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Israeli President Moshe Katsav Asks Parliament to Suspend Him; President Bush Takes Message on the Road; War in Iraq

Aired January 24, 2007 - 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: Stepping aside, but not stepping down. Israel's president plans his next move ahead of an almost certain indictment on sex crimes charges.
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Asking for another chance. U.S. President George Bush urges Congress to back his new Iraq strategy, saying it's not too late to win the war.

CLANCY: Panic underground. Prosecutors release video from the day of the failed London transit attacks as six men stand trial.

GORANI: And dangerous roads. Why you could be taking your life into your own hands when you get behind the wheel in China.

It is 1:00 a.m. in Beijing, 7:00 p.m. in Jerusalem. Welcome to our report broadcast around the globe.

I'm Hala Gorani.

I'm Jim Clancy, and this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

GORANI: Well, under growing pressure to immediately resign, he says he wants a leave of absence instead. The Israeli president, Moshe Katsav, is asking parliament to temporarily suspend him ahead of what could be an unprecedented criminal indictment.

The president faces numerous sex crime charges, including rape. He's expected to address the Israeli public this hour.

Let's bring in Atika Shubert in Jerusalem for more on this story -- Atika.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it seems that the president is digging in his heels and trying to bide for time. With a temporary leave of absence he will still remain as president, and that remains he will remain immune to prosecution. He will be facing, however, a long list of charges eventually.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHUBERT (voice over): The list of charges Israel's president, Moshe Katsav, faces is long and embarrassing. One charge of rape, one charge of unlawful sexual relations involving the abuse of power, and several charges of indecent behavior, including one involving use of force. Also, harassing a witness and obstruction of justice.

The president's role is largely ceremonial, but it's serious stuff for the man who represents his country as chief of state.

President Katsav will have an opportunity to present his case before a final indictment. No word yet on whether he will resign. If he doesn't, he risks being voted out by members of parliament.

MOSHE NEGBI, LEGAL ANALYST: These are very grave charges, offenses under Israeli law. So it looks to me extremely unreasonable that the president would carry on. But if he decides to try and stick to his position, he is immune from criminal proceedings until his term of office is up.

SHUBERT: It all started with this woman, known only as "A". She worked under the president and last year accused him of rape. That led to a string of other accusations by a number of other women. Her spokesman says she is preparing for a long fight.

ROY PELED, SPOKESMAN FOR PLAINTIFF: You have 10 different women with -- from different periods in the president's career, with very similar claims. And you see a pattern. And although the president's people have been trying to claim that this is -- the whole thing is one big conspiracy against him, it just looks ridiculous, this claim.

SHUBERT: Other top Israeli officials have their own problems. The prime minister, the finance minister, and the head of the tax authority are all embroiled in corruption investigations. The country's justice minister resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SHUBERT: Now, there are growing demands for the president to resign. A number of lawmakers are now trying to spearhead an impeachment process, essentially forcing him to resign. So far they have 30 signatures. They still need more, and a three-fourths majority of parliament to get him impeached -- Hala.

GORANI: All right. Thanks for that report.

Atika Shubert in Jerusalem -- Jim.

CLANCY: The president of the United States asking Congress and the nation to give his Iraq plan a chance to work. George Bush is also touting his energy policy as he extends his State of the Union messages beyond the Congress.

Bob Franken live from Wilmington, Delaware, where the president made his first stop of the day.

What did it sound like there?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: While here he was focusing on energy, of course Iraq would be the most controversial part of the State of the Union message. Less controversial, the energy message.

He comes to Delaware because it's the headquarters of DuPont, that has a longstanding laboratory that is involved in the research of alternative fuels, ethanol and the like. The president saying that finding substitutes for petroleum is a national imperative.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you're dependent on oil overseas, it means that -- and a hostile regime, a regime hostile to the United States produces that oil, you become vulnerable to the activity of a hostile regime. In other words, if somebody doesn't like us, they produce the oil, they decide to do something about it, they can affect us.

