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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Bush Reaches out to Chirac; Sanchez Being Replaced in Iraq; British Troops Under Fire

Aired May 25, 2004 - 19:00   ET

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

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


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. I'm Anderson Cooper.
President Bush utters the "F" word France, reaching out to French President Jacques Chirac for help in Iraq, 360 starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): Bush hits the road selling his Iraq policy but are Americans and our allies buying?

Did Iran trick the U.S. into doing its dirty work in Iraq? New claims Ahmed Chalabi was a double agent.

Hundreds evacuated as a massive chemical plant fire spews a toxic cloud in Georgia.

Authorities prepare for a possible al Qaeda attack this weekend at the World War II memorial.

And, miracle cure or medical scam, can this dental device actually help you lose weight?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Good evening.

Old Europe suddenly seems kind of new again. Today, President Bush placed a call to French President Jacques Chirac requesting support for U.S. political plans in Iraq.

On the military front tonight, the top U.S. commander in Iraq will step down. We're tracking all the angles with CNN White House Correspondent Dana Bash in Washington and CNN Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre.

We begin at the White House. Dana, what response did the president get from France today?

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, President Chirac spoke on the phone with President Bush for about 20 minutes and President Bush was told that in order to win French support there has to be clearly written into the U.N. resolution that Iraqis have control over their country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BASH (voice-over): The morning after launching a major campaign to revive support for his Iraq policy, the president stepped up his personal diplomacy calling a war foe, French President Jacques Chirac to enlist international support.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: President Chirac and others have said is they want to make sure that the transfer of sovereignty to the interim government is a real transfer and that's what we want.

BASH: More than a year after France, among others, blocked U.N. support for war in Iraq, the president now needs them to bless a U.N. blueprint for peace and U.S. officials took pains to acknowledge Mr. Bush understands the French president wants adjustments to the administration's U.N. plan.

Some of the key sticking points the precise definition of Iraqi sovereignty, what political power the interim government will have, whether there should be a date certain for troop withdrawal as France and Germany want and how much authority the interim government will have over the coalition military.

Several Security Council members say real Iraqi sovereignty can't be achieved without official power over a multinational force. Bush officials say U.S. troops must maintain the ability to protect themselves.

BUSH: I will continue to ask the world to help.

BASH: But the administration is eager to paint an optimistic picture. One senior official calls all difference bridgeable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And French officials were also somewhat optimistic that they could get a deal on a U.N. Security Council resolution very soon but one senior French official said that we hope this time they'll listen to us -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Dana Bash at the White House thanks Dana.

June 30 that's the handover date of course. Today word of one change already in the works, a new U.S. military commander. After 13 months in Baghdad, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez is on his way out. He'll be replaced this summer. Some have said it's a demotion for the top military man in Iraq. The Pentagon insists it is anything but.

CNN Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pentagon officials insist Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez' rotation out of the top commander's job was in the cards all along and has nothing to do with his handling of the abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib Prison.

BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, COALITION MILITARY SPOKESMAN: We have always expected General Sanchez to depart sometime after sovereignty, transferred sovereignty.

MCINTYRE: After June 30, the U.S. plans to reorganize the command structure in Iraq sending in a four-star general who sources say will be Army Vice Chief of Staff General George Casey to work alongside U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte. Under them will be Lieutenant General Thomas Metts who is now Sanchez' deputy.

The arrangement is intended to facilitate coordination with the new interim Iraqi government which is supposed to be in charge but not of U.S. forces. But what if as happened recently in Fallujah the U.S. wants to get tough and Iraq's interim leaders don't? Britain's prime minister suggests they would have a veto.

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: If there's a political decision as to whether you go into a place like Fallujah in a particular way that has to be done with the consent of the Iraqi government and the final political control remains with the Iraqi government. That's what the transfer of sovereignty means.

MCINTYRE: But the U.S. insists it will have the final say in launching military action.

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: The U.S. forces remain under U.S. command and will do what is necessary to protect themselves.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: The U.S. wants to keep some strategic ambiguity in the arrangement not nailing down every possible scenario in a U.N. resolution. They say it's often easier to just work these things out on the ground or, as Secretary Powell said today, Anderson, it's no big deal -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Jamie McIntyre thanks from the Pentagon.

