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Fifty Employees at Iraqi Security Firm Taken Hostage; Iran Nuclear Dispute; Bomb Building 101

Aired March 08, 2006 - 12:00   ET

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

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Much at stake. Much in dispute as the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog group makes its case on Iran. What's next? And will it matter?
JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: So how do countries make it to the nuclear club anyway? Making a bomb is easy to explain in theory, but hard to do. And the key is the fuel. We're going to be taking a closer look at that.

VERJEE: And then, want to go skiing? Well, you can head to the United Arab Emirates. We are going to tell you some surprising things about the country at the center of the U.S. ports dispute.

It's 6:00 p.m. in Vienna, 9:00 p.m. in Dubai.

I'm Zain Verjee.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy.

Welcome to our viewers around the world. This is CNN International and this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

VERJEE: We'll have those stories in just a moment.

But first, some disturbing new developments from Iraq. Fifty employees at a security firm have been kidnapped.

Aneesh Raman is in Baghdad, and he joins us now with more details.

Aneesh, what can you tell us?

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Zain, good afternoon.

We're still getting details from Iraqi police who tell us just around 1:00 p.m. local time, 25 armed men all dressed as Iraqi police commandos and somewhere between 10 to 15 vehicles showed up at the main office of an Iraqi private security company. They went in and rounded up what Iraqi police are saying are some 50 employees, taking them to a separate location.

We know -- know that from Iraqi police. A source within the company, though, is telling CNN very little, that the number is less, that only 27 employees were taken. They are mixed between Sunnis and Shia. But this is a very serious situation, one the ministry of interior has now launched an urgent investigation into as to how these men were able to penetrate the outer security at this private security firm. And again, the perennial issue here, which is that insurgents are getting their hands on uniforms similar to Iraqi police commandos, dressing up vehicles so they look official. Again, they did that today -- Zain.

VERJEE: There's been more violence in Iraq this day, increasing Sunni-Shia violence, specifically. Do the Americans have the capabilities to prevent the escalating violence, or is it something that only Iraqis can handle?

RAMAN: Well, when you're talking about sectarian strife, the U.S. military is keen to stay back to allow the Iraqi security forces to handle the situation. There is obvious sensitivity, and the U.S. military doesn't want to be the unifying enemy between the Shia militias and the Sunni insurgency.

That said, Iraq security forces still don't have the numbers to go everywhere in the country and protect everything, which is why we're seeing Shia militias, really, in their mind fill that void. We're also, though, seeing the Shia militia exact revenge on Sunnis, reprisal attacks like we saw two weeks ago after the bombing of the Shia Askaria mosque.

So militias here, while at one level providing security in areas that the Iraqi security forces cannot, have to be disbanded, have to be either integrated -- disbanded or integrated for the country to move forward because for many Sunnis, specifically, these Shia militia are essentially unto a law of themselves -- Zain.

VERJEE: Reporting to us from Baghdad, Aneesh Raman.

Thanks, Aneesh -- Jim.

CLANCY: Veiled threats and not so veiled counter-threats being traded between Washington and Tehran. This day, a top Iranian official said if his country is punished for its nuclear program, it could cause problems for the United States. "Pain," in his words. The comments follow referral of Iran to the U.N. Security Council by the International Atomic Energy Agency that's meeting now in Vienna.

That is where we find our own CNN's Matthew Chance -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks very much, Jim.

Well, over the past few minutes, Mohamed ElBaradei, the director- general of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency has come out of the board of governors meeting which has now come to an official end and spoken to journalists for the first time in several days to give his impressions of the past few days of negotiations.

When these meetings were convened on Monday, Mohamed ElBaradei seemed to express some optimism, that there may be some kind of compromise that could be hammered out over Iran's very controversial nuclear issue. So I asked him, first of all, whether he was disappointed that no such compromise was found.

He said that he was not disappointed. He still believes, he said, that a political solution with all the different parties was the only solution that would resolve this. He said he didn't know when that solution would come, though, would it be this week, would it be next week.

In the end, Mohamed ElBaradei, though, called for Iran to answer all the outstanding questions that still hang over that very controversial, as I say, nuclear program. He also called on all sides to tone down the rhetoric in talking about this issue.

