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Your World Today
Two Palestinian Women Killed amid Mosque Standoff; President Bush Trying to Help Embattled Republicans; Veteran's View of Final Week of Campaigning
Aired November 03, 2006 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: They trudged to a mosque to shield their men from Israeli soldiers. Two were killed. The latest victims in a new cycle of violence blowing up in the Middle East.
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A soldier who lost her legs in Iraq is now a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Congress. We'll bring you a veteran's view, as the final weekend of campaigning begins.
CLANCY: Concern Beijing is giving Khartoum diplomatic cover as deadly attacks by the Janjaweed give new urgency for the United Nations to send troops to Darfur, even without Sudan's consent.
GORANI: And Daniel Ortega battled U.S.-backed contra rebels in the '80s. Now, 16 years later, the former Nicaraguan president is set for a comeback.
Hello and welcome to our report broadcast around the globe.
I'm Hala Gorani.
CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy.
From Gaza City to Beijing, wherever you are watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
GORANI: Well, we begin with a violent end to a standoff in Gaza on the third day of a major Israeli offensive there. Palestinian militants holed up inside a mosque have slipped away in the chaos following a deadly shooting outside. Israeli troops fired at a crowd of women streaming toward the mosque, intending to surround it. Israel says militants were among them.
Let's bring in Ben Wedeman in Jerusalem.
What happened today, Ben?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Hala, well, as you said, the Israelis have been operating in the Beit Hanoun area of northern Gaza for three days now. They are more or less in control of that area, but many of the militants they were targeting and seeking there have gotten away.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WEDEMAN (voice over): With gunfire crackling nearby, dozens of Palestinian women march in the main mosque in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. A local radio station had broadcast a call from Hamas for women to encircle the mosque where as many as 60 gunmen were holed up, surrounded by Israeli troops.
As the women approached, more gunfire. Two fall to the ground. One dead. The other fatally wounded. Israeli spokesmen say the army was targeting militants hiding among the women.
Ambulances arrive to take away the dead and wounded. The women flee. But shortly afterwards, others press forward. In the pandemonium, most of the militants in the mosque were able to escape, some in women's clothing.
Hospital sources in Gaza say as many as 25 Palestinians, at least half of them militants, have been killed since Israel launched operation Autumn Clouds Wednesday morning. An operation Israel says is aimed at stopping militants from firing crude, locally manufactured rockets into Israel.
Overnight, an air force strike left two Palestinians dead. An Israeli spokesman claimed they'd earlier fired missiles into Israel. In Gaza, a Hamas spokesman warns the Israeli offensive will not go unanswered.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WEDEMAN: Israeli officials, Hala, say that this operation may go on for another two or three days. But this operation may be just a taste of things to come. The Israeli army has been, for sometime, ready to go on a full ground offensive once they get the green light -- Hala.
GORANI: Ben, let me ask you about reports that there's been an Israeli air raid on that -- on that very mosque where militants were holed up. What can you tell us about that?
WEDEMAN: Now, Hala, our information is, in fact, that there may have been an Israeli raid. This is according to Palestinian sources, not on the mosque, the Nasir (ph) mosque, which we featured in that report, but, rather, a makeshift mosque on the edge of town.
These Palestinians sources are saying that there may be two, three people wounded in that incident. The Israeli military, however, is not -- is saying that they have no information at this point on this supposed air raid that we're told took place about half an hour ago.
GORANI: All right. And so of course we don't have a clear idea of what the target may have been at this point anyway.
Ben Wedeman, following the story for us on the ground.
Thanks so much -- Jim. CLANCY: All right. Now to Iraq, Hala, where Saddam Hussein's trial was intended to really close a chapter by exposing the crimes of his regime.
GORANI: Well, now there's a fear that a verdict which could come Sunday could bring more violence in a country already gripped by a raging insurgency. Iraq's defense minister has put armed forces on alert.
CLANCY: Let's take a look at some of the other developments, too.
