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CNN Live Sunday
Italian Journalist Disputes U.S. Version of Shooting; New Hip- Hop Church Makes Big Splash In Harlem; Interview with Sharon Cotliar
Aired March 06, 2005 - 18:00 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.
ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR, CNN LIVE SUNDAY: Thanks for joining us everyone from CNN's global headquarters in Atlanta. I'm Erica Hill. Carol Lin is off tonight. Here's a look at what's happening right now in the news.
A positive sign for the Mideast peace process. Reuters and the Associated Press say Israel is preparing to hand over control of the west bank town of (INAUDIBLE) to the Palestinians. A senior Palestinian security official says the transfer will happen Tuesday. Israeli security sources confirm the handover plan but say no date has been set.
New details now on those pictures believed to be of the most wanted man in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Sources tell CNN the photographs were found in a video camera, seized during a raid several weeks ago. The date they were taken is unclear.
Gas prices, in case you haven't noticed, are up sharply from two weeks ago. The Lundberg survey reports the price at the pump shot up nearly seven cents following price increases for crude oil. The national average for a gallon of self-serve regular, $1.97 as of Friday.
He can hold an audience in the palm of his hand but could Irish rocker Bono handle banking issues for 184 countries? Treasury Secretary John Snow isn't ruling out the possibility of the U2 singer making the short list of candidates to be the next president of the World Bank. Bono has long been an activist for third world debt relief.
The White House is calling it a horrific accident. Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena says it was the most dramatic day of her life. This is what we know for sure. Two people were wounded and a man was killed on a Baghdad road Friday night. But just what exactly happened depends on who you asked. Today Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld called his Italian counterpart to express regret at the loss of life and the situation. The Bush administration is promising a full investigation. Sgrena's version of events was published today in the newspaper she works for. CNN Rome bureau chief Alessio Vinci reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN ROME BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Giuliana Sgrena called her account "La Mia Verita," in English, "My Truth." It is her initial description of what happened in Baghdad on Friday published in the Sunday edition of "Il Manifesto," the Communist newspaper for which she filed dozens of reports before being kidnapped in early February. Most of her articles highly critical of the U.S. military invasion of Iraq.
In her account of what happened, she writes that she was traveling to the Baghdad airport, with her, two Italian intelligence agents. One is driving. The other is Nicola Calipari, the officer who negotiated her release and who paid the ultimate price to save her life.
TRANSLATOR: Nicola Calipari sat next to me. The driver twice informed the embassy and in Italy that we were heading towards the airport, which I knew was heavily patrolled by U.S. troops. They told me that we were less than a kilometer away, when I only remember fire. At that point, a rain of fire and bullets hit us.
VINCI: The U.S. has said the car was speeding toward the checkpoint, ignoring warnings to start but Sgrena writes, the car was not speeding and calls the shooting unjustified.
TRANSLATOR: The driver started yelling that we were Italians. We're Italians. We're Italians. Nicola Calipari threw himself on me to protect me and immediately, I repeat immediately, I heard his last breath as he was dying on me.
VINCI: The autopsy reveals he was hit by a single bull to his head. Sgrena, who is currently recovering from her wounds in an Italian hospital also remembers something one of her captors said, moments before releasing her.
TRANSLATOR: Don't give any signals of your presence with us, otherwise the Americans could intervene. It was the confirmation that I didn't want to hear. It was altogether the most happy and most dangerous moment. If we bumped into someone, meaning American military, there would be an exchange of fire. My captors were ready and they would have responded.
VINCI: By the time Sgrena's car reached the American checkpoint, her captors were no longer with her. Moments before coming under fire, she writes, the mood in the car was joyful.
TRANSLATOR: The car kept on a road, going under an underpass full of puddles and almost losing control to avoid them. We all incredibly laughed. It was liberating. Losing control of the car in a street full of water in Baghdad and maybe wind up in a bad car accident after all I had been through would really be a tale I would not be able to tell.
VINCI: Instead her tale is of a harrowing experience, a day of joy turned to tragedy. Italian media suggests a ransom of several million dollars was paid for her release. Government officials are not commenting, but Calipari was an experienced negotiator, who previously secured the release of other Italian hostages in Baghdad. On Sunday his body lay in state at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Rome. Thousands came to pay their last respects. Alessio Vinci, CNN, Rome. (END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: There's been swift reaction today to a report on a secret government program that's allowed the CIA to send suspected terrorists abroad for questioning. "The New York Times" reports President Bush signed the still classified directive days after the 9/11 attack. It reportedly gave the CIA sweeping authority to act without case by case approval in transferring suspects overseas. The White House has not confirmed the directive, but a spokesman was doing some explaining today on CNN while a prominent Democrat was giving the president the benefit of the doubt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COUNSELOR: At every step of the way, President Bush and this administration has made very clear that we'll abide by the laws of our land and the treaty obligations we have. We will not torture here in America and we will not export torture. That is acceptable to this president and something that we will not tolerate.
SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (D) CONN: The president has said we do not condone torture. Mr. Bartlett just said it on your show awhile ago. I don't start disbelieving the president on this. I think I have concern. We ought to look at it. The inspector general of the CIA is conducting an investigation right now. I'm going to wait to hear the results of what he has to say before I reach a conclusion on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Several former detainees in recent weeks have complained that they were subjected to brutal treatment. A senior U.S. official tells "The Times" the CIA is looking into the complaint.
The president's ambitious plan to overhaul Social Security is facing more objections. Democrats railed against the proposal today, as the president geared up for a second week of stops aimed at selling his plan across America. We turn now to CNN White House correspondent Elaine Quijano who joins us now with more. Elaine, good afternoon.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon to you, Erica. Democrats accuse President Bush of trying to do away with Social Security entirely but President Bush calls that a scare tactic. He maintains that he's only trying to fix a problem now, instead of passing it on to future presidents.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO (voice-over): In the battle to overhaul Social Security, the White House says it's still early.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In football parlance, we're still in the first quarter of this debate.
QUIJANO: But the pressure's on to meet the president's own deadline by getting Social Security legislation passed this year. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to act now or the problem is only going to get worse.
QUIJANO: Since his state of the union address, President Bush has aggressively pushed his ideas in a dozen states.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The safety net has got a hole in it.
QUIJANO: So far, the president's efforts to sell the changes have achieved mixed results with the American public, including skepticism over his idea that personal accounts should be part of the solution. Democrats accuse President Bush of trying to get rid of Social Security entirely and see the accounts as the first step towards doing that. They call the idea a nonstarter.
SEN. DICK DURBIN (D) ILLINOIS: The privatization proposal of the president is going to destroy Social Security as we know it, and let me tell you why. It doesn't strengthen Social Security. It weakens it.
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D) MASSACHUSETTS: You don't start, you know, cutting new sails on a sailboat when the water is pouring through the bottom. You have to save the ship first and then you find out how you're going to make it move into the future.
QUIJANO: Some Republicans, like Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, criticize Democrats for not coming up with other ideas. He'll unveil his own proposals which include raising the retirement age from 67 to 68.
SEN. CHUCH HAGEL (R) NEBRASKA: We've got a plan. It doesn't mean my plan is the best, doesn't mean by plan the one that should be law. But until you actually get some specifics on the table, then I think it's going to be very difficult.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO: Now the Bush administration is in the midst of a renewed campaign over the next two months to try to sell the president's ideas nationwide. As part of that effort this week, the president will visit a number of states, including Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee. Democrats, for their part, are vowing not to let President Bush's messages go unanswered. They are planning pushes of their own in the days and weeks ahead. Erica.
HILL: All right. We'll take it back here. Elaine Quijano, live at the White House. Thanks.
The jury in the Robert Blake murder trial is scheduled to go back to work tomorrow morning in Los Angeles. The defense says the prosecution's two key witnesses are both liars and that police bungled their investigation.
The actor is accused of killing his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley (ph) in a car parked near his favorite Italian restaurant. Blake faces life in prison if convicted.
The accuser's sister takes the stand again as Michael Jackson's child molestation trial resumes tomorrow. On Friday, the teen testified after the prosecution showed a videotape that actually seemed to help the defense's case. On the tape, family members of the alleged victim praised Jackson as a father figure. Afterward the sister said fear of retribution from Jackson prompted the family to tape false statements.
The delicate job of building a government from the ground up. We'll look at just how much influence Iraqi religious leaders are having on newly elected officials. And as Iraqis try to put their government together, U.S. forces are trying to clean up the insurgency. We'll take you on a raid with Marines in one of the most violent regions of Iraq.
