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Iraqi Constitution; Interview With Adnan Pachachi; West Bank Evacuations

Aired August 23, 2005 - 12:02   ET

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

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: This is YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International. And a very warm welcome to our viewers around the world and in the United States. I'm Zain Verjee.
JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: I'm Jim Clancy.

Now, we were listening there to President Bush as he talked directly about the war in Iraq, the number one issue that he had, an issue that he stuck with. He's battling low approval ratings for himself, dwindling support for the war in Iraq, at least eroding support perhaps a better way of putting that.

He was addressing it directly. Cindy Sheehan a lightning rod, if you will, for opposition to the war. Very careful. The president supporting her right 100 percent to protest, saying he and many other Americans disagreed.

He said the constitution is not a problem right now, let the Iraqis work it out, it's a difficult process for them. They have said that they want a democracy, and he believes them. And he says that there's reason for -- he called it a hopeful moment in Iraq right now.

VERJEE: He was also asked by reporters whether negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians would start based on the roadmap. And the U.S. president really saying, look, Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, has taken a courageous step. And now it's really up to the Palestinians. He said that was the next step to make sure that they can establish a government that works effectively in Gaza.

CLANCY: All right. We are going to go on with the news now and take a look at some of the stories.

And one of them that we were just talking about there, Iraq. Of course, already it faces a political tug of war among the Shia, the Sunni, and the Kurds in the country. Now it's plunging into uncharted territory as lawmakers for the first time are going to try to iron out what are called the outstanding sticking points in the draft constitution that will come over the next three days.

Although the constitution technically was submitted just before the deadline, minutes before the deadline on Monday, the devil is no doubt going to be in some of the very big details still unresolved that will determine whether the country staying together, and just how long U.S. troops could be committed there. At issue, federalism, how provinces are formed, and the effort to get rid of Iraq's -- the influence of Saddam Hussein and his Ba'ath Party from the political process.

Iraq's prime minister talked about this experiment in democracy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IBRAHIM AL-JAAFARI, IRAQI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Well, I don't think that any government in the world has complete consensus on its principles. But if the majority gets the approval of the majority, and we are going to put this constitution to a referendum, and the people will have their final decision about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERJEE: Just three days, and is compromise a realistic expectation, or will a coalition of Shia and Kurd politicians use their majority in the National Assembly to force a draft constitution through? A little bit earlier I spoke with Aneesh Raman in Baghdad for some insight into what the factions want.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Kurds want nothing less than autonomy in this new Iraq. They want explicit reference to federalism in the constitution.

The Sunnis want the exact opposite, essentially. They want this entire conversation sidelined. So how you bridge these two divides is near impossibility.

They will try and find the wording, if they can. But already today, talk from the government that this is the end of the road. If they cannot in three days, this will be the draft document, and then it will go to the Iraqi people to decide whether or not they want federalism -- Zain.

VERJEE: Including the Sunnis in the political process, has been billed as so crucial, today in "The New York Times" the lead editorial says this: "The draft got to the assembly only by sidelining until almost the last moment. The Sunni Arabs, who had so painstakingly been added to the drafting group earlier this year, since the Bush administration has promoted the constitution as a way to drain support from Sunni insurgents. This exclusionary move was reckless and indefensible."

Strong criticism there. But does it have real ramifications on the ground?

RAMAN: There are. Twofold, really.

First, in a political sense, the Sunnis who did not show up to the January elections, who do not have the numbers in the National Assembly to prevent this draft document from going forward, do have the numbers to reject this constitution in the national referendum to come this fall. They have a majority in three provinces. And they are already warning that if the constitution goes forward as it is, that is exactly what they will do. Also, in a larger sense, Iraq's insurgency is largely fueled, we are told by government officials, by Sunnis, the domestic insurgents. And so, it has long been seen as essential to curbing the violence and bringing stability to bring Sunni politicians into the fray. Alienating them further could have serious ramifications on that end as well -- Zain.

VERJEE: And on that, U.S. officials saying, look, we really want to stay on schedule, we want to stick to the timetable. And really arguing that any delay is essentially going to play into the hands of insurgents. Are they right?

