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Your World Today
Crisis in Darfur; Hamas Official Caught Bringing Money Into Gaza; President Bush Visits Yuma, Arizona, to Gain Support for Immigration Reform Plan; Upturn of Violence in Afghanistan
Aired May 19, 2006 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Trouble in Chad. A new group of refugees comes across the border, and there are new warnings from the U.N. about a humanitarian crisis.
JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A border stop catches about a million dollars in the Middle East and Hamas official.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): In Pakistan's madrasas they tell the students to go to Afghanistan and do jihad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: And a new threat from Pakistan.
CLANCY: It's 8:30 in the evening in Kabul, Afghanistan. It is 7:00 p.m. in Gaza.
I'm Jim Clancy.
GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani.
Welcome to our viewers throughout the world and the United States.
This is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
CLANCY: We're going to begin with the crisis in Darfur, a crisis now spilling over the borders and attracting a great deal of attention at the United Nations.
GORANI: Now, it has been called and is still being called the worst humanitarian crisis gripping the planet. Rebels and the government-backed militia has been fighting for years, and more than two million people have fled, many into sprawling camps elsewhere in Sudan, as well as neighboring Chad.
CLANCY: Now, there was a warning that came from the U.N. humanitarian chief just a short while ago that getting food and water to those camps is a logistical nightmare. And there's a sense of urgency about the turning of talk of the U.N. peacekeeping force into reality.
GORANI: Well, massive displacement, constant violence, and a fear that things could fall further into an abyss, those words from the top U.N. relief coordinator to describe the crisis in Darfur. Jan Egeland got a firsthand look at the dire situation in western Sudan and neighboring countries on a recent visit to the region. As relief workers try to fill in the gaps, Egeland said they're being relentlessly attacked. But still, he says, still, there is hope.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAN EGELAND, U.N. EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR: What I saw in Darfur and in eastern Chad drove home how much really now is at stake. The next few weeks will be absolutely critical for millions of lives in this region. With the Darfur peace agreement signed the day before I arrived in Sudan, there is finally real hope that we are turning the corner.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: Now, Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson traveled with the United Nations chief coordinator as he visited that region. Nic also sat down for an interview with Chad's president, Idriss Deby.
Nic joins us now live from London with some of his observations.
We've all seen a peace deal take shape, but what are the prospect this on the ground? And you went far beyond. You looked all over in Chad, talked with the refugees, talked with the president of Chad. Even talked with some of the leaders of the rebel groups.
What's the reality on the ground, the hope for peace?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, when you talk to a lot of the refugees, they're disappointed that some of the rebel leaders, Menni Minawi from the Sudanese Liberation Army, have signed up to the peace deal. They don't trust him, they don't believe that he's in it for them. They want their homes replaced, they want their livestock, cattle, fields replaced.
They don't think Mr. Minawi is going to do that. Therefore, they don't have a lot of faith in the peace deal.
That echoes what I heard from some other Sudanese Liberation Army rebel commanders who haven't signed up to the deal. It does give the impression that at the grassroots level there just isn't support at the moment to make it work -- Jim.
CLANCY: Well, that support would be vital. And certainly, as you talked with Chad's president, he is an important component in all of this as well.
ROBERTSON: Absolutely. The problems in Darfur are spilling over into Chad. Chad is becoming more volatile, more dangerous.
The Sudanese government-backed Janjaweed militia strike more deeply across the border into Chad. Chadians are being displaced. A quarter of a million -- a quarter of a million Darfurian refugees. But the message to the international community, indeed, an ultimatum, if you will, from Chad's president, is that he cannot cope, he cannot keep his borders and the refugee camps safe. And he says he gives the U.N. until the end of June. Then he cannot be accountable for what happens in the camps to the refugees or the aid workers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IDRISS DEBY, PRESIDENT OF CHAD (through translator): We launch an appeal to the international community to come and help Chad facing two major challenges and issues. One, to secure the refugee camp and the humanitarian personnel. And then to face the aggression coming from eastern Chad.
So we say that we understand that Chad has no material, no human needs to face this true situation. So we ask the international community to come and help us because we can protect the refugee camps, at the same time protecting our borders from the incursions and the invasion. So I'm telling you today, as I said, as it stands, that at the end of June we won't be accountable to anything that would happen to the refugee camps, as well as the humanitarian personnel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: President Deby said that if the international committee doesn't listen to him, the problems will spread beyond Darfur, through Chad, and into the whole region -- Jim.
