLIAM: Yes, that hasn't materialized at all yet. I've done a few bits of reading.

MURIEL: Still, his geography tutor admires his princely pupil.

CHARLES WARREN, PRINCE WILLIAM'S TUTOR: He's worked really hard not to let his presence disrupt his fellow students existence, and keep a low profile, pull his weight and become one of the crowd. So no one lifts an eye brown these days when he walks around. MURIEL: That's not entirely true. William still turns heads, but he has a strong and supportive group of friends.

Next May, the 22-year-old prince leaves the same confines of his Scottish university. William admits he hasn't decided what he wants to do, but the army is a possibility.

PRINCE WILLIAM: If I was going join the army, which out of all the armed forces, it would be probably my favorite, or to do something different. A lot of the family join the Navy, and I'd like to something different. And the army, it's obviously a lot more in the spotlight at the moment.

MURIEL: What he does know is that life outside of university will never be as private again, and that could be tough.

PRINCE WILLIAM: Deep down, I have a, you know, pretty normal life. I'm not really taken for sort of fanfare and excitement and things like that, but I rise to the occasion when I need to.

MURIEL: William says he plans to take time off to travel when he leaves school next year, while he decides what to do next.

Diana Muriel, CNN, London. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Britain's royals are among the thousands of hunters who are now the hunted, facing a ban on using hounds to chase foxes. The hunters went to court today fighting to preserve an ancient and controversial traditional.

CNN senior international correspondent Walter Rodgers reports from the English countryside.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the huntsmen rode into this Cambridgeshire village green, you could feel a slice of the English heritage slipping away. The riders seemed to linger just a little longer, sipping their wine, knowing the House of Commons has voted for an absolute ban on their beloved sport, fox hunting.

HERMOINE PALMER, FOX HUNTER: I shall lose a way of life. I am nearly 70 and I have hunted all my life.

RODGERS: Many here see riding with the hounds as less about hunting than about wealth and privilege, the lofty British upper classes looking down from their mounts on those below. A sometimes contemptuous tone hurt their cause.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is ignorance attached to the ban to fox hunting.

RODGERS: Animal rights activists lead the charge against fox hunting, calling it cruel, and it can be, but mostly the fox makes the people look pretty silly. Four foxes were chased. All four got away. Repeatedly, the fox threw the hounds off the scent. When the riders rode the fields, the fox was in the woods.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's just found a fox just now. The huntsmen and the hounds have just gone back there under cover.

RODGERS: When they thought the fox was in the woods, he was on the next farm laughing his brush off.

Still, Britain's fox hunting class vows to go down fighting.

(on camera): The good people of the English countryside say that, next, they're going to go to court to fight this fox hunting ban, claiming their human rights have been violated, ironic, because the British upper classes have long been a law unto themselves.

(voice-over): Many vow to break the law and continue hunting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll keep on hunting whatever. They won't stop me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In this Democratic society, nobody has a right to stop us from doing it. RODGERS: Upwards of a million people in the English countryside now promise to punish Prime Minister Blair in the next election over an unbelievably emotional issue.

VAL PALMER, FOX HUNTER: If they ban hunting, my life is not worth living. It's as simple as that.

RODGERS: That's just how passionate fox hunting is.

Walter Rodgers, CNN, Cambridgeshire, England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Striking a presidential nerve, Bill Clinton's intense reaction to a question about the scandal that tarnished his presidency. We'll show you what it is.

And jockeying for positions during President Bush's second term. Our Carlos Watson is standing by. He will join us with "The Inside Edge."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Years after the Monica Lewinsky scandal, President Clinton is still angry, still furious, I might say, about the news media's coverage. In an interview with ABC's Peter Jennings marking the opening of the Clinton Library, the former president acknowledged his affair with Lewinsky was a mistake, but he blasted the independent counsel Ken Starr, and he criticized the news media for the way it reported that investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will go to my grave being at peace about it. And I don't really care what they think.

PETER JENNINGS, ABC NEWS: Oh, yes, you do, sir.

CLINTON: They have no idea.

JENNINGS: Oh, excuse me, Mr. President. You care. I can feel it across the room. You feel it very deeply.

CLINTON: No, I care.

(CROSSTALK)

JENNINGS: You don't want to go here, Peter. You don't want to go here, not after what you people did and the way you, your network, what you did with Kenneth Starr, the way your people repeated every little sleazy thing he leaked. No one has any idea what that is like. That's where I failed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The former president says he never lied to the American people about his job as president.

Joining us here in Washington is Lanny Davis. He was the White House special counsel during the Clinton administration and during the impeachment process, the Monica Lewinsky investigation, as we all remember.

Were you surprised at how angry he got when Peter Jennings was grilling him on that?

LANNY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: Actually, I had left the White House and was a volunteer when I appeared on programs like yours.

But I was not surprised. You have to understand the depth of feeling for those of us who saw this all begin with Whitewater, which never went anywhere. Ken Starr himself, after $70 million, never found any wrongdoing about a 20-year-old land deal. The chain of events from Whitewater to travel office to Filegate, to all of the gates generated by Republican investigations never went anywhere.

BLITZER: Lanny, let me interrupt you for a second. Take a look. But he is still parsing words so specifically. You have to listen so carefully to that exchange with Peter Jennings. He said he never lied to the American people about his job as president.

Now, he lied to the American people about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

DAVIS: Yes.

And he has always distinguished. And I would say, Wolf, it's not really parsing with words. It's a distinction the American people fundamentally made at the time...

BLITZER: But lying about...

