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Former FEMA Director Michael Brown Testifies Before Senate Homeland Security Committee; U.S. Foiled Terror Plot

Aired February 10, 2006 - 12:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: The Katrina debacle. Tough questions for the former head of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency from the Senate panel looking into the government response.

COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A 3,000- year-old Egyptian tomb. Archaeologists discover a grave in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, the first in more than 80 years.

CLANCY: And countdown to the Olympics. Tight security and more than 2,000 athletes at the historic Italian city of Torino ahead of the 20th winter games.

MCEDWARDS: It is 6:00 p.m. in Baghdad, noon in Washington.

I'm Colleen McEdwards.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy. And this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

Welcome, everyone in the U.S. and around the world.

And from Los Angeles to New Orleans to Washington, the Bush administration under fire again this hour.

MCEDWARDS: Trying to stress the positive, the president pointed this week to a foiled al Qaeda plot. And now the Los Angeles mayor and other officials are asking why if this was so important they weren't told about it.

CLANCY: And Hurricane Katrina refuses to blow over amid accusations the White House knew the storm's real damage within hours but took days to react.

MCEDWARDS: And in Washington, is the lid about to blow off the CIA leak probe?

But first, we're going to go to those Katrina hearings. The man in charge of FEMA, the U.S. disaster agency during last year's Gulf Coast hurricane, is answering his critics today.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve is in Washington on the story for us.

Jeanne, interesting what Mike Brown had to say, essentially saying that they were sort of like the poor stepchild in a relationship where they were cut loose.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Right. And he's saying a lot more today about who knew what when.

He says it is baloney for top officials of the Department of Homeland Security to say that they didn't understand the severity of the problems created by Katrina on the day of the storm. He said there were a series of video conferences with Washington in which the problems were very explicitly laid out.

In addition, he said he had phone calls with White House officials, including one with Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagan, who was with President Bush in Crawford.

Here's some of what he had to say about that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: Did you tell Mr. Hagan in that phone call that New Orleans was flooding?

MICHAEL BROWN, FMR. FEMA DIRECTOR: I think I told him that we were realizing our worst nightmare...

LIEBERMAN: Yes.

BROWN: ... that everything that we had planned about, worried about, that FEMA, frankly, had worried about for 10 years was coming true.

LIEBERMAN: Do you remember if you told him that the levees had broken?

BROWN: You know, being on a witness stand, I feel obligated to say that I don't recall specifically saying those words, but it was, you know, New Orleans is flooding, it's the worst-case scenario.

LIEBERMAN: Right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Mr. Brown, who was testifying under oath, also said that he had tried to alert officials before the fact that this storm could be the worst-case scenario that they had all feared. And all of this contradicts statements that we've heard from President Bush and from the secretary of Homeland Security, who have said they didn't understand the severity of what was going on until Tuesday.

In addition, Mr. Brown spent a greet deal of time in the hearing today talking about how FEMA had been gutted, in his opinion, how it had been doomed to failure in part because of its incorporation into the Department of Homeland Security, which he said had a very different mission. The department was worried about terrorism, FEMA was worried about natural disasters.

He said, you know, if this had been a terrorist that had blown up the levee, there would have been an immediate response. But because it was a natural disaster, they were much less interested.

He was taken to task by some of the senators for some of the e- mails that have been previously been disclosed which seem to disclose a sort of lackluster response by Mr. Brown himself. Some senators suggesting that he should have displayed more leadership.

Mr. Brown also saying today that he feels somewhat that he's been set up as a scapegoat, been somewhat abandoned by the administration.

Back to you.

MCEDWARDS: OK. So aside from airing this, Jeanne, how important is this stuff, Brown's testimony. And also, you just -- the whole process here? Anything likely to come out of this?

MESERVE: Yes, there are going to be a series of reports. One from this committee, a Senate committee. A House committee is putting one out. The White House is doing its own review.

All of this hopefully will be incorporated into changes at FEMA, at the Department of Homeland Security, and elsewhere in government. So hopefully things will work better the next time some sort of large catastrophic event strikes, be it natural disaster or be it terrorism.

MCEDWARDS: OK. Great.

Jeanne Meserve in Washington.

Thanks very much. Appreciate it -- Jim.

