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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Vatican Makes Burial Plans; U.S. Plans High-Profile Delegation to Pope's Funeral

Aired April 05, 2005 - 17:00   ET

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

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


WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, you're looking at these live pictures of the Vatican. It's 11:00 p.m. in Rome. We have new information on how the pope will be buried and a change in tradition for the transition.
Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

Fifteen-thousand per hour to bid a final farewell to the pope. And as the Vatican makes funeral plans, the U.S. plans a high-profile delegation.

Secrets of succession.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP.)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is It is possibly one of the most ancient electoral processes in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP.)

BLITZER: There are some new procedures for picking a pope. The cardinals open a window into what goes on behind closed doors doors.

Ailing anchor. ABC's Peter Jennings announces he'll begin treatments for lung cancer.

Sky-high, and headed to the stratosphere? Gas prices may be driving you mad. We'll tell you what's driving them higher.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Tuesday, April 5th, 2005.

BLITZER: Thanks for joining us. By the tens of thousands, people from all over the world are pouring into Rome to pay their respects to Pope John Paul II. For the second day, his body lies in state inside the giant St. Peter's Basilica, which is staying open almost around the clock to accommodate the unprecedented crowd of mourners. Some are waiting in line up to eight hours for their chance to view the late pontiff. Officials estimate some 2 million people will file past his body before Friday's funeral.

Meanwhile, the Vatican is releasing new details of the pope's funeral and burial. John Paul II will be buried in the grotto beneath St. Peter's Basilica in the crypt that once held the remains of Pope John XXIII. His body was moved to the basilica's main floor when John Paul II made him a saint in 2000.

The Vatican says the late pontiff gave no indication he wanted to be buried anywhere other than the Vatican, but he did indicate that he wanted to be buried in the ground. And following tradition, various metals and coins will be placed inside the pope's coffin along with a parchment sealed in a lead tube, summarizing the pope's life.

Also new details coming out about the upcoming conclave in which 117 cardinals will elect the next pope. For the first time, Vatican bells will peal, signaling the selection, along with the traditional white smoke from the burning of the ballots. Black smoke indicates no selection has been made. John Paul II himself instituted the addition of the bells to avoid the kind of confusion that resulted from a 1978 conclave in which the smoke appeared gray.

For more on the day's developments, let's turn to CNN's Aaron Brown. He's joining us now live from the Vatican.

What stands out in your mind, Aaron, on this day?

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I think it's the kind of overwhelming power of a moment that the scene that we began watching yesterday, we'll continue to see throughout today, and we'll see it again tomorrow and right up until Friday. It's hard to fathom 20,000 people an hour, 400,000 people a day, 2 million people over the course of the week. And they come with this great sense of awe at the moment they're participating in. This is not a tragedy as they see it. They believe John Paul is in heaven. And so they're coming to celebrate a life.

You were talking briefly about some of the things we learned today. There is some sort of detail that comes out in moments like this. The pope's doctor gave an interview to an Italian newspaper. In that interview he said, quote, "The pope passed away slowly, with pain and suffering which he endured with great human dignity." And then the doctor added that for the last couple of days, the pope was in fact unable to speak at all.

So whatever last words there were -- and I think there's been, since we arrived here now on Saturday, great speculation as to what his last words may or may not have been and whether in fact he said amen, which was how it was originally reported -- whatever it was that was said was said several days, two days perhaps, before he in fact died.

BLITZER: Is there a sense there, Aaron, where you are right now that it's almost -- I don't know if this is the right word, but a climax that's building toward this Friday morning funeral?

BROWN: Well, here's how -- here's how reporters I think look at it. We are in an in-between. We are between what has happened -- the passing of Pope John Paul the other night -- and what will happen or a couple of things that will happen -- the funeral on Friday and then ultimately the conclave and the selection of a new pope. And in fact, that's just the reality of where we are. There are no great events of this day. There is no overarching theme to this moment. There's no great drama to it all except insofar as there is this extraordinary -- and I'm telling you that you can feel it, this extraordinary power that comes from this assemblage of people who have come from all over the globe, who have been touched by Pope John Paul in perhaps 2 million different ways, each one of them reacting to a different moment that has drawn them here. That is a moment of great drama and great power. It is not a kind of great scripted event, if you will.

BLITZER: CNN's Aaron Brown reporting for us from the Vatican. Aaron, thank you very much.

The United States will send a small but significant delegation to the funeral.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Tomorrow I will be leaving for Rome, leading a delegation to attend the services for his holiness, Pope John Paul II. What a great man. It'll be my honor to represent our country at a ceremony marking a remarkable life, a person who stood for freedom and human dignity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The White House says the five-member group will include former Presidents Bush and Clinton, who recently teamed up to raise money for tsunami victims. First Lady Laura Bush will also be aboard Air Force One together with the others. They will all attend, along with the secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, who signed the condolence book at the Vatican Embassy here in Washington earlier today.

Former President Jimmy Carter, who was in office when John Paul became pope, will not be going. The Carter Center says he wanted to attend, but when he was informed by the White House that the official U.S. delegation would be limited to just five people, he told the White House he would withdraw his request to attend.

Former President Gerald Ford, now 91 years old, no longer travels widely.

While millions converge on Rome, some 200 world leaders and dignitaries are expected for the funeral. President Bush may find himself rubbing elbows with Cuban President Fidel Castro, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, and Iran's president, Mohammed Khatami, along with allies such as the British prime minister, Tony Blair, and the French president, Jacques Chirac. Britain's Prince Charles has postponed his own wedding to attend the funeral. His wedding will take place on Saturday.

Although Pope John Paul II was first and foremost a religious leader, he had a profound impact on world politics. Here to discuss that and some other issues, our world affairs analyst, the former Defense secretary, William Cohen. He's the chairman and CEO of The Cohen Group. Thanks, Mr. Secretary, as usual.

When you think about this attendance Friday morning at this funeral, it's a pretty remarkable event. The security precautions alone must be enormous.

WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: The security precautions are enormous. In fact, I was planning to be in Rome on business this Friday, and because of the influx of some 2 million people, not to mention the leadership of most of the countries around the world, it will be virtually impossible to attend. But that shows you the power of and the magnetism of this pope.

He had visited almost 130 countries. So I think the only four countries where he was not invited would be post-communist Russia, China, Vietnam, and North Korea. But virtually every other country, he tried to touch the lives of the people in those countries, and I think clearly the showing of the outpouring of passion for him and compassion for him is now evident.

BLITZER: Is it awkward when the president of the United States is at these kinds of events with other world leaders who are -- I don't know if they're enemies, but they're pretty bitter adversaries?

COHEN: I don't think it's awkward. I think it's really an opportunity. After all, Pope John Paul was a healer. He tried to bring people together. And if it takes an event such as this to have world leaders understand that there's a common humanity, a common moral purpose to our lives, then so much the better. And it may be an opportunity to stop treating each other as enemies, see each other as perhaps some competing forces on this globe, but competing in a way that leads to peace and not to war. So I think this may be an opportunity and not seen as an awkward or somehow a moment when there are hostilities involved. I think it's going to be a very calming ceremony and one in which all of us can share.

BLITZER: It speaks volumes that his funeral will bring together the entire -- almost the entire world leadership.

COHEN: Well, if you look at what he did during his travels, he was the first pontiff to visit Syria and to enter a mosque. He went to the wall in Jerusalem and inserted the apology for the failure of the Catholic Church during the Holocaust. So he has touched virtually the peoples of all religions, all faiths. And this is the reason why he was such a compelling feature -- figure.

BLITZER: William Cohen. Thanks very much as usual.

COHEN: My pleasure.

BLITZER: The former defense secretary, William Cohen.

When we come back -- unexpected battle. ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings is diagnosed with lung cancer, the number one cancer killer in the world. I'll speak with a doctor about the causes and treatments of this disease.

And later, no break at all at the pump. Gas prices at an all- time high and rising. Where's all of our money going? we'll tell you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. A shock wave rumbled through the television news business today. ABC's Peter Jennings has cancer. The long-time "World News Tonight" anchor plans to stay on the air, but today's announcement has media observers wondering about the future. CNN's Brian Todd is following the story. He's joining us live. Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this comes during a very turbulent period for the broadcast network news divisions. But at ABC, they're being very stoic about the news.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: His boss says he's been given a tough assignment, and Peter Jennings himself is showing a brave face. In an e-mail to ABC News staffers, Jennings wrote, "I have been diagnosed with lung cancer. Yes, it was quite a surprise." He added, quote, "I begin chemotherapy next week. I will continue to do the broadcast. There will be good days and bad, which means that some days, I may be cranky, and some days really cranky!"

