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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Are U.N. Peacekeepers Engaging in Sex Crimes?; Eight People Shot During Deer Hunting Season in Wisconsin

Aired November 22, 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.


JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now. The United Nations facing a crisis. Are U.N. peacekeepers engaging in sex crimes?
Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): More troops. Can they battle insurgents and safeguard Iraq's elections? Commanders crunch the numbers.

Fatal crash.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a loud flash like lightning then debris started scattering all about the road.

WOODRUFF: A private jet goes down just before picking up a former president.

Deer season slaughter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of the deceased victims did receive multiple gunshot wounds. When everything was said and done, we had eight people shot.

WOODRUFF: A bloody day in the Wisconsin woods as the hunters become the hunted.

Brawl fallout. The NBA hits the players where it hurts. But are college athletes already learning the wrong lessons?

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Monday, November 22, 2004.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Hello. I'm Judy Woodruff. Wolf is off today. They are supposed to bring aid and security to people in war-torn countries, not more misery. But the United Nations has been rocked by allegations that its blue helmeted peacekeepers and other staffers are involved in outrageous abuses. You may be shocked by some of the emerging details. Now the U.N. is starting to take action. Let's go live to our senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth. Hello, Richard.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Judy, it may turn out to be one of the most disturbing scandals in U.N. history, and this time I'm not talking about the Oil for Food program.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): There are 12,000 soldiers and civilians working for the U.N. in the central African state of Congo. The U.N. is now investigating whether instead of keeping the peace, some of them were sexually abusing women, girls and boys.

JANE HALL LUTE, DEP. U.N. PEACEKEEPING DIR.: To date, there have been over 150 total allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse. These allegations fall in all categories ranging from solicitation to criminal activity of rape and underage exploitation.

ROTH: Four people assigned to the Congo mission have been suspended, one arrested and sent home accused of pedophilia. U.N. officials say evidence in the investigation includes photographs and videotape. Reports of sexual misconduct in Congo surfaced earlier this year. Secretary General Kofi Annan had established a zero tolerance policy to prevent abuses by U.N. personnel. Annan said there was clear evidence of acts of gross misconduct and added through his spokesman...

FRED ECKHARD, U.N. SPOKESMAN: This is a shameful thing for the United Nations to have to say and I'm absolutely outraged by it.

ROTH: Sadly, not many people are shocked. In the last decade, allegations of sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers and staff members have been made around the world in operations from Cambodia to Bosnia. Soldiers under investigation are recalled but the U.N. must rely on national governments to punish guilty parties which doesn't always happen. In poor countries such as Congo young women are forced to move near U.N. bases for security and survival.

KENNETH BACON, REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL: I think anywhere you have peacekeepers in a desperately poor situation, you're likely to have people willing to trade sex for food. And once people offer to do that peacekeepers will respond and provide what the women want in return for sex.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH: The U.N. peacekeeping department has announced new measures to stop abuses, but its senior official says the more you stir the pot in Congo the more things come up. U.N. officials say it will be wrong to paint with a broad brush all U.N. peacekeepers as being responsible for any type of sexual misconduct. The U.N. is taking more action. They're going to deploy more African women, police officers who are experienced in sex crimes, many of the young victims are hesitant to come forward out of fear and cultural shame -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: Richard, thank you very much. Such a disturbing story. We appreciate it.

Well, they have won a bloody battle against insurgents in Falluja, but violence is flaring in other cities and elections are right around the corner. Does the United States need more troops in Iraq? Let's go live now to our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre. Hi, Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Judy. As you well remember during the U.S. presidential campaign, some Democrats accused the Bush administration of having a secret plan to send more troops to Iraq after the election. The Pentagon denied it then, they deny it now, but they do say they may have to send more troops if U.S. commanders want them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): With victory in Falluja comes the reality that thousands of U.S. soldiers and marines will likely be tied down there for weeks or even months, making sure insurgents don't come back.

LT. GEN. JOHN SATTLER, U.S. MARINE CORPS: We will not move out too early. We will stay in proximity as close as necessary.

MCINTYRE: Despite the claims of some U.S. commanders and Iraq's interim prime minister, Pentagon officials concede the U.S. has not yet broken the back of the insurgency. And with Iraqi elections just over two months away, the Pentagon has contingency plans to temporarily boost the number of U.S. troops in Iraq without breaking its pledge to limit U.S. combat tours to one year.

LT. GEN. LANCE SMITH, DEP. CMDR., CENTCOM: That would not be our intent, but I would not say categorically that that would be precluded.

MCINTYRE: There are some 138,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq. No decision has been made, but an option to extend some tours from 10 months to 12 would boost force levels to 141,000 by January. And by using troops held in reserve in Kuwait or parts of the 82nd Airborne on standby in the U.S., that number could swell to 145,000 if needed. The Pentagon argues victory over the insurgents will come only when Iraqi troops are doing the bulk of the fighting, and worries that more Falluja-style victories could produce a backlash.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: The Pentagon insists that troop levels are set by U.S. commanders on the ground who have the best sense of what's happening, but because the U.S. strategy is based on having as few U.S. troops in Iraq as possible, some critics wonder if the American generals are hesitant to ask for what they really need -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: All right. Jamie, thank you very much.

The main Palestinian faction Fatah today named former prime minister Mahmoud Abbas as its candidate to succeed Yasser Arafat in the presidential elections set for January. As Palestinians begin the process of choosing a new leader the United States is beginning a new push for Middle East peace. Colin Powell is making what may be his final visit to the region as secretary of state. CNN's John Vause reports from Jerusalem. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 11 days have passed since the death of Yasser Arafat and America's most senior diplomat was back. Signaling a renewed U.S. commitment to the Israeli/Palestinian peace process. In the West Bank town of Jericho Colin Powell embraced the new interim Palestinian leadership.

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: This is a moment of opportunity that should not be lost, and I think that what I have heard today suggests that the Palestinian Authority is committed to reform.

VAUSE: An opportunity because both Israel and the United States refused to deal with Yasser Arafat. They accused him of being an obstacle to peace. Now he's gone, the Palestinians are preparing to elect a new leader early next year.

POWELL: I think we can make a pretty good case that this is the time to assist the Palestinians as they go forward.

VAUSE: It is what the Palestinians were hoping to hear.

NABIL SHA'ATH, PALESTINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: In all matters that we discussed, there was positive response. I think this is a first step. It sees significant improvement and bilateral American/Palestinian relations, and we want to make use of it to proceed without action and to proceed with a return to the peace process.

VAUSE: Earlier Secretary Powell met with Israeli leaders. They promised to ease travel restrictions and remove road blocks in the Palestinian territories ahead of the elections. But Israel is only willing to go so far.

SYLVAN SHALOM, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: While we are not going to do anything that might damage or harm the security of the people of the state of Israel.

VAUSE: This is likely to be Colin Powell's last visit here before stepping down as secretary of state.

MICHAEL OREN, SHALEM CENTER: The fact that he's a lame duck secretary of state does not impinge or impair in any way on the effectiveness of his trip. Powell represents the government of the United States. He represents the Bush administration.

VAUSE: Both Israelis and Palestinians are cautiously talking about a new era, a new chance for peace, but each side says the burden of responsibility rests with the other to ensure this opportunity is not lost. John Vause, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: President Bush says that Iran's word that it has suspended uranium enrichment is not enough. The president's comments came during a brief visit to Colombia. Earlier, Iran today announced that it had suspended its uranium enrichment program. The uranium enrichment process is a major step in developing nuclear weapons. Mr. Bush says Iran must allow verification of its claims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think the definition of truth is the willingness for the Iranian regime to allow for verification. You know, they said some things in the past, and it's very important for them to verify and earn the trust of those of us who are worried about them developing a nuclear weapon. And that's just not the United States. That's France and Great Britain and Germany and other nations around the world. I understand the dangers of the Iranian government having a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: Mr. Bush's stop in Colombia came after he attended a weekend summit of Asia pacific leaders in Chile.

Reform failure. How a key intelligence bill was blocked, leaving the president unhappy.