RAMAN: Well, they are caught in between two ends. One, a delay they say will play into the hands of insurgents. But an alienation of Sunnis will also, many fear, fuel the insurgency and violence even further.

Neither option is something that they would like. But they had to, they felt, keep this process moving. A very active style coming from the U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE: Aneesh Raman reporting in Baghdad.

For more on the Sunni agenda, we turn to Adnan Pachachi. He is a foreign Iraqi foreign minister, also a former member of the now defunct Iraqi Governing Council.

Mr. Pachachi, thanks so much for joining us.

Do you think that there will be compromise, real compromise in the next three days? Is there the political will?

ADNAN PACHACHI, SUNNI POLITICIAN: Well, there will be discussions about three or four contentious issues. And there has been some movement already. The main -- the main obstacle has been a question of federalism and how it will be created outside the Kurdish area.

The -- we feel that the federal government must have a say in how the federal structure is going to be formed in other areas south of Kyrgyzstan. And not leave the decision entirely to the population of those provinces. But the central government, who is the guardian of the unity and independence of Iraq, should have a role to play in the -- in dividing the machinery in the ways how this federal sector is going to be established.

VERJEE: If there is no agreement in three days, it seems likely that the Shias and the Kurds will force the draft constitution through. They have the majority. And Sunni leaders are saying, not only have we been shut out of the process, but there are threats of uprisings on the streets and of civil war.

PACHACHI: Well, I don't think it will go that far. But obviously there's a great deal of opposition to the constitution in its present form. But my -- my position is that, no matter what happens in the referendum, whether the constitution is accepted or rejected by the people, there will be elections next December. And this is the crucial test.

And everybody has agreed that these elections are going to be far more inclusive than the one we had in January. And therefore, the constitution itself would be implemented by an assembly that truly reflects the situation in Iraq rather than the assembly which we have at present. And it's quite possible that in the next parliament to be elected next December, there would be some amendment to the constitution trying to deal with some of the contentious issues which have not been resolved.

(CROSSTALK)

VERJEE: Do you feel, as do many Sunni leaders, that there has been too much pressure by the United States to stick to a deadline? Or would you have liked more time?

PACHACHI: Well, I'll tell you this, the U.S. ambassador, Mr. Khalilzad, played a very useful role, I think, and he did that with the encouragement and sometimes with the request of the Iraqi participants in the negotiations. The deadline has not been imposed by the United States. The deadline was -- was decided by the -- by the (INAUDIBLE), the administrative law.

And we postponed that for one week. And now we have three more days.

So this was an Iraqi decision. It would have been, in my opinion, better if we could have postponed the process for a few months and had elections first, and then have the constitution drafted by a far more representative body than the present one.

VERJEE: Former Iraq...

PACHACHI: But anyway, whatever happens...

VERJEE: OK.

PACHACHI: Whatever happens, the -- we -- I emphasize the importance of the elections. Whether the constitution is going to be accepted or rejected by the people, there will be elections.

VERJEE: OK.

PACHACHI: And these elections will decide what kind of government we're going to have and then what kind of constitution we are going to have after that.

VERJEE: Former Iraqi foreign minister, also a former member of the now defunct Iraqi Governing Council, Adnan Pachachi.

Thanks so much.

PACHACHI: Thank you. VERJEE: We'd like to know your thoughts on the stories, some of the issues here that we've been discussing.

CLANCY: That's right. Iraq, tell us what you think about the constitution, about the situation right now. Send us an e-mail, YWT@CNN.com. We're going to share your thoughts, open the mail bag, if you will, from our viewers from around the world and in the United States a little bit later in the program.

All right. Now to our other main story, and that's Israel's historic withdrawal from four West Bank settlements, and all of Gaza.

Officially now, it's over. The military confirms the troops finished evacuating Homesh in the West Bank just a short while ago. They also removed the last protesters Tuesday from a nearby settlement, Sanur. Residents of two other West Bank settlements slated for removal left those settlements voluntarily.

VERJEE: The evacuation of Sanur and Homesh comes a day after troops finished the pullout in Gaza. And the scenes were familiar. Everything from bulldozers, to cranes, to bolt cutters, had to be used to remove die-hard opponents.

