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Your World Today

Major Sweep Against Terror Cell Nets Militants, Arms in Saudi Arabia; Japanese Prime Minister's Wife Popular; Concrete Barrier in Baghdad; First Debate of the Campaign Season

Aired April 27, 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: An anti-terror sweep in Saudi Arabia. Police finding caches of firearms, seizing millions of dollars and arresting dozens of militants.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AKIE ABE, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER'S WIFE (through translator): I think I am totally different to Hillary Clinton. I really don't think I deserve to be compared to such a capable person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A charismatic and humble first lady. Japan's prime minister visits the U.S., but his wife may be stealing the spotlight.

CLANCY: And David versus Goliath. A small-town Italian mayor takes on the mighty New York Metropolitan Museum to get back an ancient treasure.

MCEDWARDS: And he fought for artistic freedom during Soviet rule. Russia bids farewell to an extraordinary musician and a staunch human rights crusader.

It is 7:00 p.m. in Riyadh, it is 8:00 p.m. in Moscow.

Hello and welcome to our report broadcast around the globe.

I'm Colleen McEdwards.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy.

And from New York to Rome, wherever you are watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

MCEDWARDS: Saudi authorities say they have thwarted planned attacks on the economic (INAUDIBLE) of a kingdom, as well as other high-profile targets.

CLANCY: We're beginning our report this hour with that major anti-terror sweep that was months in the making.

MCEDWARDS: Saudi officials say 172 militants have been seized, along with a huge array of weapons, millions of dollars in cash, as well. CLANCY: Now, the Saudis are telling us the militants were planning to attack oil facilities, military installations, even some senior government officials.

MCEDWARDS: Now, the Interior Ministry tells us that some suspects had trained abroad to fly aircraft, raising fears that may have been planning a September 11th-style attack.

Now, a Saudi intelligence official telling CNN the militants are part of an al Qaeda linked cell, or cells, plural, that play have been on the government's radar, not just for months, but for years.

Our own Nic Robertson joins us now to fill us in on that and other details of the operation.

What stands out in your mind, Nic, when you look at this one?

ROBERTS: Well, I think -- and this has just been echoed by U.S. intelligence officials who have looked at this, and this says that there is still a serious terror threat, an al Qaeda threat, in Saudi Arabia. That's their view of these arrests.

What it does show is that the -- that they are getting more complex and sophisticated in their attacks. It's taken nine months for the Saudis to track down all these potential attackers.

Not only were they planning to attack inside Saudi Arabia, they were also planning to finance al Qaeda fighters going into Iraq. They were planning to send some of that money, the $5 million-plus that was captured in Saudi Arabia, planning to send some of that with fighters into Iraq.

The big picture is al Qaeda is a threat in Saudi Arabia. They are planning to attack the oil facilities. And that is something that we saw them try to do last year. The Saudis thwarted that attack. Clearly, that is still one of their main agendas, attack the economy of Saudi Arabia to try and bring it down.

CLANCY: Over at the Interior Ministry, the spokesman, General Mansour al-Turki, talked with us last hour. And let's go to that. Let's listen to what he had to say. A little analysis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MANSOUR AL-TURKI, SAUDI INTERIOR MINISTRY SPOKESMAN: And they are trying, actually, to avoid the security forces, and using different means, and trying to actually commit atrocities in different ways.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: All right. It appears that the Saudis recognize that these guys have gotten much more sophisticated, even if their plans haven't really changed all that much.

ROBERTSON: Well, the Saudis have become sophisticated, too. Just a few years ago, if they got wind of an al Qaeda cell, they'd go out there, their guns blazing, and shoot them up. There would be a shootout, and the al Qaeda would be dead or arrested.

What they have done here -- and it's interesting, because Saudi intelligence officials tell us that that attack on an oil facility in February last year, it failed, it was foiled by the Saudi authorities. The government tried to drive into the oil facility to blow it up.

They went and arrested some of the people behind that attack. They then -- they then questioned them, and it's from that questioning they developed the information that led them to this 172.