CLANCY: Well, now new details about al Qaeda's foiled plans to attack the U.S. West Coast. Officials in Southeast Asia say a Malaysian engineer recruited for the plot changed his mind after he saw the carnage of September the 11th. They say he has been detained without trial since he surrendered back in December of 2002. U.S. President Bush gave the first details of the plot on Thursday.

Tom Foreman explains why critics have been questioning the timing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Just over a thousand feet high, the U.S. Bank Tower is the tallest building west of the Mississippi. And the White House says it was to be hit by a hijacked commercial airliner.

The president says shortly after 9/11, Osama bin Laden and the now imprisoned Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were training followers in Southeast Asia for this attack. But the plot ended when a U.S. ally captured a key al Qaeda operative.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Since September the 11th, 2001, our coalition has captured or killed al Qaeda managers and operatives in over two dozen countries. FOREMAN: The White House has talked about thwarted terror attacks before but has not released such details. Apparently not even to the mayor of Los Angeles.

MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA (D), LOS ANGELES: I'm not expecting a call from the president himself, but certainly somebody from the White House informing us of all of the things that they were going to be saying on national TV.

FOREMAN: Critics are pointing out that the president's comments come after weeks of complaints over the secret domestic spying program and months of low approval ratings. Polls show Republicans lag behind Democrats on an array of domestic issues. But voters still trust the president's party more when it comes to battling terrorism. And the president is stoking that confidence.

BUSH: We're winning the war on terror.

FOREMAN: Of course Democrats suggest he is simply trying to rally his party for fall elections around the politics of fear.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Well, there you see it. You can say this is a challenging day for people whose job it is to represent the Bush administration's point of view. But it is just another day at work.

Covering them and covering the story, Suzanne Malveaux joins us now from the White House.

You look up on Capitol Hill at those Senate hearings and you see Mr. Brown testifying there. And some people -- it looks like the White House is caught off guard here in one way or another. Somehow they're not invoking any privilege in this, they're not saying his conversations with the executive branch should be kept private.

What's going on?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, the White House is very frustrated with what is happening here. They're keeping a very close eye on the testimony, as you could imagine, of Mike Brown.

They also, of course, sent a letter from Harriet Miers, the president's counsel, to Mike Brown's attorneys saying that, look, they have a number of concerns about the kinds of conversations, disclosing those conversations with top officials, but they did not actually exert executive privilege. They're simply made their views known on that. But they're keeping a close eye on what he's saying.

So far, they do not have many major objections about Mike Brown, but they are watching. What they do object, however, very frustrated with this, is "The New York Times" article. It says, "White House knew of levees failure on night of storm." We heard from Scott McClellan, the press secretary, and many officials who are taking exception to this article, saying that it's demoralizing, it's sad and it's inaccurate. They go on to say that it was Monday night that they were getting conflicting reports about the state of the levees, that there were some problems, but that it wasn't until Tuesday morning that they had that full complete picture of levee failure.

They say even if they had gotten that information, accurate information on Monday evening, that it wouldn't have made a difference when it came to how they responded. They said all of their resources essentially went to search and rescue, went to the airlifts, the kinds of pictures that you saw initially within the first 24 hours, that it would not have gone to actually taking care of levee breaches because it's just not something that could have been done within 24 to 48 hours.

They also say that the president was proactive on Sunday. That is when, of course, he called Governor Blanco of Louisiana to say that there needs to be an emergency evacuation and also gave a press conference -- or rather a statement appealing to people to leave.

Having said that, the White House also acknowledged failure, they said, on all state levels. And they had been trying to keep ahead of this story. Essentially, they have their own investigative committee. They were hoping to come out with a report to try to say these are the lessons learned. They say that that is a report that will be coming out shortly -- Jim.

CLANCY: Suzanne, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you were with the president during that period of time.

MALVEAUX: Well, absolutely, I was with the president. And...

CLANCY: But I'm just trying to get the timing here down, because, you know, I just heard on Capitol Hill live testimony, Mr. Brown testifying that absolutely it was Monday morning that he was notifying people. You tell us that the White House is saying it was Tuesday morning.

When did the president actually leave the White House to address -- or leave his vacation there in Crawford, Texas, to go back to the White House? What day?

MALVEAUX: Well, he had a number of trips. I mean, the president was at the Crawford ranch. We were with him at that time. Then he took a couple of trips, went out West.

He made some comments about the war on terror. He had...