(CROSSTALK)

DAVIS: ... saved his presidency was the distinction between his job and his private conduct. What he didn't tell the truth about was an embarrassing episode involving private conduct, which the American people understood the reason for that lie. But they also gave him credit for his job.

BLITZER: But Bill Clinton is such a smart guy. And you are so smart. If there's an independent counsel who is investigating the president of the United States, those of us in the news media, what, are we supposed to ignore that investigation, not report about it?

DAVIS: No, but it's the predecessor investigations.

How much time was spent by the national media on Whitewater? And how much time was spent when Ken Starr found no wrongdoing by the Clintons? We had the D'Amato hearings. We had constant calling for an independent counsel. Ken Starr was appointed because of a zero issue involving Whitewater. (CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Who appointed Ken Starr? Do you remember who appointed Ken Starr?

DAVIS: It was under a great deal of pressure that President Clinton...

BLITZER: Was it Janet Reno, the Democratic attorney general of the United States?

DAVIS: Well, actually, it was President Clinton, defying some advice among some of his advisers, including his White House counsel, who chose to ask for Ken Starr or at least an independent counsel.

BLITZER: But Janet Reno was the one who said, go for it. Have an independent counsel named by this three-judge panel.

DAVIS: But, look, you're asking me the president to this day, President Clinton, and lots of us still feel angry. It's because the original independent counsel, Robert Fiske, was replaced by a more partisan process that led to Ken Starr. And after all was said and done, the only thing they had left was about private conduct, not about Whitewater, not about all of the -- what he calls innuendo and leaks that led to all of those so-called scandals that were ending up in zero of wrongdoing, other than what happened with Monica Lewinsky.

BLITZER: I can understand he is angry, angry, at Ken Starr for the investigation. But if he is angry at the news media for covering that investigation, he does not understand how the news media in this country works.

DAVIS: Well, look, I think that anger with the news media in coverage cuts both ways. Reporters have to do their jobs.

BLITZER: Well, and that's what they were doing.

DAVIS: In some cases, they were doing. In other cases, not good reporters were reporting innuendo without fact. And if you go back to the reporting about Whitewater and you...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: And yet the serious news organizations, the mainstream press, the elite press, they were reporting all the information. And you know what? When the independent counsel's report and all the information came out, almost all of those sleazy details were confirmed in that report, weren't they?

DAVIS: In the Whitewater investigation?

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: No, I'm talking about his personal relationship with Monica Lewinsky, including the red dress and all that, the blue dress.

DAVIS: The blue dress.

BLITZER: With the stain.

DAVIS: There is no question that the private conduct episode ended up with President Clinton having been put into a room where he chose to testify falsely in a civil case that was thrown out on the merits.

But if you look at the reasons for the appointment of an independent counsel, the firing of Robert Fiske and the replacement by Ken Starr, and what he is referring to in that interview, Susan McDougal consistently trying to tell the truth, put into irons and handcuffs because she refused to lie. As she said, she was asked to lie by Ken Starr's prosecutors. It still holds a lot of anger for those of us who were in the middle of it.

BLITZER: I'm sure, although you're still not as angry as the president, for good reason.

(LAUGHTER)

DAVIS: Well, I'm glad I wasn't in his spot.

BLITZER: Well, he was in a tough spot, no doubt about it. And he still` feels it, clearly, on this day. Thanks very much, Lanny.

DAVIS: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Down and out. They lost the election, so where do the Democrats go from here? Our Carlos Watson has "The Inside Edge" on that and more. He's standing by to join us live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: As he does every Friday, our Carlos Watson joining us now live with "The Inside Edge."

Carlos, Senator Arlen Specter, the moderate Republican from Pennsylvania, he's going to be the chairman now, by all accounts, of the Judiciary Committee, even though he supports abortion rights for women. How did this deal work out?

CARLOS WATSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, what is interesting, Wolf, is, Specter, who is next in line in terms of seniority and normally would have almost automatically moved up to chair of the Judiciary Committee, had to wage a very public fight over the last couple weeks in order to keep his job.

And, on the surface, it seems that now that he is likely to keep his job, it's a victory for the half-dozen Republican moderates. But, in reality, if you scratch beneath that, he had to make the kind of assurances that really makes this a hollow victory for moderate Republicans and really signals that the Senate is now as conservative a Republican body as the White House and as the House of Representatives. You remember that, in 1994, the House of Representatives really had a major makeover and became a very conservative Republican body. Well, 10 years later, 2004 will remembered as the year that the United States Senate became a conservative Republican body, including all seven of the new Republican senators who got elected. All seven of them are not just moderates, not just conservatives, but active conservatives.

BLITZER: There's a lot of soul-searching, as you well know, among Democrats right now, trying to figure out what happened and where they go from here, how they can fix their serious problems. What's the early read?

WATSON: Well, there's certainly going to be some recriminations back and forget.

The most recent thing we heard was, it appears that John Kerry has about $15 million left over in his bank account that he didn't spend. That's right, $15 million. And a lot of Democrats are scratching their heads and saying, given that we lost by narrow margins in Iowa and New Mexico and Ohio, why in the world do they have $15 million left?

So you're going to hear some of that postgame critique, which will be real. But I think more substantively, you'll begin to see the flowering, if you will, of think tanks. I think there's a recognition in the Democratic Party that one of the things they're missing maybe are not just strong candidates, but strong ideas.

And so, in a way that Republicans have done over the last quarter-century, I think you'll begin to see not only existing think tanks, but, indeed, another half-dozen new think tanks emerge on the Democratic side. And, interestingly enough, I expect that a number of them will be tied to some of the blogs. And so that's another interesting thing to watch and another emergence of the Internet playing a different role.