Nine months it took them to do this, so that they were tracking them, arresting them over that whole period of nine months, watching where they went, what they did, where they buried the military equipment. Some of this equipment had been buried for years in the desert, is what we're being told by intelligence officials there. So, it shows more patience and more nuisance on the part of the Saudis. And the very fact that this threat was extending into supporting fighters in Iraq gives us a real indication that from Saudi Arabia, there is a direct implication that terror in Saudi Arabia would affect U.S. soldiers inside Iraq.

CLANCY: And beyond that, though, you've got al Qaeda. The most spectacular, September 11th, no doubt about it, flying planes into the World Trade Center. They haven't given up on that whole plane -- hijack a plane scenario, fly a plane.

ROBERTSON: Look, they -- the Saudi al Qaeda found it very difficult to get into these oil facilities. They know that this is the key to the economy. They want -- al Qaeda's aim is to bring down the Saudi royal family. One way, undermine the economy.

The borders and perimeters of these oil facilities, lots of razor wire, lots of fences, multiple checkpoints, machine guns on vehicles at the checkpoints. It's very difficult to drive in. They found that last year.

How are they doing it? They're going to try and fly in.

The Saudis say, we know that's a tactic. They have got anti- aircraft gun facilities there. They have other facilities they won't discuss with us to protect these oil -- huge sprawling facilities. Attack by air or by sea is where these facilities are at the most vulnerable, and al Qaeda knows that.

Now, the intelligence officials we're talking to say playing down the capabilities of these people who have been arrested, saying many of them are young, many of them are not well trained, but also saying they had the flight manuals, they read the flight manuals, but they weren't actually really capable of flying the aircraft.

CLANCY: They were thinking about it.

ROBERTSON: And that's -- and the Saudis know this. It's a very big worry. And I think we can expect to see them beef up security around these facilities. And they've probably been doing it very quietly. They know what the plots are.

CLANCY: All right.

Nic Robertson, it's always great to have you here.

Thank you very much.

MCEDWARDS: Well, the U.S. military says it has taken custody of a high profile al Qaeda operative and transferred him to the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Pentagon says Abd al- Hadi al-Iraqi was being held by the CIA, but did not disclose or how long or where exactly he was being detained. They did say al-Hadi was in close contact with top al Qaeda operatives, including Osama bin Laden.

CLANCY: All right. Well, let's go to Iraq now, and the man who memorably called the case for Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction a slam-dunk. Well, now he has come back, publishing a stunning indictment of the Bush administration's plans for that war.

According to "The New York Times," George Tenet, head of the CIA before the Iraq invasion, said in a new book that, to his knowledge, there -- and we're quoting here -- "There was never a serious debate..." within the Bush administration about the imminence of any threat from Iraq. He also said the administration repeatedly "... exaggerated his use of that now infamous 'slam-dunk' phrase."

That's American slang, of course, for a foregone conclusion. Tenet said he used the phrase only in a general sense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE TENET, FMR. CIA DIRECTOR: I remember picking up the phone and calling Andy Card, who is a terrific human being, and somebody I have also trusted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president's chief of staff at the time.

TENET: The president's chief of staff. I called Andy. I said, "You know" -- "you know, we -- I believed that he had weapons of mass destruction, and now what's happened here is, you've gone out and made me look stupid. It's the most despicable thing I've heard in my life. Men of honor don't do this."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Men of honor don't do this?

TENET: You don't do this. You don't throw people overboard. You don't -- you don't do this -- give them -- you don't call somebody in.

You work your heart out, you show up every day. You are going to throw somebody overboard just because it's a deflection? Is that honorable?

It's not honorable to me. OK? And that's how I feel. Now, how it happened and who orchestrated it and what happened, you know, at the end of the day, the only thing you have is trust and honor in this world. That's all you have. All you have is your reputation, built on trust and your personal honor. And when you don't have that anymore, well, you know, there you go. Trust was broken.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Between you and the White House?

TENET: You bet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: You bet. And you can hear a lot more from George Tenet. He's going to be on "LARRY KING LIVE" next week. He'll be talking much more about his book, the White House, and the war in Iraq.