We're going to talk more about Sanchez and U.S. policy in Iraq with former Secretary of Defense William Cohen. That is coming up later on 360.

In Iraq today, fears confirmed. Lab tests show the nerve agent sarin was indeed in an artillery shell used in a roadside bomb earlier this month. Two soldiers suffered minor health problems after the shell exploded before they could disarm it.

Meanwhile in Najaf, heavy fighting and damage at the city's holiest shrine. Coalition forces say they are not responsible for the damage as they battle militia loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

And more explosions in Baghdad as insurgents fired at the city's central police station causing minor damage and wounding one U.S. soldier. Southeast of Baghdad, still along the Tigris River in the city of Amara, British forces continue to come under attack from insurgents on patrol when fighting erupted.

Here's ITN's Bill Neely.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL NEELY, ITN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a convoy of armored vehicles we moved into the city to join a patrol of the regiment who had been here just a month and who have been shot at and bombed every day. They had just begun patrolling on foot when an Iraqi on a rooftop threw his blast bomb.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Contact.

NEELY: Contact, their word for an attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody all right? Welcome to Amara.

NEELY: As Iraqis stood stunned, one soldier anticipated what would come next.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Face the river.

NEELY: From the other side, the river, and within a minute of the first attack a second.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Possibly 30 meters.

NEELY: We had fallen. A grenade had been thrown at us. It was a coordinated ambush from both sides of the street.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay with the vehicle. That's it. It's the only cover you've got.

NEELY: They couldn't see their attackers. They began to pull back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep going. Keep going.

NEELY (on camera): It's now about two minutes since that blast bomb went off and we are retreating. Obviously the fear is that there's more to come.

(voice-over): There was, a second grenade was thrown but like the first it failed to explode.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We haven't got a clue where it came from. We thought possibly that it was a rooftop.

NEELY (on camera): These are, without question, the most dangerous streets in Iraq for British troops to patrol as we've just seen and they've taken a very few casualties to prove it. They now believe though that they dominate this city. The problem, well it is one of the most rebellious and dangerous places in Iraq. (voice-over): Tough by day and tough by night. The attackers strike again hitting the soldiers' base. Listen to the whiz of the bullets pass.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Unintelligible.)

NEELY: On every night the Princess of Wales' royal regiment go to meet their enemy. Fourteen months since the war started and here at least the violence has gotten worse not better. Tonight again there is here a regiment under fire.

Bill Neely, ITV News, al-Amara.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, an article in a British paper "The Guardian" caught out attention today, the theory rather controversial. Did Iran trick the United States into the war in Iraq?

Ahead my exclusive interview with Larry Johnson, former counterterrorism official at the State Department on his belief that Iran used the U.S. to fight its battles with Saddam Hussein.

On the home front terror watch fears of a possible attack this weekend at the dedication of the National World War II memorial on the Washington Mall.

With a look at security preparations underway, CNN's Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve. Jeanne no specific threat about this weekend.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Homeland Security officials say there is no specific and credible threat information regarding the dedication ceremony but security will be tighter than it has been for any other event ever on the national mall. The security planning has been underway for a year, although the physical parts of it are just beginning to be put in place.

Besides road closures, barricades and checkpoints, canine explosive detection teams will be widely deployed. Chemical and biological sensors already on the mall will be supplemented with radiological detection gear. The Coast Guard will patrol the Potomac River. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will police the air space, which is already closed.

Unprecedented medical preparedness steps are also being taken because of the age and health of those attending. Emergency medical personnel will be in the subways in first aid tents and in the crowd on bicycles with defibrillators. Officials hope they're ready for anything.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN ETTER, SPOKESMAN D.C. FIRE AND EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES DEPT.: We have engaged our mass casualty unit. We have engaged our medical ambulance bus. I mean we are prepared. I mean God forbid anything drastic were to occur. We are prepared for a mass casualty situation. We've been working with the hospitals for a number of time as well as you know hospital capacity is a big factor of this component.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: The dedication is just the first in a series of high profile events this summer that will require high security. Still to come the G8 Economic Summit, Fourth of July celebrations, the Democratic and Republican conventions, the Olympics, the General Election. Officials fear that terrorists will try to do something to disrupt the political process just as they did in Spain -- Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: But at this point there's no talk about raising the national threat level?

