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Manhunt Comes to Violent Conclusion in Florida; War on Terror; Abramoff Report; Principal Shot by Former Student

Aired September 29, 2006 - 11:01   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Spend a second hour in the NEWSROOM this morning and stay informed.
Good morning, everyone.

I'm Tony Harris.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Heidi Collins.

A manhunt comes to a violent conclusion in Florida. A sheriff's deputy shot to death. The suspect meets the same fate this morning.

HARRIS: Fury in the forest. Southern California crews struggle with a stubborn wildfire. The big blaze burning now for almost a month.

COLLINS: And the Dow teasing investors all week long. We watch and wait for a new record high on this Friday, the 29th of September.

You're in the NEWSROOM.

Some news just into CNN. Want to update you on a Wisconsin school shooting. It happened in Weston, Wisconsin. This information is telling us that the president at this school was apparently shot this morning by a former student who came into the school, had all kinds of weapons. Not sure the nature of those weapons.

But this is what we are hearing, that Principal John Klang was shot. We are not sure of his condition at this time.

It looks like the students are safe. School is on lockdown. And again, there is a map there, the best we can show you from Google Earth where that location is.

CNN is confirming that this shooting has taken place, once again, in Weston, Wisconsin. The principal there was shot.

So we'll watch it. And as we get more information, certainly pass it along to you.

HARRIS: "God will be the judge and jury this time." That from a central Florida sheriff after a massive manhunt ends. The man accused of killing the sheriff's deputy now shot dead himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SHERIFF GRADY JUDD, POLK COUNTY, FLORIDA: We saw the gun, we started shooting. SWAT team members shots and killed the suspect who killed our deputy.

The investigation obviously is ongoing. Our crime scene folks are on the way to the scene. I can tell you this: he was only about 75 to 100 yards into the thickest, deepest brush behind the location where he last engaged the Lakeland Police city detective.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And let's get the latest now from CNN's Susan Candiotti.

Susan, good morning.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony.

So, how did they find him? Well, police say about a half hour into their search through thick brush one SWAT team member told the sheriff, "I was standing on top of him before I saw him."

Police say the man did not follow orders and was shot dead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDD: They were walking shoulder to shoulder through this 150 acres when they walked literally up on top of him, saw him. They announced to him, "Let us see your hands." They only saw one hand.

One of the other SWAT team members saw the firearm. And that's when the shooting occurred. We shot him numerous times.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: The dead suspect, well, police don't know yet exactly who he is. They say they do believe he was involved in drug activity and might have been using three different names.

They are Angelo Freeland, Alex or Andrew Cloxton. They say this man had ties to Miami and spoke with a Jamaican accent.

Let's remind you of what happened.

He was stopped for speeding yesterday by deputies. He ran into the woods, where he then shot and killed Deputy Matthew Williams, on the force for 12 years, as well as his police dog. This man also allegedly wounded another officer who will recover.

The spot where the shooting today happened was only about 75 yards away from where this same suspect exchanged gunfire with a deputy from the Lakeland Police Department yesterday afternoon. And the gun found on the suspect, a .45-caliber handgun. Police say it is the same type carried by the fallen deputy.

They are trying to match it to see whether it is the deputy's gun and, of course, they are also, Tony, still trying to find out precisely who this dead man is.

Back to you.

HARRIS: Well, we certainly hope that entire community, Susan, embraces that family for this terrible loss.

Have to ask you, it seems to me that there will be a lot of questions in the days to come about the shooting of the suspect. So let's see if we can sort of paint a picture of that scene as clearly as we can when the deputies actually came upon the suspect.

It's our understanding that he had dug in underneath a very large tree. Is that correct?

CANDIOTTI: That's right. Police describe it as a large oak tree that had fallen over, huge, they described it, and very heavily -- heavy brush there.

As they went into their search shoulder to shoulder, there was an area within the tree, they said, kind of blow (ph) it -- rather dug out into the dirt. That's the best way they can describe it.

In any case, one of the men came upon him, one of the SWAT team members, told him to show both his hands. According to the police, he only showed one hand, and then the sheriff said the police saw a gun in the other hand.

We don't know in what position the other hand was at that time. They said that they are still getting those details.

HARRIS: Got you.

CANDIOTTI: And then shots were fired.

HARRIS: OK. That moves it forward a bit for us.

Susan Candiotti for us.