BLITZER: It is pretty shocking that Kerry left with $15 million in campaign money. He should have spent it in Ohio. If he had turned around 70,000 or 80,000 votes, he might be president-elect right now. It is pretty shocking, indeed, that he is going to have that money, didn't spend it there.

Carlos, thanks very much, as usual, with "The Inside Edge."

WATSON: Good to see you.

BLITZER: And we'll have the results of our Web question of the day. That is coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in on our Web question of the day: Do you think Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons? Eighty percent of you say yes; 20 percent say no. Remember, this is not a scientific poll. A reminder, we're on weekdays 5:00 p.m. Eastern. Also, Sunday on "LATE EDITION," the last word in Sunday talk, among my guests this Sunday, former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright, Sunday, noon Eastern.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

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


Aired November 19, 2004 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, message intercepted? What the U.S. government is now hearing about al Qaeda and Iraq.
Standby for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Iranian nukes. How good is U.S. intelligence? Can the world rely on another U.S. warning?

North Korean nukes on the agenda as President Bush heads to a post election summit.

Hotel Rwanda. As a savage genocide raged, he offered shelter from the storm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought I was doing my (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BLITZER: William, rare pictures and an interview as the prince ponders his future. Meantime...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I shall lose a way of life.

BLITZER: England's fox hunters have no future.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Friday, November 19, 2004.

BLITZER: We begin with new warnings and new questions about weapons of mass destruction. Not so long ago, the subject was Iraq, but now the warnings are all about Iran, another charter member of the president's so-called axis of evil. And once again the information is a focus of dispute. For more, let's turn to our national security correspondent, David Ensor -- David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, knowledgeable sources tell us there are questions about the reliability of the intelligence on Iran's nuclear program that Secretary of State Powell spoke of a few days ago. But at the State Department, there's no backing down.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADAM ERELI, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: The secretary did not misspeak. The secretary knows exactly what he is talking about.

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: I have seen some information. And the dissidents have put out more information that suggests that the Iranians are also working on designs one would have to have for putting such a warhead into a missile.

ENSOR: The likely missile in question, a Shahab 3 tested in October by Iran. U.S. officials are angered by a "Washington Post" article saying Powell's information came from an unvetted single source, a walk-in, with more than 1,000 pages of Iranian drawings and technical documents, including a nuclear warhead design and modifications to enable Iranian ballistic missiles to deliver an atomic strike.

KEN POLLACK, SABAN CENTER: It makes collecting against Iran, it makes protecting this source and it makes recruiting other sources infinitely harder, and this is a hard enough topic as it is.

ENSOR: The questions about Powell's comments on intelligence evoked memories of his testimony on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq at the U.N. before the war, weapons that have not been found.

The questions came after an Iranian opposition group, whose supporters demonstrated in Washington Friday, offered evidence it said that Iran is working on nuclear weapons at a newly discovered sight, something Tehran hotly denies.

Critics of the European-Iranian agreement, an exchange of trade incentives for suspension of uranium enrichment, are putting their cards on the table in the run-up to next week's meeting on Iran of the International Atomic Energy Board in Vienna.

DAVID ALBRIGHT, INST. FOR SCIENCE & INTL. SEC.: I do think there's a lot of rock throwing at this agreement right now and I think we have to look at that information very carefully and remember what happened in Iraq when we do that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR: But Iran, too, is not helping matters. Western diplomats in Vienna say Iran is rushing to convert some yellowcake into Uranium hexa-fluoride, which is used in both nuclear power and nuclear bombs prior to Monday, which is the day Iran has promised to suspend enrichment activities -- Wolf.

BLITZER: David Ensor, thank you very much.

Another nuclear threat, also a charter member of the president's axis of evil is a key concern as leaders of 21 Asia Pacific nations gather for their annual summit. This year it's in Santiago, Chile. President Bush is due to arrive in just a couple of hours. Protesters though are already waiting for him. Our senior White House correspondent, John King, is covering the president's trip. He's joining us now live -- John.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And Wolf, little progress in the North Korea nuclear standoff and some other issues these past several because leaders around the world wondering would President Bush be re-elected? Now as Mr. Bush makes his way here to Santiago, they know who will be across the table the next four years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice-over): The president's first post-election international trip comes as the White House talks of staying the course, but even some allies same with the new term should also come a new approach. The top White House goal at the Asian Pacific Summit in Chile this year, a unified front in the nuclear showdown with North Korea, but Mr. Bush's partners in the so-called six-party talks, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, all to varying degrees suggest North Korea isn't the only obstacle to progress, and that Mr. Bush could offer security and other incentives.

LEE HAMILTON, WOODROW WILSON CENTER: All of them are urging the United States to get off the dime here and move forward on negotiations.

KING: APEC is an economic club by name known for its colorful class photos. Security has dominated the agenda in recent years, especially after the 9/11 attacks. But some leaders want to refocus on pocketbook issues and put their stamp on Mr. Bush's second term agenda.

WENDY SHERMAN, FMR. STATE DEPT. COUNSELOR: We are going to see leaders turn to the American president and say, what about your budget deficit? What about the weak dollar? What about rising oil prices in the world?

KING: These summits are largely scripted, but will give Mr. Bush his first opportunity since winning reelection to meet face to face with many of his peers, including a few favorites.

Japan's Koizumi, for example, was a staple of the Bush campaign speech.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I didn't tell him, I was going to tell you, that Elvis is his favorite singer.