MCEDWARDS: Well, the U.S. president, George W. Bush, says he and the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, have had a warm and strong dialogue in their first meetings. They will continue their discussions at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, right through the weekend, actually.

The two say they spent most of their time talking about North Korea. But they also talked about Iran, and trade issues, as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHINZO ABE, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We agreed to work together, and to realize a more peaceful and stable Korean peninsula by making North Korea completely give up its nuclear weapons and programs through the six-party talks.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We spent a lot of time talking about North Korea and our mutual desire for North Korea to meet its obligations. Our partners in the six-party talks are patient, but our patience is not unlimited.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Now, while the leaders meet, the spotlight also shining, and shining brightly, on the wife of Japan's prime minister.

You know that?

MCEDWARDS: Yes, that's right. As Anjali Rao reports, she's quite popular, and some of that may actually be rubbing off on her husband.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANJALI RAO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Akie Abe hardly comes across as a rock star, but the reception she gets from the Japanese public tends to be reserved only for the biggest celebrities. As the wife of a career politician, she's used to the fluctuations of her husband's popularity ratings. But the one-time radio DJ probably couldn't have predicted the rise of her own star.

Commentators say Shinzo Abe has his wife to thank for some 20 percent of his ratings.

ABE (through translator): I myself do not feel I am that popular, but I suppose that until recently, we had Prime Minister Koizumi, who was not married, so, I am the first prime minister's wife in a long time. Perhaps people are happy because of that, and because I am relatively young.

RAO: Add to that Mrs. Abe's openness on personal issues, such as the couple's struggle to bear children; her image as a style-savvy modernist, opposite her conservative husband; and her confession that she loves "The Odd Tipple". The prime minister's constant companion, she's been called Japan's Hillary Clinton. A comparison which seems to awe Akie Abe.

ABE (through translator): I think I am totally different to Hillary Clinton. I really don't think I deserve to be compared to such a capable person.

RAO: Yet, she does admit to the tiniest bit of style stealing concerning a particular public display of affection on Shinzo Abe's first prime ministerial trip that's still being talked about months after it happened.

ABE (through translator): At the inauguration of President Clinton, I saw hmm holding hands with Mrs. Clinton. I thought that was pretty call. So, I walked hand and hand off the aircraft with my husband.

RAO: While Mrs. Abe is happy to leave the task of running the country to her husband, she does weigh in on certain issues affecting the Japanese people, like extremely low birthrates, and the always testy topic of wartime sexual slavery. But as far as the next couple of days go, her social issues will center on building the Abe-Bush alliance, something that's already coming along nicely.

Anjali Rao, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCEDWARDS: And if you would like to hear more about Mrs. Abe and the prime minister of Japan, be sure to tune in to "TALK ASIA". That airs on CNN International on Saturday, at 23:30 GMT.

CLANCY: I like how you put her first.

(LAUGHTER)

CLANCY: OK. There's lots more ahead right here on YOUR WORLD TODAY.

MCEDWARDS: We're going to revisit the revelations of the former CIA chief -- you got a taste of them there -- and why he says his slam-dunk case for war comment was taken out of context. Also...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Return to us what we belongs here, because this is a part of our history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Ethics and economics colliding in the battle over an ancient Italian -- well, a trusted chariot.

MCEDWARDS: And the world is made poorer with the death of Russian cellist and champion of the arts Mstislav Rostropovich.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: There is the man and his music. And the man is no longer with us. The great Rostropovich has passed on.

Mstislav Rostropovich was more than just one of the world's greatest cellists. And he was that. The Russian musician also was a fighter for artistic freedom under Soviet rule, living to play soaring Bach cello suites right there at the foot of the fallen Berlin Wall.

He lived much of his life in self-exile in Paris, but as he became sicker, his family flew him home. And home, of course, was Russia. The Itar-Tass news agency says he passed away Friday at a cancer center.

Mstislav Rostropovich, 80 years of age.

MCEDWARDS: He was also, you know, a passionate defender of some of the Soviet authors who were imprisoned. He had a lot of stature in -- among Russians, among Soviets.

CLANCY: And he just brought it all out of his soul. He played it on his cello. And he lived it with his life.