ABC's president says Charlie Gibson, Elizabeth Vargas and others will fill in on "World News Tonight" when Jennings isn't up to it.

Media watchers say ABC News has to be reeling from this diagnosis.

HOWARD KURTZ, CNN'S RELIABLE SOURCES: Jennings, you know, is their friend, but he has been the face of ABC News for two decades now. It's almost impossible to imagine that network news division or "World News Tonight" without him.

TODD: Jennings has been virtually everywhere since taking the anchor desk of "World News Tonight" in 1983. But he's been a star at the network since the 1960s, breaking out with his reports on the hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics. If he steps down, it would continue a seismic shake-up at the top of the network news stratum, with Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, and Jennings's ABC colleague Ted Koppel leaving their posts.

The 66-year-old Jennings was a smoker who reportedly quit some years ago. ABC News would not give details on how advanced his cancer is. Oncologists say that will be critical to Jennings' prognosis.

DR. SHAKUN MALIK, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: The various stages of cancer of lung, the outcome is different, and the treatment modalities are also different, depending on from stage 1 to stage 4.

TODD: Stage 4 is the most advanced, indicating the cancer has spread to another lung or beyond the chest. Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer in the world -- aggressive, difficult to treat, and only 15 percent of patients survive beyond five years.

But oncologists tell us there are hopeful signs, with new drugs and therapies that have shown promising results. (END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Peter Jennings had been feeling ill for the past couple of months and did not travel to cover the Asian tsunami or the pope's death. An ABC spokesman says he'll discuss his diagnosis tonight on "World News Tonight."

Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Brian, thank you very much. Brian Todd reporting.

Lung cancer can be hard to detect in its early stages, when it's more easily treatable. Dr. Jimmy Hwang is on the faculty of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University here in Washington. He's an oncologist.

Dr. Hwang, thanks very much for joining us.

We don't know the specifics of the type of cancer, but between stage 1 and stage 4, does that make a huge difference at what stage he might be in as far as his survivability?

DR. JIMMY HWANG, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Absolutely, it does. Thank you for having me here this afternoon.

Stage 1 and early-stage disease is actually potentially curable. And I think that really the fact that he has -- is going forward with chemotherapy first is actually a little bit worrisome. Patients who receive chemo -- patients who are potentially (UNINTELLIGIBLE), we try to send them to surgery first because they can be -- because those are the patients that are the most easily curable.

BLITZER: Well, if it's not surgically treatable, and you're just going to rely with chemo or radiation, or whatever, does that suggest he's perhaps at a more advanced stage?

HWANG: That would suggest that, yes.

BLITZER: What do you do if he is at that advanced stage? How long do you have to go through chemo? How difficult of a process is this?

HWANG: Well, it really depends. If we're relying primarily on chemotherapy, some of the advances that's have been made over the last couple of years have been with regards to the support of care for chemotherapy. So a lot of the legends that one hears about chemotherapy with regards to severe toxicities like nausea, vomiting, and hair loss have become less problematic over the course of the last several years with some of the new agents that we have. And some of the newer agents are also better tolerated in general.

BLITZER: He had been a smoker. Is lung cancer, as far as you're concerned, almost always related to smokers?

HWANG: Most often it is, either first-hand, or increasingly there's evidence suggesting that perhaps even second-hand. But yes, most of the time, it appears to be.

BLITZER: And if he had quit a few years ago, would that have made a significant difference? Let's say he'd smoked for 30 years, but then he quit a few years ago. Does that help?

HWANG: Certainly it appears that the longer a period after -- between -- the longer period that somebody has not been smoking, the lower the likelihood of developing cancer. So potentially, yes.

BLITZER: So if you were, let's say, his doctor -- and you're obviously not his doctor; you haven't seen his charts; you don't know anything specific about his case -- but let's say it's diagnosed as lung cancer. You start with chemo. What do you tell a patient at that point?

HWANG: Well, I think that, you know, as you say, I haven't seen his chart, and I think the biggest question is what the stage is, because if somebody is stage 4, metastatic cancer, then what I usually tell them, that the cancer -- you start by telling them that the cancer is incurable and that the goal of therapy is to attempt to improve the quality of life as well as the quantity of life as long as one can, but emphasizing that unfortunately it is incurable.

BLITZER: Stage 4 is when it's already spread to other organs.

HWANG: Correct.

BLITZER: And what is the life expectancy in that kind of situation?

HWANG: With the current drugs, the average survival is somewhere in the ballpark of a year. Now, there are some newer agents that have been -- are being studied that may increase that longer. But the average at this point appears to be about a year, keeping in mind that that's an average. Half the patients do better than that; half the patients do worse than that.

BLITZER: Are there some experimental drugs out there right now that show significant progress?

HWANG: Significant's always a difficult word to use --

BLITZER: Promise? At least some promise?

HWANG: -- but certainly there are some agents that are promising. Just a couple weeks ago, the National Cancer Institute reported some results preliminarily of a new agent called bevazizumab, which is approved for colon cancer because it improves the survival in colon cancer. And it also appears that it may improve survival for patients with lung cancer.

BLITZER: It prolongs, it gives you extra life ---

HWANG: Exactly.

BLITZER: -- but doesn't necessarily cure it? HWANG: Exactly.

BLITZER: As far as a cure?

HWANG: As far as a cure, I think the primary way that we're looking at curing people is by finding the cancer early and treating the cancer early. The biggest advances that have been made in the last couple of years has really been the evalu -- the finding that, if you can treat a patient surgically, and then you give them chemotherapy afterwards, you can increase the number of patients that you can cure.

BLITZER: Your basic bottom line advice to people out there, stop smoking.

HWANG: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Dr. Jimmy Hwang, thanks very much.

HWANG: Thank you.

BLITZER: We'll have more on Peter Jennings' battle with lung cancer and his career. Our senior analyst Jeff Greenfield, who used to work with Peter Jennings over at ABC News, he's standing by. He'll weigh in.

Plus, the pope and politics. Hundreds of world leaders expected to travel to Rome for the funeral of John Paul II. We'll go live to the Vatican again.

Also ahead --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT Does he have a nickname for you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. "My maestro."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The man who brought music to the holy father. Our Mary Snow talks with the pope's conductor, who happens to be Jewish.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. Today's announcement that ABC's Peter Jennings has lung cancer was shocking, certainly, but it does follow recent anchor changes over at NBC and CBS. Clearly, that familiar institution known as the evening news is changing. Let's bring in our senior analyst, Jeff Greenfield. You worked with Peter Jennings when you were over at ABC News. What was your reaction when you heard what was going on?

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: Well, the reaction, just on a human basis is, you know, my God or somewhat stronger words. It's what you -- anybody you know who's facing this, your reaction's going to be, you know, just hope to God he gets better. You know, if you focus on him as a journalist, what's so striking to me is the degree to which Peter represents a genuine, honest-to-God commitment to a kind of news that is increasingly under siege and is often considered to be not relevant as much in this kind of fast-paced world.

Peter, for instance, is a fellow who spent a lot of time overseas, is still committed to the idea of international news, even as the parent companies of those broadcast networks, in ABC's case, Disney, slashed budgets for foreign bureaus, are closing them all over the world, I think one of the reasons why Bosnia did not descend into complete chaos was that Jennings insisted on keeping the focus of the evening news on that story when the Serbs were shelling that market in Srebrenica. I think he may even have been there close to that period. The fact that he is as committed as he is to the kinds of stories that a lot of superiors in the corporate divisions of those newscasts think of as, well, nobody really cares, speaks volumes as to who he is.

BLITZER: You know, one thing that always impressed me so much about Peter Jennings -- and you can speak about this -- he was an anchor, yet he decided at one point in his career he needed some more seasoning, he needed to go out and do a little bit more reporting.

GREENFIELD: Peter was picked as an anchor in his 20s, and at that time ABC News was a distant third, often said that, you know, fourth in a three-network race. But they put him on, young, very good-looking, charismatic guy, and after a while, Jennings went to his bosses and said, I shouldn't be doing this job, take me out of this chair, I need -- I need seasoning, I need to go and report more.

Now, there are people in this business who would run over their grandmothers to be put in an anchor chair, and for someone who had that job at a young age to say, I need to absorb more of the world, also tells you more about the kind of news guy that he is.

