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Your World Today
U.S. Flooding: Thousands of Homes Damaged or Destroyed; Two British Teens Questioned in Killing of 11-Year-Old; New U.S. Intel Estimate Critical of Iraqi Prime Minister; Kazakhs Still Suffer Effects of Soviet Nuclear Testing; Jewish Tourists View Their "Birthright" from the Wailing Wall
Aired August 23, 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: Riding past rooftops. Rescuers navigating the worst flooding in nearly a century for parts of the Midwestern United States.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GORDON BROWN, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Make no mistake about it, the people responsible for this will be tracked down, they will be arrested, and they will be punished.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A life cut short by a bullet. Britain's prime minister reacts to the murder of an 11-year- old boy.
CLANCY: Genetic fallout. Generations suffer in Kazakhstan after Cold War era nuclear tests.
SESAY: And science made simple. A new tool allows to you point and click your way across the galaxy.
It is noon right now in Findlay, Ohio, 5:00 p.m. in Liverpool, England.
Hello and welcome to our report broadcast all around the globe.
I'm Jim Clancy.
SESAY: I'm Isha Sesay.
From Manila to Moscow, London to Lima, wherever you're watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
CLANCY: As rivers swell and floodwaters rise, more and more people are losing their homes. Some are even losing their lives.
SESAY: One U.S. governor calls the situation a major, major disaster.
CLANCY: Now, we're going to begin our report with the widespread flooding across the Midwestern United States that has swallowed entire towns. People in Findlay, Ohio, say the waters haven't been this high in nearly 100 years. Rescuers are navigating streets and boats, or canoes, going house to house, trying to pluck people from their porches.
SESAY: Thousands of homes across the Midwest have been severely damaged or destroyed. The skies are clearing in Ohio, but, Jim, another storm system is moving over already-swamped communities in Iowa and southern Minnesota.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's hard. I can't go home. The basement blew out because of the water coming through so fast. Mom kept saying, "We're going to die."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: The storm-related death toll in the region now rising to 26, Isha.
SESAY: Three people were killed when lightning moved across Wisconsin. A mother and her child waiting at a flooded bus stop were electrocuted, along with a good Samaritan who tried to help them.
CLANCY: Now, as all of this is coming into focus, some people whose homes were destroyed haven't just lost a roof over their heads, but also a lifetime of cherished possessions.
To help us understand the extend of the damage in one of those hard-hit communities, we spoke earlier with our correspondent on the scene, Keith Oppenheim.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: Keith, you're there in Brownsville, Minnesota, the far southeastern tip of the state. What is the face of the disaster there?
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tremendous damage. You can see just an extraordinary example of that behind me.
I'm going to walk and give you a little tour.
This is the home of Lynn and Sharon Partington. As we pan, you can see how a mudslide from heavy rains knocked this home way off its foundation, like 150 feet off. And we heard earlier from Sharon Partington about what happened.
Her husband was next door. He was checking on a problem with some neighbors with some mud that they were having, and then suddenly the hill broke and she describes the aftermath.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHARON PARTINGTON, MUDSLIDE VICTIM: We had absolutely no warning. The water was not rising. We're, I don't know, 50 feet above the highway and above the river here. And we -- we were in our home and it had been raining. And we knew the ground was saturated.
We have had mudslides in the past, small. I mean, nothing big, and our property has always been able to take it. But there was no warning for this except that our neighbor called and said they had a slide that was worse than the pass that hit the back of their house. And so that gave us an idea that things were bad, but we never dreamt it was anything like this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OPPENHEIM: Just an emotional experience for these folks. Their debris and all their stuff is on the ground.
Behind me you can see that the corner of the house is kind of teetering on their boat behind me. And, you know, they are lucky that they survived.
Essentially, the husband went into the home, got the grandson and his wife out. And they're OK. But they obviously have lost pretty much everything they have -- Jim.
CLANCY: Keith, rebuilding, what are the plans, the hopes of all the people, in fact?