And still to come --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hasn't God been good to you? He's blessed you all day long. Come on. You got to praise God, because God has lifted you up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: How a rap music legend is using hip-hop to get teenagers back to church.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HILL: A little more than a month after Iraq's historic elections, another important date looms. The first meeting of the country's new parliament and that happens in just 10 days. Now, the pressure is on for the main factions to resolve their differences before the opening. Iraq's top Shiite cleric is weighing in. CNN's Nic Robertson reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Striding down the streets of Najaf, two very different leaders. A Sunni sheikh, who tried to kill Saddam, and a Shi'a spokesman about to get political direction from Iraq's most influential religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani.
MUDHAR SHAWKAT, UNITED IRAQI ALLIANCE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): His words were we must all be united in one hand against the terrorism and against those who try to separate us. Sunni Shi'a, Arab, Kurd, we must leave the small issues and form the new government as soon as possible.
ROBERTSON: Sistani, who is rarely seen in public and has vowed to stay out of politics, is seemingly growing tired of the political horse trading over who gets Iraq's top political jobs, and he made clear what he wants. SHEIKH FAWAZ AL JABRA, UNITED IRAQI ALLIANCE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): To unite and form the new government as soon as possible without any further delays. This is for the interest of Iraq and the Iraqi people and should be the priority.
ROBERTSON: Sistani's pressure, it seems, directed not just at the United Iraqi Alliance he backs, but at the Kurds, without whose support no deal can be made. But the Kurds' biggest worry is that Sistani and the United Iraqi Alliance will push the country away from its secular past, giving religious figures a greater voice and they want guaranties that won't happen.
BARHAM SALEH, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Fundamentals must be clear and stringent, vis-a-vis a democratic state that will respect religion, not that would be dominated by a sectarian religious fundamentalists.
ROBERTSON: Talks between the two groups are only just getting down to details. And there are no guarantees by the time the assembly meets March 16th, a deal over the top jobs will be done.
SALEH: If we do not come to an agreement that will be satisfactory to the overall political process in Iraq, we need to go to the parliament and talk about these in public in a transparent manner like any other democracy.
ROBERTSON: Both sides say that they are making progress and that convening the national assembly is intended to signal that Iraq's new political process is on track, but it seems the main players have yet to bridge some fundamental differences. Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: It is promising to be a crucial week for relations between Syria and Lebanon. Leaders of both countries will meet tomorrow to discuss Syria's pledge to pull its troops out of neighboring Lebanon. While Beirut has been filled with anti-Syrian protesters for the past few weeks, the city is getting ready for a demonstration of a different kind. CNN's Brent Sadler is there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lebanese Army troops act on orders to secure the streets of downtown Beirut, the heart of anti-Syrian rallies and demonstrations. But on mountains overlooking Beirut, Syrian solders await their orders, to start Syria's promised withdrawal. But how widespread a withdrawal and when will it happen? Still unanswered questions.
Syria's president and his Lebanese counterpart Emil Lahood (ph) may give answers Monday during a top level meeting in Damascus. But now it appears, there's much more to the Syrian troops in Lebanon crisis than before the pledge to pull out. Lebanon's Islamic resistance, Hezbollah, has entered the political tug-of-war on Syria's side, announcing the start of their own protest campaign, to block any attempt they claim, by the U.S. and its chief Mideast ally, Israel, to exploit a Syria withdrawal. Hezbollah rejecting a U.N. resolution to force a Syrian pull out and the disarming of militias.
SHEIKH HASSAN NASRALLAH, HEZBOLLAH (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): It's a blatant interference in our internal affairs and all its clauses are free services to the Israeli enemy.
SADLER: Hezbollah fields (ph) armed militants sporadically attacking Israel for the return of land at the foot of the Golan Heights, strategically important high ground that Syria demands in exchange for peace. Hezbollah is labeled a terror group by the U.S. and Israel. But in Lebanon, the group has a strong showing in parliament, with 12 MPs, enjoying widespread Shi'a Muslim support with backing from many Syrian sympathetic parties.
FOUAD MAKHZOUMI, DIALOGUE PARTY: Democracy, it's a form of expressing your views and your opinions. If today there are people that disagree with your position, I think it is fair from a democratic point of view that they should go down and express their views.
SADLER: Three weeks of popular protests may have won the opposition some significant gains. But now, there's another challenge to claim these streets with Hezbollah's call for a mass show of defiance Tuesday, to international interference and pressure on Syria. Brent Sadler, CNN, Beirut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: Back in the U.S., some security screeners at the nation's busiest airports say they're getting shortchanged on proper training.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we're required to have three hours and I'm getting about 25 minutes a week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: But is your security being protected in other ways? We'll tell what you Federal officials have to say about these accusations.
Plus how Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is flexing his political muscle to influence the race for Los Angeles mayor.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HILL: Well for many of you watching, wet weather across the country, including another inch of rain that southern California does not need and some flooded streets south of Houston. Let's check in now with Brad Huffines at the CNN weather center. Brad, any chance of this letting up?
BRAD HUFFINES, METEOROLOGIST: There is going to some chance and part of the country getting much nicer tomorrow but then things begin to change again. Winter is not over, a reminder. We are seeing scattered showers south of Houston, heavier rains earlier today toward Corpus Christi and Victoria. But look at these temperatures nationwide, at least across the plains very warm, up to 67 in St. Louis and temperatures across the northeast, 30s in Boston and as you go south, 40s turning into the 50s.
Right now with those scattered showers down south and clouds across the southern part of the country, we're seeing some widely scattered areas of rain from New Orleans, just showed you Houston. Also here showers across the desert southwest, some snow still falling across parts of interior Colorado and very gusty winds blowing down from Helena, Montana, wind gusts today up to and above 50 miles an hour.
Then for tomorrow, with rain showers and snow showers across the great lakes, turning to just rain in Boston, New York and Washington. The good news is that will stay all rain as this system moves by. Heavy snows across southern Canada and parts of the great lakes. But showers will turn to thunderstorms across parts of the southeast, from New Orleans through Atlanta and some of these thunderstorms could have very strong or gusty winds, so the storm prediction center has added a chance of isolated severe thunderstorms to the forecast from parts of east Texas all the way through north Georgia and into the western Carolinas through the evening and afternoon hours tomorrow.
Quick look at the highs though, this cold front will stay with the cold air across the great lakes, but later this week, Erica, some colder air headed to the southeast stunning some residents there who thought winter was over. Not so fast.
HILL: That's right, especially here in Atlanta, we keep thinking spring is here and then we get a little surprised.
HUFFINES: Don't forget the calendar still says winter at least.
HILL: All right. I won't put the scarves away yet. Thanks, Brad.
You may not have noticed, depending on where you live, but it turns out the mayoral primary season is heating up and some big city incumbents could be in big trouble as they go up against some relative newcomers on the political scene. One such city, Los Angeles, where one of Mayor James Hunt's challenges appears to have an influential supporter in the wings, none other than Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Joining us now to talk about the significance of these races CNN's political analyst Carlos Watson. Carlos, good to have you with us.
CARLOS WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Erica, good to see you.
HILL: All right. First of all, if I don't live in one of these cities where there's a mayoral race going on, why do I care?
WATSON: Great question. Probably, three reasons. One is because we can't forget that often, big time national political stars start off as mayors. So we think about Rudy Giuliani. You think about senators like Dianne Feinstein or even Norm Coleman. So that's one reason.
Number two, often big national issues start off as local issues. Remember gay marriage and how that resonated shortly after Gavin Newsome (ph) became mayor of San Francisco? So that's another reason. And then last but not least, often the most cutting edge political techniques, whether they're kind of cool commercials or whether their use of DVDs by political candidates in order to sell themselves, often those start in mayoral races, so three good reasons to stay tuned to these five big mayoral races this year.
HILL: DVDs, that's a new approach. We're going to have to tackle that one another time. There's also apparently some common threads to some of these races. Tell us what you're seeing.
WATSON: You're seeing at least three interesting things. One you see a lot of incumbents in trouble. So in Los Angeles, in New York and in Detroit, three of the 10 biggest cities in the country, incumbents are in real trouble there, certainly the two biggest.
The second thing you're seeing is you're seeing a possible rise of Latino success. The top candidate right now in San Antonio, in New York and in Los Angeles according to the polls are all Latinos. This could be another significant step towards Latino political acceptance and then last but not least, we may see a whole new crop of young faces. So people who are under the age of 40 may win races in New York, could win a race in San Antonio and depending on what happens in Detroit the 30-something mayor there could get reelected.