That's when I talk about the national security risks, that's what I mean.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: The president has just left Wilmington, Delaware, on his way back to Washington, where he once again faces the intense controversy over his Iraq policy -- Jim.

CLANCY: All right. Bob Franken reporting to us there from Wilmington, Delaware.

I want to thank you for being with us -- Hala.

GORANI: All right. Well, U.S. legislators opposed to President Bush's plan to add troops in Iraq are moving to put their objections on the record.

Congressional Correspondent Andrea Koppel is live with the details on Capitol Hill.

Andrea, how likely is it that Capitol Hill and legislators there will move to really block any kind of substantial troop increase?

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what they're debating right now, Hala, is a mostly symbolic non-binding resolution. And even though there is debate about whether or not they should cut off funds, there really isn't much support.

But just hours after President Bush made an appeal to Congress for more time, you have a heated debate that's been going on this morning. Right there you see it among members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about this non-binding resolution that's been co- sponsored by two leading Democrats, Joe Biden and Carl Levin. And also what makes this resolution different is that it's co-sponsored by two leading Republicans, Chuck Hagel and Olympia Snowe.

Now, what sets this debate apart from others is that for the first time since the war began four years ago, you have a number of leading Republicans, at least eight senators, who are joining in along with Democrats in criticizing the president's Iraq strategy. And in a sign of the growing dissent within the president's own party, you've got even Republicans who are opposed to this particular resolution. Among them, Indiana's Richard Lugar, who said today that he is not confident that the president's plan would work. Just listen to the response that he got from Republican Chuck Hagel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD LUGAR (R), INDIANA: Usually non-binding resolutions are designed to show unity on an issue or to highlight an issue that few members know about. In this case, we are laying (ph) open our disunity without the prospect that the vehicle will achieve meaningful changes in our policy. This vote will force nothing on the president, but it will confirm to our friends and allies that we are divided and in disarray.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), NEBRASKA: This is not a defeatist resolution. This is not a cut-and-run resolution. We are not talking about cutting off funds, not supporting the troops. This is a very real, responsible addressing of the most divisive issue in this country since Vietnam.

Yes, sure, it's tough. Absolutely. And I think all 100 senators ought to be on the line on this.

What do you believe? What are you willing to support? What do you think? Why were you elected? If you want a safe job, go sell shoes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: Now this measure, this resolution, is expected to pass pretty easily out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is going to go to the Senate floor for debate as soon as next week. But Hala, it should also be noted that Democrats are not united on what the exact strategy should be for opposing the president's plan.

You have some, like Russ Feingold from Wisconsin, who believes that they should exercise the power of the purse and cut off all funds to U.S. troops. You have others, three leading candidates for the Democratic nomination, Chris Dodd, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama, all of them saying that you should basically cap the number of troops that are in Iraq right now.

So at this point there is no consensus either among Republicans or Democrats as to what the best next step should be -- Hala.

GORANI: All right. A big debate in the country.

Thank you very much.

Andrea Koppel, our congressional correspondent -- Jim.

CLANCY: Well, Iraqis certainly listening and watching, but they're much less concerned about how President Bush's ideas on their country sound as to how they work.

U.S. and Iraqi troops are already involved in intense battles to control fighters in the Haifa Street section of the city. Some Iraqi politicians say the influx of troops will help, others not so sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNADEM KANA, IRAQI LAWMAKER: The United States military believes that they need more forces, so bringing in forces will help put in the security in a better state which it is now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDULLAH AL-ZEEBARI, IRAQI LAWMAKER: It doesn't help. The new strategy is a speech. It doesn't include any strategy.

There is a lot of -- a lot of reports there. There is no strategy. There is no policy. There is nothing there in his speech.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Well, now from George Bush's most loyal ally internationally. And British lawmakers also discussing troop levels in Iraq at the House of Commons earlier. There are some 7,000 British troops in Iraq, most of them in the southern part of the country.