In the past 24 hours, at least 56 bullet-riddled bodies were found scattered around Baghdad. Sectarian violence, that is.
GORANI: Casualties mount also for U.S. forces. Eight U.S. soldiers have been killed in the past 24 hours.
CLANCY: Now, if you go south of the capital, U.S.-led forces say they did kill 13 suspected insurgents at a suicide bomb factory.
GORANI: This, as an estimated 100,000 flee the violence every month. The U.N. refugee agency says it's distressed by the lack of world response.
CLANCY: Now, polls show Iraq is the number one issue on the minds of U.S. voters as they head to the ballot box on Tuesday with control of Congress at stake. President George W. Bush is out on the campaign trail once again. He's stopping at the battleground state of Missouri today.
White House Correspondent Elaine Quijano traveling with the president. She joins us now.
What's the message, and how is his reception?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good afternoon to you, Jim.
Here in Missouri, first of all, the Senate race could not be any closer. The Republican senator, Jim Talent, is locked in a dead heat virtually with his Democratic challenger, Claire McCaskill. So President Bush is here to try to rally the GOP faithful.
He wrapped up a rally, in fact, just a short time ago here in Springfield, sticking with some tried and true GOP themes, like keeping taxes low and national security. The goal, really, is to reach out to conservatives who form such a crucial component of the GOP's base. But the president also offered another defense of his Iraq policy, reiterating his belief that Iraq is the central front in the war on terror and saying that Democrats do not have a plan for success.
As part of that, the president tried a new line meant to fire up the crowd here just four days before the election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Democrats predicted the tax cuts would not create jobs. They predicted the tax cult cuts would not increase wages. And they predicted that the tax cuts would cause the deficit to explode.
Well, the facts are in. Tax cuts have led to a strong and growing economy. And this morning we got more proof of that. The national unemployment rate has dropped to 4.4 percent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: That obviously -- the sound referring to a domestic issue important to very many Americans, and that is the economy. The president noting there a new unemployment rate.
But what the president also told this crowd is that Democrats do not have a plan. He said that if people out on the street shows happen to bump into Democrats, they should ask the Democrats, "What is your plan?" Talking about a plan for success in Iraq.
Now, what's interesting to note is that from now until Election Day, President Bush is campaigning in states that he won in 2004 during the presidential election. Absent from his campaign itinerary, though, states where his low approval ratings, now in the 30s, and the unpopularity of the Iraq war, might hurt Republican candidates.
Now, the political strategy certainly, Jim, very clear. The president is trying to stick to those places where he can do GOP candidates some good and not hurt them -- Jim.
CLANCY: Elaine Quijano, traveling with the president. She'll be part of CNN's extensive campaign coverage in the hours and the days ahead.
Thank you, Elaine.
GORANI: Well, allies and neighbors of the U.S. see President Bush as a -- and this is an interesting survey -- a big threat to world peace. And Britons say he poses a greater danger than his counterparts in North Korea and Iran.
That's according to a new poll published in "The Guardian" newspaper of the U.K. It says -- listen to these numbers -- 69 percent of Britons surveyed believe U.S. policy has made the world less safe since 2001. Sixty-two percent of Canadians and 57 percent of Mexicans expressed the same feelings.
The poll finds support for the U.S. has also slipped in Israel, a country that relies heavily on the U.S. for security and financial aid. Just one in four think Mr. Bush has made the world safer. Just over a third think he's increased the danger.
CLANCY: The angst over the president and the policies in Iraq has been building in the United States for years, and the Democrats are capitalizing on it this campaign season. Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley looks at that for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If November '06 is a political explosion that shakes up Washington, the fuse was lit in the late summer of '04. And for the first time, a majority of Americans turned sour on the war.
That winter, Major Tammy Duckworth of the Army National Guard was in a hospital bed, recovering from the loss of both legs. She had lots of time to think.
TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D), ILLINOIS SENATE CANDIDATE: And I did my research and I realized that only two members of the entire Congress had a child serving in Iraq. And I thought these people -- these people are not making the same sacrifice our troops make every single day. And, you know, so here I am. A lot less sleep later, a few more miles on my wheelchair.