The rap, if that's the right word on Jennings, the word -- the stereotype is aloof, and what I always think of it is, Jennings is a reporter and an anchor who says, you know, the news is what comes first. I know he's going to talk about this a little later on the evening news because he has to because the word is out. ABC News put it out. But this is not a person who likes to be front and center in terms of his personality or his take. He will point the finger at news and say that's what you ought to be paying attention to. And as I say, I think, you know, particularly in this climate, when more and more you see entertainment values leeching into news, you see a feeling that people don't have the attention span to pay attention to complicated stories, that Jennings is there at ABC News as the anchor and with any luck will be there for a long time to come is a very significant aspect of how we move into the next phase of network news.

BLITZER: I totally agree. Another thing that -- I never worked at ABC News. I never worked directly with him. I've covered stories with him. But everyone at ABC News, all my friends, and I'm sure you will agree, he's a hands-on kind of anchor. He gets involved in his newscasts. He's not simply showing up and reading the news.

GREENFIELD: No. In fact, it's an aspect of his hands-on that some correspondents found it difficult because he would call you up, you know, at 3:00 in the afternoon and say I'm not entirely happy with the way this script is, I think you've missed a point here.

Now, from your days, you know, out in the field when someone else was telling you that, that's not always want you want to hear a couple of hours before air time, when you think you've got the story right. But absolutely, as opposed to the Harry Hairsprays that, you know, you sometimes see anchoring and sometimes the light in their eye is shining through the hole in the back of their heads, Jennings knew the stories. He'd been as well-traveled as you could possibly be as a news guy before he took the anchor chair. And he was indeed -- all the network anchors have the title of either senior producer or managing editor, and certainly in Jennings' case that was not simply an honorific. He was, is, one of the keys to that broadcast.

BLITZER: So ABC News has got an important job ahead of it as he goes through this chemotherapy, and I think I speak for all of us, all of our viewers, we wish him only a very, very speedy recovery from this lung cancer.

But looking at the whole landscape of network broadcast journalism out there, what's your bottom line assessment, with Brokaw and Rather, now Peter Jennings has lung cancer?

I don't know. As we say, Jennings, with any luck, is going to be there for a while. When I first started covering television before I ever did it, this goes back about 27 years, I interviewed a guy named Roone Arledge, who wasn't even head of ABC News now, and was talking about the obsolescence of the network news. And almost 20 years ago I hosted a panel out in California, "Is Network News Dead?"

All I know is if you take the three network newscasts, combined -- CBS, NBC, and ABC -- they total 10 times the highest-rated cable news personality, who unfortunately is not at our network. So the idea that this is a dinosaur, that now in this age of the Internet and cable and computers we get all our news -- that may be true, and it's certainly true that the network news -- the broadcast networks do not have the shared monopoly dominance they did 25 or 30 years ago when 90 percent of the people watching TV watched those newscasts, but they are still -- they still aggregate far more numbers than all of their competitors, us and our competitors at cable, combined, so I think the idea that the network news is gone, and you know, it's like the Model- T Ford in a -- in a Lexus or whatever age, that's a little overwrought.

Definitely, we're going into transition. We're never going to see somebody with the clout, say, that Walter Cronkite had when he was at his peak. But those folks who anchor the broadcast network news still matter a whole lot, I think.

BLITZER: It's still a very, very hefty and influential group, audience, to be sure.

Jeff Greenfield, thanks very much.

GREENFIELD: OK. BLITZER: For spending a few moments with us.

And our coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II will continue. As mourners file past the pope's body, world leaders are getting ready to attend the funeral Friday morning. We'll have details.

Also ahead, the gasoline is going into your tank, but where's the money going? We'll try to find out.

And look at this. Take a look. There it is. Just what they don't want to see off the coast of Florida. We'll tell you what it is. It's amazing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: From our studios in Washington, once again, Wolf Blitzer.

BLITZER: Welcome back.

Hundreds of thousands of mourners filing past the body of John Paul II, as leaders from around the world prepare to make their own appearance. We're live from the Vatican in just a moment.

First, though, a quick check of some other stories now in the news.

Americans will soon need passports, yes, passports, to enter the United States from Canada, Mexico, Panama, and Bermuda. A State Department official says the requirement will be phased in by 2008. Until now, U.S. citizens entering from those countries needed only a driver's license or other government-issued I.D. The new measure is part of the intelligence reform bill passed by Congress last year.

Denver Police are investigating the death of a woman boxer who received a fatal head injury during a Golden Gloves bout on Sunday. The 34-year-old college geography instructor was a martial arts enthusiast who had won six of her matches. Police say their investigation is routine.

The missing wife of an Oklahoma prison warden has been found 10 years after she vanished with an escaped killer. The convict, Randolph Dial, was tracked down Monday in Texas after a tip generated by the television program "America's Most Wanted." Bobbi Parker was then found working at a chicken farm not that far away. She told authorities she'd been held captive the whole time. Parker said she had stayed out with Dial out of fear for her family. She was later reunited with her husband and two daughters.

New Jersey is cleaning up after some of its worst flooding in 50 years. The state is seeking federal disaster aid after floods forced thousands from their homes, causing an estimated $30 million in damage. Pennsylvania and New York also have suffered heavily from flooding in recent rains.

Let's go back to the Vatican now, where plans are being made for the funeral of Pope John Paul II and for the upcoming selection of a successor.

Joining us once again, our Vatican analyst Delia Gallagher.

Delia, we learned new specific details about the funeral on Friday. Share those with our viewers.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, today we were given copies of the funeral rite.

This is a book which was revised by the pope in 1988. It's essentially the funeral mass, but it contains other particulars, such as the closing of the coffin. There's a ceremony privately held with some of the cardinals to close the coffin and to place certain items inside the coffin. Traditionally, they've placed coins from the pontificate in the coffin, but it was explained to us that, with this changeover from the lira to the euro, they're going to place silver and bronze medals of the pontificate into the pope's coffin.

They also will place a white veil, a white silk veil, over the pope's face. He will also be buried with his miter. So, that is a ceremony which takes place before the funeral. Then you'll have the funeral mass, and then you will have the burial in the crypt of St. Peter's, again, in the presence of this small group of cardinals.

The pope has requested to be buried in the ground. He will be buried in the former burial place of John XXIII. And there's a very elaborate ceremony of tying the coffin. The coffin is cypress wood. And they will tie it with a red ribbon, and then they will place it into another coffin, which is made of zinc, and then into a third coffin of sort of chestnut wood. And then it will be placed into the ground.

Over that, of course, is a cover with the pope's coat of arms. And a few prayers are said, and then that is the end of the burial. All three of those things will be happening on Friday, Wolf.

BLITZER: Delia, do we know how much of this was requested or suggested by the pope himself, Pope John Paul II, and how much of this is just tradition, how much of this is just standard?

GALLAGHER: Well, frankly, the majority of it is standard.

The pope, as a traditionalist, was quite happy, it seems, to leave the things as Paul VI set them out in the first instance. This was a revision of Paul VI's first revision of the funeral rite. So, it's an ancient rite of the church, and, more or less, it's all -- it's all going to be what has been happening to popes at their funeral for centuries.

BLITZER: We know world leaders, Delia, are beginning to converge on Rome, though many of them will be arriving tomorrow. I take it they will have an opportunity to walk past the body of Pope John Paul II at some point before the funeral on Friday?

GALLAGHER: Yes. The visits will be officially closed on Thursday night, but heads of state will have a sort of preferential aisle. And they can go and visit the body without having to wait in these very, very long lines.

BLITZER: Delia Gallagher is our Vatican analyst. And she'll be spending a lot of time on CNN over the next few days and weeks.

Delia, thank you very much.

The nationality of the next pontiff could influence U.S. policy.

For more on that, we're joined by our CNN political analyst Carlos Watson.

Carlos, thanks for joining us here in Washington.

The next pope, whoever that next pope could be, could that have an impact on politics back here at home?

CARLOS WATSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure.

I mean, if anyone had told us in 1978 that Pope John Paul ultimately would have significant influence in the battle against communism and partner with Ronald Reagan and others in order to be successful, we probably would have been surprised.

Similarly, this time, if the pope comes from Latin America -- and we know that there are at least three substantial candidates, Argentina, Brazil, Honduras -- we might hear about issues like Third World debt forgiveness. We might hear more about immigration. This is a pope, by the way, who could take on the issue of the drug trade there, both in terms of American consumption and in terms of the drug laws.

If, ultimately, the next pope were to come from Africa, you could hear more about AIDS. It could be a significant issue, as well as issues like Third World debt. So, in the same way that John Paul VI reached back into his own experience in Poland and communism, you could see the same thing happen this time.

BLITZER: And just as, over the past 26 years, Pope John Paul II himself appointed 114 of those 117 cardinals, who will be making this next selection, the next pope, presumably, will appoint a lot of new cardinals, a lot of new bishops, including a lot of American cardinals and bishops.