The prime minister, Tony Blair, said that pulling them out, irrespective of conditions in the country, would send the wrong message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: ... or asked to set an arbitrary timetable -- and that is what it is -- it's arbitrary. It's not attached to the conditions in Iraq. It's simply saying that we will pull British troops out in October, come what may. That would send the most disastrous signal to the people that we are fighting in Iraq. It is a policy that, whatever its superficial attractions may be, it's actually deeply irresponsible, which is probably why it's the liberal democrat policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Well, about 130 British troops have died in Iraq since the war began there.

CLANCY: Well, a tense call and a plea for international assistance.

GORANI: The situation in Lebanon tops our check of other stories we are following for you this hour.

Cleanup is under way in Lebanon following Tuesday's violent protests that left three people dead at least and dozens injured. Hezbollah called off the demonstrations but are warning of more protests if its demand for veto rights within the government are not met.

Meanwhile, Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora is in France today for a donor's conference, where he is seeking billions of dollars in aid. France has already offered a loan of at least $500 million.

CLANCY: Former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega hoping to leave immediately for home once he is released from a U.S. federal prison. That date comes on September the 9th.

Noriega's attorney tells The Associated Press the release date is now firm. Ousted by a U.S. invasion in 1989, Noriega is imprisoned on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.

GORANI: Two men suspected in the killing of a Turkish journalist have appeared in court. Seventeen-year-old Ogun Samast has confessed to killing Hrant Dink, and Yasin Hayal admits he incited Samast. As police brought Hayal into the courtroom, he shouted what sounded like a threat to Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk.

CLANCY: You're watching YOUR WORLD TODAY.

GORANI: Just ahead, a look at the other war facing U.S. forces, and that is, of course, the war in Afghanistan. We'll talk to the former supreme commander of allied forces in Europe for his take on the growing Taliban insurgency.

CLANCY: And in china, get this, millions of brand new cars and millions of brand new cars and millions of brand new drivers merging on to the highways. But that equals dangerous roads.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Welcome back to CNN International and YOUR WORLD TODAY.

CLANCY: That's where we keep CNN's viewers around the world up to speed on some of the most important international stories of the day.

Well, Davos -- the dot-com downturn from early in the decade seems like a distant memory, doesn't it? A bad dream for some of you investors.

Internet mania, though, is back, and it's back big. The buzz at the World Economic Forum is over what's called Web 2.0. It describes a more collaborative Internet, one where you, the user, calls the shots. Think YouTube, MySpace or FaceBook to really understand it.

More now from Kristie Lu Stout.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The first time around wasn't that long ago. It was the great dot-com gold rush of the late 1990s, powered by VC sugar daddies (ph) and excitable Nasdaq hunters. And by the millennium, it all came crashing down.

But today, a second boom is under way. One that's different from the last.

In the (INAUDIBLE) Web 2.0, startups want to be profitable from the get-go, and most are itching for acquisition, not IPO. And there is a common theme that runs throughout: get yourself connected.

TIM O'REILLY, CEO, O'REILLY MEDIA: When we look at Web 2.0, we see in all of these different areas how the network is changing the dynamics of business, and that the companies that are succeeding are the ones that understand those network dynamics more deeply.

STOUT: Just look at stars of Web 2.0 -- MySpace, Flicker and YouTube. They have inspired new ways to connect and new ways to conduct business.

But Google is the Goliath. With its very deep pockets, it has bought its way into the 2.0 club with the $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube. The company has embraced the movement in-house as well.

MARISSA MAYER, VICE PRESIDENT, GOOGLE: I think there is a real business element that can be furthered by Web 2.0, which is the ability to create content, collaborate on content. So can you create a spread sheet? For example, we now have Google Docs & Spreadsheets, where you can create spreadsheets online and other people can -- you can actually share it with your colleagues and have them come in and edit.