OPPENHEIM: Well, a little bit of good news, and that is, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, has teams out in the region and they're assessing damage. There's always the possibility for folks like this to get state and federal aid.
And they may very well need it, because in this case, the Partingtons had insurance but they didn't have a policy that covered mudslides. So right now they tell us they don't know what to do, and they may be very reliant on just that kind of aid.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: Keith Oppenheim talking with us there earlier from Minnesota.
This has been the week of wild weather across North America. Another storm we were tracking, Hurricane Dean, now downgraded to a tropical depression, but still out there causing mischief in Mexico.
It's the second landfall for the storm which was one a powerful Category 5 hurricane. Dean slid inland again near the port of Veracuz, dumping about 25 centimeters of rain throughout that area.
It could have been a lot worse. The storm did cause some damage when it first struck Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, but Dean was at its most fierce out in the Caribbean, where the storm is being blamed for at least nine deaths. It's expected to dissipate a little bit later today.
SESAY: We want to take you to Britain now and a shocking crime, the cold-blooded killing of an 11-year-old boy. Two teenagers have been arrested in connection with a shooting in Liverpool. It's the latest in a string of youth killings, and it's focusing attention on gang culture and violence in Britain.
Emma Murphy has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EMMA MURPHY, REPORTER, ITV NEWS (voice over): A little boy on his way home from football practice singled out and shot dead in a suburban street in broad daylight. This was where Rhys Jones died, on the grass outside of (INAUDIBLE), killed by a single shot to the neck.
Three bullets were fired in all. One hit this car. Another the ground.
Before eyewitness could grasp what had happened, the gunmen, or, rather, gun-wielding child, had cycled away. Eyewitnesses were too afraid to appear on camera but spoke at the moment that the shots were fired.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard a loud bang and looked across. A kid on a foot path on a bike.
Fired two shots straight across the car path. When we went out to see what had happened, (INAUDIBLE) bike, it was a young boy lying on the floor.
MURPHY: We now know that young boy was 11-year-old Rhys. Moments later, his mother was cradling him in her arms as he died.
ASST. CHIEF CONSTABLE BILL HOLLAND, WARWICKSHIRE POLICE: This is a terrible thing, but what would be even worse is if we don't put away the person who did it. And someone out there knows. Somebody who lives in that area will know who did it, and they will also know probably who provided the weapon.
MURPHY: Gordon Brown's day interrupted a conference he was holding on youth gun crime in order to condemn this latest attack.
BROWN: Our deepest sympathies this morning go to the family of Rhys Jones, who was tragically murdered yesterday. We cannot begin to understand the sadness, the sense of loss, the grief and the shock that has been felt by the family, by friends, by neighbors in a heinous crime that has shocked the whole of the country.
MURPHY: Nowhere is that shock felt so keenly as on the streets of Liverpool.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: While the issue of crime in Britain is becoming highly politicized, earlier this week conservative leader David Cameron spoke of anarchy in the U.K. and accused the Labour government of failing to protect communities from crime -- Jim.
CLANCY: All right.
Well, the U.S. intelligence community adding its voice now to a rising chorus of criticism aimed at Iraq's prime minister, Nuri al- Maliki. A new national intelligence estimate on Iraq is due out a little bit later today.
Our own correspondent, Jessica Yellin, has been going through that report.
Jessica, what can you tell us about it? There seems to be a lot of cautionary notes in it.
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There are a lot of cautionary notes, Jim.
This is the declassified version of that national intelligence estimate, a compilation of the information gathered by 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. And it finds that, as you say, there's deep discontent with the al-Maliki government in Iraq.
It says that the Iraqi political leaders remain unable to govern effectively. It goes on to say beyond that that the government in Iraq will become more precarious over the next six to 12 months.
Now, this is information that the Democrats have been talking about and have been pointing to as evidence that the surge has failed to achieve its goals. But this NIE also has findings that will benefit and give ammunition to those who support the surge.