Susan, thank you. Appreciate it.

COLLINS: President Bush strikes a familiar theme in his latest speech on the war on terror: spreading freedom and democracy and protecting America. The president wrapped up last hour, where he talked about what is at stake in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: At this moment terrorists and extremists are fighting to overthrow moderate governments in the region. So they can take control of countries and use them as bases from which to attack America and from which to impose their hateful ideology.

This is the challenge of our time. This is the call of a generation to stand against these extremists and support moderate leaders across the broader Middle East to help us all secure a future of peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Howard Dean is the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He joins us now from Washington with reaction to the president's speech.

Thanks for being here, sir.

Let me ask you, do you agree with this?

HOWARD DEAN, DNC CHAIRMAN: Well, it would be hard to disagree with that. Of course we believe in moderate governments and we want peace and democracy. The problem is that this administration and the Republican Party in general has not been truthful about what's going on.

COLLINS: How so?

DEAN: Well, the -- as you know, the national intelligence estimate, which is the 16 major intelligence agencies in the United States government, came out last week with a report that said Iraq -- the Iraq war has made terrorism worse around the country. First the president tried to deny it, then they leaked their own version of it. The truth is, the president has never been truthfully about Iraq, not to get in, and he's not being truthfully about it now.

We need to be tough and smart in the fight against terrorism. And going into Iraq was not very smart. You can't just talk tough at election time.

I saw the president the other day, same old tired rhetoric, Democrats want to cut and run. No. What we want to do is defend America by being tough, not just at election time, by being smart. We need to win...

COLLINS: OK. Tell me, Chairman Dean, exactly how do you do that?

DEAN: Well, the first thing is we need to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. The president has been talking about Osama bin Laden. He's been there for five years. He's still plotting against Americans.

The second thing is we need help in Afghanistan. That's a war that I think...

COLLINS: But forgive me, Chairman. If I may go back to that, what is the plan for the Democrats to capture and kill Osama bin Laden? How is it different from what Republicans are doing?

DEAN: Well, many Democrats have already said that we need more troops in Afghanistan. I think that's absolutely true.

Secondly, we need to deal with Iran and we need to deal with North Korea. Well, this president has been president for six years, telling us how much more stronger Republicans are on defense than we are. The fact of the matter is, he identified three countries as the axis of evil. Two of them are about to become or either are or about to become nuclear powers.

That is the wrong thing to do. We need a new direction in the country. We need a new direction on defense where we're going to be tough and smart and not just at election time. And we need a new direction for the economy and for healthcare, and for helping kids get into college, and for making the deficits go away.

You can't trust the Republicans. They can't manage money. They can't manage natural disasters. And they can't even manage our defense.

They talk tough and they call names to all Democrats -- names. But they haven't been truthful with us, their own intelligence people have now exposed that two months before the election.

COLLINS: This Senate just unanimously moments ago approved $70 billion more to fight military both in Afghanistan and Iraq. Also meetings that we just covered very closely this week between two presidents of moderate democracies, as we've been calling them, President Karzai and Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan.

Are those steps in the right direction?

DEAN: Well, I think certainly a good thing to bring President Karzai and President Musharraf together. But it's a bad thing that we don't have enough troops in Afghanistan to do the job that needs to be done.

And, as Bob Woodward pointed out in his book that just came out this week, apparently the commanders in Iraq asked for more troops a long time ago and the president ignored them. You can't fight a war if you ignore the military. And the president has never listened to the military.

Right from the beginning the military said you can't do this in Iraq without the proper number of troops, and we need more. They ignored it. And one general, General Shinseki, was essentially fired for saying it.

This administration has built our defense policy on things that are not true. And if you don't care what the facts are you can't run the defense policy.

COLLINS: Let's move on to the midterm elections. Are you expecting an October surprise?

DEAN: You never know what is going to happen in October. And there's all kinds of surprises. I think -- look, I wish the election were being held tomorrow, but it's not.

COLLINS: Really? Why?

DEAN: Because if it were, we would win the House, the Senate, and multiple governorships. The people really want change in this country and we're offering a real change.

COLLINS: The House, the Senate and all of it would go Democrat?

DEAN: If the election were held tomorrow. But we know it's not being held tomorrow and we've got to work like crazy.