WATSON: Yes.

And, you know, what's so interesting, Wolf, when we talk about the possible impact, political impact, it's not just who the next pope is, but, as you said, we've got 300, roughly 300 bishops here in the United States, including 35 archbishops of major cities. And, in recent years, we've seen them take on a more significant political stature.

Certainly, in 2004, some of the archbishops in places like St. Louis and Denver and Chicago had a lot to say about John Kerry as a Catholic running. We could see the same thing again in terms of who ultimately gets appointed, roughly 20 a year. And, by the way, people say, well, of course, it's going to be on social issues, whether that's abortion, stem cell research, the death penalty and other issues.

But don't forget the issue of school vouchers. Remember, this has been a significant issue for the Catholic Church. Don't be surprised to hear more about that as well.

BLITZER: A lot of Catholic schools have a direct impact as a result of that decision alone. Carlos Watson, thanks very much.

WATSON: Good to see you.

BLITZER: For joining us. Clearly, the selection of the next pontiff could have a huge impact on what's happening here in the United States on many other issues unrelated to necessarily religious issues. Thank you, Carlos.

WATSON: Let's take a look now at how the pope is being remembered around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): In John Paul II's native Poland, an estimated 200,000 people turned out for a huge mass in downtown Warsaw. Thousands more were headed to the pope's funeral after boarding buses bound for Rome.

Australian mass. Catholics filled St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney, where they celebrated a solemn mass to honor the pope's memory.

Middle East mourners. In Jerusalem's Old City, mourners of many faiths paid their respects to the Latin patriarch, the highest Catholic official in Israel, and the Palestinian territories.

Request denied. Here's one person who won't be traveling to Rome, the Turkish man who was convicted of trying to assassinate the pope in 1981. Mehmet Ali Agca had asked to be released from prison, so he could attend the funeral. But his lawyer says Turkish officials have rejected that request.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: When we come back, you can call them a captive audience, what Saddam Hussein and his jailed henchmen may be watching on television when Iraq's National Assembly elects a new president, perhaps as early as tomorrow.

They're complaining, but American drivers are not yet feeling enough pain at the pump to change their habits. We'll tell you why the price of gas is heading even higher.

And this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GILBERT LEVINE, CONDUCTOR: At the very first meeting, I remember saying to him that I thought he was sent by God to heal the relationship between Catholics and Jews.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We'll hear from the man who made music for the pope.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

As the Iraqi National Assembly prepares to reconvene tomorrow, there appears to be a surge in violence. Two car bombs exploded in Baghdad. The victims included a U.S. soldier. Two other U.S. soldiers and a U.S. Marine died in combat yesterday. Also today, officials say U.S. troops accidentally wounded a freelance cameraman working for CBS.

Iraqi lawmakers plan to elect a new president tomorrow. And when they do, the old president will be able to watch.

CNN's Aneesh Raman reports from Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Once a despotic leader, now an imprisoned spectator. When Iraq's National Assembly meets to elect a president on Wednesday, Saddam Hussein will be allowed to watch the process, along with 10 other high-ranking officials in his regime. After nearly two years of an informational blackout, the interim government is making a live feed of the ceremony available.

BAKHTIYAR AMIN, IRAQI HUMAN RIGHTS MINISTER: They will be seeing what's happening in Iraq for the first time after the fall of this regime. So they will be seeing a televised swearing in of a new president in Iraq.

RAMAN: Not just a new president, but a Kurdish president. All indications are that Jalal Talabani will be elected and perhaps even inaugurated on Wednesday. A man who fought Saddam's forces for years in the mountains of northern Iraq, Talabani will soon assume the office that at his arraignment, Saddam claimed to still hold.

In a matter of days, Iraqis will commemorate the two-year anniversary of Baghdad's fall, symbolized By the thundering collapse of Saddam's statute in Firdos Square.

Two years on, Saddam and some of his colleagues wait for trial.

AMIN: We hope that the courtroom will be ready by the middle of April. And the case of Barzan al-Tikriti and Taha Yassin Ramadan are ready to go. RAMAN (on camera): No word yet on whether Saddam will in fact choose to watch this event. But the very fact that he'll be able to witness the election of Iraq's new president is a powerful symbol of how far things have come.

Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The maestro and the pope.

One man recalls his unlikely relationship with John Paul II and how, together, they reached out to Holocaust survivors.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

Among those attending the pope's funeral this Friday will be the conductor, who helped John Paul II reach out to Jews through music.

CNN's Mary Snow is standing by with details of this very unlikely relationship -- Mary.

SNOW: Hi there, Wolf.

A Jewish boy from Brooklyn and a pope from Poland. They lived in different worlds, but they were brought together by their love of music, and, at times, they turned their music into a mission.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (voice-over): He is the man who brought music to the pope's ears.

(on camera): Did he have a nickname for you?

LEVINE: Yes. "My maestro."

SNOW: That was his nickname for you?

LEVINE: Yes. Yes. In fact, he didn't say "my." "Our." "Our maestro," which in Polish is "nasz maestro."

SNOW (voice-over): For 17 years, Gilbert Levine was the maestro who organized papal concerts. The pope first noticed Levine conducting the Krakow Philharmonic. He invited Levine to the Vatican. Growing up Jewish in Brooklyn, Levine says he had only known one Catholic person for most of his life. But he says the two men connected instantly.

LEVINE: At the very first meeting, I remember saying to him that I thought he was sent by God to heal the relationship between Catholics and Jews. SNOW: Months later, Levine was asked to conduct his first papal concert.

LEVINE: The relationship found its rhythm. And he began to rely on me for ideas of where music could express ideas that he wanted to achieve.

SNOW: And, in 1991, Levine took an idea of his to the pope, a concert to commemorate the Holocaust.

LEVINE: I remember him saying -- he reached out his hand and he said, if I stretch my hand, will a hand come to meet mine? He wondered if Jews would come and Holocaust survivors would come, whether the mistrust that existed would dissolve enough for people to come and attempt to reconcile.

SNOW: In 1994, they came. The pope first held an audience with Holocaust survivors and then Levine led the first-of-its-kind concert.

LEVINE: I would go in to synagogues and talk to people before that concert. And they would, oh, the pope and the Catholic Church, you know what they did to us in the Holocaust and this and this. After that concert, wow. I would go out after that concert. People were astonished.

SNOW: Levine says the pope helped unite his art with his soul. And besides taking part in an historical reconciliation, he treasures the fact that he was also knighted by the pope.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: And to be knighted is to receive the highest pontifical honor. Levine is the first secular musician in more than 200 years to get that honor. Mozart was also knighted by the Vatican -- Wolf.

BLITZER: A lovely story indeed, Mary. Thank you very much, Mary Snow, reporting.

Let's check some other news right now. The price at the pump, it's at a record high, and, by all accounts, it's going even higher.

CNN's Chris Huntington reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Call it the pump and grind, your teeth, that is. According to the Department of Energy, the national average price for unleaded regular gasoline is now $2.22 a gallon, an all-time high. And that tab is almost certain to move high over the next month, as the record prices set this week in the wholesale gasoline market filter down to a station near you.

The biggest factor is that American drivers show no sign of changing the way they drive. The demand for gasoline this summer is projected to increase even more than it did last year. EVARISTO STANZIALE, OIL AND GAS TRADER: No one's really going to change their habits, as far as their driving habits. That extra 25 cents is -- you know, apparently, is not meaningful enough where they're going to all of a sudden say, hey, you know, I'm going to start commuting with three or four of my buddies as I drive into work. You know, the average person wants to be by himself, drinking his cup of coffee.

HUNTINGTON: The cost of crude oil, which accounts for more than half of the retail price of a gallon of gas, has jumped almost 50 percent in the last year, due to sharply growing demand in the United States, China, and India. The big concern in the oil market is that growing demand could outpace supply.

GEORGE ORWEL, ENERGY INTELLIGENCE GROUP: Basically, there's a lot of physical crude around, but what is driving the market is not the presence or the availability of physical crude. It is the fear that, in the future, perhaps in the summer, we're not likely to have enough.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTINGTON: Now, there are several other crucial reasons why gasoline is so expensive right now. You have a patchwork of state environmental regulations that make for more than a dozen regional formulations of gasoline around the country.

You have U.S. refineries basically maxed out. And one other important feature, Wolf. The oil markets are the hottest market on Wall Street. And many sophisticated investors and big brokerage firms that are not customary to the oil market are in there big-time and are quite happy to see prices go higher right now -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Chris Huntington reporting for us -- thank you, Chris, very much.