MESERVE: No. For the moment it's staying at yellow. What they've always said is it will take specific and credible information to move it up. They don't have that at this point.

COOPER: All right, Jeanne Meserve thanks from Washington.

We're tracking a number of other important stories right now coast to coast. Let's take a look "Cross Country."

Northwest Missouri, surveying the damage and a lot of damage there is. The entire town of Albany still without power after tornadoes swept through last night. Between five and ten twisters touched down in the area destroying houses, businesses, causing only minor injuries however.

San Francisco, same-sex marriage in the courts. California Supreme Court hears arguments on whether San Francisco's mayor went beyond his authority in issuing marriage licenses to about 4,000 gay and lesbian couples.

In Boston, shutting church doors. The Boston Archdiocese will close 60 churches, about a fifth of its parishes in the wake of the priest sex abuse scandal, declining attendance and a shortage of priests.

In Washington, the unusual suspect. Law enforcement officials say they've arrested Spanky the Clown from the Ringling Brothers Circus, the charges child pornography. The arrest was the latest in the ongoing investigation of subscribers to a child porn Web site that was shut down last summer.

360 next a chlorine-laced fire forces a mass evacuation. How big a threat is it? We're going to take you there live.

Also tonight, a small town rocked by allegations of rape and child molestation. Did dozens of people get sent to prison because of a big lie?

And the politics of war, how much will Iraq really matter this election year? Al Franken and Babe Buchanan sound off.

First let's take a look at your picks the most popular stories on cnn.com right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: A massive plume of chlorine-laced smoke spreads for hundreds of miles as firefighters in Georgia prepare to work through the night to battle a stubborn blaze at a chemical warehouse. Hundreds of homes within a five-mile radius of the fire have been evacuated. Even residents of a neighboring state were advised to stay indoors.

David Mattingly joins us from Conyers, Georgia with the latest -- David.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, for nearly 16 hours now that yellowish plume of smoke you see behind me has towered over the city of Conyers, Georgia, east of Atlanta and word tonight is it's not going to go away nearly as quickly as it appeared.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Between 3:30 and 4:00 in the morning a loud explosion startled the city of Conyers, Georgia, east of Atlanta and soon an ominous plume of smoke billowed eastward at times blocking out the morning sun.

DAVID GATTIS, EVACUEE: I walked outside and saw the haze, just the big, thick smoke coming of the top of my house. I walked in, turned on the news and saw it on television and saw that everything was going literally right over my property.

MATTINGLY: A warehouse full of chlorinated compounds used to treat swimming pools burned out of control. There were no mandatory evacuations. Still hundreds sought out local shelters.

LATRELLE WILSON, EVACUEE: I thought it would just be a few hours and it never occurred to me that it might be all night tonight because I didn't bring a toothbrush or anything.

MATTINGLY: Twenty-eight people were admitted at areas hospitals for respiratory problems, none serious. Airborne chlorine can also cause eye and skin irritation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything's closed.

MATTINGLY: A 26-mile stretch of Interstate 20, the main east/west route for thousands of Atlanta commuters, was shut down temporarily due to poor visibility and air quality. According to firefighters the chlorinated compounds continue to burn slowly and are proving extremely difficult to extinguish.

JOHN OXENDINE, GEORGIA INSURANCE COMMISSIONER: The hydrochlorine is explosive. There are constantly explosions, small explosions going off in small containers. I mean it just sounds like a gun going off every few minutes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: An explosive pattern that's already resulted in at least one injury at the scene. A firefighter was treated for smoke inhalation. This fire now is expected to go at least well into tomorrow leaving some local residents to wonder, Anderson, when will it be safe to go back home?

COOPER: All right, David Mattingly in Conyers thanks David.

Officials in Georgia are calling the chemical smoke more an irritant right now than a danger, some good news there. We have seen bad chemical disasters in the past. Here's a quick 360 flashback.

December, 1984, the world's worst chemical disaster. A poisonous gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. More than 3,000 people were killed at the time, thousands more made ill. Union Carbide paid the Indian government some $470 million in damages.

Well many of you are likely to remember the McMartin case in California in which seven adults were accused of child molestation. That trial lasted six years, cost $15 million, resulting in no convictions though plenty of lives were ruined. Now it seems France is enduring a similar spectacle though the case has taken a very strange twist.