CLANCY: Yes, it was a campaign -- it was a fund-raiser, wasn't it?

MALVEAUX: It was actually -- it was a combination of a fund- raiser and also the war on terror speech. There were two different things that were happening. One was a Medicare event that happened the day before, and then he followed up. He went out to California. That is where he gave a speech talking about the war on terror.

He cut short his vacation by two days and went back to Washington to deal with it with his cabinet members.

CLANCY: And what day was that?

MALVEAUX: I'm going to have to go back and get that exact timeline for you.

CLANCY: It was about Wednesday, wasn't it?

MALVEAUX: That's probably correct. But what the White House is saying is essentially the president, starting on Sunday before the storm hit, actually had issued these emergency declarations, had actually warned people to evacuate. But they also acknowledge that they didn't do quite enough in those first couple of day.

CLANCY: OK. Let me switch gears here if I can before I have to let you go, Suzanne. I know I'm asking you a lot of questions. And going through Suzanne's notebook, she had no warning about that.

But the administration, and rightly point out, there was an important terror attack that was averted in Los Angeles. Any explanation why officials in Los Angeles weren't put into the loop?

MALVEAUX: Well, the White House says that that is not actually accurate. They say that Los Angeles officials were alerted, that there is a whole chain of command in the Department of Homeland Security, and that they actually told the office, the Los Angeles City office, that because that message did not get directly to the mayor -- that is what the mayor said -- then that certainly wasn't the White House's fault or the Department of Homeland Security.

Even the mayor, though, however, did say that his office got the message but he did not get that direct call or direct communication that he was looking for from this administration, from this president regarding that attack, that possible attack.

CLANCY: All right. It's an election year. The mayor's a Democrat. And we'll probably hear more about this story.

But Suzanne Malveaux, thank you for an overview here...

MALVEAUX: Sure.

CLANCY: ... on a day when the White House is addressing some critical issues both politically and security-wise.

Well, bird flu has spread again to another country. (INAUDIBLE) now says the deadly H5N1 strain of the flu has been found in dead birds from the country's Caspian Sea coast. This comes just days after the virus was first confirmed in Africa, where it has been detected in Nigeria, on the west coast. The World Health Organization launching now a massive public awareness campaign, trying to stop the virus which has so far only been found in birds. Health experts say the discovery does not bode well, though, for Africa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. DAVID NABARRO, U.N. BIRD FLU COORDINATOR: I think that we must now expect that there will be outbreaks of avian influenza in other in Africa, as well as Nigeria. We obviously have to be encouraging governments to be keeping a very close watch. And I know from contacts that I've had, that Nigeria's neighbors are certainly on the alert.

The other thing we must do, as has been said by the World Health Organization's director general this afternoon in a statement, is to make sure that health services are on alert to identify possible human cases of bird flu.

And thirdly, we must make sure that we communicate very accurately information to people that says keep away from diseased birds because these could be the cause of human illness that could well be fatal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Health officials fear the virus could mutate to a form that might spread along -- among humans, leading to a global pandemic.

MCEDWARDS: Well, new abuse allegations surface against the U.S.

CLANCY: Up next on YOUR WORLD TODAY, we're going to have more on what some say the U.S. military is doing to stop hunger strikers among the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Also coming up, your comments. Our inbox question today asks: What do you think was the most important story of this week?

MCEDWARDS: Leaving it wide open for you. Send us your thoughts at ywt@cnn.com. We're going to read your responses later on YOUR WORLD TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MCEDWARDS: Welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY from CNN International.

I'm Colleen McEdwards, along with Jim Clancy.

More than eight decades after the last tomb was unearthed, a new discovery in Egypt's Valley of the Kings causing a lot of excitement. And we've got more on this.

Ben Wedeman is on the phone for us -- or is with us, actually, from Luxor, near that famous valley.

Ben, archaeologists could barely contain their excitement about this. Tell us about it.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Colleen. This was a group from the University of Memphis in the United States that made this discovery. And it was almost an accidental discovery.

They were excavating in the Valley of the Tombs -- in the Valley of the Kings -- excuse me -- when they came across some workers' quarters from the 19th dynasty, almost 3,000 years old. And they found in those quarters that some of the gravel, the sand, the rocks was loose. And they suspected that there was something below that.

So they started to dig. This is about a year ago, in March of last year. They started to dig down.