Plus, a deadly dispute. Five hunters killed on the opening day of deer season.

Also ahead...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very, very tough penalty. That's what I can tell you. It's very, very tough. And you know, it's tougher than I think most people expected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: Tough punishment for the players involved in this NBA melee. Will they also face criminal charges for their roles in the brawl?

Texas plane crash with a major twist. The plane was planning to pick up a former president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: President Bush vowing to do whatever is necessary to get Congress to pass a major intelligence reform bill now stalled on Capitol Hill. Much to the president's dismay apparently the bill is being blocked by top House Republicans. Our congressional correspondent Ed Henry is live on the hill with the very latest.

Hi, Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Judy. That's right, Vice President Cheney, in fact, came to the Capitol today to huddle behind closed doors with Congressman James Sensenbrenner to try to break this log jam on 9/11 reform, but that meeting ended with yet another stalemate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY: Congressman James Sensenbrenner, one of two Republicans to hold up the intelligence bill, says he's more determined than ever to block what he considers meaningless reform.

REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R-WI), JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN: Well, I'm not going to cave.

HENRY: Sensenbrenner says wants to ban states from giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. He says Senate negotiators are too scared to challenge powerful lobbyists who oppose the provision.

SENSENBRENNER: I don't like to vote for things on serious issues that might look good on a bumper sticker but which I know have so many loop holes that they won't work.

HENRY: Not even President Bush calling from Chile on Friday night could stop Sensenbrenner. Observers say it's up to the president to face down fellow Republicans.

JOHN LEHMAN, FMR. 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: The president now has been challenged directly by the leadership of the Congress and by the lobbyists and by the bureaucracy. Now he has got to show who's in charge.

HENRY: The other Republican who refused to be rolled was Congressman Duncan Hunter. Despite a call from Vice President Cheney, Hunter insisted on protecting the Pentagon from losing power to a new director of national intelligence. Some believe the window of opportunity has closed, but top Republicans think they can salvage this after Thanksgiving.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNEL (R), MAJORITY WHIP: The president's on the way back from South America. He's going to lobby some more. I'm optimistic that we're going to come back together December the 6th and 7th and pass this bill.

HENRY: Former 9/11 commissioners are warning of inaction.

TIM ROEMER, FMR. 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: We saw intelligence failures, FBI mistakes, Border Patrol and visa problems leading up to 9/11 and we lost 3,000 people. How many more body bags are we going to need to see?

HENRY: Sensenbrenner fires back, commissioners should not be satisfied with half the job.

SENSENBRENNER: We ought to pass a package of all their recommendations rather than some that are politically correct and forget about the other ones that step on the toes of powerful lobbies.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HENRY: But senior people in both parties are now pessimistic that a compromise could be worked out in December right after Thanksgiving, and the key to remember is that if there's no deal this year, Congress has to start from scratch again in January -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: All right. Ed Henry, thank you very much, reporting from the Capitol.

So one question is, will the United States' war on terrorism suffer if Congress can't pass the intelligence reform bill? Joining me from the CNN Center in Atlanta is our world affairs analyst, former Defense Secretary William Cohen.

Secretary Cohen, is the Pentagon justified in essentially defying the wishes of the president?

WILLIAM COHEN, CNN WORLD AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, the Pentagon can't afford to defy the wishes of the president. The president is the commander in chief, and the Pentagon believe in the subordination of the military to civilian authority. So to the extent that the president wants this reform to take place, certainly the Pentagon can give him its best recommendation.

The principal adviser -- military adviser to the president is the chairman of the joint chiefs, but the president is the commander in chief and he's the one who calls the shots. And to the extent he wants this to happen then he can make it happen certainly on the executive side. The question then becomes, does he have enough political capital, as he has indicated he has accumulated, to then bring the House and the Senate together to pass the legislation itself?

WOODRUFF: But isn't it pretty clear that one of the principal obstructionists to this in the House, the chairman of the House Arms Services Committee, Duncan Hunter, is doing what he believes the Pentagon wants?

COHEN: Well, Duncan Hunter, perhaps, is doing it at the behest of the Pentagon or some in the Pentagon. But ultimately the president as commander in chief really is the one who is the person responsible -- the person responsible for the security of this country in terms of policies that are developed and articulated.

The Pentagon serves not at its own pleasure and not serving its own interests. It serves under the command of the commander in chief. And so to the extent that the president wants this to happen, I believe he can make it happen. It's going to take a lot of work on his part. But there are some legitimate issues that have to be confronted. The Pentagon is simply mot acting as a rogue institution at this point.

They're concerned about having complete access to tactical intelligence to make sure that the command authority is clearly in place, that they don't suffer any sort of diminution of having that access to intelligence on a ready basis, and so there are legitimate issues. But I think they can be satisfied. If it takes a little bit longer to satisfy the Pentagon that their military is going to continue to receive intelligence as it's needed on a real-time basis, then I think that can be achieved. But if it takes a little bit longer, then so be it.

WOODRUFF: Let me turn quickly to Iraq, Secretary Bill Cohen, and ask you, we're getting closer to the scheduled elections in Iraq. U.S. military commanders on the ground are saying it is increasingly likely that they are going to need more American troops to keep the peace, to keep some measure of stability in that country. Should they get those troops -- and I mean, how many are we talking about, would you expect?

COHEN: Well, I leave it up to the commanders to say how many they need. But it's clear and it has been clear for some time that many more troops are needed in order to secure the environment, to secure the streets, secure the borders. It's not only American troops, and I've tried to point this out before, the international community has a great deal at stake.

For the United States and the coalition forces to succeed, it means we'll need help. And without that help, then the possibility of failure is real. And if it's real it means it could have an impact throughout the entire Gulf region and well beyond that. So it's time for other countries to be as concerned as the United States. We're seeing a conference take place in Sharm el-Sheik, in Egypt, comments coming out of some of the Arab countries to date saying that the coalition forces cannot afford to lose or fail in this and that we need to have a stable Iraq.

So I think everybody is coming to the realization whether they agreed with the United States going in in the first instance, they understand the consequences of not being able to stabilize Iraq, and I think we'll see greater contributions from the international community in the immediate future. It's going to be the U.S. and that means stopping some of those who are planning to leave, to come back home, to rotate out, will have to be stopped for the time being and forces who are scheduled to go in will be accelerated to get the maximum amount of troops on the ground during those election periods.

WOODRUFF: Very quickly, a final question about Iran. The Iranian government saying they have stopped or frozen their uranium enrichment program. President Bush is saying he needs verification. How likely do you think there could be some sort of confrontation with Iran over this?

COHEN: Well, the Europeans seem intent on proceeding and trying to negotiate a settlement on this issue. The United States is more skeptical. I think rightly skeptical, given the practice of deceit on the part of the Iranians as far as the development of this nuclear program. So the burden of proof, I think, is going to be upon the Iranians to say that they have in fact complied with the proposed settlement offered by the EU. We should remain skeptical. We should insist upon verification, very strict verification regimes based upon the past conduct on the part of the Iranians. WOODRUFF: Former defense secretary William Cohen, who is a world affairs analyst, thank you very much. We appreciate it. Good to see you. Thank you.

Five deaths and little explanation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why? I mean, five people dead because somebody was trespassing on property? It makes no sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: Hunters become the hunted in a deadly dispute. We'll have a live update.

Plus this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is what it is, and, you know, it's time for us as a team to band together and move on. That's all we basically can do right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: NBA brawl and now the legal fallout for players and fans. I'll talk with sportscaster Jim Gray, a witness to the fight.

Flight diverted again. Is it a sign of critical holes in homeland security?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: A group of hunters became the hunted when an apparent dispute over a hunting spot escalated into a killing spree that left five people dead and three injured. CNN's Keith Oppenheim is in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, where police are holding a suspect. Hello, Keith.