KING: Russia's Putin publicly endorsed a second Bush term. And Mr. Bush the first to call the Russian leader Vladimir. But Moscow's announcement of a new nuclear weapon have some thinking it is past time for Mr. Bush to turn tougher with a leader critics say has turned too autocratic.

SHERMAN: The Bush administration is going to have to take the gloves off a little bit and be a little bit more head on about where President Putin is leading his country.

KING: Mr. Bush is the focal point of summit protests, anger over the Iraq war, adding to the more familiar APEC demonstrations, complaining global trade exploits the poor and the environment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: China's economic and political transition as well as trade and immigration debates on this side of the Pacific also among the tough issues the president will confront here at the summit in Santiago. In many ways, you could consider it a warmup for an even more difficult challenge. After his inauguration in January, the president will head across the Atlantic for some fence-mending with European critics -- Wolf.

BLITZER: John King reporting for us from the summit. John, thank you very much.

Meanwhile, the United States is drowning in red ink. That warning today from the Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. He says the growing trade deficit with other countries and the soaring federal budget deficit threaten the U.S. economy. Greenspan warning the U.S. must deal with these causes of its weak dollar or international investors may flee, driving down U.S. markets and driving up interest rates for all of us.

Greenspan addressed a banking conference in Germany. When he speaks, people listen. The stock markets today, including the Dow Jones industrials tumbled down 115 points.

BLITZER: It was one of the justifications for invading Iraq. The country's alleged tie with his al Qaeda. Now the U.S. military's central command is sounding off on the controversial issue once again. Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr with details of a briefing over at the Pentagon that has just concluded -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Wolf, it may now be all coming true, the number two man at the U.S. Central Command, General Lance Smith, told Pentagon reporters this afternoon there may now be evidence that al Qaeda, senior al Qaeda leaders are communicating or trying to, with this man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist who has claimed responsibility for so much violence inside Iraq in recent months.

Let's quickly have a listen to what General Smith had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. LANCE SMITH, CENTCOM: I think there are attempted communications between Zarqawi and bin Laden. Whether or not they have been successful, because of the huge distances involved in those lines of communication, I would say that they probably have not been, but we know for a fact that there are attempted communications between them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: General Smith concluding by saying he doesn't really know yet what it all means, but his belief is that probably al Qaeda is congratulating Zarqawi on creating so much trouble inside Iraq or communicating their philosophy or guidance to him. Not clear yet that al Qaeda is actually conducting or coordinating any operations inside Iraq themselves -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Barbara Starr, reporting for us, thank you, Barbara, very much. Meanwhile, civilians began emerging from the rubble of Falluja today as U.S. forces consolidate their hold on the city. Elsewhere, there were calls to violence. Those calls were answered. Our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson reports from Baghdad.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Among the dead of Falluja, the living look for loved ones. Prayers offered as relatives find and commit their kin for burial. The living, encouraged to continue the fight against Americans. Inside Sunni mosques across Baghdad, the human costs of the Falluja offensive was publicly weighed during holy day prayers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happens happened has made our hearts bleed and filled our eyes with tears.

ROBERTSON: Strident anti-American sermons characterizing the price clerics say should be paid. "God take on Americans. God destroy their camps. God shake their ground under their feet. God make their children orphans. God make their wives widows."

Outside Baghdad's Abu Hanifa (ph) Mosque, in an area long a bastion of Sunni resentment of U.S. forces, Iraqi National Guard and American troops clashed with Friday prayer goers. Two Iraqis were killed and seven wounded. As according to eyewitnesses, worshipers believe the mosque's preacher and two of his deputies were to be arrested. In the east of the city, within hours of the week's main prayers ending, killings resumed. Five police killed as a suicide bomber plowed his explosive-Laden Mercedes into their checkpoint.

(on camera): The hours after Friday prayers have become some of the most dangerous of the week, this particular holy day, drawing into sharp focus anger over Falluja. This just a few days after government officials arrested anti-government clerics in Mosul. Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Nuclear dispute. Questions about the accuracy of intelligence on Iran. An expert standing by to speak with us to explain what's going on.

Plus, potential drug dangers. Five medications now under scrutiny. Our Mary Snow is standing by with details.

Also ahead...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...I've had a pretty normal life not really big (UNINTELLIGIBLE) fanfare, excitement, things like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Prince William's future. A rare interview with Princess Diana's oldest son as he plans for life after university. And still angry, very angry indeed, as you'll see. The former president of the United States, Bill Clinton, opening up once again about the impeachment process against him and the dark days of his presidency.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: So is Iran secretly pressing ahead with a nuclear weapons program and are U.S. warnings once again being based on faulty intelligence? Joining us now for some perspective Joseph Cirioncione. He's the director of the Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace here in Washington. Thanks for joining us.

Do you believe Iran is secretly trying to develop a nuclear weapons program?

JOSEPH CIRINCIONE, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT: Almost certainly. The question is, how advanced is that effort? So far, we know they have been moving ahead with the race to get the technologies that would put them in a position to make the material and possibly the weapons themselves, but there's no evidence of actual weapons work. There is the rub. Everyone agrees that what Iran is doing has to stop, has to come to a complete pause. The trouble is that the U.S. is saying that they already are doing this weapon work and they have been unable to convince even our closest allies that this charge is true.

BLITZER: Because you read carefully what Secretary of State Colin Powell said, suggesting there may be evidence now that a missile is being designed in order to carry a nuclear warhead.

CIRINCIONE: Right. A very difficult stage. Once you get a bomb, that's one thing, but to make it small and light enough to fit on a missile that's an entirely different technological challenge and Powell just yesterday said that that is, in fact, what's going on. Now, new doubts have been being raised about the intelligence that he's citing for that.