It says that it's found measurable but uneven improvements in Iraq's security situation. And in particular, finds that the Sunnis have been successful in some areas in fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Now, one of the biggest findings in here, first of all, talks about how other neighboring countries are going to try to gain a foothold, even greater foothold than they already have in Iraq as coalition forces look to possibly draw down. But perhaps one of the most momentous findings in the report comes at the very end. And it says that they assess that changing the mission of the coalition forces from a primarily counterinsurgency and stabilization role to a primary combat support role would erode security gains achieved thus far.
In essence, saying that changing the mission, ending the surge, drawing down troops, would have a deleterious effect on the security situation in Iraq -- Jim.
CLANCY: This -- from what I read in the declassified version, it seems to be saying clearer than ever that the biggest threat today is the militias in Iraq and primarily the militia of Muqtada al-Sadr, backed by Iran.
YELLIN: Yes. And it says that the threat from the counterinsurgent movements, they remain as strong as they were, that there have been some successes in some areas, but this threat has not diminished because of the surge. CLANCY: All right.
Jessica Yellin there with a little bit of a preview of the national intelligence estimate.
Thank you.
SESAY: Well, many in Iraq don't blame Prime Minister al-Maliki's government. In fact, they say Iraq may be impossible to govern in its current form. Political science is far from an academic subject on the streets of Baghdad, however.
As Arwa Damon tells us, it can often be a matter of life and death.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Dira (ph) is a simple woman without much knowledge about politics. What she does know is that there was nowhere to turn and no one to turn to when her husband died and she and her four children lost their home. The family literally lives in the street now.
"No one is helping us at all," her son says. "I'm sitting here and dumped here," she says. "Where shall I go? Where shall I go?"
Whether the blame for what's happening in Iraq lies with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki or with his government as a whole, it's al- Maliki's leadership that's coming into question. Some in Iraq's parliament argue the structure of the country's government lends itself to sectarian struggle.
Few here believe changing prime ministers is going to be the miracle solution for peace in Iraq. The reality is, there aren't many alternatives. The names of some potential successors to al-Maliki are being discussed, but none has the political clout to unify the nation.
In the streets of Baghdad, there is talk of starting from scratch, a step America would probably find hard to swallow. For those stuck living here, it seems life isn't going to change anytime soon. Many Iraqis live in a state of shock and despair, unable to fully comprehend how their lives ended up like this.
"This is not why millions went to vote," this shop owner says. "We thought this situation would get better. Instead, we're taking steps back." He doesn't blame Prime Minister al-Maliki, but the government as a whole, too obsessed, he says, with infighting and sectarian agendas.
Out on the street, this man selling much needed ice in Baghdad's scorching temperatures agrees. "The government is divided within itself," he says. "Each group is pulling it in a different direction. Everyone wants things for their own benefits. They're not working with al-Maliki and they're not working with each other, so how will they work for a nation?"
Arwa Damon, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Well, still ahead, the race for the White House.
CLANCY: That's right. What do Democratic voters in this country want, experience or change? Our senior political analyst is going to join us and give us some answers.
SESAY: And the Cold War is over but people are still suffering the fallout. We'll look at the horrifying legacy of nuclear testing in Kazakhstan.
CLANCY: Plus, reaching for the stars from your own desktop. Google looks up from the Earth and gives you access to the sky.
We're going to show you what its new software can do on your computer.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CLANCY: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International.
We're going to take to you an important story from Pakistan. It's good news for a former prime minister, not so good news for the man some say is the most important ally the White House has in the war on terror, the current president.
Pakistan's supreme court ruling that exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother can return to their homeland. Now, they were booted out of the country following a 1999 coup, the very coup that brought General Pervez Musharraf to power. The ousted leader has made no secret of his plans to oppose General Musharraf's bid for another term as president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NAWAZ SHARIF, FMR. PAKISTANI PRIME MINISTER: But I think we need to send the military back into the barracks. I think we should be very clear on that.