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Judy. This is a small community. Only 8,000 people or so live here, and of that population eight people have been affected by a hunting shooting incident, three injured and five of them are dead. This all happened around noon yesterday in a county next door to here when a group of area hunters came across another hunter who was trespassing. The police say this man by the name of Chai Vang, 36 years old, from St. Paul, Minnesota, a hunter, took a deer stand on private land. Police say that Vang got lost. He climbed into the deer stand. Pardon the helicopter noise above. He came across the deer stand, went inside, and this is what police say happened when the group first -- first group of hunters told him he had to leave.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF JAMES MIEIR, SAWYER COUNTY, WISCONSIN: The suspect got down from the deer stand, walked approximately 40 yards, fiddled wit his rifle in some sort which appeared he took the scope off the rifle, he turned and he opened fire on the group.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OPPENHEIM: One of the members of that group walkie-talkied to other hunters. Another group of hunters came, Judy, and police say Vang then fired on that group as well. In the end, you had a number of people killed, five dead, including in that group you had one 28- year-old woman as well as a father and a 28-year-old son. Chai Vang got lost in the woods. He got help from a couple of other hunters who did not know he was a wanted gunman and then he was arrested without any incident. He's now being held and questioned, but what caused this man to go from committing a minor infraction, trespassing, to committing a series of crimes is what police are trying to understand at this hour. Back to you.

WOODRUFF: Keith Oppenheim reporting. Terrible story from Rice Lake, Wisconsin, the western part of that state. Thank you, Keith.

Basket brawl. Fresh fallout from the fight rocking the NBA. Sportscaster Jim Gray joins us to talk about it.

Also this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Immediately it turns everything sexual, everything sexual.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at the dangerous drug blamed for a dramatic rise in HIV infections.

Plus, the latest on the crash of a private jet that was on its way to pick up a former president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: From our studios in Washington, once again, Wolf Blitzer. WOODRUFF: Actually, Judy Woodruff. Wolf has the day off.

New questions about airport security are being asked after a man on the no-fly list was allowed to board an Air France flight heading from Paris to Washington.

CNN's justice correspondent Kelli Arena standing by with us with the very latest -- Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Judy, the flight was diverted to Bangor, Maine, and the man taken off the plane without incident. But this isn't the first time that a plane had to be diverted mid-flight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ARENA (voice-over): It's the second time in two months a plane bound for the U.S. from Europe had to be diverted mid-flight and a passenger sent back because he was on USA no-fly list.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We are discussing with our friends in the European community the possibility of getting the manifests before the plane takes off, an hour before. It's easier said than done. There are diplomatic challenges. There privacy concerns that our friends around the world have about these things.

ARENA: In late September, a plane from Britain was grounded after takeoff carrying the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens. This time, the passenger of interest is not well-known. He's a Moroccan, Ahmed Lahiti. Not only was he on a no-fly list, but he didn't have a valid visa.

MICHAEL GREENBERGER, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: We have a desperate need to enter into multilateral negotiations with European countries to get this straightened out. The safety of the United States is obviously very much dependent on this.

ARENA: Foreign airlines are largely responsible for screening and send passenger lists to the U.S. 15 minutes after takeoff. U.S. and European officials are negotiating to give the U.S. more time, and this latest incident provides fresh momentum. European officials have concerns, though, about passenger privacy and logistics. What's more, the U.S. list has misspellings and other mistakes.

GREENBERGER: It certainly is an indication to other countries that their efforts are going to be wasted. It doesn't give them the incentive or encouragement to go out of their way and spend their energy and money.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA: Now, in this instance, officials insist that it was right to deny Lahiti entry into the country. Government sources say the CIA provided information that Lahiti was associated with known terrorists. Officials say that he is being sent back to Paris, Judy.

WOODRUFF: All right, Kelli, thank you very much.

ARENA: You're welcome.

WOODRUFF: We appreciate it, Kelli Arena, our justice correspondent.

Well, here in the United States, a plane crashed in Houston today just minutes before a distinguished passenger was set to climb on board.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF (voice-over): The private Gulfstream jet was supposed to carry former President Bush, an aide and a Secret Service agent to a speaking engagement in Ecuador. It was just one minute away from landing at Houston's Hobby Airport to pick up the former president when disaster struck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At no point did the pilot say he was in distress.

WOODRUFF: Witnesses say the plane clipped a light post shrouded in fog.

ROGER SMITH, HOUSTON AIRPORT SYSTEM: I saw like this flash go right in front of me. When I looked up, I noticed something had hit the light post and then debris fell. And as soon as I just rolled right up to the tollway, there was just a loud explosion. And I looked off to my left-hand side and there was a humongous ball of flame.

KAREN KAUFMAN, WITNESS: Chunks of concrete and stuff coming out of the air, it looked like. It was all over the road. It was just -- it was like a movie. Everything was flying through the air.

WOODRUFF: All three crew members, two pilots and a flight attendant, were killed. They worked for a Dallas-based firm called Business Jet Services. The Federal Aviation administration has launched an investigation. Houston officials confirm that visibility was not ideal at the time of the crash, but they say it wasn't bad enough to curtail operations.

Former President Bush was being driven to the airport when he learned that a plane had crashed there. It was only after he arrived that he learned it was his plane that had crashed. The former president issued a statement saying he was deeply saddened.

Said Bush -- quote -- "I have flown with this group before and knew them well. I join in sending my heartfelt condolence to each and every member of their families." The former president canceled his trip to Ecuador.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Terrible story.

HIV and the crystal connection, how a dangerous drug is fueling the AIDS epidemic. CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the new reality of AIDS.

And soul-searching and finger-pointing inside the NBA, fallout from the basketball brawl. We'll talk about it with sportscaster Jim Gray.

But, first, a quick look at some other news making headlines around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF (voice-over): At least 57 miners were killed when a massive fire swept through a mine complex in northern China. Officials say the blaze broke out after an electronic cable caught fire inside a mine. Bangladesh fire. One person was killed and several others injured when a fire raged through a crowded market in the country's capital, Dhaka. The blaze destroyed 1,800 shops.

Ukraine election dispute. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Kiev to protest what they say was a rigged presidential election. Outrage erupted when the election commission announced that the Kremlin-backed prime minister was winning with almost all votes counted. International observers say yesterday's voting was severely flawed.

Buddhist festival. The release of 4,000 lantern balloons marks an ancient Buddhist festival in Thailand. Thais believe their misfortunes of the past year fly away with the soaring lanterns.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: All this week, CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta examines HIV and AIDS and the changing face of the disease. Since first ravaging the gay male population two decades ago, AIDS has now made inroads into every segment of American society. But in recent years, the disease has come full circle and is on the rise among young gay men again.

Here's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Twenty-seven-year-old Tommy Foster is a struggling Broadway actor in New York City. The songs are Broadway tunes, the context, his life story, the date, the one-year anniversary of the day he was diagnosed HIV positive.

TOMMY FOSTER, ACTOR: I gave into a craving, a three-day marathon of unprotected, crystallized sex. It did leave me infected with HIV.

The purpose in me doing my show is to offer myself and what happened to me up as a specimen to be examined.

GUPTA: Crystal methamphetamine, known as crystal, meth, crank, ice, or Tina, is a cheap, highly potent stimulant. It keeps you up for days, takes away all inhibitions, is as addictive, if not more so, than heroin.

FOSTER: Just thinking about doing it causes my body to react as if I had just done it. And it's like all of a sudden your eyes focus in a way like you've never seen things before. And immediately it turns everything sexual, everything sexual.

DR. HOWARD GROSSMAN, HIV SPECIALIST: With the advent of drugs for erectile dysfunction, we're seeing the tie-in of crystal and staying up all night and staying up for days in a row tied in with sex.

GUPTA: Which is why crystal is being blamed for contributing to the increase in HIV infections among gay men, which, according to the latest CDC reports, is up 17 percent.

Perry Halkitis has been tracking crystal use in New York since 1998.

PERRY HALKITIS, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: What we know from our studies is that men who use methamphetamine tends to be hypersexual. They tend to have a higher levels of anonymous partnerings, more partners, more men That they have sex with, unsafely, than men who do not use this drug.