HILL: So possibly a fairly significant change to the political landscape across the country. Let's focus on L.A. for just a minute here. Jim Hahn (ph), of course who is the incumbent is getting, well, a lot pressure actually from the other two candidates and Governor Schwarzenegger not exactly endorsing a candidate, but kind of helping somebody out. Talk to us a little bit more about this.
WATSON: Well, you know, Los Angeles always has interesting things. OF course they're in Hollywood so you wouldn't be surprised. The leading commercial out of this campaign is nicknamed Bobzilla, Bob Hertzberg, one of the candidates, has a campaign commercial in which he appears as Godzilla, but he calls himself Bobzilla. Right now James Hahn, the incumbent is not first, not second in the polls, but actually is third and so he's in real trouble. There's a primary on Tuesday and the top two finishers go on to compete later in the year for the final spot.
Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn't made a formal endorsement but appeared alongside Bob Hertzberg who's a former speaker of the California assembly and seemed to offer, if you will, kind of an unofficial endorsement. So the last interesting thing about L.A., by the way, it's a place where lots of people have gotten along over the years. They had an African-American mayor for 20 years. But right now you're seeing a lot of factional politics. The white supporters lining up behind the white candidates, Latino behind Latino, African- American behind African-American. So there will have to be some coalition building after this first primary.
HILL: Is that sort of indicative of the rest of the country, actually the way that it is perhaps more divided? WATSON: You know, it's interesting, that you are seeing that. You certainly see that in New York to some extent, where there's some fractional politics there and again you've got African-American, Latino and white politicians and so we'll see what happens there as well. I think there's going to be an interesting opportunity for people to float new ideas, big new ideas and two of the top, Erica, I expect to hear more about, one I expect to hear some interesting ideas on immigration and two, you'll probably frankly hear more about jobs growth and development.
HILL: A couple of things a lot of people are wondering about. We know you'll be back to break them down for us. Carlos Watson, always good to have you here. Thanks.
WATSON: Good to see you.
HILL: A look at the stories now in the news. Freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena said there was no warning by U.S. troops who shot at her car in Baghdad on Friday. She was wounded and an Italian secret service agent was killed. The U.S. says they were speeding and ignoring warnings. The attack came hours after Sgrena was set free by captors in Iraq. The Bush administration calls it a horrific accident and promises an investigation.
High school bands and figures from the civil rights era took to the streets in Selma, Alabama this weekend to mark the 40th anniversary of the bloody march there that helped inspire Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Illinois's undefeated basketball season is no more. The top- ranked team was beaten by unranked Ohio State, 65-64. Talk about a finish here. Ohio State hit a three-point shot with just five seconds left in the game.
Our CNN "Security Watch" uncovers some possible security lapses at the world's busiest airports. Some security screeners in Atlanta say they're not getting enough traning, a claim transportation officials dispute. CNN's Jeanne Meserve takes a closer look now at the controversy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN AMERICA BUREAU CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More people fly through Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport than any other airport in the world. Some screeners say the heavy workload is preventing them from getting the required weekly training.
JOHN SUMMEROUR, SECURITY SCREENER: Well, we're required to have three hours, and I'm getting about 25 minutes a week.
MESERVE: Security experts say the training is critical for screeners to keep up with the latest terrorist methods for concealing weapons.
CLARK KENT ERVIN, SECURITY ANALYST: We all know that if terrorist will try to sneak weapons pass the screener workforce, they're going to do so in the most innovative way that they can think of. So, training is absolutely essential.
MESERVE (on camera): Do you think that it puts the traveling public at risk if screeners aren't having this recurring training.
ERVIN: Absolutely.
MESERVE (voice-over): The Transportation Security Administration says, in Atlanta last year, only three screeners out of 1,100 failed their recertification exam, an indication that training is adequate. It's not always done in a classroom or at a computer.
MARK HATFIELD, TSA SPOKESMAN: But some of that takes place on the job where they're being tested by computer projected images of threat items, while they're working the X-ray machine, while they're being tested by covert operatives who attempt to get items through the checkpoint. And -- so, all those various things -- the morning meetings with role call.
MESERVE: Screeners maintain the definition of training should be much narrower.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How to recognize that's a prohibited item. What to look for. But we've not been trained on.
MESERVE: Screeners also allege, they're asked to sign paperwork saying that they've gotten their required training even when they feel they not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you don't sign it, they threaten you, saying something may happen to you, you may lose your job.
MESERVE: TSA officials say no Atlanta screener has ever been ordered to falsify a document or has been threatened with discipline or dismissal.
These three with whom we spoke are all members of the American Federation of Government employees. They acknowledge the training issue could help recruit new members. But they say their real concern is the safety of more than the 83 million people who fly through Hartsfield each year.
For CNN's American Bureau, Jeanne Meserve, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: And a reminder, you can find an interactive guide to the state of U.S. security and a look at what the U.S. government is doing to fight terror, all that by logging onto CNN.com/securitywatch. And be sure to stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
Going on the front lines in Iraq, why hours of planning and training can't stop some raids against the insurgent from falling flat.
And still to come, how hip-hop is being used to get New York City teens to church.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HILL: Every week we bring you the more personal stories from the front lines. Today, a look inside the dangerous missions to track and capture insurgents in Iraq. Armed with intel and special training, U.S. marines move with speed and skill. But, as our Jane Arraf explains, that doesn't always guarantee success.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPODNENT (voice-over): It doesn't always go as planned.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got to turn around and get back up the road.
ARRAF This is a major raid by force reconnaissance marines, specially trained to move swiftly and silently.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 7-0-1, you can stop your movement until everybody has caught up. Over.
ARRAF: They're stalled at the moment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't get the brake off.
ARRAF: After racing offroad for an hour through the desert to avoid land mines and bombs, as we arrive in this town the Humvee we're in won't go further.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're on the radio intel, the transfer case is locked up.
ARRAF: Anywhere else, it would be an inconvenience. At night in insurgent territory, it could be deadly.
Finally, the vehicle is kicked back into gear. The Marines 1st Division Regimental Combat Team 7 has been looking for the two insurgent leaders for a year. The 1st Force Reconnaissance Company thought it might have found them. But the at last minute, an intelligence from an Iraqi source on where to find the first one looks a little shaky.
The second target is thought to be an insurgent leader connected to Abu Musab al Zarqawi. There are more than 50 reconnaissance marines here, attack helicopters and AC-130 gunships have been called in. Many hours of planning have gone into a raid designed to take fewer than 15 minutes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep your head down.
ARRAF: They tie up the military-aged men and search the house. The man they're looking for isn't here.
(on camera): It wasn't a textbook operation, by any means, but it points out the challenges of doing pinpoint raids in a territory this sprawling and an atmosphere this complicated.
(voice-over): Despite their training and technology, these recon marines from Camp Pendleton, California still have to rely on local intelligence. As we roll in after 3:00 a.m., they talk about what went wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Several houses down the block.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shaky or he was positive in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was positive.
UNIDENTFIED MALE: That's the house. Maybe it was. There was nobody inside that house no air breathers at all.
ARRAF: The company has launched raids almost every night as part of Operation River Blitz. Master Gunnery Sergeant Greg Gillepsie says they're constantly adapting to a terrain whether improvised explosive devices are a constant danger.
MASTER GUNNERY SGT. GREG GILLESPIE, U.S. MARINE CORPS: The other raids have been quite a bit smoother than this. We didn't have to do cross-country movement to any of the other targets, because we weren't hitting mines and IEDs on the routes that took us to those targets.
ARRAF: These marines have been here just three weeks. Over the next seven months there will be dozens more raids and a lot more chances to find the men they're looking for.
Jane Arraf, CNN, Al Anbar Province, Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: She choreographed her prison release photo op. Now Martha Stewart is giving America glimpse of how she spent her first weekend back home. So, what's next on her makeover mission? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HILL: She's called her time behind bars both life altering and life affirming. Now that Martha Stewart is out, will she be able to rebuild her tattered image and breathe new life into her company's fortunes? As Jeff Greenfield explains, she's definitely got one thing going for her, America loves a comeback kid.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Martha, is there any plea deal...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Martha...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leave Martha alone.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you want to know how Martha Stewart went from this...
STEWART: Whew!
GREENFIELD: To this, after 5 months in prison, start with the most famous words of this famous American writer. F. Scott Fitzgerald once observed, "there are no second acts in American lives." He could not have been more wrong.