BLITZER: I don't know if there were new doubts in as much as people are saying, you know what? We haven't thoroughly vetted this one so-called walk-in that David Ensor and the "Washington Post" reported about. We have to take a look at the thousand pages of documents and drawings and diagrams that were made available. We have to make sure that this intelligence is authentic. It might be authentic.

CIRINCIONE: It might be authentic but we got burned in this exact way on Iraq. Dissidents coming in, saying that for sure, here is where the weapons, they were hidden here under the hospital, under the school. We ran with it. We went to war over it. It turns out none of that was true.

BLITZER: Do you think Colin Powell, having been burned like he was before the U.N. security council is that reckless, he would utter these words if he didn't have some reason to believe they might be accurate? CIRINCIONE: This has got everybody scratching their heads and when you go over the transcript, you see it came out in bits and pieces after repeated questions from two or three different reporters and I think he said more than he may have intended to say. Once he said it, it got brought in, front page "Washington Post," caught up in the Washington whirlwind and it became a global story.

BLITZER: We heard on this program yesterday from a retired Israeli general who is a key member of Knesset, former deputy chief of staff of the Israeli army. They believe the Israelis -- there's a two-year window now before this has to be resolved peacefully or it will be too late.

CIRINCIONE: Well, two years is a lot better than what they used to say, which is a few months. We know Iran is pursuing efforts to build the technologies to enrich uranium and reprocess plutonium. They're at a very early stage of that. That is even with what they've been doing in the last few days. turning this yellow cake into hexofluoride, that's just the feed stock for centrifuges that are not yet built. This whole process would take a couple of years to complete. That may be what he is referring to. During that time we have a window to negotiate, not just a pause, but a permanent end to the Iranian program.

BLITZER: If you were Iran you'd build a bomb because you see the Iraqis didn't have one they got invaded, North Korea has one, they're not getting invaded.

CIRINCIONE: Iraq was supposed to send a message to other countries. You don't mess around with WMD because if you do we're coming to get you. It seems to have sent the opposite message to Iran and North Korea, who accelerated their programs after the axis of evil speech.

BLITZER: It did work with Libya and Gadhafi, though? They got scared.

CIRINCIONE: The combination of force and diplomacy. That's what's missing here. We have the force, but where is the diplomacy? That's what our allies are telling us on North Korea, that's what the Europeans are telling us on Iran. It's time for the U.S. to get engaged in these negotiations. Give them a try.

BLITZER: Thanks for joining us.

CIRINCIONE: My pleasure. Thank you.

BLITZER: Important subject, indeed. We'll be talking a lot about it down the road. Here is your chance to weigh in on this important story. Our web question of the day is this. Do you think Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons? Vote right now. Go to CNN.com/wolf. We'll have the results later in the broadcast.

Efforts to end the violence. A potentially historic agreement between warring factions in Sudan. That's coming up.

Also, this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, to the hotel. We'll take care of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: A truly incredible motion picture, "Remembering Rwanda." It's about to come out. The powerful story of a man who saved more than 1,200 lives during the 1994 genocide. Brian Todd has details.

Plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My life is not worth living. It's as simple as that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The end of the hunt. Hundreds of years of fox hunting in England now set to become history.

And Condoleezza Rice's health. An update on the nominee for secretary of state. She had surgery earlier today. We'll tell you how she's doing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Fresh efforts are under way to end the 21-year-old civil war in southern Sudan. Government officials and rebel leaders appeared before a special meeting of the United Nations security council held in Nairobi today promising to finalize a peace deal by the end of the year. However, there are still numerous details to work out and previous deadlines have been missed. The agreement does not cover violence in the Darfur region, where the United States says Arab militias are simply engaged in what the U.S. officially now calls genocide.

The violence that raged across Rwanda a decade ago, the subject of an important new movie. But rather than focus on the genocide, it focuses in on one man who found himself thrust into an unlikely role in a surreal world. Brian Todd has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Can you pick out the hero in this group? Try the nondescript middle-aged grandfather on the right. Place him back 10 years as his country descends into madness.

April 1994, two presidents are assassinated, a peace accord collapses, Rwanda crumbles with it. Smoldering resentment between ethnic Hutus and their rival Tutsis explodes into a surreal murderous rampage. Hutu extremists begin butchering Tutsis and moderate Hutus. In three months more than 800,000 people are slaughtered.

Paul Rusesabagina is in the middle of it. A manager of a four star hotel in the capital, Kigali, he is a moderate Hutu, his wife a Tutsi. He begins the enormous task of protecting her and taking in others at the same time.

PAUL RUSESABAGINA, FMR. HOTEL MANAGER: I thought I was doing my right job, my day-to-day life. A manager's life. A manager's job.

TODD: The new film "Hotel Rwanda" chronicles the genocide in Rusesabagina's footsteps. Played by Don Cheadle, this unassuming, somewhat naive businessman is at first bewildered by the chaos outside his hotel's gates, then watches his friends turn into killers.

DON CHEADLE, ACTOR: You do not honestly believe you can kill them all?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And why not?

TODD: As the corpses pile up and the westerners get out, Rusesabagina starts taking in people desperate for any shelter.

CHEADLE: Go inside. Go inside the hotel, all of you.

TODD: With little protection and dwindling supplies, he houses more than 1,200 people and wards off their attackers.

Paul Rusesabagina told me he often used some pretty basic psychology to save lives. If you want to control someone, he said, keep him close to you. To keep militia men at bay, he often spoke directly to them as they came to his hotel. He charmed them into being distracted and moving on.