CNN's Jim Bittermann reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It has been called a judicial shipwreck, a farce if it weren't so tragic, a dramatic and horrifying pedophile trial in an obscure French village that has riveted the country.

After an investigation that began in early 2001, 18 defendants were accused of involvement in group rapes and bestiality of more than a dozen of their own and neighbors' children, ranging in age from three to 12.

The alleged crimes took place regularly between 1995 and 2000 in the grim apartment blocks where a number of the accused live. The defendants and their families were scorned by the community. Many spent years in jail waiting for trial. One committed suicide. Nearly all said they were innocent.

Then last week the principal witness in the trial who admitted she had abused her own children said she had lied about 13 of the 18 accused. There were emotional and angry reactions. Families were broken, said some of the accused. Lives were ruined.

But while several defendants were immediately set free, the trial continues and early this week the principal witness again changed her story. (on camera): While the notorious trial is expected to continue for weeks yet, it appears at this point that the charges against most of the accused will eventually be dropped even after they have spent years in jail waiting for justice from a system that many critics now say has serious flaws.

Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Remarkable.

360 next, devastating floods ravish a nation. Reports coming in that hundreds have been killed. We're going to bring you the very latest.

Also tonight, the Iran connection did the U.S. get duped by Iranian ayatollahs and by this man? Stunning allegations from a former counterterrorism official.

And a little later, Air Kerry, not enough parachutes for the press and his hair to be used as a flotation device. That's what he said. We'll take you sky high on a campaign jet tour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: On "Justice Served" tonight, riveting testimony for the fourth day today from a teenage girl who says she was raped by three young men, one of them the son of a sheriff's deputy. The incident was videotaped by the defendants. Today their lawyers went after the alleged victim's credibility.

Donna Tatro has the latest from Santa Ana, California.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONNA TATRO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She knew she had to "come clean." That's what Jane Doe, the alleged victim in the Orange County gang rape trial testified to in court after having admitted to lying to her parents and detectives during the investigation.

JOE CAVALLO, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: She admits that she will not fully tell you everything that she's supposed to tell you unless she feels like it, so I don't think there's anything that needs to be portrayed. She portrays herself rather well, as I said in my opening statement. She's a pathological liar.

TATRO: Greg Heidl (ph), Kyle Nockriner (ph) and Keith Spann are accused of 24 felony counts, including gang rape and rape with a foreign object, all of these scenes captured on videotape.

The defense questioned her about her past sexual behavior with the three defendants. One of the boys had a different videotape of him having sex with her. Later he and her boyfriend showed the tape at school. The defense asked why she didn't break ties with them after that. Jane Doe testified: "I liked him (Keith Spann). I thought he was a friend and I was stupid."

CAVALLO: I think she's pretty much laid out for the jurors who she is sexually, who she is as a person, who she is morally, ethically.

TATRO: But despite having admitted to lying, prosecutors say she's telling the truth about the rape.

SUSAN KANG SCHROEDER, D.A. SPOKESPERSON: That will be up to the jury to decide whether despite that whether she's still telling the truth as to whether she gave permission for these defendants to insert various foreign objects into her and to tape her.

TATRO (on camera): Up next defense attorneys will call several of Jane Doe's close friends who will testify that she told them she felt like she hadn't been raped and that she aspired to be a porn star.

Donna Tatro, for CNN, Santa Ana, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Let's get you up to date right now with what's happening around the world in the "Up Link."

In the Dominican Republic deadly floods. At least 76 people, about half of them children, have died. A river burst its banks, swept away dozens of homes yesterday in the western Dominican Republican. In all the Associated Press reports at least 363 people have been killed in floods in the D.R. as well as in Haiti in recent days.

Manchester, England, reproductive history, a doctor reveals that a British woman gave birth to a baby two years ago using 21-year-old frozen sperm from her husband. The husband had his sperm frozen before treatment for testicular cancer left him sterile. The hospital where the woman gave birth says the age of the sperm probably makes it a world record. Somebody call Guinness.

Beijing, this looks familiar, about 4,000 aspiring pop stars show up to audition for China's version of "American Idol." The winner gets a $120,000 recording contract.