CROWLEY (on camera): Still standing, right?
DUCKWORTH: Still standing.
CROWLEY: Yes.
DUCKWORTH: Yes.
CROWLEY (voice-over): She is the Democratic candidate in Illinois's 6th Congressional District on the outskirts of Chicago. She is one of a half-dozen vets who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan, recruited by Democrats to run for office. Her story and her chances brought powerhouses to her side.
She talked Social Security, college costs and health care, but the war permeates the atmosphere here in the 6th. It permeates everywhere.
DAN BALZ, "THE WASHINGTON POST": With so many National Guard and Reserve troops, this has affected small towns in lots of states. And so I think there's kind of a pervasiveness about its impact that people feel all over the country.
CROWLEY: With the death toll rising and support falling, national Democrats opened the election season on the war. It will be their closing argument as well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell Congress it's long pas time to put down their rubber stamp and ask the hard questions about Iraq.
The Democratic Congressional Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising.
CROWLEY: In the House and the Senate, seats that nine months ago, three months ago looked safely Republican no longer are. Illinois's 6th District has been GOP-ville, sending retiring Republican Henry Hyde to Congress for 30 years.
PETER ROSKAM (R), ILLINOIS CONG. CANDIDATE: It's just a real treat to spend some time with you.
CROWLEY: State Senator Peter Roskam, often described as a rising Republican star here, may not be able to hold onto the 6h.
ROSKAM: You know, the people in Washington, D.C., who cooked up my opponent's candidacy sort of got things wrong, didn't they? We don't have candidates imposed on us from Washington. We send our representatives out to Washington, D.C.
Isn't that right?
CROWLEY: The race is close enough that Roskam has pulled in some celebs of his own, including the Republicans' designated hitter.
BARBARA BUSH, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Dave McSweeney and Peter Roskam will be champions of the men and women of the United States military. All of us are proud of the men and women who are deployed around the world defending our country.
CROWLEY (on camera): Either way you look at it, no matter where you are, whatever else is being said, the '06 elections are about the war, always the war.
Candy Crowley, CNN, Elk Grove Village, Illinois.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: If you want to know about the elections, the midterm elections in the U.S., this is the place to find out.
Log on to our Web site. The address, CNN.com/election.
CNN is the place to be Election Day. We're going to bring you extensive coverage of the voting and the results next Tuesday.
GORANI: U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte is reiterating U.S. support for the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al- Maliki, and his government. Negroponte is on an unannounced visit to Baghdad. Iraqi officials tell CNN the men discussed the rebuilding of the Iraqi military and the political aspects of Iraq's security problems.
It's the second high-profile visit by a top U.S. official to Iraq in a week.
CLANCY: Coming up right here on YOUR WORLD TODAY...
GORANI: Well, authorities in California make an arrest involving the deadliest wildfire there in years.
CLANCY: Also coming up, how a weekend election in Nicaragua could add to Latin America's club of leftist leaders.
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CLANCY: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to CNN International.
GORANI: You are watching YOUR WORLD TODAY. We bring CNN's viewers around the globe up to speed on the most important international stories of the day.
CLANCY: Now, we want to take a look now at one of the most powerful militia groups operating in Baghdad. Accused of sectarian violence, the Mehdi army has a firm grip over every aspect of life for the residents in Sadr City.
GORANI: Well, it has a large and loyal following that's fervently anti-American, and it answers primarily to one person, the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Michael Ware has a closer look at this army and its mission.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sadr City is a sprawling slum. An estimated 2.5 million people, almost half the population of Baghdad. Controlled not by the Iraqi government or the U.S. military, but by these men. They are the Mehdi army, followers of this man, Muqtada al-Sadr, a powerful anti-American Shia cleric.
MUQTADA AL-SADR, SHIITE CLERIC (through translator): Who is going to protect Iraq? America protect Iraq? May God damn America.