Sometimes it meant serving them drinks and food, other times, it called for a frantic bribe.

CHEADLE: Just from him doing the things that he knew how to do moment to moment. It's not some mythic figure. It's just a common, everyday man. I think that's what people are connecting to.

TODD: Consciously avoiding scenes of graphic violence the film makers weave a personal thriller with a central character who overcomes his own doubts and mistakes and the betrayal of friends and nations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No Rwandans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

TODD: Today, Paul Rusesabagina seems almost unfathomably cheerful and normal, living in Belgium with his family, running a trucking company in Zambia, receiving honors and ovations, staying on message.

RUSESABAGINA: What people say should be put into fact, not only into words. If it is never again, they have to make it never again.

TODD: Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: He has been compared to Oscar Schindler, who rescued thousands of Jews during the genocide of the Holocaust during World War II. In fact, the movie "Hotel Rwanda" was shown last night at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum here in Washington, D.C. It releases nationally later in December.

Vioxx backlash. New concerns about the safety of other widely used prescription drugs.

Plus, the private prince. A rare look at the everyday life of the man who will be king.

Also this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a way of life. I am nearly 70 and I have hunted all my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Britain's hunters prepare to fight a sweeping ban on their favorite sport.

And a very passionate reaction from Bill Clinton. A look at the question that set him off and the scandal that continues to dog him. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

A veteran FDA scientists names five drugs, yes, five drugs, that could pose risks to your health. We'll get to that.

First, though, a check of Some other stories making news right now.

With a round of applause and hugs from both sides of the aisle, the Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle, is heading home to South Dakota after a quarter-century on Capitol Hill. Daschle, who lost a bitter reelection battle, delivered his final speech from the floor, calling on colleagues to keep looking for common ground.

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice is said to be resting comfortably in a Washington, D.C., hospital, where she was treated for uterine fibroids this morning. A spokesman says she will stay in the hospital overnight and return to work Monday. Hearings on her nomination for secretary of state are expected to start next month.

It started with the withdrawal of Vioxx and now concern over hidden prescription drug dangers is growing.

CNN's Mary Snow is joining us now live from New York with more -- Mary.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, ever since Merck had to pull its painkiller because of safety concerns, the question has become, is there another Vioxx out there? An FDA scientist says there may be. And he has named five drugs he says should come under greater scrutiny.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (voice-over): Ripple effects from the withdrawal of Merck's Vioxx are reaching further into America's medicine cabinets. A veteran FDA scientist who told Congress Thursday that the FDA failed to protect America from the dangers of Vioxx has targeted five other drugs that he says can pose risks, the arthritis medicine Bextra, cholesterol drug Crestor, Serevent for asthma, weight loss Meridia and acne drug Accutane.

DAVID GRAHAM, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION: I think that Accutane is another drug that represents, in my view, a 20-year regulatory failure by FDA.

DR. SANDRA KWEDER, FDA: That is not the FDA I know. We work extremely closely with our colleagues in the Office of Drug Safety.

SNOW: The FDA is standing by the safety of the drugs in question. CNN contacted the companies involved and all made statements standing by their drugs. But the Vioxx backlash is triggering new nervousness on old drugs, like Accutane. That acne drug has been on the market for 23 years. Accutane can cause birth defects, and that is on the label. But critics say the drug is overprescribed.

DR. SIDNEY WOLFE, DIRECTOR, PUBLIC CITIZEN: I would say that only about a fifth or a tenth of the people now getting this drug actually have the severe kind of acne for which this risky drug is merited. It's the other 80 percent or so of people who don't have that severe acne and they're taking a drug that is probably as potent a birth defect causing drug as any on the market.

SNOW: A spokesperson for Roche, the maker of Accutane, says -- quote -- "This is a risk that is well known. Manufacturers have tried repeatedly to do the best we can to ensure the safety of this drug."

For patients, the warnings can cause fear. But some doctors say it's not a bad thing that there's some nervousness about drugs.

DR. JERRY AVORN, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL: I think that's also a healthy thing, because we need to have more of a questioning attitude, certainly on the part of patients, who shouldn't just see whatever drug commercial is on television or glossy ad and think, I want that. It must be good for me.

(END VIDEOTAPE) SNOW: And some in the medical community, like Dr. Avorn, say it's not only the patients who should be questioning the medications, but the doctors who are prescribing them -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Mary Snow reporting for us from New York, Mary, thank you very much.

Like other college students, Britain's Prince William is now pondering his future. The royal family has released a rare interview and some pictures.

CNN's Diana Muriel has our story from London.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MURIEL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): An ordinary student on his way to lectures, but Prince William is no ordinary student. He is second in line to the British throne. These pictures offer a glimpse of the young prince's life at university. Like many students, he's behind in his courses.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what about the glacial essay?

PRINCE WILLIAM: Yes, that hasn't materialized at all yet. I've done a few bits of reading.

MURIEL: Still, his geography tutor admires his princely pupil.

CHARLES WARREN, PRINCE WILLIAM'S TUTOR: He's worked really hard not to let his presence disrupt his fellow students existence, and keep a low profile, pull his weight and become one of the crowd. So no one lifts an eye brown these days when he walks around. MURIEL: That's not entirely true. William still turns heads, but he has a strong and supportive group of friends.

Next May, the 22-year-old prince leaves the same confines of his Scottish university. William admits he hasn't decided what he wants to do, but the army is a possibility.

PRINCE WILLIAM: If I was going join the army, which out of all the armed forces, it would be probably my favorite, or to do something different. A lot of the family join the Navy, and I'd like to something different. And the army, it's obviously a lot more in the spotlight at the moment.