And that's tonight's "Up Link" for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): Did Iran trick the U.S. into doing its dirty work in Iraq? New claims Ahmed Chalabi was a double agent.

And miracle cure or medical scam, can this dental device actually help you lose weight, 360 continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BREAKING NEWS)

COOPER: We have breaking news just coming in to CNN. We are just receiving word that U.S. officials have obtained new intelligence information that is deemed highly credible indicating that al Qaeda or other terrorists are in the United States and preparing to launch a major attack this summer.

For more we go live to Washington and CNN Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena, Kelli what do you know?

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, I checked in with several U.S. officials who confirm a report that was first reported by the AP that there is new information that has come in that has built on previous information, electronic intercepts from overseas and so on, suggesting that there is a major attack planned on U.S. soil sometime this summer.

There was previous information suggesting that that attack might take place prior to the November presidential elections, sometime between the conventions and the election to try to somehow affect the U.S. elections as we saw in Spain, Anderson.

The information though is not very specific. I'm told it does not include a date, a time of day, a target, nothing as specific at that but it has always been thought that there were sleeper cells that were here in the United States.

We've heard repeatedly from U.S. officials saying that that was their biggest problem was trying to identify anyone who may be here in the United States just waiting for orders to attack. There does seem to be some indication that those -- that those suspicions were true.

Beyond that, Anderson, not sure if we're going to hear anything more specifically about if they're actually looking for individuals but we are expecting to hear from the attorney general and FBI director sometime this week in a press conference, we're told, going to lay out for the American people sort of a threat assessment.

Also tomorrow happens to be Wednesday. That is the day that the FBI sends out guidance to its state and local law enforcement partners, 18,000 of them, and we are told that in that weekly bulletin there will be some guidance issued to state and local partners in terms of dealing with this new information and what to be on the lookout for.

COOPER: At this point, Kelly, though, there is no plan or at least no word of a plan to actually raise the national threat level, is that correct?

ARENA: That's right. Our homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve confirming that for us. There's no plan at this time to raise the threat level which currently stands at yellow which is elevated already, to orange. They've really been trying not to do that unless they have something very specific to hang their hats on. We'll see. I think this is very much a work in progress, Anderson. This is the information that has been building and building. And as one source suggested to me, it's the assessment that is new. It was the corroboration of information coming in from various sources that was starting to make some sense for the counterterrorism officials who are given the task of trying to piece all of this together.

COOPER: Kelly, the AP, and I'm reading the wire right now, is saying or categorizing this information, as the, and I quote, "the most disturbing received by the government since the attacks of September 11, 2001." They put that according to a senior federal counterterrorism official. Are you hearing that, as well?

ARENA: Anderson, it depends on who you talk to. I have spoken to some officials who say that they believe that this is the most credible. That they do believe that something is in the works. I have spoken to other people who have suggested that until they see something much more specific, that they will continue to work through the intelligence.

But I can tell you, though, that this has been a building situation. We have had several conversations, my colleagues and I, not just me, have had several conversations with officials throughout the last two weeks and we've all been hearing pretty much the same thing, Anderson.

There is a building concern about the upcoming time frame. We have lots of big events going on. You have the G-8 summit in Georgia. You have, of course, the conventions. You have the dedication of the World War II memorial here in Washington. And of course those elections in November. Lots of opportunity. I think we discussed it on your show, Anderson. Lots of opportunity to strike where there are a large number of people where al Qaeda or another terrorist organization can deal a significant blow.

COOPER: And of course the big fear, biological, chemical or radiological weapons.

ARENA: That's right but that's always been a fear, Anderson. I would not underscore that. That's been out there for a long time. If you want to get the most bang for your buck, being a terrorist, a chemical, biological or nuclear attack would be the way to go. But there's no new intelligence I am told on that front that any terrorist organization or al Qaeda is any closer, there's nothing specific on that front. So I want to just back off from that just a little bit.

COOPER: Some alarming news tonight. Again, this is just breaking news coming in to CNN. We're going to continue to follow this story over the next couple of minutes. Bring you any updates as warranted. Kelli Arena, thanks very much from Washington. Want to bring in former defense secretary William Cohen in now. Mr. Secretary, appreciate you being on the program. New concerns about terror attacks. What do you make of them?