Guy Raz has the details from Sanur.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUY RAZ, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): They marched in the morning, expecting a struggle, a final showdown as the last remaining settlements were evacuated. Thousands of police and soldiers were sent here fearing that in this community blood might be shed. It never happened. The army cleared the settlement of Sanur out in a day.

Six hundred people were inside this hilltop settlement. Their believers say Joseph were sold into slavery by his brothers. Few of those still here were residents, and many brought their children. The most hard-line were holed up on top of a fortress dating back from the Ottoman empire.

Earlier in the day, police smashed through a barricade blocking the entrance into the settlement's synagogue. Settlers built this structure less than four months ago, a symbol of this community's unwillingness to acknowledge the inevitability of their evacuation.

Those inside were brought out. Most agreed to walk out on their own, carrying the sacred Torah scrolls with them.

This old Ottoman-era fortress was once occupied by Turks, then the British, Jordanians, and finally Israelis. On this day, it was settlers refusing to leave. And preparing for a fight.

Police were hoisted on to the roof in containers. Those on top tried to keep them at bay, but they failed. And police ended the final standoff here, hauling those who stayed on to buses and out of Sanur. (on camera): The last remaining holdouts have been evacuated. The settlement of Sanur is now cleared out. The entire disengagement process was meant to take one month. But in the end, it only took a week.

Guy Raz, CNN, Sanur settlement in the northern West Bank.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Now, nearby, the settlement of Homesh had a little bit more of a chaotic scene to it. Let me show you the now familiar scenes.

This time inside a seminary, where there was some of the toughest resistance. Protesters, of course, locking arms on the floor. Israeli troops then had to, four of them at a time, drag those settlers off.

Other protesters made a last stand up on the roof, but they were finally lowered down in the shovel of a bulldozer. Police reporting that most of these protesters weren't actually residents of the settlements, but what they called infiltrators.

VERJEE: Still ahead here on YOUR WORLD TODAY, an American televangelist has a death wish for a South American president.

CLANCY: Pat Robertson is getting a lot of attention for his lis dislike of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. We'll have details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Welcome back. You are watching an hour of world news here on CNN International.

A conservative American television evangelist, flamboyant and aging, with a very wide following, is taking on a populist, leftest Latin American leader. And the language is getting a bit extreme.

Pat Robertson, a one-time Republican presidential contender, told viewers of his religious show, "The 700 Club," that it may be time, in his words, take out Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Now, Mr. Chavez, is, of course, friends, at least, or an ally, according to some, of Cuban President Fidel Castro. Robertson says he's bent on exporting communism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAT ROBERTSON, "THE 700 CLUB": He has destroyed the Venezuelan economy, and he is going to make that a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent. You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we are trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CLANCY: So, just who are these two men? Let's explore some of that with our own Kimberly Oasis, and also a little bit in a moment with Lucia Newman.

Kimberly, a big difference between these two men would appear to be, while they're both rather flamboyant, Chavez did get elected, Pat Robertson didn't. But that's not stopping him from raising his voice.

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No. I mean, certainly, Pat Robertson, Jim, is no stranger to controversy. As the founder of the Christian Coalition, I mean, this man has an enormous following. He even, as you mention, made a bid for the presidency back in 1988.

So, when Robertson speaks, definitely people listen. He has a voice. And now he is speaking, of course, about assassinating a sitting leader of a foreign nation, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Such an act would be illegal.

Robertson has made controversial comments in the past, saying Islam is anything but peaceful, and characterizing activist judges as being more damaging to America than terrorists. Chavez has said that he believes the U.S. will assassinate him.

The left wing populist leader has threatened to cut off oil exports to the U.S. America gets more than 10 percent of its oil from Venezuela. So far, the Bush administration has yet to comment on Robertson's statements.

Now Jim, I just got off the phone with the Reverend Barry Lynn. He is with a theological watchdog group, Americans for the Separation of Church and State. He absolutely denounces these statements, says they are positively chilling. In fact, much more than unchristian, really calling for the president to make a comment and make a comment quickly so there are no ripple effects from this -- Jim.