MURIEL: What he does know is that life outside of university will never be as private again, and that could be tough.

PRINCE WILLIAM: Deep down, I have a, you know, pretty normal life. I'm not really taken for sort of fanfare and excitement and things like that, but I rise to the occasion when I need to.

MURIEL: William says he plans to take time off to travel when he leaves school next year, while he decides what to do next.

Diana Muriel, CNN, London. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Britain's royals are among the thousands of hunters who are now the hunted, facing a ban on using hounds to chase foxes. The hunters went to court today fighting to preserve an ancient and controversial traditional.

CNN senior international correspondent Walter Rodgers reports from the English countryside.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the huntsmen rode into this Cambridgeshire village green, you could feel a slice of the English heritage slipping away. The riders seemed to linger just a little longer, sipping their wine, knowing the House of Commons has voted for an absolute ban on their beloved sport, fox hunting.

HERMOINE PALMER, FOX HUNTER: I shall lose a way of life. I am nearly 70 and I have hunted all my life.

RODGERS: Many here see riding with the hounds as less about hunting than about wealth and privilege, the lofty British upper classes looking down from their mounts on those below. A sometimes contemptuous tone hurt their cause.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is ignorance attached to the ban to fox hunting.

RODGERS: Animal rights activists lead the charge against fox hunting, calling it cruel, and it can be, but mostly the fox makes the people look pretty silly. Four foxes were chased. All four got away. Repeatedly, the fox threw the hounds off the scent. When the riders rode the fields, the fox was in the woods.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's just found a fox just now. The huntsmen and the hounds have just gone back there under cover.

RODGERS: When they thought the fox was in the woods, he was on the next farm laughing his brush off.

Still, Britain's fox hunting class vows to go down fighting.

(on camera): The good people of the English countryside say that, next, they're going to go to court to fight this fox hunting ban, claiming their human rights have been violated, ironic, because the British upper classes have long been a law unto themselves.

(voice-over): Many vow to break the law and continue hunting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll keep on hunting whatever. They won't stop me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In this Democratic society, nobody has a right to stop us from doing it. RODGERS: Upwards of a million people in the English countryside now promise to punish Prime Minister Blair in the next election over an unbelievably emotional issue.

VAL PALMER, FOX HUNTER: If they ban hunting, my life is not worth living. It's as simple as that.

RODGERS: That's just how passionate fox hunting is.

Walter Rodgers, CNN, Cambridgeshire, England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Striking a presidential nerve, Bill Clinton's intense reaction to a question about the scandal that tarnished his presidency. We'll show you what it is.

And jockeying for positions during President Bush's second term. Our Carlos Watson is standing by. He will join us with "The Inside Edge."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Years after the Monica Lewinsky scandal, President Clinton is still angry, still furious, I might say, about the news media's coverage. In an interview with ABC's Peter Jennings marking the opening of the Clinton Library, the former president acknowledged his affair with Lewinsky was a mistake, but he blasted the independent counsel Ken Starr, and he criticized the news media for the way it reported that investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will go to my grave being at peace about it. And I don't really care what they think.

PETER JENNINGS, ABC NEWS: Oh, yes, you do, sir.

CLINTON: They have no idea.

JENNINGS: Oh, excuse me, Mr. President. You care. I can feel it across the room. You feel it very deeply.

CLINTON: No, I care.

(CROSSTALK)

JENNINGS: You don't want to go here, Peter. You don't want to go here, not after what you people did and the way you, your network, what you did with Kenneth Starr, the way your people repeated every little sleazy thing he leaked. No one has any idea what that is like. That's where I failed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The former president says he never lied to the American people about his job as president.

Joining us here in Washington is Lanny Davis. He was the White House special counsel during the Clinton administration and during the impeachment process, the Monica Lewinsky investigation, as we all remember.

Were you surprised at how angry he got when Peter Jennings was grilling him on that?

LANNY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: Actually, I had left the White House and was a volunteer when I appeared on programs like yours.

But I was not surprised. You have to understand the depth of feeling for those of us who saw this all begin with Whitewater, which never went anywhere. Ken Starr himself, after $70 million, never found any wrongdoing about a 20-year-old land deal. The chain of events from Whitewater to travel office to Filegate, to all of the gates generated by Republican investigations never went anywhere.

BLITZER: Lanny, let me interrupt you for a second. Take a look. But he is still parsing words so specifically. You have to listen so carefully to that exchange with Peter Jennings. He said he never lied to the American people about his job as president.

Now, he lied to the American people about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

DAVIS: Yes.

And he has always distinguished. And I would say, Wolf, it's not really parsing with words. It's a distinction the American people fundamentally made at the time...

BLITZER: But lying about...

(CROSSTALK)

DAVIS: ... saved his presidency was the distinction between his job and his private conduct. What he didn't tell the truth about was an embarrassing episode involving private conduct, which the American people understood the reason for that lie. But they also gave him credit for his job.

BLITZER: But Bill Clinton is such a smart guy. And you are so smart. If there's an independent counsel who is investigating the president of the United States, those of us in the news media, what, are we supposed to ignore that investigation, not report about it?

DAVIS: No, but it's the predecessor investigations.

How much time was spent by the national media on Whitewater? And how much time was spent when Ken Starr found no wrongdoing by the Clintons? We had the D'Amato hearings. We had constant calling for an independent counsel. Ken Starr was appointed because of a zero issue involving Whitewater. (CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Who appointed Ken Starr? Do you remember who appointed Ken Starr?

DAVIS: It was under a great deal of pressure that President Clinton...