WILLIAM COHEN, FMR. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, it shouldn't come as a surprise. We've known for some time that there are terror cells in the United States, al Qaeda, and others. And so, it shouldn't be greeted as some alarming news. We've known it for some time. The question is what are we doing about it? To simply alarm the American people is not going to be sufficient. A notice should go out and the credibility of the assessments coming in now should go out to law enforcement officials, defense officials and others who are charged with the responsibility to counter the terrorist activities. But I think this should not come as shocking news. We've known it for a long time.

COOPER: Do you think that the message that was received by what happened after the Madrid train bombings, the changeover of power in Spain, sent a message to terrorists that you can affect elections?

COHEN: I think that that is one of the messages certainly that has come out that they can, by the exquisite timing of that particular attack, affect the elections. They also may be trying to affect the elections here. And, of course, it's a different dynamic at work here. Whether the people would rally around the president under those circumstances, or whether they were see this as an opportunity to vote for Senator Kerry as president. I don't think anyone can calculate that right now. But obviously they're going to try to extract as much in the way of a political consequence as possible.

COOPER: Let's talk -- a number of subjects to talk about tonight. Let's talk about Ricardo Sanchez being removed as the top commander in Iraq sometime this summer. Pentagon saying it is not a demotion in any way. Is it? What's your take on it?

COHEN: Well, it could be a matter of coincidence or that of calculation. I think I'm not in a position to make that judgment. But clearly the administration wants to start anew. They want a new beginning, a new government in Iraq. A new commander in the field, as such. A new ambassador. A new opportunity for the Iraqi people. And so this all comes coincidentally with the timing of the June 30 handover of political authority. So I think it could be coincidence. But it could be a calculated move on the part of the administration saying we're starting over.

COOPER: Do you think Abu Ghraib, the situation there, the handling of it by Sanchez or the perceived handling of it by Sanchez would have anything to do with this?

COHEN: Well, it might. But General Sanchez has been a dedicated soldier. He's been in a very difficult position. There may be some accountability there. We haven't had all of the facts come in. Congress is still investigating, the administration's still investigating. So I think it's premature to reach a judgment that that is the factor involved. But he's been there for 13 months now. And it's been a hard tour for him. And they want to put a four star in, which again will signal that this is going to be a new beginning with even a higher level of commander on the ground.

COOPER: President Bush talked to President Jacques Chirac of France today. A lot of people are sort of surprised by that. Or at least commenting on it. Of course going back to old Europe, if you will. The French basically said that more talk needs to happen in the United Nations, and a real transfer of power needs to happen on June 30. Do you think there's going to be a real transfer of power? COHEN: I think there will be a substantial transfer of power. I think France is going to ask in not so many direct words for the United States to eat a bit of humble pie. But they have to be careful they don't ask the United States to try and choke on it. And so the president is prepared to go to not only President Chirac, but also Chancellor Schroeder to say we need your help. We need the U.N.'s help. We need NATO's help. We're in this war, and it's a difficult position for us. But a lot is at stake and much will affect France, Germany and the entire industrialized world. So we need your help. We're asking for it. And I think they have to take some care that they don't overplay the hand that they have right now by making us be so contrite that it undermines the credibility of the United States and the credibility as the world power.

COOPER: Do we go back to eating French fries or is it still freedom fries?

COHEN: We can wear French cuffs as I do and maybe that will be sufficient.

COOPER: Secretary Cohen, thank you very much for being on the program.

So interesting question tonight, did Iran dupe the United States into war against its arch enemy, Iraq? Larry Johnson, a former counterterrorism official, is at the State Department. He says Iran passed along bogus intelligence through Pentagon friend turned foe Ahmed Chalabi. Just last week, you'll recall, U.S. forces raided Chalabi's compound in Iraq amid allegations a key member of his staff passed U.S. secrets to Iran. This report came out of the British paper, "The Guardian" today.

Earlier, I spoke exclusively from Casablanca with the man making the charge against Iran, Larry Johnson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: You reported in "The Guardian" this morning saying, quote, "when the story ultimately comes out, we'll see that Iran has run one of the most masterful intelligence in history. They persuaded the U.S. and Britain of its greatest enemy." Are you saying that Iran duped the U.S. into going into war in Iraq?

