Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Journalists and Sources; Australian Hostage Freed; Terri Schiavo Autopsy; Guantanamo Bay Debate; California Earthquake

Aired June 15, 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, inside Iran: You're familiar with the Ayatollahs and the anti-American rallies, but now you're about to meet other Iranians who share a very different perspective. Our Christiane Amanpour is in Iran. Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Found: they helped free a hostage.

DOUGLAS WOOD, HOSTAGE FREED IN IRAQ: The Iraqi boys did a very good job of saving me, you know?

BLITZER: But Iraqi forces suffered devastating blows in return.

Autopsy: doctors deliver the results on Terri Schiavo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her brain was profoundly atrophied. The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain.

BLITZER: But is that enough for her parents?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The family would just like closure. They'd like an answer. They'd like to know what happened to Terri.

BLITZER: West coast warning: a massive quake triggers a tsunami alert.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was pretty scary. A lot of the locals were pretending they weren't scared, but they were.

BLITZER: Last time it was the real thing. Was America lucky this time?

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Wednesday June 15, 2005.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Thanks very much for joining us. For Iraqi troops, victories have been few and far between. They've had a measure of success recently in counterinsurgency operations, but they've also had many bloody setbacks. Today, some more of both.

It may have been serendipity rather than design, but Iraqi forces found and freed a long-suffering Australian hostage even as they suffered heavy losses in yet another insurgent attack. We begin our coverage with Jennifer Eccleston in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's not often in Iraq that a person in this position gets to this position. Douglas Wood is a very lucky man.

WOOD: The Iraqi boys did a very good job of saving me.

ECCLESTON: Douglas Wood is an Australian engineer who came to Iraq to make some good money. Six weeks ago, he was kidnapped.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did they treat you?

WOOD: Pretty fair. They kicked me in the head in the first place. And bread and water all the time.

ECCLESTON: Iraqi forces supported by U.S. troops were not specifically looking for Wood, they were looking for weapons and insurgents as part of Operation Lightning, going house to house in Baghdad. Wood was in the right house at the right time.

WOOD: Well, I wasn't sure what was happening. First thing is there was a bit of shooting outside. And they came and covered me over with a blanket -- they ripped off the black thing, put a blanket over me. And then a lot of yelling and screaming.

ECCLESTON: The Iraqi Army's deputy chief of staff, Lieutenant General Hamid Abadi said Wood's captors tried to conceal his identity from the American and Iraqi troops.

LT. GEN. HAMID ABADI, IRAQI ARMY: He was under a blanket. And he was tied down. And they claimed that he's their father and he's sick.

ECCLESTON: Hours later, Douglas Wood was feeling fine.

WOOD: God, you don't know how pleased I am to see you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More than you know. We're so glad you're OK.

ECCLESTON: His journey from a hostage pleading for his life to a free man, was complete.

WOOD: God bless America.

ECCLESTON: Jennifer Eccleston, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Once again, Iraqi security forces were battered today and bloodied by insurgents. At least 23 soldiers died when a suicide bomber wearing an army uniform set off his belt of explosives at an army post near Baquba. An Iraqi Army official says the blast occurred inside a dining hall on the base during lunchtime. Another 28 people, mostly soldiers were, wounded.

A suicide car bombing killed at least four people and wounded 29 others in a market area of Baghdad. Police say the bomber targeted and destroyed an Iraqi police patrol of three vehicles. A number of casualties were police officers.

There is new word, perhaps, on fate of the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. A senior Taliban military commander says in a Pakistani television interview that both leaders are alive and well. He says Mullah Omar is still the Taliban commander and still passing instructions to followers. He describes Osama bin Laden -- and I'm quoting now -- he says he's absolutely fine, but offers no word on his whereabouts.

Amid a growing chorus of calls to shut down the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today to looked at the way suspects have been handled at that facility. The chairman Arlen Specter said the issue may be too hot for congress to handle. But that didn't stop the matter from being hotly debated. Let's go live to our correspondent Ed Henry -- Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Indeed Wolf, the rhetoric was red hot with Democrats charging that the prison has shamed the nation. And Republicans insisting that nothing could be further from the truth.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY (voice-over): It was a tale of two prisons with Democrats calling Guantanamo an international embarrassment, while Republicans insisted the detention center is vital to the war on terror.

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS, (R) ALABAMA: Now, this country is not systematically abusing prisoners. We have no policy to do so. And it's wrong to suggest that. And it puts our soldiers at risk who are in this battle because we sent them there, and we have an obligation to them.

HENRY: Republicans continued to hammer the theme that detainees actually have it pretty good. With Sessions saying the prison is in such a scenic part of Cuba, it would make a magnificent resort. That followed Republican Duncan Hunter's media event on Monday in which he contended the prisoners are well fed.

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER, (R) CALIFORNIA; This is lemon fish. And this is what the 20th hijacker and Osama bin Laden's bodyguards will be eating this week.

HENRY: Democrats scoffed at that, charging Guantanamo is really just a legal black hole for the 520 detainees.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY, (D) VERMONT: Producing props of chicken dinners and such, seeming to argue this is more a Club Med than a prison. Let's get real.

HENRY: Democrats stepped up their efforts to shut the prison down altogether, but the chairman echoed Vice President Cheney by suggesting it would be unwise to simply release the suspected terrorists.

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, (R) PENNSYLVANIA: We ought to be as sure as we can what steps are being taken so that we do not release detainees from Guantanamo who turn up on battlefields killing Americans.

HENRY: But some detainees have languished in the prison for three years without facing any charges. If they're really terrorists, say Democrats, charge them with crimes.

LEAHY: If that's true, if they pose a threat to us, then there has to be evidence to support that or our administration would not tell the world that. And if there's evidence, then let's prosecute them, let's bring the evidence forward.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY: But Brigadier General Thomas Hemingway testified at this hearing today that these detainees can be held as long as this conflict endures. When pressed for a definition, or an explanation of how long this conflict will endure, a Justice Department official testified that the Bush administration believes legally, it can keep these detainees as long as it wants, in fact, in perpetuity -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Ed, we know there are a lot of Democrats who oppose, who want to shut down the Guantanamo base facility. There are a few Republicans. But how serious is that Republican opposition?

HENRY: There was concern at the White House because the first Republican in the Senate to come forward and say perhaps it should be shut down is Senator Mel Martinez. And as you know, he's a former member of the Bush cabinet. That sent off some alarm bells.

And then today, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez said basically all options are on the table. They're still looking at this. They're studying it. That seems to be a little bit different than what Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been saying. So, it's suggesting that there's a little division within the administration. And that's why there's some seriousness that perhaps they might shut it down.

BLITZER: All right. Ed Henry reporting for us from Capitol Hill, thanks very much.

To our viewers, please stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

It should be the final word on the Terri Schiavo controversy so why is her family now questioning the final autopsy results? You'll hear the results for yourself. That's coming up.

Tsunami scare, a dose of reality for Americans living out on West Coast. We'll have the rush to safety and a look at why those fears are real. And there's an amazing look inside Iran. Our Christiane Amanpour brings us a special report including some very candid remarks from women who say Iran has a lot of catching up to do. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The battle over her life and the drama of her slow death made headlines around the world.

Now a postscript to the Terri Schiavo saga: results of the autopsy are in. CNN's Mary Snow is in New York with a closer look at what they found -- Mary?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well it's two-and-a-half months after Terri Schiavo died. Medical examiners in Florida say that she suffered severe and irreversible brain damage and she ultimately died, they say, of dehydration. But the autopsy does leave some questions unanswered.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (voice-over): Medical examiners who performed the autopsy on Terri Schiavo said her brain was roughly half the size of what would be considered normal.

JON THOGMARTIN, MEDICAL EXAMINER: Mrs. Schiavo suffered a severe anoxic brain injury. In other words, her brain suffered damage from lack of blood flow and oxygen.

SNOW: The medical examiner and his team concluded no amount of therapy would have reversed her condition. Reacting to the report, Michael Schiavo was described by his attorney as being pleased with the evidence. Michael Schiavo had contended that his wife was in a persistent vegetative state and that was why he wanted to remove her feeding tube and let her die.

THOGMARTIN: Was Mrs. Schiavo in a persistent vegetative state?

SNOW: For that key question, the medical examiner had no answer.

Her parents disputed that she was in a vegetative state and alleged Michael Schiavo abused her.