MARCUS MABRY, NEWSWEEK SENIOR EDITOR: This is a country where we believe in second acts, we believe in redemption, we believe in confessional stories, we believe in the comeback.
GREENFIELD: Marcus Maabry, a senior editor at "Newsweek" could talk about all famous Americans.
Washington DC mayor Marion Barry went to prison after being caught on tape smoking crack, came out, got elected mayor again.
MARION BARRY, DC COUNCIL: I got up.
GREENFIELD: He's now on the D.C. City council.
RICHARD NIXON, CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: You don't have Nixon to kick around anymore.
GREENFIELD: Richard Nixon came back from political death in 1962 after losing a California governor race to win two terms as president.
NIXON: We live in a new world.
GREENFIELD: And came back from resignation and disgrace after Watergate to become an elder statesman. And the man who helped plan that Watergae break-in, G. Gordon Liddy, came back from a lengthy prison term to become a best selling author, radio talk show host and lecture circuit writer.
G. GORDON LIDDY, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: If you sit back and decide there are no second acts and don't do anything, well, there won't be any. But if you will not accept that and you go on out and work at something, you can do it.
GREENFIELD: In Martha Stewart's case, her comeback flows from many sources. She did her time with no grousing, no demands for special favors. Her crime was, by some measures, relatively minor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He love you, Martha!
GREENFIELD: Many of her supports believe her real crime was being a rich, successful, demanding, boss/woman. Nor did she ever express contrition, a good thing, editor Mabry says.
MABRY: I think it's interesting that her stock and her company are doing well, in fact, because the woman looks defiant and she looks strong.
GREENFIELD: She is also a famous person. A quality in some cases seems to insulate wrong wrongiters from scorn. We are, after all, in a country where an auto mechanic who became famous for having sex with a teenager who almost killed his wife still gets asked for his autograph.
LIDDY: I can't speak for Joey, but I can say that people who are famous or notorious are treated pretty much the same.
MICHAEL JACKSON, SINGER: Neverland is my home.
GREENFIELD: Which does not mean we forgive everything.
If Michael Jackson is found guilty, it's hard to imagine most of the public will embrace a convicted child molester.
(on camera): But in general, those who have fall frn grace in this country have a powerful ally in their efforts to come back, that deeply embedded belief that this is the land of the second chance, the fresh start. Millions of our ancestors crossed oceans or a frontier, and left behind their roots, their language, their country and their past. So it's not surprising we may be so willing to extend to others what so many of our forebearers sought for themselves.
Jeff Greenfield, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: Now, we should point out here, few felons have the kind of life waiting for them that Stewart does since she was let out of prison. But leaving that past behind could actually be a slow process. She will begin her house arrest with an ankle bracelet tracking her every move. Sharon Cotliar is a writer for People magazine in New York and joins us now with a little update on actually what Martha Stewart has been doing this weekend.
Good to have you with us. What has she been doing?
SHARON COTLIAR, PEOPLE: Well, Martha has really enjoying her family and friends. She seems to mostly be staying close to home and just really enjoying her time where she still free to roam.
HILL: Tomorrow she's supposed to head back to work. There was -- her company really put a lot into making sure everybody knew and got a picture of her coming out of prison. Are we expecting a lot of that tomorrow as she heads back to the office?
COTLIAR: Well, tomorrow is definitely about appearances. Martha is going to make an experience, say hello to her employees and basically show the world she's back at work.
HILL: What else will she be up to this week?
COTLIAR: She also needs to meet with her probation officer. So I expect that that meeting will take place sometime within the next few days. And she'll be outfitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet.
HILL: So that's what she doesn't have yet. And that's sort of why we've seen her roaming around the estate, saying hello to the horses. Because once she has it on she can't leave her home, correct? COTLIAR: Right. Martha, even though she's on a 153-acre estate, isn't going to take a walk in the woods or a garden. She has to stay inside her house other than that 48 hours a week.
HILL: We know that she's met with some -- or we've heard about her friendships with some different people in prison. But those aren't people she will be allowed to talk to. That's also part of her probation, correct?
COTLIAR: Yes. Under the rules of her release, she can't communicate with the friends that she made back at Alderson Prison. She'll be limited to the next 2 years really not writing them or talking to them, unless she has permission from her probation officer.
HILL: She hasn't shied away, though, from talking to the press, famously coming out with buttered bread and hot chocolate Friday morning. Covering this, has she changed at all does is seem to you, since before she went in and now, 5 months later?
COTLIAR: Martha Stewart looks extremely relaxed, very cheery, very happy to be home. So if anything, she looks like she's very much rejuvenated.
HILL: We should mention, too, the legal process in all of this isn't over. There's actually an appeal coming up on March 17. Fill us in on that a little bit.
COTLIAR: On March 17 her appellate lawyer will argue the case. It will be a fairly short argument. And then it will be decided by a judge whether or not the case will stand or be reversed in some way.
HILL: It will be interesting to see the outcome of that and as you mentioned, lots more ahead this week for Martha Stewart and I'm sure for us as well. Sharon Cotliar, we appreciate the insight. Thanks for being with us.
COTLIAR: Thank you.
HILL: And coming up on CNN at the top of the hour, CNN's PEOPLE IN THE NEWS will bring you an exclusive look inside Stewart's time in prison. And a little more on the domestic diva's plans.
One of rap's found legends has found a new mission for his music: religion. Just after the break, we'll show you how he's using the power of urban sound to reach out to urban youth.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HILL: He could afford a manion, but a British squatter has decided to stay in his shack. The British government says the penniless man is entitled to claim the property where he's lived for 20 years. It's worth almost $4 million, but the man turned the offer down. He says he's lived on the land rent free for 18 years so claiming the land now would be in his words, a pretty mean thing to do. Breaking waves and breaking records, more than 40 surfers are claiming the record for riding a single giant's surfboard off an Australian beac. That's crazy. Check that out. It took dozens of people to wax the 40-foot surfboard worth almost $40,000. The previous world record of 14 surfers on one board was set by an English team.
Rapper Kanye West recently won a Grammy for his hit song "Jesus Walks." Now, hip-hop is breaking barriers again as a rapping legend brings music to church. CNN's Claire Laka spoke to Kurtis Blow about the Hip-Hop Church and the message behind the music.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLAIRE LAKA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's standing room only every Thursday night at the Greater Hood AME Zion Church in Harlem.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yo, we do things just a little bit different.
LAKA: Because Hip-hop is in the house.
Hip-hop was born in the inner city and is now the hottest music in the country. But it can be raw and sometimes vulgar.
Now it's proclaiming the name of Jesus in an effort to bring young people to church like 16-year-old Donovan Bratton.
DONOVAN BRATTON: The music is a good part about it. But I think, like my reverend, he preachs a good message and this is positive for kids.
LAKA: Rap legend Kurtis Blow is one of the founders of the hip- hop church in New York City.
KURTIS BLOW, HIP-HOP CHURCH CO-FOUNDER: We're just coming back to the roots. And it's basically like nowadays, hip-hop is being blamed for a lot of violent things in our society, like the brawls in basketball.
LAKA: Kurtis Blow is he widely considered in the music industry to be one of the founding fathers of hip-hop music with his hit song "The Breaks" two decades ago. But it's been a long journey from that life to this one.
BLOW: I left the music industry about 10, 15 years ago. And it was basically because my style of music became unorthodox, and I was really depressed about it.
LAKA: That's when he says he found God. And he's now study studying to be a minister.
Blow, along with his partners, Reverends Darren Ferguson and Steven Pogue, say most conventional churches just don't get it.
REV. DARREN FERGUSON, HIP-HOP CHURCH: In order to reach people, you have to speak their language. And the language of young people is hip-hop.
LAKA: It's closing the generation gap. This mother and daughter have even joined the hip-hop choir together.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's the music. It's the people. It's the spiritual feeling that you get.
LAKA: Claire Laka, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: Well, that's all the time we have for this hour.
But coming up next on "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," exclusive video of Martha Stewart inside prison.
Then at 8:00 Eastern, "CNN PRESENTS" takes an in-depth look at Saudi Arabia. Has the birthplace of Islam become a breeding ground for terrorism?
At 9:00 eastern, Larry King looks back at the life of Sandra Dee.
And I'll see you back here at 11:00 Eastern for "CNN SUNDAY NIGHT." We'll hear from the former co-worker and family friend of the BTK serial killer suspect.