GUPTA: There are currently massive campaigns on both coasts to draw attention to the problem and to educate people about the effects of this drug. Experts, activists and community leaders are convinced this problem has already spread into other populations around the country.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Part of a week-long series of reports.

Well, it was the Friday night fights, but it didn't happen in a boxing ring. The incredible brawl between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons certainly wasn't the first in professional sports. But its dimension and its impact are huge. And in a related story that is still developing, both Clemson University and the University of South Carolina officials say their football teams will not accept a bid to play in a post-season bowl game if one is offered. Officials are saying that decision is meant as punishment for the fighting that broke out during Saturday's game between the two schools.

Veteran sportscaster Jim Gray was covering that game between the Pacers and the Pistons when the fight broke out last Friday night. He joins us live in Pacific Palisades, California.

Jim Gray, thank you very much for talking with us.

You were there. Were the players in any way justified in doing what they did?

JIM GRAY, SPORTS REPORTER: No. There's absolutely no excuse to go into the stands and to chase after the players.

Having said that, Ron Artest was provoked. He did have some items thrown at him. It did hit him. But there has to be an equilibrium and he has to know where to stop. And where you stop is that imaginary boundary that is outside the space of the court. And he didn't. And he went in and he started indiscriminately swinging and trying to find the person who had thrown this object, and that's when the melee started. So, even though you're provoked and even though things are being said and items are being thrown, that's something that you just can't do, Judy.

WOODRUFF: What about the idea that the fan had beer, threw a beer can or a beer cup at Artest? Should something be done about drinking in the -- among the fans?

GRAY: Yes, I think so.

The basic incivility and the way that the fans are behaving at these games and behind these bench areas in football, in basketball and in baseball, there's been a steady decline, Judy. And it's really incumbent upon the management and the organizations and the fans themselves and those who are around these rowdy people to turn these people in to security and to have these people thrown out, arrested, or subject to arrest, and to make sure that they don't come back into the stadium.

And they should not be allowed to be in these arenas. Buying a ticket to the game and spending your 50 bucks or your 100 bucks doesn't give you the license to act like an idiot. And I think that we need stronger controls, and the public and everybody has to stand up to these people, because the few, as we saw the other night, Judy, can incite the many. And these few idiots that did this caused this brawl, and that's no way, shape or form, excusing it in any manner.

Ron Artest has to know better and he has to stop. And Stephen Jackson, what he did, they can't do that. But the fans -- and the question was about the fans -- there's got to be better controls. And these people cannot be doing these things in our arenas and stadiums.

WOODRUFF: But what about the punishment of the players? Clearly, big fines, suspensions, is that enough? Is that a sufficient signal, do you think?

GRAY: Well, I don't know what else you can do. I mean, there's -- the fines are substantial. They're amongst the worst ever in the history of sports, if not the worst. I don't know really what else you can do. I think they're substantial and they're paying a heavy price.

I think the price to Stephen Jackson may have been a little bit too low. Ron Artest is paying a substantial fine, a huge, huge $5.5 million, the loss of his salary for the rest of the season, plus his ability to play the rest of the season.

And Jermaine O'Neal, who left the court, he's got 25 games. And I think that he, probably of them, was dealt with the most severely and the harshest penalty, and maybe that could be reduced.

WOODRUFF: But what about the -- I guess the culture that some people are beginning to believe sort of surrounds professional sports and, in this instance, people are wondering, well, don't the coaches or the owners ever sit down with these players and say, you know, we expect a certain level of behavior from you? GRAY: Well, yes, they can sit down with them all they want.

But, Judy, you can't legislate reaction. And when reactions happen and things, there's nothing that any coach or any player. Of course they're all taught and of course they all know better and of course this is unacceptable behavior and anti-social and terribly wrong.

But, you know, the culture that is in sports in general, it's a me-first attitude, and nobody wants to back down. And because nobody wants to back down, we have these things spilling on to the court. We're having more fights. You mentioned South Carolina and Clemson. A week before, there was a fight in the NFL on the field before the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers player and a Cleveland Browns player. We have this going on. In baseball, we've seen bench- clearing brawls.

The culture of me first and not wanting to back down, that has to change. So, yes, this can be addressed, but this has to be addressed well before these people become professionals. Most of these professional players do behave very professionally. And, by and large, these are isolated incidents. But it is becoming more and more regular. These isolated incidents are becoming more frequent, because no one is conducting at the youth level the morals and teaching these people the rights and wrongs.

And by the time they get to this me-first attitude, it's because they've learned it their entire life.

WOODRUFF: Well, that's what I want to ask you about, because, when you say somebody has got to get to them before they become professional athletes, we really are talking about -- are we talking about parenting? Are we talking about schooling, churches, our whole society and the signals that we send?

GRAY: Our whole society.

Look at that presidential campaign that you just covered every day. Was that civil? Of course not. Was there anything about it, the dirty tricks and all the stuff that goes on? Well, they learn this in sports and they learn this in all of our society. It's pervasive in the schools. It's pervasive everywhere. And there's been a steady decline.

And this steady decline now spills on to the sports field. And it's very unfortunately because a lot of people do look to these sporting stars as role models. And, by and large -- we shouldn't make this whole thing -- the big picture is, let's not paint with one stroke of the brush the entire canvas. This was an incident. The NBA will learn from it. Hopefully, other sports will learn from it. The individuals who were involved will learn from it. And we'll go on.

I doubt very seriously, Judy, that we're going to have any more NBA players going into the stands. The price is way too severe. And nobody wants to lose these type of salaries, and nobody wants to lose their livelihood. And that's what we're talking about. We're very fortunate on another thing here, too. We're fortunate that there were only minor injuries. Nobody got hurt badly.

And the other thing about this. There were no Indiana Pacers fans that were in the stands, like a playoff game. There could have been 1,500 or 2,000 or Pacer families. And then we really would have had a mayhem and we have had a full-blown riot, because those people probably would have been interjected into the fray as well.

WOODRUFF: Jim Gray, what do you say to those young people who look to these athletes as superstars? And you just talked about role models. they do watch this. What are they to think?

GRAY: Well, your role model should be your parents. If you're depending upon -- and I'll just pull some names who are superstars out of the hat -- if you're depending upon Joe Montana and Charles Barkley and Kobe Bryant and these people to raise your kids, something's way, way off with you and your children.

You're your on best role models. And the parents of these children have to teach them right and wrong. And then, for the athletes themselves, which I think your question is directed at, they have to do better. They have to be above it. They are role models. They have to be held to a higher standard, and they may not like it and politicians may not like it. And President Bush said that to me in an interview a couple weeks ago.

We may not like it but we have to be. And these athletes may not like it, but they've got to start showing not half the time, not three quarters of the time, but all of the time. Having said that, people do make mistakes. People do get second chances, and we just have to move on from here.

WOODRUFF: Jim Gray, we hear you loud and clear. Sportscaster Jim Gray was right there when that fight broke out between the Pacers and the Pistons on Friday night. We thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with us this afternoon.

GRAY: Thank you for having, me, Judy. I appreciate it.

WOODRUFF: We thank you.

And to our viewers now, here is your turn to weigh in on this story and its implications. Our Web question of the day is this: Who bears more blame for Friday's NBA basketball fan-player brawl in Detroit? You can vote right now at CNN.com/Wolf. We'll have the results after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: Here's how you are weighing in on our Web question of the day: Who bears more blame for Friday's NBA basketball fan/player brawl in Detroit? Eighteen percent of you say fans; 44 percent of you say players. And 38 percent of you say both equally. A reminder, this is not a scientific poll.

Our picture of the day shows a very lucky puppy. This little dog was discovered in the nick of time in a building that was about to be blown up in Falluja, Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. 1ST CLASS BRIT KIMMELL, U.S. ARMY: He was coming out of a bunker, and about ready to throw a fragmentation grenade in there. Got a little closer, realized there was nothing in there, looked a little closer and the puppy is in there. So, pick of the runt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: The puppy is the image of survival in a time of war. And the soldiers have named it Falluja.