GEORGE FELOS, MICHAEL SCHIAVO'S ATTORNEY: For years and years the courts have found there's -- that there was no abuse of Terri, no evidence of abuse and that's what the medical examiner found.

SNOW: But Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, are not satisfied. The autopsy report did not determine why Terri Schiavo initially collapsed in 1990 and lost consciousness. Doctors say they found no signs of abuse or trauma. The Schindlers' attorney questions what he calls an unexplained gap in 1990 between the time she collapsed and when her husband dialed 911.

DAVID GIBBS, SCHINDLER FAMILY ATTORNEY: I think this 70-minute time period, when all of this brain injury, when the blood flow is stopped is very significant. And I would want to know -- and Michael Schiavo was the only person there.

SNOW: Michael Schiavo's attorney calls the claim of a time gap baseless. Another conclusion of the medical examiner: Terri Schiavo was totally blind.

THOGMARTIN: Her vision centers of her brain were dead.

SNOW: Michael Schiavo's attorney said that's significant, saying it shows that Terri Schiavo could not see her mother in what became a widely watched video of her and her mother in 2002. It had been released by the Schindlers to prove their daughter was responsive. An attorney for the Schindlers acknowledged Terri Schiavo was visually impaired, but did not concede she was totally blind.

As for what ultimately caused her death: she did not starve to death, it was dehydration.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: And the attorney for Michael Schiavo says that at some point he does plan to release pictures of the autopsy of his late wife's brain. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Mary Snow, with that report. Thanks, very much.

Let's get a little bit more now on the autopsy and what it reveal veals about Terri Schiavo. For that, we're joined by Dr. Cyril Wecht in Pittsburgh. He's the Allegheny County coroner and a nationally recognized forensic expert. Dr. Wecht, always good to have you on our program.

CYRIL WECHT, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Good afternoon.

BLITZER: Thanks, very much.

The brain being half the size of a normal person at that stage in life, what does that say to you?

WECHT: Well, the brain became markedly atrophic. It was not a small brain, obviously, to begin with. And the medical examiner did a very nice bit of historical referencing, Karen Ann Quinlan, a similar young woman who also was in a state like Miss Schiavo, had a brain that was a third larger. So you know, just to give you some proportionality here, the atrophic brain coupled with a massive brain damage, as reported by the medical examiner, clearly connotes that there really was no chance whatsoever, nothing, of a valid neurobiological nature to suggest that Terri Schiavo would ever regain any kind of perceptive powers.

As I've been saying all along, persistent vegetative state is not a pathological diagnosis. So, the medical examiner is not hedging in failing to respond to that. That is a clinical diagnosis. What he has done is he has demonstrated the brain damage, grossly and microscopicly and through special stains I'm certain. He has also identified specific centers, like the visual centers, to show that she could not see. I'm certain that he's also identified other centers to indicate that she did not have a variety of perceptive, motor coordinative and cognitive functions. So, these are the things that are important.

Going back to 1990, and that time laps, this is something nobody can deal with at this time -- nobody.

BLITZER: Dr. Wecht, so the family, her parents and brothers who suggest that if she would have gotten proper therapy -- physical therapy and other kind of therapy -- she might have been able to improve. You dismiss that based on the autopsy result of today?

WECHT: Well, let me say this: You can only do so much with the autopsy in 2005. Nobody can know exactly what the condition of the brain was in 1990 and '91 and '92. And so I would want to know more and I would have to learn more from the autopsy findings, correlated with the hospital records at that time to determine whether or not there was any possibility that there could have been some degree of restoration or regeneration back then.

It does not seem likely. Inasmuch as the medical examiner's pointed out and I would agree with him, that this was an anoxic insult, a deprivation of oxygen through the lack of arterial blood flow, back then, then it would seem that, that damage to the brain did occur and the shrinkage occurred and developed ongoing over the years.

So, I think that tragically, this young woman suffered that attack in 1990 from whatever cause, and there probably wasn't anything that could have been done.

BLITZER: So at the end -- at the end of her, the life last year, let's say if she could have been -- maybe gotten better treatment in '90 or '91 after she initially collapsed -- but at the end, the last year or two or three, was there any hope?

WECHT: No.

BLITZER: Realistic hope she could have gotten better.

WECHT: No, absolutely not. If you go back a few years, several years, I would say at least a decade or so, at that time, and by that time, I don't think that there was any likelihood of a rehabilitative nature. I think that going back, as I say, in '90, '91, I don't know if anybody can say that. The best people to ascertain that would be the physicians who were taking care of her rather than the pathologist who does an autopsy 15 years later.

BLITZER: All right, Dr. Wecht, thanks very much for joining us.

Dr. Cyril Wecht from Pittsburgh.

BLITZER: When we come back, memories of a killer wave: Northern California fears a nightmare as the entire West Coast goes on tsunami alert. We'll have details of what happened.

Also, a new search in Aruba for a missing teenage vacationer. The latest on the Natalee Holloway case. We'll update you on that.

Plus, why Iranian women are pinning their hopes on elections now just two days away.

Our chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour in a rare visit to Tehran.

We'll get her report.

All that coming up.

(COMMECIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A scare for millions of people on the West Coast. First, a very powerful earthquake, followed minutes later by a tsunami warning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This warning is in effect for all the California and Mexico border and it includes the Vancouver/British- Columbia coastline. Now, that is out from the Tsunami Warning Center.

BLITZER (voice-over): Alarming news for viewers last night. A rare tsunami warning was issued, covering the entire U.S. West Coast and beyond, urging people along the shore to flee to higher ground.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was pretty scary. I think a lot of the locals were pretending they weren't scared but they were.

BLITZER: The reason behind the warning? A magnitude seven earthquake about 90 miles off the coast of Crescent City, California. No damage reported, but widely felt.

CAROL CILIBERTI, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: You could just really feel a lot of trembling and just, like I said that, you know, the thing that struck us at the time was how long -- it just kept going and going.

BLITZER: Some area residents still remember the 1964 tsunami that killed 11 people in Crescent City and leveled dozens of blocks. And with images of last December's tsunami disaster in South Asia still fresh, officials weren't taking chances.

SHERIFF DEAN WILSON, DEL. NORTE CO., CALIF.: We estimate that we had approximately 4,000 people that we actually moved out of the area.

BLITZER: Similar concerns in San Francisco where police urged people to get off the beach. But the tsunami warning was soon lifted as experts realized the quake was what's known as a strike slip, not the kind that caused last year's disaster. DAVID APPLEGATE, USGS SCIENTIST: The one that hit Sumatra was what we call a thrust quake, where you have one plate moving over another and that's what causes the jolt in the sea floor and that causes a jolt in the water column and generates the tsunami. Because this was strike slip, it was moving side to side and it didn't generate that same jolt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an official all-clear.

BLITZER: In the end, a false alarm, but a valuable exercise for many along the country's vulnerable West Coast.

CHIEF CLEVE ROOPER, COOPER BEACH, ORE., FIRE DEPT.: It's always good practice when you can do it, so we hope it went well. We hope we learned something from it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (on camera): There have been numerous aftershocks to last night's quake but scientists say none of them has been significant.

Inside Iran, surprisingly candid remarks from Iranian women about the political and social pressures they face everyday. Our Christiane Amanpour takes us inside their world.

Plus, you may be surprised to hear who the former Bush administration solicitor general is now representing. My interview with Ted Olson, that's coming up.

And later, he headed the 9/11 victim's compensation fund and has written a new book about his work. Attorney Ken Feinberg joins us. That's coming up. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

Uncensored in Iran, our Christiane Amanpour speaks with Iranian women about life under strict rule. Their amazingly candid comments, that's coming up. First though, a quick check of some other stories "Now in the News."

Police in Aruba have cordoned off the family home of a teen held in the case of missing Alabama teen Natalee Holloway. The 17-year-old boy is one of three youths being held in the case. He maintains his innocence. Holloway disappeared May 30th during a graduation trip to Aruba.

U.S. State Department is concerned about what it calls serious and credible information that minorities are being wrongly detained in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. "The Washington Post" first reported on the allegations. The once-persecuted Kurds hold a small minority in the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk.

Iran is preparing for presidential elections Friday. While men remain in firm control of Iranian society, some Iranian women are hoping the next president will change things. CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour reports from Tehran.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INT'L CORRESPONDENT: Golshifteh Farahani is 21-years-old. She's been an actress since she was 14 and rarely out of work. Iran has a thriving film industry, and her movies pack the cinemas and reap awards.