LARRY JOHNSON, FMR. SR. COUNTERTERRORISM OFFICIAL: Ultimately, yes. I don't think they started out with that as a plan. But at the end of the day, that's what came out. They had managed to establish a person, Ahmed Chalabi, who was into the highest centers of power in the United States, they were able to run this individual just looking from a classic intelligence standpoint where you try to put agents of influence in a position where they can help direct what other governments do. That looks like exactly what happened in this case.

COOPER: So you believe that Ahmed Chalabi was actually used by Iran as an agent of influence, given false information about WMD, about other things, that was funneled into the Pentagon, that information was then used to go to war? JOHNSON: I don't know if it was Ahmed Chalabi specifically. But someone in Ahmed Chalabi's organization definitely, possibly him, but it is clear that false intelligence was fed into the United States government.

COOPER: CNN has looked into this story that was published in "The Guardian" today. According to one senior U.S. intelligence official who talked to CNN, reports that an urgent investigation, which is the words used by "The Guardian," that an urgent investigation was underway into this is simply false. That, in this person's opinion, it was not happening. They have no evidence of it. Ahmed Chalabi has completely denied this, saying yes, he had contacts with Iran, he had regular contacts for many years, that's well known. But there was no misinformation, no information was passed either way. Do you have any evidence of what your theory is?

JOHNSON: Well, it's not a matter of theory. Let's start with fact. One of the major sources of information was the Iraqi National Congress, who was being hired to provide intelligence to the U.S. government. But yet now that we've seen what is happening, these guys were meeting with Iranian intelligence officials. At the end of the day, you have to ask, who's better off in the Middle East? Iran or the United States? I think by any objective measure today, Iran is in a much stronger position than is the United States.

COOPER: It's one thing, though, to say that false information was passed by Ahmed Chalabi or people in his organization to the United States. It's another thing to say that that information was misinformation purposely given by the government of Iran to Ahmed Chalabi or to the INC. You have no evidence of that?

JOHNSON: No. I don't have evidence of that. But what I stepped back and looked at the process that we know factually happened and what we know were the results on the ground. It has the hall marks of an intelligence operation.

COOPER: Larry Johnson, thanks for being on the program.

JOHNSON: Thanks for having me, Anderson.

COOPER: As we mentioned before, President Bush spent some time on the phone with French President Jacques Chirac today to talk about the future of Iraq. The French so far seem unconvinced Mr. Bush has a viable plan, but what about the American public?

Al Franken and Bay Buchanan will weigh in when we come back.

Also tonight, this is not flying coach. We'll take a look at John Kerry's brand-spanking new campaign plane.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: On 360 next, Al Franken and Bay Buchanan sound off on the president, politics and the war in Iraq. That in a moment.

But first, the story from "The Homefront." In World War II the homefront was personified by Rosie the Riveter and the idea that what happened at home was every bit as important as what happened on the battlefield. Today, despite the fear that there might be a terror attack, the effects of the war in Iraq here in this country have been much less obvious. So this week we'll look at "The Homefront." How towns and families, not just those in the military, are dealing with the war.

CNN's Jonathan Freed tonight in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a warm, spring day in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Time to bait a hook. But what's biting at people here by the shores of Lake Winnebago is the war.

Jerry Morse's son is serving in Iraq.

JERRY MORSE, SON SERVES IN IRAQ: He went over there to do his job. The job's half done. You don't finish it, there was no sense starting it.

FREED: That's a nonstarter for some. Insisting it's time to wind it all up.

MARTY NEIS, OSHKOSH RESIDENT We need to get everything up and running and get all our people out of there, because, you know, I just see the death toll going up from here.

FREED: Military matters matter more in this town. That's an MTVR, just one of many severe duty vehicles built for the armed forces by the Oshkosh truck corporation. Workers riveted on images of their 4,500 trucks on duty in Iraq.

(on camera): When you hear people saying that it's time to bring the troops home, what's your reaction to that?

ANDY SCHALLER, SPECIALIZED ASSEMBLER: I believe that that's the wrong answer. All the troops that have passed or perished will have died in vain. And they already gave the ultimate sacrifice, as well as their families.

FRIED, (voice-over): Most at the plant say they support the war. But how it's being fought is fodder for this Vietnam veteran.