CLANCY: Well, Pat Robertson has been used by some politicians who bring him in as a representative of the Christian right in the United States. They don't often show the videotape of him saying that, you know, he cured brain cancers in people that didn't, in his own words, that didn't even know that they had brain cancer.

Pat Robertson a very controversial figure in U.S. politics. How many people are really listening to this? How much of it is just flamboyancy and showmanship?

OSIAS: Well, I mean, you know, Jim, some would say that he's a gadfly, that he really essentially stirs up things, and that's part of his point. However, he does have an enormous following.

It is a syndicated show, "The 700 Club." And he did found the Christian Coalition. So there are -- he does carry weight with a lot of people.

CLANCY: A lot of people, too, though, pointing out that Pat Robertson seemed to fall right into Chavez's hand. For months -- well, for more than a year -- it was a year ago this month that Chavez faced about 100,000 demonstrators in the capital city of Venezuela calling for him to step down. And all the time, he was saying, it was the U.S. that was against him, the U.S. wants to assassinate him.

Along comes Pat Robertson and says it publicly.

OSIAS: It will be really interesting to see what happens. But obviously, we are all speaking about his comments. It has stirred things up.

Theologians are certainly commenting. The president, again, has yet to speak out. But radio announcers and hosts are speaking about it.

It is buzzing over the airwaves, over the radio waves. So he's certainly having an effect, part of the effect that he wants.

CLANCY: All right. Kimberly Oasis there with a view from Washington.

Many people in Venezuela would argue that President Hugo Chavez already had an enemy, himself. In the past, he's tried to accuse the U.S. government of trying to kill him. He's been in Cuba now over the last several days strengthening some of his leftist ties to Cuban President Fidel Castro.

He likes to tweak Washington's nose. He also went over and visited with Moammar Gadhafi.

Our Havana Bureau Chief Lucia Newman gives us an update from Havana.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF: This isn't the first time that there's been talk about assassinating President Chavez. In fact, it was Cuba's President Fidel Castro who earlier this year went live on television to announce that there was, according to Cuba's secret police, a plot to kill Chavez. And that if he was murdered, it would be Washington that would be behind this plot.

President Chavez then, himself, went on television and accused the United States of trying to kill him. Although he gave no proof, no evidence of this.

The State Department has rejected these claims over and over, has brushed it off, saying that this is all part of the anti-American rhetoric that's being promoted both by Havana and by Caracas. But the comments now by Pat Robertson will obviously feed into all this anti- American feeling here.

Chavez is still in Cuba. He has spent the whole weekend in Cuba promoting what he calls Latin American integration. He claims that his Bavarian Populist Revolution is now also heading towards socialism, just like the Cuban revolution.

Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: All right. We are going to talk a little bit more about the Robertson-Chavez controversy a little later on YOUR WORLD TODAY.

Right now, Lucia Newman is at the airport in Havana. She's trying to get a statement from Hugo Chavez. But then, after we get that, we will bring that to you live when it happens.

Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider will also join us to talk about this interesting debate.

VERJEE: And we really want to...

CLANCY: All right. We've got some -- this is the vice president of Venezuela making a statement.

Do we have a translation of this? We don't yet. All right. We're going to have that shortly.

This is generating a lot of attention. Hugo Chavez was democratically elected. A lot of people tried to get him out of office, but he stood against a referendum. He's now going to remain in office for some years.

Hugo Chavez, though, has made his popularity by defying Washington. And it's important to note, for instance, he calls President Bush "Mr. Danger One." He calls Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld, "Mr. Danger Two." And he's got some appeal elsewhere in Latin America. He's won some support for a defiant stand against Washington.

But he will use this to the utmost now. He will have all kinds of statements as just a way of bolstering his own popular support.

We're going to have to take a break here. We'll come back. We'll read some e-mails, perhaps. I hope so.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International. I'm Jim Clancy.

VERJEE: And I'm Zain Verjee. Here are some of the top stories we're following.

Israel's withdrawal from four West Bank settlements and all of Gaza is officially over. Troops and police have finished evacuating Homesh in the West Bank, where protesters made a last stand in a seminary. They also removed all resistance from the nearby settlement of Sanur. Residents from the other two West Bank towns on the evacuation lists left voluntarily.