I don't admire the direction the Republicans have taken in this country, and I think they've really hurt us. But I do admire the way they do know how to win elections. And we need to get our -- ourselves well organized.

And this is the first election that I think we're really energized, we're really fighting like crazy, we're standing up for our prowess on defense, our history with Jack Kennedy and Harry Truman and Franklin Roosevelt. The Democrats have always been the party to defend America, and we'll do it again.

COLLINS: Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean.

Thanks for your time here.

DEAN: Thanks for having me on.

HARRIS: And still ahead, ambushed in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I cannot move. Please help me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where you at? Where you at?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am taking fire -- 10-4. Come back!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm fixed to get killed, (EXPLETIVE DELETED)!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Wait until you see the rest of the story. Not a soldier, nor a Marine, but a contractor trapped in his truck. His chilling story straight ahead.

And this weekend watch CNN and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, why he says the war is not a mistake. An exclusive interview, candid comments. Watch "Rumsfeld: Man of War," CNN Saturday and Sunday evening at 8:00 Eastern. We will have a preview for you ahead in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Well, it's scorched an area now the size of Chicago and gone on for nearly a month. We're going to go to the fire lines in California.

HARRIS: And a convicted lobbyist and his contact with the White House. Find out what a new report says and how the Bush administration is responding.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: I'm going to tell you, our national desk working feverishly right now, feverishly, trying to get you an update on the shooting at a school in Wisconsin. Let me just give you the update on the information that we have confirmed right now.

The principal at Weston School, Weston, Wisconsin -- this is Limerick (ph), Wisconsin, correct, Heidi?

COLLINS: I believe so.

HARRIS: OK -- was shot this morning allegedly by a former student who apparently entered the school armed with multiple weapons. The principal's name, John Klang, was shot. That's been confirmed. No word on his condition right now.

The school locked down, obviously. We will continue to work to get more information on the story and bring you the very latest.

COLLINS: In an attempt to give you a little lighter, happier news, we are watching these numbers once again today.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

HARRIS: President Bush welcomes this man to the White House this hour. Nursultan Nazarbayev will get a state dinner tonight. Critics are quick to point out, though, that Nazarbayev is not a friend of democracy.

Nazarbayev was elected president in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He won reelection last year with 91 percent of the vote, a vote labeled flawed by observers.

Not a single opposition member sits in parliament. And since the election, two prominent opposition figures have been killed. Several secret service officers were convicted.

Nazarbayev keeps tight control over the media and is accused of using it to his advantage during the last election. His family has amassed great wealth. U.S. prosecutors have accused him of accepting millions of dollars in bribes. He denies the allegation.

All that said, Kazakhstan supports U.S. operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. And the country sits on vast untapped oil reserves.

On this trip he is meeting with executives from ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Halliburton.

COLLINS: How much contact did a disgraced lobbyist have with the White House? More, it seems, than the White House has said in the past. A draft congressional report cites more than 400 contacts between prison-bound Jack Abramoff and the White House. That according to senior Republican and Democratic sources who have seen it. But the administration says the report is based on the records of a "proven liar."

Kathleen Koch joining us now from the White House with the latest on this.

Hi, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Heidi.

Yes, obviously this report by the House Government Reform Committee is causing the White House some consternation, because as you pointed out, in the past it had acknowledged only a few contacts with the disgraced lobbyist. Now this report says there were more than 400. Among them, nine alleged instances where Abramoff or a member of his firm had contact with or met with White House advisor Karl Rove himself.

White House spokesperson Dana Perino, though, says be careful, this information is questionable, saying, "The report is based on billing records that are widely regarded as fraudulent in how they misrepresent Abramoff's activities and level of access. So there is no reason why they should suddenly be viewed as credible."

Perino goes on to explain that Abramoff listed on his bills even very minor innocuous contacts as lobbying, saying, "For example, he apparently lists as a lobbying contact and a billable event bumping into somebody at a fund-raiser and then describing it in billing records as a substantial lobbying contact."

The White House does continue to maintain that President Bush himself never met one-on-one with Abramoff. This report does not challenge that assertion.