They discovered a shaft almost 33 feet deep. They kept on digging until they found -- they got to the very bottom of this shaft. And then they found on the side there was some sort of constructed wall.

They broke through the wall just a few weeks ago, and they were able to see inside. There were five coffins, wooden coffins, with mummies inside, as well as some alabaster jars.

Now, they haven't been able to go into the room because the opening is really about the size of an attache case. But they say that these mummies and the alabaster jars are essentially from the time of King Tut, which takes you back to about 1300 BC.

Now, in the coming weeks, they're hoping to be able to go inside that room and get a closer look to what is in there. But the archaeologists from the University of Memphis and Egyptian archaeologists are very excited indeed -- Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: Obviously lots of questions here. I mean, are they royalty, are they not? What do the hieroglyphics say?

How long do archaeologists say it's going to take to kind of sort some of this out and come out with a real story of what's buried there?

I'm sorry. We had some audio trouble with Ben. And it appears that we've lost him there now.

But I can tell you some archaeologists we've been speaking to about this are really excited about deciphering it all, say it will take some time. But very interested to hear the story of what's beneath the earth there.

CLANCY: Well, one of the other stories that continues to dominate the news in the Middle East, those drawings of the Prophet Mohammed. Another day of protest in many places.

MCEDWARDS: That's right. And despite calls for restraints, angry cries still being heard on the street of cities right from Tehran to Kuala Lumpur. CLANCY: In fact, thousands of people turned out in the Malaysian city, urging a boycott of all Danish goods. The drawings first published in Denmark, of course, last September. Then they've been reprinted in several publications elsewhere.

The Malaysian government slapping a blanket ban on publishing, circulating or possessing even those caricatures. The prime minister whose country heads the organization of the Islamic Conference spoke of a wide gap between the West and Islam.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDULLAH AHMAD BADAWI, MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER: In crusades in Western colonialism the position of Israel upon the Arab world (INAUDIBLE) and the Western desire to control oil and gas, especially those supplies coming from the Muslim countries, have all contributed in one way or another to the huge chasm that has emerged between the West and (INAUDIBLE).

The targeting of so-called Islamic terrorists in a global fight against terrorism has aggravated this situation, and the senseless violence of the terrorists themselves has made things worse. (INAUDIBLE) will not be able to change the situation by mere talk, but by dialogue and being nice to one another.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCEDWARDS: Well, demonstrations were also held in half a dozen cities in Indonesia, the nation with the world's highest population of Muslims. Police are questioning the editor of an Indonesian magazine that reprinted some of the drawings.

CLANCY: Meantime, in Tehran, where protesters pelted the Danish Embassy with petrol bombs this week, a senior cleric there urged crowds not to attack foreign embassies. As he was speaking, the thousands gathered for Friday prayers chant anti-U.S., anti-Israeli and anti-European slogans.

It took almost three months, Colleen, but finally we're getting the results of Iraq's legislative election.

MCEDWARDS: Yes. Actually, they've been sty certified. And when YOUR WORLD TODAY returns, we're going to tell you what the final count shows and what happens now.

Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta. More of YOUR WORLD TODAY in just a few minutes. First, though, a check on stories making headlines here in the U.S.

Emergency crews are on the scene of a tour bus that tipped over on its side a short time ago near Denver, Colorado. About 30 people, including children, were on that bus at the time. It's a heavily- traveled road which was slick from an overnight storm.

Not clear at this point what caused the accident or if the weather was a factor. The extent of any injuries is also not known.

Out of the job, but still under fire. Former FEMA chief Michael Brown has spent much of the morning on Capitol Hill facing questions over his agency's handling of Hurricane Katrina. Brown has been the person most blamed for the government's sluggish response to the disaster. But Brown, who resigned during the angry backlash, says much of the blame rests with FEMA's parent agency. He says the Department of Homeland Security was told of the levee breaches the day of the storm but showed a lack of urgency because it was a natural disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: It's my belief that had been there been a report come out from Marty Bumondi (ph) that said, yes, we've confirmed that a terrorist has blown up the 17th Street Canal levee, then everybody would have jumped all over that and been -- trying to do everything they could. But because this was a natural disaster, that has become the stepchild within the Department of Homeland Security.