The failure of the IAEA, he said, to fail to get a compromise with Iran and the United States and its allies is not a failure of diplomacy, he said. It merely represents a new phase in diplomacy. But this matter is now poised to be taking up by the United Nations Security Council in New York -- Jim.

CLANCY: The big issue that's on the line -- and I think amid all the diplomatic talk we get lost on this sometimes -- the big issue is whether Iran is trying to develop a nuclear bomb or trying to have nuclear peaceful -- nuclear power. Now, what did the IAEA report really say about that, about the direction and the honesty of Iran?

CHANCE: Well, it had a lot of things to say about that. And, in fact, that is, you're right, the absolutely biggest question that the international community and the IAEA has been asking, is Iran trying to develop a nuclear weapon?

The simple answer to it is that the IAEA, after three years of intensive investigations, has not been able to say with any degree of certainty whether or not Iran's nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes, as Iran says, or a front to build a nuclear weapon, as much of the international community suspects it may by.

The IAEA says that it's simply not being given access to the kinds of nuclear sites it wants. It's not being given access to Iranian scientists who can shed some light on this. And it's not being given access to specific, particular documents that would create a kind of trust in Iran that it is doing what it says it's doing. And that's why the United States and its allies are so concerned that Iran stays within the regime of very intensive IAEA inspections and, in fact, submits to more intrusive inspections to try and build confidence, is the words they use, for the international community.

CLANCY: OK. Matthew, the bottom line, just very briefly, when would the IAEA send this, literally, to the U.N. Security Council? Is this coming in the next 24 hours? When?

CHANCE: Well, Mohamed ElBaradei said a few moments ago that he intends to transmit his latest report to the United Nations Security Council in New York either today or tomorrow. And what we're hearing from U.S. officials is that they are very keen to have this matter taken up by the Security Council as soon as possible. There could be discussions on the fringes of the Security Council between the various members as early as next week. And so, we could see some developments on this from New York very shortly -- Jim.

CLANCY: Matthew Chance reporting to us there from Vienna, where the IAEA held its meeting and heard ElBaradei's report -- Zain.

VERJEE: And Mohamed ElBaradei, the U.N. nuclear chief, is also calling on all parties to just lower the rhetoric. Iran has accused the U.S. of helping engineer an IAEA board vote a month ago to report Tehran's atomic project to the Security Council, and today there was even more back and forth rhetoric and threats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAVAD VAEEDI, IRAN SUPREME NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: The United States may have the power to cause harm and pain, but it is also us susceptible to harm and pain. So, if the United States wishes to choose that path, let the ball roll.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERJEE: The White House called that statement provocative -- Jim.

CLANCY: Well, moving away from the diplomatic angle of the story to really the heart of it all, the science.

CNN's Miles O'Brien gives us an idea and introduces us to what I guess we would call a course called Bomb Building 101.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The hardest thing about making an atomic bomb isn't building the bomb itself; it's producing the nuclear fuel.

DAVID ALBRIGHT, INST. FOR SCIENCE AND INTL. SECURITY: The top hole in the tent is certainly getting the capability to make the highly enriched uranium. It's not simple to make nuclear weapons; it's simpler than learning to build and operate gas centrifuges.

O'BRIEN: Uranium is like crude oil; it must first be refined before it becomes fuel. And the refinery is called a centrifuge.

(on camera): Imagine, for a moment, this bag of M&Ms is a package of uranium. Now, they're all M&Ms, or all uranium atoms in this case, but there are different kinds. As a matter of fact, there are three different kinds of uranium, but only one. In this case, for our example, let's call it the blue M&Ms. Only one is useful if you're trying to generate electricity or make a nuclear bomb.

So the real question is, how do you separate the blue M&Ms from all of the others? It's possible when you consider this one key point. Uranium 235, blue M&Ms in this case, are ever so slightly lighter than the rest. So if it's possible to spin the tray, the heavier items move to the outside, the lighter stuff, the stuff you want, can stay in the middle.

This is, in essence, what happens inside a centrifuge. Now imagine what happens when this is repeated over and over again.

(on camera): That is what happened when a series of centrifuges is linked together. They call it a cascade. The uranium in gaseous form is piped from centrifuge to centrifuge, gets spun, and then respun again and again and again. Each time the uranium 235 content goes up, at 20 percent, it's good enough to run a nuclear power plant. Eighty percent uranium 235 is the high test the weapon's grade fuel.