MCEDWARDS: You like his music.

CLANCY: He shared it -- love it.

MCEDWARDS: Yes. That's great.

CLANCY: Yes.

MCEDWARDS: OK. We think of him and his family -- his family, actually at a time like this, of course.

We are going to change gears a little bit here. A 2,600-year-old war machine has now become the prize in a legal battle that's going on between's New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and a humble Umbrian farmer.

CLANCY: That's right. It looks like a very lopsided contest, but as Jennifer Eccleston explains, Italians can be formidable opponents when it comes to the art of war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Monteleone di Spoleto, a hilltop village in a picture-perfect corner of Italy's Umbrian heartland.

This is mayor Nando Durastanti. Many here consider him a modern- day David, as in the biblical David.

His modern-day Goliath? Thousands of miles away from this quiet Hamlet, the formidable Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Met in New York City.

NANDO DURASTANTI, MAYOR, MONTELEONE DI SPOLETO (through translator): Return to us what belongs here, because this is a part of our history, our roots. It's just ours.

ECCLESTON: What belongs to them, according to the mayor, is this ancient bronze Etruscan chariot, 2,600 years old, fully intact. A priceless relic taken from Monteleone in the early 20th century. Popped up at the Met a year later, and revealed just days ago in its full splendor.

(on camera): It is here, where Isadoro Vannozzi (ph) literally unearthed the ancient chariot. So, what does a poor farmer in 1902 do with such an unimaginable discovery? Well, he sold it, of course.

(voice over): For how much? Isadoro's (ph) great-grandson Antonio shows me. Just 30 terra cotta roof tiles. All of them still on this farmhouse.

Times were tough. Tiles were valuable. Still, he says, the local merchant took advantage. Now, he says, the Met is, too.

ANTONIO CARMIGNIANI (through translator): The fact is, they don't want to give it back to us. But the battle has now begun.

ECCLESTON: A battle prompted by the mayor and executed by this man, Tito Mazzetta, an American lawyer whose family hail from Monteleone and who has taken on the case of the chariot called vigo (ph) in Italian, pro bono.

TITO MAZZETTA, LAWYER: The chariot of Monteleone had been illegally exported to the United States. In 1902, when the vigo (ph) was found, it was -- belonged to the Italian state, and only the Italian state had the authorization to sell it.

ECCLESTON: According to town records and journalist accounts, the local merchant sold the chariot to a dealer in Rome, where it was hidden in a pharmacy. It was then smuggled to Paris, concealed in containers filled with grain, and finally shipped to New York. It was, according to the lawyer, archeological skullduggery.

Phillippe de Montebello is the Met's director. PHILLIPPE DE MONTEBELLO, DIRECTOR OF METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: We've had it over 100 years. We've restored it. We've published it a great many times. We've made it famous. And it's been seen by literally tens of millions of people.

From a legal point of view, there is no basis whatsoever for the claim.

ECCLESTON: And, he says, no moral impediment to the Met's continued ownership.

Italy's Ministry of Culture would have to agree, in part. The repatriation of the chariot, a ministry lawyer tells CNN, is not a legal matter, because its transfer predates an Italian heritage preservation law and a U.N. convention on looting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They know that it is the moral and just thing to do.

ECCLESTON: Ironically, it's a sentiment not shared by the descendants of Isadoro Vannozzi (ph), who emigrated to the United States only years before the chariot's discovery.

Tom Vannozzi is a great, great grandson.

TOM VANNOZZI, AMERICAN DESCENDANT: I don't believe that anybody has taken care of the chariot any better than the Metropolitan Museum has, and I do believe that it should stay here.

DURASTANTI (through translator): In New York, it's just a part of a knickknack of objects. Here, it is an object of our culture. A presence of those who rode it, who brought it.

ECCLESTON: It's that visceral connection which fuels their passion and sometimes muddies a reality that their vigo (ph) may never come home. But will the Monteleone mayor ever give up?

DURASTANTI (through translator): Never. Not me, nor the Italians, nor the people of Monteleone.

ECCLESTON: And like David, his biblical paragon, if you don't battle, says the gutsy mayor, you don't win anything.