And so you now have these two systems operating, one which cares about terrorism, and FEMA and our state and local partners, who are trying to approach everything from all hazards. And so there's this disconnect that exists within the system that we've created because of DHS.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: The White House says there was a lot of confusion and conflicting reports as floodwaters poured through the levees and into New Orleans. Spokesman Scott McClellan says that once the urgency became clear, the White House ordered that the top priority was to save the lives of those in danger.

There's a new development surrounding the CIA leak case. In a letter to Libby's lawyers, the special prosecutor says that Lewis "Scooter" Libby told jurors his superiors authorized some leaks. Court papers say the classified information given reporters was part of efforts to justify invading Iraq. A source tells CNN Libby did not testify that anyone in the administration authorized outing CIA officer Valerie Plame.

Libby is scheduled to go on trial next January. His attorney tells The Associated Press Libby won't shift the blame to his superiors as part of his defense. White House officials aren't commenting on today's disclosure, citing the ongoing investigation.

Live pictures right now from Maryland. President Bush is there in Cambridge, Maryland. He is speaking to a conservative group, the House Republican Conference. We're monitor his statements and what he has to say and bring you the highlights a little bit later.

Meanwhile, let's go ahead and check in with Jacqui Jeras, who's watching the weather.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Neil Entwistle is expected back in Massachusetts within a week. He will face murder charges in the deaths last month of his wife and infant daughter. The British native was in court today in London where his attorney said Entwistle agreed to be extradited to the U.S. at the earliest opportunity.

In western Pennsylvania, the former governor of Connecticut has been released from a federal prison after serving 10 months of a one- year sentence. John Rowland was facing impeachment inquiry when he pled guilty in 2004 to corruption charges. He'll spend the next four months under house arrest and perform 300 hours of community service.

"LIVE FROM" with Kyra Phillips begins at the top of the hour.

Meanwhile, YOUR WORLD TODAY continues after a quick break.

I'm Daryn Kagan. Have a great weekend.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

MCEDWARDS: I'm Colleen McEdwards. Here are some of the top stories that we are following for you.

CLANCY: Election results are now official in Iraq. The process of forming a new government getting under way. Final figures from December's parliamentary vote were no surprise. The Shia coalition won a plurality, 128 seats. It was almost a majority. Kurdish candidates secured 53 seats, and the Sunnis back in the race, back in politics, after boycotting previous elections, won 59. Lawmakers must take their seats in parliament within the next two weeks.

MCEDWARDS: More than eight decades after the last tomb was unearthed, archaeologists have discovered yet another grave in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. The tomb was found by accident and it contains at least five mummies in sarcophagi and also colored funeral masks. The tomb is believed to be more than 3,000 years old.

In Washington, the man who was in charge of the U.S. disaster agency FEMA during Hurricane Katrina is testifying before the U.S. Senate. Michael Brown testified the government's decision to fold FEMA into the Homeland Security Department led to his agency's failure during the crisis. Brown cites a culture clash. The Homeland Security Department was created after the September 11th attacks.

CLANCY: Well, for more on the Katrina debacle, the CIA leak probe and the politics behind those stories, let's go now to our senior political analyst Bill Schneider.

You know, if I could sit in the president's chair for just a couple of minutes, I'd have to be asking myself. Here I led a coalition, got them all engaged in the war on terror I prevented a major terror attack because they took action. This guy didn't perform at FEMA, I fired him, now he's on Capitol Hill denigrating me. And Lewis Scooter Libby is pointing a finger now at Karl Rove and the vice president.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: They're all singing like canaries, and they're all saying it wasn't just me, it was people higher up in the administration, it was the Department of Homeland Security that was involved. It was the White House' fault.

Scooter Libby is saying that he was actually ordered to divulge classified information from the National Intelligence Estimate by his superiors in the White House. And that is believed to include the vice president himself, Scooter Libby's boss, Dick Cheney. So the White House must be very uncomfortable right now.

CLANCY: Well, you know, it's kind of curious at those Katrina hearings that you had the Republican, the chair of the committee, you had others that were saying, look, we tried to ask the White House if they wanted to invoke privilege in this discussion, and they didn't give us any guidance. They don't want us to do it.

SCHNEIDER: Well, that's right. The man who's on the spot there, Michael Brown, the former FEMA director says that he himself -- essentially, he threatened the White House -- he said, look I'm going to answer all the committee's questions unless the White House specifically invokes executive privilege and tells me don't answer those questions and gives me legal representation to defend my refusal to answer those questions.