We have to be clear there has to be rule of law in Pakistan. The constitution has to be respected, the judiciary has to be independent, the press has to be free. There's no compromise on these principles and these issues at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: Well, Sharif's reaction there to Pakistan's supreme court ruling. He was speaking to our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, in London. And Nic joins us live with more.
Nic, just break it down for us. Our viewers know that the U.S. and Pakistan, that relationship, is seen as key to the fight against terror. The relationship between Pakistan and the West seen as key. But just explain for us the significance of the supreme court ruling.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think perhaps what's very significant here, and particularly for the United States, is that the very day that the supreme court two weeks ago sat down to decide whether or not Nawaz Sharif could come back to Pakistan was the day President Musharraf looked like he was just about to call a state of emergency in the country. And, of course, that was stopped when President Musharraf took a phone call from the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. Condoleezza Rice persuaded President Musharraf that wasn't the right route to go down.
What Nawaz Sharif's supporters are saying is that this decision by the supreme court, a decision taken by the court and taken by the chief justice who President Musharraf tried to unsuccessfully oust several months ago, is an indication, Nawaz Sharif and his supporters say, that democracy is taking root in the country.
Now, what it really means for President Musharraf is he has a lot of political gathering opposition now standing against him in the form of Nawaz Sharif and his party, in the form of another exiled prime minister, Benazir Bhutto -- self-imposed exile. But they are gathering political forces and they plan to come back, and they plan to oppose President Musharraf, and this is going to add to his political problems. And he also has problems with a resurgent Taliban and al Qaeda within the country at the moment as well -- Isha.
SESAY: And Nic, what can you tell us about Nawaz Sharif? I mean, what kind of a man is he? And what level of support does he have in Pakistan as a whole?
ROBERTSON: Well, his party still appears to be as very popular party. The party of Nawaz Sharif, the party of Benazir Bhutto are still two very popular parties. They still have a lot of support in their traditional power base.
They can still expect when they go back to the country to draw thousands of people out onto the streets. In fact, Nawaz Sharif says that if he is unable to persuade President Musharraf to step down and not run for re-election as president, then he plans to call street demonstrations.
And I think it's quite reasonable to except that probably thousands of people would come onto the streets in support of Nawaz Sharif's party. So, potentially, we're going to see some potentially quite ugly scenes on the streets of Pakistan. If -- if President Musharraf and if Nawaz Sharif and if Benazir Bhutto can't work out a way to hold elections in the country that keeps all of these three significant political leaders in agreement, then we can expect to see a lot of street demonstrations, because Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto, all these people still have a very popular following -- Isha.
SESAY: And quick -- very quickly, Nic, in a word, who's in a better position to fight al Qaeda, is it Musharraf or is it the likes of Nawaz Sharif? ROBERTSON: Well, President Musharraf has the support of the army. And, of course, the Army has been the principal tool that he's using to fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Now, Nawaz Sharif says the reason President Musharraf has been unsuccessful is because he hasn't convinced the population of Pakistan that defeating al Qaeda, that defeating the Taliban, is what the country needs to do. Nawaz Sharif says his plan is to convince the people essentially to turn in and stand against the Taliban, and they will have no support in the population.
And as an insurgent terror group without that support in the population, they can't survive. That's his thesis -- Isha.
SESAY: All right, then.
Nic Robertson, our senior international correspondent.
Many thanks.
CLANCY: Interesting analysis. An important story that's being really watched closely in Washington this day.
We're going to take a short break.
When we come back, young Jews reconnecting with their religious roots.
SESAY: Still ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY, two different tours of Jerusalem show vastly different points of view.
CLANCY: Also coming up, decades after the former Soviet Union tested its nuclear bombs in Kazakhstan, that nation's children are still feeling the devastating effects.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: Welcome back. We're seen live, right around the globe. I'm Isha Sesay.
CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy. These are some of the stories making headlines in YOUR WORLD TODAY.