Jennifer Eccleston, CNN, Monteleone di Spoleto, Italy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: What a beautiful neighborhood.

MCEDWARDS: It's gorgeous. And what a battle.

CLANCY: What a battle that's brewing there.

Well, we've got to take a break. But just ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY, we'll have the latest business news.

MCEDWARDS: Yes. We have that coming up.

And then, Israelis call it a security measure. Palestinians, though, call it apartheid. And as Baghdad gets its own version, we find the wall is dividing opinions as well as neighborhoods.

CLANCY: And later, he is one of the world's foremost scientists, and he's on the ride of his lifetime. We've got a report on Stephen Hawking's trip to zero gravity.

Stay with us.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Hello and welcome back to you, our viewers, joining us from some 200 countries and territories around the globe including right here in the U.S..

MCEDWARDS: This is YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Colleen McEdwards.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy, and these are the stories in the headlines.

Saudi officials they have seized 172 militants along with weapons and cash in a months-long anti-terror operation. That say the militants were planning attacks on oil refineries, military installations, even senior government officials. Now, the government says some of the suspects had trained abroad to fly aircraft, raising fears that may have been planning September 11th style attacks.

MCEDWARDS: The former CIA director George Tenet is hopping mad at the White House. He's offering up specifics, in a television interview that airs on Sunday Tenet says he was made the scapegoat for the Iraq War which in turn ruined his career. He says the way he was treated was despicable and dishonorable. Those are his words. He resigned in 2004.

CLANCY: It has been called, of course the wall, or the security fence or the barrier in the West Bank, it been a focal point of resistance. It's been expressed largely through graffiti and stone- throwing.

MCEDWARDS: Now Iraq is getting its own version. And our Ben Wedeman finds the disapproval stretches from Bethlehem to Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's not exactly a labor of love. More like an act of frustration. These Palestinian children in Bethlehem, the latest to spray graffiti, daub and decorate with derision and defiance, a wall that cuts through their town.

Israel began building it four years ago. The Palestinians call this the Apartheid Wall. To the Israelis, it's the Security Fence. Eventually the barrier will be more than 400 miles long. In some places, concrete, in others, steel fence. Israel says it has presented Palestinian suicide bombers from reaching Israeli towns and cities.

(on camera): But Palestinians say the wall does not solve any of their problems. It does, however, provide the world's biggest concrete canvas, a place where people can write and spray paint their frustration, their anger, they resentment. And now, of course, Baghdad is going to have the same thing.

(voice-over): As part of its latest security plan for Baghdad, the United States is building what it calls a temporary concrete barrier around the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Asamiyah. Not surprisingly the move has been blasted by many Baghdadis. In Bethlehem, they agree. It's a bad idea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Bush, he is thinking that these -- and he should give all solutions to people, and he's separating people.

WEDEMAN: Gabriela Bagdour (ph) organizes the graffiti group.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's killing the soul of the city.

WEDEMAN: The barrier cut off Hussein Wahesh (ph) from dozens of his olive trees in the Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis. "A wall doesn't solve anything, Hussein tells me. It won't solve problems between Shia and Sunni. It will just make people's lives more difficult."

Whether in Baghdad or Bethlehem, a big barrier doesn't seem likely to make good neighbors. Ben Wedeman, CNN, Bethlehem, on the West Bank.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Well, opposition to the war in Iraq united the eight Democratic presidential candidates during their first debate of the campaign season on television.

MCEDWARDS: It was. The goal for each candidate was to make themselves stand out from a crowded field. Senior political correspondent Candy Crowley reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No blood spilled in this first of umpteen presidential debates. You had to listen hard for the low impact jabs.

JOHN EDWARDS, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Senator Clinton and anyone else what voted for this war has to search themselves and decide if they believe they voted the right way.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) NY: And I've said many times that if I knew then what I now know, I would not have voted that way.

CROWLEY: Fresh off a vote to authorize more spending in Iraq with a deadline to bring troops home, nearly all agreed the president should sign the bill, except for the most anti-war lawmaker in the group.

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH, (D) OH: Every time you vote to fund the war, you are reauthorizing the war all over again.