WARE: His militia is a potent force. Brazen in his propaganda videos, vocal in this demonstration denouncing America, and discreet. Militiamen in civilian clothes at Sadr City checkpoints, searching for car bombs and Sunni insurgents.
U.S. military intelligence estimates the Mehdi army has as many as 7,000 fighters. It credits the militia with at least 15 special forces companies, eight intelligence companies, religious courts that regularly order executions, and several punishment committees -- units acting both as internal investigators and anti-Sunni death squads.
And that's not all. Muqtada al-Sadr controls 30 seats in parliament, four government ministries, and wields considerable influence over Iraq's prime minister.
Opponents claim that has enabled the Mehdi army to hold America's whole mission in Iraq hostage, politically and militarily, turning Sadr City into a virtually no-go zone for American soldiers.
So how did Muqtada al-Sadr become so powerful? To understand, for weeks, CNN has been visiting Sadr City, where the Mehdi army's control is absolute. At a market, militiamen keep a watchful eye. And even women say they are ready to fight the Americans.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We will not accept our houses to be searched. The women will attack them. We have weapons and we will kill them! WARE: Something the Mehdi army has proven it is willing to do.
ABU MUHAMMED, MEHDI ARMY COMMANDER (through translator): Freedom should be taken, not given. So we will take it.
WARE: Abu Muhammed is a top Mehdi army commander, who insisted his face not be shown.
MUHAMMED (through translator): Who is going to let himself negotiate in the name of this city and its people when Sayid Muqtada (ph) has not met a single American official all year.
WARE: No negotiation with the Americans. A popular position here. But while the Mehdi army is formidable, it is not a monolith, with factions split as hard-liners push for even more attacks against U.S. forces.
On the street, unity, as the militia using Lebanon's Hezbollah as a model, delivers services, overseeing government fuel ration cards at gas stations. Security, even signing for the death (ph) at Friday prayers. And with the apparent capture of a U.S. soldier, another parallel to Hezbollah. One senior U.S. officer wonders if the kidnapping is an attempt to echo the capture of two Israelis that sparked July's war in Lebanon, an ominous suggestion, given how Muqtada and his loyalists are flexing their muscle in Sadr City and across Iraq.
Michael Ware, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: All right. Let's return now to our top story, the violence in Gaza.
Israeli troops shot and killed two Palestinian women Friday outside a mosque, saying militants were hiding among them. Militants who were holed up inside the mosque escaped in the ensuing chaos.
Let's get some reaction from the government, the Hamas government.
We're joined by the spokesman for that government, Ghazi Hamad, joining us live from Gaza City.
Why were women called to become human shields around this mosque if it was -- if it was known to be such a dangerous environment?
GHAZI HAMAD, HAMAS CABINET SPOKESMAN: Look, because the situation in Beit Hanoun is very dangerous, and there are many people was imprisoned in the mosque. And Israel started to call these people, and they want to crash the mosque on the head of these people.
So we call all them, the Muslim community, all the countries, Arabian countries, United Nations to interfere in order to stop this massacre, but no one -- no one responds to us. So we were obligated to send the women in order to wound (ph) the administration, in order to help these people, to protect them, because we have no alternative. But it was peaceful demonstration, but Israel...
(CROSSTALK)
GORANI: Right, but it was a dangerous environment, with soldiers on the one hand, militants holed up in a mosque on the other, and the women are called to become human shields.
HAMAD: Look, women, as I told you, women are going just to -- to help these people to be evacuated from the mosque, not to be killed by Israel. And the women have no stones, have no weapons, have no grenades.
It was a peaceful demonstration. We know that it is a risk, but we have no alternative, because all the people in Beit Hanoun, all of them, they are at risk, they are in danger.
We have about (INAUDIBLE) have many wounded people in the streets, and they prevented medical ambulances to reach people and to give them treatment. So the women was really a real shield to protect these people, and I think...
GORANI: Yes, well...