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 March 6, 2005 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR, CNN LIVE SUNDAY: Thanks for joining us everyone from CNN's global headquarters in Atlanta. I'm Erica Hill. Carol Lin is off tonight. Here's a look at what's happening right now in the news.
A positive sign for the Mideast peace process. Reuters and the Associated Press say Israel is preparing to hand over control of the west bank town of (INAUDIBLE) to the Palestinians. A senior Palestinian security official says the transfer will happen Tuesday. Israeli security sources confirm the handover plan but say no date has been set.
New details now on those pictures believed to be of the most wanted man in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Sources tell CNN the photographs were found in a video camera, seized during a raid several weeks ago. The date they were taken is unclear.
Gas prices, in case you haven't noticed, are up sharply from two weeks ago. The Lundberg survey reports the price at the pump shot up nearly seven cents following price increases for crude oil. The national average for a gallon of self-serve regular, $1.97 as of Friday.
He can hold an audience in the palm of his hand but could Irish rocker Bono handle banking issues for 184 countries? Treasury Secretary John Snow isn't ruling out the possibility of the U2 singer making the short list of candidates to be the next president of the World Bank. Bono has long been an activist for third world debt relief.
The White House is calling it a horrific accident. Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena says it was the most dramatic day of her life. This is what we know for sure. Two people were wounded and a man was killed on a Baghdad road Friday night. But just what exactly happened depends on who you asked. Today Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld called his Italian counterpart to express regret at the loss of life and the situation. The Bush administration is promising a full investigation. Sgrena's version of events was published today in the newspaper she works for. CNN Rome bureau chief Alessio Vinci reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN ROME BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Giuliana Sgrena called her account "La Mia Verita," in English, "My Truth." It is her initial description of what happened in Baghdad on Friday published in the Sunday edition of "Il Manifesto," the Communist newspaper for which she filed dozens of reports before being kidnapped in early February. Most of her articles highly critical of the U.S. military invasion of Iraq.
In her account of what happened, she writes that she was traveling to the Baghdad airport, with her, two Italian intelligence agents. One is driving. The other is Nicola Calipari, the officer who negotiated her release and who paid the ultimate price to save her life.
TRANSLATOR: Nicola Calipari sat next to me. The driver twice informed the embassy and in Italy that we were heading towards the airport, which I knew was heavily patrolled by U.S. troops. They told me that we were less than a kilometer away, when I only remember fire. At that point, a rain of fire and bullets hit us.
VINCI: The U.S. has said the car was speeding toward the checkpoint, ignoring warnings to start but Sgrena writes, the car was not speeding and calls the shooting unjustified.
TRANSLATOR: The driver started yelling that we were Italians. We're Italians. We're Italians. Nicola Calipari threw himself on me to protect me and immediately, I repeat immediately, I heard his last breath as he was dying on me.
VINCI: The autopsy reveals he was hit by a single bull to his head. Sgrena, who is currently recovering from her wounds in an Italian hospital also remembers something one of her captors said, moments before releasing her.
TRANSLATOR: Don't give any signals of your presence with us, otherwise the Americans could intervene. It was the confirmation that I didn't want to hear. It was altogether the most happy and most dangerous moment. If we bumped into someone, meaning American military, there would be an exchange of fire. My captors were ready and they would have responded.
VINCI: By the time Sgrena's car reached the American checkpoint, her captors were no longer with her. Moments before coming under fire, she writes, the mood in the car was joyful.
TRANSLATOR: The car kept on a road, going under an underpass full of puddles and almost losing control to avoid them. We all incredibly laughed. It was liberating. Losing control of the car in a street full of water in Baghdad and maybe wind up in a bad car accident after all I had been through would really be a tale I would not be able to tell.
VINCI: Instead her tale is of a harrowing experience, a day of joy turned to tragedy. Italian media suggests a ransom of several million dollars was paid for her release. Government officials are not commenting, but Calipari was an experienced negotiator, who previously secured the release of other Italian hostages in Baghdad. On Sunday his body lay in state at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Rome. Thousands came to pay their last respects. Alessio Vinci, CNN, Rome. (END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: There's been swift reaction today to a report on a secret government program that's allowed the CIA to send suspected terrorists abroad for questioning. "The New York Times" reports President Bush signed the still classified directive days after the 9/11 attack. It reportedly gave the CIA sweeping authority to act without case by case approval in transferring suspects overseas. The White House has not confirmed the directive, but a spokesman was doing some explaining today on CNN while a prominent Democrat was giving the president the benefit of the doubt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COUNSELOR: At every step of the way, President Bush and this administration has made very clear that we'll abide by the laws of our land and the treaty obligations we have. We will not torture here in America and we will not export torture. That is acceptable to this president and something that we will not tolerate.
SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (D) CONN: The president has said we do not condone torture. Mr. Bartlett just said it on your show awhile ago. I don't start disbelieving the president on this. I think I have concern. We ought to look at it. The inspector general of the CIA is conducting an investigation right now. I'm going to wait to hear the results of what he has to say before I reach a conclusion on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Several former detainees in recent weeks have complained that they were subjected to brutal treatment. A senior U.S. official tells "The Times" the CIA is looking into the complaint.
The president's ambitious plan to overhaul Social Security is facing more objections. Democrats railed against the proposal today, as the president geared up for a second week of stops aimed at selling his plan across America. We turn now to CNN White House correspondent Elaine Quijano who joins us now with more. Elaine, good afternoon.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon to you, Erica. Democrats accuse President Bush of trying to do away with Social Security entirely but President Bush calls that a scare tactic. He maintains that he's only trying to fix a problem now, instead of passing it on to future presidents.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO (voice-over): In the battle to overhaul Social Security, the White House says it's still early.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In football parlance, we're still in the first quarter of this debate.
QUIJANO: But the pressure's on to meet the president's own deadline by getting Social Security legislation passed this year. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to act now or the problem is only going to get worse.
QUIJANO: Since his state of the union address, President Bush has aggressively pushed his ideas in a dozen states.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The safety net has got a hole in it.
QUIJANO: So far, the president's efforts to sell the changes have achieved mixed results with the American public, including skepticism over his idea that personal accounts should be part of the solution. Democrats accuse President Bush of trying to get rid of Social Security entirely and see the accounts as the first step towards doing that. They call the idea a nonstarter.
SEN. DICK DURBIN (D) ILLINOIS: The privatization proposal of the president is going to destroy Social Security as we know it, and let me tell you why. It doesn't strengthen Social Security. It weakens it.
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D) MASSACHUSETTS: You don't start, you know, cutting new sails on a sailboat when the water is pouring through the bottom. You have to save the ship first and then you find out how you're going to make it move into the future.
QUIJANO: Some Republicans, like Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, criticize Democrats for not coming up with other ideas. He'll unveil his own proposals which include raising the retirement age from 67 to 68.
SEN. CHUCH HAGEL (R) NEBRASKA: We've got a plan. It doesn't mean my plan is the best, doesn't mean by plan the one that should be law. But until you actually get some specifics on the table, then I think it's going to be very difficult.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO: Now the Bush administration is in the midst of a renewed campaign over the next two months to try to sell the president's ideas nationwide. As part of that effort this week, the president will visit a number of states, including Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee. Democrats, for their part, are vowing not to let President Bush's messages go unanswered. They are planning pushes of their own in the days and weeks ahead. Erica.
HILL: All right. We'll take it back here. Elaine Quijano, live at the White House. Thanks.
The jury in the Robert Blake murder trial is scheduled to go back to work tomorrow morning in Los Angeles. The defense says the prosecution's two key witnesses are both liars and that police bungled their investigation.
The actor is accused of killing his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley (ph) in a car parked near his favorite Italian restaurant. Blake faces life in prison if convicted.
The accuser's sister takes the stand again as Michael Jackson's child molestation trial resumes tomorrow. On Friday, the teen testified after the prosecution showed a videotape that actually seemed to help the defense's case. On the tape, family members of the alleged victim praised Jackson as a father figure. Afterward the sister said fear of retribution from Jackson prompted the family to tape false statements.
The delicate job of building a government from the ground up. We'll look at just how much influence Iraqi religious leaders are having on newly elected officials. And as Iraqis try to put their government together, U.S. forces are trying to clean up the insurgency. We'll take you on a raid with Marines in one of the most violent regions of Iraq.