CLANCY: Iraq's interim prime minister says now that lawmakers can resolve some fundamental issues that still block the final draft of the constitution in the next few days. Assembly members say they have reached consensus on the role of Islam in Iraq. However, autonomous regions and control of the country's oil wealth remains key sticking points.

VERJEE: White House counselor Dan Bartlett is urging patience and flexibility on the draft constitution issue. He said the U.S. should allow the Iraq tease work out their differences.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COUNSELOR: There is a quantum leap being made in Iraq. Is it going to be a perfect document? Absolutely not, Miles. Our own Constitution wasn't perfect when we passed it. We are continually making amendments to our own constitution. It's a dynamic process, Miles, but it's a critical process that is recognizing the hopes and aspirations of the Iraqi people, and that's something the American people can be proud of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Now as the constitution debate is dragging on, insurgents, of course, are continuing their relentless attacks. A suicide bomber on Tuesday hit a government office in Baqubah. The U.S. military reports the blast killed five Iraqi civilians, a U.S. civilian contractor and a U.S. soldier. The death toll among U.S. troops in Iraq taking a political toll on President George W. Bush at home.

Aaron Brown has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the battlefields of Iraq, to the polls, to his own front door, it has been a grim summer for the president.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A policy of retreat and isolation will not bring us safety. The only way to defend our citizens where we live is to go after the terrorists where they live.

BROWN: But Americans who had long hoped for progress in Iraq have seen in this summer the opposite. In June, July, and not yet all of August, 201 American troops have been killed, nearly 40 more than a year ago, almost 100 more than the summer of '03.

The president's approval rating is at an all-time low. So is his support for handling the war.

And the antiwar voices are not just liberal groups camped out with Cindy Sheehan in Texas, but at least one senior Republican senator, who has always had questions about the war, but now compares it to a war he fought a generation ago.

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), NEBRASKA: I don't think more troops are the answer now. We're past that stage now, because now we are locked into a bogged-down problem, not unsimilar, dissimilar to where we were in Vietnam.

BROWN: Even in friendly Salt Lake City today, there were signs of unrest. The mayor called for an antiwar demonstration, the biggest demonstration this state has ever seen, Rocky Anderson said. Not likely to happen in a state where the president carried 70 percent of the vote and used the VFW convention today to say the country needs to stay the course in Iraq to honor those, more than 1,850 now, who have died there.

BUSH: We owe them something. We will finish the task that they gave their lives for. We'll honor their sacrifice by staying on the offensive against the terrorists and building strong allies in Afghanistan and Iraq that will help us win and fight, fight and win the war on terror.

BROWN: And the number of fallen troops keeps growing in this summer of setbacks in Iraq.

Aaron Brown, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE: Outrage over the mistaken police shooting death of a Brazilian man in London shows no sign of abating. A memorial 30-day mass is scheduled for Jean Charles De Menezes' at Amsterdam Church on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a Brazilian judicial team has been meeting with London police.

Mallika joins us with that now with more on that.

Mallika, what did the Brazilian delegation say?

MALLIKA KAPUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they say that they have full confidence in the British investigative process. They did speak to the media a short while ago here at the Brazilian embassy, which is the building right behind where I am at the moment, and emphasized that they are not here to replace the British investigators. They said that they are here because they want to know more about the circumstances that led to the death of Jean Charles De Jimezes, an innocent Brazilian man who was gunned down by police July 22nd. They said that they are here on a fact-finding mission, because they want to know more about the investigative process in Britain, and in particular, they want to know about the relationship the British Metropolitan Service has with the IPCC, which is the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Speaking to the press earlier on, Brazil's ambassador to Britain, once again emphasized that he does believe in the British police and he is confident that they did not orchestrate a cover-up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANOEL GOMES PEREIRA, BRAZILIAN DIPLOMAT: At this point in time, we don't have an idea. We don't think so.

QUESTION: Are you worried about (INAUDIBLE)? PEREIRA: We are not worried, in fact, of that. We are working with them. And up to the moment, we don't have any reason whatsoever to refute that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAPUR: Well, earlier today, we did hear from a representative of the IPCC, who said that their report into the killing of Jean Charles De Menezes will be made available by the end of this year, and he also said that disciplinary or criminal proceedings against any of the officers involved in the killing is a possibility -- Zain.