GOLSHIFTEH FARAHANI, ACTRESS: I like to work in Iran. I like it because I think it makes me more creative because of these, you know...

AMANPOUR: She's trying to say, pressures and limitations -- political, religious, and social -- that force everyone here, especially the women, into subtle forms of self-expression.

Her latest film was released this week. But Golshift knows her career flourishes at the pleasure of the authorities. Like many Iranian women, she hopes their next president will give women more rights, especially legal rights.

FARAHANI: I think the problem is, it's not only the government and the you know, system that doesn't give enough rights for the women. Even the women themselves, they don't give -- they don't know their rights. They don't know it. So I think that's the real problem.

AMANPOUR: But women's rights advocates point out that all of the women who tried to register as candidates for this presidential election were disqualified by the Guardian Council, which vets all contenders.

(on camera): And this week, groups of professional women and students held their first public demonstration since the veil was made obligatory 26 years ago. This time, they're demanding their next president improve women's status.

(voice-over): Authorities allow women to wear ever tighter overcoats, show ever more hair and makeup and they tolerate women like Laleh Seddigh competing in car races, but she too believes that women should pursue their rights more.

LALEH SEDDIGH, RACE CAR DRIVER: If they ask for their rights, by sure they will achieve it. And I hope so.

AMANPOUR: Do you think it's that easy?

SEDDIGH: By sure, no. But they must try if they want to be successful in everything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do your some colors that we talked about?

AMANPOUR: For now though, many Iranian women seem more interested in improving their daily lives, rather than risking them on political activism. At this all-female English school in Tehran, students are hoping a new language will improve their job opportunities, or even be their ticket out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love my job. I'm an architect. And nowadays we need to learn English because of our jobs to improve yourself. And also, I have a plan to emigrate to Canada so I need it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to go to the United States, because my husband's family are living there.

AMANPOUR: As each shift rotates through this school, Friday's election is on the mind of the students.

Women who have always turned out to the polls wonder this time, will they vote?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think I will because I love my country. And it's my right to participate in what belongs to me.

AMANPOUR: But still, they ask, will it make a difference? Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Tehran, Iran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The current Iranian president Muhammed Khatami is not allowed to stand for reelection. The front-runner to succeed him is the former president Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Let's take a quick look at other news making headlines around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Police arrested 16 suspected Islamic terrorists in a series of raids. Five are believed to be linked to last year's Madrid train bombings, the other 11 are said to have ties with Abu Musab al Zarqawi's al Qaeda group in Iraq.

Coming home: 30 years after they were evacuated from Vietnam as tiny children, 21 men and women returned for a visit, some for the first time. They were among thousands of children, many of mixed Vietnamese-American parentage flown to the United States during the final days of the Vietnam War.

No handicap: a 42-year-old Australian man climbed Nepal's Mount Everest even though he has only one hand. Paul Hockey who lost his right hand to cancer as a child says he hopes his feet will show today's young cancer patients they can still make their dreams come true.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: A CIA operative outed: two journalists threatened with jail time if they don't reveal their sources. You may be surprised to hear who's representing the reporters. We'll hear from him. That's coming up next.

Helping the victims: the head of the 9/11 Compensation Fund speaks out about his work. Attorney Ken Feinberg standing by to join us live.

And later, actress and good will ambassador from the United Nations, Angelina Jolie, she's is right here in Washington today. We'll hear from her this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A U.S. special prosecutor is continuing the investigation into a news report that surfaced almost two years ago revealing the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Syndicated columnist and CNN commentator Robert Novak cited two senior Bush administration officials for the information. It was widely seen as a bid to try to discredit Plame's husband, former U.S. ambassador Joe Wilson, a staunch critic of the administration's Iraq policy.

The special prosecutor is threatening to put two other reporters in jail unless they testify about their sources. One of the reporters is Judith Miller of the "New York Times," the other Matthew Cooper of "Time" magazine, a sister company to CNN.

Former Bush administration Solicitor General Theodore Olson is representing Cooper and "Time" magazine. And he's asking the United States Supreme Court to intervene. I spoke with Ted Olson about the case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Ted Olson, thanks very much for joining us.

THEODORE OLSON, FRM. BUSH ADMINISTRATION SOLICITOR GENERAL: Thank you.

BLITZER: A lot of our viewers know you. And they're going to be surprised to hear you're representing Matt Cooper of "Time" magazine -- the liberal news media -- and you're trying them -- keep him out of jail. What's going on?

OLSON: Well, I was represented when I've been a private practitioner, the press. I started early in my career representing the "Los Angeles Times" and other publications in Los Angeles. I'm a strong believer in the First Amendment. I'm also a strong believer that "Time" magazine and Matt Cooper, its reporter, and Judith Miller, the "New York Times" reporter, have constitutional rights and other rights under the laws of the United States. They're entitled to lawyers to represent them.

BLITZER: So you feel strongly they shouldn't have to release the identity of their source?

OLSON: We feel very strongly that the court should recognize a privilege that 49 states and the District of Columbia have clearly recognized for reporters on appropriate occasions to protect the identity of confidential sources.

BLITZER: Did you say 49 states?

OLSON: 49 states, plus the District of Columbia.

BLITZER: All right. Let me read to you what you wrote in the "Wall Street Journal" on Wednesday. "It ill-serves society for reporters and they're lawyers to be operating in the dark, not knowing whether a reporter's promise to protect a source will be respected by the courts or whether it will result, instead, in a prison term unless the reporter decides to break his word."

You want the Supreme Court now to take this case and reach a decision that will specify, make it clear-cut, the relationship between a reporter and a confidential source.

OLSON: Absolutely. There is no one who's not best-served by clear rules with respect to reporters and sources. The sources need to know what a reporter can promise. A reporter needs to know what he can promise and whether he or she might go to jail for making such a promise. Prosecutors need to know. Lawyers need to know. Everyone would be best-served by having a law clarified.

BLITZER: So, is there any doubt that the Supreme Court will ignore this opportunity to clarify that law?

OLSON: I never try to predict in advance what the United States Supreme Court is going to do. There are lots of petitions pending before the court. The court has only a limited docket. We're telling the court, or we're asking the court, to recognize the fact that this is very, very important.

The Watergate situation and the recent revelations about Deep Throat remind us that many stories will never get written, especially when reporters are covering government and trying to find out abuses in government or excesses by government officials. Often reporters need to go to confidential sources to get information. If they couldn't go to confidential sources and get that information and promise confidentiality, the public might never know, and the public might never have known about the depth of the corruption in Watergate had it not been for confidential sources.

BLITZER: And, you speak as a bonafide conservative who was the solicitor general in the Justice Department during the first -- during this Bush administration, the first term of this presidency, and you sound as if you want the Supreme Court, when all is said and done, to say that journalists should have this constitutional right to be able to report what confidential sources are telling them without fear of going to jail.

OLSON: As a conservative or a liberal or an American, we have a first amendment. We know in this country that a free press, a free, vigorous, robust press is essential to our democracy and the protection of our democracy and our freedoms. We want, all of us, I think, want a free press. Sometimes it's necessary, for a press to operate, to use confidential sources. There may be some restrictions and there may be some limitations, but the rules with respect to that need to be clarified.

BLITZER: So, journalists -- and I'll take the other side for a moment -- a prosecutor says, why should journalists be held above the law? Everybody else can be dragged in front of a grand jury and release information. Why shouldn't journalists, who may have valuable information in an investigation, why shouldn't they be forced to testify?

OLSON: It's not being above the law. We protect confidential communications between attorneys and clients, between doctors and patients, between spouses, husbands and wives. We protect certain communications because we think it is important to encourage those communications and we know that if we don't protect the confidentiality of those communications, those communications may not occur at all.

So, when a lawyer has a privilege or a client has a privilege, to communicate in confidence with a lawyer, that doesn't mean anybody is above the law. It means that the law recognizes the importance of that communication and the importance of protecting it.

BLITZER: So, your bottom-line hope is the Supreme Court, A, will hear this case, and B, will then rule that this privilege should be codified into law, the privilege between a source and a journalist?

OLSON: Exactly, and Congress has recognized that itself. In 1975, Congress enacted the evidence code and it said the courts should adapt privileges or testimonial protections according to reason and experience. Since that time, over 32 states, bringing the total to 49, plus the District of Columbia, have enacted, either through court decisions or legislatures, privileges to protect reporters and their confidential sources to one degree or another.

