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President Bush's Meeting With Iraqi Prime Minister Delayed; Some Feel Cuba Is Nearing Regime Change; Fallout From Russian Spy Death Reaches British Airways Jets; Baghdad Still A City Under Siege; Pelosi Says Alcee Hastings Will Not Get Intelligence Committee Chairmanship

Aired November 29, 2006 - 15:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Comrades in arms, or in name only? President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki plan to huddle tomorrow over the nasty and indecisive -- indecisive war in al- Maliki's country. But they're not in Iraq. They're in Jordan. And their meeting is causing problems even before it starts.
Ben Wedeman joins us now live from Amman -- Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, Kyra. Everybody is here.

President Bush arrived about two hours ago, Prime Minister Maliki earlier in the day. There were reports that they were going to meet this evening with Jordan's King Abdullah. But there was a change of plans, apparently -- no clear explanation why the three are not meeting. It's only Bush and King Abdullah.

Jordanian officials and Bush administration officials have been at pains to stress the reasons for the cancellation were simply logistical, having to do with time.

But, even before that, there were questions about what is going on -- this following the publication of a White House memo by National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, in which he questioned Maliki's ability to get the situation in Iraq under control.

In Baghdad itself, we saw several ministers loyal to Muqtada al- Sadr, that militant Shiite cleric, pulling out of the government in protest over Maliki's meeting with Bush. So, really, Bush won't be meeting tomorrow -- will -- rather, will be meeting tomorrow with Prime Minister Maliki, but, already, as I have pointed out, there are many complications -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, whether time, logistics, you can read into the cancellation of today's meeting with Maliki, can't you?

WEDEMAN: You can read many things. Some people here suggesting, in fact, that what the Americans are doing is setting up the Iraqis, Prime Minister Maliki, for the blame -- to blame for the situation in Iraq, which clearly has gone from bad to worse, quite dramatically, in the last few months.

Many people here are saying that this is summit too little, too late. It really should have happened immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003, and that, at this point, really, there's not much that can be done to remedy the situation on the ground -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: What's the development with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice?

WEDEMAN: Well, that is one bright spot. She's going to be going on Thursday, tomorrow, to Jericho, where she will be meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Later, she will be meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem.

Here, there is some glimmer of hope. On Sunday, the Palestinians and the Israelis agreed to a cease-fire. The cease-fire hasn't held completely. Palestinian militants have fired several volleys of missiles into Israel. But, nonetheless, there's talk that there may be progress in the formation of a Palestinian unity government. And, obviously, any chance of progress is something that the administration and Condoleezza Rice would like to grasp at -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Our Ben Wedeman live from Amman.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: The sit-down in Jordan is prompting a walkout in Iraq. The so-called Sadrists, lawmakers and ministers loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr are making good on a threat to boycott the government.

CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is following developments from Baghdad -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, the Sadr bloc made that threat about a week ago. They said, if Nuri al-Maliki went to Jordan to meet with President Bush, then, they would pull out of the parliament.

Now, they have done that. That's 30 members of the parliament, six ministers in the Sadr bloc. They're powerful. In fact, Nuri al- Maliki wouldn't be prime minister today if it wasn't for the support of Muqtada al-Sadr and his politicians.

Muqtada al-Sadr says, also -- or at least his party representatives are saying at this time -- that Nuri al-Maliki has broken a promise not to have the U.N. extend its mandate for U.S. and British and other international troops to remain here in Iraq. The U.N. extended that mandate yesterday.

It gives the U.S. troops the legal standing to be in Iraq for another 12 months. Sadr's position is that the U.S. troops should be pulling out, and they should be setting a date right now to pull out. Sadr's bloc is accusing Nuri al-Maliki of going to Jordan at a time when Iraqis don't want him there; they don't want him there meeting with President Bush.

They say that Maliki should be here, concentrating on fixing the services for people here, fixing security for people, and that, by going to Jordan, he's going against the best interests of the Iraqi people.

This really is a power play by Muqtada al-Sadr, specifically aimed at Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki right now -- Don.