CLANCY: All right. As we look at this -- and I want to try to understand it a little bit better -- you make a point here that it's a lot more complex than most of us thought.
At the same time, would an international peacekeeping force deployed there in Darfur change a little bit the situation on the ground, despite what we've just heard from the president of Chad?
ROBERTSON: You know, Jan Egeland, when he gave the address to the U.N. today, he didn't mention this, but he told us on his visit to Darfur that really, even if you bring 20,000 to 30,000 U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur, which he says is the best chance of bringing stability to the area, the peace deal that was signed in Abuja only works if the parties that have signed up to it are willing to implement it, because it's such a large massive area that that number of peacekeepers cannot patrol it. It relies on the good will of the people involved.
Therefore, if you don't have grassroots support, then there are issues with it -- Jim.
CLANCY: All right. Nic Robertson telling us like it is there. When there are doubts on the ground, there have to be doubts about the peace deal and the mission that lies ahead.
Nic Robertson, as always, thank you very much.
GORANI: All right. Let's take you to the Middle East now. And turning to the Palestinian Authority's financial crisis, a Hamas official was caught carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars into Gaza in cash from Egypt. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has asked his attorney general to look into the matter.
John Vause explains what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Sami Abu Zuhri is best known as an official spokesman for Hamas. Now it seems he's also a money curator.
At the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, he was caught by Palestinian customs officials carrying more than 600,000 euros. He was returning from Qatar, one of the Arab countries which has pledged millions for the cash-strapped Hamas government.
"In a time when the Palestinian people are being starve and under siege, our people abroad have donated this money," he told the borders (ph).
The border crossing is controlled by forces loyal to the Palestinian President Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. But when Zurhi was stopped, dozens of Hamas gunmen moved in. The money is now being held by the Palestinian attorney general, and Abbas has ordered an investigation.
Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas have been locked in an intense power struggle for weeks, and in a show of defiance, the newly formed Hamas army was once again out in force on the streets in Gaza.
"It's been deployed to keep order and secure the peace for Palestinian civilians," the Hamas interior minister said. "The unit has a great amount of support among all the Palestinian factions."
But the Palestinian president says it's illegal and must disband. Even so, he's yet to order the regular Palestinian security services to use force.
So far, there have been isolated clashes in Gaza, but no major confrontations.
HANAN ASHRAWI, PALESTINIAN LEGISLATOR: Gaza is a powder keg, but it's not exploding, I mean, in one massive explosion. We're sort of seeing a series of minor explosions that could grow into a full- fledged escalation, conflict, conflagration, whatever. But Gaza is in serious trouble.
VAUSE (on camera): Hamas may have been smuggling large amounts of cash into Gaza because most banks, including many from Arab countries, have cut all ties with the Palestinian Authority after pressure from the U.S. government.
John Vause, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: Well Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denies that the Palestinians have been thrown into a humanitarian crisis. But Mr. Olmert says the Palestinian people should not suffer. He announced that Israel will provide them with much-needed medicine and other necessities.
He had this to say: "Palestinians are the victims of their own extremist, fundamentalist, religious, inflexible and unyielding leadership. We will do everything in our power to help these innocent people."
GORANI: In the United States, senators are in the middle of more intense debate on the politically sticky issue of immigration. Among the things being debated, whether English should be designated the national language. There are an estimated 11 to 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S.
CLANCY: Well, this week, President Bush called for the National Guard to help secure the U.S. border with Mexico.
GORANI: Now, Mr. Bush says fences make sense for part but not all of the 3,200 kilometer border with Mexico. He visited the border state of Arizona on Thursday to try to gain support for his immigration reform plan.
CLANCY: CNN's Suzanne Malveaux has a report on his mission to Yuma.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): President Bush chose this spot along the U.S.-Mexican boarder to make his case about immigration reform. Here at the border crossing in Yuma, Arizona, up to 4050 illegal immigrants are caught each day. With the temperature over 100 degrees the president visited with Border Patrols, took a ride in a dune buggy, and sat down with us too answer questions.
(on camera): Your critics and particularly those of your party, however, call this a publicity stunt. They say that the plan to move forward some 6,000 National Guard troops is really a political ploy to get them to sign on to the guest worker program and they're not buying it.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We got people coming here to work and uh, they're doing jobs Americans aren't doing. And instead of sneaking across, it seems like it makes sense to me in order to help Border Patrol do the job there's a rational way for them to come...