And still to come --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hasn't God been good to you? He's blessed you all day long. Come on. You got to praise God, because God has lifted you up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: How a rap music legend is using hip-hop to get teenagers back to church.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HILL: A little more than a month after Iraq's historic elections, another important date looms. The first meeting of the country's new parliament and that happens in just 10 days. Now, the pressure is on for the main factions to resolve their differences before the opening. Iraq's top Shiite cleric is weighing in. CNN's Nic Robertson reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Striding down the streets of Najaf, two very different leaders. A Sunni sheikh, who tried to kill Saddam, and a Shi'a spokesman about to get political direction from Iraq's most influential religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani.
MUDHAR SHAWKAT, UNITED IRAQI ALLIANCE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): His words were we must all be united in one hand against the terrorism and against those who try to separate us. Sunni Shi'a, Arab, Kurd, we must leave the small issues and form the new government as soon as possible.
ROBERTSON: Sistani, who is rarely seen in public and has vowed to stay out of politics, is seemingly growing tired of the political horse trading over who gets Iraq's top political jobs, and he made clear what he wants. SHEIKH FAWAZ AL JABRA, UNITED IRAQI ALLIANCE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): To unite and form the new government as soon as possible without any further delays. This is for the interest of Iraq and the Iraqi people and should be the priority.
ROBERTSON: Sistani's pressure, it seems, directed not just at the United Iraqi Alliance he backs, but at the Kurds, without whose support no deal can be made. But the Kurds' biggest worry is that Sistani and the United Iraqi Alliance will push the country away from its secular past, giving religious figures a greater voice and they want guaranties that won't happen.
BARHAM SALEH, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Fundamentals must be clear and stringent, vis-a-vis a democratic state that will respect religion, not that would be dominated by a sectarian religious fundamentalists.
ROBERTSON: Talks between the two groups are only just getting down to details. And there are no guarantees by the time the assembly meets March 16th, a deal over the top jobs will be done.
SALEH: If we do not come to an agreement that will be satisfactory to the overall political process in Iraq, we need to go to the parliament and talk about these in public in a transparent manner like any other democracy.
ROBERTSON: Both sides say that they are making progress and that convening the national assembly is intended to signal that Iraq's new political process is on track, but it seems the main players have yet to bridge some fundamental differences. Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: It is promising to be a crucial week for relations between Syria and Lebanon. Leaders of both countries will meet tomorrow to discuss Syria's pledge to pull its troops out of neighboring Lebanon. While Beirut has been filled with anti-Syrian protesters for the past few weeks, the city is getting ready for a demonstration of a different kind. CNN's Brent Sadler is there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lebanese Army troops act on orders to secure the streets of downtown Beirut, the heart of anti-Syrian rallies and demonstrations. But on mountains overlooking Beirut, Syrian solders await their orders, to start Syria's promised withdrawal. But how widespread a withdrawal and when will it happen? Still unanswered questions.
Syria's president and his Lebanese counterpart Emil Lahood (ph) may give answers Monday during a top level meeting in Damascus. But now it appears, there's much more to the Syrian troops in Lebanon crisis than before the pledge to pull out. Lebanon's Islamic resistance, Hezbollah, has entered the political tug-of-war on Syria's side, announcing the start of their own protest campaign, to block any attempt they claim, by the U.S. and its chief Mideast ally, Israel, to exploit a Syria withdrawal. Hezbollah rejecting a U.N. resolution to force a Syrian pull out and the disarming of militias.
SHEIKH HASSAN NASRALLAH, HEZBOLLAH (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): It's a blatant interference in our internal affairs and all its clauses are free services to the Israeli enemy.
SADLER: Hezbollah fields (ph) armed militants sporadically attacking Israel for the return of land at the foot of the Golan Heights, strategically important high ground that Syria demands in exchange for peace. Hezbollah is labeled a terror group by the U.S. and Israel. But in Lebanon, the group has a strong showing in parliament, with 12 MPs, enjoying widespread Shi'a Muslim support with backing from many Syrian sympathetic parties.
FOUAD MAKHZOUMI, DIALOGUE PARTY: Democracy, it's a form of expressing your views and your opinions. If today there are people that disagree with your position, I think it is fair from a democratic point of view that they should go down and express their views.
SADLER: Three weeks of popular protests may have won the opposition some significant gains. But now, there's another challenge to claim these streets with Hezbollah's call for a mass show of defiance Tuesday, to international interference and pressure on Syria. Brent Sadler, CNN, Beirut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: Back in the U.S., some security screeners at the nation's busiest airports say they're getting shortchanged on proper training.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we're required to have three hours and I'm getting about 25 minutes a week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: But is your security being protected in other ways? We'll tell what you Federal officials have to say about these accusations.
Plus how Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is flexing his political muscle to influence the race for Los Angeles mayor.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HILL: Well for many of you watching, wet weather across the country, including another inch of rain that southern California does not need and some flooded streets south of Houston. Let's check in now with Brad Huffines at the CNN weather center. Brad, any chance of this letting up?
BRAD HUFFINES, METEOROLOGIST: There is going to some chance and part of the country getting much nicer tomorrow but then things begin to change again. Winter is not over, a reminder. We are seeing scattered showers south of Houston, heavier rains earlier today toward Corpus Christi and Victoria. But look at these temperatures nationwide, at least across the plains very warm, up to 67 in St. Louis and temperatures across the northeast, 30s in Boston and as you go south, 40s turning into the 50s.
Right now with those scattered showers down south and clouds across the southern part of the country, we're seeing some widely scattered areas of rain from New Orleans, just showed you Houston. Also here showers across the desert southwest, some snow still falling across parts of interior Colorado and very gusty winds blowing down from Helena, Montana, wind gusts today up to and above 50 miles an hour.
Then for tomorrow, with rain showers and snow showers across the great lakes, turning to just rain in Boston, New York and Washington. The good news is that will stay all rain as this system moves by. Heavy snows across southern Canada and parts of the great lakes. But showers will turn to thunderstorms across parts of the southeast, from New Orleans through Atlanta and some of these thunderstorms could have very strong or gusty winds, so the storm prediction center has added a chance of isolated severe thunderstorms to the forecast from parts of east Texas all the way through north Georgia and into the western Carolinas through the evening and afternoon hours tomorrow.
Quick look at the highs though, this cold front will stay with the cold air across the great lakes, but later this week, Erica, some colder air headed to the southeast stunning some residents there who thought winter was over. Not so fast.
HILL: That's right, especially here in Atlanta, we keep thinking spring is here and then we get a little surprised.
HUFFINES: Don't forget the calendar still says winter at least.
HILL: All right. I won't put the scarves away yet. Thanks, Brad.
You may not have noticed, depending on where you live, but it turns out the mayoral primary season is heating up and some big city incumbents could be in big trouble as they go up against some relative newcomers on the political scene. One such city, Los Angeles, where one of Mayor James Hunt's challenges appears to have an influential supporter in the wings, none other than Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Joining us now to talk about the significance of these races CNN's political analyst Carlos Watson. Carlos, good to have you with us.
CARLOS WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Erica, good to see you.
HILL: All right. First of all, if I don't live in one of these cities where there's a mayoral race going on, why do I care?
WATSON: Great question. Probably, three reasons. One is because we can't forget that often, big time national political stars start off as mayors. So we think about Rudy Giuliani. You think about senators like Dianne Feinstein or even Norm Coleman. So that's one reason.
Number two, often big national issues start off as local issues. Remember gay marriage and how that resonated shortly after Gavin Newsome (ph) became mayor of San Francisco? So that's another reason. And then last but not least, often the most cutting edge political techniques, whether they're kind of cool commercials or whether their use of DVDs by political candidates in order to sell themselves, often those start in mayoral races, so three good reasons to stay tuned to these five big mayoral races this year.
HILL: DVDs, that's a new approach. We're going to have to tackle that one another time. There's also apparently some common threads to some of these races. Tell us what you're seeing.
WATSON: You're seeing at least three interesting things. One you see a lot of incumbents in trouble. So in Los Angeles, in New York and in Detroit, three of the 10 biggest cities in the country, incumbents are in real trouble there, certainly the two biggest.
The second thing you're seeing is you're seeing a possible rise of Latino success. The top candidate right now in San Antonio, in New York and in Los Angeles according to the polls are all Latinos. This could be another significant step towards Latino political acceptance and then last but not least, we may see a whole new crop of young faces. So people who are under the age of 40 may win races in New York, could win a race in San Antonio and depending on what happens in Detroit the 30-something mayor there could get reelected.