LEMON: Nic, does that meeting with the president play into this? Why is this announcement from the Sadr party coming right now?

ROBERTSON: It really seems that what Sadr is doing is telling Maliki that: I have the power. I have the power to bring down this government. I have the power to stop you in your tracks.

And this is at a time when that leaked memo from the White House indicates that the U.S. assessment of Nuri al-Maliki is that he -- part of his political bloc, if you will, is too associated with radicals. And though it doesn't name Muqtada al-Sadr by name, the implications for Muqtada al-Sadr are probably very clear, that the United States is going to lean on Prime Minister Maliki right now to disassociate with Muqtada al-Sadr.

Muqtada al-Sadr appears, in this instance, right now, to be sending his very clear message to the prime minister: Don't go down that road. I have the power. I have the power to bring you down.

That's what's all this seems to be about right now -- Don.

LEMON: Nic Robertson, reporting from Baghdad, thank you.

PHILLIPS: The Mahdi army and Hezbollah, two Shiite militias with fiery leaders, dangerous on their own, in the eyes of the U.S. and others, potentially disastrous together.

CNN's Brian Todd reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The enemies of U.S. and Iraqi forces may now have another dangerous ally, aside from al Qaeda.

A senior U.S. intelligence official tells CNN, members of the Mahdi army, a lethal Shia militia led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, have been trained by Hezbollah forces in Lebanon -- Hezbollah, deemed a terrorist group by the U.S., with a long history of attacks against Americans and their allies.

U.S. officials say they don't have indications this training involves large numbers of Mahdi fighters. But they say this reinforces their belief that Shia militants, like the Mahdi army, like Hezbollah, have powerful supporters.

MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM CALDWELL, U.S. ARMY SPOKESMAN, COALITION FORCES IN IRAQ: There are extremist elements that we know are being trained by different elements within Iran. And there are reports that they could possibly be being trained also over in the Syria area.

TODD: The U.S. intelligence official says Al-Sadr's militants training with Hezbollah went through Syria to get to Lebanon.

Contacted by CNN, an official with the Syrian Embassy said they have no information on these reports.

Iran denies supporting Shia militias in Iraq. And the head of al-Sadr's faction in the Iraqi parliament says the charge that his followers are training with Hezbollah is -- quote -- "a big lie created by U.S. intelligence."

What would a military alliance between al-Sadr and Hezbollah mean?

JEFFREY BEATTY, FORMER FBI COUNTERTERRORISM OFFICIAL: Both groups have made good use of explosives, improvised explosive devices, vehicle-borne, as well as roadside bombs. There are things that they can learn from each other on what is the most effective way to use those weapons.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And that was CNN's Brian Todd reporting. You can see more of his report in "THE SIT ROOM" the afternoon, 4:00 p.m. Eastern, and, for the prime-time edition, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

LEMON: Now Afghanistan, the other war -- it's dominated Mr. Bush's other stop overseas. Before heading to Jordan, Mr. Bush attended the NATO summit in Latvia, hoping to drum up more support for the fight against the Taliban.

CNN's Robin Oakley is in Riga.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN EUROPEAN POLITICAL EDITOR: The NATO summit in Riga, Latvia, has wrapped up, with at least partial success.

The 26-member alliance has recommitted itself to the struggle in Afghanistan. The secretary-general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said that the struggle could be won, was being won, but hadn't been won yet.

One key question was sorted out in Riga, and that was the question of nations which, under caveats, have been saying that their forces would not participate in the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan, notably, the fight against the Taliban in Helmand Province in the south. Mr. Scheffer says that, following discussions over dinner here in Riga, most nations have agreed that, at least in emergencies, they will help out NATO nations who are struggling with the fight.

Also at the summit, NATO has agreed to set up its rapid response force to do -- deal with conflict situations, with disaster relief, with emergency evacuations. It was touch-and-go whether they had supplies and the troops put together to meet the January the 1st deadline, but, finally, they have got there.

