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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

CIA Leak Investigation; U.S. Transportation Security; Terrorism and the Middle East; Hurricane Emily Watch; London Bombing Investigation

Aired July 18, 2005 - 17:00   ET

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

BLITZER: Happening now, there's a new development in the disclosure of the CIA officer's name. President Bush has a new standard in what is a firing offense for his aides.
Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(voice-over): CIA leak ...

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (video clip): And if someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration.

BLITZER: Are top presidential aides in trouble?

Storm track, after traumatizing tourists in Yucatan ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (video clip): People made it through a very, very scary night.

BLITZER: Emily eyes new targets.

Terror underground, the toll grows as two American sisters recover.

PATTY BENTON, BENTON SISTERS' MOTHER:: They both describe it as feeling like their bodies were on fire.

BLITZER: Today, how you can survive an attack on the tracks.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Monday, July 18, 2005.

BLITZER (on camera): Thanks very much for joining us. I'm reporting from Los Angeles today. Up first, the Washington controversy that won't seem to go away. President Bush faced questions once again today about allegations his top political advisers may have leaked the identity of a CIA officer.

Our White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is standing by with details. Suzanne?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, there is still very little information coming from the Bush administration out of the White House, but the president, interestingly enough, is changing his language somewhat. That may give Rove as well as Mr. Bush legal and political cover.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: In the East Room press conference with India's prime minister, President Bush appeared to change his standard of accountability for anyone involved in leaking the name of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame.

BUSH: I would like this to end this as quickly as possible so we know the facts. And if someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration.

MALVEAUX: Previously, Mr. Bush had said that anyone simply involved in such a leak would be fired, which makes this an important distinction for the White House to make now, legal analysts say.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: The president's statement was really a gift to Karl Rove because he said the only way Rove could lose his job is if it's proved that he committed a crime. And that's months, years off, and probably will never happen.

MALVEAUX: Not so, says the White House spokesman.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: I think that you should not read anything into it, more than what the president said at this point.

MALVEAUX: This distinction between involvement and committing a crime comes after news this weekend that in addition to Karl Rove, Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff was also named by "Time" magazine's Matt Cooper as a source. In the fall of 2003, McClellan said that he had spoken to both Libby and Rove and dismissed their involvement in any leaks as ridiculous.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX (on camera): Now, Senator Ted Kennedy said -- on INSIDE POLITICS said within the last hour or so that the White House is moving the goalpost here -- that Americans are aware they're changing the rules. The White House responding saying they are simply following the federal statute.

Wolf?

BLITZER: Suzanne, thanks very much. Suzanne, a little bit later we'll pursue this story. We'll look at where the vice president's office and the vice presidential aide Scooter Libby may fit into the probe. We'll also get some perspective from a Democrat with vast experience in defending the Clinton White House, the former White House special counsel, Lanny Davis will be joining us.

There's more evidence suggesting that the London transit attacks may have had an al Qaeda connection. Pakistani officials say at least two of the four London bombers were in Pakistan last year. Two were of Pakistani ancestry but they were born in the United Kingdom. They flew into Karachi where Pakistani officials have arrested several alleged al Qaeda operatives. British investigators have consistently maintained that the London attacks had the hallmark of an al Qaeda operation.

Officials in London also are clarifying the death toll right now, separating the number of victims from the bombers. The toll now stands at 52 civilians killed and the four bombers.

With more from the London investigation, let's go to CNN senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson. Nic, what were they doing there?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know from Pakistani officials that they spent the first week of the three months they were in Pakistan in the city of Karachi, and then they took a train and headed north to Lahore. That's where they drop off the map.

Intense speculation in the British media they may have attended a radical religious school that espouses a very radical version of Islam. That's being investigated at the moment. The head of the school denies that either of these two men had visited his school, but we understand from Pakistani officials they are questioning many of these schools. There are more than 300 such religious schools in the city of Lahore, Wolf.

BLITZER: Nic, is there any sense of a much broader conspiracy now as far as this investigation is unfolding?

ROBERTSON: There's certainly the sense that it reaches outside the United Kingdom. The investigation is still centering, or at least the visible part is at least, centering on the houses and the area in Leeds where three of the bombers lived in particular -- community centers, bookstores where they spent time, did weight training, did some sports work together, and perhaps came under the mentorship of the elder the group, elder of the group. But there is this Pakistan dimension now, and certainly there have been other reports in the media here of other people, perhaps, coming into Britain from Europe, playing a role.

