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Iran Nuclear Program: Pentagon Reacts to Change in Perception of Iran Policy; Tehran Welcomes Revised U.S. Intelligence Report; Winning Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan

Aired December 04, 2007 - 12:00   ET

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

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: "Warning signal." The U.S. president uses those words to describe a report on Iran's nuclear program that downplays Tehran's nuclear progress.
JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: New focus. The U.S. defense secretary arrives in Afghanistan as American troops branch out in their quest to rein in an insurgency.

GORANI: And shifting fortunes. The latest poll numbers in Iowa raise eyebrows as the presidential caucuses draw ever closer.

CLANCY: And small workers mean a big problem in India. Millions of children forced into full-time labor.

It's 9:30 at night in Kabul, 11:00 a.m. in Des Moines, Iowa.

Hello and welcome, everyone, to our report seen around the globe.

I'm Jim Clancy.

GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani.

From Des Moines to Dhaka, Kabul to Khartoum, wherever you're watching, everyone, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

CLANCY: Just weeks after linking Iran's nuclear program with the possibility of World War III, George W. Bush is trying to explain a major turnaround in U.S. intelligence on Iran's nuclear ambitions.

GORANI: Well, the U.S. president is saying that a report that shows Iran actually halted work on nuclear weapons four years ago is actually a warning that what happened in the past could actually be repeated.

CLANCY: Now, we're covering this story from all angles, of course. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, Aneesh Raman in -- right now in Tehran, Iran, and our Chief International Correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, is in London.

GORANI: First, though, more on Mr. Bush's remarks on the report that he says doesn't do anything, in fact, to change his opinion on the threat Iran poses to the world.

CLANCY: President Bush stresses the point that Iran was dangerous, is dangerous, and will be dangerous if it has the knowledge to build a nuclear bomb.

GORANI: He also shrugged off criticism that his administration has been hyping the threat that Iran poses for years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What's to say they couldn't start another convert nuclear weapons program? And the best way to ensure that there -- that the world is peaceful in the future is for the international community to continue to work together, to say to the Iranians, you know, we're going to isolate you. However, there is a better way forward for the Iranians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Now, the new view of Iran's nuclear program is based on a national intelligence estimate report. It combines the judgments from more than a dozen intelligence agencies.

Let's go to Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr.

And Barbara, I think "The New York Times" headline said it all. Rarely, if ever, has there been a single intelligence report so completely, so suddenly and so surprisingly that altered a foreign policy debate here. You broke this story on YOUR WORLD TODAY 24 hours ago. Today, the tough question is, what changed? Why this assessment?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Jim, that is the question. This is the very murky business of the U.S. intelligence community. What have they known for the last several months that they've been trying to check and validate and confirm that finally led them to this report issued yesterday?

By all accounts, what they have been saying behind the scenes here in Washington, and the sources that we have been talking to have laid out a couple of threads.

First, apparently a 2005 video tour of the Natanz Enrichment Facility was -- by some was said to be a publicity stunt, actually showed -- we see some video of it here, showed the intelligence community some vital clues. They scoured that video, and by all accounts, the piping, the equipment, the centrifuges, what they saw led them to believe this was not a plant that would be functioning anytime soon for highly enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon. That was clue number one.

Perhaps more covert, more behind the scenes, is clue number two. There is a good deal of discussion that, over the last several months, there has been a high-level Iranian defector. His name, Ali Resa Asgari, 63 years old, a general in the Revolutionary Guard.

Some months ago, it is said and was reported that he disappeared from Iran with his family. He may have gone into Turkey. And he may be the person that the U.S. has been debriefing for months now about his inside knowledge about Iran's nuclear program. Of course, the U.S. intelligence community is not confirming that. But many people say it may have been him. In fact, one of our military sources earlier today said that there was a lot of human intelligence that went into this report -- Jim.

CLANCY: But does that human intelligence or any of the other data indicate that Iran is no longer a threat?