SESAY: The U.S. intelligence community is joining the chorus of criticism against Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. New National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq is expressing serious doubts about Mr. Maliki's ability to push forward with much needed legislative reform.
The report, parts of which are expected to be released later today, also warns insurgents in Iraq may be planning an TET-like offensive next month.
CLANCY: Police in Britain arresting two teenagers now in connection with the killing of an 11-year-old boy. That shooting on Wednesday evening occurred in Liverpool, it was just the latest in a string of youth killings. Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling it this, "A heinous crime that's shocked the whole of the country."
SESAY: Turning now to Kazakhstan where there are people still suffering from the Cold War.
CLANCY: That's right. They live in a village in eastern Kazakhstan that served near an area that -- served as the Soviet Union's center for atom bomb testing. For 10 years many of those tests were conducted above ground.
SESAY: That's right. CNN International Correspondent Matthew Chance traveled to the region and he saw the effects of radiation exposure across generations.
CLANCY: Unfortunately, we have to warn you, some of the images that you're going to see in his report, some may find disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTL. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Kazakhstan's nuclear zone, twisted by genetic disorders, blamed on this country's terrifying atomic past.
The doctor at this orphanage told me decades of Soviet nuclear testing unleashed a plague of birth defects. For more than 10 years the detonations were above ground and contamination from hundreds of Cold War era explosions keeps on killing.
(On camera): When the Soviet Union tested its nuclear devices it chose one of its remotest, most desolate areas. But there were still people living here. Today in villages like this one, close to the testing zone, many are feeling the terrible effects.
(Voice over): Sirik Kaisha (ph) is 62 years old and remembers watching the mushroom clouds as a child.
"We were very frightened," she told me, "because the windows in our house would blow out and the walls would shake. My parents both died of cancer and my own son is handicapped," she says.
And Sarik Kaisha (ph) isn't alone. Almost every family in her village, 20 miles from the old test site, is affected. I was introduced to Bekin (ph), by a local doctor, one of the few residents who agreed to be interviewed. She was born in 1951, two years after the nuclear testing began.
Her "facial disfigurement," she says, "has left her in despair."
"If only there had been no bombs. I could have been equal to everyone else," she says. "My youngest daughter looks like me, too. I worry about her future more than anything."
The problem of defects is so big, there's even a museum of mutations at the regional medical institute. Doctors say jar upon jar of preserved fetuses tell this region's real life horror story. TOLEDAE RAKHIPBEKOV, RECTOR, SEMEY MEDICAL INSTITUTE (through translator): You could call these children, and others effected, victims of the Cold War. Kazakhstan has refused nuclear ambitions now because of experienced 40 years of this war. No where else were there so many nuclear tests.
CHANCE: And no where else are so many Cold War casualties still inflicted. Matthew Chance, CNN, Semey, in Kazakhstan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: All right, Isha. You recognize that music. It's time for a little bit of the news of the presidential campaign in the U.S. Picking up speed every day. It may be a late-night talk show on basic cable, but the "The Daily Show" is also a required campaign stop it seems.
SESAY: It is. Wednesday night Barack Obama sat down with host Jon Stewart. The two men traded jokes about the perception that Senator Obama lacks experience.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON STEWART, THE DAILY SHOW: With the experience thing, have you thought about running a smaller country first?
BARACK OBAMA, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, you know what I did think about was invading a smaller country. As in, you know --
(LAUGHTER)
STEWART: Where will you get some popularity?
OBAMA: Grenada or --
STEWART: Yes. Well, that's a gaff, I don't know how that's going to show up in the headlines tomorrow.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: Amid all the jokes, and the laughs, Senator Obama did keep his eye on the fact that his "Daily Show" appearance was meant to serve his presidential campaign.