At their sprawling nuclear facility in Natanz, the Iranians hope to build 50,000 centrifuges. That's a big facility. Iran says it has no plans to make a bomb, but with that many centrifuges, how long would it take to make enough fuel for a crude, yet devastating bomb?

ALBRIGHT: Unfortunately centrifuges can be shifted very quickly from a civil purpose to a military purpose. And a centrifuge plant would give Iran an incredible ability to break out of the nonproliferation treaty and build nuclear weapons rapidly.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: All right.

VERJEE: That was interesting. It was well explained.

You know, Iran, for its part, says that it has a right to pursue a nuclear program under the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.

CLANCY: Still, there's a lot of people that are saying Iran is going to build a bomb. Even some Iranians themselves say that their country has a right to it if they feel they are under threat, and that the world shouldn't be hypocritical here. The U.S. just, you know, signed that deal with India that developed nuclear weapons.

VERJEE: And that's what we want to get you to weigh in on here. We want to ask you this: Is it inevitable that Iran will develop nuclear weapons in spite of everything that's going on today?

E-mail us, YWT@CNN.com.

CLANCY: Keep your answers brief, and do try to include your name and where you are writing from.

VERJEE: Still ahead, the focus is on Dubai, a city that has gained a newfound attention after one of ilts companies signed a deal to operate some six U.S. ports.

CLANCY: We're going to take you to what is called Ski Dubai, where the snow is manmade, as is the below freezing temperatures. But everything else is very, very real.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VERJEE: This is CNN International. And you're watching YOUR WORLD TODAY.

CLANCY: In the U.S. House of Representatives, there could soon be a showdown with President Bush and the White House in the fight over port security.

VERJEE: A Republican House leader plans to attach controversial legislation to a war spending bill. Now, it would essentially block a deal allowing a Dubai company to operate some U.S. ports.

CLANCY: That's right. And as Ed Henry tells us, there are already threats. There's going to be a presidential veto in that case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The Republican revolt began with new House Majority Leader John Boehner declaring the port deal is a very big political problem. Boehner vowed to move forward on port legislation later this week in defiance of President Bush's veto threat. It's clear Republicans who have been trying to broker a compromise with the White House are running out of patience.

REP. PETER KING (R-NY), CHAIRMAN, HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: To me, you have to absolutely ensure that Dubai Ports itself is not involved in any way in the operation of the ports or the carrying out of the contract at the ports.

HENRY: Boehner said he would like to see the port deal go away. But Democrats are not about to let go of this political issue.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: The message I have to the White House is it's not going away. The American people won't let it go away.

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: This is going to go away like the sun's not going to come up in the morning.

HENRY (on camera): One of the President's few allies on the port deal, John McCain, urged his fellow Republicans to stand down. But they're not listening. And even McCain acknowledges the political momentum is working against the White House.

Ed Henry, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Well, maybe the momentum is working against the White House, but on board Air Force One, the White House spokesman reiterating President Bush's position, the veto threat remains unchanged.

VERJEE: Scott McClellan saying that the White House is holding conversations with lawmakers and DP World executives.

CLANCY: Now, we're hearing so much about Dubai and this port deal. But how much do you really know about Dubai? The buildings, the beaches, the skiing?

VERJEE: Yes, the skiing. Wolf Blitzer has this look at the economic and cultural allure of Dubai.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Our helicopter tour of Dubai is with American pilot Joe Kiefer (ph). It began near Dubai's World Trade Center, but, within moments, we were flying over truly amazing structures, the Burj Al Arab, dubbed the world's only seven-star hotel.

It's located on a manmade island, only 180 feet shorter than the Empire State Building. It's a white sail-shaped building, and has become a major landmark.

Check out the helipad at the top.

Then, there are the malls and the entertainment centers, including this giant indoor ski slope. Think about it, manmade snow in the middle of the desert, enough snow for a 400 meter or about 1,300-foot run.

What's billed as the world's tallest building is now under construction. There are lush golf courses in Dubai. Tiger Woods was here recently for the Dubai Desert Classic.

But there are other, more exotic and controversial sporting events, including camel racing, controversial because the jockeys are young children. Dubai is promising UNICEF it is banning underage jockeys. It is even exploring robot jockeys.

Our primary purpose on this visit was to explore Dubai's ports, the Rashid and the Jebel Ali. They are among the largest and busiest in the world, something that's very clear from either the ground or the air.