STARR: Well, not in the way, clearly, that it was thought to be before yesterday. The nuclear program now, even if they restarted it, would be -- not come to any conclusion for several years.

But Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, make no mistake, that element of the Iranian military and government very much of concern to Pentagon commanders. Just last week, Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it was a big deal that the IRGC was taking over Iran's naval operations in the Persian Gulf. The IRGC still heavily sanctioned for its alleged ties to Hamas and Hezbollah, a terrorist organization, the U.S. believes, that still has -- even if it's very low tech -- a very dispersed, very lethal threat capability around the world -- Jim.

CLANCY: Barbara Starr, as always, there at the Pentagon, our thanks to you -- Hala.

GORANI: Well, earlier, we spoke with Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, to get his reaction to this new intelligence report. And he used the opportunity to send a message to the American people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALI ASGHAR SOLTANIEH, IRANIAN AMB. TO IAEA: I hope that now the American public will pay due attention to this kind of report that, of course, their intelligence have prepared for them for the administration. And hopefully from now on, they will, in fact, put pressure on that administration not to mislead the public, and I hope that the administration and (INAUDIBLE), whatever they have done against the Iranian nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: So, basically, you heard it there from the ambassador to the AIEA from Iran. Tehran is basically saying, I told you so. Iran's foreign minister also welcomed the U.S. intelligence report.

CNN's Middle East Correspondent Aneesh Raman is the only U.S. television reporter in Iran's capital city, and he joins us now via broadband.

We heard from the U.S. president, Aneesh, that this report doesn't change anything. Does it change anything for Iran?

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT: Well, the hope is that it could lead, perhaps, to dialogue. But we got no sign of that from President Bush. The key has always been to talks, that the U.S. says Iran must first suspend its nuclear program as a precondition. Iran has rejected that, it will do so yet again, likely, because this report, it says, shows it is not pursuing a nuclear weapon, but instead pursuing what is its right, peaceful civilian nuclear technology.

The vast majority of people here, Hala, do not want a conflict over this issue. There is growing dissent even against their own president, Ahmadinejad, about his often controversial statements, that it fuelled fears in the West about Iran's intention. But it really rests in the hands of President Bush and the American people.

That precondition for talks has stalled any real dialogue for some time now. And this report, despite the fact that it takes what President Bush says was an actuality, Iran trying to obtain a nuclear weapon and turning it into a hypothetical, it seems President Bush still isn't willing to budge on that -- Hala.

GORANI: All right. Aneesh Raman live in Tehran.

Thanks very much.

CLANCY: All right. Obviously, one of the parties most concerned about this, Israel. Israel downplaying the report. Prime Minister Olmert stopping short of disputing that U.S. assessment, but saying it's vital to continue efforts to prevent Iran from gaining any nuclear capability.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EHUD OLMERT, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: According to the American attitude, as well as ours, there is a need to continue concerted effort to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear capacity. And we'll certainly (INAUDIBLE) in this direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Now, Russia called on Iran to be transparent, to remain under the control, cooperating with the union nuclear watchdog group, the IAEA. President Vladimir Putin made those comments during a meeting with Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Iran has promised to answer all of the outstanding questions that the IAEA has.

Now, CNN correspondents have been covering relations between the U.S. and Tehran for years. Prominent among them, Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour. She joins us now from our London bureau.

This was an amazing national intelligence estimate. What was your first reaction when you heard the news of this? How do you see it?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a huge deal, Jim, by anybody's standards. What has happened, despite the semantics and the words and way it's being spun by various capitals and countries, what's happened is the notion of an imminent threat, which is (INAUDIBLE), the notion of an imminent threat of an Iran nuclear weapons program, has apparently been put to rest by America's top and comprehensive intelligence agencies.

So this is a very dramatic development. It also is consistent with, for instance, the IAEA, who has said consistently since 2002 that it has no evidence of an undeclared Iranian nuclear weapons program. It's consistent also with reporting that we have done in the field over the last several years.