MALVEAUX (voice-over): Under Mr. Bush's guest worker program, some illegal immigrants would earn the right to stay. But Republican Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, who will usher the immigration debate through the House, slammed the president. (on camera): He simply says you don't get it, that they believe this is amnesty, that ultimately they're not going to be able to sign off on this.
BUSH: This is an issue I've been living with as a long period of time, as government governor of Texas I understand immigration and I know we got to enforce our border. But I'm also realistic.
There are some -- look, amnesty, to me, means you're an automatic citizen. And I'm not advocating -- there are some in -- some in the democrat party might be advocating that, but I'm certainly not.
On the other hand, I recognize they've been people for a long period of time and it doesn't make sense try to deport millions of people. And so there ought to be a way for people to pay a fine or learn the English language and then get in the citizen line, but at the back, not the front.
MALVEAUX (voice-over): The president also rejected the notion that racism was playing a role in this emotional debate.
BUSH: I think it'd be too hash a judgment to say to somebody who doesn't support a comprehensive immigration plan that they're racist.
MALVEAUX: We then turned our focus to another red-hot issue for the president, Iraq.
(on camera): A lot of American people see their top priority as Iraq. And the majority of Americans have lost faith in that mission.
BUSH: No question Iraq is unsettled the American people, I understand that. You know, people don't like war. I don't believe Americans want us to cut and run either.
MALVEAUX (voice-over): Faced with opposition over his domestic and international priorities, I questioned him about his future.
(on camera): What do you do to become, at least not risk, becoming irrelevant?
BUSH: We're going to win the war on terror. I'm doing my job, what the American people want me to do.
MALVEAUX (on camera): And that's the audience Mr. Bush is trying to reach with his four hours at the border, hoping to convince the public to convince Congress, particularly members of his own party to follow his lead.
Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, Yuma, Arizona.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: "USA Today" says it's reviewing a demand for a retraction from telecommunications giant BellSouth. The newspaper reported last week that the BellSouth company is one of three phone networks that is cooperating with the National Security Agency program. Now that program, according to the paper's story, was collecting reams of data on domestic telephone calls in the United States looking for patterns that might lead to terrorists.
GORANI: A group of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility attacked U.S. military personnel. Officials say the incident started when a prisoner attempted to hang himself. When guards tried to get the man down, other prisoners began to attack, wielding fans, light fixtures and sticks.
Officials did not say whether anyone was injured. And this come as the U.N. Committee Against Torture called on the U.S. to close the detention center and end what the U.N. calls its questionable interrogation techniques.
CLANCY: Well a diplomatic dustup between a normally warm U.S. ally, Egypt, and Washington.
GORANI: Coming up, at odds over Ayman Nour, the imprisoned opposition leader's wife, comments on his failed appeal. And we'll have a live report from Washington.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: Cries of protest in Cairo. Men demanding more political freedom faced government security forces Thursday.
CLANCY: Hundreds were arrested in what has become a familiar scene on the streets of the capital, demonstrations against the government of President Hosni Mubarak. These clashes come as Egypt prepares to host leaders from all around the globe for the World Economic Forum, although that's all the way over in Sharm el-Sheikh.
GORANI: Well, Thursday's unrest was also fueled by the decision by an appeals court to uphold the conviction of opposition leader Ayman Nour.
CLANCY: Now, Nour, who challenged President Hosni Mubarak in an election last year, was convicted on charges of forging signatures to set up an opposition party.
GORANI: Nour says the charges were fabricated by authorities. And earlier, I asked Nour's wife, Gamila Ismael, what she would like to see the U.S. do in the wake of the ruling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GAMILA ISMAEL, AYMAN NOUR'S WIFE: I'm calling on every free Egyptian in this country who would like to bring about what Nour was trying to bring about. Not at all to take Nour as an example, as a frustrating example.
I don't want their hearts to be broken. I'd like them to stand up together to resist as much as they can. The regime in Egypt is not supported by Egyptians. It is supported by the U.S. It is supported by the U.S. aid which it gets every year against the will of everybody doing things, against the will of Egyptians in this country.
I do not at all want the U.S. aid to be cut. I'm not calling for this at all. At least we get the crumbs, the remainings, from this aid.