As a matter of fact, the chairman of the House committee that conducted the report says it's quite notable that Abramoff's attempts to influence the White House apparently were largely unsuccessful. Chairman Tom Davis noting almost none of the e-mails that Abramoff or his associates sent to the White House were answered, saying, "That silence speaks volumes about how seriously most people in the White House took Jack Abramoff's schemes" -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Yes. And that reform committee report goes on to say that subpoenaed in all of this information were records that concluded there were clients that were billed thousands of dollars for things like meals and drinks. But then it says very clearly that it could not determine whether or not those events ever took place and whether or not White House officials may have actually paid for their meals and drinks out of their own pockets, if you will.

So what happens next? It sounds like another one of these deals where it's he said-she said. KOCH: Certainly. And we are going to be having a briefing from Tony Snow this afternoon. We will be asking him a lot of questions about this.

But for right now, the White House is saying clearly this man is going to be serving time behind bars. He has been found by courts to have broken laws. So there is no reason to really put -- you know, much faith in any of these records that, again, as Dana Perino has said, have already been proven in the past to be false.

COLLINS: All right. Kathleen Koch watching the situation for us.

Thanks, Kathleen.

KOCH: You bet.

COLLINS: And you can read the full Abramoff report and get your daily dose of the latest political news. Just click on to CNN's new "Political Ticker." Check this out. Go to cnn.com/ticker.

HARRIS: Pictures and sounds you have to see and hear to believe. Ambushed in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm fixing to get killed, (EXPLETIVE DELETED)!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Not a soldier nor a Marine, but a contractor trapped in his truck. It's amazing story coming up next in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Just want to get you an update on the situation. This is in Wisconsin right now.

Actually, want to clarify a couple of things. We have been up -- until this moment, been describing the situation as taking place in western Wisconsin. That's incorrect.

For clarification, Weston is the actual school district. Cazenovia is the city where the shooting actually took place. And Cazenovia is just outside of Limerick (ph), Wisconsin. And we sort of hope that helps you with the general geography of the area that we're talking about.

What happened there is the principal at Weston school was shot this morning allegedly by a former student. Let's get an update on the situation now.

Captain Michael Hafemann is on the phone with us from the Sauk County Sheriff's Department.

Michael, good to talk to you. Thanks for your time this morning.

CAPT. MICHAEL HAFEMANN, SAUK COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPT.: No problem.

Fill in some of the additional information that you have about this shooting, the time it took place and what you can add from there.

HAFEMANN: Unfortunately, I don't really have that information. It's very sketchy at this point.

What we know that happened this morning, the principal was shot. I don't know what his status is. He's under medical treatment right now. No students were hurt.

At this point, all the elementary students have been removed from the school and they're on their way home. We're in the process of interviewing and going through all the -- all the high school students, and we hope to have that concluded very shortly.

We do have a suspect in custody. Unfortunately, I really can't tell you anything other than the fact that we do have one suspect in custody.

HARRIS: Yes.

HAFEMANN: And that is basically where we are right now.

The plan is we should complete evacuating the school very shortly. Sheriff Randy Stayman (ph) has scheduled a news conference for 1:00 which will be held at the Weston school.

HARRIS: OK. Give us a sense of -- and obviously it was your department that received the call. Describe that situation if you can for us when you arrived at the school.

HAFEMANN: Well, I didn't arrive at the school. I'm actually back at the sheriff's department. The field personnel are out there now. I really can't give you any other details other than what I just told you.

HARRIS: OK. And no condition on the principal at this time?

HAFEMANN: I have no update on his condition other than he was shot. I don't know how many times. He is in the hospital now undergoing treatment, but I couldn't tell you what his status is at this point.

HARRIS: And if you can't answer this, just fine, but let just me ask the question. We understand that the perpetrator may have been a former student.

HAFEMANN: That I haven't had any confirmation on. But again, we should have -- we should get all that confirmed, and I'm sure that will be covered when we do the briefing at 1:00.

HARRIS: What can you tell us about weapons? HAFEMANN: All I know it was a small firearm. That's what I heard. And -- but again, I haven't seen the original report, so I really couldn't tell you what was used.

HARRIS: OK. Michael, we'll let you go.

HAFEMANN: Thanks.

HARRIS: Captain Michael Hafemann with the Sauk County Sheriff's Department on the line with us.

Michael, thank you.

COLLINS: It is one of the riskiest jobs in Iraq: civilian contractors driving trucks in support of the troops. Preston Wheeler knows the dangers well. His is a riveting story of survival.

CNN Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The video starts off showing a supply convoy, a dozen trucks and five military vehicles heading out from a U.S. base north of Baghdad. It was a routine mission until some Iraqi men started throwing rocks.