Other key questions, they have announced a potential enlargement of NATO in 2008. That year, Croatia, Macedonia, and Albania are likely to be admitted. More controversial was the decision that Serbia and Bosnia can be admitted to the Partnership For Peace Program, the very first stage towards NATO membership. Previously, that has been denied, because those countries weren't felt to be doing enough to arrest Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, wanted for suspected war crimes by the U.N. tribunal in the Hague.

The NATO summit has ended with more promises of troops for Afghanistan, but, at the same time, there was a warning from the secretary-general that the 26 NATO nations are not spending enough on defense, and they're not going to able to live up to their objectives over the next decade, unless they spend more.

Robin Oakley, CNN, Riga, Latvia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Secret CIA prisons, no secret at all, reportedly, to 11 European governments -- a new report by the European Parliament is warning, those governments may well have violated E.U. law. It also urges them to investigate violations of human rights laws.

President Bush has acknowledged the use of CIA-run prisons overseas for terror suspects, at least some of whom have since been moved to Guantanamo Bay. The E.U. report cites more than 1,200 CIA flights in European airspace. Germany tops the list of stopover sites, followed by the U.K.

LEMON: Three planes, possibly thousands of passengers.

British Airways takes jets out of service to look for traces of radioactivity. Now they want to talk to passengers who may have been exposed. We have got the latest in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: Too frail for his own belated birthday party -- is Cuba about to see a regime change, after 50 years of Fidel?

A live report from Havana -- straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Poison on a plane? The fallout from the death of a Russian ex-spy now extends to British Airways jets and the people who flew on them.

CNN's Matthew Chance has the latest on this developing story from London -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Don, very much.

That's right. The British police and British Airways, as well, say three of their aircraft have now been grounded, after -- as part of the investigation into the poisoning of the former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko. It's been confirmed by the British government and by British Airways, as well, that traces, low-level traces, of radioactivity material have been found on at least two of those three aircraft.

Those two are on the ground, on the tarmac, at London's Heathrow Airport. Another aircraft is on the ground in Moscow, where its -- where tests are yet to be carried out. But there are some quite astonishing figures that have come to us from the CEO of British Airways, Willie Walsh.

Speaking a few moments ago, he said that these three planes undertook 221 flights since they believe they may have been contaminated with that radioactive material. And that means 33,000 passengers that traveled on them will have to be contacted, and may have to undergo radiological tests, to try and establish whether they, too, are contaminated.

At the same time, British Airways is saying that it's been advised that the level of safety risk to the public is very low. But, Don, quite frankly, I think the people who flew on those planes over the past few weeks would have a different opinion.

LEMON: Yes.

CHANCE: Back to you.

LEMON: That's what I was going to say, because they didn't have flight numbers. But you say 220 flights, 33,000 people. And, of course, those people were in contact with other people after they got off this flight, so -- or these flights -- not sure where this will end Matthew.

CHANCE: Absolutely.

It seems to be getting bigger and bigger and bigger as this investigation continues. Now, interestingly, the most frequent destination for these three flights was the Russian capital, Moscow. And that opens new questions, of course, about the origin of this highly toxic radiological -- radioactive material, polonium 210, that the authorities in Britain believe was the cause of the poisoning and the very slow, painful death of that former Russian agent, Alexander Litvinenko.

And, so, this is obviously very much a part of the ongoing British police investigation -- Don.

LEMON: Yes. We know British Airways, obviously , out of Britain, but, also, flights to the U.S. None of those were, apparently, affected. But, again, if someone is watching, British Airways, or BA.com, you can go there to see if you may have been one of those flights, if they haven't contacted you already.

Matthew Chance in London, thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's his party, and he will pass if he just isn't up to it. Cuba is celebrating the 80th birthday of Fidel Castro, minus, so far, Fidel Castro.

CNN's Morgan Neill is in Havana. A lot of people wondering if he will even show up to the main event on Saturday.

MORGAN NEILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kyra.