CROWLEY: Questions ran the gamut from Iraq to abortion, from health care to what they would do if two cities were attacked by al Qaeda.

CLINTON: I think a president must move as swiftly as is prudent to retaliate.

CROWLEY: Answers differed on the details but not the broad strokes so it was a largely cordial gathering. Muff of the heat came from the second tier, trying to puncture the rarefied atmosphere around the front runners.

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON, (D) NM: I think the American people want candor. They don't want blow dried candidates with perfection.

CROWLEY: As interesting moments go, the hands down winner was the little known former senator from Alaska, who more than once shook up the stage.

MIKE GRAVEL, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Who are you ...

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) IL: I'm not planning to nuke anybody right now, Mike.

GRAVEL: Good, we're safe.

CROWLEY: In the end, no faux pas, no un-retrievable errors. The eight Democrats running for president cleared their first debate pretty much unscathed. Candy Crowley, CNN, Orangeburg, South Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Are the voters ready? Well, take a look at a new poll and you'll have to decide for yourself. It may just be a popularity contest right now. Hillary Clinton leads the Democrats. The survey by CNN and Opinion Research Corporation showing Clinton the choice of 30 percent of Democrats likely to vote.

All right. And it shows that 26 percent of those Democrats support Barack Obama. Very well known. Both of them. With Clinton and Obama as the apparent front runners among the Democrats, the new poll shows, and get this, 15 percent of the party's likely voters favor former Vice President Al Gore. But of course, he's not even in the running, says he's not going to be in the running. John Edwards, who is, the holding a 12 percent support. The only other Democrat with double digit numbers.

MCEDWARDS: All right, well, we are going to turn now to the story of the former CIA director George Tenet. Hopping mad at the White House. And making some pretty loud allegations in an interview that's going to air on Sunday, and also in a book that is coming out next week. We're going to take a closer look at that now, and whether George Tenet has a legitimate complaint regarding the war in Iraq and how the White House managed its prewar intelligence.

Joining us now to talk about Tenet's claims is former acting CIA director and CNN security advisor now, John McLaughlin. John, thanks a lot for being here.

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR OF THE CIA: Hi, Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: It's been a little while in this program since we heard the comments made in this interview by George Tenet. Let's just listen again to them now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE TENET, FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE CIA: I believed that he had weapons of mass destruction. And now it's happened here is you -- you've gone out and made me look stupid. It's the most despicable thing I've heard in my life. And men of honor don't do this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And men of honor don't do this?

TENET: You don't throw people overboard. You don't call somebody in. You work your heart out, you show up every day. You are going to throw somebody overboard just because it's a deflection.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCEDWARDS: All right, John, you worked with him. You were acting director after he left. Does he have a case to make here?

MCLAUGHLIN: Well, I think George does. What he's trying to say in that sound bite is that this phrase he used, slam dunk, was not intended to be a phrase used in a meeting that was scheduled to decide whether we were going to war on nor. That's how it's been portrayed. It's been portrayed as he said slam dunk and everyone said fine, we're going to war.

This was a meeting about how to declassify intelligence that could explain why analysts believed, as they did then, wrongly, we now know, that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. At the point that he said that phrase, there were already a lot of things in motion around the world, pointing toward U.S. military action in Iraq.

I also would say that someone who was in the room, I don't remember him doing what is described in the Woodward book, that is, it's portrayed there as jumping up, throwing his arms in the air, like some kind of a referee in a game, and shouting "slam dunk." That just didn't happen. It was a casual comment. And if he said something else, said, I think we can do better, he probably wouldn't have written the book and wouldn't, certainly wouldn't have been, well, that isn't what determined him writing the book, but he certainly wouldn't have been portrayed what he had been.

MCEDWARDS: Why is he coming out now with this, and coming out with such venom?

MCLAUGHLIN: There's less venom here than meets the eye, Colleen. I think this little sound bite, this is a snapshot of a book that's probably about 550 pages long.

MCEDWARDS: Fair enough.