VERJEE: Could Britain's ongoing war on terror influence in any way the investigation? Those have been some of the concerns, haven't they?

KAPUR: That definitely has been a concern. There is a lot of concern, particularly on behalf of Menezes' family, that perhaps the investigation is being effected by political overtones, and that that is definitely a concern for the family. They have repeatedly said that they are worried about this investigation taking on political tones. They are wondering why some of the details that are coming out now, some of the details made available by the British media last week, why they have been kept from the public for so long. So yes, that is definitely a concern for the family in particular of Jean Charles De Menezes -- Zain.

VERJEE: There have been hints, though, that at the end of the day, though the inquiry will remain confidential, that there could be criminal and disciplinary proceedings, too, right?

KAPUR: That is absolutely right, and that is what a member of the IPCC, the Independent Police Complaints Commission did suggest today. He said there is every chance there is a possibility that it could result in criminal or disciplinary proceedings against any of the officers who were involved in the shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes. They have said that they do want their inquiry to remain confidential. They also said they want to take their time over the inquiries, because an inquiry into a killing such as the killing of Jean Charles De Menezes should not be rushed -- Zain.

VERJEE: CNN's Mallika Kapur reporting. Thanks so much, Mallika.

CLANCY: All right, we want to tell you about a country in flames. Portuguese officials reporting two more people have been killed in the wildfires, and now bring the total to at least 15, Zain.

VERJEE: The worst drought in decades in the country is fueling the fires. Our Femi Oke's monitoring the situation, and she joins us with the latest -- Femi.

FEMI OKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello thee to you both. Hello to our viewers around the world.

I think you may be quite surprised when I show you this. This is an image from NASA. It shows us where the wildfires are and the fires are through the entire world. You can see, we have fires through South America, up into Alaska, that central part of Africa, up through Eastern Europe. And I want to take you in towards Portugal. This weekend in Portugal, on Saturday, there were over 50 fires. Firefighters were doing their best to fight them. It was at this point that the Portugal government asked for international help. That came in the form of international helicopters, in the form of firefighters and fire specialists. That hasn't been enough.

Now the government is asking for local volunteers and firefighters to help with these fires. You see the red here. These are the fires. The yellow shows you where the more extreme fires are, that northern and central part of Portugal. The situation is almost out of control.

Al Goodman has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The huge flames an engine of destruction overnight. Residents of this village, Rosho (ph), fighting for their very homes. The reason so many residents are trying to put out the flames themselves, is that there are so many fires around the country, and firefighters have been spread thin.

JOSE FIGUEIRRES, FIREFIGHTER (through translator): It's very difficult because firefighters are very tired, and it's very hard for them to maintain their morale. They are making a big effort with the community.

GOODMAN: Daybreak in nearby Kaweembra (ph), the historic, university city, threatened by the fires. There were some evacuations here. Smoke reached the city. Too close for comfort, especially for vacationers taking refuge in a hotel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Let's hope we can continue our holidays. I don't believe we'll cut short the holidays unless the (INAUDIBLE) and the Portuguese government tells us to leave. We hope this problem is resolved as quickly as possible.

GOODMAN: Aircraft from France, Italy, Germany, Spain and now the Netherlands have joined in the battle with Portugal's fleet. This is the second worst year for wildfires on record in Portugal. The worst was just two years ago, in 2003. This year, in addition to more than a dozen deaths, hundreds of homes and farm buildings have been destroyed. Roadways large and small have been cut temporarily when the fire got too close.

The government vows to tighten controls over forest management to prevent future fires. But only after the current fires are out, which will still take a while.

Al Goodman, CNN, Madrid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOODMAN: But only after the current fires are out which will still take a while. Al Goodman, CNN, Madrid.

(WEATHER REPORT)

VERJEE: Al Qaeda in Iraq is claiming responsibility for Friday's rocket attacks on two U.S. warships. Jordan says it's arrested a prime suspect. A statement read on state television identified the suspect as a Syrian citizen who lives in Amman. Jordan says he's connected with a known terrorist group based in Iraq. The attacks targeted but missed the warships which were in the region for training exercises. A Jordanian soldier was killed and another was severely wounded.