As you say, there are thousands of people here in Havana this to go through a series, really five days , of celebrations of the president's birthday. But the big question on everybody's mind is, will the president himself show up?

Last night, at the Karl Marx Theatre here in Havana, one of the celebrations going on, an announcer came to the front of the stage and read a message said to be from the president himself.

In that message, the president said he apologized to those present, saying that his doctors have told him he just wasn't ready yet to make a public appearance in a crowd that large.

Now, there has been a great deal of speculation over the president's health, a lot of that stemming from the fact that details of his condition are regarded as a state secret. So, as will happen, in the absence of information, people tend to come up with their own theories.

So, Cubans are as curious about this as anyone. As well, we have seen speculation come from aboard, with some unidentified U.S. officials saying they President Castro may have terminal cancer.

But all eyes here are really on Saturday. And that's the day that President Castro himself set for the celebration of his birthday. That is, he postponed it, his real birthday being on August 13. He postponed it once he had to undergo surgery.

Saturday, we're expecting to see a military parade past Havana's Revolutionary Plaza, thousands of troops, tanks, missile launchers, et cetera. And many eye are there to see. Will he be able to make his first public appearance since late July? Kyra.

PHILLIPS: You know, there's speculation here in the U.S. that he has terminal cancer. Is that the talk in Cuba?

NEILL: Well, this -- that sort of speculation is coming from -- as I say, from the U.S. It's coming from unidentified sources.

And, from what we can tell, what they're doing is looking at publicly available material, such as the same photos that we have seen here. So, I can tell you, because we ourselves have studied, it's very difficult to make a judgment like that. And doctors have told us the same thing.

So, while you will hear various theories, just the lack of real hard information here means that, essentially, we are going to have to wait to get a better look at the president himself -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, Morgan, some predicted that the collapse of the Castro government would happen as soon as he was out of power. But it's been months since his brother has assumed leadership. How strong does the central government appear?

NEILL: Well, yes, a lot of people, as you say, they're going to have to start revising those theories, because, for years, we had heard some people saying just that, that this was a government that was held up by the will of one man alone.

Well, we have only had four months to judge by. But, if those four months tell us anything, it's -- it's that that is simply not the case.

I don't know if you can see behind me here, but this is very much a typical day. And this is the way it's been ever since President Castro first announced he was ceding power, for the first time in decades. It's been a real wait-and-see attitude on the part of Cubans that we have talked to -- no sense of panic, no protests in the street, nothing of the sort -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Our Morgan Neill live from Havana -- thanks, Morgan.

LEMON: Walking on religious eggshells -- the pope calls for more dialogue between Muslims and Christians, and offers a mass to honor the Virgin Mary -- more on his landmark trip to Turkey next in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Well, do you consider wiggle a verb? I did. But bear with me.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: You're preteen kids and grandkids...

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: ... and nieces and nephews know it as a noun, a person, to be exact. And now one of the Wiggles is bowing out. Greg Page, the Wiggle, the guy you see there in yellow, well, he's having some health problems. He's having unexplained fainting spells, in the aftermath of hernia surgery about a year ago.

Well, he had to be replaced by an understudy for the group's American concert tour. That was this past summer. Wiggles are the biggest children's act since Barney's, and Australia's top-earning performer. Last year, they made $39 million. You can catch their TV show on the Disney Channel, and their DVDs most everywhere else.

PHILLIPS: The greenback regularly gets visual makeovers, but, soon, our paper currency may feel a bit different, too.

Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange to explain.

This is pretty interesting, changing the size, so it doesn't discriminate against the blind?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know -- you know, for many of us, you know, we're fortunate enough to have good eyesight. We never really think about how difficult it must be to do everyday purchases. Now a federal judge has ruled that the government discriminates against the blind by printing money of identical size and feel.

That gives them no way to distinguish a one, for example, from a 20. And, so, they have to rely on those around them, who can sometimes cheat them. The judge says, this is a violation of the law. And he's ordering the Treasury Department to start looking for a solution to the problem.