Back around 2003, late 2002, I spoke with very senior Iranian officials in the diplomatic, foreign and intelligence communities there about the idea of an Iranian nuclear weapons program. They were saying and they acknowledged that there was a debate within Iran, an internal debate about how to go forward with a nuclear program. Should it be a weapons program, what should they do?

The decision, apparently, as it was explained to me, under the president -- reform president, Khatami, was to dissuade the military component of a nuclear program, and Iran has always insisted that it has a civilian program. And it's interesting that the NIE estimate has not talked about the extent, even though it says there was a covert military program.

What was it? Was it one that was talked and discussed? Was it one they found out by intercepts? What was it? Or was it one that was under way?

As I say, there is no information from the IAEA on that right now.

CLANCY: All right. Christiane...

AMANPOUR: Very interesting also...

CLANCY: Sorry to interrupt, but what does this then mean from the threat that has been echoed so often from Israel, from the Middle East, from people warning that the U.S. is going to strike Iran militarily? What does it really do to that?

AMANPOUR: Well, clearly, it puts that on the back burner again. But as you know, Israel, for instance, a story that we broke back in September, struck a Syrian -- what they say was a Syrian weapons plant and was successful in the actual target it struck. But many believe that it was a message to Iran that we can do this and, therefore, you had better back off.

So the idea of fear of Iran still exists. And you notice in the president, President Bush's very harsh rhetoric that continued today, was about the continued fear of Iran's intentions.

And because of the current Iranian leader, President Ahmadinejad, who has chosen to make a very provocative and belligerent public posture about all foreign policy, including the nuclear program, there is doubt about Iran's intentions because of the public posture of this president, among other things. And therefore, many of the United States allies today have come out and said we must keep the pressure on Iran to make sure it does not restart any kind of weapons program, even though the NIE itself says the idea that Iran, once it shuts down a military program, could restart it in any quick time, or the idea that it could even produce enough enriched uranium to make even one weapon may be some 10 years away.

But the big news is that apparently, according to the United States intelligence, the imminent threat of a nuclear issue from Iran appears to have been scaled back dramatically.

CLANCY: Some important perspective there from CNN Senior International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour. Christiane joining us from London.

Christiane, as always, thank you -- Hala.

GORANI: Well, much of today's focus is, of course, on Iran.

CLANCY: One U.S. official though speaking on the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan.

GORANI: When YOUR WORLD TODAY continues, we'll shift our focus to the war-torn nation. The head of the U.S. Department of Defense visits Afghanistan.

We'll tell you what he had to say.

CLANCY: Plus, a look at some positives coming out of Afghanistan. Millions of dollars and countless man hours are having an effect.

All of that and much more still to come right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to CNN International and YOUR WORLD TODAY.

CLANCY: All right. We're covering the news the world wants to know, giving you some perspective that goes deeper into the stories of the day around the globe.

To Afghanistan now and reports that al Qaeda may be increasing its activities even further.

CLANCY: Yes, we're hearing this from a senior defense official who says the U.S. military concerned, it's looking for some definitive signs. This, as U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates visits the country for the third time since he took office.

Now, he is pushing the world for more commitment, more commitment to help Afghanistan counter the growing violence. The number of attacks surging, making this year the most violent since the U.S.-led invasion in Afghanistan in 2001.

GORANI: Well, Gates is hearing a consistent theme from both American and Afghan officials as he tours the country. Money and resources are needed to better empower the Afghan government.

CLANCY: Now, the U.S. is spending millions of dollars every year in aid, trying to help the Afghans to rebuild their shattered lives.

Our own correspondent Nic Robertson is there. He reports on a new school that really symbolizes that cooperation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At a school ribbon-cutting ceremony close to the Pakistan border in Khost Province, Afghans and Americans cement a strengthening relationship in remote communities. The $140,000 U.S.-funded school built close to Taliban transit roots from Pakistan will educate 800 boys and girls. An investment intended to reach beyond the classroom.