A reminder that you can always catch "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS" on weekdays at this time, 5:00 Eastern. Thank you for joining us.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" right after the break.

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 22, 2004 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now. The United Nations facing a crisis. Are U.N. peacekeepers engaging in sex crimes?
Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): More troops. Can they battle insurgents and safeguard Iraq's elections? Commanders crunch the numbers.

Fatal crash.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a loud flash like lightning then debris started scattering all about the road.

WOODRUFF: A private jet goes down just before picking up a former president.

Deer season slaughter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of the deceased victims did receive multiple gunshot wounds. When everything was said and done, we had eight people shot.

WOODRUFF: A bloody day in the Wisconsin woods as the hunters become the hunted.

Brawl fallout. The NBA hits the players where it hurts. But are college athletes already learning the wrong lessons?

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Monday, November 22, 2004.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Hello. I'm Judy Woodruff. Wolf is off today. They are supposed to bring aid and security to people in war-torn countries, not more misery. But the United Nations has been rocked by allegations that its blue helmeted peacekeepers and other staffers are involved in outrageous abuses. You may be shocked by some of the emerging details. Now the U.N. is starting to take action. Let's go live to our senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth. Hello, Richard.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Judy, it may turn out to be one of the most disturbing scandals in U.N. history, and this time I'm not talking about the Oil for Food program.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): There are 12,000 soldiers and civilians working for the U.N. in the central African state of Congo. The U.N. is now investigating whether instead of keeping the peace, some of them were sexually abusing women, girls and boys.

JANE HALL LUTE, DEP. U.N. PEACEKEEPING DIR.: To date, there have been over 150 total allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse. These allegations fall in all categories ranging from solicitation to criminal activity of rape and underage exploitation.

ROTH: Four people assigned to the Congo mission have been suspended, one arrested and sent home accused of pedophilia. U.N. officials say evidence in the investigation includes photographs and videotape. Reports of sexual misconduct in Congo surfaced earlier this year. Secretary General Kofi Annan had established a zero tolerance policy to prevent abuses by U.N. personnel. Annan said there was clear evidence of acts of gross misconduct and added through his spokesman...

FRED ECKHARD, U.N. SPOKESMAN: This is a shameful thing for the United Nations to have to say and I'm absolutely outraged by it.

ROTH: Sadly, not many people are shocked. In the last decade, allegations of sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers and staff members have been made around the world in operations from Cambodia to Bosnia. Soldiers under investigation are recalled but the U.N. must rely on national governments to punish guilty parties which doesn't always happen. In poor countries such as Congo young women are forced to move near U.N. bases for security and survival.

KENNETH BACON, REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL: I think anywhere you have peacekeepers in a desperately poor situation, you're likely to have people willing to trade sex for food. And once people offer to do that peacekeepers will respond and provide what the women want in return for sex.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH: The U.N. peacekeeping department has announced new measures to stop abuses, but its senior official says the more you stir the pot in Congo the more things come up. U.N. officials say it will be wrong to paint with a broad brush all U.N. peacekeepers as being responsible for any type of sexual misconduct. The U.N. is taking more action. They're going to deploy more African women, police officers who are experienced in sex crimes, many of the young victims are hesitant to come forward out of fear and cultural shame -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: Richard, thank you very much. Such a disturbing story. We appreciate it.

Well, they have won a bloody battle against insurgents in Falluja, but violence is flaring in other cities and elections are right around the corner. Does the United States need more troops in Iraq? Let's go live now to our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre. Hi, Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Judy. As you well remember during the U.S. presidential campaign, some Democrats accused the Bush administration of having a secret plan to send more troops to Iraq after the election. The Pentagon denied it then, they deny it now, but they do say they may have to send more troops if U.S. commanders want them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): With victory in Falluja comes the reality that thousands of U.S. soldiers and marines will likely be tied down there for weeks or even months, making sure insurgents don't come back.

LT. GEN. JOHN SATTLER, U.S. MARINE CORPS: We will not move out too early. We will stay in proximity as close as necessary.

MCINTYRE: Despite the claims of some U.S. commanders and Iraq's interim prime minister, Pentagon officials concede the U.S. has not yet broken the back of the insurgency. And with Iraqi elections just over two months away, the Pentagon has contingency plans to temporarily boost the number of U.S. troops in Iraq without breaking its pledge to limit U.S. combat tours to one year.

LT. GEN. LANCE SMITH, DEP. CMDR., CENTCOM: That would not be our intent, but I would not say categorically that that would be precluded.

MCINTYRE: There are some 138,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq. No decision has been made, but an option to extend some tours from 10 months to 12 would boost force levels to 141,000 by January. And by using troops held in reserve in Kuwait or parts of the 82nd Airborne on standby in the U.S., that number could swell to 145,000 if needed. The Pentagon argues victory over the insurgents will come only when Iraqi troops are doing the bulk of the fighting, and worries that more Falluja-style victories could produce a backlash.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: The Pentagon insists that troop levels are set by U.S. commanders on the ground who have the best sense of what's happening, but because the U.S. strategy is based on having as few U.S. troops in Iraq as possible, some critics wonder if the American generals are hesitant to ask for what they really need -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: All right. Jamie, thank you very much.

The main Palestinian faction Fatah today named former prime minister Mahmoud Abbas as its candidate to succeed Yasser Arafat in the presidential elections set for January. As Palestinians begin the process of choosing a new leader the United States is beginning a new push for Middle East peace. Colin Powell is making what may be his final visit to the region as secretary of state. CNN's John Vause reports from Jerusalem. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 11 days have passed since the death of Yasser Arafat and America's most senior diplomat was back. Signaling a renewed U.S. commitment to the Israeli/Palestinian peace process. In the West Bank town of Jericho Colin Powell embraced the new interim Palestinian leadership.

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: This is a moment of opportunity that should not be lost, and I think that what I have heard today suggests that the Palestinian Authority is committed to reform.

VAUSE: An opportunity because both Israel and the United States refused to deal with Yasser Arafat. They accused him of being an obstacle to peace. Now he's gone, the Palestinians are preparing to elect a new leader early next year.

POWELL: I think we can make a pretty good case that this is the time to assist the Palestinians as they go forward.

VAUSE: It is what the Palestinians were hoping to hear.

NABIL SHA'ATH, PALESTINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: In all matters that we discussed, there was positive response. I think this is a first step. It sees significant improvement and bilateral American/Palestinian relations, and we want to make use of it to proceed without action and to proceed with a return to the peace process.

VAUSE: Earlier Secretary Powell met with Israeli leaders. They promised to ease travel restrictions and remove road blocks in the Palestinian territories ahead of the elections. But Israel is only willing to go so far.

SYLVAN SHALOM, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: While we are not going to do anything that might damage or harm the security of the people of the state of Israel.

VAUSE: This is likely to be Colin Powell's last visit here before stepping down as secretary of state.

MICHAEL OREN, SHALEM CENTER: The fact that he's a lame duck secretary of state does not impinge or impair in any way on the effectiveness of his trip. Powell represents the government of the United States. He represents the Bush administration.

VAUSE: Both Israelis and Palestinians are cautiously talking about a new era, a new chance for peace, but each side says the burden of responsibility rests with the other to ensure this opportunity is not lost. John Vause, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: President Bush says that Iran's word that it has suspended uranium enrichment is not enough. The president's comments came during a brief visit to Colombia. Earlier, Iran today announced that it had suspended its uranium enrichment program. The uranium enrichment process is a major step in developing nuclear weapons. Mr. Bush says Iran must allow verification of its claims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think the definition of truth is the willingness for the Iranian regime to allow for verification. You know, they said some things in the past, and it's very important for them to verify and earn the trust of those of us who are worried about them developing a nuclear weapon. And that's just not the United States. That's France and Great Britain and Germany and other nations around the world. I understand the dangers of the Iranian government having a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: Mr. Bush's stop in Colombia came after he attended a weekend summit of Asia pacific leaders in Chile.

Reform failure. How a key intelligence bill was blocked, leaving the president unhappy.

Plus, a deadly dispute. Five hunters killed on the opening day of deer season.