Sharks, hundreds of them. We'll show you where and what they're doing right now.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Our picture of the day, hundreds of shark off Juno Beach, Florida. Take a look at this.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

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


Aired April 5, 2005 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, you're looking at these live pictures of the Vatican. It's 11:00 p.m. in Rome. We have new information on how the pope will be buried and a change in tradition for the transition.
Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

Fifteen-thousand per hour to bid a final farewell to the pope. And as the Vatican makes funeral plans, the U.S. plans a high-profile delegation.

Secrets of succession.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP.)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is It is possibly one of the most ancient electoral processes in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP.)

BLITZER: There are some new procedures for picking a pope. The cardinals open a window into what goes on behind closed doors doors.

Ailing anchor. ABC's Peter Jennings announces he'll begin treatments for lung cancer.

Sky-high, and headed to the stratosphere? Gas prices may be driving you mad. We'll tell you what's driving them higher.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Tuesday, April 5th, 2005.

BLITZER: Thanks for joining us. By the tens of thousands, people from all over the world are pouring into Rome to pay their respects to Pope John Paul II. For the second day, his body lies in state inside the giant St. Peter's Basilica, which is staying open almost around the clock to accommodate the unprecedented crowd of mourners. Some are waiting in line up to eight hours for their chance to view the late pontiff. Officials estimate some 2 million people will file past his body before Friday's funeral.

Meanwhile, the Vatican is releasing new details of the pope's funeral and burial. John Paul II will be buried in the grotto beneath St. Peter's Basilica in the crypt that once held the remains of Pope John XXIII. His body was moved to the basilica's main floor when John Paul II made him a saint in 2000.

The Vatican says the late pontiff gave no indication he wanted to be buried anywhere other than the Vatican, but he did indicate that he wanted to be buried in the ground. And following tradition, various metals and coins will be placed inside the pope's coffin along with a parchment sealed in a lead tube, summarizing the pope's life.

Also new details coming out about the upcoming conclave in which 117 cardinals will elect the next pope. For the first time, Vatican bells will peal, signaling the selection, along with the traditional white smoke from the burning of the ballots. Black smoke indicates no selection has been made. John Paul II himself instituted the addition of the bells to avoid the kind of confusion that resulted from a 1978 conclave in which the smoke appeared gray.

For more on the day's developments, let's turn to CNN's Aaron Brown. He's joining us now live from the Vatican.

What stands out in your mind, Aaron, on this day?

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I think it's the kind of overwhelming power of a moment that the scene that we began watching yesterday, we'll continue to see throughout today, and we'll see it again tomorrow and right up until Friday. It's hard to fathom 20,000 people an hour, 400,000 people a day, 2 million people over the course of the week. And they come with this great sense of awe at the moment they're participating in. This is not a tragedy as they see it. They believe John Paul is in heaven. And so they're coming to celebrate a life.

You were talking briefly about some of the things we learned today. There is some sort of detail that comes out in moments like this. The pope's doctor gave an interview to an Italian newspaper. In that interview he said, quote, "The pope passed away slowly, with pain and suffering which he endured with great human dignity." And then the doctor added that for the last couple of days, the pope was in fact unable to speak at all.

So whatever last words there were -- and I think there's been, since we arrived here now on Saturday, great speculation as to what his last words may or may not have been and whether in fact he said amen, which was how it was originally reported -- whatever it was that was said was said several days, two days perhaps, before he in fact died.

BLITZER: Is there a sense there, Aaron, where you are right now that it's almost -- I don't know if this is the right word, but a climax that's building toward this Friday morning funeral?

BROWN: Well, here's how -- here's how reporters I think look at it. We are in an in-between. We are between what has happened -- the passing of Pope John Paul the other night -- and what will happen or a couple of things that will happen -- the funeral on Friday and then ultimately the conclave and the selection of a new pope. And in fact, that's just the reality of where we are. There are no great events of this day. There is no overarching theme to this moment. There's no great drama to it all except insofar as there is this extraordinary -- and I'm telling you that you can feel it, this extraordinary power that comes from this assemblage of people who have come from all over the globe, who have been touched by Pope John Paul in perhaps 2 million different ways, each one of them reacting to a different moment that has drawn them here. That is a moment of great drama and great power. It is not a kind of great scripted event, if you will.

BLITZER: CNN's Aaron Brown reporting for us from the Vatican. Aaron, thank you very much.

The United States will send a small but significant delegation to the funeral.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Tomorrow I will be leaving for Rome, leading a delegation to attend the services for his holiness, Pope John Paul II. What a great man. It'll be my honor to represent our country at a ceremony marking a remarkable life, a person who stood for freedom and human dignity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The White House says the five-member group will include former Presidents Bush and Clinton, who recently teamed up to raise money for tsunami victims. First Lady Laura Bush will also be aboard Air Force One together with the others. They will all attend, along with the secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, who signed the condolence book at the Vatican Embassy here in Washington earlier today.

Former President Jimmy Carter, who was in office when John Paul became pope, will not be going. The Carter Center says he wanted to attend, but when he was informed by the White House that the official U.S. delegation would be limited to just five people, he told the White House he would withdraw his request to attend.

Former President Gerald Ford, now 91 years old, no longer travels widely.

While millions converge on Rome, some 200 world leaders and dignitaries are expected for the funeral. President Bush may find himself rubbing elbows with Cuban President Fidel Castro, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, and Iran's president, Mohammed Khatami, along with allies such as the British prime minister, Tony Blair, and the French president, Jacques Chirac. Britain's Prince Charles has postponed his own wedding to attend the funeral. His wedding will take place on Saturday.

Although Pope John Paul II was first and foremost a religious leader, he had a profound impact on world politics. Here to discuss that and some other issues, our world affairs analyst, the former Defense secretary, William Cohen. He's the chairman and CEO of The Cohen Group. Thanks, Mr. Secretary, as usual.

When you think about this attendance Friday morning at this funeral, it's a pretty remarkable event. The security precautions alone must be enormous.

WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: The security precautions are enormous. In fact, I was planning to be in Rome on business this Friday, and because of the influx of some 2 million people, not to mention the leadership of most of the countries around the world, it will be virtually impossible to attend. But that shows you the power of and the magnetism of this pope.

He had visited almost 130 countries. So I think the only four countries where he was not invited would be post-communist Russia, China, Vietnam, and North Korea. But virtually every other country, he tried to touch the lives of the people in those countries, and I think clearly the showing of the outpouring of passion for him and compassion for him is now evident.

BLITZER: Is it awkward when the president of the United States is at these kinds of events with other world leaders who are -- I don't know if they're enemies, but they're pretty bitter adversaries?

COHEN: I don't think it's awkward. I think it's really an opportunity. After all, Pope John Paul was a healer. He tried to bring people together. And if it takes an event such as this to have world leaders understand that there's a common humanity, a common moral purpose to our lives, then so much the better. And it may be an opportunity to stop treating each other as enemies, see each other as perhaps some competing forces on this globe, but competing in a way that leads to peace and not to war. So I think this may be an opportunity and not seen as an awkward or somehow a moment when there are hostilities involved. I think it's going to be a very calming ceremony and one in which all of us can share.

BLITZER: It speaks volumes that his funeral will bring together the entire -- almost the entire world leadership.

COHEN: Well, if you look at what he did during his travels, he was the first pontiff to visit Syria and to enter a mosque. He went to the wall in Jerusalem and inserted the apology for the failure of the Catholic Church during the Holocaust. So he has touched virtually the peoples of all religions, all faiths. And this is the reason why he was such a compelling feature -- figure.

BLITZER: William Cohen. Thanks very much as usual.

COHEN: My pleasure.

BLITZER: The former defense secretary, William Cohen.

When we come back -- unexpected battle. ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings is diagnosed with lung cancer, the number one cancer killer in the world. I'll speak with a doctor about the causes and treatments of this disease.

And later, no break at all at the pump. Gas prices at an all- time high and rising. Where's all of our money going? we'll tell you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. A shock wave rumbled through the television news business today. ABC's Peter Jennings has cancer. The long-time "World News Tonight" anchor plans to stay on the air, but today's announcement has media observers wondering about the future. CNN's Brian Todd is following the story. He's joining us live. Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this comes during a very turbulent period for the broadcast network news divisions. But at ABC, they're being very stoic about the news.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: His boss says he's been given a tough assignment, and Peter Jennings himself is showing a brave face. In an e-mail to ABC News staffers, Jennings wrote, "I have been diagnosed with lung cancer. Yes, it was quite a surprise." He added, quote, "I begin chemotherapy next week. I will continue to do the broadcast. There will be good days and bad, which means that some days, I may be cranky, and some days really cranky!"