STOUT: You heard it from Google, Web 2.0 is not just for play, it's for us worker bees, too.

Take salesforce.com. It mashed up Google Maps and its own sales software to create this -- a mobile tool for sales reps to manage and share their contacts. But for businesses to fully embrace social networking, it's early days yet.

MAYER: I think it's quite possible in the next few years we'll see that most people will have the majority of their word documents, spreadsheets, Web pages, pictures, all shared online, stored in the cloud and accessible from anywhere. And you can decide who you want to share it with and whether or not you want it to be public. So on and so forth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to see the Web 2.0 principles move from the consumer Internet, start to affect potentially, you know, industries like the phone industry, where people start to say, wow, what else can we do that's Web 2.0 to give us competitive advantage against our other phone carriers?

STOUT: A very human desire to connect has brought forth blogs, photo and video sharing, and business models yet to be born. So watch this space. This may be a cyber sequel built to last.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CLANCY: The race to find the next online craze is at the heart of CNN Connects, "Our Networked World." The program is hosted by Becky Anderson, coming to you from Davos, Switzerland. She'll be taking a look at the forces that are transforming the way that we access our information.

That's coming your way at 22:00 hours Greenwich Mean Time on Thursday.

We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

MOSHE KATSAV, ISRAELI PRESIDENT (through translator): I view myself as a symbol of those who do not believe to that elite clique with its overblown ego.

CLANCY: Welcome back to our domestic viewers in the United States. You are watching a very angry and a very emotional Israeli president, Moshe Katsav, saying that the sex charges that are about to be leveled against him by the attorney general are poisonous, horrible lies. He lashed out at the media, really unprecedented, I think, in Israeli politics, telling them to shut up and for once listen to his side of the story.

KATSAV (through translator): In the last decade, the last 15 years, major investigations were carried out by the media. They went digging to look for things that would incriminate me. But fortunately, they came up with nothing.

They failed. But then they carried on digging, particularly in to 2000, when I became president of the state.

And for months they flooded the whole country with rumors and with investigations, even talking about this on the level of second grade. And all of these major investigations came out with absolutely nothing six and a half years ago. Zilch. They came up with nothing because there wasn't anything for them to come up with.

I do not understand. I'm just incapable of understanding where this enmity comes from, where this major hatred on the part of you, the media, comes from.

Why do you try and hunt me down? All of these wishes to hunt me that have so blurred your instincts for integrity, for journalistic ethics, unfortunately.

I have not managed to prevent the drive for revenge and the anger from people who have worked side by side with me for many, many years. And they have had grudges. They've cherished these, nurtured these grudges and kept them alive until the time came to carry out their revenge.

And there has been incitement. I never, ever imagined that the desire for revenge on the part of people whom I dismissed, or those who didn't get from me what they expected from me, would turn into an indictment which focuses on things that have nothing whatsoever to do with me, my -- the way in which I was brought up, my morals, my moral fiber, my whole outlook on life, the way in which I brought up my children.

My fellow citizens, Gila (ph), my children, my grandchildren, everyone who is standing by me during this really difficult time, the most difficult time in our lives. I'm proud of them. But even a president is also..."

GORANI: All right. We're going to break away there from that news conference. The Israeli President Moshe Katsav, angrily sparring verbally with some reporters there at this news conference who've written about allegations that he committed sex crimes a few years ago.

CLANCY: I don't think I've ever seen anything quite as bitter as this from a politician in office. You're standing there and you listen to him. The way that he took on the media, saying for six and a half years they began by saying that it was the end of Zionism because he got elected, and then this outburst between him and a reporter for Israeli Television Channel 2.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATSAV (translated): It is my right to speak! You can get out of here! You can get out. (INAUDIBLE) I didn't say anything! You don't like hearing the truth, you don't like hearing he truth, Channel 2!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Moshe Katsav accusing Channel 2 there as well during that news conference of for the last six months letting his blood, essentially.