Also ahead...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very, very tough penalty. That's what I can tell you. It's very, very tough. And you know, it's tougher than I think most people expected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: Tough punishment for the players involved in this NBA melee. Will they also face criminal charges for their roles in the brawl?

Texas plane crash with a major twist. The plane was planning to pick up a former president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: President Bush vowing to do whatever is necessary to get Congress to pass a major intelligence reform bill now stalled on Capitol Hill. Much to the president's dismay apparently the bill is being blocked by top House Republicans. Our congressional correspondent Ed Henry is live on the hill with the very latest.

Hi, Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Judy. That's right, Vice President Cheney, in fact, came to the Capitol today to huddle behind closed doors with Congressman James Sensenbrenner to try to break this log jam on 9/11 reform, but that meeting ended with yet another stalemate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY: Congressman James Sensenbrenner, one of two Republicans to hold up the intelligence bill, says he's more determined than ever to block what he considers meaningless reform.

REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R-WI), JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN: Well, I'm not going to cave.

HENRY: Sensenbrenner says wants to ban states from giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. He says Senate negotiators are too scared to challenge powerful lobbyists who oppose the provision.

SENSENBRENNER: I don't like to vote for things on serious issues that might look good on a bumper sticker but which I know have so many loop holes that they won't work.

HENRY: Not even President Bush calling from Chile on Friday night could stop Sensenbrenner. Observers say it's up to the president to face down fellow Republicans.

JOHN LEHMAN, FMR. 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: The president now has been challenged directly by the leadership of the Congress and by the lobbyists and by the bureaucracy. Now he has got to show who's in charge.

HENRY: The other Republican who refused to be rolled was Congressman Duncan Hunter. Despite a call from Vice President Cheney, Hunter insisted on protecting the Pentagon from losing power to a new director of national intelligence. Some believe the window of opportunity has closed, but top Republicans think they can salvage this after Thanksgiving.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNEL (R), MAJORITY WHIP: The president's on the way back from South America. He's going to lobby some more. I'm optimistic that we're going to come back together December the 6th and 7th and pass this bill.

HENRY: Former 9/11 commissioners are warning of inaction.

TIM ROEMER, FMR. 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: We saw intelligence failures, FBI mistakes, Border Patrol and visa problems leading up to 9/11 and we lost 3,000 people. How many more body bags are we going to need to see?

HENRY: Sensenbrenner fires back, commissioners should not be satisfied with half the job.

SENSENBRENNER: We ought to pass a package of all their recommendations rather than some that are politically correct and forget about the other ones that step on the toes of powerful lobbies.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HENRY: But senior people in both parties are now pessimistic that a compromise could be worked out in December right after Thanksgiving, and the key to remember is that if there's no deal this year, Congress has to start from scratch again in January -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: All right. Ed Henry, thank you very much, reporting from the Capitol.

So one question is, will the United States' war on terrorism suffer if Congress can't pass the intelligence reform bill? Joining me from the CNN Center in Atlanta is our world affairs analyst, former Defense Secretary William Cohen.

Secretary Cohen, is the Pentagon justified in essentially defying the wishes of the president?

WILLIAM COHEN, CNN WORLD AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, the Pentagon can't afford to defy the wishes of the president. The president is the commander in chief, and the Pentagon believe in the subordination of the military to civilian authority. So to the extent that the president wants this reform to take place, certainly the Pentagon can give him its best recommendation.

The principal adviser -- military adviser to the president is the chairman of the joint chiefs, but the president is the commander in chief and he's the one who calls the shots. And to the extent he wants this to happen then he can make it happen certainly on the executive side. The question then becomes, does he have enough political capital, as he has indicated he has accumulated, to then bring the House and the Senate together to pass the legislation itself?

WOODRUFF: But isn't it pretty clear that one of the principal obstructionists to this in the House, the chairman of the House Arms Services Committee, Duncan Hunter, is doing what he believes the Pentagon wants?

COHEN: Well, Duncan Hunter, perhaps, is doing it at the behest of the Pentagon or some in the Pentagon. But ultimately the president as commander in chief really is the one who is the person responsible -- the person responsible for the security of this country in terms of policies that are developed and articulated.

The Pentagon serves not at its own pleasure and not serving its own interests. It serves under the command of the commander in chief. And so to the extent that the president wants this to happen, I believe he can make it happen. It's going to take a lot of work on his part. But there are some legitimate issues that have to be confronted. The Pentagon is simply mot acting as a rogue institution at this point.

They're concerned about having complete access to tactical intelligence to make sure that the command authority is clearly in place, that they don't suffer any sort of diminution of having that access to intelligence on a ready basis, and so there are legitimate issues. But I think they can be satisfied. If it takes a little bit longer to satisfy the Pentagon that their military is going to continue to receive intelligence as it's needed on a real-time basis, then I think that can be achieved. But if it takes a little bit longer, then so be it.

WOODRUFF: Let me turn quickly to Iraq, Secretary Bill Cohen, and ask you, we're getting closer to the scheduled elections in Iraq. U.S. military commanders on the ground are saying it is increasingly likely that they are going to need more American troops to keep the peace, to keep some measure of stability in that country. Should they get those troops -- and I mean, how many are we talking about, would you expect?

COHEN: Well, I leave it up to the commanders to say how many they need. But it's clear and it has been clear for some time that many more troops are needed in order to secure the environment, to secure the streets, secure the borders. It's not only American troops, and I've tried to point this out before, the international community has a great deal at stake.

For the United States and the coalition forces to succeed, it means we'll need help. And without that help, then the possibility of failure is real. And if it's real it means it could have an impact throughout the entire Gulf region and well beyond that. So it's time for other countries to be as concerned as the United States. We're seeing a conference take place in Sharm el-Sheik, in Egypt, comments coming out of some of the Arab countries to date saying that the coalition forces cannot afford to lose or fail in this and that we need to have a stable Iraq.

So I think everybody is coming to the realization whether they agreed with the United States going in in the first instance, they understand the consequences of not being able to stabilize Iraq, and I think we'll see greater contributions from the international community in the immediate future. It's going to be the U.S. and that means stopping some of those who are planning to leave, to come back home, to rotate out, will have to be stopped for the time being and forces who are scheduled to go in will be accelerated to get the maximum amount of troops on the ground during those election periods.

WOODRUFF: Very quickly, a final question about Iran. The Iranian government saying they have stopped or frozen their uranium enrichment program. President Bush is saying he needs verification. How likely do you think there could be some sort of confrontation with Iran over this?

COHEN: Well, the Europeans seem intent on proceeding and trying to negotiate a settlement on this issue. The United States is more skeptical. I think rightly skeptical, given the practice of deceit on the part of the Iranians as far as the development of this nuclear program. So the burden of proof, I think, is going to be upon the Iranians to say that they have in fact complied with the proposed settlement offered by the EU. We should remain skeptical. We should insist upon verification, very strict verification regimes based upon the past conduct on the part of the Iranians. WOODRUFF: Former defense secretary William Cohen, who is a world affairs analyst, thank you very much. We appreciate it. Good to see you. Thank you.

Five deaths and little explanation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why? I mean, five people dead because somebody was trespassing on property? It makes no sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: Hunters become the hunted in a deadly dispute. We'll have a live update.

Plus this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is what it is, and, you know, it's time for us as a team to band together and move on. That's all we basically can do right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: NBA brawl and now the legal fallout for players and fans. I'll talk with sportscaster Jim Gray, a witness to the fight.

Flight diverted again. Is it a sign of critical holes in homeland security?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: A group of hunters became the hunted when an apparent dispute over a hunting spot escalated into a killing spree that left five people dead and three injured. CNN's Keith Oppenheim is in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, where police are holding a suspect. Hello, Keith.