We're saying that the federal law ought to parallel the state law, that there shouldn't be one federal law and another state law. It's inconsistent and it undermines the policies which have been adopted in virtually every state.

BLITZER: Ted Olson, thanks very much for joining us.

OLSON: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And coming up at the top of the hour, "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT." Kitty Pilgrim, standing in for Lou tonight. She's standing by in New York with a preview.

KITTY PILGRIM, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Wolf. Thanks.

Well, coming up, a top White House official on the environment leaves the Bush administration, lands at the world's largest oil company, raising new questions about ties between the White House and big oil.

Plus, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan reacts to the latest calls for his resignation. What Annan and his critics are saying about a newly discovered memo that appears to link him to the Oil-for- Food scandal.

And, why the rush to become part of the historic housing boom could go bust for millions of Americans. We have a special report coming up. All that, coming up. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Kitty. We'll be watching. Thanks very much.

When we come back, determining the value of life. I'll speak with Ken Feinberg about his new book and the work that he's done as the administrator of the 9/11 victims' compensation fund.

Plus, talking with Angelina Jolie. Find out what made the actress tear up when she sat down earlier today here in Washington with our very own Andrea Koppel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Just days after terrorists flew jumbo jets into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and rural Pennsylvania, one man was assigned the daunting task of calculating the dollar value of more than 5,000 dead and injured -- 3,000 dead -- 5,000 dead and injured. That's correct.

Attorney Ken Feinberg was appointed administrator of the 9/11 victims' compensation fund. Feinberg doled out a total when all was said and done of some $7 billion, in awards ranging from $500 to $8.6 million. In his new book entitled "What is Life Worth?," Feinberg assesses his work, and Ken Feinberg is joining us here now. Thanks for your excellent work. Always good to have you on our program, Ken.

Let me read to from the book. You write this, "What is life worth? What distinguish" -- distinctions -- "could I recognize among different family members? How could I do justice? I could not play Solomon. I would listen to their grief I would hear what they had to say, but I would not calculate awards by weighing their suffering, nor would I pay them for it. There had to be a better way and I was determined to find it.

This was a daunting challenge that you had and it was a painful challenge.

KEN FEINGBERG, 9/11 VICTIM'S COMPENSATION FUND: It was. I conducted personally almost 1,000 individual hearings with family members, and it was absolutely excruciating. The stories you would hear, the need that would be expressed by these families -- but, we got through it, and 97 percent of all the families signed on to the fund.

BLITZER: There was a story in the papers this week that one of those who received a significant sum, about $5 million, simply went on a shopping spree and started spending it and wasted almost all of it already. Do you have any control over how these families could spend the money that you provided them? FEINBERG: That's a very tragic story. Obviously, this woman is in great, great pain and in need of help. Once we doled out the money, once we made awards, that was it. But we invited any family that received any money from the taxpayers to receive free financial planning. A couple of hundred people took it. Most just said thank you very much. We'll take the check. We don't need the help.

But we were perfectly willing to structure the settlements and provide money over time, give people financial help in planning their future. And that was part of the program.

BLITZER: A psychologist quoted in the New York Post this week, Paula Madrid, Columbia University said this -- said, "some spend the money right away on luxuries like cars and furs. They also give it away, out of survivor's guilt and a desire to help others in need." Was that -- is that the experience based on what you know?

FEINBERG: Based on what I know, people responded in countless different ways, as many different ways as human nature and human emotion. But again, once we decided what the award would be, and once we tendered the money to the family, that was it as far as we were concerned.

BLITZER: Among the criteria, the formula that you used, compute economic loss was one, compute noneconomic loss, deduct other sources of income, and then finally, this was very important, adjust for what's called exceptional circumstances. And you had the discretion to make that fourth point.

FEINBERG: An exceptional circumstances -- a woman came to see me, Wolf, and said Mr. Feinberg, I know I'm getting money. I need more money. I have two little children. My husband died.

And I asked her what is the exceptional circumstance? Oh, Mr. Feinberg, I have terminal cancer. And my two children are going to be orphans within two or three months. Can you please give me a little bit more money? And would you please accelerate the payments? And a few months later she died and I gave her that extra money.

BLITZER: I'm sure she was grateful. All of us are grateful to you for the work that you did. The book is entitled "What is Life Worth?" It's actually worth a great deal to read this book. Appreciate it very much.

FEINBERG: Thank you very much for having me on.

BLITZER: We'll take another quick break.

When we come back, one-on-one with Angelina Jolie. She was over at the State Department speaking about refugees today. And our Andrea Koppel also asked the actress about Brad Pitt. We'll get to that. First, though, Gary Tuchman has CNN's anniversary series "Then and Now."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Her personal pain symbolized the nation's in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. Edye Smith was a 23-year-old divorced mother whose three-year son Chase and two-year-old son Holton (ph) died at the daycare center inside the federal building.

EDYE SMITH, MOTHER OF OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING VICTIM: What do you do when people ask you, you have children, what do you say? Well, I did have children? My children are dead. What do you say? You don't know what to say.

TUCHMAN: After the bottoming Edye remarried the boy's father Tony Smith only to divorce him a second time. She went on to marry again, have another son Glenn who is now seven-years-old. But Edye still thinks about the son she lost.

SMITH: I never got to see him ride a bike or go to kindergarten. I don't know what they would look like or how tall they would be.

TUCHMAN: Edye maintains there was a government coverup in the Oklahoma City bombing. Her mother Kathy even wrote a book about the allegations. She is now Edye Lucas, owns her own hair salon, is expecting another baby in December.

SMITH: This is probably the happiest I've ever been in my life. And I just -- I don't feel the need to be angry. Because anger will consume you. I'm not mad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The United Nations says there are some 17 million refugees around the world. This Monday, the U.N. will pay tribute as the world marks World Refugee Day.

Our State Department correspondent, Andrea Koppel, spoke with Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie earlier today here in Washington. She got emotional at one point, didn't she, Andrea?

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, she absolutely did, Wolf. For the last four years, the Oscar-winning Jolie has left Hollywood's red carpet far behind and in between filming various movies has traveled to refugee camps around the world as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Refugee Agency. In an interview with CNN, Jolie got emotional as she remembered the first time she saw a child die in a refugee camp.

ANGELINA JOLIE, UNHCR GOODWILL AMBASSADOR: It's the first child I saw die -- I saw him dying. And, you know, it was my first trip, my first moment and my thought was -- being somebody from the states and had a bit of money, I thought, Well, we'll just airlift him and take him to the hospital. I can solve this in a second. And then you suddenly -- it was that moment where you look around and realize that there are, you know hundreds of thousands people in the exact same situation and that -- and that a lot of these kids were going to die. And then I went home and I thought, I should have at least taken one.

KOPPEL: Since that first trip, Jolie has spent $3 million of her own money just on travel expenses to pay her way to over 15 countries around the world, Wolf.

BLITZER: Good work for her.

On a much lighter note -- much lighter note -- you also asked her about her relationship with Brad Pitt and Hollywood. Listen to this exchange that you had with her.

KOPPEL: How do you feel about, you know, the tabloids focusing so much attention on your sex life, as opposed to focusing on the issues that really --

JOLIE: Well, that's why they're the tabloids. But, you know, I hope just people can make a line between what's the "New York Times" and what's "Star Magazine." Do you know what I mean?

KOPPEL: But more people, unfortunately, read "Star Magazine" than the "New York Times".

JOLIE: Yeah, that's -- I can't -- you know, I don't read those things. I just hope that you just live your life and hope that the good things come through and that the other things kind of fade away that aren't -- you can't really do anything about it but keep focusing forward.

KOPPEL: I know that you have inspired -- I'm sure, lots of people -- but one of them was your former co-star in Mrs. Smith to get involved in this. Do you --

JOLIE: I don't think I was -- he's always -- he always seemed like somebody -- you know, the first day of working together, that was very conscious. So I think it was a matter of time.

KOPPEL: Are you proud of him?

JOLIE: Of course.

BLITZER: That's when they ended the interview.

KOPPEL: They wrapped us, they gave us the hook. So, I tried to find out. I'm sorry, I couldn't. Is she dating him or isn't she, we still don't know.

BLITZER: Well, intriguing minds want to know the answer to that question.