Civilian Contractor Preston Wheeler was driving with one hand and holding his video camera in the other when things got really ugly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: IED on the left side. Two IEDs (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

MCINTYRE: The convoy had turned the wrong way down a one way road and a bullet came through the windshield.

PRESTON WHEELER, FORMER HALLIBURTON TRUCK DRIVER: I got it on video, by God.

MCINTYRE: A subsequent military investigation blamed faulty maps, but the wrong turn forced the trucks to backtrack right into a deadly ambush. Insurgents opened fire on the convoy. Wheeler's truck was disabled by one of the RPGs.

WHEELER: I am (UNINTELLIGIBLE) cannot move. Please help me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where you at? Where you at?

WHEELER: I am taking fire. 10-4. Come back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

WHEELER: I'm fixing to get killed (expletive deleted.)

MCINTYRE: The video shows a military humvee leaving the scene.

WHEELER: Somebody get their (expletive deleted) back here now, please.

MCINTYRE: Wheeler hid in the cab of his truck and watched insurgents shoot one of his fellow truckers in cold blood.

WHEELER: They just killed him. Oh my God.

MCINTYRE: Three truckers all employed by the Halliburton subsidiary, KBR, were killed that day. The aftermath was caught on tape by a U.S. spy plane, showing Iraqis stripping and stoning one of the victims.

WHEELER: You (expletive deleted) right, I'm scared. I'm going home when this trip is done.

MCINTYRE: Alone with no gun and two AK-47 bullets in his arm, Wheeler says he feels he was abandoned by the very soldiers who were supposed to protect him, and that he waited 40 minutes before an Army Blackhawk came to his rescue.

WHEELER: Why didn't the gun truck behind me stop and the gun truck in front of me stop and secure that area? Them guys would not have been executed if the military had followed their protocol, which they call it.

MCINTYRE: However, a formal investigation by the U.S. military conducted a month after the attack found the soldiers did follow their training. Not to stop until they could safely counterattack. "They didn't leave the scene. They pulled up out of the kill zone and established a security defensive line so that they could continue to fire and protect the convoy." A spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq told CNN. It was, she said, all by the book.

PRESTON: Well, if they was doing it in a textbook fashion, they must have been writing it down because they wasn't securing my area where I was at.

MCINTYRE: But military investigators concluded the soldiers' actions saved the lives of two contractors, including Wheeler, by laying down more than 500 rounds of suppressive fire and directing an armed humvee to the trucks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: This weekend you can watch CNN and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Why he says the war in Iraq is not a mistake. It's an exclusive interview with some candid comments. Watch "Rumsfeld: A Man of War" on CNN Saturday and Sunday evening at 8:00 Eastern.

It has been dubbed the "Day Fire," because it started on Labor Day. But for weary firefighters it's become the day-after-day fire.

CNN's Peter Viles is with crews in Southern California.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For 25 days it has outfoxed the firefighters, shifting in one direction, then doubling back. But it's when the wind blows that it gets downright mean. A fire tornado, two of them, broke out Tuesday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two of them! Two of them! Oh my god, the other one next to it!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They merged! They merged! Oh, it came out the back.

VILES: Roughly 200 feet high, the tornado jumped fire lines, threatening the mountain village of Lockwood Valley.

STEVE MUELLER, CALIF. DEPT. OF FORESTRY: It picked up cardboard boxes, chairs and other items, and stuff was just flying around. I've never seen anything like that.

VILES: Many residents packed up and left their homes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just hope it's here when we get back.

VILES: The village was spared, but the Day Fire, so-called because it started on Labor Day, has now blackened a wilderness area the size of Chicago and is still less than 50 percent contained.

(on camera): The biggest challenge in fighting this fire has been the terrain. It is so steep and so rugged up in these hills, that when the fire flares like it is right now behind me, it's almost impossible to get in here with a fire engine or a bulldozer to fight these flames.

(voice over): When winds are calm, firefighters attack from the air, dumping water, even using a DC-10 to spread fire retardant. On the ground, hot shots, specially-trained ground crews, are doing what they can.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now we're flying crews in, dropping them in. We call it coyote in and out. They stay in for three or four days. They live off of the supplies that are dropped there.