And there's key questions. Was there a mastermind? Who financed it? Who made the bombs? These questions are still unresolved and could implicate people outside of this country, Wolf.

BLITZER: Nic will be following this for us. Nic Robertson reporting from London. Thank you, Nic, very much.

Two Tennessee sisters were on vacation in England when they were caught up in the London transit attacks. They aren't talking with reporters yet, but their mother is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BENTON: They've lost their innocence in a way that most people -- none of us will ever have to experience.

BLITZER (voice-over): Emily and Katie Benton, 20 and 21 years old, were thousands of miles away from their Knoxville, Tennessee, home. They were riding the London subway, the Underground, when they heard a noise. Their mother, Patty Benton, says they suddenly felt as if their bodies were on fire.

BENTON: When they opened up their eyes, Emily said I truly expected to see that I was fried all over, but they weren't at all, so, you know, that is a wonderful thing. But they also saw people around them that were dead. All of the handrails and things, the seats and the handrails and everything inside the train was just blown apart. And there was a huge crater in the floor of the carriage.

BLITZER: Amid the chaos, there were acts of kindness.

BENTON: The one man sat there and held onto Emily because she really was injured the worst and was in worse shape. And he kept talking to her, kept trying to keep the girls awake and alert. And then this other man came along, and he tore of his shirt and bandaged their wounds that were bleeding a whole lot.

BLITZER: The Benton sisters now are back in the United States at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. Family members say they're sorting through grim memories of the explosion and its aftermath, and that will take some time. But doctors say Emily Benton's broken bones and Katie Benton's shrapnel wounds are being mended.

DR. GREGORY GEORGIADE, DUKE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Everything has gone very well. They had some complex reconstructive microsurgery. They're healing.

BENTON: The first moment you hold your child when they're born is the way I felt again when I saw each of the girls. It was just that feeling of how beautiful they are and how glad you are that they're there. You know, they were safe, and they were going to mend. And it was just a wonderful experience.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (on camera): Doctors say the Benton sisters could go home from the hospital as early as next week. And later this hour, we'll have another unique report on an Israeli woman, a young Israeli woman who was visiting London and got caught up in the terror attacks herself. We'll tell you what happened to her.

Up next, though, our top story. More -- there are now two top Washington names being mentioned in connection with the CIA leak investigation. We'll bring you up to speed on who the newest figure is.

Will Hurricane Emily hit the United States? We have a new update. That's coming up this hour.

And staying safe on mass transit right here in the United States. Would you know what to do if you suddenly had to evacuate the subway? We'll show you. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: Back now to the CIA leak probe. As we mentioned, an investigation is under way as to who leaked the name of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame, to reporters and whether the leaks were illegal. Two officials' names have come up repeatedly in recent days, one now well known, the other until recently has been virtually unknown.

Our Brian Todd has been looking into the story. He is joining us live now from Washington. Brian?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, during this investigation, Karl Rove has taken much of the heat. He's the deputy White House chief of staff. But there's another member of the White House whose name is surfacing more and more as a possible source of the CIA leaks -- a man close to Vice President Cheney, very influential, who observers say is anonymous by choice.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): Contacted by CNN, officials in Vice President's Cheney's office would not respond to charges that Cheney's top aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby was involved in leaking the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame to reporters. But the name Scooter Libby keeps coming up in the press room.

QUESTION: Back on October 2003, you did assure us that you'd spoken with Scooter Libby, Karl Rove and Elliott Abrams, and they had all assured you that they weren't involved in any of this. So with regard to Libby and Abrams, do you still stand by that?

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Last week I think I assured you that I want to do everything I can to help the investigators get to the bottom of this. I'll be glad to talk about it once the investigation is complete.

TODD: How involved Dick Cheney or his closest confidante were to the CIA leaks probably won't come clear until the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, concludes his investigation. But to get a picture of how Cheney's staff works, we spoke to a former White House official from President Bush's first term, and a former Pentagon official who interacted with then Defense Secretary Cheney during the First Gulf War. At that time, Scooter Libby was one of Cheney's top Pentagon aides.