HAMAD: ... it is a clear message to world that the Palestinians reach a point that we cannot feel (ph) more, we cannot keep watching the massacres in Beit Hanoun and we keep silent.
GORANI: Well, Mr. Hamad, two women died, the militants escaped.
Let me ask you this. A Hamas member we saw on television said this will not go unanswered.
What does that mean? What should we understand by "This attack will not go unanswered"?
HAMAD: Look, because, really, what happened in Beit Hanoun now, something that's unbelievable. When you found that the whole area is under complete siege and complete curfew, and the tanks, they demolish home after home and killing the kids in the streets, and anything moving is a target, so I think this is -- this is kind of collective killing and murdering against our people.
This is our right to fight against occupation. If Israel say that, OK, there's a firing missile, but this does not mean to give them free permission to kill people everywhere.
You know that along one year, about two Israelis just were killed by the missiles of the Palestinians. But in the last two months, more than 50 Palestinians were killed in north of Gaza.
In addition, in east of Gaza, in south of Gaza, in (INAUDIBLE), every day, there is incursion and killing and murdering people. So really...
GORANI: All right. Ghazi...
HAMAD: ... we expect from the international community to take a step to stop this criminal actions and aggression against our people.
GORANI: All right. Ghazi Hamad, we're out of time. Thank you for joining us here on CNN.
The spokesman for the Palestinian government.
And we have invited -- we have invited -- and I'm told we're on this camera here -- we did invite the Israeli military to comment...
CLANCY: We're hoping he's going to come.
GORANI: ... but were not available in this -- at least half hour. We're hoping to have reaction as soon as possible on this story out of Gaza.
CLANCY: All right. We've got to take a short break.
We'll be right back after this.
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CLANCY: We want to turn now to the conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region. Some developments today. Reuters News is saying that Arab militia attacks killed at least 63 people, and half of that number were children. The United Nations says 27 of the children were under the age of 12. A rebel leader in Darfur says the Sudanese government has now started mobilizing its militias known as the Janjaweed. The United Nations confirms the assertion, saying some eight villages have been attacked. Thousands of people have been fleeing for safety.
GORANI: Meanwhile, Sudan's president, Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, is one of nearly 50 African leaders in China today for three days of talks intended to strengthen already impressive business ties between the two regions. But Mr. Bashir is getting attention not for trade, but for his stinging rejection of U.N. peacekeeping troops for the troubled Darfur region.
Hugh Riminton has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Reviled by much of the world, accused of crimes against humanity and genocide, Sudan's president, Omar Al Bashir, says he is among brothers in China. Attending the China/Africa summit and opening a huge new embassy here, President Bashir condemned efforts to send U.N. peacekeepers to Darfur, the vast Sudanese semi-desert where hundreds of thousands of people are reported to have died from mass displacement and militia violence. A small, poorly equipped, often unpaid African Union troop presence has made little impact on the killings, said to be carried out by Janjaweed militias allegedly supported by the Sudanese government.
President Bashir says Iraq shows why he must resist U.S. and British pressure for a military intervention force.
OMAR AL-BASHIR, SUDANESE PRESIDENT (through translator): If we allow U.N. peacekeepers in Sudan, the result will be the same as Iraq. You SEE what happened when the military entered Iraq. Iraq was completely wiped out.
RIMINTON (on camera): President Bashir says there's a clear difference between the United States and China. China offers Sudan, he says, understanding and friendship. United States, only rebuffs and punishment. And he's quite open about crediting China with giving Sudan diplomatic cover in the U.N. Security Council.
(voice-over): Some argue China must take some responsibility for what's happening in Darfur.
COLLIN THOMAS-JENSEN, INTL. CRISIS GROUP: Well, clearly, think China's role on the Security Council is one that's been somewhat problematic in this conflict. They've done everything possible to protect the Sudanese government, to prevent harsher sanctions and stronger punitive actions.
RIMINTON: China's steadfast support for Sudan, an increasingly significant oil supplier to China, threatens to overshadow the largest summit meeting ever held in Beijing, drawing leaders from 48 of Africa's 53 nations. China says it takes a long-term view over its relationship with Sudan and has nothing to be embarrassed about.