CLANCY: Also in the Middle East, Lebanese investigators sifting through the debris at the sight of a bombing in a Christian suburb of Beirut. Lebanese Television reporting at least five people wounded in the blast that came late Monday. The bomb exploded near a hotel which caters to tourists. No guests were reported among the wounded.

VERJEE: A helicopter crash this month was captured live on video obtained by the Associated Press. Take a look. Now, incredibly, no one died as the aircraft slammed there into a glacier and exploded. This happened in the eastern Kyrgyzstan near the border with China. Several people, though, were severely injured and some of them suffered burns. The charter flight was arranged by a German expedition testing high altitude equipment. Some passengers were asked to get off the overloaded aircraft including the cameraman who filmed the crash.

CLANCY: Well, still ahead in our program, two prominent newsmakers worlds apart.

VERJEE: A conservative American evangelist and a fiery leftist Latin American president. We're going to take a closer look at Pat Robertson's extreme rhetorical shot at Hugo Chavez. What's behind it and how's it being received? Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Welcome back. You are watching YOUR WORLD TODAY, an hour of international news here on CNN. We are going to return to the controversial call by conservative Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson, a call that the U.S. should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez or at least think about doing that.

Pat Robertson has a huge following in the United States. He even ran for president in 1988.

Joining us with his perspective on this, senior political analyst Bill Schneider. And, Bill, I mean, you've got Pat Robertson up against Hugo Chavez. Both of them are very good at the mic.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, they are. They're both very good at self-promoting and probably exaggerating their influence. I might dispute with you slightly in your assessment that he has a huge following in the United States. I'd say he has a significant following. But even in the evangelical community, he really leads a small segment of it -- the Pentecostals. There are other evangelical leaders, for instance, Reverend Billy Graham, who have a much wider and more pervasive following and a much more moderate political point of view.

CLANCY: You know, at the risk of alienating some of our viewers that are strong supporters of Pat Robertson, and trust me, Bill, they've already e-mailed me to tell me so, just to recount. I mean, this is a man who really takes advantages, if you will, of Americans' lack of knowledge about international news stories. He once went to a map, and I have a videotape of it, pointed to Lebanon in the middle of its civil war and then told everybody as if it was a prophesy that I dare say that there's going to be trouble here. And it was in the middle of a civil war.

He gets involved. He thinks he can cover international issues like the situation in Venezuela with some authority. And it fails.

SCHNEIDER: Yes. He was once linked through business interests to Mobutu, the dictator of Zaire. He has certainly made a number of outlandish statements including domestic policy statements in the past. He once called, perhaps, joking, although I'm not sure, for nuking the State Department. He has said that -- he once urged his followers to pray for a Supreme Court vacancy which means, essentially, pray for the death of a member of the Supreme Court.

He has made a number of outlandish statements in the past. And I would say, you are quite right. He did run for president and did well in the Iowa caucuses in 1988. He was the first evangelical leader to make that kind of a political statement to show his impact in politics.

But I would say, since 1988, his impact has diminished. It really hasn't grown. Evangelicals have grown in influence but not necessarily Pat Robertson.

CLANCY: Well, that's the difference between Pat Robertson perhaps and Hugo Chavez there on the left side of your screen. Hugo Chavez did win election in Venezuela by a substantial majority. There have been people that have tried to remove him from office through a referendum. And he has played the anti-Washington card throughout. And, really, Pat Robertson has played into his hands here, hasn't he?

SCHNEIDER: That's exactly right. And that's the danger of this kind of statement. First of all, to call for the assassination of any foreign leader is illegal under American law. He does not certainly speak for anyone in the administration. In fact, on some issues in the past, he's parted company with President Bush.

And it is inflammatory because it only feeds the critics of the United States in Latin America which has, in many ways, in Brazil, Venezuela, to some extent, Argentina, tilted a bit to the left in recent years. And it just feeds their sense that the United States wants to exercise big-stick diplomacy there, a prominent American talking about assassinating a foreign leader. That is actually very, very dangerous and inflammatory rhetoric. CLANCY: All right, Bill Schneider, we thank you as always for joining us here on YOUR WORLD TODAY. Hugo Chavez and Pat Robertson duking it out.