They say they -- Cheney and Libby -- run a very tight ship, that either they or their aides attend virtually every important White House meeting. At those meetings, they say Cheney, Libby and their aides are very discreet and seldom speak.

If Cheney and Libby aren't at a meeting, their aides report directly to them on what was said and almost never speak to anyone else. Cheney and Libby, the sources say, don't give their opinions unless they're in meetings with small circles of the president's closest advisers.

They say Dick Cheney and Scooter Libby think very much alike, with the same worldview, favoring a tough-minded assertive foreign policy aimed at preempting threats to U.S. national security -- beliefs that mesh well with their personal styles, asking tough questions, demanding straightforward, well-informed answers, rarely giving an inch.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): Now, these same observers are conflicted on whether Dick Cheney's office could have been involved in the CIA leaks. One says with their emphasis on security and discretion, it's unlikely anyone from Cheney's inner circle would divulge that kind of information to reporters. But another observer said, if these people believe someone to be -- is attacking them -- quote -- "these fellows are extremely rough."

Wolf?

BLITZER: Brian Todd reporting for us. Thank you, Brian, very much.

A new poll on the CIA leak probe suggests that White House credibility may be slipping. The poll conducted by ABC News suggests that only 25 percent of the American public believes the White House is fully cooperating with the leak investigation. That's down from 47 percent in September of 2003, and 39 percent in October of 2003.

Our next guest, Lanny Davis, had to deal with White House credibility issues during the Clinton administration when he was White House special counsel. Lanny Davis is joining us now live from Washington.

Lanny, you have a unique perspective, since you dealt with a lot of these scandals during the Clinton administration, but you also have some criticism of your fellow Democrats. What is it?

LANNY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPECIAL COUNSEL: Let's start out with the distinction the White House is making between what is unlawful versus what is unfair or wrong. I certainly think that Democrats should not be jumping to conclusions, calling for resignations, or in any way getting out in front of where the criminal investigation is. And they ought to be making the point, which I made when I was at the Clinton White House, let's not jump in front of the facts. Let the facts come out first before we start calling for resignations.

But secondly, regarding the unfairness, in the absence of full disclosure, I think President Bush and his press secretary and Mr. Rove need to step up to the line pretty soon and do two things, Wolf. They need to apologize to Mrs. Wilson for in any way bringing her up, if they were attempting to discredit Ambassador Wilson. And secondly, I think that Scott McClellan needs to say, I wasn't given all the information that I now know when I made my denial of involvement, and I owe certainly that explanation to the White House press corps.

BLITZER: Well, let's go back to the first point and then we'll go through these others, Lanny. What's wrong with Democrats pouncing and trying to score political points right now as Republicans certainly tried to do during the Clinton scandals?

DAVIS: Well, I guess it's human nature to play gotcha. But I'm following really, the words of the president that I worked for, Bill Clinton. We spent a long time in the Clinton White House denouncing Republicans who were doing that to us based upon rumor and innuendo, and it's just, I think, not working for Democrats to politicize this. In fact, it gives the Republicans the ability to talk about politics.

Secondly, and most importantly, Wolf, let's look at the hypocrisy here. If this were the Clinton White House, could you imagine what the Republicans would be doing in terms of calling for an independent counsel, investigations, and using all sorts of media in order to denounce and call for resignations? If we call double standard that kind of conduct by Republicans, we shouldn't be doing the same thing as Democrats.

BLITZER: Listen to what Orrin Hatch, the Republican Senator from Utah, a key member of the Judiciary Committee, said yesterday on CNN's LATE EDITION.

SEN. ORRIN HATCH, (R) UT: What's really behind all this is that the Democrats hate Karl Rove because he's so effective.

BLITZER: Is that true, Lanny?

DAVIS: See, I like Senator Hatch a lot, but he ought to be just as careful about trying to politicize this. The Democrats, and certainly the country, has a right to expect Karl Rove to apologize to Mrs. Plame for bringing her name up, even without naming her name, when they were attempting, for whatever reason, to discredit her husband. And we have a right to get the full story from the White House press secretary as to how he made a statement that now turns out to be untrue.

Senator Hatch and members of my party ought to be staying out of this and allowing the prosecutor to complete its work. And then the White House has to deal, I think, with the issue of the apology to Mrs. Plame and full disclosure once they are willing to as to why Scott McClellan apparently was misled by people in the White House when he said what he said.