LT. TOM ROTH, U.S. ARMY: The key to success is just building a relationship with the people, letting them know that we're here to help them, not as an occupying force.

ROBERTSON: A message that appears well received. This respected community leader tells elders Americans are here to help, we must help them.

(on camera): So far this year in the Khost area, more than 50 schools have been built, with another 30 expected to follow. According to the governor, there are more than 160,000 students, of whom he says more than 40,000 are girls. A remarkable achievement, he says, in this very conservative society.

(voice over): The Khost governor has good reason to expect far worse.

ARSALA JAMAL, KHOST GOVERNOR: The Taliban has renewed their call, saying that they will -- this will be a bloody year in entire Afghanistan. And Khost is one of the provinces where Taliban were focusing.

ROBERTSON: But this year, U.S. commanders made the governor's security a top priority as part of a new strategy to boost Afghan support for their own government, and are convinced they found a model for success. Basing U.S. and Afghan security forces together throughout the province to improve security, boost humanitarian work, and expand the local governor's influence while undermining the Taliban.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By any measure of historical documentation over the last six years, it shows that we're making incredible strides.

CAPT. JOHN MCGRADY, U.S. ARMY: Here we've got the small arms fire. And it's peppered all along the side of the building. Right up there is where one of the RPGs hit.

ROBERTSON: Captain John McGrady, who runs one of the district outposts, shows how the remote government offices were being targeted before the new strategy.

MCGRADY: How would I measure it? You can measure it a whole lot of different ways. If you just look at enemy activity in my two districts since we moved out here, it almost comes to a screeching halt in March.

ROBERTSON: Success, he says, not just from being closer to the communities here to help, but provide security for the all-important reconstruction.

MCGRADY: We're here not to just, you know, defeat the enemy and occupy. We're here to spend a lot of time legitimizing the Afghan forces that are here.

ROBERTSON: Best assessments are Afghan police will need more of McGrady's time than the army. The most recent attack on his men came just a few hundred meters from this police post.

(on camera): Even with the improving security, there are still dangers. This suicide bomber struck about a week ago. He waited for a U.S. military patrol to come by before detonating his explosives.

(voice over): But what concerns U.S. commanders here the most is maintaining the flow of funds that's helping bolster support for the government.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need more support from the international community. We need more resources from the international community.

ROBERTSON: A huge, long-term investment strategy is crucial, they say. The governor agrees. If international investors don't step in now, the Taliban will.

JAMAL: I believe we are at a junction. We are at a corner. If a small mistake takes place, that will put us back into many years backwards, disaster.

ROBERTSON: Right now, Jamal and Custer (ph) both home Khost could be the model for success in the rest of the country.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Tani, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: You are with YOUR WORLD TODAY.

GORANI: Ahead this hour, Israeli reaction to the new U.S. intelligence report on Iran's nuclear program. We'll head to Jerusalem for a live report.

CLANCY: And a flip-flop in the polls in Iowa. With the presidential caucuses just weeks away now, what do the numbers mean in the race for the White House?

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Jim Clancy. These are our top stories.

President George W. Bush says a U.S. intelligence report on Iran's nuclear ambitions is a warning signal. The report finds Iran halted work on a nuclear weapons program back in 2003. Mr. Bush says that shows an arms program did exist and could be started again.

Meanwhile, there's mixed reaction from Tehran. An Iranian government spokesman says Washington must pay for spreading lies. The country's foreign minister says he welcomes the report.

Israel playing down the Intelligence Estimates, saying Iran remains a serious threat. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert insisted there was no change in U.S. and Israeli policy. He said it is vital to continue efforts of preventing Iran from attaining nuclear capability.