KOPPEL: Inquiring minds...

BLITZER: That's it for us. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

END

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 June 15, 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, inside Iran: You're familiar with the Ayatollahs and the anti-American rallies, but now you're about to meet other Iranians who share a very different perspective. Our Christiane Amanpour is in Iran. Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Found: they helped free a hostage.

DOUGLAS WOOD, HOSTAGE FREED IN IRAQ: The Iraqi boys did a very good job of saving me, you know?

BLITZER: But Iraqi forces suffered devastating blows in return.

Autopsy: doctors deliver the results on Terri Schiavo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her brain was profoundly atrophied. The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain.

BLITZER: But is that enough for her parents?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The family would just like closure. They'd like an answer. They'd like to know what happened to Terri.

BLITZER: West coast warning: a massive quake triggers a tsunami alert.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was pretty scary. A lot of the locals were pretending they weren't scared, but they were.

BLITZER: Last time it was the real thing. Was America lucky this time?

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Wednesday June 15, 2005.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Thanks very much for joining us. For Iraqi troops, victories have been few and far between. They've had a measure of success recently in counterinsurgency operations, but they've also had many bloody setbacks. Today, some more of both.

It may have been serendipity rather than design, but Iraqi forces found and freed a long-suffering Australian hostage even as they suffered heavy losses in yet another insurgent attack. We begin our coverage with Jennifer Eccleston in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's not often in Iraq that a person in this position gets to this position. Douglas Wood is a very lucky man.

WOOD: The Iraqi boys did a very good job of saving me.

ECCLESTON: Douglas Wood is an Australian engineer who came to Iraq to make some good money. Six weeks ago, he was kidnapped.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did they treat you?

WOOD: Pretty fair. They kicked me in the head in the first place. And bread and water all the time.

ECCLESTON: Iraqi forces supported by U.S. troops were not specifically looking for Wood, they were looking for weapons and insurgents as part of Operation Lightning, going house to house in Baghdad. Wood was in the right house at the right time.

WOOD: Well, I wasn't sure what was happening. First thing is there was a bit of shooting outside. And they came and covered me over with a blanket -- they ripped off the black thing, put a blanket over me. And then a lot of yelling and screaming.

ECCLESTON: The Iraqi Army's deputy chief of staff, Lieutenant General Hamid Abadi said Wood's captors tried to conceal his identity from the American and Iraqi troops.

LT. GEN. HAMID ABADI, IRAQI ARMY: He was under a blanket. And he was tied down. And they claimed that he's their father and he's sick.

ECCLESTON: Hours later, Douglas Wood was feeling fine.

WOOD: God, you don't know how pleased I am to see you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More than you know. We're so glad you're OK.

ECCLESTON: His journey from a hostage pleading for his life to a free man, was complete.

WOOD: God bless America.

ECCLESTON: Jennifer Eccleston, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Once again, Iraqi security forces were battered today and bloodied by insurgents. At least 23 soldiers died when a suicide bomber wearing an army uniform set off his belt of explosives at an army post near Baquba. An Iraqi Army official says the blast occurred inside a dining hall on the base during lunchtime. Another 28 people, mostly soldiers were, wounded.

A suicide car bombing killed at least four people and wounded 29 others in a market area of Baghdad. Police say the bomber targeted and destroyed an Iraqi police patrol of three vehicles. A number of casualties were police officers.

There is new word, perhaps, on fate of the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. A senior Taliban military commander says in a Pakistani television interview that both leaders are alive and well. He says Mullah Omar is still the Taliban commander and still passing instructions to followers. He describes Osama bin Laden -- and I'm quoting now -- he says he's absolutely fine, but offers no word on his whereabouts.

Amid a growing chorus of calls to shut down the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today to looked at the way suspects have been handled at that facility. The chairman Arlen Specter said the issue may be too hot for congress to handle. But that didn't stop the matter from being hotly debated. Let's go live to our correspondent Ed Henry -- Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Indeed Wolf, the rhetoric was red hot with Democrats charging that the prison has shamed the nation. And Republicans insisting that nothing could be further from the truth.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY (voice-over): It was a tale of two prisons with Democrats calling Guantanamo an international embarrassment, while Republicans insisted the detention center is vital to the war on terror.

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS, (R) ALABAMA: Now, this country is not systematically abusing prisoners. We have no policy to do so. And it's wrong to suggest that. And it puts our soldiers at risk who are in this battle because we sent them there, and we have an obligation to them.

HENRY: Republicans continued to hammer the theme that detainees actually have it pretty good. With Sessions saying the prison is in such a scenic part of Cuba, it would make a magnificent resort. That followed Republican Duncan Hunter's media event on Monday in which he contended the prisoners are well fed.

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER, (R) CALIFORNIA; This is lemon fish. And this is what the 20th hijacker and Osama bin Laden's bodyguards will be eating this week.

HENRY: Democrats scoffed at that, charging Guantanamo is really just a legal black hole for the 520 detainees.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY, (D) VERMONT: Producing props of chicken dinners and such, seeming to argue this is more a Club Med than a prison. Let's get real.

HENRY: Democrats stepped up their efforts to shut the prison down altogether, but the chairman echoed Vice President Cheney by suggesting it would be unwise to simply release the suspected terrorists.

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, (R) PENNSYLVANIA: We ought to be as sure as we can what steps are being taken so that we do not release detainees from Guantanamo who turn up on battlefields killing Americans.

HENRY: But some detainees have languished in the prison for three years without facing any charges. If they're really terrorists, say Democrats, charge them with crimes.

LEAHY: If that's true, if they pose a threat to us, then there has to be evidence to support that or our administration would not tell the world that. And if there's evidence, then let's prosecute them, let's bring the evidence forward.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY: But Brigadier General Thomas Hemingway testified at this hearing today that these detainees can be held as long as this conflict endures. When pressed for a definition, or an explanation of how long this conflict will endure, a Justice Department official testified that the Bush administration believes legally, it can keep these detainees as long as it wants, in fact, in perpetuity -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Ed, we know there are a lot of Democrats who oppose, who want to shut down the Guantanamo base facility. There are a few Republicans. But how serious is that Republican opposition?

HENRY: There was concern at the White House because the first Republican in the Senate to come forward and say perhaps it should be shut down is Senator Mel Martinez. And as you know, he's a former member of the Bush cabinet. That sent off some alarm bells.

And then today, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez said basically all options are on the table. They're still looking at this. They're studying it. That seems to be a little bit different than what Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been saying. So, it's suggesting that there's a little division within the administration. And that's why there's some seriousness that perhaps they might shut it down.

BLITZER: All right. Ed Henry reporting for us from Capitol Hill, thanks very much.

To our viewers, please stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

It should be the final word on the Terri Schiavo controversy so why is her family now questioning the final autopsy results? You'll hear the results for yourself. That's coming up.

Tsunami scare, a dose of reality for Americans living out on West Coast. We'll have the rush to safety and a look at why those fears are real. And there's an amazing look inside Iran. Our Christiane Amanpour brings us a special report including some very candid remarks from women who say Iran has a lot of catching up to do. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The battle over her life and the drama of her slow death made headlines around the world.

Now a postscript to the Terri Schiavo saga: results of the autopsy are in. CNN's Mary Snow is in New York with a closer look at what they found -- Mary?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well it's two-and-a-half months after Terri Schiavo died. Medical examiners in Florida say that she suffered severe and irreversible brain damage and she ultimately died, they say, of dehydration. But the autopsy does leave some questions unanswered.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (voice-over): Medical examiners who performed the autopsy on Terri Schiavo said her brain was roughly half the size of what would be considered normal.

JON THOGMARTIN, MEDICAL EXAMINER: Mrs. Schiavo suffered a severe anoxic brain injury. In other words, her brain suffered damage from lack of blood flow and oxygen.

SNOW: The medical examiner and his team concluded no amount of therapy would have reversed her condition. Reacting to the report, Michael Schiavo was described by his attorney as being pleased with the evidence. Michael Schiavo had contended that his wife was in a persistent vegetative state and that was why he wanted to remove her feeding tube and let her die.

THOGMARTIN: Was Mrs. Schiavo in a persistent vegetative state?

SNOW: For that key question, the medical examiner had no answer.

Her parents disputed that she was in a vegetative state and alleged Michael Schiavo abused her.