The White House didn't do that. It didn't claim executive privilege. It left it up to Mr. Brown. So Mr. Brown is, as I say, singing like a canary and talking about the fact that people in the Homeland Security Department and in the White House knew about the breach in the levee the day before, when the storm first hit, even though the White House has claimed it didn't know about it until the day -- hours later.

CLANCY: But, you know, when it comes to this revelation about that tower in Los Angeles, there was a real plot against it. You know, bits of that story had been coming out for the last two years. We hadn't put it all together, in terms of the real plot there, but we knew those people had been arrested, et cetera, et cetera.

And here the president isn't getting any -- I mean, everybody's saying, well, it's because of domestic spying that he's announcing this. No, the president is saying I led a coalition that did protect your country.

SCHNEIDER: That's right. The president is saying it was owing to international cooperation, very important in this instance. This is just after September 11th. He claims that there was another planned attack on the tallest building on the West Coast of the United States.

What's interesting there is the mayor of Los Angeles had a press conference yesterday, said that he didn't know anything about this. And the mayor at the time, James Hahn (ph), in 2001, early 2002, said he didn't know anything about it, either. It appears that the administration did foil an attack, not necessarily because of wiretapping -- they're not claiming that -- but because of international cooperation with countries in Asia, particularly southeast Asia. They didn't name the countries, but they said there were Asian terrorists involved.

CLANCY: Bill, on the mayor and the police chief, I mean, aren't we talking about Democrats here? Isn't this an election year? I mean, aren't they taking a shot? I mean, why would the president have to tell the mayor of Los Angeles that something had been foiled if it never really came to that point?

SCHNEIDER: Well, I think the mayor of Los Angeles needs to know there was a plot against his city, whether it was the mayor at the time or the current mayor. But they claim it was all a surprise to them. And, of course, there's a lot of partisanship involved in all of this. And they're saying -- that's why they're arguing that the timing is suspect because the president is making this announcement at a time when his administration is under attack on the war on terror. But still, it's a little bit strange that the former and current mayor weren't told about a threatened attack on their city.

CLANCY: All right, Bill Schneider calling it like it is. Thanks, Bill, as always.

MCEDWARDS: Interesting stuff.

Well, more now on the cartoon controversy that has been so much in the news in recent days. As Muslims around the world demonstrate against the drawings that depicted the Prophet Muhammed, reaction in the United States has been a little bit muted so far, at least by comparison.

Richard Roth has a sampling from the streets of New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Times Square, New York City, the crossroads of the world. But worlds seem to be colliding a world away over a cartoon.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it just shows how far apart the cultures are and it makes me wonder how we're ever going to come together as one people.

ROTH: I searched for Americans on the sidewalks of New York for some cartoon bubble thoughts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Free speech. Freedom of the press. That's number one. It's a cardinal rule.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't seen it. But it's humor. That's all. I think they should just relax. That's all.

ROTH: Times Square theaters have tested society's limits in the past. The Broadway matinee crowd reviewed the toon tumult.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In America, you see, we have freedom of speech. And apparently, the -- there's a segment of Islam which is always defaming Christianity and also Judaism. So isn't it fair play?

ROTH: But on the other side of the aisle...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't go with that freedom of speech thing because they knew it would cause a lot of heartbreak, and they did it anyway. So I don't know why.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's a very bad decision that somebody made in that newspaper.

ROTH: A New York City Islamic group organized a protest against the drawings outside the United Nations, but the U.S. public has generally been sitting this one out.

The country had its own cartoon fuss, though, on a lower scale earlier this week. A "Washington Post" cartoon portrayed the U.S. Army, now fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, as a quadruple amputee, with Dr. Rumsfeld listing the patient as battle hardened.

DONALD RUMSFELD. U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: That's the way it is here. It comes with the territory, I guess, is all I can say.

ROTH: The "Post" was hit with verbal criticism only. The U.S. has survived other art and religion controversies.

The "Sensation" show at the Brooklyn Museum in 1999. Opponents, including the mayor, railed against artist who combined the Virgin Mary and elephant dung.

In 1987, U.S. senators denounced artist Andre Serrano for his photograph, a Crucifix submerged in the artist's urine.

And don't forget the Florida woman last year that sold a grilled cheese sandwich with a image of the Virgin Mary on eBay for $28,000.