SESAY: That's right. The senator didn't mince words when he pointed out that experience doesn't always translate to policy success.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We try to remind people, no one had a longer resume that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. That hasn't worked out so well. And so -- what we --
(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: When people talk about experience what they really want to know is, does he have good judgment? You hope that if somebody has more experience it gives them better judgment. Of course, everybody knows a lot of 50 and 60 and 70-year-olds that don't have good judgment, because they keep making the same mistakes over and over again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: Well, Jon Stewart makes it funny but it's actually a serious subject. And it may well determine the Democratic nominee for president next year. So, you know, the obvious question is, which option do Democrats prefer, experience or change? For more on that we turn to Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider.
Bill, how is this debate -- it's a classic campaign debate, experience or change. How is it going down with Democrats?
WILLAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Democrats really want both. They want someone who is has good experience and someone who can change the country. Right now if you ask Democrats who's the best candidate on experience, they'll say Hillary Clinton. She was in the White House as first lady. She's now been over six years as a senator from New York State. So they believe that she's had a long experience in Washington, knows something about national affairs.
Barack Obama, fairly knew to the scene. Lots of questions raised about his experience. So he's running on the change issue. I will change the dynamic. I will change -- move the country away from the conventional political bickering. Those candidates that want fresh ideas are attracted to him.
The problem he's facing is that a lot of voters, a lot of Democrats, say Hillary Clinton can bring about change, too. What kind of change? Back to the future because there's a lot of nostalgia for the Clinton years among Democratic voters.
SESAY: But, Bill, when you widen it out to the American public, as a whole, how is this issue in years past in elections played out?
SCHNEIDER: Yes, well, generally speaking, there are years when voters put a high priority on experience. That's generally when the country's in deep trouble and they want someone who can pull things together. The best example is 1968, after the turmoil of the '60s, the racial violence, the war in Vietnam, Americans literally brought Richard Nixon back from the political dead. He not only lost the presidency eight years earlier and lost the governorship of California.
But they wanted someone who was qualified and had a long experience and he was elected. Then in 1976, they elected a president, Jimmy Carter, who had very little experience. He was a one-term governor of Georgia. Why? Because they were desperate for change after the Watergate scandal. They wanted someone new, and fresh, who could bring a new face to Washington. That's what a lot of voters see in Barack Obama.
SESAY: All right. A some very interesting facts to think over. Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider, there we must leave. Thank you.
SCNHEIDER: Sure.
CLANCY: We're going to take a short break. Coming up, in the Middle East it always seems everything is political.
SESAY: Well, that includes tours of the Holy Land, where competing groups stand by to show you what the Israeli government wants --and doesn't -- want to you see.
CLANCY: And a bit later, the final frontier of geekdom, now they don't even have to get out of their chairs to travel to the stars.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CLANCY: It is a familiar sight on the streets of Jerusalem, large groups of American Jews getting their first glimpse of Israel and the Holy Land.
SESAY: The tours are meant to instill a sense of pride and belonging. They're free but some say they come at a price.
CLANCY: A pair of young American activists have come up with an alternative that shows U.S. Jews what Birthright Israel certainly won't.
SESAY: Atika Shubert brings us the story of Birthright Unplugged.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Summer is the season of the tourist in Jerusalem. Many are young Jews from around the world. Some of them are here on a free trip to the Holy Land, courtesy of a group called Birthright Israel. A visit to the Western Wall, Judaism's most holy site is the highlight for many.
DAVID SCHWARTZ, BIRTHRIGHT TOURIST: It's more than an emotional experience. It's like a journey, it's like a Mecca, in a way, whatever. It is something I think everyone has to do in their lifetime.
SHUBERT: Birthright says its goal is to reconnect young Jews with what organizers say is their birthright, their heritage in this biblical and disputed land.
Since starting seven years ago, Birthright has grown exponentially; 35,000 visitors this year along, at a cost of $28 million. Funded by private donors and the Israeli government. Charles Bronfman is one of Birthright's founders.
CHARLES BRONFMAN, FOUNDER, BIRTHRIGHT: Israel simply wasn't on anybody's radar screen. And all of a sudden a free trip, well, why not?