GORANI: Well, the defense minister of Israel, Ehud Barak, says there are different assessments from different organizations in the world about Iran's nuclear program and only time will tell who is right. Atika Shubert has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): When it comes to Iran's nuclear program, Israel and the U.S. usually see eye to eye. But, Monday, when a summary of the American National Intelligence Estimate was released, it was an abrupt departure from Israel's much more dire assessment that Iran could develop nuclear weapons within two years. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert insists there is no change in U.S. and Israeli policy.

EHUD OLMERT, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: According to the American attitude, as well as ours, there is a need to continue concerted effort to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear capacity and we'll certainly proceed in this direction.

SHUBERT: Israel has long considered Iran to be its preeminent threat in the region, and with some reason. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Israel would be "wiped off the map." While the new American report says Iran's nuclear program was frozen in 2003, Israel's defense minister, Ehud Barak, said in an interview that Iran may have restarted it. One military analyst says Israel fears underestimating Iran.

ERAN LERMAN, AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE: Israel definitely, because of who we are, and the consequences that we might suffer if we underestimate our threats, we tend to be -- to err on the side of caution. It has kept us alive so far.

SHUBERT: Israel has relied on its close relationship with the U.S. to keep the pressure on Iran, including the option of a military strike on nuclear facilities. In September, Israel carried out an air strike inside Syria. Neither Israel, nor the U.S. have said much about the attack or the target. It is widely reported it was a nuclear facility. But one analyst says the new American assessment makes a similar strike on Iran much less likely from either the U.S. or Israel.

EMILY LANDAU, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY INSTITUTE: I think it probably pushes it way back on the back burner for political reasons. I mean, it will be much more difficult to justify military action at this stage.

SHUBERT: Instead, Israel is likely to push for more economic sanctions. But the new U.S. assessment may make it difficult to convince other countries to take any urgent action.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SHUBERT: Hala, now Israel has to decide how to keep the pressure on Iran, to stop it from developing nuclear weapons. Failing that, it also has to consider if it should take much more drastic actions on its own.

Hala.

GORANI: Well, so, you mentioned there in your story, a military strike. This report downplaying the idea that Iran has been developing nuclear weapons makes a military strike a lot less likely. So what other options does Israel have?

SHUBERT: Well, the options it seems to want to pursue now are economic sanctions, but it hasn't had much success with that. It hasn't been able to convince Russia and China, in particular, to put down economic sanctions. And European states are also very reluctant. And this new report from the United States is most likely going to undermine any other efforts to take any urgent action for sanctions. So Israel may find itself in a very difficult position now.

GORANI: All right. Atika Shubert live in Jerusalem. Thank you.

Jim.

CLANCY: You know, Hala, part of the evidence against Tehran, part of the threat that it seemed to represent came not just from the nuclear program, but its missile program, which also worried the west. Guess what, that may have been overstated as well. Let's get some inside now from Jonathan Mann.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've all seen Iran's missiles. They roll them up and down the streets of Tehran when they want to hold a particularly impressive parade. And why the U.S. wants Europe to build a missile shield. But could it be that, like U.S. conclusions about the nuclear program, Washington's thinking about Iran's missiles is also missing the mark? Here is the president speaking two months ago.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our intelligence community assesses that, with continued foreign assistance, Iran could develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States and all of Europe before 2015.

MANN: The United States and all of Europe.

Part of the problem, though, is that outsiders believe that Iran exaggerates or says things no one can check. When former President Rafsanjani announced back in 2004 that there was a new missile that could reach parts of Europe for the first time, the west didn't know whether to believe it or not.

So where do things really stand? Well, missiles are classified in different ways. They're called long range if they go more than 5,500 kilometers. Iran doesn't have a long range missile. Best guess is that they're a few years away at least.

So let's talk about medium range missiles. Missiles that go at least 1,000 kilometers. A week ago, Iran's defense ministers said Tehran had a new missile with a range of twice that, 2,000 kilometers, the Ashura (ph). That's enough to hit anything in the Middle East. It even goes -- look at that -- goes into Saudi Arabia. Goes up to Turkey. But there's no public indication that it's ever been tested or actually works. So put that one in the "no one really knows" column.