Hugh Riminton, CNN, Beijing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: Well, it may be seen quite differently on the ground in Darfur. The International Humanitarian Organization GOAL started responding to this Darfur crisis all the way back in 2004.
Since then, the agency has established 11 health clinics and provides critical nonfood items to people in need from Darfur.
Tonight, in New York, GOAL is going to be holding a fund-raising celebration, a ball if you will.
We're joined now by chairwoman Lisa O'Shea.
Lisa has been to Dafur in the past. You look on at these developments where the president of Sudan has literally blamed the United States for the problems in Darfur, and says there is no need for U.N. peacekeepers there at all. What do aid worker? You look on and see this? What's happening to you?
LISA O'SHEA, CHAIRWOMAN, GOAL: What's in your report is that it all summed it up perfectly. I mean, at the moment, 2 1/2 million people, innocent men, women and children, have been forced from their homes, from their farms, 400,000 have lost their lives, women are being raped on a daily basis, and nobody is in protecting these people -- not the U.N., not NATO -- no country is in there looking after these people. And also nobody's in there look after the aid agencies like GOAL, who are trying to protect them, who are trying to bring add to these people. It doesn't matter who goes in. Somebody has to go in.
And it is not the U.S.' fault. In fact the U.S. themselves are putting great pressure on the Sudanese government to stop the carnage that's been occurring for the last three to four years. Remember, Jim, this has gone on for a long time. This has been well signaled in advance. We've known about this for a long time. These people are dying slowly under the midday sun there in this government-sponsored genocide. It was your former Secretary of State Colin Powell who called it that.
So it is certainly not the U.S.' fault. But somebody now has to show the courage to go into the Sudan, go into Darfur, send in a fast- reacting, mobile, strong U.N. force, if that's what it's going to be, and protect these innocent two-and-a-half million men women and children. It is beyond logic that it hasn't happened today. That the squalor, the suffering, the mystery that these people are going through at the moment. It's almost difficult to actually articulate it. Because it's ludicrous, what's happening there at the moment.
CLANCY: But, Lisa, it's politics, too. And, the rebels have recently reignited their campaign. They have attacked government troops. They have precipitated violence. They have also made it more difficult for those that are trying to operate safe refugee camps along the border area with Chad. Now we have a retaliation that's coming down. Is the international community really being played here by both sides?
O'SHEA: They are in a way. These attacks aren't going to stop. Ultimately what the Sudanese government would love is that all international observers left and they could continue with the job of completing this genocide. And that could easily happen if somebody doesn't show the courage to get in there and protect these people.
Already, I think, since May, the end of May, early June, 13 aid workers have been killed. The aid agencies are leaving Darfur because it is too unstable. And they are the witnesses in there. We ourselves in GOAL, you referred to it at the beginning there, we're in one area with 11 health care clinics. But we've actually had to leave two much bigger areas because there's threat to the security of our own staff there. And of course, we've got to ensure that our own staff are safe. So unless somebody, as I said before, it be NATO, be it be the U.N., be it the U.S., go in there and protect these people, it doesn't matter if they annoy huge governments like China or any other ones that have other interests, commercial interests in Sudan. Somebody has to show that these 2 and a half million people that their lives actually do matter and that is what we in GOAL are calling for.
CLANCY: Lisa, I've got just a few seconds, what would be your message to Beijing today, as it rolls out the red carpet for Omar al Bashir?
O'SHEA: Somebody stand up to him and ensure that some sort of peacekeeping force gets in there and protects these 2 and a half million people, they deserve it.
CLANCY: Chairman, chairwoman I should say, of GOAL, the Irish charity, Lisa O'Shea, thank you very much for being with us -- Hala.
GORANI: Okay, yes, a short break here on YOUR WORLD TODAY, then Congress, the U.S. Congress, moving to shut the doors of an American agency overseeing reconstruction in Iraq.