BLITZER: Well, on that point -- and you speak not only as a former White House special counsel, Lanny, but also as an attorney in Washington -- ehen Scott McClellan and other White House officials say, look, the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, has asked us to stay silent, we're going to stay silent until this investigation, until this probe is completed, how can they go forward and apologize and issue clarifications if they've been instructed by the special prosecutor to stay mum?

DAVIS: Well, it's not an easy situation they face, and I certainly understand that difficulty. But let's make a clear distinction. They shouldn't be commenting on the facts of the investigation, whether Mr. Rove is or isn't guilty of violating the law. It appears from the published facts that he's not guilty, at least the prosecutor told his lawyer that he's not a target. They do not and should not comment on anything relating to people under investigation. But they can make the point that what we did with Mrs. Plame in mentioning her name was unfair to her. She's a courageous woman who served our country. If there's any harm or compromise to her position, we apologize.

There's nothing that the special counsel has said that would prevent them from making that statement or from Scott McClellan saying, I didn't have all the information that we now have, that led me to say that there was no involvement, and there may be reasons why I wasn't told. Maybe their lawyers wouldn't let them tell me. But that's the truth, and I can't comment further than that until the prosecution is over. That's a lot better than what we're hearing right now from Scott McClellan.

BLITZER: You've suggested that no crime was committed as far as that 1982 law that bars the disclosure of clandestine CIA officers. But at the same time this investigation is going full speed ahead, which suggests -- and you've been around Washington scandals for a long time -- that perhaps the investigation has moved in a different direction, obstruction of justice, perjury, conspiracy.

What is -- what do you think? Has it moved beyond the original crime, if there was, in fact, a crime?

DAVIS: Well, first of all, let me correct what I think you said. I don't know whether a crime has been committed. From reading the newspapers and the attorney for Mr. Rove, it appears that the elements of the crime -- knowledge of the covert agent, and also knowledge that the agency has tried to protect the covert agent -- it appears that the prosecutor has not said that Mr. Rove is a target. But I don't know, and we need to wait.

The answer to your question really is I don't know. And the worst thing that anyone can do, certainly members of my party, should not be speculating on the outcome of the investigation. Certainly it looks like, as an attorney, the special counsel wouldn't be doing all that he's doing unless he actually thought that he had something that was out there that was serious.

BLITZER: And so the bottom line, just to put it in a nutshell, I think we're hearing Lanny Davis tell Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, Henry Waxman, other prominent Democrats when it comes to this issue, to shut up. Is that what you're saying?

DAVIS: You just named some of my heroes in politics. I would never say shut up. I would say when the White House is having trouble with its own communications, with its inability to recognize that something wrong was done to Ambassador Wilson's wife, that the worst thing Democrats ought to be doing is getting in the way.

We ought to be on the sidelines, quiet, allow this to play out, and not allow Senator Hatch or other people to talk about politics, which I also think is a mistake for Senator Hatch. He ought to say the same thing I'm recommending to my friends on the Democratic side. Let's all be silent and let this process play itself out. But I do think the White House has to step up to the line soon and face the fact that the press corps was misled and that Mrs. Plame never should have been mentioned anonymously or otherwise in any attempt to counter what was published by Ambassador Wilson.

BLITZER: All right. Lanny Davis, in Washington for us. Lanny, thank you very much.

When we come back, the latest advisory on Hurricane Emily is just out. Where will it be hitting next? We'll get the latest forecast.

Subway safety, how to get out alive, if there's ever an emergency. That's coming up in our CNN "Security Watch".

And thousands taking to the streets in Israel for a very long protest. Find out what they want. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Hurricane Emily blew by Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula overnight, but it may regain strength in the warm waters of the Gulf as it targets the Mexican mainland or Texas. Emily hit the Yucatan coast early this morning as a category 4 hurricane which carries winds up to 155 miles per hour. It lashed resort towns along the area known as the Mayan Riviera.

Thousands of tourists and residents huddled in makeshift shelters, in schools and hotel ballrooms. Some reported that their experience was very scary and very uncomfortable. But they emerged to find that while the storm downed trees, blew off roofs and cut power, damage to the Caribbean beach resorts was generally light.

Emily is expected to strike again sometime late tomorrow somewhere in the Mexican mainland near the southern tip of Texas.