Iran does have the Shaab Three (ph), which is powerful enough to hit Israel. And there are reports of evidence that Iran designed a nuclear warhead for it. But, then again, no one really knows.

When it comes to short range missiles, 1,000 kilometers or less, what does Iran have? Probably hundreds of them in all. But there again, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service, no one really knows which ones are working or how much of a threat they represent.

The bottom line on missiles, like nukes, Iran is hard to read. Israel is right to be worried, but any real missile threat to the U.S. or Europe, hard to read too.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Jonathan Mann with some insight there. Thanks, Jonathan.

Well, broadcast across the globe, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International.

GORANI: Still ahead, after a teddy bear sparked an international incident, a British teacher's strange tale comes to a happy end. We'll explain just ahead.

CLANCY: Also coming up, this rock star may be a hero to many, but Jon Bon Jovi has heroes too. He wants to introduce you to two of them. We'll have that and much more right after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CLANCY: Hello, everyone, and welcome back. This is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

GORANI: On CNN International. We're seen, of course, all over the world this hour. And a special welcome to our U.S. viewers who are joining us.

Now this story. She went to a foreign country to teach children and embark on an adventure of a lifetime.

CLANCY: Yes, but Gillian Gibbons got a lot more than she bargained for. Much more, in fact, after sparking Muslim outrage, spending time in a Sudanese jail, having people march through the streets calling for her execution. She finally got a presidential pardon and came back home to her family.

GORANI: Well, Gibbons says she was very upset to think that she may have offended anyone when she let her class name a stuffed bear Mohammed. She also said, well, she bears no ill will toward the people of Sudan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GILLIAN GIBBONS, TEACHER IMPRISONED IN SUDAN: I was very sorry to leave Sudan. I had a fabulous time there. It's a really beautiful place and I managed to see some of the beautiful countryside while I was there. The Sudanese people I found to be extremely kind and extremely generous and, until this happened to me, I only had a good experience. I wouldn't like it for anybody else (ph) going to Sudan. In fact, I know of a lovely school that needs a new tier two teacher.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: All right. We want to share an interesting footnote with you. This whole ordeal began when a former school secretary, at the institution where Gibbons was teaching, complained to authorities. Now apparently that was in retaliation for that secretary being dismissed from her job.

Hala.

GORANI: Well, winter is on the way in Iowa, but the political race is heating up.

CLANCY: Now a Hillary Clinton victory in the state's Democratic caucus once seen as virtually inevitable as snow in December, no longer seems such a sure thing to anyone.

GORANI: And the Republican race has been shaken up even more by the sudden ascendancy of a candidate once mired well back in the pack.

CLANCY: Candy Crowley has more on the clash of candidates in a state that's often seen as a good indicator of who's going to win the larger race to come.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOHN EDWARDS, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: (INAUDIBLE) is coming, because it's getting cold. You know where we are.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): One month out from the caucuses, Iowa is seeing the beginning of winter and the suggestion of a changing political dynamic.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's amazing how you go from being DOA to being a genius in about three weeks.

CROWLEY: He was never dead on arrival in Iowa. And while front- runner overstates the case for what's essentially a three-way tie, Obama, Clinton, Edwards, Obama is atop the state polls now. It gives him mojo in this final month.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: With your help, I'm going to get there.

CROWLEY: And threatens her aura of invincibility.

CLINTON: So you decide which makes more sense, to entrust our country to someone who is ready on day one to make the decisions and the changes we need, or to put America in the hands of someone with little national or international experience, who started running for president as soon as he arrived in the United States Senate.

CROWLEY: He is the front-runner and the target.

OBAMA: I think what people need to focus on is that all these accusations that are starting to come out seem to correspond to shifts in political fortune.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: John Edwards, we love you, buddy.

CROWLEY: While Obama and Clinton go at it, Edwards, often Clinton's toughest critic, is counter programming, going positive.