MCLAUGHLIN: The parts that I've read, this is not an angry book, it's not accusatory, it's not a finger pointing book. It is his version of what happened during his time in government, which stretched oaf nine years at the CIA, two years as deputy, seven as director.

He walked away from one big book contract after he left. And over the following two years, he's been out almost three years now, over the following two years, I think George said, well, look, everyone else is defining me. There have been countless books written about him in which he is described in unflattering terms. That begins to weigh on you after a while and at a certain point I think he said to himself, you know, I need to define myself here. And I think that is all he's doing here.

And, I frankly think that he owes it to historians and others who seek to understand this period to put his views on record.

MCEDWARDS: It is more about absolving him or does it help us really understand this period, especially the prewar intelligence period. Does it help us understand anymore clearly if there was significant pressure on the CIA to, you know, come up with something to make the case for war?

MCLAUGHLIN: I think it will. I think it will in the sense that, I'm speaking from my own personal experience here. I don't know exactly how he's going to characterize it. But I would be surprised if he said anything other than there was not dramatic pressure on the issue of WMD, that analysts actually believed this. On the issue of whether Saddam had something to do with 9/11, there was consistent questioning, persistent questioning from the administration about why we didn't believe that that was the case, and he will make quite clear in book, I think, that while we saw some talking and so forth going on, between al Qaeda and Saddam, that we could never, and would never establish an operational connection between the two, or suggest there was a relationship between Saddam and 9/11.

So, it will help people to understand that, and, again, you know, I don't really read it as self-serving.

MCEDWARDS: John McLaughlin. Thank you for your thoughts. Appreciate it.

MCLAUGHLIN: All right. Thank you.

MCEDWARDS: John McLaughlin, CNN security advisor, now, thanks.

CLANCY: All right, you know, interesting comments from him. Makes you want to read the book, I'll tell you that. MCEDWARDS: It does, and his point of being in the room when that comment was made, I found it helpful.

CLANCY: We've got some amazing stories coming up. A brilliant mind, maybe one of the most brilliant minds on our planet in a ravaged body.

MCEDWARDS: For a brief moment, though, Stephen Hawking left it all behind in the weightlessness of space that he understands better than anyone on earth.

CLANCY: Also ...

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like, watching an elephant dance. It's not how good they are, but it's that they can dance.

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CLANCY: U.S. President George W. Bush has full control over his body, yet, you wouldn't know it watching this videotape. Well, just wait. We've got it.

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CLANCY: Well, now, to that controversy over that kiss. And it was more than just a kiss. It is being heard, though, and broadcast all around the world.

MCEDWARDS: It wasn't more than just a kiss.

CLANCY: Well, sort of the dip, and ...

MCEDWARDS: It was a dip. OK. I'll give you that. But it was just a kiss. Come on. Actor Richard Gere embraced Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS awareness event in India.

CLANCY: And in India a small town judge issued a big arrest warrant for both actors after a complaint was filed.

MCEDWARDS: Gere talked about the episode on Comedy Central's "Daily Show with Jon Stewart." Take a look.

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JON STEWART, COMEDY CENTRAL: You kissed an actress at an AIDS benefit on a cheek and gave her a hug, and now there's an arrest warrant.

RICHARD GERE, ACTOR: There is for her and for me. She's -- there's -- we were talking about this before. But there's a very small right wing, very conservative political party in India ...

STEWART: We're talking about India. Oh, OK. Sorry. I didn't know what you were talking about. This is India. GERE: And they -- they are the moral police in India. They do this kind of thing quite often.

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CLANCY: All right.

MCEDWARDS: He apologized for this, and he's also getting support from various areas.

CLANCY: Some are saying this ruling ridiculous. We'll see how it turns out.

MCEDWARDS: See how it turns out. All right. You can catch more of Jon Stewart on DAILY SHOW GLOBAL EDITION this weekend. This airs exclusively on CNN International and it's on Saturdays at 1530 GMT.

CLANCY: "The Daily Show" covered our next story, too, but then so did just about everybody else.

MCEDWARDS: It seems everyone who saw President Bush's impromptu dance at the White House. See it for yourself. Here's Jeanne Moos.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ditch the presidential seal, lose the podium, make way for the dancer in chief. Already seen it you say? But you haven't seen everywhere it ended up after you first saw it. Jay Leno didn't even bother to make a joke.