The American Council for the Blind proposes a few options, including printing bills of different sizes, adding embossed dots, or using raised ink. The suit, which is brought by the Council for the Blind, says there are nearly one million people who are legally blind. It says that, of the more than 180 countries that use paper currency, only the U.S. prints bills that are identical in size and color in all their denominations.

And, Kyra, one of the things in the suit it says is that, if you can't rely on people around you, total strangers, and says that, sometimes, they fold different -- different denominations, and put them in different pockets. I mean, it's things, again, that we would never think about, those of us who have good vision.

PHILLIPS: Yes. Sure, they have had to be really creative.

Well, what is stopping the government? And, also, how expensive would it be to do something like that? Do you have to change all the equipment? Do you have -- I mean...

LISOVICZ: Well...

PHILLIPS: ... could it be easy to do?

LISOVICZ: No.

PHILLIPS: OK.

LISOVICZ: And it would be time-consuming.

It -- you know, remember that the government regularly does its makeovers just to prevent counterfeiting, right? So, that's really what's at issue here. It's, changing the face of money would cost a lot of money. Estimates are as high as $178 million for one-time changes, up to $50 million annually.

But, you know, what is interesting, as well, Kyra, U.S. bills have not always been the same size. In 1929, the government standardized the size, and shrank all bills by about 30 percent -- one of the reasons why, to save money.

(MARKET REPORT)

LEMON: All right. Can't wait to see you then. A critical meeting complicated by a critical memo -- a confidential assessment of Iraq's leader leaked at the worst possible time. We have got White House reaction coming up -- straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Difficult war, doubts about their abilities to lead, and now a delay -- President Bush and Iraqi leader Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki were expected to talk today in Jordan, but that has been put off until tomorrow -- the White House citing scheduling issues.

The two are trying to find ways to stabilize Iraq. But the meeting itself is adding to the instability. It's prompted a group of lawmakers and Cabinet members allied with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to quit the Iraqi government, at least temporarily.

LEMON: And what does the White House really think of al-Maliki? Well, officially President Bush has confidence in the beleaguered Iraqi prime minister, but in a classified memo leaked to the "New York Times" national advisor Stephen Hadley raises serious doubts.

Hadley writes that it's still unknown whether al-Maliki, a Shiite, it willing and able to, quote, "rise above the sectarian agendas being promoted by others." The Times says Hadley wrote the memo last month after a meeting with al Maliki in Iraq.

PHILLIPS: Bombings, murders, kidnappings. For all the so-called security forces in and around Baghdad, the Iraqi capital is still a city under siege. So more forces, on the way.

Earlier I poke with CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. military does plan to move additional American troops into Baghdad from other parts of Iraq that are more peaceful. According to this official, at least three battalions of additional U.S. military troops will be moved in or closer to Baghdad in the coming days as part of a plan to beef up security in the capital city.

U.S. commanders have complained for a while that they are about 3,000 troops short and they had been hoping and expecting that Iraq would move more Iraqi battalions into the city. But failing that, now the U.S. military says it's going to move Army troops, again, from other parts of the country.

Just to be clear, this would not involve any movement of U.S. Marines from Al Anbar province, the other big hot spot in Iraq. That insurgent stronghold is the site of quite a bit of fierce fighting. And the U.S. military at this point plans to keep the current troop levels in Al Anbar province, where the Marines are, and move some additional Army units -- U.S. Army units into Baghdad.

Again, this is all to underscore the U.S. strategy of securing Baghdad first as a priority to try to get the violence in Iraq under control -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Now this F-16 pilot that went down in Iraq, I'm understanding that we're getting a name and location of where he was based?

MCINTYRE: That's right. The Pentagon has identified this pilot, who is still officially listed as missing, as Major Troy Gilbert. He was based at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, currently deployed to Iraq, flying out Balad Air Base just north of Baghdad.

Again, U.S. officials fear that this pilot perished in the crash of his plane. But because insurgents got to the crash site and removed the body before U.S. troops got there, they are not giving up hope about his fate this until they can say for certain what happened to Major Gilbert.