VILES: But when the fire jumped lines this week, it ran into valleys where firefighters had to fight back with hoses and bulldozers. More than 4,000 firefighters are now battling the blaze. This group just checked in from New York City.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's so dry out here, this won't go out.

VILES: On day 25, the fire itself was hard to find, but these firefighters know the Day Fire is not done.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're a little tired. The fire lays down and it picks back up again. So it has been a long ordeal.

VILES: An ordeal with no end in sight.

Peter Viles for CNN, Lockwood Valley, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And you can catch more of Peter Viles reporting on "ANDERSON COOPER 360." "AC 360" airs weeknights at 10:00 Eastern only on CNN.

COLLINS: And we are going to get a firsthand account of the exact situation as we look at the flames for today out in California, and that awful fire that has now got 4,000 people working on it, the size of Chicago. You've heard it all here. We'll get someone from the U.S. Forest Service to tell us exactly what the challenges are at this point.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

HARRIS: And, Heidi, what is it they say, a watched pot never boils. We are building the biggest ever watched pot, as we keep our eye on the Dow, down three points. But the magic number we're looking for is 11,723. If we achieve that at the close, that would set an all-time high for the Dow.

Watch pot, watch pot.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: It is called the day fire, but for fire crews in Southern California, it has seemed like the day-without-end fire. But now some progress to report.

Forest Service spokesperson Melody Fountain is joining us on the phone to give us an update.

Hi, Melody. What's the very latest here?

MELODY FOUNTAIN, U.S. FOREST SERVICE: Well, things are getting a lot better. We're at 63 percent containment. The fire activity has calmed down quite a bit, and firefighters have really contained things and feel really good.

COLLINS: All right. We read some reports here as we look at these phenomenal flames how fast and furious this thing has been moving for nearly a month now. We have seen some reports that the Forest Service is feeling confident that this may be really under control closer to 100 percent, by Monday?

FOUNTAIN: Yes, that's right. They're predicting by 6:00 p.m. Monday full containment, which means that they'll have a line around the whole thing. There still could be some interior burning and, you know, things going on for quite a while now, but it will be contained hopefully on Monday.

COLLINS: It seems like a really tough thing to predict.

FOUNTAIN: It is. We've got very dry conditions, old fuel, extremely low relative humidities, and topography and wind that has really made it tough for firefighters.

COLLINS: And I know you have hotshot crews have been flown in from all over the country. I think the latest that we saw is some teams from New York coming in.

I'm looking at a fire right now that I think the term is called crowning, where those flames jump from the top of the trees right over to the next top of the tree, and that's another scenario that's very difficult to battle. Talk to us about what the hotshot crews are doing as far as the really tough terrain.

FOUNTAIN: Well, they hike in or they're flown in to get them a little closer, and they use hand tools, and they make a line around the, fire and eventually they kind of mop up as far as they can to get it very secure so that they can see that the line is, you know, not going to be breached.

COLLINS: Yes, and that certainly has been a challenge, I guess I would say, from everything we have been watching, jumping those fire lines. So 63 percent contained. We're looking for Monday to be a really positive day. Some tough work over the weekend for about 4,000 firefighters now in the California area trying to control the day fire.

Melody Fountain from the U.S. Forest Service. Thanks so much.

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a revealing look at his fight for a leaner, meaner military in the Iraq war. That's coming up in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Fifteen minutes and counting until YOUR WORLD TODAY.

And Ralitsa is with us tell us what you have.

Hi, Ralitsa.

RALITSA VASSILEVA, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, guys, nice to see you. We keep reporting to our viewers all the numbers, rising numbers of civilian casualties in Iraq. But today we're going to show you the fate of one of the victims and introduce you to the family of that victim left behind.

Also another very interesting story we are following. A tiny former Soviet republic charges four Russian soldiers of espionage. It's the latest on foreign relations that weren't that good any way.

Also we're keeping an eye on the calls for a boycott of the Venezuelan oil company Citgo in the United States following those comments by President Chavez, you remember, calling President Bush the devil. Well we're going to take a look and see if 7-11 is joining in that boycott.

All that and more on YOUR WORLD TODAY. Join me and my colleague Jim Clancy for that.

Back to you, guys.

HARRIS: Thank you Ralitsa. Good to see you.

VASSILEVA: Have a good weekend.

HARRIS: You, too. You, too.

Under fire for the Iraq war: Critics say Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not send enough troops into the battle.