HILL: So possibly a fairly significant change to the political landscape across the country. Let's focus on L.A. for just a minute here. Jim Hahn (ph), of course who is the incumbent is getting, well, a lot pressure actually from the other two candidates and Governor Schwarzenegger not exactly endorsing a candidate, but kind of helping somebody out. Talk to us a little bit more about this.
WATSON: Well, you know, Los Angeles always has interesting things. OF course they're in Hollywood so you wouldn't be surprised. The leading commercial out of this campaign is nicknamed Bobzilla, Bob Hertzberg, one of the candidates, has a campaign commercial in which he appears as Godzilla, but he calls himself Bobzilla. Right now James Hahn, the incumbent is not first, not second in the polls, but actually is third and so he's in real trouble. There's a primary on Tuesday and the top two finishers go on to compete later in the year for the final spot.
Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn't made a formal endorsement but appeared alongside Bob Hertzberg who's a former speaker of the California assembly and seemed to offer, if you will, kind of an unofficial endorsement. So the last interesting thing about L.A., by the way, it's a place where lots of people have gotten along over the years. They had an African-American mayor for 20 years. But right now you're seeing a lot of factional politics. The white supporters lining up behind the white candidates, Latino behind Latino, African- American behind African-American. So there will have to be some coalition building after this first primary.
HILL: Is that sort of indicative of the rest of the country, actually the way that it is perhaps more divided? WATSON: You know, it's interesting, that you are seeing that. You certainly see that in New York to some extent, where there's some fractional politics there and again you've got African-American, Latino and white politicians and so we'll see what happens there as well. I think there's going to be an interesting opportunity for people to float new ideas, big new ideas and two of the top, Erica, I expect to hear more about, one I expect to hear some interesting ideas on immigration and two, you'll probably frankly hear more about jobs growth and development.
HILL: A couple of things a lot of people are wondering about. We know you'll be back to break them down for us. Carlos Watson, always good to have you here. Thanks.
WATSON: Good to see you.
HILL: A look at the stories now in the news. Freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena said there was no warning by U.S. troops who shot at her car in Baghdad on Friday. She was wounded and an Italian secret service agent was killed. The U.S. says they were speeding and ignoring warnings. The attack came hours after Sgrena was set free by captors in Iraq. The Bush administration calls it a horrific accident and promises an investigation.
High school bands and figures from the civil rights era took to the streets in Selma, Alabama this weekend to mark the 40th anniversary of the bloody march there that helped inspire Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Illinois's undefeated basketball season is no more. The top- ranked team was beaten by unranked Ohio State, 65-64. Talk about a finish here. Ohio State hit a three-point shot with just five seconds left in the game.
Our CNN "Security Watch" uncovers some possible security lapses at the world's busiest airports. Some security screeners in Atlanta say they're not getting enough traning, a claim transportation officials dispute. CNN's Jeanne Meserve takes a closer look now at the controversy.
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JEANNE MESERVE, CNN AMERICA BUREAU CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More people fly through Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport than any other airport in the world. Some screeners say the heavy workload is preventing them from getting the required weekly training.
JOHN SUMMEROUR, SECURITY SCREENER: Well, we're required to have three hours, and I'm getting about 25 minutes a week.
MESERVE: Security experts say the training is critical for screeners to keep up with the latest terrorist methods for concealing weapons.
CLARK KENT ERVIN, SECURITY ANALYST: We all know that if terrorist will try to sneak weapons pass the screener workforce, they're going to do so in the most innovative way that they can think of. So, training is absolutely essential.
MESERVE (on camera): Do you think that it puts the traveling public at risk if screeners aren't having this recurring training.
ERVIN: Absolutely.
MESERVE (voice-over): The Transportation Security Administration says, in Atlanta last year, only three screeners out of 1,100 failed their recertification exam, an indication that training is adequate. It's not always done in a classroom or at a computer.
MARK HATFIELD, TSA SPOKESMAN: But some of that takes place on the job where they're being tested by computer projected images of threat items, while they're working the X-ray machine, while they're being tested by covert operatives who attempt to get items through the checkpoint. And -- so, all those various things -- the morning meetings with role call.
MESERVE: Screeners maintain the definition of training should be much narrower.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How to recognize that's a prohibited item. What to look for. But we've not been trained on.
MESERVE: Screeners also allege, they're asked to sign paperwork saying that they've gotten their required training even when they feel they not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you don't sign it, they threaten you, saying something may happen to you, you may lose your job.
MESERVE: TSA officials say no Atlanta screener has ever been ordered to falsify a document or has been threatened with discipline or dismissal.
These three with whom we spoke are all members of the American Federation of Government employees. They acknowledge the training issue could help recruit new members. But they say their real concern is the safety of more than the 83 million people who fly through Hartsfield each year.
For CNN's American Bureau, Jeanne Meserve, Washington.
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HILL: And a reminder, you can find an interactive guide to the state of U.S. security and a look at what the U.S. government is doing to fight terror, all that by logging onto CNN.com/securitywatch. And be sure to stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
Going on the front lines in Iraq, why hours of planning and training can't stop some raids against the insurgent from falling flat.
And still to come, how hip-hop is being used to get New York City teens to church.
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HILL: Every week we bring you the more personal stories from the front lines. Today, a look inside the dangerous missions to track and capture insurgents in Iraq. Armed with intel and special training, U.S. marines move with speed and skill. But, as our Jane Arraf explains, that doesn't always guarantee success.
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JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPODNENT (voice-over): It doesn't always go as planned.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got to turn around and get back up the road.
ARRAF This is a major raid by force reconnaissance marines, specially trained to move swiftly and silently.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 7-0-1, you can stop your movement until everybody has caught up. Over.
ARRAF: They're stalled at the moment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't get the brake off.
ARRAF: After racing offroad for an hour through the desert to avoid land mines and bombs, as we arrive in this town the Humvee we're in won't go further.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're on the radio intel, the transfer case is locked up.
ARRAF: Anywhere else, it would be an inconvenience. At night in insurgent territory, it could be deadly.
Finally, the vehicle is kicked back into gear. The Marines 1st Division Regimental Combat Team 7 has been looking for the two insurgent leaders for a year. The 1st Force Reconnaissance Company thought it might have found them. But the at last minute, an intelligence from an Iraqi source on where to find the first one looks a little shaky.
The second target is thought to be an insurgent leader connected to Abu Musab al Zarqawi. There are more than 50 reconnaissance marines here, attack helicopters and AC-130 gunships have been called in. Many hours of planning have gone into a raid designed to take fewer than 15 minutes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep your head down.
ARRAF: They tie up the military-aged men and search the house. The man they're looking for isn't here.
(on camera): It wasn't a textbook operation, by any means, but it points out the challenges of doing pinpoint raids in a territory this sprawling and an atmosphere this complicated.
(voice-over): Despite their training and technology, these recon marines from Camp Pendleton, California still have to rely on local intelligence. As we roll in after 3:00 a.m., they talk about what went wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Several houses down the block.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shaky or he was positive in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was positive.
UNIDENTFIED MALE: That's the house. Maybe it was. There was nobody inside that house no air breathers at all.
ARRAF: The company has launched raids almost every night as part of Operation River Blitz. Master Gunnery Sergeant Greg Gillepsie says they're constantly adapting to a terrain whether improvised explosive devices are a constant danger.
MASTER GUNNERY SGT. GREG GILLESPIE, U.S. MARINE CORPS: The other raids have been quite a bit smoother than this. We didn't have to do cross-country movement to any of the other targets, because we weren't hitting mines and IEDs on the routes that took us to those targets.
ARRAF: These marines have been here just three weeks. Over the next seven months there will be dozens more raids and a lot more chances to find the men they're looking for.
Jane Arraf, CNN, Al Anbar Province, Iraq.
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HILL: She choreographed her prison release photo op. Now Martha Stewart is giving America glimpse of how she spent her first weekend back home. So, what's next on her makeover mission? That's next.
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HILL: She's called her time behind bars both life altering and life affirming. Now that Martha Stewart is out, will she be able to rebuild her tattered image and breathe new life into her company's fortunes? As Jeff Greenfield explains, she's definitely got one thing going for her, America loves a comeback kid.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Martha, is there any plea deal...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Martha...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leave Martha alone.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you want to know how Martha Stewart went from this...
STEWART: Whew!
GREENFIELD: To this, after 5 months in prison, start with the most famous words of this famous American writer. F. Scott Fitzgerald once observed, "there are no second acts in American lives." He could not have been more wrong.