LEMON: And you can add Colin Powell to the growing list of interested parties who think Iraq has collapsed into civil war. The former secretary of state says he'd recommend the Bush administration use that term if he were still running State Department. Speaking in Dubai, Powell also said he regrets making the case for war at the United Nations in 2003. His outlook for the conflict now: Powell says a political solution cannot be imposed. Iraqis have to forge one on their own.

PHILLIPS: Don't rush out to your mailbox, but the hard line president of Iran has written a letter to the American people. It's lengthy, five pages, but here's the gist: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants the U.S. to pull out of Iraq and he accuses the Bush administration of coercion, force and injustice. This isn't the first time Ahmadinejad has engaged in postal diplomacy. In last May, he wrote President Bush an 18 page epistle to which Mr. Bush never responded.

LEMON: Three planes. Possibly thousands of passengers.

PHILLIPS: British Airways takes jets out of service to look for traces of radioactivity. Now they want to talk to passengers who may have been exposed. We've got the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Well, let's talk about the fallout from the death of a Russian ex-spy. It now extends to British Airways jets and the people who flew on them. Low traces of radioactivity have been found aboard two British Airways planes. A third has also been grounded for tests. Investigators checked because former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko is believed to have been poisoned by polonium 210, a rare and unbelievably deadly radioactive element.

Joining us now on the phone, John Emsley, a British science writer and chemist who's written a book called "The Elements of Murder: A History of Poison". He knows a lot about polonium and how dangerous it can be.

How much of a concern should this -- should people who flew on British Airways, how concerned should they be? JOHN EMSLEY, CHEMIST: I think the risk to people actually on the aircraft is very slight, indeed. What is worrying is the fact that it has been found in an aircraft. I believe the flights were to and from Moscow.

Now, the point about polonium is of course that we need, as you just said, very tiny amounts, a microgram, which is a millionth of gram, of polonium will do terrible damage to you once inside your body. And it's believed Litvinenko was poisoned with something like a milligram, which is far in excess of that.

But again, it's a tiny amount. It looks as though the person who was poisoning him actually in somehow contaminated themselves with it. It's a bit unusual because, you know, once it's in a sealed container, it may be that he was rather clumsy or she was rather clumsy when they met Litvinenko and put it -- added to his food or his drink. It's been suspected that it was put in a cup of tea, by one of the newspapers over here.

LEMON: Let me jump in for just for a second. Why -- you didn't really elaborate on why you're concerned -- so concerned about -- or surprised that it was found on a flight to Moscow.

EMSLEY: Well, the thing is, you can defect polonium 210 in tiny amounts. And the fact that a little bit's trace was found on an aircraft only means that perhaps someone on that aircraft inadvertently contaminated themselves with a tiny amount of it, but not the sort of amount that would do the damage that poor Litvinenko suffered.

LEMON: Yes, so only if -- so if someone -- let's just think about this for a minute -- if someone came and sat in the same seat or sat in the same area, not long after this had been dropped, no risk?

EMSLEY: The risk is minimal. I mean, it's now been found in a hotel in London and two or three private houses that he had been, a sushi bar where for a time it was thought he was poisoned.

But it's been said there's no real risk. And I don't think there is any real risk to people using those houses or that hotel or that sushi bar.

LEMON: I think -- here's a question. When people -- when they're going after this one particular person -- and you mentioned, of course, it's been found on the airplanes you mentioned also a sushi bar, there are some, also, government agencies that it's been found -- why so many different places, if you're trying to go after one person?

EMSLEY: Well, I think it's a very difficult material to control, this polonium. I mean, it is slightly volatile so it does get into the atmosphere. And, of course, it will then tend to perhaps deposit on things around. And it is easy to detect, but only in -- there in incredibly tiny amounts.

LEMON: Well, here's something that's probably just as concerning to people as being found on an airline. It was also -- hospital staffers --4,000 staff people at hospitals, 160 of them are be tested for polonium as well. What is the concern there?