CLANCY: That has some lawmakers saying not so fast. Coming up, why some in Washington want a powerful inspector out of a job in Iraq.
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CLANCY: Hello, and welcome back to CNN International.
GORANI: All right. We bring you the big stories of the day from across the globe. We're seen in 200 countries on YOUR WORLD TODAY.
CLANCY: Let's check some of the other stories making news this hour. We begin where?
GORANI: Well, in Afghanistan. An Italian photographer kidnapped there is now a free man. Gabriele Torsello and his Afghan translate we're seized by armed gunmen in mid-October. The spokesman for the online "Daily Peace Reporter," which had been in contact with the photographer and his alleged abductors says Torsello is in good condition. No word what happened though to his translator.
CLANCY: Hurling rocks and molotov cocktails, protesters forced riot police to pull back. Unrest worsening in the Mexican tourist city of Oaxaca. At least, ten police were wounded -- many demonstrators beaten. Battles around the state university have been going on now for months as protesters are demanding the ouster of the state governor.
GORANI: Prosecutors in Taiwan have brought corruption charges against the wife of the president there. The first lady Wu Shu-chen is linked to the misuse of nearly $450,000 in state funds. According to the Associated Press, prosecutors say they also have enough evidence to bring corruption charges against the president Chen Shui- bian.
A controversial website that contained captured Hussein-era Iraqi documents has been taken down. This after questions were raised about the contents of the site. "The New York Times" reports weapons experts said the site had too much detail about Iraq's covert nuclear research before the 1991 Gulf War. In a statement, a spokesman for National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said "the material currently on the website, as well as the procedures used to post new documents, will be carefully monitored before the site becomes available again" -- Jim. CLANCY: Well, now to a story about waste and fraud in Iraq -- a Republican lawyer who exposed some of the wrongdoings by American companies and officials. It was two weeks ago that Stuart Bowen and his office was ordered shutdown. It was a move that came in a clause not seen by many inside a budget bill. Many lawmakers say they had no idea it was there. Democratic Congressman, Rob Andrews, a ranking member of the House Armed Service Committee, joins us now.
Were you involved in those negotiations? Some of the accounts say that the Republicans wanted to put this in. And there was a debate with the Democrats over it. Others say they had no idea where this even came from.
REP. ROB ANDREWS (D), NEW JERSEY: There was a last-minute middle of the night argument between the staff on the Republican side and the staff on the Democratic side. This was snuck into the bill in the middle of the night. It is an outrage. The auditing office should be left open. And frankly when we go back to Washington, whether it's the Republicans or the Democrats in charge, we're going to insist that this auditing office be kept open.
CLANCY: How much money is thought to have gone missing in Iraq? Some say there's $9 billion in Oil-for-Food money that really belong to the Iraqis that U.S. taxpayers may have to pay back. In the meantime, the U.S. taxpayers pumped in hundreds of millions of dollars to Iraq.
ANDREWS: Jim, the answer is we don't know and that's why we need an auditor. The gentleman who's there has done an exemplary job...
CLANCY: And he's a Republican.
ANDREWS: Republican, Democrat, doesn't matter here. He's done an exemplary job and I salute him. The very idea, at a time there's been so much graft, so much fraud, and so much waste that this would be shutdown in the middle of the night, with a provision snuck into the bill at the last minute, shows you why, I think, the American people on Tuesday are going to make a wholesale change in the United States Congress and switch control from the Republicans to the Democrats.
CLANCY: Yes, I want to note here, Congressman Andrews, you are running for office but you're running unopposed so you're not here to beat one of your opponents here in order to get elected by bringing up these charges about the corruption...
ANDREWS: That's right --
CLANCY: Something aside from that.
ANDREWS: I'm very humbled by the fact that I have -- do not have an opponent in my race. But I'm outraged by the fact that this young -- this lawyer who's doing such a good job in Iraq is going to have his operations shut down because evidently somebody in Washington wants to shut him down. We are just not going to let that happen.