CLANCY: Letting his blood. He says they canceled his interview to do a Palestinian, Mohammed Dahlan, the head of Preventive Security. And you saw this outburst, President Moshe Katsav, according to the attorney general, there's enough evidence to charge him with rape in some cases. He had half a dozen former employees, former staff members. He says these staff members have nurtured grudges for years, it's all timed, it's a conspiracy against him. But today he had to take the humbling move of really begging the Knesset, the Israeli lawmakers, to suspend him rather than having him just resign.

GORANI: And he didn't sound humble there. He sounded extremely angry, taking shots at the reporters in the room.

Let's listen to some more of what happened earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATSAV (translated): For six months, for the last six months- plus, my family, myself, my friends in Israel and abroad have been subject to a dreadful, venomous campaign and attack -- unprecedented attack with the most loathsome, mendacious information entering every single home in Israel and turning me, my dignity as a human being, as the president into someone whose rights have been trampled on. Despite of this humiliation in the whole of the last six months, I have complied with the law and have refrained from presenting my version to you, citizens of Israel. I've refrained from reacting in order not to interfere with any investigation. This is a law-abiding country and this is how I am acting, just as I always acted in my good days. I did not get carried away. I did not allow myself to become arrogant, even during these difficult days. I have no intention of bowing my head and giving up on my dignity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: All right. No intention of bowing his head, says Moshe Katsav, the 61 year-old. He's been urged to resign by some. His seven-year term ends this summer. But he's saying that he's going to stay put.

He's symbolic really head of state...

CLANCY: He's symbolic. But remember, he's not the only one in this government that's in serious trouble from the prime minister on down. There is a long list of people that are involved in corruption scandals right now. This government's in serious crisis. This is an embarrassment.

GORANI: Let's bring in Atika Shubert in Jerusalem for more reaction and background. What are Israelis saying about this, Atika?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Israelis are now watching this live on television and I think without a doubt it's safe to say that many people will be amazed at what they're hearing the president say. He has unleashed on the media, on his critics. He got into a verbal shouting match with one of the press people there, saying that he should not be ashamed, that the television and the media should be ashamed. He also urged Israelis not to believe the allegations against him, and it is a long list of allegations, everything from rape to sexual misconduct, as well as abuse of funds and obstruction of justice.

So he clearly is not backing down. He says he will fight to the bitter end. And as part of that, today, as you know, he is asking for a temporary leave of absence. And because it's only temporary, he will remain in Israel as president and that means he is immune to prosecution. This seems to be part of his strategy, to buy time and try and fight these charges that look to be set against him, Hala.

CLANCY: All right. This is Jim.

Atika, tell us, this is all part of a wider scandal, a wider series of scandals that is facing this government. What is the sense? How long is this government going to survive?

SHUBERT: Well, that's a good question. Of course, the president's role is largely ceremonial. So it's not likely to have much impact on the government.

But as you say, it's only the tip of the iceberg. There are a whole series of other scandals. The prime minister is being investigated for corruption. The finance minister and the head of the tax authority, also under corruption investigations. The former justice minister resigned, also because of alleged sexual harassment. So the government is suffering from a series of scandals. The prime minister is suffering from very low approval ratings, one legal analyst telling us it was as low as 14 percent.

Now, so far, the government has been able to struggle on, but it's clear that members of Parliament have become increasingly angry. One lawmakers we spoke to today is spearheading efforts to, at the very least, try and impeach the president, saying that he does not have the moral authority anymore to stay in his role.

CLANCY: All right, Atika Shubert there reporting to us live from Jerusalem.

Atika, we're just getting word that President Katsav of Israel has now announced that if he is formally indicted on these charges, he is going to hand in his resignation. Right now he's only asking to be suspended.

GORANI: All right. So we'll keep following this story, of course, going back to our reporter on the ground, Atika Shubert, and also going back to that news conference if anything of note is said by the president.