JAY LENO, TALK SHOW HOST: This is your president at work.

MOOS: Jon Stewart ended his show with it.

JON STEWART, TALK SHOW HOST: Here it is, your moment of Zen.

MOOS: David Letterman slipped it into his great moments in presidential speeches segment.

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, DECEASED PRESIDENT: The only thing we have to fear ...

JOHN F. KENNEDY, DECEASED PRESIDENT: Ask not.

DAVID LETTERMAN, TALK SHOW HOST: You get the feeling that he might be under the impression that he's attending a luau.

MOOS: And after viewing it at "The View," they scored it.

Our president seems to like to shake his thing. Here he was in Brazil joining in the festivities. Here he was in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. He hears music, his head bobs. His hands do that robotic thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He dances like a white guy from Texas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think he'll ever end up on "Soul Train."

MOOS: The guy who could derail "Soul Train" is Karl Rove. Rove makes President Bush look like Michael Jackson.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's kinda like this, yeah he was getting into it.

MOOS (on camera): Maybe the best way to judge the president's moves is by the laughter and applause each move got on the comedy shows.

(voice-over): Drumming. Horizontal hand gestures. Upraised arms with fingers pointed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had a kind of woo! You have to give the man credit for getting out there and doing it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As a former music student, I can't endorse this kind of behavior.

MOOS: If you want better president boogying, head to the internet where you determine the moves. There the president was publicizing Malaria Awareness Day.

And before he is aware, the West African dance company director won't let him escape.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, you're not going ...

MOOS: At least President Bush didn't go as wild as Russian President Boris Yeltsin, may he rest in peace. It's fun to watch our leaders let loose.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like watching an elephant dance. It's not how good they are, it's how they can dance.

MOOS: When a leader gets down, don't expect to him to live it down. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

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MCEDWARDS: I like the elf (ph) dance myself. That was my favorite.

CLANCY: That was good.

MCEDWARDS: All right. Still ahead. Another story that will be uplifting, definitely. A paralyzed scientist getting the thrill of a lifetime.

CLANCY: A man who once gave the world completely new insights into black holes, space, and really the world of numbers, defies gravity. Straight ahead.

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CLANCY: He's a renowned scientist who's been confined to a wheelchair for most of his life.

MCEDWARDS: Now Stephen Hawking, the man who gave the world insight into black holes and the origins of the universe has an out of body experience.

CLANCY: Our space correspondent Miles O'Brien has the story.

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MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Stephen Hawking was waiting for this not so weighty moment for years. The brilliant astrophysicist and best-selling popularizer of science, slipping the bonds of gravity after nearly four decades in a wheelchair.

STEPHEN HAWKING, PHYSICIST: It was amazing.

O'BRIEN: Hawking suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. He is almost totally paralyzed, unable to speak without computerized assistance. But there was no mistaking his enthusiasm as he floated free.

PETER DIAMANDIS, ZERO G CORP.: Professor Hawking reached for the sky, and he touched the heavens today, and the best thing is, if someone like he can go, all of you can go, as well.

O'BRIEN: He got a free ride on a specially rigged 727, flown by a company called Zero G, which offers astronaut thrills to anyone willing and able to pay $3500. The plane flies a wild roller coaster pattern, giving passengers 30 second spurts of weightlessness which I got a chance to experience it a few years ago. Hawking and his doctors were most worried about the steep climb after the free fall. Where passengers suddenly get pressed to the fool at gravity times two. But he flew and floated without a worry.

HAWKING: The zero G part was wonderful. And the high G part was no problem. I could have gone on and on. Space, here I come.

O'BRIEN: He enjoyed eight spurts of weightlessness. About four minutes in all. A brief moment in time to savor for a man that gave the world new insights into gravity, and now has defied it. Miles O'Brien, CNN, at the Kennedy Space Center Florida.

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CLANCY: A lot of news, a little inspiration. Thanks for joining us.

MCEDWARDS: YOUR WORLD TODAY continues ...

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