BLITZER: Was it Janet Reno, the Democratic attorney general of the United States?

DAVIS: Well, actually, it was President Clinton, defying some advice among some of his advisers, including his White House counsel, who chose to ask for Ken Starr or at least an independent counsel.

BLITZER: But Janet Reno was the one who said, go for it. Have an independent counsel named by this three-judge panel.

DAVIS: But, look, you're asking me the president to this day, President Clinton, and lots of us still feel angry. It's because the original independent counsel, Robert Fiske, was replaced by a more partisan process that led to Ken Starr. And after all was said and done, the only thing they had left was about private conduct, not about Whitewater, not about all of the -- what he calls innuendo and leaks that led to all of those so-called scandals that were ending up in zero of wrongdoing, other than what happened with Monica Lewinsky.

BLITZER: I can understand he is angry, angry, at Ken Starr for the investigation. But if he is angry at the news media for covering that investigation, he does not understand how the news media in this country works.

DAVIS: Well, look, I think that anger with the news media in coverage cuts both ways. Reporters have to do their jobs.

BLITZER: Well, and that's what they were doing.

DAVIS: In some cases, they were doing. In other cases, not good reporters were reporting innuendo without fact. And if you go back to the reporting about Whitewater and you...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: And yet the serious news organizations, the mainstream press, the elite press, they were reporting all the information. And you know what? When the independent counsel's report and all the information came out, almost all of those sleazy details were confirmed in that report, weren't they?

DAVIS: In the Whitewater investigation?

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: No, I'm talking about his personal relationship with Monica Lewinsky, including the red dress and all that, the blue dress.

DAVIS: The blue dress.

BLITZER: With the stain.

DAVIS: There is no question that the private conduct episode ended up with President Clinton having been put into a room where he chose to testify falsely in a civil case that was thrown out on the merits.

But if you look at the reasons for the appointment of an independent counsel, the firing of Robert Fiske and the replacement by Ken Starr, and what he is referring to in that interview, Susan McDougal consistently trying to tell the truth, put into irons and handcuffs because she refused to lie. As she said, she was asked to lie by Ken Starr's prosecutors. It still holds a lot of anger for those of us who were in the middle of it.

BLITZER: I'm sure, although you're still not as angry as the president, for good reason.

(LAUGHTER)

DAVIS: Well, I'm glad I wasn't in his spot.

BLITZER: Well, he was in a tough spot, no doubt about it. And he still` feels it, clearly, on this day. Thanks very much, Lanny.

DAVIS: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Down and out. They lost the election, so where do the Democrats go from here? Our Carlos Watson has "The Inside Edge" on that and more. He's standing by to join us live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: As he does every Friday, our Carlos Watson joining us now live with "The Inside Edge."

Carlos, Senator Arlen Specter, the moderate Republican from Pennsylvania, he's going to be the chairman now, by all accounts, of the Judiciary Committee, even though he supports abortion rights for women. How did this deal work out?

CARLOS WATSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, what is interesting, Wolf, is, Specter, who is next in line in terms of seniority and normally would have almost automatically moved up to chair of the Judiciary Committee, had to wage a very public fight over the last couple weeks in order to keep his job.

And, on the surface, it seems that now that he is likely to keep his job, it's a victory for the half-dozen Republican moderates. But, in reality, if you scratch beneath that, he had to make the kind of assurances that really makes this a hollow victory for moderate Republicans and really signals that the Senate is now as conservative a Republican body as the White House and as the House of Representatives. You remember that, in 1994, the House of Representatives really had a major makeover and became a very conservative Republican body. Well, 10 years later, 2004 will remembered as the year that the United States Senate became a conservative Republican body, including all seven of the new Republican senators who got elected. All seven of them are not just moderates, not just conservatives, but active conservatives.

BLITZER: There's a lot of soul-searching, as you well know, among Democrats right now, trying to figure out what happened and where they go from here, how they can fix their serious problems. What's the early read?

WATSON: Well, there's certainly going to be some recriminations back and forget.

The most recent thing we heard was, it appears that John Kerry has about $15 million left over in his bank account that he didn't spend. That's right, $15 million. And a lot of Democrats are scratching their heads and saying, given that we lost by narrow margins in Iowa and New Mexico and Ohio, why in the world do they have $15 million left?

So you're going to hear some of that postgame critique, which will be real. But I think more substantively, you'll begin to see the flowering, if you will, of think tanks. I think there's a recognition in the Democratic Party that one of the things they're missing maybe are not just strong candidates, but strong ideas.

And so, in a way that Republicans have done over the last quarter-century, I think you'll begin to see not only existing think tanks, but, indeed, another half-dozen new think tanks emerge on the Democratic side. And, interestingly enough, I expect that a number of them will be tied to some of the blogs. And so that's another interesting thing to watch and another emergence of the Internet playing a different role.

BLITZER: It is pretty shocking that Kerry left with $15 million in campaign money. He should have spent it in Ohio. If he had turned around 70,000 or 80,000 votes, he might be president-elect right now. It is pretty shocking, indeed, that he is going to have that money, didn't spend it there.

Carlos, thanks very much, as usual, with "The Inside Edge."

WATSON: Good to see you.

BLITZER: And we'll have the results of our Web question of the day. That is coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in on our Web question of the day: Do you think Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons? Eighty percent of you say yes; 20 percent say no. Remember, this is not a scientific poll. A reminder, we're on weekdays 5:00 p.m. Eastern. Also, Sunday on "LATE EDITION," the last word in Sunday talk, among my guests this Sunday, former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright, Sunday, noon Eastern.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

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