COLLINS: But he makes no apologies. Special correspondent Frank Sesno has a revealing documentary this weekend for "CNN PRESENTS." Here's a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK SESNO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even before Tora Bora, President Bush told Rumsfeld to have his generals start looking at Iraq. Rumsfeld had a long history with the place, as Reagan's envoy, he went there, shook Saddam's hand when Saddam was at war with Iran, America's archenemy.

But after Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, and the first Gulf War, Rumsfeld signed on to a new line of neoconservative thought that America should actively promote democracy in Iraq and oust Saddam Hussein.

At the end of 2001, Rumsfeld ordered Tommy Franks to throw out the existing Iraq war plan, which called for more than 400,000 troops.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: It didn't reflect any of the lessons from Afghanistan, that it didn't reflect the current state of affairs in Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESNO: Rumsfeld was adamant, leaning hard on General Tommy franks, who was putting together the war plan.

THOMAS RICKS, WASHINGTON POST MILITARY CORRESPONDENT: There was quite a lot of friction. Fairly harsh tone. Franks would fly up to Washington and show it to him and Rumsfeld would say, fewer troops, faster, cut it down, pare it down.

SESNO: Rumsfeld was thinking transformation and asking tough questions.

GEN. JACK KEANE (RET.), U.S. ARMY: The question sort of goes like this: listen, Saddam Hussein's army today is half the size it used to be. Why do we have to attack the same size force we did back then? Isn't it reasonable to do with less? Well, that's a very good question and it deserves to be asked. SESNO: The U.S. would attack with fewer than 150,000 troops, though more were available, if needed. Rumsfeld's vision had prevailed. It was about to be tested again, but on a very different battlefield.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Watch this weekend CNN and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, why he says the war is not a mistake. An exclusive interview, candid comments. Watch "RUMSFELD: MAN OF WAR," CNN Saturday and Sunday evenings at 8:00 Eastern.

COLLINS: Well, look at this. We have a shot of the one and only, CNN's Kyra Phillips, working really hard.

HARRIS: Where is Kyra? Can she hear us?

COLLINS: She might be able to. She may be ignoring us.

HARRIS: No, no, no. She wouldn't do that.

Working hard with her team for the afternoon edition of CNN NEWSROOM that begins at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. She will be here just a moment with a bit of a preview. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: You OK?

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Wow.

HARRIS: You're getting near the weekend here.

PHILLIPS: I'm thinking about bird flu right now. I'm getting a little nervous.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: On a serious note, we got a lot coming up in the 1:00 hour. You know his name from Deep Throat, obviously. And now Bob Woodward is making headlines again. He's about to release another look at the Bush administration and coming up from the CNN NEWSROOM, you're going to read and hear a lot the controversial quotes in his new book, from President Bush talking body counts, Rumsfeld called an S.O.B. by one of his top military brass and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice not even considered in the chain of command. We're going to ask a general who was there about the allegations.

And the forgotten children of Romania. You may remember this. We did this last week. We were the first to show you these undercover pictures. Brand new babies just left to fend for themselves. Thousands of other orphans tied up, forgotten about. We're going to go in-depth on the adoption crisis out of Romania. Find out what you can do to help the desperate children. We're going to see it 1:00 p.m. Eastern. Talk more about that.

HARRIS: OK, Kyra, thank you.

Very quickly, let's -- Michael, let's see these pictures out of Wisconsin right now of the school in question here. This is Weston High School, where the principal of that school was shot earlier today, allegedly by a former student. That former student, that clarification still to come on that. But this person has been arrested by police.

And this person apparently entered the school armed with multiple weapons. The principal, John Klang, was shot. No word on his condition right now. The school obviously on lockdown, and an elementary school nearby also evacuated. This is the Weston School District, Weston High School. This is in Cazenovia. That's the city. And the shooting took place about an hour, hour and a half ago, maybe even longer than that.

We're continuing to get information. Just wanted to bring you the first pictures from that scene. More developments on this story. You can follow it this afternoon at 1:00 p.m. in the NEWSROOM with Kyra and Don.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: And one more look at this. The Dow, 11,726. That record was 11,723. But remember, it has to be at that level or higher at the close, at the end of the day, in order to break the record. So we'll be watching that.

HARRIS: Something tells me a lot of folks are making a lot of money at 11,725. YOUR WORLD TODAY is coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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