The Egyptian people need at least the crumbs, the remainings of this aid, which has given after all of the corruption and the stuff that the regime is doing with this aid. So I'm not calling at all to cut the aid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: All right. That was Gamila Ismael. I was speaking to her a bit earlier. We'll have the full interview in our next hour.
Well, after that decision by an appeals court to uphold her husband Ayman Nour's conviction, the U.S. called Cairo's handling of the case a miscarriage of justice. Egypt's foreign ministry says that it is "astonished" by the tone of the American criticism.
For more, we turn to Elise Labott in Washington.
Elise, now, Gamila Ismael was telling me earlier -- the gist of what she was saying, you know, statements have been made for a while now regarding Ayman Nour and nothing really tangible seems to come out of it. What is the State Department saying at this point with regards to his jailing?
ELISE LABOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yesterday's statement by the State Department and the White House, third time in the last month they've come out in criticism of the Egyptian government for rollbacks in democracy. But last week, the son of President Hosni Mubarak was in Washington meeting with various U.S. officials, and he sat down with the national security adviser, Steve Hadley, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The case of Ayman Nour also came -- came up, but it was more in the realm of the general idea, that they're really concerned about the rollback of democratic reforms, Hala. The U.S. really thought that Egypt would be a linchpin in its real push for democracy through the Middle East, and these rollbacks in democracy over the last year have really caused concern in the U.S. And this is epitomized by the case of Ayman Nour.
GORANI: And Ayman Nour, of course, was a candidate, a presidential candidate in Egypt. He formed a party. What Egyptian authorities say is that he engaged in fraud in order to get enough signatures to form and create his party.
Now as far as the United States is concerned, there's also Congress weighing in on this debate. But sometimes at odds with the State Department and White House on what it would like to do with aid.
LABOTT: Well, when Ayman Nour was convicted in December, both the administration and Congress had called for the case to be reviewed. And now this appeal, everybody is very unhappy about the decision.
What Congress is saying is that Egypt's aid should be reviewed. Egypt is one of the largest recipients of U.S. aid, about $2 billion a year. And they say this aid should be reviewed, maybe some of the military and economic aid should be moved into democracy programs, moved into social programs.
But this is a dilemma for the United States, the Bush administration, because Egypt is a very important ally, as you know, in the Middle East with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Iran. It's a very unstable region, and the U.S. feels Egypt is a very important ally, and says that the U.S. should stand and they'll push Egypt in private meetings and publicly with the statements that we saw yesterday -- Hala.
GORANI: All right. How hard will they push is definitely the question at this point.
Elise Labott at the State Department.
Many thanks for that.
CLANCY: Well, for our viewers in the United States, there's a look at the headlines in the United States coming up next.
GORANI: And for the rest of you, a business update.
Also, the sharp upturn of violence in Afghanistan. We'll take a close look at what's been happening there.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Carol Lin at the CNN Center in Atlanta. More of YOUR WORLD TODAY in just a few minute, but first a check on the stories making headlines right here in the United States.
Schools in lockdown. About an hour outside of Washington D.C., dozens of police officers in riot gear have fanned across Lenardtown High School in southern Maryland. Someone there reported seeing a student place what appeared to be a handgun in their backpack and entered the school.
Now, the claim hasn't been confirmed, but police are treating it very seriously. Taking a look at these pictures just into the CNN Center, you see police in riot gear entering one of the schools. It's a compound of about four different schools in the same location.
We'll keep you posted.
In the meantime, it's the busiest border crossing in the world. Today it's a crime scene.
The checkpoint at San Ysidro, California, connects San Diego and Tijuana. Well, it was shut down for nine hours when officers shot and killed an SUV driver, one suspected of smuggling illegal migrants.
Now, five other people were found inside that SUV. They were not hurt in the shooting, but they're now in custody. Now, at this time, we don't know if they are illegal immigrants.
An attack at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay. The Pentagon says prisoners went after the guards using sticks and light fixtures and fans. It happened yesterday when guards tried to stop a prisoner from hanging himself. It was the fourth suicide attempt of the day.
Now, it's unclear how many prisoners were involved in the violence or if anyone was hurt, but the Pentagon does say the prisoners were subdued and moved to a more secure area. It's believed to be the first incident of its kind at that prison.
Measles, mumps, now a vaccine for cervical cancer? Well, it could happen soon.
Many cervical cancers are caused by a sexually transmitted virus. Actually, two of them. Now drug maker Merck is seeking approval for an experimental vaccine. It protects against the virus which causes cervical cancer and genital warts.