EMSLEY: The concern there is they will be exposed to more of it because when he was admitted to hospital, it's thought he had been poisoned with thallium. Now that is a poison that secret agents -- especially Saddam Hussein's secret agents -- have used in the past.

It's a particularly insidious poison. You have to give quite a bit of it. We're talking now perhaps a half a gram or something like that. But it doesn't begin to work for about three days and then after about 10 days your hair begins to fall out.

That's what was happening to Litvinenko, so they assumed he had been poisoned with thallium. But when, of course, they tested his blood, the thallium levels were sort of background levels, but they did detect radiation and then, of course -- it was pointed out, of course, he has been excreting thallium.

It has a quite a long residence time in the body, perhaps something like a 100 days. But all the time, of course, it's there, the body's trying to get rid of it so it's giving it off in your urine, your face, your sweat, and things like this.

And of course, the nurses and staff dealing with him were not aware that, in fact, he was poisoned with a radioactive material. So, of course, they will be contaminated slightly. I don't think they'll put themselves at risk, but there would have been radioactivity in the intensive care ward where he was being looked after.

LEMON: Mr. Emsley...

EMSLEY: People would be exposed to it.

LEMON: ...we're running the of time, but I just want to ask you again, so much more of a risk in the hospital, just quickly?

EMSLEY: Yes, I think the risk of people in the hospital is higher than the people, say, on an aircraft or in a sushi bar. But even so, I think the risk for people in the hospital is still very low.

LEMON: All right, thank you very much, John Emsley, a British science writer and chemist. Thank you, sir.

PHILLIPS: As papal masses go, especially on overseas trips, the one in Turkey today was tiny. Barely 250 invited guests took part in Pope Benedict's service at a Turkish chapel built on what many believe was the final home of Mary, mother of Jesus.

From there, the pope traveled to Istanbul and a meeting with Bartholomew I, patriarch of Orthodox Christians. Benedict has vowed a fundamental commitment to healing a 1,000 year split between their churches.

Congress kicked him off the bench. Now it's passed him over for a high-profile congressional chairmanship. The hubbub over Alcee Hastings ahead in the NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Frist in '08? Guess not. Bill Frist, the soon-to-be retired majority leader, has decided not run for president next time around. The Tennessee Republican didn't run for reelection to the Senate, leading most friends and foes to assume he had higher ambitions.

Instead, he says he'll return to medicine, not that that's not a higher ambition, believe me. A senior advisor says that Frist, who is also a heart/lung transplant surgeon, simply needs a sabbatical from public service.

LEMON: A cloak and dagger mystery on Capitol Hill. Who is going to get the top spot on the House Intelligence Committee? All sort of names are floating around now that the soon-to-be Speaker Nancy Pelosi has ruled out a former judge with heavy baggage.

CNN congressional correspondent Andrea Koppel has the latest intelligence on the Intel Committee.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even as he left the Capitol moments after learning he would not be the next chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Alcee Hastings was still making his case, highlighting his seniority on this powerful and prestigious committee as proof he was the most qualified candidate.

REP. ALCEE HASTINGS (D), FLORIDA: Try seven years.

KOPPEL: But despite his seven-year service, Speaker-Elect Nancy Pelosi told Hastings during their hour-long meet he would not get the job. Hasting's supporters accuse critics of undermining his candidacy by highlighting a decades-old allegation that he tried to extort a $150,000 bribe when he was a federal judge, even though a jury acquitted him.

Still, despite that acquittal, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Hastings in 1988, and the Senate removed him from the bench.

Hastings and his friends lobbied hard for him to win the post. On Tuesday, his former lawyer made another pitch in an opinion column in the "Washington Post." Not one to mince words, Hastings said he was "obviously disappointed" by Pelosi's decision, but that "our nation's national security is far more important than my professional security."

And in a parting shot at his critics, Hastings ended his statement with a defiant zinger. "Sorry, haters," he wrote, "God is not finished with me yet."