GEORGE FELOS, MICHAEL SCHIAVO'S ATTORNEY: For years and years the courts have found there's -- that there was no abuse of Terri, no evidence of abuse and that's what the medical examiner found.

SNOW: But Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, are not satisfied. The autopsy report did not determine why Terri Schiavo initially collapsed in 1990 and lost consciousness. Doctors say they found no signs of abuse or trauma. The Schindlers' attorney questions what he calls an unexplained gap in 1990 between the time she collapsed and when her husband dialed 911.

DAVID GIBBS, SCHINDLER FAMILY ATTORNEY: I think this 70-minute time period, when all of this brain injury, when the blood flow is stopped is very significant. And I would want to know -- and Michael Schiavo was the only person there.

SNOW: Michael Schiavo's attorney calls the claim of a time gap baseless. Another conclusion of the medical examiner: Terri Schiavo was totally blind.

THOGMARTIN: Her vision centers of her brain were dead.

SNOW: Michael Schiavo's attorney said that's significant, saying it shows that Terri Schiavo could not see her mother in what became a widely watched video of her and her mother in 2002. It had been released by the Schindlers to prove their daughter was responsive. An attorney for the Schindlers acknowledged Terri Schiavo was visually impaired, but did not concede she was totally blind.

As for what ultimately caused her death: she did not starve to death, it was dehydration.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: And the attorney for Michael Schiavo says that at some point he does plan to release pictures of the autopsy of his late wife's brain. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Mary Snow, with that report. Thanks, very much.

Let's get a little bit more now on the autopsy and what it reveal veals about Terri Schiavo. For that, we're joined by Dr. Cyril Wecht in Pittsburgh. He's the Allegheny County coroner and a nationally recognized forensic expert. Dr. Wecht, always good to have you on our program.

CYRIL WECHT, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Good afternoon.

BLITZER: Thanks, very much.

The brain being half the size of a normal person at that stage in life, what does that say to you?

WECHT: Well, the brain became markedly atrophic. It was not a small brain, obviously, to begin with. And the medical examiner did a very nice bit of historical referencing, Karen Ann Quinlan, a similar young woman who also was in a state like Miss Schiavo, had a brain that was a third larger. So you know, just to give you some proportionality here, the atrophic brain coupled with a massive brain damage, as reported by the medical examiner, clearly connotes that there really was no chance whatsoever, nothing, of a valid neurobiological nature to suggest that Terri Schiavo would ever regain any kind of perceptive powers.

As I've been saying all along, persistent vegetative state is not a pathological diagnosis. So, the medical examiner is not hedging in failing to respond to that. That is a clinical diagnosis. What he has done is he has demonstrated the brain damage, grossly and microscopicly and through special stains I'm certain. He has also identified specific centers, like the visual centers, to show that she could not see. I'm certain that he's also identified other centers to indicate that she did not have a variety of perceptive, motor coordinative and cognitive functions. So, these are the things that are important.

Going back to 1990, and that time laps, this is something nobody can deal with at this time -- nobody.

BLITZER: Dr. Wecht, so the family, her parents and brothers who suggest that if she would have gotten proper therapy -- physical therapy and other kind of therapy -- she might have been able to improve. You dismiss that based on the autopsy result of today?

WECHT: Well, let me say this: You can only do so much with the autopsy in 2005. Nobody can know exactly what the condition of the brain was in 1990 and '91 and '92. And so I would want to know more and I would have to learn more from the autopsy findings, correlated with the hospital records at that time to determine whether or not there was any possibility that there could have been some degree of restoration or regeneration back then.

It does not seem likely. Inasmuch as the medical examiner's pointed out and I would agree with him, that this was an anoxic insult, a deprivation of oxygen through the lack of arterial blood flow, back then, then it would seem that, that damage to the brain did occur and the shrinkage occurred and developed ongoing over the years.

So, I think that tragically, this young woman suffered that attack in 1990 from whatever cause, and there probably wasn't anything that could have been done.

BLITZER: So at the end -- at the end of her, the life last year, let's say if she could have been -- maybe gotten better treatment in '90 or '91 after she initially collapsed -- but at the end, the last year or two or three, was there any hope?

WECHT: No.

BLITZER: Realistic hope she could have gotten better.

WECHT: No, absolutely not. If you go back a few years, several years, I would say at least a decade or so, at that time, and by that time, I don't think that there was any likelihood of a rehabilitative nature. I think that going back, as I say, in '90, '91, I don't know if anybody can say that. The best people to ascertain that would be the physicians who were taking care of her rather than the pathologist who does an autopsy 15 years later.

BLITZER: All right, Dr. Wecht, thanks very much for joining us.

Dr. Cyril Wecht from Pittsburgh.

BLITZER: When we come back, memories of a killer wave: Northern California fears a nightmare as the entire West Coast goes on tsunami alert. We'll have details of what happened.

Also, a new search in Aruba for a missing teenage vacationer. The latest on the Natalee Holloway case. We'll update you on that.

Plus, why Iranian women are pinning their hopes on elections now just two days away.

Our chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour in a rare visit to Tehran.

We'll get her report.

All that coming up.

(COMMECIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A scare for millions of people on the West Coast. First, a very powerful earthquake, followed minutes later by a tsunami warning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This warning is in effect for all the California and Mexico border and it includes the Vancouver/British- Columbia coastline. Now, that is out from the Tsunami Warning Center.

BLITZER (voice-over): Alarming news for viewers last night. A rare tsunami warning was issued, covering the entire U.S. West Coast and beyond, urging people along the shore to flee to higher ground.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was pretty scary. I think a lot of the locals were pretending they weren't scared but they were.

BLITZER: The reason behind the warning? A magnitude seven earthquake about 90 miles off the coast of Crescent City, California. No damage reported, but widely felt.

CAROL CILIBERTI, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: You could just really feel a lot of trembling and just, like I said that, you know, the thing that struck us at the time was how long -- it just kept going and going.

BLITZER: Some area residents still remember the 1964 tsunami that killed 11 people in Crescent City and leveled dozens of blocks. And with images of last December's tsunami disaster in South Asia still fresh, officials weren't taking chances.

SHERIFF DEAN WILSON, DEL. NORTE CO., CALIF.: We estimate that we had approximately 4,000 people that we actually moved out of the area.

BLITZER: Similar concerns in San Francisco where police urged people to get off the beach. But the tsunami warning was soon lifted as experts realized the quake was what's known as a strike slip, not the kind that caused last year's disaster. DAVID APPLEGATE, USGS SCIENTIST: The one that hit Sumatra was what we call a thrust quake, where you have one plate moving over another and that's what causes the jolt in the sea floor and that causes a jolt in the water column and generates the tsunami. Because this was strike slip, it was moving side to side and it didn't generate that same jolt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an official all-clear.

BLITZER: In the end, a false alarm, but a valuable exercise for many along the country's vulnerable West Coast.

CHIEF CLEVE ROOPER, COOPER BEACH, ORE., FIRE DEPT.: It's always good practice when you can do it, so we hope it went well. We hope we learned something from it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (on camera): There have been numerous aftershocks to last night's quake but scientists say none of them has been significant.

Inside Iran, surprisingly candid remarks from Iranian women about the political and social pressures they face everyday. Our Christiane Amanpour takes us inside their world.

Plus, you may be surprised to hear who the former Bush administration solicitor general is now representing. My interview with Ted Olson, that's coming up.

And later, he headed the 9/11 victim's compensation fund and has written a new book about his work. Attorney Ken Feinberg joins us. That's coming up. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

Uncensored in Iran, our Christiane Amanpour speaks with Iranian women about life under strict rule. Their amazingly candid comments, that's coming up. First though, a quick check of some other stories "Now in the News."

Police in Aruba have cordoned off the family home of a teen held in the case of missing Alabama teen Natalee Holloway. The 17-year-old boy is one of three youths being held in the case. He maintains his innocence. Holloway disappeared May 30th during a graduation trip to Aruba.

U.S. State Department is concerned about what it calls serious and credible information that minorities are being wrongly detained in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. "The Washington Post" first reported on the allegations. The once-persecuted Kurds hold a small minority in the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk.

Iran is preparing for presidential elections Friday. While men remain in firm control of Iranian society, some Iranian women are hoping the next president will change things. CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour reports from Tehran.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INT'L CORRESPONDENT: Golshifteh Farahani is 21-years-old. She's been an actress since she was 14 and rarely out of work. Iran has a thriving film industry, and her movies pack the cinemas and reap awards.