MARCUS MABRY, NEWSWEEK SENIOR EDITOR: This is a country where we believe in second acts, we believe in redemption, we believe in confessional stories, we believe in the comeback.
GREENFIELD: Marcus Maabry, a senior editor at "Newsweek" could talk about all famous Americans.
Washington DC mayor Marion Barry went to prison after being caught on tape smoking crack, came out, got elected mayor again.
MARION BARRY, DC COUNCIL: I got up.
GREENFIELD: He's now on the D.C. City council.
RICHARD NIXON, CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: You don't have Nixon to kick around anymore.
GREENFIELD: Richard Nixon came back from political death in 1962 after losing a California governor race to win two terms as president.
NIXON: We live in a new world.
GREENFIELD: And came back from resignation and disgrace after Watergate to become an elder statesman. And the man who helped plan that Watergae break-in, G. Gordon Liddy, came back from a lengthy prison term to become a best selling author, radio talk show host and lecture circuit writer.
G. GORDON LIDDY, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: If you sit back and decide there are no second acts and don't do anything, well, there won't be any. But if you will not accept that and you go on out and work at something, you can do it.
GREENFIELD: In Martha Stewart's case, her comeback flows from many sources. She did her time with no grousing, no demands for special favors. Her crime was, by some measures, relatively minor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He love you, Martha!
GREENFIELD: Many of her supports believe her real crime was being a rich, successful, demanding, boss/woman. Nor did she ever express contrition, a good thing, editor Mabry says.
MABRY: I think it's interesting that her stock and her company are doing well, in fact, because the woman looks defiant and she looks strong.
GREENFIELD: She is also a famous person. A quality in some cases seems to insulate wrong wrongiters from scorn. We are, after all, in a country where an auto mechanic who became famous for having sex with a teenager who almost killed his wife still gets asked for his autograph.
LIDDY: I can't speak for Joey, but I can say that people who are famous or notorious are treated pretty much the same.
MICHAEL JACKSON, SINGER: Neverland is my home.
GREENFIELD: Which does not mean we forgive everything.
If Michael Jackson is found guilty, it's hard to imagine most of the public will embrace a convicted child molester.
(on camera): But in general, those who have fall frn grace in this country have a powerful ally in their efforts to come back, that deeply embedded belief that this is the land of the second chance, the fresh start. Millions of our ancestors crossed oceans or a frontier, and left behind their roots, their language, their country and their past. So it's not surprising we may be so willing to extend to others what so many of our forebearers sought for themselves.
Jeff Greenfield, CNN, Los Angeles.
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HILL: Now, we should point out here, few felons have the kind of life waiting for them that Stewart does since she was let out of prison. But leaving that past behind could actually be a slow process. She will begin her house arrest with an ankle bracelet tracking her every move. Sharon Cotliar is a writer for People magazine in New York and joins us now with a little update on actually what Martha Stewart has been doing this weekend.
Good to have you with us. What has she been doing?
SHARON COTLIAR, PEOPLE: Well, Martha has really enjoying her family and friends. She seems to mostly be staying close to home and just really enjoying her time where she still free to roam.
HILL: Tomorrow she's supposed to head back to work. There was -- her company really put a lot into making sure everybody knew and got a picture of her coming out of prison. Are we expecting a lot of that tomorrow as she heads back to the office?
COTLIAR: Well, tomorrow is definitely about appearances. Martha is going to make an experience, say hello to her employees and basically show the world she's back at work.
HILL: What else will she be up to this week?
COTLIAR: She also needs to meet with her probation officer. So I expect that that meeting will take place sometime within the next few days. And she'll be outfitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet.
HILL: So that's what she doesn't have yet. And that's sort of why we've seen her roaming around the estate, saying hello to the horses. Because once she has it on she can't leave her home, correct? COTLIAR: Right. Martha, even though she's on a 153-acre estate, isn't going to take a walk in the woods or a garden. She has to stay inside her house other than that 48 hours a week.
HILL: We know that she's met with some -- or we've heard about her friendships with some different people in prison. But those aren't people she will be allowed to talk to. That's also part of her probation, correct?
COTLIAR: Yes. Under the rules of her release, she can't communicate with the friends that she made back at Alderson Prison. She'll be limited to the next 2 years really not writing them or talking to them, unless she has permission from her probation officer.
HILL: She hasn't shied away, though, from talking to the press, famously coming out with buttered bread and hot chocolate Friday morning. Covering this, has she changed at all does is seem to you, since before she went in and now, 5 months later?
COTLIAR: Martha Stewart looks extremely relaxed, very cheery, very happy to be home. So if anything, she looks like she's very much rejuvenated.
HILL: We should mention, too, the legal process in all of this isn't over. There's actually an appeal coming up on March 17. Fill us in on that a little bit.
COTLIAR: On March 17 her appellate lawyer will argue the case. It will be a fairly short argument. And then it will be decided by a judge whether or not the case will stand or be reversed in some way.
HILL: It will be interesting to see the outcome of that and as you mentioned, lots more ahead this week for Martha Stewart and I'm sure for us as well. Sharon Cotliar, we appreciate the insight. Thanks for being with us.
COTLIAR: Thank you.
HILL: And coming up on CNN at the top of the hour, CNN's PEOPLE IN THE NEWS will bring you an exclusive look inside Stewart's time in prison. And a little more on the domestic diva's plans.
One of rap's found legends has found a new mission for his music: religion. Just after the break, we'll show you how he's using the power of urban sound to reach out to urban youth.
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HILL: He could afford a manion, but a British squatter has decided to stay in his shack. The British government says the penniless man is entitled to claim the property where he's lived for 20 years. It's worth almost $4 million, but the man turned the offer down. He says he's lived on the land rent free for 18 years so claiming the land now would be in his words, a pretty mean thing to do. Breaking waves and breaking records, more than 40 surfers are claiming the record for riding a single giant's surfboard off an Australian beac. That's crazy. Check that out. It took dozens of people to wax the 40-foot surfboard worth almost $40,000. The previous world record of 14 surfers on one board was set by an English team.
Rapper Kanye West recently won a Grammy for his hit song "Jesus Walks." Now, hip-hop is breaking barriers again as a rapping legend brings music to church. CNN's Claire Laka spoke to Kurtis Blow about the Hip-Hop Church and the message behind the music.
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CLAIRE LAKA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's standing room only every Thursday night at the Greater Hood AME Zion Church in Harlem.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yo, we do things just a little bit different.
LAKA: Because Hip-hop is in the house.
Hip-hop was born in the inner city and is now the hottest music in the country. But it can be raw and sometimes vulgar.
Now it's proclaiming the name of Jesus in an effort to bring young people to church like 16-year-old Donovan Bratton.
DONOVAN BRATTON: The music is a good part about it. But I think, like my reverend, he preachs a good message and this is positive for kids.
LAKA: Rap legend Kurtis Blow is one of the founders of the hip- hop church in New York City.
KURTIS BLOW, HIP-HOP CHURCH CO-FOUNDER: We're just coming back to the roots. And it's basically like nowadays, hip-hop is being blamed for a lot of violent things in our society, like the brawls in basketball.
LAKA: Kurtis Blow is he widely considered in the music industry to be one of the founding fathers of hip-hop music with his hit song "The Breaks" two decades ago. But it's been a long journey from that life to this one.
BLOW: I left the music industry about 10, 15 years ago. And it was basically because my style of music became unorthodox, and I was really depressed about it.
LAKA: That's when he says he found God. And he's now study studying to be a minister.
Blow, along with his partners, Reverends Darren Ferguson and Steven Pogue, say most conventional churches just don't get it.
REV. DARREN FERGUSON, HIP-HOP CHURCH: In order to reach people, you have to speak their language. And the language of young people is hip-hop.
LAKA: It's closing the generation gap. This mother and daughter have even joined the hip-hop choir together.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's the music. It's the people. It's the spiritual feeling that you get.
LAKA: Claire Laka, CNN, New York.
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HILL: Well, that's all the time we have for this hour.
But coming up next on "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," exclusive video of Martha Stewart inside prison.
Then at 8:00 Eastern, "CNN PRESENTS" takes an in-depth look at Saudi Arabia. Has the birthplace of Islam become a breeding ground for terrorism?
At 9:00 eastern, Larry King looks back at the life of Sandra Dee.
And I'll see you back here at 11:00 Eastern for "CNN SUNDAY NIGHT." We'll hear from the former co-worker and family friend of the BTK serial killer suspect.
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