Back in Times Square, a cartoon demonstration?

No, these teens were more interested in getting on MTV than reading the headlines.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't watch cartoons.

ROTH: But forget all the arguments, this caravan pronounced the messiah is here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The messiah is going to come.

ROTH (on camera): When is the messiah coming?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The messiah is coming any minute.

ROTH (voice-over): But until then... UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a mess, it's a mess!

ROTH: Richard Roth, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Well, the U.S. military says the number of prisoners on hunger strike at the prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has dropped and dropped drastically. Critics are saying that there's a very good reason for that. They say it's not as pretty as it might appear.

Brian Todd reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Attorneys representing nine detainees at Guantanamo Bay make allegations of abusive treatment to end recent hunger strikes.

TOM WILNER, ATTORNEY FOR DETAINEES: Some decision was made somewhere, saying, we don't a hunger strike anymore.

TODD: Tom Wilner visited Guantanamo very recently. He says his client, a Kuwaiti named Fawzi al-Odah, was warned recently he would be punished if he continued his hunger strike. Wilner says al-Odah, who had allowed himself to be fed through tubes, ended his hunger strike last month, after seeing another detainee being strapped to a restraint chair like this one.

WILNER: They would strap people to a chair, strap them all up, put a mask, basically, on them, I'm told, hold their head back, and force tubes in, and take them out at the end of each feeding.

TODD: Wilner and another attorney say some detainees bled and fainted after that treatment.

Joshua Colangelo-Bryan represents three detainees. He won't say what happened to his clients. But, during a recent visit to Guantanamo, he says he heard, hunger-strikers were overfed while restrained.

JOSHUA COLANGELO-BRYAN, ATTORNEY FOR DETAINEES: After the feeding WAS done, detainees were kept strapped into their chairs. So, they couldn't go to the bathroom, except on themselves.

TODD: The chief military spokesman at Guantanamo tells CNN, a restraining system is used to feed hunger-strikers. But he said -- quote -- "Allegations of inhumane treatment for hunger-striking detainees are absolutely false."

The White House also weighed in.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We know that al Qaeda is trained in trying to make wild accusations and so forth. But the president has made it very clear what the policy is. And we expect the policy to be followed. And he's made it very clear that we do not condone torture and we do not engage in torture.

(on camera): But something has clearly happened recently at Guantanamo to affect the hunger strikes. U.S. military officials there say from 84 hunger strikers reported at around Christmastime, there are now four, three of them being force fed through tubes.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCEDWARDS:: All right. It is not much longer now before the big opening ceremony at Torino.

CLANCY: Getting excited?

MCEDWARDS: I am. I've got my watch set.

CLANCY: The Olympics, the crowds, the hoopla. And well, the security. We'll have a live report coming up.

MCEDWARDS: Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MCEDWARDS: Welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International. The grand opening ceremony for the 2006 Winter Olympics is less than two hours away now. And from the rumors that we're hearing, it will include some of Italy's greatest talents.

For more on that, we've got our own talent, Alessio Vinci, who is on the videophone in Torino for us.

Alessio, what are we going to see when this thing gets going?

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Buenos ares from Torino, Colleen.

This is a city that is about to host the 20th Winter Olympics. And the people here arrived at the Stadio Olympico (ph), the former (INAUDIBLE) in the city, are already warming to see this beautiful ceremony, which is expected to be a blend of what Italy has to offer best, and that is beauty, of course, style, passion and tradition. And we understand that, for example, the delegation, the Italian delegation will carry the host country, the flag of the host country, the Italian flag, will be dressed by Giorgio Armani. Also there will be (INAUDIBLE) cars and Ducati motorcycles as part of the ceremony.

And speaking of speed, of course in these days Italians are known to be driving very fast. We understand there will be some skaters on roller blades, not on ice, because it's too warm here to keep the ice enough for the ceremony. But they will be on skates, and they will be zipping around the stadium at 50 miles an hour.

Now you can see people are still arriving. We are right here in the middle of the scene. A tram is passing by. But nevertheless, there's a lot of excitement. People are telling us that from all over the world, are telling us that they don't know very much what to expect. There's been a lot of speculation in the press about what the show is all about. But they say that Italians are very good at putting up the show, and they're very much looking forward to what is going to happen in the stadium here behind, which you will see shortly in about an hour's time -- Colleen.