ABC's president says Charlie Gibson, Elizabeth Vargas and others will fill in on "World News Tonight" when Jennings isn't up to it.

Media watchers say ABC News has to be reeling from this diagnosis.

HOWARD KURTZ, CNN'S RELIABLE SOURCES: Jennings, you know, is their friend, but he has been the face of ABC News for two decades now. It's almost impossible to imagine that network news division or "World News Tonight" without him.

TODD: Jennings has been virtually everywhere since taking the anchor desk of "World News Tonight" in 1983. But he's been a star at the network since the 1960s, breaking out with his reports on the hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics. If he steps down, it would continue a seismic shake-up at the top of the network news stratum, with Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, and Jennings's ABC colleague Ted Koppel leaving their posts.

The 66-year-old Jennings was a smoker who reportedly quit some years ago. ABC News would not give details on how advanced his cancer is. Oncologists say that will be critical to Jennings' prognosis.

DR. SHAKUN MALIK, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: The various stages of cancer of lung, the outcome is different, and the treatment modalities are also different, depending on from stage 1 to stage 4.

TODD: Stage 4 is the most advanced, indicating the cancer has spread to another lung or beyond the chest. Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer in the world -- aggressive, difficult to treat, and only 15 percent of patients survive beyond five years.

But oncologists tell us there are hopeful signs, with new drugs and therapies that have shown promising results. (END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Peter Jennings had been feeling ill for the past couple of months and did not travel to cover the Asian tsunami or the pope's death. An ABC spokesman says he'll discuss his diagnosis tonight on "World News Tonight."

Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Brian, thank you very much. Brian Todd reporting.

Lung cancer can be hard to detect in its early stages, when it's more easily treatable. Dr. Jimmy Hwang is on the faculty of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University here in Washington. He's an oncologist.

Dr. Hwang, thanks very much for joining us.

We don't know the specifics of the type of cancer, but between stage 1 and stage 4, does that make a huge difference at what stage he might be in as far as his survivability?

DR. JIMMY HWANG, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Absolutely, it does. Thank you for having me here this afternoon.

Stage 1 and early-stage disease is actually potentially curable. And I think that really the fact that he has -- is going forward with chemotherapy first is actually a little bit worrisome. Patients who receive chemo -- patients who are potentially (UNINTELLIGIBLE), we try to send them to surgery first because they can be -- because those are the patients that are the most easily curable.

BLITZER: Well, if it's not surgically treatable, and you're just going to rely with chemo or radiation, or whatever, does that suggest he's perhaps at a more advanced stage?

HWANG: That would suggest that, yes.

BLITZER: What do you do if he is at that advanced stage? How long do you have to go through chemo? How difficult of a process is this?

HWANG: Well, it really depends. If we're relying primarily on chemotherapy, some of the advances that's have been made over the last couple of years have been with regards to the support of care for chemotherapy. So a lot of the legends that one hears about chemotherapy with regards to severe toxicities like nausea, vomiting, and hair loss have become less problematic over the course of the last several years with some of the new agents that we have. And some of the newer agents are also better tolerated in general.

BLITZER: He had been a smoker. Is lung cancer, as far as you're concerned, almost always related to smokers?

HWANG: Most often it is, either first-hand, or increasingly there's evidence suggesting that perhaps even second-hand. But yes, most of the time, it appears to be.

BLITZER: And if he had quit a few years ago, would that have made a significant difference? Let's say he'd smoked for 30 years, but then he quit a few years ago. Does that help?

HWANG: Certainly it appears that the longer a period after -- between -- the longer period that somebody has not been smoking, the lower the likelihood of developing cancer. So potentially, yes.

BLITZER: So if you were, let's say, his doctor -- and you're obviously not his doctor; you haven't seen his charts; you don't know anything specific about his case -- but let's say it's diagnosed as lung cancer. You start with chemo. What do you tell a patient at that point?

HWANG: Well, I think that, you know, as you say, I haven't seen his chart, and I think the biggest question is what the stage is, because if somebody is stage 4, metastatic cancer, then what I usually tell them, that the cancer -- you start by telling them that the cancer is incurable and that the goal of therapy is to attempt to improve the quality of life as well as the quantity of life as long as one can, but emphasizing that unfortunately it is incurable.

BLITZER: Stage 4 is when it's already spread to other organs.

HWANG: Correct.

BLITZER: And what is the life expectancy in that kind of situation?

HWANG: With the current drugs, the average survival is somewhere in the ballpark of a year. Now, there are some newer agents that have been -- are being studied that may increase that longer. But the average at this point appears to be about a year, keeping in mind that that's an average. Half the patients do better than that; half the patients do worse than that.

BLITZER: Are there some experimental drugs out there right now that show significant progress?

HWANG: Significant's always a difficult word to use --

BLITZER: Promise? At least some promise?

HWANG: -- but certainly there are some agents that are promising. Just a couple weeks ago, the National Cancer Institute reported some results preliminarily of a new agent called bevazizumab, which is approved for colon cancer because it improves the survival in colon cancer. And it also appears that it may improve survival for patients with lung cancer.

BLITZER: It prolongs, it gives you extra life ---

HWANG: Exactly.

BLITZER: -- but doesn't necessarily cure it? HWANG: Exactly.

BLITZER: As far as a cure?

HWANG: As far as a cure, I think the primary way that we're looking at curing people is by finding the cancer early and treating the cancer early. The biggest advances that have been made in the last couple of years has really been the evalu -- the finding that, if you can treat a patient surgically, and then you give them chemotherapy afterwards, you can increase the number of patients that you can cure.

BLITZER: Your basic bottom line advice to people out there, stop smoking.

HWANG: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Dr. Jimmy Hwang, thanks very much.

HWANG: Thank you.

BLITZER: We'll have more on Peter Jennings' battle with lung cancer and his career. Our senior analyst Jeff Greenfield, who used to work with Peter Jennings over at ABC News, he's standing by. He'll weigh in.

Plus, the pope and politics. Hundreds of world leaders expected to travel to Rome for the funeral of John Paul II. We'll go live to the Vatican again.

Also ahead --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT Does he have a nickname for you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. "My maestro."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The man who brought music to the holy father. Our Mary Snow talks with the pope's conductor, who happens to be Jewish.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. Today's announcement that ABC's Peter Jennings has lung cancer was shocking, certainly, but it does follow recent anchor changes over at NBC and CBS. Clearly, that familiar institution known as the evening news is changing. Let's bring in our senior analyst, Jeff Greenfield. You worked with Peter Jennings when you were over at ABC News. What was your reaction when you heard what was going on?

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: Well, the reaction, just on a human basis is, you know, my God or somewhat stronger words. It's what you -- anybody you know who's facing this, your reaction's going to be, you know, just hope to God he gets better. You know, if you focus on him as a journalist, what's so striking to me is the degree to which Peter represents a genuine, honest-to-God commitment to a kind of news that is increasingly under siege and is often considered to be not relevant as much in this kind of fast-paced world.

Peter, for instance, is a fellow who spent a lot of time overseas, is still committed to the idea of international news, even as the parent companies of those broadcast networks, in ABC's case, Disney, slashed budgets for foreign bureaus, are closing them all over the world, I think one of the reasons why Bosnia did not descend into complete chaos was that Jennings insisted on keeping the focus of the evening news on that story when the Serbs were shelling that market in Srebrenica. I think he may even have been there close to that period. The fact that he is as committed as he is to the kinds of stories that a lot of superiors in the corporate divisions of those newscasts think of as, well, nobody really cares, speaks volumes as to who he is.

BLITZER: You know, one thing that always impressed me so much about Peter Jennings -- and you can speak about this -- he was an anchor, yet he decided at one point in his career he needed some more seasoning, he needed to go out and do a little bit more reporting.

GREENFIELD: Peter was picked as an anchor in his 20s, and at that time ABC News was a distant third, often said that, you know, fourth in a three-network race. But they put him on, young, very good-looking, charismatic guy, and after a while, Jennings went to his bosses and said, I shouldn't be doing this job, take me out of this chair, I need -- I need seasoning, I need to go and report more.

Now, there are people in this business who would run over their grandmothers to be put in an anchor chair, and for someone who had that job at a young age to say, I need to absorb more of the world, also tells you more about the kind of news guy that he is.

The rap, if that's the right word on Jennings, the word -- the stereotype is aloof, and what I always think of it is, Jennings is a reporter and an anchor who says, you know, the news is what comes first. I know he's going to talk about this a little later on the evening news because he has to because the word is out. ABC News put it out. But this is not a person who likes to be front and center in terms of his personality or his take. He will point the finger at news and say that's what you ought to be paying attention to. And as I say, I think, you know, particularly in this climate, when more and more you see entertainment values leeching into news, you see a feeling that people don't have the attention span to pay attention to complicated stories, that Jennings is there at ABC News as the anchor and with any luck will be there for a long time to come is a very significant aspect of how we move into the next phase of network news.