One can't help but gasp at the pace of construction on both real desert land and manmade land. This is Palm Island, where multimillion-dollar villas spread out across the Gulf. It is shaped like a date palm tree. Some 12,000 palm trees have been grown in a local nursery to be planted here.

Wolf Blitzer, CNN, Dubai.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE: Billions of dollars of investment go into Dubai. Investments from the Middle East also are important factor in the United States' economy.

To help us sort out a lot of the issues involved here, let's turn to Allen Wastler. He's the managing editor with CNNMONEY.com.

Thanks for joining us, Allen. You know, most Americans don't know that places like Caribou Coffee and even Loehmann's when you go and, you know, buy discounted designer clothes, they're actually owned by Arabs.

What else are they buying?

ALLEN WASTLER, CNNMONEY.COM MANAGING EDITOR: Well, let's see, they've got Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. That's a good one. They've got the coffee shop. They've got Church's Fried Chicken.

They've got investments going on in some manufacturing outfits that you probably haven't heard of -- a health care provider, some mobile phone nets, and they are buying stock positions in car makers like DaimlerChrysler and Ferrari.

So, there's more Mideast money around the United States and in different products you use than you probably think of.

VERJEE: Well, the Dubai controversy affect the level of investments in the U.S. by Arabs and Middle Eastern investors?

WASTLER: Well, there's two schools of thought on that.

One, is that nobody likes to see their money or their investment influenced by politics, you know? Your investing money to make a return. And if congressmen start all of a sudden shouting and yelling on it and putting your money in danger, you don't really like that. So, some people are saying that you'll probably see Middle East money pull back because of that.

But the other school of thought is, hey, the United States is growing, we've got consumers, we've got the market. That's where the money is to be made. So, if you want your money to make money, you've got to come to the United States.

So, it will be interesting to see how those competing schools of thought work out

VERJEE: Is that investment, though, good for the U.S. economy? Does it give it a boost, dos it create high-paying jobs?

WASTLER: Yes, it does, in fact. When you think about what the investment does, these are people coming to take money to put right into companies to retain top talent.

Like, for instance, just up the street, we have the Essex Hotel here. A New York hotel, a very famous hotel. Been getting a little bit shabby down there. Now, some Arab investors are going to come in, put in the needed money.

Mayor Bloomberg was ecstatic about it. He said, hey, this helps a landmark in the city. This is a good thing.

So, that's the kind of argument you see for those types of investments. On the other side, are you comfortable with people from another country owning an asset in your country? That's the issue in the ports controversy, and it's an issue you are likely to see come up more and more.

VERJEE: And where is the money coming from? Is all of this oil money?

WASTLER: Yes, basically, it's a ricochet off oil money. All those higher oil prices you've been paying, the higher gas, that's going right back, eventually, to the Mideast.

Some people figure that this year they're going to make in excess of $320 billion off that. They've got to part that money somewhere. You don't want your money to just stay put, otherwise inflation will eat away at it. So you want to make an investment.

So we're seeing that come back in the investment that they're doing. And, also, we in the United States tend to spend more than we make, import more than we export. So we've got these huge budget and trade deficits that have to be funded. The only way to fund that is with the investment overseas.

VERJEE: OK. Allen Wastler, the managing editor with CNNMONEY.com, giving us some good perspective on the realities and the way it impacts the U.S. economy.

Thanks, Allen.

WASTLER: Thank you.

VERJEE: Jim.

CLANCY: All right.

We've got to take a short break here, Zain. But still ahead, a golden parachute that may have some holes in it.

VERJEE: A former CEO of Hewlett-Packard strapped it on, and as the CEO descends, so do HP stocks.

CLANCY: Shareholders are not happy, to say the least. We'll have that and more business news coming up straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta. More of YOUR WORLD TODAY in just a minutes.

First, thought, a check on stories making headlines here in the U.S.

We'll start with the developing story out of Alabama. Authorities saying they know who set several churches on fire last month. The big question this hour is, why did they do it? Two Birmingham Southern College students are in custody. A third person, a student at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, is being sought.

Our Rusty Dornin is following the story and she joins us by phone.

Rusty, hello.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, it turns out that investigators are saying it was old-fashioned police work that led them to the arrest of these two suspects. And, of course, they are now seeking a third.