CLANCY: He's already said an awful lot.

Let's take a look, though, at some of the other top stories we're following right now.

GORANI: Now, we begin with the situation in Iraq. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is rejecting opposition calls to set a deadline for a British troop withdrawal from the country. He said such a move would be irresponsible and would send a disastrous signal to insurgents. Mr. Blair addressed the issue during question time in the House of Commons, but he did not attend a separate parliamentary debate on the question.

CLANCY: U.S. President George W. Bush out on the road, carrying his State of the Union message to the people. He's calling on domestic issues for heavier use of ethanol as an alternative for gasoline. He was traveling to the DuPont facility in the state of Delaware, known to develop a lot of alternative fuels. Mr. Bush is trying to focus on his domestic agenda while the viability of his new approach in Iraq is getting the attention, all of it, back in Washington.

GORANI: Well, as for reaction to Mr. Bush's State of the Union Address, not a lot of people in Baghdad were able to see the speech first-hand. Electricity is always an issue there. Many people are as tired of political promises as they are, they say, of the war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (translated): We want the coalition troops to get out of Iraq, not to increase them. Iraqi troops are better than U.S. troops.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (translated): As far as I'm concerned, sending additional troops to Iraq is not in favor of Iraqis. The best way is to train the Israeli security troops. The foreign troops won't serve Iraq as the Iraqi forces do. The foreign troops will be a clear-cut target.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Let's take a few minutes now and take a closer look at President Bush's State of the Union Address.

GORANI: Now, especially what the president had to say about the war in Iraq and how Americans are reacting.

Jonathan Mann joins us with a lot more on this -- Jonathan.

JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hala, Jim, President Bush delivered his State of the Union Address at a time when the majority of Americans have turned against him and against the war in Iraq. According to a CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll taken ahead of Tuesday's speech, most Americans are calling the Bush presidency a failure. And 63 percent of those polled said they disapproved of the way the president is handling his job. Those numbers were before the State of the Union. But if history is any guide, the president his speech to help. Not much. In polling over the last half century, presidents have, on average, lost about half a percentage point in their approval ratings after the speech.

Despite those numbers, the president still commands the support and admiration of millions of Americans, and that's not to be understated. I watched Tuesday's speech with some of those people.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MANN (voice-over): The Brooks family home sits in the countryside just south of Atlanta. It's a place where the president can count on solid support.

JOEY BROOKS, REPUBLICAN SUPPORTER: I think he's under tough circumstances. I think he's doing a great job for the circumstances.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president of the United States!

MANN: We joined Joey Brooks and two of his friends for the State of the Union Address. Brooks is 38. He works in real estate and describes himself as a Christian and a conservative. John Sauders, 36, is a sales executive who says he is a Christian voter, too. Erik Manning, 35, a project manager, describes himself as a fiscal conservative. When the president talked about the U.S. economy and plans for a balanced budget, they liked what they heard.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRES. OF THE UNTIED STATES: We can do so without raising taxes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a good point there.

MANN (on camera): You liked that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I did.

BUSH: And so tonight I propose two new initiatives to help more Americans afford their own insurance.

MANN (voice-over): His health insurance plan got only faint praise.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would certainly be better than socialized medicine.

MANN: Sauders spent two years in the Navy, Manning spent six. All three men talked most about the war in Iraq, supporting the president's plans to send more troops and increase the size of the army overall.

JOHN SAUDERS, REPUBLICAN SUPPORTER: Right, wrong or indifferent, we're there. We need to increase their ability to take the war to the enemy on their land, and again cut off the funnel of terrorists that are coming into Iraq.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Winning the hearts and souls of the Iraqi people is just not going to happen in the five-year period.

BROOKS: I don't know that we're ever going to solve the issues in Iraq, but I don't think we can just pull out and leave. It will just -- we've got all those terrorists there fighting right now. Where they going to go? Are they coming over here to get us over here?