GOLSHIFTEH FARAHANI, ACTRESS: I like to work in Iran. I like it because I think it makes me more creative because of these, you know...

AMANPOUR: She's trying to say, pressures and limitations -- political, religious, and social -- that force everyone here, especially the women, into subtle forms of self-expression.

Her latest film was released this week. But Golshift knows her career flourishes at the pleasure of the authorities. Like many Iranian women, she hopes their next president will give women more rights, especially legal rights.

FARAHANI: I think the problem is, it's not only the government and the you know, system that doesn't give enough rights for the women. Even the women themselves, they don't give -- they don't know their rights. They don't know it. So I think that's the real problem.

AMANPOUR: But women's rights advocates point out that all of the women who tried to register as candidates for this presidential election were disqualified by the Guardian Council, which vets all contenders.

(on camera): And this week, groups of professional women and students held their first public demonstration since the veil was made obligatory 26 years ago. This time, they're demanding their next president improve women's status.

(voice-over): Authorities allow women to wear ever tighter overcoats, show ever more hair and makeup and they tolerate women like Laleh Seddigh competing in car races, but she too believes that women should pursue their rights more.

LALEH SEDDIGH, RACE CAR DRIVER: If they ask for their rights, by sure they will achieve it. And I hope so.

AMANPOUR: Do you think it's that easy?

SEDDIGH: By sure, no. But they must try if they want to be successful in everything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do your some colors that we talked about?

AMANPOUR: For now though, many Iranian women seem more interested in improving their daily lives, rather than risking them on political activism. At this all-female English school in Tehran, students are hoping a new language will improve their job opportunities, or even be their ticket out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love my job. I'm an architect. And nowadays we need to learn English because of our jobs to improve yourself. And also, I have a plan to emigrate to Canada so I need it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to go to the United States, because my husband's family are living there.

AMANPOUR: As each shift rotates through this school, Friday's election is on the mind of the students.

Women who have always turned out to the polls wonder this time, will they vote?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think I will because I love my country. And it's my right to participate in what belongs to me.

AMANPOUR: But still, they ask, will it make a difference? Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Tehran, Iran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The current Iranian president Muhammed Khatami is not allowed to stand for reelection. The front-runner to succeed him is the former president Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Let's take a quick look at other news making headlines around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Police arrested 16 suspected Islamic terrorists in a series of raids. Five are believed to be linked to last year's Madrid train bombings, the other 11 are said to have ties with Abu Musab al Zarqawi's al Qaeda group in Iraq.

Coming home: 30 years after they were evacuated from Vietnam as tiny children, 21 men and women returned for a visit, some for the first time. They were among thousands of children, many of mixed Vietnamese-American parentage flown to the United States during the final days of the Vietnam War.

No handicap: a 42-year-old Australian man climbed Nepal's Mount Everest even though he has only one hand. Paul Hockey who lost his right hand to cancer as a child says he hopes his feet will show today's young cancer patients they can still make their dreams come true.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: A CIA operative outed: two journalists threatened with jail time if they don't reveal their sources. You may be surprised to hear who's representing the reporters. We'll hear from him. That's coming up next.

Helping the victims: the head of the 9/11 Compensation Fund speaks out about his work. Attorney Ken Feinberg standing by to join us live.

And later, actress and good will ambassador from the United Nations, Angelina Jolie, she's is right here in Washington today. We'll hear from her this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A U.S. special prosecutor is continuing the investigation into a news report that surfaced almost two years ago revealing the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Syndicated columnist and CNN commentator Robert Novak cited two senior Bush administration officials for the information. It was widely seen as a bid to try to discredit Plame's husband, former U.S. ambassador Joe Wilson, a staunch critic of the administration's Iraq policy.

The special prosecutor is threatening to put two other reporters in jail unless they testify about their sources. One of the reporters is Judith Miller of the "New York Times," the other Matthew Cooper of "Time" magazine, a sister company to CNN.

Former Bush administration Solicitor General Theodore Olson is representing Cooper and "Time" magazine. And he's asking the United States Supreme Court to intervene. I spoke with Ted Olson about the case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Ted Olson, thanks very much for joining us.

THEODORE OLSON, FRM. BUSH ADMINISTRATION SOLICITOR GENERAL: Thank you.

BLITZER: A lot of our viewers know you. And they're going to be surprised to hear you're representing Matt Cooper of "Time" magazine -- the liberal news media -- and you're trying them -- keep him out of jail. What's going on?

OLSON: Well, I was represented when I've been a private practitioner, the press. I started early in my career representing the "Los Angeles Times" and other publications in Los Angeles. I'm a strong believer in the First Amendment. I'm also a strong believer that "Time" magazine and Matt Cooper, its reporter, and Judith Miller, the "New York Times" reporter, have constitutional rights and other rights under the laws of the United States. They're entitled to lawyers to represent them.

BLITZER: So you feel strongly they shouldn't have to release the identity of their source?

OLSON: We feel very strongly that the court should recognize a privilege that 49 states and the District of Columbia have clearly recognized for reporters on appropriate occasions to protect the identity of confidential sources.

BLITZER: Did you say 49 states?

OLSON: 49 states, plus the District of Columbia.

BLITZER: All right. Let me read to you what you wrote in the "Wall Street Journal" on Wednesday. "It ill-serves society for reporters and they're lawyers to be operating in the dark, not knowing whether a reporter's promise to protect a source will be respected by the courts or whether it will result, instead, in a prison term unless the reporter decides to break his word."

You want the Supreme Court now to take this case and reach a decision that will specify, make it clear-cut, the relationship between a reporter and a confidential source.

OLSON: Absolutely. There is no one who's not best-served by clear rules with respect to reporters and sources. The sources need to know what a reporter can promise. A reporter needs to know what he can promise and whether he or she might go to jail for making such a promise. Prosecutors need to know. Lawyers need to know. Everyone would be best-served by having a law clarified.

BLITZER: So, is there any doubt that the Supreme Court will ignore this opportunity to clarify that law?

OLSON: I never try to predict in advance what the United States Supreme Court is going to do. There are lots of petitions pending before the court. The court has only a limited docket. We're telling the court, or we're asking the court, to recognize the fact that this is very, very important.

The Watergate situation and the recent revelations about Deep Throat remind us that many stories will never get written, especially when reporters are covering government and trying to find out abuses in government or excesses by government officials. Often reporters need to go to confidential sources to get information. If they couldn't go to confidential sources and get that information and promise confidentiality, the public might never know, and the public might never have known about the depth of the corruption in Watergate had it not been for confidential sources.

BLITZER: And, you speak as a bonafide conservative who was the solicitor general in the Justice Department during the first -- during this Bush administration, the first term of this presidency, and you sound as if you want the Supreme Court, when all is said and done, to say that journalists should have this constitutional right to be able to report what confidential sources are telling them without fear of going to jail.

OLSON: As a conservative or a liberal or an American, we have a first amendment. We know in this country that a free press, a free, vigorous, robust press is essential to our democracy and the protection of our democracy and our freedoms. We want, all of us, I think, want a free press. Sometimes it's necessary, for a press to operate, to use confidential sources. There may be some restrictions and there may be some limitations, but the rules with respect to that need to be clarified.

BLITZER: So, journalists -- and I'll take the other side for a moment -- a prosecutor says, why should journalists be held above the law? Everybody else can be dragged in front of a grand jury and release information. Why shouldn't journalists, who may have valuable information in an investigation, why shouldn't they be forced to testify?

OLSON: It's not being above the law. We protect confidential communications between attorneys and clients, between doctors and patients, between spouses, husbands and wives. We protect certain communications because we think it is important to encourage those communications and we know that if we don't protect the confidentiality of those communications, those communications may not occur at all.

So, when a lawyer has a privilege or a client has a privilege, to communicate in confidence with a lawyer, that doesn't mean anybody is above the law. It means that the law recognizes the importance of that communication and the importance of protecting it.

BLITZER: So, your bottom-line hope is the Supreme Court, A, will hear this case, and B, will then rule that this privilege should be codified into law, the privilege between a source and a journalist?

OLSON: Exactly, and Congress has recognized that itself. In 1975, Congress enacted the evidence code and it said the courts should adapt privileges or testimonial protections according to reason and experience. Since that time, over 32 states, bringing the total to 49, plus the District of Columbia, have enacted, either through court decisions or legislatures, privileges to protect reporters and their confidential sources to one degree or another.