MCEDWARDS:: That is true. Alessio, I hope it hasn't been all work and no play for you. Have you had a chance to really, you know, chat it up with some people, just talk to people about how they feel about the whole thing?

VINCI: Well, first of all, the first thing that was really interesting is this is not a sold out show. There are still tickets available, and I saw a lot of people actually trying to sell tickets. So I would say perhaps many scalpers around. The tickets available go at the ticket office for about $700 to $1,000. The scalpers sell them for about $250, so as you can tell, there are still seats available. We met some people from Brazil, for example. They're saying, hey, this is not going to be like Carnivale, but we know that Italians are pretty good at putting up a show, and so we're very much looking forward to this.

A lot of people are excited, you know, the people especially from Torino have lived through many years of construction works, a lot of speculation, of course, as to whether or not the games and the venues were going to be ready on time. Well, this is now the big test for them. And of course, that is when the Games are going to begin officially tomorrow up with the competition back here in Torino, but also up in the mountains.

MCEDWARDS: Great weather there for you.

VINCI: I'm sorry, Colleen, say it again?

MCEDWARDS: You have great weather there. It looks warm and it's been real pleasant.

VINCI: Yes, Colleen. this must be the warmest Winter Olympics in history, I can tell you. There is, of course, lots of snow up in the mountains, but here in Torino, the temperature is quite comfortable. We had a sunny day here.

One more thing before I let you go, Colleen. I mean, the big, unanswered question about who will be the last person that will carry the torch inside the stadium and will light the Olympic flame. There is speculation that one of Italy's most famous athletes, Alberta Toma (ph), known as "La Bamba" will be doing that. But of course we have no confirmation of that.

Back to you.

MCEDWARDS: Alessio, thanks very much. Appreciate it.

Of course there had to be a bus pull up right there. He couldn't hear me for a second. But it has been great there, the weather. Everybody has been in their with shirt sleeves. (CROSSTALK)

MCEDWARDS: It's beautiful.

CLANCY: Alessio is going to have a wonderful time. We can only sit here and be jealous.

(WEATHER REPORT)

CLANCY: All right, Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: Still ahead, questions about a North American hockey great.

CLANCY: Sad ones. Gambling allegations hitting close to home. The story and what it means to Wayne Gretzky, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: The ice may be cracking for a hockey great in U.S., and we're talking about Wayne Gretzky, the former player who is now a coach, and a gambling ring his wife apparently took part in. Inside sources tell the Associated Press about wiretaps that allegedly show the hall of famer knew about this gambling ring, but Gretzky denies he ever made any bets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WAYNE GRETZKY, COYOTES COACH: I'm not going anywhere, I'm still going to coach the Phoenix Coyotes. I've done nothing wrong or nothing that has to do with any sort of -- on the lines of betting. That's just never happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Gretzky's assistant coach, Rick Tocchet, is suspected of bankrolling the gambling ring. He's likely to be charged later this month -- Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: Well, here's another good reason to respect your elders. If you don't, they might just kick your butt. At least they will in Incheon, South Korea. These women, all over 70 years old, all of them grandmothers, and all mastering the South Korean martial art of Taekwondo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JI BOK-HYUN, TAEKWONDO STUDENT (through translator): Smashing. I really like smashing the plastic flaps. I release my stress that I get from home.

YOON YEO-HO, TKD FEDERATION MASTER: There are a lot of difficulties in teaching them. They would forget what I taught them after one hour or a day later.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MCEDWARDS: Well, about half of these grandmothers in this class have earned black belts.

CLANCY: OK, time to open up our e-mail and find out. We wanted an open question today. We were just asking what was your favorite news story -- the most important story of the week?

MCEDWARDS: All right. So the first one here. We've got Michael from Kuala Lumpur, I think. Yes. "The week's main issue is the controversy over the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed depicted in various newspapers. I'm stunned about actions and reactions on both sides."

CLANCY: Frantzy writes from Pennsylvania, "the most important story is Haiti's presidential election. Another opportunity for democracy to take hold and for Haiti to move forward and address major issues."

MCEDWARDS: Great comment. And finally, Nick in Florida tells us "Coretta Scott King's funeral was the week's biggest story. The King's struggle and message reminds us to embrace all human values." I'm Colleen McEdwards.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy, and that's YOUR WORLD TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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