An FDA advisory panel says the vaccine is safe and effective and should be approved. Merck says the vaccine works best before girls become sexually active. They want approval for females ages 9 to 26. Well, a final decision by the FDA is expected early next month.
Coming up in this moon hour, CNN Eye is going to talk to a doctor who is part of the clinical drug trials.
In the meantime, lots to talk about. It's spring out there, and that means you can expect just about anything in the weather -- Bonnie.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right, Carol.
(WEATHER REPORT)
LIN: We now know a bit more about that search for Jimmy Hoffa's body, almost 31 years after his disappearance. The digging has been going on at a horse farm once owned by a long-time Hoffa associate.
Rolland McMaster (ph) was an officer with the Teamsters, the labor union Hoffa led. The FBI says a tipster reported a lot of suspicious activity on the farm the day that Hoffa disappeared. Now, investigators say the search could take a couple of weeks or longer.
Bill Kurtis knows a lot about the Jimmy Hoffa story. He is the host of "Cold Case Files" on A&E, and he covered the case as a reporter in Chicago when Hoffa disappeared back in 1975. He's going to join Kyra Phillips on LIVE FROM at the top of the hour.
Meantime, YOUR WORLD TODAY continues after a quick break.
I'm Carol Lin.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CLANCY: Welcome back this Friday to YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Jim Clancy.
GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani. Here are some of the top stories we're following for you this hour.
And we start with this, the alternative to peace in Darfur. Massive displacement and further violence. That from U.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland, as he briefed the Security Council about the crisis in western Sudan. The three-year conflict between rebels and government-backed militia has killed some 200,000 and displaced more than 2 million. Egeland says time is running out for refugees crowded into camps in Darfur, as well as neighboring Chad.
CLANCY: Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas calling on his attorney general to investigate a Hamas leader caught snuggling a large amount of cash into Gaza. The Hamas official told Al Jazeera the money, more than a million dollars, came from private donors. It comes amid a financial crunch for the Hamas-led government due to Israeli and western financial sanctions.
GORANI: Diplomatic debate intensifies between Egypt and the United States over the fate of Egyptian opposition leader Ayman Nour. After Thursday's decision by an appeals court to uphold Nour's conviction, the U.S. called Cairo's handling of the case a quote, "miscarriage of justice." Egypt's foreign ministry says that it is astonished by the tone of the U.S. criticism.
CLANCY: We're going to shift our focus now to Afghanistan, where coalition forces have been dealing with a recent spike in violence.
GORANI: The so-called forgotten war is heating up, with more than 100 people killed this week alone.
CLANCY: Officials say the Taliban militants are regrouping and adapting to changes on the ground.
GORANI: This sharp upturn in violence is testing the will of the international community. It is also raising tensions once again with neighboring Pakistan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY (voice-over): More than 100 died this week in suicide bombs and well-planned Taliban assaults in Afghanistan. Many of the dead were suspected insurgents. In the west of the country, one U.S. civilian working for the State Department was killed, two other Americans wounded, when a suicide attacker rammed their vehicle. In the south and east, more attacks, including an hour's long coordinated assault on police posts.
Visiting the border region, Afghan president Hamid Karzai pointed a finger at the madrasas, the Islamic schools in Pakistan that were the birthplace of the Taliban. "The mullahs and teachers are saying to their students go to Afghanistan for jihad, burn the schools and clinics." Pakistan promptly rejected the charge.
A former top Canadian peacekeeper who has been there sees desperation in the Taliban offensives.
GEN. LEWIS MCKENZIE (RET.), FORMER PEACEKEEPER: They're starting to attack their own people more than they're attacking the coalition forces. Four days ago, throwing a grenade into a schoolroom, killing a teacher, four kids, beheading a teacher in front of the class because he deemed to instruct some girls within the class.
CLANCY: But the spike in violence has some members of NATO nervous as they set to expand their role. By only four votes, Canada's parliament narrowly extended the mandate for a true presence there after it heard the news of the loss of its first woman soldier in Afghanistan, Captain Nichola Goddard.
MCKENZIE: It's a tragedy. It's a sacrifice. It's also something the nation can be proud of, what it's doing in Afghanistan. And there are a few wobbly people today that are saying, oh my god, we've got to pull out. Well, hopefully, saner minds will dominate the decision-making process.