We're saying that the federal law ought to parallel the state law, that there shouldn't be one federal law and another state law. It's inconsistent and it undermines the policies which have been adopted in virtually every state.

BLITZER: Ted Olson, thanks very much for joining us.

OLSON: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And coming up at the top of the hour, "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT." Kitty Pilgrim, standing in for Lou tonight. She's standing by in New York with a preview.

KITTY PILGRIM, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Wolf. Thanks.

Well, coming up, a top White House official on the environment leaves the Bush administration, lands at the world's largest oil company, raising new questions about ties between the White House and big oil.

Plus, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan reacts to the latest calls for his resignation. What Annan and his critics are saying about a newly discovered memo that appears to link him to the Oil-for- Food scandal.

And, why the rush to become part of the historic housing boom could go bust for millions of Americans. We have a special report coming up. All that, coming up. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Kitty. We'll be watching. Thanks very much.

When we come back, determining the value of life. I'll speak with Ken Feinberg about his new book and the work that he's done as the administrator of the 9/11 victims' compensation fund.

Plus, talking with Angelina Jolie. Find out what made the actress tear up when she sat down earlier today here in Washington with our very own Andrea Koppel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Just days after terrorists flew jumbo jets into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and rural Pennsylvania, one man was assigned the daunting task of calculating the dollar value of more than 5,000 dead and injured -- 3,000 dead -- 5,000 dead and injured. That's correct.

Attorney Ken Feinberg was appointed administrator of the 9/11 victims' compensation fund. Feinberg doled out a total when all was said and done of some $7 billion, in awards ranging from $500 to $8.6 million. In his new book entitled "What is Life Worth?," Feinberg assesses his work, and Ken Feinberg is joining us here now. Thanks for your excellent work. Always good to have you on our program, Ken.

Let me read to from the book. You write this, "What is life worth? What distinguish" -- distinctions -- "could I recognize among different family members? How could I do justice? I could not play Solomon. I would listen to their grief I would hear what they had to say, but I would not calculate awards by weighing their suffering, nor would I pay them for it. There had to be a better way and I was determined to find it.

This was a daunting challenge that you had and it was a painful challenge.

KEN FEINGBERG, 9/11 VICTIM'S COMPENSATION FUND: It was. I conducted personally almost 1,000 individual hearings with family members, and it was absolutely excruciating. The stories you would hear, the need that would be expressed by these families -- but, we got through it, and 97 percent of all the families signed on to the fund.

BLITZER: There was a story in the papers this week that one of those who received a significant sum, about $5 million, simply went on a shopping spree and started spending it and wasted almost all of it already. Do you have any control over how these families could spend the money that you provided them? FEINBERG: That's a very tragic story. Obviously, this woman is in great, great pain and in need of help. Once we doled out the money, once we made awards, that was it. But we invited any family that received any money from the taxpayers to receive free financial planning. A couple of hundred people took it. Most just said thank you very much. We'll take the check. We don't need the help.

But we were perfectly willing to structure the settlements and provide money over time, give people financial help in planning their future. And that was part of the program.

BLITZER: A psychologist quoted in the New York Post this week, Paula Madrid, Columbia University said this -- said, "some spend the money right away on luxuries like cars and furs. They also give it away, out of survivor's guilt and a desire to help others in need." Was that -- is that the experience based on what you know?

FEINBERG: Based on what I know, people responded in countless different ways, as many different ways as human nature and human emotion. But again, once we decided what the award would be, and once we tendered the money to the family, that was it as far as we were concerned.

BLITZER: Among the criteria, the formula that you used, compute economic loss was one, compute noneconomic loss, deduct other sources of income, and then finally, this was very important, adjust for what's called exceptional circumstances. And you had the discretion to make that fourth point.

FEINBERG: An exceptional circumstances -- a woman came to see me, Wolf, and said Mr. Feinberg, I know I'm getting money. I need more money. I have two little children. My husband died.

And I asked her what is the exceptional circumstance? Oh, Mr. Feinberg, I have terminal cancer. And my two children are going to be orphans within two or three months. Can you please give me a little bit more money? And would you please accelerate the payments? And a few months later she died and I gave her that extra money.

BLITZER: I'm sure she was grateful. All of us are grateful to you for the work that you did. The book is entitled "What is Life Worth?" It's actually worth a great deal to read this book. Appreciate it very much.

FEINBERG: Thank you very much for having me on.

BLITZER: We'll take another quick break.

When we come back, one-on-one with Angelina Jolie. She was over at the State Department speaking about refugees today. And our Andrea Koppel also asked the actress about Brad Pitt. We'll get to that. First, though, Gary Tuchman has CNN's anniversary series "Then and Now."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Her personal pain symbolized the nation's in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. Edye Smith was a 23-year-old divorced mother whose three-year son Chase and two-year-old son Holton (ph) died at the daycare center inside the federal building.

EDYE SMITH, MOTHER OF OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING VICTIM: What do you do when people ask you, you have children, what do you say? Well, I did have children? My children are dead. What do you say? You don't know what to say.

TUCHMAN: After the bottoming Edye remarried the boy's father Tony Smith only to divorce him a second time. She went on to marry again, have another son Glenn who is now seven-years-old. But Edye still thinks about the son she lost.

SMITH: I never got to see him ride a bike or go to kindergarten. I don't know what they would look like or how tall they would be.

TUCHMAN: Edye maintains there was a government coverup in the Oklahoma City bombing. Her mother Kathy even wrote a book about the allegations. She is now Edye Lucas, owns her own hair salon, is expecting another baby in December.

SMITH: This is probably the happiest I've ever been in my life. And I just -- I don't feel the need to be angry. Because anger will consume you. I'm not mad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The United Nations says there are some 17 million refugees around the world. This Monday, the U.N. will pay tribute as the world marks World Refugee Day.

Our State Department correspondent, Andrea Koppel, spoke with Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie earlier today here in Washington. She got emotional at one point, didn't she, Andrea?

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, she absolutely did, Wolf. For the last four years, the Oscar-winning Jolie has left Hollywood's red carpet far behind and in between filming various movies has traveled to refugee camps around the world as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Refugee Agency. In an interview with CNN, Jolie got emotional as she remembered the first time she saw a child die in a refugee camp.

ANGELINA JOLIE, UNHCR GOODWILL AMBASSADOR: It's the first child I saw die -- I saw him dying. And, you know, it was my first trip, my first moment and my thought was -- being somebody from the states and had a bit of money, I thought, Well, we'll just airlift him and take him to the hospital. I can solve this in a second. And then you suddenly -- it was that moment where you look around and realize that there are, you know hundreds of thousands people in the exact same situation and that -- and that a lot of these kids were going to die. And then I went home and I thought, I should have at least taken one.

KOPPEL: Since that first trip, Jolie has spent $3 million of her own money just on travel expenses to pay her way to over 15 countries around the world, Wolf.

BLITZER: Good work for her.

On a much lighter note -- much lighter note -- you also asked her about her relationship with Brad Pitt and Hollywood. Listen to this exchange that you had with her.

KOPPEL: How do you feel about, you know, the tabloids focusing so much attention on your sex life, as opposed to focusing on the issues that really --

JOLIE: Well, that's why they're the tabloids. But, you know, I hope just people can make a line between what's the "New York Times" and what's "Star Magazine." Do you know what I mean?

KOPPEL: But more people, unfortunately, read "Star Magazine" than the "New York Times".

JOLIE: Yeah, that's -- I can't -- you know, I don't read those things. I just hope that you just live your life and hope that the good things come through and that the other things kind of fade away that aren't -- you can't really do anything about it but keep focusing forward.

KOPPEL: I know that you have inspired -- I'm sure, lots of people -- but one of them was your former co-star in Mrs. Smith to get involved in this. Do you --

JOLIE: I don't think I was -- he's always -- he always seemed like somebody -- you know, the first day of working together, that was very conscious. So I think it was a matter of time.

KOPPEL: Are you proud of him?

JOLIE: Of course.

BLITZER: That's when they ended the interview.

KOPPEL: They wrapped us, they gave us the hook. So, I tried to find out. I'm sorry, I couldn't. Is she dating him or isn't she, we still don't know.

BLITZER: Well, intriguing minds want to know the answer to that question.

KOPPEL: Inquiring minds...

BLITZER: That's it for us. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

END

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