SHUBERT: The group says its tours are about history, not politics. But it's impossible to avoid gritty reality. Tours come with armed guards, often accompanied by soldiers out of uniform.
BRONFMAN: I think, again, it's presented as factually as possible. Obviously, there's an Israeli vice. You're talking about Israelis.
SHUBERT: But there are some who feel that the Birthright tours give only one side of the story. For them, there is now an alternative.
This is Birthright Unplugged, a tour for young Jews who see Israel from a Palestinian point of view, unabashedly political. The group takes time to look at Israel's other famous wall, the security barrier that runs into the West Bank.
HANNAH MERMELSTEIN, FOUNDER, BIRTHRIGHT UNPLUGGED: We're trying to take the power out of unplugging, taking the power out of the concept of a birthright for Jewish people in this land that Palestinians were displaced from.
SHUBERT: It's a small group, not more than a dozen on two tours this summer. And it's not free; around $500 for a less than luxurious trip. Participants stay the night with Palestinian families in refugee camps.
Shira Tevah has taken both tours, after befriending Israeli soldiers on her original birthright tour, she told us about an incident she witnessed afterwards on the unplugged tour that changed her view.
SHIRA TEVAH, TOURIST, BIRTHRIGHT UNPLUGGED: The soldiers were just really, really aggressive. And he said to her, you know, unless you move away from the border, I'll (BLEEP) kill those kids. It's your choice.
SHUBERT: Dramatically different experiences of a disputed birthright. Atika Shubert, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: You say you'd like to be an amateur astronomer.
CLANCY: That's right.
SESAY: You do?
CLANCY: But if you're like me, you don't even have a telescope. What do you do?
SESAY: No problem, now you can explore the heavens with the click of a mouse.
CLANCY: We'll tell you how to gaze at the stars by, well, taking a closer look at your desktop.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: Now, it's a global television event that was one year in the making. CNN's three-day special "God's Warriors".
CLANCY: While International viewers still have another chance to watch "God's Muslim Warriors", U.S. viewers on Thursday are going to see, "God's Christian Warriors". Hala Gorani had a chance to talk with Christiane Amanpour about the influence of Christian conservatives in the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never quite understand what sin gradation scale some people go by, where they decide that certain sins are worse than other kinds of sins. And those are the ones we need to go against.
CHRISTIAN AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Be specific, in order to be pro-life, do you then have to support a candidate whose mission is to overturn Roe versus Wade?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Christiane, I don't think so. To be pro-life is not just to be concerned about the womb. It's to be concerned about life.
For example, what's the relationship between poverty and abortion and studies show there's a direct correlation there. Maybe the best way to lessen abortion in society is to go for the candidate you think is going to do the most for poverty.
And so we need to take great care not to naively think that we can translate our particular value into particular vote. Don't label your way of voting, Christian.
HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR, YOUR WORLD TODAY: How is Christian religious fundamentalism changing politics?
AMANPOUR: Well, fundamentally, you know, since the late 1970s with the rise of the Moral Majority that was started by the late Jerry Falwell, and on through various presidential elections, through schools, through the courthouses, through, as I say, local elections and national elections, there has been a significant shift in the United States.
Now, the clip you just showed is about one pastor in Minnesota who actually thinks that the trend should start to separate, that faith belongs in the church, and politics belongs to government. But most of the two hours shows what actually is the majority of what's happening in the Christian Right community and that is bringing God back into the public square.
Many analysts believe that the rise of the Christian Right in the United States was a reaction to the social revolution of the 1960s, was a reaction to some of the laws passed by the Supreme Court that, for instance, banished prayer from schools, that made abortion the law of the land, and other such things.
But it is having an effect, particularly right now. I mean, the Supreme Court now, under President Bush who is a committed and publicly stated believer, has nominated two of the most conservative Christians to the court, Samuel Alito and Justice Roberts, and some of the recent rulings have shifted perceptibly to the right. So it is a big force in the politics of the United States.