CLANCY: The Taliban openly warned of a spring offensive. The question is how nervous NATO countries will react and whether the West is prepared to stand firm for at least another five years and most likely ten, according to General McKenzie, before the Afghans are ready to stand alone.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: Of course, Afghanistan was the home ground for al Qaeda at the time of the September 11th attacks, and it remains the focus of a lot of people's ideas when it comes to the war on terror, whether or not the West can succeed in really bringing democracy to a place that had not seen it.
To help us understand what's happening on the ground in Afghanistan, what it means for the mission there, we're joined by our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, as well as Martin Navias. He's with -- a research associate at Kings College in London.
Mr. Navias, let me begin with you, and just ask you, just how nervous are some of the these NATO allies? They recently met in Sophia, talking about this. And this mission is really a test of NATO.
MARTIN NAVIAS, KINGS COLLEGE: Well, it all depends whether the Taliban and their supporters are able to sustain and escalate the attacks that we've seen in the south of the country over the next few months and even years. Many NATO countries who have put forward troops into Afghanistan did not want to do so in order to engage in a counterinsurgency operations against the Taliban.
They did so for a number of reasons, primarily in order to help rebuild that country, to help in the democratization process, in the peacekeeping process. But now, especially in the south of Afghanistan, we see an escalation and we see the input of British, Canadian and Dutch forces into that country. And I'm not sure whether the publics, especially in Holland and in Canada, and to some extent here in the United Kingdom, are willing to see an attritional war fought against the Taliban.
CLANCY: All right, well, some analysts have said yes, reconstruction, yes, you have to push forth with democracy. But I think in the U.S. view,, it's absolutely essential -- and Barbara Starr, weigh in here. What is the view from the Pentagon? You've also got to take it to the Taliban, don't you?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's what they say is going on right now. It's very interesting. What we've heard from some of our sources is, as U.S. troops have gone into some of these areas -- one source explaining to us it was too quiet, he said. Everything was quiet. That made us think that the Taliban were probably there, but laying low, so they started going out on patrols, offensive missions, seeing what was going on, and they started seeing the reaction back from the Taliban. That's a bit of what they do see.
But in the south, especially, Jim, in Kandahar, in Helmand, in these areas, they are seeing, they tell us, Taliban regrouping. Not mass fighting, not hundreds of fighters coming at them in military formations all at once. Because after almost five years, the Taliban know they will get hit by U.S. troops. So they're seeing the Taliban resort to these Iraqi-type tactics: suicide bombs, car bombs, improvised explosive devices and basic terrorist techniques. Burning schools, attacking teacher, attacking clinics, that sort of thing.
But in the view of the U.S. military commanders, there is no question, the Taliban, as an organization, continues to exist, especially in the southeastern part of the country. And it is a force to be reckoned with.
CLANCY: Martin Navias, the United States took on that Kandahar region. The Canadians are down there now, as well. But they took it on. A lot others stayed up there in Kabul. Now it's going to be NATO's turn to get out there, to span out across the country. And some analysts are saying that the Taliban is betting that the NATO, the Europeans, will hide back in the city centers and they won't come out to meet the Taliban to face that kind of a threat. What do you think?
NAVIAS: I think that the Taliban make a political analysis, as well as a military analysis. And their analysis is that there are vulnerabilities are here. They do not believe that a number of NATO countries either have the military capability or the political will to stand up to them.
Now, there's no doubt that, you know, in a war, in a combat situation between NATO forces and the Taliban, NATO will prevail. Certainly, the British forces have got robust rules of engagement, have got a tradition and experience in fighting this kind of war. The Taliban seem to believe that if they can start important techniques that have proves so successful in Iraq, specifically explosive devices on the road, including -- as well as suicide attacks against NATO positions -- they can undermine the world of the publics back home in Europe, and possibly in Canada as well. And if they can do this, they can undermine the willingness of these forces to be there and can push them back.
CLANCY: Barbara Starr, you know, a lot of people are wondering what is happening in Afghanistan, how will U.S. troops levels be affected? Will the U.S. in one way or another be giving up a lot its role to NATO. What's the reality there at the Pentagon? What are they saying?
STARR: Well, right now, there's about 23,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. There is a plan to continue to turn over the areas in the south and the east, and throughout the rest of Afghanistan to NATO troops, but Martin is exactly reflecting what U.S. commanders here believe is going on. The Taliban see NATO coming in and they are testing NATO. They're trying to see if they can make NATO feel shaken essentially and try and see if they can shake NATO's commitment to maintaining that program to bring more troops in and turn the mission essentially over to NATO.