Our meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras is tracking the hurricane from our Weather Center with the latest forecast. What do we know, Jacqui?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, it's just less than 500 miles away from Brownsville, Texas, and it's really fallen apart today, Wolf. This is barely a category 1 hurricane now with maximum winds around 75 miles per hour. Take a look here on the satellite imagery. You can see we had all of the bright images as a cat 4. It fell apart. But notice the core, the inner part of the hurricane. You're starting to see the colors pick back up so this is a sign it could be intensifying and certainly has the potential to continue to do so over the next 24 to 36 hours.

We're expecting this to be a category 2 now rather than a category 3 when it makes landfall. While we can't rule out a weak three, winds of 105 miles per hour before it makes landfall, we think late Tuesday night or real early in the morning on Wednesday, and it does look like best chances will be in the northern parts of Mexico, but still that cone of uncertainty we can't rule out southern parts of Texas. So that's why we have tropical storm warnings in effect from Baffin Bay extending down to the U.S../Mexico border and a hurricane watch in effect also for the same area, hurricane warnings extend further down to the south. Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Jacqui Jeras with that forecast. Thank you, Jacqui, very much.

She moved from Israel to avoid the terror of daily life only to become a victim of it now in London. Her parents have now journeyed to Great Britain to bring their daughter home.

Plus serial bomber, Eric Rudolph sentenced. What part of his punishment will be next? That's coming up.

And later, after numerous deadly strikes over the weekend in Iraq, insurgents targeting Iraqi police in a string of attacks today. The former Defense Secretary William Cohen standing by. He'll weigh in on the latest violence.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: "Now in the News".

After days of troubleshooting there's still no firm launch date for the Space Shuttle Discovery. NASA engineers are trying to determine what's wrong with a faulty fuel sensor that forced the space agency to scrub the planned launch. NASA officials say they will not let launch fever compromise safety.

Just under a month before Israel begins its pullback from the Gaza and parts of the West Bank, protesters are on the march. Thousands of demonstrators opposed to the withdrawal gathered today near the border with Gaza to begin a three-day protest. Israel's deputy prime minister says the withdrawal will create a real opportunity for change in the Middle East.

As he faces prison for life, Eric Rudolph is showing no remorse. A judge in Birmingham, Alabama, today sentenced Rudolph for the 1998 bombing of a women's clinic in Birmingham. At the sentencing, Rudolph lashed out against abortion. Later, the widow of a police officer killed in the blast had harsh words for the confessed bomber.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FELICIA SANDERSON, VICTIM"S WIFE: Don't forget what Eric Rudolph is. No matter how he tries to justify his actions and glorify himself, he is a terrorist. He is a murderer. Don't ever forget that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Rudolph will receive two more life sentences next month for the three attacks in Atlanta, including the 1996 Olympic Park bombing.

She left Israel and thought she left behind the bus bombings, but terror caught up to her on the streets of London. CNN's Robyn Curnow reports from London.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): They've come from Israel to take their daughter home. Annette Rosenberg, killed in the bomb that exploded on the number 30 bus.

ARIE ROSENBERG, FATHER OF VICTIM: The chances are very small. There are millions of people, hundreds of busses, and exactly in that single bus, which exploded at 9:47, she was inside. And she sat in the end of the bus near the door, exactly -- as I understood, exactly where the bomber perhaps was.

CURNOW: She had lived in London on and off for 18 years. And she worked at a children's charity. Like many here, Annette Rosenberg felt safe on these London streets, a sense of safety and security that was shattered on the morning of July the 7th.

Annette and her partner, John, shared a love of art and theater. He says bus bombings, a grim fact of Israeli life, was something she thought she had left behind.

JOHN FALDING, VICTIM"S PARTNER: She had a fear of being blown up on a bus in Israel. And so it's just so ironic that -- tragic that it happened this way.

CURNOW: Her parents will bury her this week in Jerusalem. They had to wait for her body to be officially identified before they could make the journey home.

ROSENBERG: They took us to identify her, and we identified her. And she was our daughter, Annette Rosenberg. She looks peaceful as if she was sleeping, and so we left her there. We said our goodbye, and we will meet later.

CURNOW: Robyn Curnow, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: In the wake of London's terror attacks, U.S. mass transit systems have raised their own terror alert levels. But would you know what to do if you were caught underground during an attack? We'll show you how to survive an attack. That's coming up next.