BLITZER: I totally agree. Another thing that -- I never worked at ABC News. I never worked directly with him. I've covered stories with him. But everyone at ABC News, all my friends, and I'm sure you will agree, he's a hands-on kind of anchor. He gets involved in his newscasts. He's not simply showing up and reading the news.

GREENFIELD: No. In fact, it's an aspect of his hands-on that some correspondents found it difficult because he would call you up, you know, at 3:00 in the afternoon and say I'm not entirely happy with the way this script is, I think you've missed a point here.

Now, from your days, you know, out in the field when someone else was telling you that, that's not always want you want to hear a couple of hours before air time, when you think you've got the story right. But absolutely, as opposed to the Harry Hairsprays that, you know, you sometimes see anchoring and sometimes the light in their eye is shining through the hole in the back of their heads, Jennings knew the stories. He'd been as well-traveled as you could possibly be as a news guy before he took the anchor chair. And he was indeed -- all the network anchors have the title of either senior producer or managing editor, and certainly in Jennings' case that was not simply an honorific. He was, is, one of the keys to that broadcast.

BLITZER: So ABC News has got an important job ahead of it as he goes through this chemotherapy, and I think I speak for all of us, all of our viewers, we wish him only a very, very speedy recovery from this lung cancer.

But looking at the whole landscape of network broadcast journalism out there, what's your bottom line assessment, with Brokaw and Rather, now Peter Jennings has lung cancer?

I don't know. As we say, Jennings, with any luck, is going to be there for a while. When I first started covering television before I ever did it, this goes back about 27 years, I interviewed a guy named Roone Arledge, who wasn't even head of ABC News now, and was talking about the obsolescence of the network news. And almost 20 years ago I hosted a panel out in California, "Is Network News Dead?"

All I know is if you take the three network newscasts, combined -- CBS, NBC, and ABC -- they total 10 times the highest-rated cable news personality, who unfortunately is not at our network. So the idea that this is a dinosaur, that now in this age of the Internet and cable and computers we get all our news -- that may be true, and it's certainly true that the network news -- the broadcast networks do not have the shared monopoly dominance they did 25 or 30 years ago when 90 percent of the people watching TV watched those newscasts, but they are still -- they still aggregate far more numbers than all of their competitors, us and our competitors at cable, combined, so I think the idea that the network news is gone, and you know, it's like the Model- T Ford in a -- in a Lexus or whatever age, that's a little overwrought.

Definitely, we're going into transition. We're never going to see somebody with the clout, say, that Walter Cronkite had when he was at his peak. But those folks who anchor the broadcast network news still matter a whole lot, I think.

BLITZER: It's still a very, very hefty and influential group, audience, to be sure.

Jeff Greenfield, thanks very much.

GREENFIELD: OK. BLITZER: For spending a few moments with us.

And our coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II will continue. As mourners file past the pope's body, world leaders are getting ready to attend the funeral Friday morning. We'll have details.

Also ahead, the gasoline is going into your tank, but where's the money going? We'll try to find out.

And look at this. Take a look. There it is. Just what they don't want to see off the coast of Florida. We'll tell you what it is. It's amazing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: From our studios in Washington, once again, Wolf Blitzer.

BLITZER: Welcome back.

Hundreds of thousands of mourners filing past the body of John Paul II, as leaders from around the world prepare to make their own appearance. We're live from the Vatican in just a moment.

First, though, a quick check of some other stories now in the news.

Americans will soon need passports, yes, passports, to enter the United States from Canada, Mexico, Panama, and Bermuda. A State Department official says the requirement will be phased in by 2008. Until now, U.S. citizens entering from those countries needed only a driver's license or other government-issued I.D. The new measure is part of the intelligence reform bill passed by Congress last year.

Denver Police are investigating the death of a woman boxer who received a fatal head injury during a Golden Gloves bout on Sunday. The 34-year-old college geography instructor was a martial arts enthusiast who had won six of her matches. Police say their investigation is routine.

The missing wife of an Oklahoma prison warden has been found 10 years after she vanished with an escaped killer. The convict, Randolph Dial, was tracked down Monday in Texas after a tip generated by the television program "America's Most Wanted." Bobbi Parker was then found working at a chicken farm not that far away. She told authorities she'd been held captive the whole time. Parker said she had stayed out with Dial out of fear for her family. She was later reunited with her husband and two daughters.

New Jersey is cleaning up after some of its worst flooding in 50 years. The state is seeking federal disaster aid after floods forced thousands from their homes, causing an estimated $30 million in damage. Pennsylvania and New York also have suffered heavily from flooding in recent rains.

Let's go back to the Vatican now, where plans are being made for the funeral of Pope John Paul II and for the upcoming selection of a successor.

Joining us once again, our Vatican analyst Delia Gallagher.

Delia, we learned new specific details about the funeral on Friday. Share those with our viewers.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, today we were given copies of the funeral rite.

This is a book which was revised by the pope in 1988. It's essentially the funeral mass, but it contains other particulars, such as the closing of the coffin. There's a ceremony privately held with some of the cardinals to close the coffin and to place certain items inside the coffin. Traditionally, they've placed coins from the pontificate in the coffin, but it was explained to us that, with this changeover from the lira to the euro, they're going to place silver and bronze medals of the pontificate into the pope's coffin.

They also will place a white veil, a white silk veil, over the pope's face. He will also be buried with his miter. So, that is a ceremony which takes place before the funeral. Then you'll have the funeral mass, and then you will have the burial in the crypt of St. Peter's, again, in the presence of this small group of cardinals.

The pope has requested to be buried in the ground. He will be buried in the former burial place of John XXIII. And there's a very elaborate ceremony of tying the coffin. The coffin is cypress wood. And they will tie it with a red ribbon, and then they will place it into another coffin, which is made of zinc, and then into a third coffin of sort of chestnut wood. And then it will be placed into the ground.

Over that, of course, is a cover with the pope's coat of arms. And a few prayers are said, and then that is the end of the burial. All three of those things will be happening on Friday, Wolf.

BLITZER: Delia, do we know how much of this was requested or suggested by the pope himself, Pope John Paul II, and how much of this is just tradition, how much of this is just standard?

GALLAGHER: Well, frankly, the majority of it is standard.

The pope, as a traditionalist, was quite happy, it seems, to leave the things as Paul VI set them out in the first instance. This was a revision of Paul VI's first revision of the funeral rite. So, it's an ancient rite of the church, and, more or less, it's all -- it's all going to be what has been happening to popes at their funeral for centuries.

BLITZER: We know world leaders, Delia, are beginning to converge on Rome, though many of them will be arriving tomorrow. I take it they will have an opportunity to walk past the body of Pope John Paul II at some point before the funeral on Friday?

GALLAGHER: Yes. The visits will be officially closed on Thursday night, but heads of state will have a sort of preferential aisle. And they can go and visit the body without having to wait in these very, very long lines.

BLITZER: Delia Gallagher is our Vatican analyst. And she'll be spending a lot of time on CNN over the next few days and weeks.

Delia, thank you very much.

The nationality of the next pontiff could influence U.S. policy.

For more on that, we're joined by our CNN political analyst Carlos Watson.

Carlos, thanks for joining us here in Washington.

The next pope, whoever that next pope could be, could that have an impact on politics back here at home?

CARLOS WATSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure.

I mean, if anyone had told us in 1978 that Pope John Paul ultimately would have significant influence in the battle against communism and partner with Ronald Reagan and others in order to be successful, we probably would have been surprised.

Similarly, this time, if the pope comes from Latin America -- and we know that there are at least three substantial candidates, Argentina, Brazil, Honduras -- we might hear about issues like Third World debt forgiveness. We might hear more about immigration. This is a pope, by the way, who could take on the issue of the drug trade there, both in terms of American consumption and in terms of the drug laws.

If, ultimately, the next pope were to come from Africa, you could hear more about AIDS. It could be a significant issue, as well as issues like Third World debt. So, in the same way that John Paul VI reached back into his own experience in Poland and communism, you could see the same thing happen this time.

BLITZER: And just as, over the past 26 years, Pope John Paul II himself appointed 114 of those 117 cardinals, who will be making this next selection, the next pope, presumably, will appoint a lot of new cardinals, a lot of new bishops, including a lot of American cardinals and bishops.

WATSON: Yes.