There is no question that's what U.S. military commanders do in fact feel is going on. The long-term picture, however, is that it is U.S. combat forces who are most likely to continue to stay on that very significant border with Pakistan, because one of the issues that's also going on at the same time is the U.S. feels the Taliban across the border, in Pakistan, in the frontier area, in Waziristan, that they are regrouping there, and that there are areas on the Pakistan side where essentially the Taliban has become the governing authority in some towns and villages. So it's all still a very significant issue for U.S. troops.
CLANCY: Martin Navias of Kings College, I want to thank you for buying being with us. Barbara Starr, I'm going to ask you to stay with us just for another minute, because we've got another developing story that we want to ask you about, and of course that is of course the situation we have this day down in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. There was a riot there at the prison. Do we know any more about that?
STARR: Well, details are still coming out, Jim. And they are very sketchy at the moment. The Pentagon isn't saying much about it, but what they are confirming is yesterday, in fact, there was a prisoner disturbance at Guantanamo Bay, the facility on the island of Cuba, where the U.S. military holds some 500 al Qaeda and Taliban detainees. We believe it is the first prisoner disturbance at the U.S. military camp.
What happened was there were three suicide attempts earlier in the day by detainees, then there was a fourth. And that fourth attempt was an attempted hanging, we are told. It was in a dormitory facility, the medium-security part of the prison, where there are 10 men to a room essentially. As U.S. troops entered to try and help that man that they believed was attempting suicide, they entered the room, and the reports are, by the military, they were attacked by other detainees in that room, that they were tossing sticks, lighting fixtures and other items at the U.S. troops.
None of the U.S. troops were hurt. We were told they used minimum force, nonlethal force, to gain control of the situation. The detainees were transferred to a maximum-security area of the prison.
But what we don't know is whether it was all 10 detainees in that dormitory room at the time or exactly how many were involved -- Jim.
CLANCY: All right, standing by for a few more details there at the Pentagon. Barbara Starr as always, our thanks to you for being with us.
STARR: Sure.
GORANI: A short break here on YOUR WORLD TODAY, and a small amount of pain to prevent a big medical problem.
CLANCY: The question really today, can a vaccine protect against cancer?
For one type of cancer, well, the answer is maybe. Up next, we're going to tell you about a lot of hope involving a little needle prick.
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GORANI: Welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY.
CLANCY: And in YOUR WORLD TODAY, one of the biggest stories, the long fight against cancer has produced a lot of what people call breakthroughs, but today people are saying this is a breakthrough.
GORANI: Actually, a vaccine that could protect millions of women from getting cervical cancer could soon be on the market. An advisory panel for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it unanimously supports the vaccine called Gardasil. The drug protects against sexually transmitted disease or viruses that cause cervical cancer. Gardasil's maker, Merck, says the vaccine could cut cervical cancer deaths by two-thirds. Final FDA approval is expected by June 8th of this year.
So what are the prospects for this vaccine? For more, Dr. Kevin Ault from Emory University joins us in the studio.
Dr. Ault, thanks for being with us.
DR. KEVIN AULT, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Thank you.
GORANI: So you were part of the study for years and years and years.
AULT: I have been part of the study for a long time now.
GORANI: You see the results now. How optimistic and happy should women be at this point?
AULT: Well, cervical cancer a very serious problem. There are about 4,000 deaths in the United States, about a quarter-of-a-million deaths worldwide, making it the second-leading cause of cancer for women in the United States. Lots of abnormal pap smears and precancerous changes are caused by this virus. So I think it's a very big development in women's health.
GORANI: All right, tell us how this would work. This is a vaccine against a virus, not a vaccine against cancer.
AULT: This is a vaccine against a virus that causes cancer is probably the way to think of it. Nearly everybody with cervical cancer has a human papilloma virus infection. So it's three shots. It's a protein from the surface of the HPV. And you would give it to women who are in their adolescent years or college years, the way the studies have been done.
GORANI: all right, so for those watching us, really, it's about their daughters. Women in their 30s or 40s who probably have that common virus, you know, can't be protected from it anymore. We're talking about younger girls and young adults.
AULT: Well, most people get exposed to this virus when they're sexually active. That's how common it is, and giving it before, you might get exposed to it in those early years is a pretty good strategy, and that's the strategy we did in our studies.