VERJEE: Let's check some other stories now making news in the United States.

According to AAA, the U.S. national average for unleaded self serve regular is $2.61 a gallon. That's 32 cents more a gallon than just a month ago. Compared to a year ago, that's an increase of 73 cents a gallon. Diesel prices are averaging $2.64 a gallon.

In the face of U.S. consumer unease, the Bush administration has announced a plan to require stricter fuel consumption standards for sport utility vehicles, minivans and pick-up trucks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORMAN MINETA, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Our plan will require light trucks to be more fuel efficient regardless of size. Now this plan is good news for American consumers because it will ensure that the vehicles that they will buy get more miles to the gallon and ultimately save them money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERJEE: Now, of course, battery-powered cars are much more friendly to the environment. Now, they normally wouldn't excite the imagination of racing car buffs, but a new car with a sexy name might change some minds.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Think environmentally friendly means boring? Well, think again.

This is the appropriately named Fetish, the world's first sports car run on electricity. It goes from zero to 100 kilometers in just 4.5 seconds. Not bad for 100 lithium ion batteries under the hood.

Gildo Pastor is owner and president of Venturi, the Monaco-based manufacturer that created the Fetish. He says he wanted to prove a car could be both powerful and good for the environment. Not to mention stylish.

GILDO PASTOR, VENTURI: What's special about the car is really performance, because this car can run, like, even better than most sports cars. The car gives you a lot of adrenaline. It's really -- it's really sporty. It's really fun.

SHUBERT: The Fetish is also for sale, for a cool $500,000. It is just one of dozens that took part in the world's largest eco car rally for the 2005 world expo in Japan.

French fashion designer Coqueline Courreges has been campaigning for electric cars for decades, with a fashionable twist. The Bubble Car is based on a nickel cadmium prototype vehicle she created in 1969, while the EXE runs on lithium ion batteries encased in clear plastic so that the public can literally see how eco cars work. But Courreges says it's not just car buyers that need convincing.

"It's not the public who has to make the decision. The decision needs to be made first by politicians, then manufacturers," she says. "They have to understand they can make as much money with this car as they can make with regular cars. That's the problem."

With stylish options like these, the public could well be clamoring for more.

Atika Shubert, CNN, at the world expo in Japan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Well, it's time for us to take a short break.

VERJEE: When we come back, we're going to open the mail bag. We love hearing from you, YWT@CNN.com.

CLANCY: Well, depends on what they say.

VERJEE: As long as it's good.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VERJEE: We've asked you, our viewers, to write to us about the situation in Iraq today.

CLANCY: Now one viewer in the United States sharing his frustration, he wrote this,"Such a disgrace, we have troops dead and are dying, oil prices soaring, the terrorists now have even more a reason to strike.

VERJEE: George Kern (ph) in Miami, Florida, writes this: "Any constitution that denies the secular Sunnis the freedom to live their lives without radical religious rights domination is doomed to failure no matter how much spin Bush puts on it."

CLANCY: Now, this e-mail comes to us from Germany, and it says, "I, as the rest of the world watch the news of the Iraqi constitution anxiously. I'm horrified at the push to make the deadline for signing the constitution when the subjects holding it back are so very, very important."

VERJEE: Finally, Leonard Smith of Vancouver writes this -- well actually commented both on what's happening in Iraq, as well as Pat Robertson's comments on Venezuela's president." He writes, "The U.S. has taken Iraq for oil, the president put a hit on Saddam and his sons, and now we have old racists white men calling for a hit on someone else. So, I question, is putting a hit on someone, legal?"

CLANCY: And, in fact, it is not legal.

VERJEE: All right. CLANCY: But you know, I don't know that anybody's taking it that seriously. One of our viewers wrote in to say, we're taking it all too seriously, the whole flap between Hugo Chavez and Pat Robertson.

But that's a part of YOUR WORLD TODAY. And for now, I'm Jim Clancy.

VERJEE: And I'm Zain Verjee. Thanks so much for watching.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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