Plus, testing out the Marine Corps' V-22 Osprey. We'll take a closer look at this controversial aircraft.

Also, the fight for Iraq. What can be done to curb the recent upsurge in violence? I'll speak live with former Defense Secretary William Cohen. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: In our CNN "Security Watch', this month's terror bombings in London put American transit systems on higher alert. There was a disaster drill today in Washington's subway system, the Metro.

CNN's Kimberly Osias was there. And she shows us how you may be able to escape an attack on the tracks. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: An underground terrorist attack hasn't happened in the U.S., but alert levels in Metro's underground and on mass transit above have been raised, from yellow to orange, signs of vigilance are everywhere.

In Washington, 700,000 passengers are going about their business every day. With that kind of volume, second only to New York, officials say preparedness is key.

Victor Size (ph) has been working the subway lines for 23 years. For him, evacuation protocol is secondhand, but he says for a novice, when the power goes out, fear can set in.

(on camera): Well, it's definitely dark.

VICTOR SIZE, METRO EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: It gets very dark and the emergency lighting would kick up. You'd have a light on every other door -- one in the middle, one at either end of the car. If you hadn't heard anything in maybe the last few minutes from a train operator, so we'd go to the intercom.

OSIAS: Totally eerie.

SIZE: As you can see, there's glow-in-the-dark material on the intercom. So, even in total darkness, you can find that.

OSIAS: Yes, I do see that. But you have to know what you're looking for.

SIZE: It's at either end of every car.

OSIAS: The lights are out in our cab. Should we evacuate?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, you should evacuate it, please.

OSIAS: It's dark. How do you know which doors to hit?

SIZE: You go to the middle of the car. You're going to have judge that the best you can.

OSIAS: So you get to the middle of the car and then the doors are closed, so now what?

SIZE: This will illuminate even in total darkness. You raise the cover and you pull the red handle.

OSIAS: That opens the door -- or enables us to open the door?

SIZE: That releases the door; it unlocks it.

OSIAS: It's a little bit tough. OK. Just walk on out?

SIZE: And then out to safety. OSIAS (voice-over): That's if you're on the landing. If you're actually in the tunnel, a bit dicier. Like Chicago and New York, D.C. has a third rail.

SIZE: The third rail will be away from the catwalk.

OSIAS: With 750 volts of electricity coursing through it, any miss-step can be lethal.

(on camera): It's a bit like that game "Operation." You want to be careful, really careful.

SIZE: The main concern is, if you're evacuating the train, is to get personnel out.

OSIAS (voice-over): By following the lights, looking for signs, and taking the first exit you see.

SIZE: Get out when you can.

OSIAS: The stairs take you up to street level and out to safety. For Victor Size...

SIZE: I don't have time to be frightened while you're doing your job.

OSIAS: ... fear sets in only after everyone else is safe.

Kimberly Osias, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And please stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

After a major overhaul prompted by fatal crashes, the U.S. Marine Corps' V-22 Osprey is in the air again. When we return, our Jamie McIntyre is one of the first civilians to ride on the redesigned aircraft and he gives us a look inside. It's a report you will see only here on CNN.

Plus, in Aruba there's a new development in the search for clues in the case of missing American teen, Natalee Holloway. We'll tell you what it is.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: In Iraq, officials say as many as two dozen police, soldiers and government workers were killed in a series of ambushes and shoot-outs.

U.S. and Iraqi security forces scored one success, though, today when a tipster led them to a weapons cache in a farmhouse in Mosul. A CNN team on the scene counted at least seven improvised explosives devices ready for use. The attacks though, follow an exceptionally bloody weekend. At least 90 people were killed Saturday when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a gas station south of Baghdad.

Joining us now from Washington is our world affairs analyst, the former defense secretary, William Cohen. He's the chairman and CEO of the Cohen Group.

Mr. Secretary, it looks like we're almost getting numb to these daily body counts; civilians, military personnel, Iraqi police killed in these car bombings, these suicide attacks. Are we just supposed to assume this is going to be an everyday occurrence?

WILLIAM COHEN, WORLD AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, Wolf, as you pointed out in the last segment, that there are some people who are cooperating by turning in, giving tips or leading to the discovery of these weapon caches, as you pointed out.