EDWARDS: Voters are going to be focused on who's ready to be president, who's ready to bring the change this country needs to fight for that change.

CROWLEY: Still working the living rooms and diners of Iowa and New Hampshire is the second tier, Richardson, Biden, Dodd, hoping for a miracle or, more realistically, a surprise showing. Big enough to propel them into New Hampshire.

CLINTON: It is close. It's tight. It's going to be a race to the finish line.

CROWLEY: After 11 months of campaigning, the beginning is near.

Racing for this final month, the Obama campaign has set up an e- mail address so supporters can warn them of any assaults from Camp Clinton, either in the mailbox or via leaflets. The Clinton campaign, some time ago, set up a web sites so they can rapidly respond to Obama. Candy Crowley, CNN, Des Moines, Iowa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: Well, let's take a look now at some other stories we're following for you.

Tens of thousands of miners in South Africa are on strike and they're marching. It's the first strike by the union since the end of apartheid. The miners say their work conditions are to dangerous. Some 200 people have been killed in the mines this year alone in South Africa.

CLANCY: Myanmar's leaders say that they have freed more than 8,500 prisoners. They say it was done to show their cooperation with the international community. It is unclear if the prisoners were among those captured during September's pro-democracy marches.

GORANI: Also in the headlines, in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, Washington and Oregon are under states of emergency today. Hurricane- force winds and heavy rains have left many roads impassable. At least nine people have been killed.

CLANCY: All right. Do you know his name? Jon Bon Jovi. Often viewed as a rock 'n' roll hero by the crowds who pack his shows.

GORANI: But Bon Jovi has his own heroes, two Philadelphia women, who devoted their lives to helping the homeless.

CLANCY: Now the entertainer puts down his guitar and picks up, what, a hammer?

GORANI: And he introduces us to the founders of Project Home in this final edition of "CNN Heroes."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JON BON JOVI: Homelessness hits people for different reasons and different walks of their lives. It doesn't discriminate. It doesn't care if you're white, black. It doesn't matter if you're young or old.

I'm Jon Bon Jovi. And my heroes have devoted their lives to breaking the chains of homelessness.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The mission of Project Home is to solve homelessness permanently for people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Many of those men and women that once lived on the streets now are taxpayers, voters. And they, themselves, become leaders and create their own future.

BON JOVI: Over the years they built close to 500 family unit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our first project was 48 units of housing, but also provided space for a restaurant, a catering business. We wanted to find a way to provide opportunities for employment through these various businesses.

BON JOVI: Job training and service providing are a key element to helping people break the chains of poverty and getting them off the streets.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sometimes the people that you meet on the street don't feel connected to anything. And when you reconnect people to each other, something stirs inside and things just flourish from there.

BON JOVI: Today, in the 21st century, we have to rely on each other and get back to neighborhood, not worry about government and the corporation to save the day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We believe that none of us are home until all of us are home. What affects one of us affects all of us. We're all part of that inescapable network.

BON JOVI: Heroes, to me, come in all shapes and sizes. You don't have to be the rock star and you certainly don't have to be a nun to make a huge difference. Sister Mary and Joan are the inspiration for people like me and hopefully this will inspire somebody else.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Now you can find out more at cnn.com/heroes.

GORANI: Also, if you'd like to get involved and see how Project Home got its start, just follow our link. While you are there, you can see who our judges have chosen as the 18 finalists from among 7,000 people that you nominated to be honored as a CNN hero.

CLANCY: And here is a program reminder about CNN's worldwide heroes initiative. It begins with a special edition of "Larry King Live." Anderson Cooper then and Christiane Amanpour are going to be Larry's guests. You can tune in, see that Monday 1000 hours Greenwich Mean Time right here on CNN.

All right. Still ahead, one man making a difference for children in India.

GORANI: He's putting an end to child labor, he hopes at least, one village at a time. Stay with us.