What happened, according to Congressman Spencer Bachus, is that investigators found some tire tracks at four different church sites, and they were very unusual tire tracks. And they were able to chase them to a dealer in Shelby County, Alabama.

That dealer was also able to trace a special order from a customer. That customer's name was Matthew Lee Cloyd. Matthew Lee Cloyd, 20 years old, who's a student at the University of Alabama. He apparently had been the driver and owned the dark SUV that was being sought in these fires.

When investigators went to his home, he apparently, according to Bachus, broke down and told investigators about Russell Debusk and Ben Moseley. Those are the two young students at Birmingham Southern that were arrested and appeared in court this morning.

It is not clear why Matthew Lee Cloyd was not arrested at the time that investigators talked to him. Apparently, he is now missing, and investigators are searching for him.

From what we understand from people at the Birmingham Southern College, which is a Methodist college, Debusk and Moseley, the two that are under arrest, were theater students, they participated in concert choir. They've even been in a play very recently called "Young Zombies in Love."

But that's what we know so far about these suspects and about the investigation -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right. Rusty, thank you.

We do expect a news conference at 3:00 p.m. Eastern out of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. You will see that live here on CNN.

To Florida now, a brushfire that we're watching. They do believe that they have it under control, but some interesting pictures to watch.

This is Broward County, Florida, just east of US 27 and west of I-75. A lot of heavy smoke. You can still see the flames on the ground there. A charred vehicle found nearby, but not known at this time if the two are related. We should tell you that homes and other structures in the area are not in danger.

Other news today, President Bush tours the hurricane zone in his 10th visit since Katrina roared ashore. Mr. Bush says he is pressing Congress for billions of dollars to rebuild levees and housing in New Orleans. He also had a first-hand look at a residential area that is still devastated six months after the storm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, we just came from a neighborhood where people are fixing to -- in the process of cleaning up debris. We went there because the mayor and the governor thought it was important for me to see first-hand the devastation of the storm in certain neighborhoods, and the progress is being made for cleaning up the debris. Still a lot of work to be done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: President Bush is asking Congress to approve a $4.2 billion plan. It would pay as much as $150,000 to each Louisiana homeowner who lost their house.

Big weather threat today in the mid-South. That's where we find our Bonnie Schneider with weather.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: And this just in to CNN. The governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano, has ordered an increase in the National guard presence at the Mexican border. The reason? She estimates that the annual illegal immigration over the Mexican-Arizona border has increased fivefold since the 1980s and this is causing problems, they say, in safety from gangs, coyotes and others engaged in dangerous criminal activities in Arizona. This does depend on getting the proper funding from the federal government to increase the National Guard presence at the border between Arizona and Mexico.

And that's going to do it for me. More world news up for you next.

I'm Daryn Kagan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY here on CNN International. I'm Jim Clancy.

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

Police say 25 armed men wearing police commando uniforms have seized as many as 50 people from a company in Baghdad. The company is an Iraqi-owned private security firm located in a mixed Sunni/Shia neighborhood. Earlier, Iraqi authorities discovered 24 bodies dumped in various places in Baghdad, 18 in one place. Forensic experts say that the markings on the bodies indicate that most of the victims had been strangled or hanged.

CLANCY: The United Nations nuclear watchdog has moved one step closer to taking punitive action against Iran over its nuclear program. Amid that threat, an Iranian official hinted that if Tehran is punished for its nuclear program, it could cause problems for the United States. The White House calls that remark "provocative," although it's exchanged some of its own words in recent days.

Meantime, the head of the IAEA Mohammed ElBaradei, spoke to the media just a short while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMED ELBARADEI, IAEA DIRECTOR GENERAL: I would have liked to see an agreement this week. There has been a lot of contact, dialogues, offers, on -- from all sides. Unfortunately, we are not yet (INAUDIBLE). And I'm still optimistic because I think sooner or later, all the parties will realize that there is no other option but to go back to negotiation, that Iran will understand that they need to be transparent if they want to restore the confidence of the international community.

They need to take confidence building measures. How under which areas will get the parties together, which kind of parties, they will be talking to each other. These are all questions that I guess will be discussed at the Security Council in New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: All right. Security -- well, for more on what is going on in Iraq this day, let's check in with CNN's Aneesh Raman, who goes beyond the day-to-day violence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAMAN (voice-over): Iran and the U.S. are now likely to battle at the United Nations over Iran's nuclear program. But it's a battle that has Iraq right in the middle.