GORANI: Now how will this cut cervical cancer deaths and the occurrences of cervical cancer among women substantially in your estimation?
AULT: There are about a dozen types of this virus that are associated with cervical cancer. This particular version of vaccine has the two most common. They're numbered 16 and 18. And so potentially could cut cervical cancer deaths by 70 percent.
GORANI: What do you make of some groups, some groups of voiced opposition to this, because you would have to administer the vaccine to women who are not sexually active, and some of these conservative groups are saying, well, this may be sending the wrong message. What do you make of that?
AULT: I heard a very nice presentation about this about at the CDC a few weeks ago, and basically the reasons that teenagers are not sexually active is because they get moral guidance from their parents, or because they're afraid of getting pregnant. And so sexually transmitted infections are not high on their radar screens. So it's probably also a moment where you can have that discussion with your teenager, when you give that vaccine; both the doctor and parent should do that.
GORANI: Let's look a little bit into the future, into a crystal ball. I mean, once this vaccine is administered on a larger scale and we have a new generation of women who are immunized, we're looking at a completely different picture in terms of cancer that affect -- cancers that affect women?
AULT: Absolutely. And I like the we you use generation, because that's how long it takes usually for vaccines to trickle down into the population. But yes, we would have less abnormal pap smears, less pre-cancerous changes, and (INAUDIBLE), really, less cervical cancer.
GORANI: For older women, of course, pap smears, pap smears, pap smears, right? That's really the way to catch anything at an early stage.
AULT: I think the way to think about it is the vaccine prevents the disease and the pap smear finds the disease.
GORANI: All right. Dr. Ault of Emory University, thank you so much for joining us here on YOUR WORLD TODAY.
CLANCY: He made that very clear, I think, and it's an important breakthrough.
GORANI: Absolutely.
CLANCY: A lot of people should be happy.
Well, it wasn't too long ago...
GORANI: But it was a very good year. And unfortunately, there may be a long wait to taste the fruits from it.
CLANCY: Up next, waiting for wine from 2005.
GORANI: Quite a wait.
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GORANI: The sun and the rain were a perfect mix.
CLANCY: And that made for a very good year. It all adds up to some beautiful bordeaux.
GORANI: The question, is how long can wine connoisseurs wait for the vintage 2005?
Mallika Kapur has been hobknobbing with some of them to find out.
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MALLIKA KAPUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Berry Brothers in central London is well known for its fine wines and for top tips from its staff.
Salesman Joss Flower has just returned from a wine tasting trip in southwest France.
JOSS FLOWER, BERRY BROTHERS: We barely tasted a bad one all week. KAPUR: He's raving about wines from France's Bordeaux region produced in 2005, a fine vintage almost everyone in the industry here is fawning over. What makes it so good? Producers point to almost perfect growing conditions in 2005.
CLAIRE LAVALLE, WINE PRODUCER: The weather was perfect for the ripening of the grapes. As you say, sunny, but some rain just at the right time.
KAPUR: Wine merchants and customers say they can't wait to stock up, though some top quality wines are still aging in barrels and won't be bottled for another year and delivery likely won't happen for an additional year. Some may not even be drunk for another 40 years. There's already a waiting list for this premium product.
FLOWER: The last serious vintage that we had was 2000. The mine for 2000 was quite extraordinary. We hadn't really seen it before. And I'd say that 2005 is going to be even bigger, and the demand we've got is huge. We put a wish list on our Web site, as in sign up to find out about the vintage, and I think we got a thousand sign-ups in a day. I mean, it's extraordinary.
KAPUR: Among those placing orders are wine investors. There are heady returns to be made. The "Liv-Ex 100 Index," which tracks the price of 100 of the world's best vintages, finds the price of those wines rose 19 percent last year; doing better than gold, up 18 percent, even better than the FTSE 100, which rose 17 percent.
Before you decide if wine investing is right for you, consider this.
TIM ATKIN, "THE OBSERVER: If the wines come out at very high prices, it's not a very good investment, because you've then got to sell them on if you want to sell them. My advice to people would be always to buy the wines to drink. And if they end up being wines that you also want to sell on and make up the money, then great. But if you buy the wines to drink, you'll never lose out.
KAPUR: The taste of success doesn't come cheap. A case of top class Bordeaux 2005 could already set you back $5,000.
Mallika Kapur, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: Cheers. That's YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Jim Clancy.
GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani, and this is CNN.
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