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Judy. This is a small community. Only 8,000 people or so live here, and of that population eight people have been affected by a hunting shooting incident, three injured and five of them are dead. This all happened around noon yesterday in a county next door to here when a group of area hunters came across another hunter who was trespassing. The police say this man by the name of Chai Vang, 36 years old, from St. Paul, Minnesota, a hunter, took a deer stand on private land. Police say that Vang got lost. He climbed into the deer stand. Pardon the helicopter noise above. He came across the deer stand, went inside, and this is what police say happened when the group first -- first group of hunters told him he had to leave.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF JAMES MIEIR, SAWYER COUNTY, WISCONSIN: The suspect got down from the deer stand, walked approximately 40 yards, fiddled wit his rifle in some sort which appeared he took the scope off the rifle, he turned and he opened fire on the group.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OPPENHEIM: One of the members of that group walkie-talkied to other hunters. Another group of hunters came, Judy, and police say Vang then fired on that group as well. In the end, you had a number of people killed, five dead, including in that group you had one 28- year-old woman as well as a father and a 28-year-old son. Chai Vang got lost in the woods. He got help from a couple of other hunters who did not know he was a wanted gunman and then he was arrested without any incident. He's now being held and questioned, but what caused this man to go from committing a minor infraction, trespassing, to committing a series of crimes is what police are trying to understand at this hour. Back to you.

WOODRUFF: Keith Oppenheim reporting. Terrible story from Rice Lake, Wisconsin, the western part of that state. Thank you, Keith.

Basket brawl. Fresh fallout from the fight rocking the NBA. Sportscaster Jim Gray joins us to talk about it.

Also this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Immediately it turns everything sexual, everything sexual.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at the dangerous drug blamed for a dramatic rise in HIV infections.

Plus, the latest on the crash of a private jet that was on its way to pick up a former president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: From our studios in Washington, once again, Wolf Blitzer. WOODRUFF: Actually, Judy Woodruff. Wolf has the day off.

New questions about airport security are being asked after a man on the no-fly list was allowed to board an Air France flight heading from Paris to Washington.

CNN's justice correspondent Kelli Arena standing by with us with the very latest -- Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Judy, the flight was diverted to Bangor, Maine, and the man taken off the plane without incident. But this isn't the first time that a plane had to be diverted mid-flight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ARENA (voice-over): It's the second time in two months a plane bound for the U.S. from Europe had to be diverted mid-flight and a passenger sent back because he was on USA no-fly list.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We are discussing with our friends in the European community the possibility of getting the manifests before the plane takes off, an hour before. It's easier said than done. There are diplomatic challenges. There privacy concerns that our friends around the world have about these things.

ARENA: In late September, a plane from Britain was grounded after takeoff carrying the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens. This time, the passenger of interest is not well-known. He's a Moroccan, Ahmed Lahiti. Not only was he on a no-fly list, but he didn't have a valid visa.

MICHAEL GREENBERGER, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: We have a desperate need to enter into multilateral negotiations with European countries to get this straightened out. The safety of the United States is obviously very much dependent on this.

ARENA: Foreign airlines are largely responsible for screening and send passenger lists to the U.S. 15 minutes after takeoff. U.S. and European officials are negotiating to give the U.S. more time, and this latest incident provides fresh momentum. European officials have concerns, though, about passenger privacy and logistics. What's more, the U.S. list has misspellings and other mistakes.

GREENBERGER: It certainly is an indication to other countries that their efforts are going to be wasted. It doesn't give them the incentive or encouragement to go out of their way and spend their energy and money.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA: Now, in this instance, officials insist that it was right to deny Lahiti entry into the country. Government sources say the CIA provided information that Lahiti was associated with known terrorists. Officials say that he is being sent back to Paris, Judy.

WOODRUFF: All right, Kelli, thank you very much.

ARENA: You're welcome.

WOODRUFF: We appreciate it, Kelli Arena, our justice correspondent.

Well, here in the United States, a plane crashed in Houston today just minutes before a distinguished passenger was set to climb on board.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF (voice-over): The private Gulfstream jet was supposed to carry former President Bush, an aide and a Secret Service agent to a speaking engagement in Ecuador. It was just one minute away from landing at Houston's Hobby Airport to pick up the former president when disaster struck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At no point did the pilot say he was in distress.

WOODRUFF: Witnesses say the plane clipped a light post shrouded in fog.

ROGER SMITH, HOUSTON AIRPORT SYSTEM: I saw like this flash go right in front of me. When I looked up, I noticed something had hit the light post and then debris fell. And as soon as I just rolled right up to the tollway, there was just a loud explosion. And I looked off to my left-hand side and there was a humongous ball of flame.

KAREN KAUFMAN, WITNESS: Chunks of concrete and stuff coming out of the air, it looked like. It was all over the road. It was just -- it was like a movie. Everything was flying through the air.

WOODRUFF: All three crew members, two pilots and a flight attendant, were killed. They worked for a Dallas-based firm called Business Jet Services. The Federal Aviation administration has launched an investigation. Houston officials confirm that visibility was not ideal at the time of the crash, but they say it wasn't bad enough to curtail operations.

Former President Bush was being driven to the airport when he learned that a plane had crashed there. It was only after he arrived that he learned it was his plane that had crashed. The former president issued a statement saying he was deeply saddened.

Said Bush -- quote -- "I have flown with this group before and knew them well. I join in sending my heartfelt condolence to each and every member of their families." The former president canceled his trip to Ecuador.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Terrible story.

HIV and the crystal connection, how a dangerous drug is fueling the AIDS epidemic. CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the new reality of AIDS.

And soul-searching and finger-pointing inside the NBA, fallout from the basketball brawl. We'll talk about it with sportscaster Jim Gray.

But, first, a quick look at some other news making headlines around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF (voice-over): At least 57 miners were killed when a massive fire swept through a mine complex in northern China. Officials say the blaze broke out after an electronic cable caught fire inside a mine. Bangladesh fire. One person was killed and several others injured when a fire raged through a crowded market in the country's capital, Dhaka. The blaze destroyed 1,800 shops.

Ukraine election dispute. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Kiev to protest what they say was a rigged presidential election. Outrage erupted when the election commission announced that the Kremlin-backed prime minister was winning with almost all votes counted. International observers say yesterday's voting was severely flawed.

Buddhist festival. The release of 4,000 lantern balloons marks an ancient Buddhist festival in Thailand. Thais believe their misfortunes of the past year fly away with the soaring lanterns.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: All this week, CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta examines HIV and AIDS and the changing face of the disease. Since first ravaging the gay male population two decades ago, AIDS has now made inroads into every segment of American society. But in recent years, the disease has come full circle and is on the rise among young gay men again.

Here's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Twenty-seven-year-old Tommy Foster is a struggling Broadway actor in New York City. The songs are Broadway tunes, the context, his life story, the date, the one-year anniversary of the day he was diagnosed HIV positive.

TOMMY FOSTER, ACTOR: I gave into a craving, a three-day marathon of unprotected, crystallized sex. It did leave me infected with HIV.

The purpose in me doing my show is to offer myself and what happened to me up as a specimen to be examined.

GUPTA: Crystal methamphetamine, known as crystal, meth, crank, ice, or Tina, is a cheap, highly potent stimulant. It keeps you up for days, takes away all inhibitions, is as addictive, if not more so, than heroin.

FOSTER: Just thinking about doing it causes my body to react as if I had just done it. And it's like all of a sudden your eyes focus in a way like you've never seen things before. And immediately it turns everything sexual, everything sexual.

DR. HOWARD GROSSMAN, HIV SPECIALIST: With the advent of drugs for erectile dysfunction, we're seeing the tie-in of crystal and staying up all night and staying up for days in a row tied in with sex.

GUPTA: Which is why crystal is being blamed for contributing to the increase in HIV infections among gay men, which, according to the latest CDC reports, is up 17 percent.

Perry Halkitis has been tracking crystal use in New York since 1998.

PERRY HALKITIS, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: What we know from our studies is that men who use methamphetamine tends to be hypersexual. They tend to have a higher levels of anonymous partnerings, more partners, more men That they have sex with, unsafely, than men who do not use this drug.

GUPTA: There are currently massive campaigns on both coasts to draw attention to the problem and to educate people about the effects of this drug. Experts, activists and community leaders are convinced this problem has already spread into other populations around the country.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Part of a week-long series of reports.