And, you know, what's so interesting, Wolf, when we talk about the possible impact, political impact, it's not just who the next pope is, but, as you said, we've got 300, roughly 300 bishops here in the United States, including 35 archbishops of major cities. And, in recent years, we've seen them take on a more significant political stature.

Certainly, in 2004, some of the archbishops in places like St. Louis and Denver and Chicago had a lot to say about John Kerry as a Catholic running. We could see the same thing again in terms of who ultimately gets appointed, roughly 20 a year. And, by the way, people say, well, of course, it's going to be on social issues, whether that's abortion, stem cell research, the death penalty and other issues.

But don't forget the issue of school vouchers. Remember, this has been a significant issue for the Catholic Church. Don't be surprised to hear more about that as well.

BLITZER: A lot of Catholic schools have a direct impact as a result of that decision alone. Carlos Watson, thanks very much.

WATSON: Good to see you.

BLITZER: For joining us. Clearly, the selection of the next pontiff could have a huge impact on what's happening here in the United States on many other issues unrelated to necessarily religious issues. Thank you, Carlos.

WATSON: Let's take a look now at how the pope is being remembered around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): In John Paul II's native Poland, an estimated 200,000 people turned out for a huge mass in downtown Warsaw. Thousands more were headed to the pope's funeral after boarding buses bound for Rome.

Australian mass. Catholics filled St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney, where they celebrated a solemn mass to honor the pope's memory.

Middle East mourners. In Jerusalem's Old City, mourners of many faiths paid their respects to the Latin patriarch, the highest Catholic official in Israel, and the Palestinian territories.

Request denied. Here's one person who won't be traveling to Rome, the Turkish man who was convicted of trying to assassinate the pope in 1981. Mehmet Ali Agca had asked to be released from prison, so he could attend the funeral. But his lawyer says Turkish officials have rejected that request.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: When we come back, you can call them a captive audience, what Saddam Hussein and his jailed henchmen may be watching on television when Iraq's National Assembly elects a new president, perhaps as early as tomorrow.

They're complaining, but American drivers are not yet feeling enough pain at the pump to change their habits. We'll tell you why the price of gas is heading even higher.

And this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GILBERT LEVINE, CONDUCTOR: At the very first meeting, I remember saying to him that I thought he was sent by God to heal the relationship between Catholics and Jews.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We'll hear from the man who made music for the pope.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

As the Iraqi National Assembly prepares to reconvene tomorrow, there appears to be a surge in violence. Two car bombs exploded in Baghdad. The victims included a U.S. soldier. Two other U.S. soldiers and a U.S. Marine died in combat yesterday. Also today, officials say U.S. troops accidentally wounded a freelance cameraman working for CBS.

Iraqi lawmakers plan to elect a new president tomorrow. And when they do, the old president will be able to watch.

CNN's Aneesh Raman reports from Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Once a despotic leader, now an imprisoned spectator. When Iraq's National Assembly meets to elect a president on Wednesday, Saddam Hussein will be allowed to watch the process, along with 10 other high-ranking officials in his regime. After nearly two years of an informational blackout, the interim government is making a live feed of the ceremony available.

BAKHTIYAR AMIN, IRAQI HUMAN RIGHTS MINISTER: They will be seeing what's happening in Iraq for the first time after the fall of this regime. So they will be seeing a televised swearing in of a new president in Iraq.

RAMAN: Not just a new president, but a Kurdish president. All indications are that Jalal Talabani will be elected and perhaps even inaugurated on Wednesday. A man who fought Saddam's forces for years in the mountains of northern Iraq, Talabani will soon assume the office that at his arraignment, Saddam claimed to still hold.

In a matter of days, Iraqis will commemorate the two-year anniversary of Baghdad's fall, symbolized By the thundering collapse of Saddam's statute in Firdos Square.

Two years on, Saddam and some of his colleagues wait for trial.

AMIN: We hope that the courtroom will be ready by the middle of April. And the case of Barzan al-Tikriti and Taha Yassin Ramadan are ready to go. RAMAN (on camera): No word yet on whether Saddam will in fact choose to watch this event. But the very fact that he'll be able to witness the election of Iraq's new president is a powerful symbol of how far things have come.

Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The maestro and the pope.

One man recalls his unlikely relationship with John Paul II and how, together, they reached out to Holocaust survivors.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

Among those attending the pope's funeral this Friday will be the conductor, who helped John Paul II reach out to Jews through music.

CNN's Mary Snow is standing by with details of this very unlikely relationship -- Mary.

SNOW: Hi there, Wolf.

A Jewish boy from Brooklyn and a pope from Poland. They lived in different worlds, but they were brought together by their love of music, and, at times, they turned their music into a mission.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (voice-over): He is the man who brought music to the pope's ears.

(on camera): Did he have a nickname for you?

LEVINE: Yes. "My maestro."

SNOW: That was his nickname for you?

LEVINE: Yes. Yes. In fact, he didn't say "my." "Our." "Our maestro," which in Polish is "nasz maestro."

SNOW (voice-over): For 17 years, Gilbert Levine was the maestro who organized papal concerts. The pope first noticed Levine conducting the Krakow Philharmonic. He invited Levine to the Vatican. Growing up Jewish in Brooklyn, Levine says he had only known one Catholic person for most of his life. But he says the two men connected instantly.

LEVINE: At the very first meeting, I remember saying to him that I thought he was sent by God to heal the relationship between Catholics and Jews. SNOW: Months later, Levine was asked to conduct his first papal concert.

LEVINE: The relationship found its rhythm. And he began to rely on me for ideas of where music could express ideas that he wanted to achieve.

SNOW: And, in 1991, Levine took an idea of his to the pope, a concert to commemorate the Holocaust.

LEVINE: I remember him saying -- he reached out his hand and he said, if I stretch my hand, will a hand come to meet mine? He wondered if Jews would come and Holocaust survivors would come, whether the mistrust that existed would dissolve enough for people to come and attempt to reconcile.

SNOW: In 1994, they came. The pope first held an audience with Holocaust survivors and then Levine led the first-of-its-kind concert.

LEVINE: I would go in to synagogues and talk to people before that concert. And they would, oh, the pope and the Catholic Church, you know what they did to us in the Holocaust and this and this. After that concert, wow. I would go out after that concert. People were astonished.

SNOW: Levine says the pope helped unite his art with his soul. And besides taking part in an historical reconciliation, he treasures the fact that he was also knighted by the pope.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: And to be knighted is to receive the highest pontifical honor. Levine is the first secular musician in more than 200 years to get that honor. Mozart was also knighted by the Vatican -- Wolf.

BLITZER: A lovely story indeed, Mary. Thank you very much, Mary Snow, reporting.

Let's check some other news right now. The price at the pump, it's at a record high, and, by all accounts, it's going even higher.

CNN's Chris Huntington reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Call it the pump and grind, your teeth, that is. According to the Department of Energy, the national average price for unleaded regular gasoline is now $2.22 a gallon, an all-time high. And that tab is almost certain to move high over the next month, as the record prices set this week in the wholesale gasoline market filter down to a station near you.

The biggest factor is that American drivers show no sign of changing the way they drive. The demand for gasoline this summer is projected to increase even more than it did last year. EVARISTO STANZIALE, OIL AND GAS TRADER: No one's really going to change their habits, as far as their driving habits. That extra 25 cents is -- you know, apparently, is not meaningful enough where they're going to all of a sudden say, hey, you know, I'm going to start commuting with three or four of my buddies as I drive into work. You know, the average person wants to be by himself, drinking his cup of coffee.

HUNTINGTON: The cost of crude oil, which accounts for more than half of the retail price of a gallon of gas, has jumped almost 50 percent in the last year, due to sharply growing demand in the United States, China, and India. The big concern in the oil market is that growing demand could outpace supply.

GEORGE ORWEL, ENERGY INTELLIGENCE GROUP: Basically, there's a lot of physical crude around, but what is driving the market is not the presence or the availability of physical crude. It is the fear that, in the future, perhaps in the summer, we're not likely to have enough.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTINGTON: Now, there are several other crucial reasons why gasoline is so expensive right now. You have a patchwork of state environmental regulations that make for more than a dozen regional formulations of gasoline around the country.

You have U.S. refineries basically maxed out. And one other important feature, Wolf. The oil markets are the hottest market on Wall Street. And many sophisticated investors and big brokerage firms that are not customary to the oil market are in there big-time and are quite happy to see prices go higher right now -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Chris Huntington reporting for us -- thank you, Chris, very much.

Sharks, hundreds of them. We'll show you where and what they're doing right now.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Our picture of the day, hundreds of shark off Juno Beach, Florida. Take a look at this.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

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