MANN: They know that public opinion polls are running against the war and against the president. Manning said the speech alone won't change that.

ERIK MANNING, REPUBLICAN SUPPORTER: I don't think that this speech in particular is going to change the hearts and minds of Americans. It's going to be more of a long process, and I think as we start seeing more progress in Iraq, I think the turnaround in Iraq is what's going to be the focal point in shifting American opinion on the president.

MANN: After the president spoke they listened as Democrat Jim Webb presented his party's response.

BROOKS: What new policy does he have? What new policy does the Democrats have -- do the Democrats have? You know, all they are is critical. You don't hear any policies. Cut and run is not a policy; that's just leave.

MANN (on camera): So you're sticking with the president.

BROOKS: I'm sticking with the president.

MANN (voice-over): Three men who haven't lost their faith in George Bush.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: If you were watching, too, here's some of the math and background. President Bush's speech lasted about 49 minutes, just over 5,000 words. The shortest state of the union speech was delivered by George Washington back in 1790, only about 800 words from him. Harry Truman gave the longest address, back in 1946, over 25,000 words. So the president was moderate, I guess you could say, at least in that respect.

GORANI: In the word count department. Thank you very much, Jonathan Mann.

Now CNN has learned that U.S. forces launched a second air strike in Somalia. The AC-130 gunship attacked troops in southern Somalia, near the border with Kenya. A small special forces team later landed at the target site to assess damage. U.S. officials say the second strike, which took place overnight Monday, was aimed at a mid-level Al Qaeda operative. The suspect was later taken into custody by Ethiopian forces. An estimated half dozen people were killed, we're told, in the attack.

CLANCY: Well, still ahead, right here on your world today, from the depths of the ocean, a strange sea creature appears, and we have video.

GORANI: Right. And it's a blast from the prehistoric past. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: We're going to introduce you now to a fellow who's been described as rare, prehistoric and he only lives in the deepest waters.

GORANI: And after one look, you might have wished it had stayed that way. This creature...

CLANCY: There's a better shot of him.

GORANI: All right, now let's look at ti. This creature combines two of the more formidable sea dwellers alive, the shark and the eel.

CLANCY: I think I can see that. Look at those gills, and then you see how he's shaped like an eel there. He's 1.6 meters long, identified as a deep-sea frill shark, and normally inhabits depths 600 meters, almost 1,000 feet down. Researchers in Japan believe recent upcurrents caused this fellow to surface. I guess he's as surprised as everybody else.

GORANI: Well, it turned out not to be such a good thing. The poor little thing died soon after entering shallow water due to the inhospitable environment.

CLANCY: You can imagine the pressure at 600 meters.

GORANI: I guess it is the kind of thing that would happen. But it looks like a shark from the front, then it looks like an eel from the side. Anyway.

CLANCY: Very interesting. Not the cutest guy that we've ever seen.

GORANI: Not the cutest guy.

All right. Now, there has been more testimony -- returning to some serious news now, in the trial of six men accused of plotting to attack London's transport system in 2005. An expert witness testified that the explosives the men were carrying could have caused fatal injuries, but the detonators were not powerful enough.

Paula Newton has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is more than two minutes of what the prosecution calls critical evidence, silent footage from a security camera inside a London subway car at the exact moment when authorities allege Ramsey Mohammed, wearing a New York shirt and a backpack, turns his back toward a mother and child and detonates a homemade bomb. Witnesses testified they heard a loud bang, smoke started billowing from the suspect's backpack. And then panic and confusion spread through the car. There is a scramble to get to an adjoining car. All the while, the train is still at full speed.