CLANCY: All right. More on that in a moment. Let me ask you something, do the Democrats then -- did you vote for this bill?
ANDREWS: I did, because it has a pay raise for the troops. It had material for the field. And frankly no one had a clue or any inclination that this offensive provision was in there.
CLANCY: All right so it got through, that happens. Some Democrats are saying now they're going to undo all of this, they are specifically go back in and reauthorize that office for the special investigator for reconstruction in Iraq?
ANDREWS: Yes, we are. I've spoken to the office of Mr. Skelton, who's going to be the chairman of the committee if we win. I know that Congresswoman Pelosi, who will be speaker if we win, has made a commitment that we will indefinitely authorize the presence of that auditor. As long as there's American lives and American dollars on the line, we need to have that auditor operating. It is an outrage that this was taken out by a provision put into the bill in the middle of the night. It is also very typical of the culture of corruption that we've seen in Washington, D.C.
CLANCY: Culture of corruption. And it should be pointed out, you know, like Senator Warner, there are some Republicans that feel exactly as Congressman Rob Andrews feels.
ANDREWS: Justifiably so.
CLANCY: All right. Thank you very much for being with us so close to the election.
ANDREWS: Thank you.
CLANCY: All right, the man Washington once called a "little dictator" may be set for a comeback.
GORANI: Daniel Ortega has traded red and black for pink and he says he's a changed man. More on his campaign to become Nicaragua's president again, when we come back.
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CLANCY: All right. He led a leftist government that battled U.S.-backed Contra rebels. That was back in the 1980s.
GORANI: Well, now, 16 years later, the former Nicaraguan President, Daniel Ortega, is set for a comeback. Now polls show him leading ahead of this weekend's presidential election.
CLANCY: Aneesh Raman, give us the latest from Managua.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Amid the Cold War, President Reagan called him the "little dictator." And in Nicaragua these days, there's little doubt Daniel Ortega is back. Promising riches to the poor, he is, yet again, campaigning to become president, this time with the financial backing of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. As for his chances? Well, so far, Ortega's feeling pretty good.
(on camera): It's not just that Ortega is back which has the world watching this election. He's run unsuccessfully twice before. The difference this time is that he might just win.
(voice-over): To do that here, you only need a 35 percent vote plurality, a number Ortega is inching towards according to all the polls, aided greatly by an opposition split apart. And if you thought age may have tempered the man once called el comandante who's now 61, listen up.
DANIEL ORTEGA, NICARAGUAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (thorough translator): The poor will not wait. They will bury savage capitalism on November 5.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ortega hasn't changed. He's the same person, same policies. His friends are the same. He's friends of Castro, he's friends of Chavez, he's friends of the president of Iran, he's friends with Gadhafi.
RAMAN: And so contentious is the race, with Ortega so central to it, that it's bringing back another infamous character from the '80s, Oliver North, the U.S. Marine colonel who secretly funded the Contra rebels then trying to overthrow Ortega. Here at this anti-Ortega rally, he is a hero. Here, he warned of the stakes.
OLIVER NORTH, FORMER U.S. MARINE COLONEL: Risk returning to the days of authoritarian and ruthless government.
RAMAN: So add Nicaragua to the list of White House woes, another member, perhaps, in the global anti-Bush club. Daniel Ortega, a man who brought Nicaragua to economic devastation, who presided over a civil war that left nearly 50,000 dead, seems, for the moment, all but set to lead once again.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, Managua.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: All right. Before we end this hour, a work by American artist Jackson Pollock has become the most expensive painting ever sold.
CLANCY: That's right, you won't be buying this either. It fetched $140 million. It was a private sale.
GORANI: The painting -- you don't want to publicize that you're spending $140 million on a painting. Simply titled "No. 5," it features the artist's trademark drip and pour technique that earned him the nickname "Jack the Dripper."
CLANCY: All right, there's the artist himself, but this now being described as one of the most expensive paintings that's ever been sold. That's our report for this day. I'm Jim Clancy.
GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani. Stay with CNN. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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