So, there's a lot of bad news in terms of about 170 people died over the weekend in about 19 separate car bombings. But what's going to be the success story here is whether or not the Iraqi people come to the conclusion that the insurgents, who are trying a divide and conquer strategy, really is one of divide and destroy the country.

There is no dividing and conquering and putting them back in power. And so what they're seeking to do is to tear up the country through some kind of a sectarian war. So, ultimately it's going to be the Iraqi people turning in these individuals and giving tips to the government and to the coalition forces that will prevent or at least reduce the amount of savagery taking place.

BLITZER: Since most of the savagery is being committed by Iraqi Sunnis, the Saddam loyalists, the Fedayeen loyalists, the al Qaeda operatives associated with Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, is there any indication that these Iraqi Sunnis -- that the overwhelming majority of whom oppose these attacks -- but that they are, in fact, going to stand up and go after these terrorists?

COHEN: Well, they have to. If they don't, then we're going to continue to see the kind of bombings that took place over the weekend with no relief in sight.

There are a couple things that we have to keep our eye on. Number one, the return of the indictment against Saddam Hussein and the trial scheduled for some time either in August or September. That may produce a spike and even more violence.

Secondly, the visit by the Iraqi prime minister, Jaafari, to Iran recently to meet with the newly elected president there. This could be seen in a positive way of saying that they've been to war in the past -- this may be a positive sign in the making.

On the other hand, the Sunnis may see this as something of concern to them -- that you now have a theocratic state, Iran, possibly linking up with a religiously dominated Shia majority in Iraq to produce a -- an outcome that we certainly would not want to see in the United States and hoped that we could prevent in the past.

So, there is concern about what the relationship between Iraq and Iran is going to be in the future and as to whether or not those perceptions even stimulate more violence.

It's going to take some leadership on the part of certainly Jaafari and others to persuade the Sunnis that there is a place for them in this political process. And there's some good news that some of the Sunnis are coming forward, understanding they made a mistake by not joining in that political process back in January and now are getting involved in helping to write that new constitution.

So there's bad news, but there's also some good news in the offing.

BLITZER: Well, one potential source of bad news is within the Iraqi Shia community, since most of the civilian victims are in fact Iraqi Shia targeted by these Iraqi Sunnis -- the insurgents, most of whom are Iraqi Sunnis.

At what point do those Iraqi Shia simply say, you know what, this is never going to work. There's going to have to be a separate Shiite state in Iraq?

COHEN: Well, that's one of the challenges facing the religious leader, Al-Sisani, as well as the new prime minister -- that they're going to have to persuade the Shia majority to resist the temptation to strike back against these kinds of attacks. You have the rise, again, of the Mehdi Army, and Muqtada al-Sadr surfacing again.

So there's going to be a real challenge in the weeks and months ahead. It's going to require strong leadership coming from the new government, the writing of the constitution, new elections, during a time which we're likely to see a continuation of the bombing attacks. So it's not going to be an easy future or a pleasant one, but one that we have to stay the course and try to persuade the Sunnis to join in the political process, to report on those people who are simply going to divide the country, but ultimately destroy it in the process.

BLITZER: And very briefly, switching gears to the Israeli/Palestinian situation, do you sense this Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a little of the West Bank scheduled for mid-August is, in fact, on track?

COHEN: I think it has to remain on track. We cannot really afford to see a discontinuation of the process now. Prime Minister Sharon is caught between -- in a storm. We hope it doesn't become a perfect storm.

On the one hand he has the Israeli settlers who are refusing to be evacuated and now staging demonstrations. On the other you've got Hamas extremists who are trying to portray the withdrawal from Gaza as a retreat and a defeat for the Israelis.

And so what you have on the Israeli side and the Hamas side, or the extremist side, is coming together, or could come together in a sort of perfect storm to defeat the president's proposal and to defeat Abbas as well as Ariel Sharon.

This two-state solution has to go forward. It's going to take strong leadership on the part of Ariel Sharon. The president of the United States is sending -- once again, Condi Rice is going back, secretary of State is going back for the third time in very recent weeks and months to lend her support for a strong, steady hand in a very difficult storm that has been brewing.

BLITZER: William Cohen, our world affairs analyst. Thanks very much for joining us.