KEN POLLACK, SEBAN CENTER FOR MIDDLE EAST POLICY: The Iran nuclear issue tends to be divorced from the reconstruction of Iraq. But most senior officials here in Washington recognize that the two are intimately intertwined.

RAMAN: The backbone of the Iraq's government, the Shia Religious Alliance, is very close to Iran. Many of its leaders spent years there in exile during Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, when the Shia were persecuted in Iraq. The two countries are the biggest in the Muslim world, where Shias outnumber Sunnis. And the U.S. says Iran is undermining American efforts in Iraq, smuggling weapons, arming and training Shia militias. DONALD RUMSFELD, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: They are currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq. And we know it.

RAMAN: An allegation made by Sunnis, as well. A leading Sunni politician fears his country will become an even bigger battlefield.

DR. SALIH AL-MUTLAG, IRAQI CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY: They want to do their attack first. They want to start the attack on the American and Iraq, and they want to make from Iraq the ground for the battle, not Iran.

RAMAN: The United States worked hard for more than two years to create a secular government in Iraq, a U.S. ally in the region. But Shias linked to Iran won big in every election.

MOWAFFAK AL-RUBAIE, IRAQI NAT'L SECURITY ADVISER: We will not allow our Iraqi territory to be used against any of our neighbors. We do not want to get involved in this.

RAMAN: Something not lost on Washington.

POLLACK: They are forced to temper their actions regarding Iran's nuclear program by the recognition that if they push too hard, they may wind up dooming the reconstruction of Iraq.

RAMAN: Reconstructing Iraq, analysts say, is the most important national security issue facing the Bush administration.

(on camera): This is a bad time for Iraq to be drawn into a growing diplomatic dispute. Caught now in an unenviable position between its influential neighbor Iran and the United States, who by many accounts have the troops that are holding this country together.

Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE: Security's tight in the Indian city of Varanasi after a series of explosions ripped through the town, packed with pilgrim. Varanasi is a very holy Hindu sight. At least 14 people were killed in Tuesday's bombings. Cities across India also on high alert amid feels of Hindu/Muslim violence.

CNN international correspondent Satinder Bindra brings us the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SATINDER BINDRA, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Twenty-four hours after a bomb went off in this 400-year-old temple, thousands continue to come here. Some come to protest, but many come here to pray and to offer their respects. Late on Tuesday, a large crowd had gathered here. It was considered an especially auspicious time. That's when a bomb went off. Police say the bomb had been placed inside a pressure cooker. Now, the force of this explosion was so powerful that many people had their limbs torn right off them. Several other people died here, right on this very spot. Ten minutes after this blast, there was another explosion at a nearby railway station. Police say both these explosions had been engineered to cause the maximum possible damage and inflict the maximum possible chaos.

Indian authorities are very concerned, because in the past, when religious institutions had been targeted, it's led to violence and strife. Today, in the holy Hindu city of Varanasi, several schools and colleges have been shut down as a precautionary measure. The Indian prime minister is appealing for calm, and several religious institutions across North India have been placed under a state of heightened alert.

Satinder Bindra, CNN, Varanasi, Eastern India.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Well, the United States has been over fire for the past year or more for allegedly abusing human rights of prisoners in Iraq, in Afghanistan, or Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Its state department is releasing the annual report on human rights around the world, conditions in other countries.

Elise Labott joins us now in Washington at the State Department with some of the details -- Elise.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, well the report makes a real strong link between democracy and human rights, saying countries that govern democratically are most likely to protect human rights and best guarantee. But countries that rule under authoritarian rule are most likely to violate human rights.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in rolling out the report, reaffirmed once again that spreading democracy throughout the world and particularly the Middle East, is really the Bush administration's cornerstone of its foreign policy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECY. OF STATE: ... deliver on the high hopes of their citizens for a better life. We must call countries to account when they retreat from their human rights commitments, and we must always stand in solidarity with the courageous men and women across the globe who live in fear, yet dream of freedom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LABOTT: Now, Jim, as always, the report criticizes China and countries like Burma for their poor human rights record, Cuba as well, but it also singles out democracy, where leaders are not governing Democratically; such as in Russia, there's been a lot of concern about backlash into democracy there. As well Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, elected democratically, but not really governing so, a lot of crackdown on freedoms of the press and opposition members.