Having said that, you saw the pastor you just highlighted -- and there are others -- who believe Christians should start getting more or equally involved in some of the other pressing issues of society. And that it's time to, perhaps, roll back the fusion of politics and power with religion.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Well, Christiane went to four continents in her year-long investigation for "God's Warriors". International viewers can see "God's Muslim Warriors" at 1900 GMT. And for our viewers in the U.S., it's "God's Christian Warriors" tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern Time.
CLANCY: For much more, check out our website at cnn.com/godswarriors. You can view the clips we have been airing, there, as well as video diaries. And Christiane is answering some of the criticism of her series "God's Warriors" and there is quite a bit of praise there, for this as well. That's cnn.com/godswarriors, one word.
Google Earth is going galactic. You hear?
SESAY: It sure is. Online mapping application has come up with a new feature called Sky. It's a virtual telescope that allows to you gaze at the stars.
CLANCY: Our own Correspondent Phil Black shows us how to explore space right from our desktops. Take a look.
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTL. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): First, there was Google Earth, pick a destination, say Buckingham Palace, and it takes on you a ride around the globe, zooming in from space for a close-up aerial view of the queen's house. Now Google has taken the same idea and turned it upside down.
ED PARSONS, GEOSPATIAL TEHNOLOGIST: We thought we could use that same basic technology, but it in reverse and look outwards, and use the imagery that the astronomy community has created and produce an exciting new tool.
BLACK: That new tool is Google Sky. It's designed to explore what lays beyond Earth, starting with the backyard view of space from anywhere on the planet. The stars and constellations as you would see them from above.
PARSONS: From that point, you can then start to zoom. As you zoom out we'll bring in imagery that may have been produced by NASA from the space telescope, from terrestrial telescopes. And show you pictures of nebulae, show you pictures of distance galaxies, show you the planets as they move through out the year.
BLACK: The images and information are all available elsewhere, but Google says this is the only way you can navigate humankind's collective knowledge of space in one location.
(On camera): Scientists say this is exciting. Because throughout human history, people have stared into space, and wondered. Now they hope having all of this information available so easily in one place, will inspire a new generation to look up and study what lies beyond.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are no limits. And when you put this in the hands of millions of people, literally, to be the great public in a way that has never gone before, it has never gone before -- this is public outreach for science in a way that is going to be very revolutionary.
BLACK (voice over): Like Google Earth, the Sky software delivers a different view of existence to your desktop. But without the same potential for voyeurism. Phil Black, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: Isha, let's talk baseball. You are sitting in the stands, you look up on the scoreboards and when you see numbers like that, 30-3, what a game because you know you've been listening to the sound of a bat hitting a baseball all night.
SESAY: And it was something. A good old fashioned pitching duel can be interesting, but as Jim says, there's nothing like action on the base park and fans in Baltimore on Wednesday certainly got their money's worth.
Welcome to game one of a double-header against the Texas Rangers, from Camden Yard.
CLANCY: Now, see, Texas was actually behind, you know, at the opener it was 3 to nothing. It's the first one of a double-header. Texas scored five runs in the fourth, nine more in the sixth inning. Get this, 10 runs in the eighth inning, and went on to score six more in the ninth.
SESAY: It was quite something. The Rangers actually, they became the first team in 110 years to score 30 runs in a game. They set an American League record on Wednesday. It was really quite something.
CLANCY: Texas Manager Ron Washington, here's a quote from him. He said, "I knew we'd get the bats going but I never expected anything like it this."
SESAY: I'm sure he didn't.
CLANCY: I'm sure -- listen, I'm sure he was happy, too. Looked good for his team. Doesn't look so good, though, for the Orioles.
SESAY: No, no. CLANCY: They gave up a lot. It hurts.
SESAY: I can't imagine very happy in their change room at the end of that.
CLANCY: That has to be it for this hour. Isha, thanks for taking baseball with me. I'm Jim Clancy.
SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. This is CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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