Nadia Baro was desperate to get her baby out of there, testifying, "Because of what happened on July 7th, I was panicking. I thought I was going to die." Her savior was firefighter Angus Campbell. He testified he helped Baro into the next car with her baby, pulled the alarm, and told the driver there's been an explosion, stop the train, but don't open the doors. Alone in the car now with the suspect, Campbell says he started yelling at him, "What have you done?" He says the man answered, "This is wrong. This is wrong." Campbell says he asked about the backpack, and the suspect responded, "It's bread! It's bread!" Campbell says he then told the man to hit the floor, but the train pulled into the station and the doors opened. Prosecutors say security cameras picked up a high-speed chase through the station. Witnesses say a few tried to stop the suspects from escaping, but they failed.

Ramsey Mohammed was arrested days later but denies the conspiracy to murder charges. He is on trial with five others. All deny the charges of conspiracy to murder in what is dubbed 21/7, a follow-up to the terror attack on three London Tube trains and one bus.

No one was hurt in this incident, but a forensic witness testified it could have been much different. The jury was told the home-made cocktail of hydrogen peroxide and flour encased in a plastic jug and laced with bolts and screws would have caused death, serious internal injuries and loss of limbs.

But while the bomb's detonator went off, it failed to set off the explosives. Prosecutors say the would-be suicide bombers got their deadly stovetop recipe wrong. The hydrogen peroxide just wasn't potent enough.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(on camera): But prosecutors here, Hala, continue to underscore as much as they can that they believe that these would-be suicide bombers fully expected to be blown up, that their bombs would work and that certainly dozens of people in that car would have been killed or hurt -- Hala.

GORANI: OK, Paula Newton reporting live there from London.

CLANCY: We're going to take a short break.

Coming up, learning to survive the mean streets of Beijing.

GORANI: Cars, not crime are the biggest danger in a booming Chinese capitol that may have gotten behind the wheel a little too quickly.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: There was a time when the streets of China were filled with bicycles. Now, they're filled with automobiles, cars and trucks.

CLANCY: You know, when I first went to China I expected to see all of those bicycles. Not there, it looked like Manhattan, crosstown traffic. A lot of people finding out, though, they're really ill- equipped to get behind the wheel. And the government's doing anything it can to make the roads a bit safer, with good reason.

John Vause reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): To drive in China is to risk some of the deadliest roads on earth. Each day a staggering 600 people are killed in traffic accidents, according to the World Health Organization, more than 200,000 killed every year. China accounts for two percent of cars worldwide, but -- get this -- 15 percent of all global road fatalities. And the government says most are caused by incompetent drivers.

Little wonder that, for new drivers like 42-year-old Sun Yuxia, heading into the real world is just terrifying.

SUN YUXIA, DRIVING STUDENT: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

VAUSE: "There are accidents all over the road," she says. "But when I get more training, I'm sure I'll be fine."

Across China five million new drivers graduate each year after 58 hours at purpose-built driving schools. Many learners are older, in their 50s and 60s, who have never driven before.

WEN HUIYAN, DRIVING SCHOOL HEADMASTER: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

VAUSE: "The most difficult student is the one over 50," says the school's headmaster. "Their coordination is a little slow and they take much more time."

Here they slowly maneuver around a crowded track, never getting into top gear.

(on camera): And that's part of the problem. Once the student finishes the course, they take a test at a driving school just like this one. And if they pass, they get a license without ever having driven on a highway or a real city street.

(voice-over): Come April, municipal authorities in Beijing will change all that, sending students into this, China's heavily congested capitol where a thousand new cars are registered each and every day, competing with millions of others with mostly new drivers behind the wheel because private car ownership here took off just six years ago when prices began to fall.

So in this bumper to bumper traffic, most have the driving experience of a teenager. And we all know what that means.

John Vause, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: One final news note this hour: John Kerry, who ran for president before, has now said categorically he is not a candidate in the U.S. race this time round.

That's it for this hour.

I'm Jim Clancy.

GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani.

Stay tuned for CNN "NEWSROOM" with more on the John Kerry news. And stay with us on CNN International for more of YOUR WORLD TODAY.

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