And also, Jim, no surprise here, the report is very critical of Iran, saying that the countries poor human rights record got even worse, not only eliminating social freedoms, press freedoms, crackdown on political freedoms, but by Iran's interference in Iraq and other countries, it's violating the human rights of its neighbors in the region -- Jim.

CLANCY: This is a report, Elise, that sets a standard. It's well-respected report. Any questions about, all right, why was there no mention of Abu Ghraib, of Guantanamo Bay, of the other problems that the U.S. has faced over the last few?

LABOTT: Well, a lot of countries criticized in the report say the U.S. has no moral authority to be criticizing their countries, because of things like Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and also allegations that the U.S. engages in renditions to countries that it criticizes in the human rights report. This report does not look at the United States.

Officials I have talked to say, listen, how credible would it be if we criticized ourselves, and international organizations and other countries are free to publish their own reports critical of the United States, and we know that they'll do so, Jim.

CLANCY: All right, there we have it. Elise Labott, important report, and we thank you for that view of it there.

Meantime, across Africa, a region remains besieged by what can really only be described as unspeakable living conditions.

VERJEE: When YOUR WORLD TODAY continues, will U.N. involvement finally help put an end to Sudan's humanitarian crisis?

CLANCY: Or is it just going to make things worse? Will the diplomats succeed where everything else as failed? Stay tuned.

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CLANCY: Welcome back, to our viewers in the United States and all around the world.

VERJEE: This is CNN International and YOUR WORLD TODAY. A senior Sudanese official says violence will spread in the troubled Darfur region if a United Nations peacekeeping forces replaces the African Union forces that are there now.

CLLANCY: His comments come as top European Union, Sudanese, and as well as other officials are holding talks right now in Brussels to try to boost efforts to bring this conflict to an end.

More now on the fighting between rebels and militias backed by the Sudanese government.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CLANCY (voice-over): The Darfur conflict that began more than three years ago has left scars on the landscape and the conscience of a world, confronted with evidence of genocide, rape and the helplessness of the black African victims. It is a conflict over land, that has pitted Arab tribesman, armed and supported by the government in Khartoum, against Christian and Animus black farmers of the western Darfur region.

As many as 300,000 dead from conflict, disease and hunger, two million people displaced. The 7,000 African Union peacekeepers say they lack the funds, equipment, manpower and mandate to halt killings and rapes. Cease-fire pledges by both the Sudanese government and rebel groups have not been kept. Even humanitarian aid convoys have come under attack.

The European Union called together representatives of Sudan, the United Nations, the U.S. and the African Union amid declarations the world was at a crossroads over Darfur.

The West wants to turn the African Union mission into a larger, more potent peacekeeping force of the United Nations, backed by NATO. Sudan is adamantly opposed.

International intervention would, in its view, deprive Khartoum of control over it own territory.

MUSTAPHA ISMAIL, SUDANEE FORENIGH MINISTER: The A.U. has got no right to transform the mission without taking the permission of Sudan. We invited the A.U., and the A.U. has got the right to appeal to the international organizations or community to seek the support, financially or logistic-wise.

CLANCY: There are diplomatic hurdles as well. China is directly involved in Sudan's growing crude oil production, and could veto any resolution on intervention. Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says the time has come for the world to act. It is being forced to admit humanitarian aid dropped from skies is hardly enough. Promises by Khartoum have not been kept. If something is not done, the U.N., Europe and the U.S. are vulnerable to charges of standing by and watching as an entire people, in their millions, poor and black, are driven to their deaths.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Let's get more on the conflict. What is going to be done? We've heard it all before from the diplomats. Let's go now to Peter Takirambudde. He is the executive director of Human Rights Watch's African Division. He is joining us now from New York.

How much hope do you really have that something will come out of this, and why?

PETER TAKIRAMBUDDE, EXEC. DIR., HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Well, I mean, for quite some time, the situation has been waiting for some serious hope, because the conditions which have been described have been displayed for the last two or three years, and the world has been watching as the situation has deteriorated.

Conditions having been desperate, and they're going to be desperate, and probably they're getting worse. Darfur is now bleeding openly, profusely, even across the border, into Chad, and I think it's this potential to expand the conflict and suffering, which is now -- which is, a wakeup call for the U.N., especially the Security Council, and other major players to do something about this situation.