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GORANI: To India now where, instead of going to school, millions of children toil in workshops and in the fields.

CLANCY: And sometimes they're putting in a full 10 hours a day.

GORANI: Well, it is an age-old problem, rooted in poverty and illiteracy. But in one small village, one man and his organization trying to make a difference.

CLANCY: Let's take a look at that. Cal Perry is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAL PERRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Aid groups estimate that a stunning 60 million children work full time in India. The government puts that figure at 12 million. But aid workers say that's unrealistically low.

Gushafa (ph), only 11, leads school children in an emphatic chant. Stop child labor. Make more plans for education. We'll go to every village and light the lamp of education, they say.

There is no child labor here in the village of Kerkey (ph). It has been revolutionized by one man in particular, the president of Indian aid group Badgpan Bajolan Andolan, translated to mean Aid For Children. Its president, Kailash Satyarthi, is starting small, in this single village.

KAILASH SATYARTHI, PRESIDENT, AID FOR CHILDREN: It's not an easy task. It's deep rooted problem. And then it is clubed (ph) with the cost system in India. The black money and black market economy. The denial of legal systems and constitutional guarantees.

PERRY: A problem embedded in the Indian economy. His group estimates that around 20 percent of children working, work at home, being taken advantage of by their very own families in domestic service. The other 80 percent are on the streets, working for survival.

Satyarthi knows the streets are dangerous for both the children and himself.

SATYARTHI: So the retaliation is eminent. It's obvious. I lost two of my colleagues. One was shot dead and one was beaten to death. Myself and most of my colleagues were severely beaten, not just once, but several times.

PERRY: So he's starting small in the village of Kerkey, about 60 miles from the country's capital, the population only a few thousand. Aid For Children offers financial aid to the adults here. Bridging the gap, ending the need for child labor and putting the kids back in school.

The children even run their own village parliament. Taken seriously with real power, they hold elections and make decisions on behalf of the village. The very issue of today's parliament, simple but symbolic, new food in the school.

Of course, the purpose of these meetings goes far beyond just solving local issues. It's about fostering, perhaps, the future leaders of the biggest democracy in the world. And perhaps there's no better way to do so than teaching them how to overcome the issue that affects them the most, the massive crisis of child labor.

Cal Perry, CNN, in the village of Kerkey, India.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: All right.

CLANCY: That about does it for this edition of YOUR WORLD TODAY. We've got a couple of notes for you. Be sure to catch CNN's "Larry King Live" tomorrow.

GORANI: All right. Brad Pitt will join Larry to discuss his organization's work to help rebuild areas of New Orleans that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. So tune in for that. And that is it for this hour.

CLANCY: Well, you know, and I'm going to have -- I'm going to sit down and talk a little bit with Larry because Larry already sat down with Brad Pitt and it's kind of an amazing interview. They're amidst some of the devastation in New Orleans. And it's interesting. You know, Larry has a way with these celebrities in getting out of them, you know, what's important, why they get involved. So it's quite the interview. This is going to be a television interview you don't want to miss. Larry King, alongside Brad Pitt. And take you -- depending on your age group, you'll have your favorite.

GORANI: Absolutely. And before we leave you, what you saw there was a Web site makeitrightnola.org. And there it is. There with the pink theme and Brad Pitt soliciting users, viewers and online webster (ph) first (ph) for donations to help rebuild some of those neighborhoods that were destroyed.

CLANCY: YOU know, as we close the show today, I want to thanks Aneesh Raman in Tehran, Christiane Amanpour in London, all the other reporters that we have on this story, especially Barbara Starr at the Pentagon who broke it here.

GORANI: And Atika Shubert in Jerusalem.

CLANCY: All of them.

COLLINS: And our Aneesh Raman is the only U.S. television journalist there. We've been covering this story from all angles. But do stay with CNN. A lot more ahead. I'm Hala Gorani.

CLANCY: And I'm Jim Clancy.

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