Well, it was the Friday night fights, but it didn't happen in a boxing ring. The incredible brawl between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons certainly wasn't the first in professional sports. But its dimension and its impact are huge. And in a related story that is still developing, both Clemson University and the University of South Carolina officials say their football teams will not accept a bid to play in a post-season bowl game if one is offered. Officials are saying that decision is meant as punishment for the fighting that broke out during Saturday's game between the two schools.

Veteran sportscaster Jim Gray was covering that game between the Pacers and the Pistons when the fight broke out last Friday night. He joins us live in Pacific Palisades, California.

Jim Gray, thank you very much for talking with us.

You were there. Were the players in any way justified in doing what they did?

JIM GRAY, SPORTS REPORTER: No. There's absolutely no excuse to go into the stands and to chase after the players.

Having said that, Ron Artest was provoked. He did have some items thrown at him. It did hit him. But there has to be an equilibrium and he has to know where to stop. And where you stop is that imaginary boundary that is outside the space of the court. And he didn't. And he went in and he started indiscriminately swinging and trying to find the person who had thrown this object, and that's when the melee started. So, even though you're provoked and even though things are being said and items are being thrown, that's something that you just can't do, Judy.

WOODRUFF: What about the idea that the fan had beer, threw a beer can or a beer cup at Artest? Should something be done about drinking in the -- among the fans?

GRAY: Yes, I think so.

The basic incivility and the way that the fans are behaving at these games and behind these bench areas in football, in basketball and in baseball, there's been a steady decline, Judy. And it's really incumbent upon the management and the organizations and the fans themselves and those who are around these rowdy people to turn these people in to security and to have these people thrown out, arrested, or subject to arrest, and to make sure that they don't come back into the stadium.

And they should not be allowed to be in these arenas. Buying a ticket to the game and spending your 50 bucks or your 100 bucks doesn't give you the license to act like an idiot. And I think that we need stronger controls, and the public and everybody has to stand up to these people, because the few, as we saw the other night, Judy, can incite the many. And these few idiots that did this caused this brawl, and that's no way, shape or form, excusing it in any manner.

Ron Artest has to know better and he has to stop. And Stephen Jackson, what he did, they can't do that. But the fans -- and the question was about the fans -- there's got to be better controls. And these people cannot be doing these things in our arenas and stadiums.

WOODRUFF: But what about the punishment of the players? Clearly, big fines, suspensions, is that enough? Is that a sufficient signal, do you think?

GRAY: Well, I don't know what else you can do. I mean, there's -- the fines are substantial. They're amongst the worst ever in the history of sports, if not the worst. I don't know really what else you can do. I think they're substantial and they're paying a heavy price.

I think the price to Stephen Jackson may have been a little bit too low. Ron Artest is paying a substantial fine, a huge, huge $5.5 million, the loss of his salary for the rest of the season, plus his ability to play the rest of the season.

And Jermaine O'Neal, who left the court, he's got 25 games. And I think that he, probably of them, was dealt with the most severely and the harshest penalty, and maybe that could be reduced.

WOODRUFF: But what about the -- I guess the culture that some people are beginning to believe sort of surrounds professional sports and, in this instance, people are wondering, well, don't the coaches or the owners ever sit down with these players and say, you know, we expect a certain level of behavior from you? GRAY: Well, yes, they can sit down with them all they want.

But, Judy, you can't legislate reaction. And when reactions happen and things, there's nothing that any coach or any player. Of course they're all taught and of course they all know better and of course this is unacceptable behavior and anti-social and terribly wrong.

But, you know, the culture that is in sports in general, it's a me-first attitude, and nobody wants to back down. And because nobody wants to back down, we have these things spilling on to the court. We're having more fights. You mentioned South Carolina and Clemson. A week before, there was a fight in the NFL on the field before the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers player and a Cleveland Browns player. We have this going on. In baseball, we've seen bench- clearing brawls.

The culture of me first and not wanting to back down, that has to change. So, yes, this can be addressed, but this has to be addressed well before these people become professionals. Most of these professional players do behave very professionally. And, by and large, these are isolated incidents. But it is becoming more and more regular. These isolated incidents are becoming more frequent, because no one is conducting at the youth level the morals and teaching these people the rights and wrongs.

And by the time they get to this me-first attitude, it's because they've learned it their entire life.

WOODRUFF: Well, that's what I want to ask you about, because, when you say somebody has got to get to them before they become professional athletes, we really are talking about -- are we talking about parenting? Are we talking about schooling, churches, our whole society and the signals that we send?

GRAY: Our whole society.

Look at that presidential campaign that you just covered every day. Was that civil? Of course not. Was there anything about it, the dirty tricks and all the stuff that goes on? Well, they learn this in sports and they learn this in all of our society. It's pervasive in the schools. It's pervasive everywhere. And there's been a steady decline.

And this steady decline now spills on to the sports field. And it's very unfortunately because a lot of people do look to these sporting stars as role models. And, by and large -- we shouldn't make this whole thing -- the big picture is, let's not paint with one stroke of the brush the entire canvas. This was an incident. The NBA will learn from it. Hopefully, other sports will learn from it. The individuals who were involved will learn from it. And we'll go on.

I doubt very seriously, Judy, that we're going to have any more NBA players going into the stands. The price is way too severe. And nobody wants to lose these type of salaries, and nobody wants to lose their livelihood. And that's what we're talking about. We're very fortunate on another thing here, too. We're fortunate that there were only minor injuries. Nobody got hurt badly.

And the other thing about this. There were no Indiana Pacers fans that were in the stands, like a playoff game. There could have been 1,500 or 2,000 or Pacer families. And then we really would have had a mayhem and we have had a full-blown riot, because those people probably would have been interjected into the fray as well.

WOODRUFF: Jim Gray, what do you say to those young people who look to these athletes as superstars? And you just talked about role models. they do watch this. What are they to think?

GRAY: Well, your role model should be your parents. If you're depending upon -- and I'll just pull some names who are superstars out of the hat -- if you're depending upon Joe Montana and Charles Barkley and Kobe Bryant and these people to raise your kids, something's way, way off with you and your children.

You're your on best role models. And the parents of these children have to teach them right and wrong. And then, for the athletes themselves, which I think your question is directed at, they have to do better. They have to be above it. They are role models. They have to be held to a higher standard, and they may not like it and politicians may not like it. And President Bush said that to me in an interview a couple weeks ago.

We may not like it but we have to be. And these athletes may not like it, but they've got to start showing not half the time, not three quarters of the time, but all of the time. Having said that, people do make mistakes. People do get second chances, and we just have to move on from here.

WOODRUFF: Jim Gray, we hear you loud and clear. Sportscaster Jim Gray was right there when that fight broke out between the Pacers and the Pistons on Friday night. We thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with us this afternoon.

GRAY: Thank you for having, me, Judy. I appreciate it.

WOODRUFF: We thank you.

And to our viewers now, here is your turn to weigh in on this story and its implications. Our Web question of the day is this: Who bears more blame for Friday's NBA basketball fan-player brawl in Detroit? You can vote right now at CNN.com/Wolf. We'll have the results after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOODRUFF: Here's how you are weighing in on our Web question of the day: Who bears more blame for Friday's NBA basketball fan/player brawl in Detroit? Eighteen percent of you say fans; 44 percent of you say players. And 38 percent of you say both equally. A reminder, this is not a scientific poll.

Our picture of the day shows a very lucky puppy. This little dog was discovered in the nick of time in a building that was about to be blown up in Falluja, Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. 1ST CLASS BRIT KIMMELL, U.S. ARMY: He was coming out of a bunker, and about ready to throw a fragmentation grenade in there. Got a little closer, realized there was nothing in there, looked a little closer and the puppy is in there. So, pick of the runt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: The puppy is the image of survival in a time of war. And the soldiers have named it Falluja.

A reminder that you can always catch "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS" on weekdays at this time, 5:00 Eastern. Thank you for joining us.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" right after the break.

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