There is hope, if the Security Council does go ahead and enact a resolution, which effectively will transition the African Union force into an international U.N. force.

CLANCY: Peter, you're an African -- what's the attitude? When people in Africa look at this problem and say, OK, it's been going on for three years now, everybody's talked a lot about it, nobody's sent any troops in, the African Union hasn't been equipped or funded to do it, they don't have the airlift -- what do you they say about the Europeans, about the Americans, and their willingness really to protect these people that are, after all, completely defenseless.

TAKIRAMBUDDE: Well, there is a feeling of despair. There's a feeling that the population involved is not sufficiently important. It appears that to receive international attention, you must be strategically important, you must be economically important or you must be culturally important. The perception is that Darfur is too dark, and too far, but I think that there is hope that there's going to be change here.

The African Union has made it clear that they are ready to hand over, though a formal decision is going to be made -- is going to be made on the 10th of this month.

CLANCY: All right. Let me get in here and talk a little bit about the other side, and that is Sudan. It says it's going to fight this tooth and nail. You make this a U.N. peacekeeping mission, it's going to come under attacks by jihadists, martyrs -- so-called martyrs for the regime. Do think they can deliver on that threat? This is an area the size of France. This is the largest country in Europe -- or rather, in Africa.

TAKIRAMBUDDE: I think that the noises which are coming out of Khartoum sound familiar. Khartoum has always resisted international efforts to improve conditions in Darfur. They even resisted the deployment of the African force. But they finally retreated and accepted the presence of this force.

The wage (ph) was about to be expanded in house. There was a lot of resistance. So I think these are the usual noises one gets from Khartoum, and as they engage in divisive diplomacy and propaganda and the threats and sort, I think all this is a red herring.

At the end of the day, I think, if there is a commitment and seriousness on the part of the U.N. Security Council, we believe that Khartoum is going to play ball and, indeed, this international force is going to be deployed to address the desperate conditions which are prevalent in Darfur. CLANCY: News that two million people are waiting to hear. Peter Takirambudde of African -- the African division of Human Rights Watch. I want to thank you very much for being here today.

TAKIRAMBUDDE: Absolutely my pleasure.

VERJEE: We're going to open our "Inbox," as well as read some of your e-mails after a break.

CLANCY: So stay with us. You're watching YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VERJEE: We want to report some fairly good news for you now, for a change, an upbeat report from the U.N. about a place where the news has been pretty downbeat lately.

CLANCY: It says that weather in Kashmir has been relatively mild. Now, that's been changing in recent days, but aid has been able to pour in and now things are looking up for some three million homeless survivors of that October earthquake.

VERJEE: U.N. humanitarian officials say helicopters made more than 27,000 trips to the region since it was severely shaken by the 7.6 magnitude quake.

CLANCY: Three of those helicopters, though, did crash. Some 80,000 people died in the quake itself. Among those contributing relief now, the United States sending in helicopters -- very important -- Germany, Australia, as well as NATO.

VERJEE: And the U.N. saying that a second crisis has been averted.

CLANCY: All right. Zain, let's open our "Inbox" while we still have time. You know, we've been asking you your thoughts about Iran's nuclear program.

VERJEE: We got some good e-mails. Our question was, is it inevitable that Iran will develop nuclear weapons? And here's how some of you replied.

CLANCY: Romain from France says this: "No, but diplomacy is no longer the answer. Iran could be prevented from developing weapons through military action led by the U.S., the E.U., and Israel."

VERJEE: David from Israel writes: "Iran has a right to nuclear power, but it says another sovereign nation shouldn't exist and recommends it be bombed. That's why Iran shouldn't have a nuclear program."

CLANCY: Kina writes form Luxembourg: "Iran has the right to have nuclear weapons, whether the world likes it or not. Where was everyone when Iran was getting bombed by Saddam Hussein?" VERJEE: And, finally, Awat from Tehran tells us, "Clerics that threaten the world and desire the destruction of Israel, America and Europe and execute political activists should not have nuclear weapons."

Thanks for our e-mails. Always good to hear from you.

This has been YOUR WORLD TODAY.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy.

VERJEE: And I'm Zain Verjee. Stay with us. The news continues.

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