(on camera): Perhaps surprisingly, the Congressional Black Caucus, of which Hastings is a member and which has been among his biggest supporters even writing a letter to Pelosi on his behalf, did not criticize Pelosi's decision. Instead its chairman said that Hastings would have made an outstanding Intelligence chairman and that they hope that he will, at some point in our nation's history.

As to who will be the next chairman, Pelosi isn't saying but a Democratic aide says she hasn't made a decision yet but will do so in the very near future.

Andrea Koppel, CNN, Capitol Hill.

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PHILLIPS: Home for the holidays, killed by a drunken driver. U.S. Marine corporal and Iraq war veteran Brian Mathews was killed Thanksgiving night in Columbia, Maryland along with his new girlfriend Jennifer Bower. Police say the man who hit their car had a blood alcohol level four times the legal limit.

That driver is charged with two counts of manslaughter while intoxicated and two counts of homicide by motor vehicle. He was stopped for alleged drunk driving months earlier, but was allowed to keep his license. Just why? Well, that's being reviewed.

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LEMON: Time to check in with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

PHILLIPS: He's standing by -- did we catch you off guard there Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm right here in THE SITUATION ROOM for you.

PHILLIPS: Were you thinking about me?

BLITZER: And for all of our viewers out there, not just you, Kyra, all of our viewers -- coming up at the top of the hour the war in Iraq reaching a new level of crisis. We're going to have details of that leaked memo showing growing doubts inside the Bush Administration about the country's prime minister.

Also, we'll get the latest from the Pentagon -- plans to move thousands of U.S. troops already in Iraq from relatively safe areas to the capital.

Plus, is the Iraqi government right now on the verge of collapse? The rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is stopping his political bloc from working in parliament with the government in protest of the prime minister's meeting with President Bush. That meeting was supposed to happen tonight. Guess what? It's not happening. And what will the impact be? We're going to go live to Amman, Jordan where the future of the war in Iraq and a lot more could be hanging in the balance. That's coming up in a few minutes.

Guys, back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll be watching. Thanks, Wolf.

Well, out west, more wicked weather and needless deaths. Two teens in Washington State died of carbon monoxide poisoning as they tried to refuel a portable generator. In Colorado they are digging out as much as two feet of snow in the high country. Temperatures were so low, the stuff they used to melt ice off the roads didn't even work.

Rob Marciano tracking the storm in Breckenridge, Colorado.

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ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): Falling snow and icy roads made for a deadly combination across Colorado. At least four people died on Interstate 70 when their van ran off the road. The storm brought a burst of cold Canadian air. Cold even for this time of year. The National Weather Service issued snow advisories and winter storm warnings out for the Northwest and the Rocky Mountain states.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the most we've had in a couple of years. The last couple of winters haven't really been that harsh.

MARCIANO: That harshness can also be felt in Salt Lake City, where snow reached the valley floor and piled up high in the mountains. In Seattle, the snowfall follows a month of heavy rain that drenched the city -- edging it closer to its all-time monthly record of 15 and a third inches set back in 1933.

While in the Colorado Rockies, the same storm brought up two feet of snow and more is expected today.

(on camera): Certainly too much of a good thing in spots here in Colorado. Just down the road in Beaver Creek where they are trying to hold a men's alpine world cup event, they tried to hold a practice session in the downhill yesterday -- couldn't do it. Too much snow, low visibility. Might have trouble again today. If you're trying to drive up and over the mountain passes, chains and/or four wheel drive required.

I'm Rob Marciano in Breckenridge, Colorado for CNN.

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LEMON: Show the world your blues ain't like mine. And her blues and views, her insight and understanding, captivated millions of readers. Novelist and journalist Bebe Moore Campbell died this week in Los Angeles of complications from brain cancer.

Her writings, both fiction and fact, well, they tried to shatter the stereotypical ways African-Americans are often portrayed. Her works include "Brothers and Sisters" and many articles for the "New York Times" and the "Washington Post." She also contributed essays to NPR. Bebe Moore Campbell was 56 years old. (MARKET REPORT)

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