Up next, one of the military's most controversial aircraft getting a makeover. Our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre, takes us aboard. That's coming up next. It's a story, by the way, you will see only here on CNN.

But first, as part of our anniversary series, "Then and Now", we take a look back at Dominique Dawes and where she is today. Here's CNN's Paula Zahn.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA ZAHN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Dominique Dawes tumbled into the spotlight during the 1996 Olympics as part of the magnificent seven gold medal winning gymnastic team. Awesome Dawesome became the first African-American to win an individual gymnastics medal with a bronze in the floor exercise.

DOMINIQUE DAWES, OLYMPIC GYMNAST: It just meant a lot to do it for the country, my team, and myself.

ZAHN: After the Olympics, Dawes turned heads on Broadway, dabbled in acting and modeling, and cart-wheeled her way through a Prince music video. She hung up her leotard in 1998 and went on to the University of Maryland, but soon realized that gymnastics was not quite out of her system.

Dawes participated in her third Olympic Games in 2000 in what she called a once in a lifetime experience. She's now completely retired from gymnastics and splits her time between coaching and motivational speaking.

DAWES: It's really going out there and teaching young girls what being fit is all about.

ZAHN: She's also president of the Women's Sports Foundation, and has recently launched a new project, Go Girl, Go.

DAWES: I do feel like I do have to inspire and empower others. And that's why -- you know I found these different platforms, these different venues that I feel like I've been able to touch lives.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: A quick update from Aruba, where authorities have given the FBI samples of blonde hair found on a piece of duct tape on a beach. Investigators will try to determine whether the hair is that of Natalee Holloway. The Alabama teen disappeared a month and a half ago.

After more than two decades of design, testing, redesign and retesting, and a series of fatal cashes, the Marine Corps finally has enough confidence in its exotic tilt rotor V-22 Osprey to take journalists for a test ride.

Our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre was among the first civilians to fly on the aircraft and has this firsthand account only here on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): When you see the V-22 in action, it's easy to see how it captured the imagination of then-Navy Secretary John Layman who first saw the predecessor of the V-22 at a Paris air show in the 1980s.

But over the next 25 years, the V-22 Osprey would acquire a reputation as an unreliable, unaffordable boondoggle whose unique tit- rotor design was inherently unsafe. Two deadly crashes in 2000 that killed 23 Marines, just when the V-22 was supposed to be certified ready for combat seemed to validate the critics and nearly doom the $50 billion program.

But now the Osprey has risen phoenix-like from the ashes.

MCINTYRE (on camera): The appeal of the V-22 is that it combines the best of both worlds. It can hover like a helicopter and fly like a plane. These 38-foot rotors can move from this vertical position to a horizontal position in 12 seconds, taking it from a helicopter that might fly 100 miles an hour, to a plane that can fly in excess of 300 miles an hour.

Now, that gives it a lot more range than, say, this old Vietnam- era CH-46.

MCINTYRE (on camera): To show they believe the V-22's problems are a thing of the past, the Marines last week decided to allow reporters to fly on the futuristic aircraft. And I signed up for the maiden press flight at the Marine Corps Air Station in New River, along with CNN cameraman Jeremy Harlan, and CNN producer Jim Barnett.

MCINTYRE (on camera): This is a little bit of history, right here. We are the first civilians to ever fly on the V-22, after 16 years in development.

MCINTYRE (voice over): The ride was wild, a rapid takeoff followed by some sharp turns and a heart-pumping low-level flight over Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

MCINTYRE (on camera): It may not seem like it in here, but one of the advantages the Osprey is it's quiet. In fact, on the ground, you can't really hear it coming until it's right over your head.

MCINTYRE: The aerobatics demonstration proved the V-22 can easily out-maneuver a helicopter, but only combat experience will prove if its critics are wrong.

Jamie McIntyre, Marine Corps Air Station, New River, North Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: All right. Good for Jamie and his pals. Remember, you can always catch WOLF BLITZER REPORTS weekdays 5:00 p.m. Eastern.

This note, for those of you who can't sleep tonight and want a little laugh, I'll be a guest tonight on the "Late Late Show" with Craig Ferguson. That's coming up later tonight from Los Angeles.

I'm Wolf Blitzer in Los Angeles.

LOU DOBBS TONIGHT starting right now in New York, and Lou is standing by. Lou?

END

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