ED DEMIER, TUBE CUTTER: We shouldn't worry about world opinion. We've got a job we need to do. Lets accomplish that job and come on back home.

FREED: While the politics of war can create a slippery slope, workers believe their trucks offer traction where it counts the most, supporting troops on the front lines.

Jonathan Freed, CNN, Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Last night, of course, the president made his case. How was it received?

Let's talk about that. From New York I'm joined by Al Franken, author of "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them," host of the O'Franken Factor on Air America Radio.

And in Washington, Bay Buchanan, president of the American Cause.

Thanks both of you for being on the program. Bay, how did the president do last night?

BAY BUCHANAN, PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN CAUSE: I think he did well. Anderson, I think he made a very strong case. What he needed to do was to let the American people know that this is going to be tough. That we have a plan. That we're putting it in place. And that he needs their support. And he also needed to send a message to Iraq and our soldiers that this is a good cause, but that they're going to need to step up to the plate here as we turn a lot of the responsibility over to them. I think he did that. And I think the American people will response.

COOPER: Al, is that what you heard last night?

AL FRANKEN, AUTHOR: I was sort of disturbed last night, and didn't hear anything new. I really heard the president who is in denial about how chaotic that country is. I just want to take a few lines out of the speech if I could and talk about them. He said, many of Iraq's cities and towns have now elected town councils or city governments. But in a "Christian Science Monitor" article it said that counselors across the country have been assassinated. An official at the Baghdad City Council says 52 neighborhood and district counselors have been killed since the middle of last year. Among them Mohammed Munther (ph), A Shiekh Munther (ph) counselor who was gunned down outside his small shop. There's no security there. And there's no security because we didn't send in enough troops. And part of his -- he's just in denial. Part of his denial is passing the buck. He said our commanders had estimated that a troop level below 115,000 would be sufficient at this point in the conflict. And he's passing the buck to the generals there.

COOPER: Well, Bay...

FRANKEN: He didn't mention Rumsfeld once. As you know, General Shinseki said there should be several hundred thousand troops there.

COOPER: Bay, are...

BUCHANAN: All right, it's quite clear that there's some dispute. I've heard generals say there should be more. And I've heard others say no it's quite adequate. The president made it quite clear...

FRANKEN: It's not adequate.

BUCHANAN: But you know, when the general in the field is telling the president of the United States the guy is out there right now and he says, Mr. President, this is adequate. This is what we need. The president says all right, if you need more I'll give you more. But he's giving them what they ask for.

COOPER: Bay, you don't think politics are playing into that at all?

FRANKEN: That's not what happened.

BUCHANAN: I believe that he -- I believe that the generals on the field said we need more troops. That they would be there. I hear a lot of talk from the military that it's not -- that we need certain kinds of troops. We need the special ops people now. We need those kind who can work with the Iraqis and train them. It's not that we just need numbers. So there's no question and the president admitted it, that we had planned on backing out of -- reducing our troop level and we're not able to because the Iraqi Army has not come up and done the job we anticipated. Those things are mistakes, those things worked out not to our advantage and the president's responded according.

COOPER: Al, today the president talked to French President Jacques Chirac.

Do you see that as a big change in policy?

FRANKEN: Well, of course, Kerry has been telling the president he should be speaking to the international community and talking to the U.N. and talking to our allies to try to get an international coalition there. But, Bay is just kidding herself. The -- the command is top down. And they wanted more troops in there. Shinseki was the chief of staff of the army, and when he had testified to that, he was immediately humiliated. They announced his retirement early. The military wanted more troops. But Rumsfeld, whose name was not even mentioned last night, was -- didn't want to have this lean, mean force. And we haven't established security. And that is the reason that this whole place is in chaos. And the president took no responsibility at all.

COOPER: Bay I want give (UNINTELLIGIBLE) respond.

BUCHANAN: Absolutely that's not true. The president has always taken responsibility for Iraq. He has placed the entire presidency and indeed his legacy on the line for Iraq. And last night he said he stands by his goals in Iraq. And he will pursue them and they're honorable ones and he's asking for the American people to support it. As for John Kerry, John Kerry has not come up with original thought. Every time he says the president doesn't have a plan and the press asks him, he basically says the president should do exactly what he is doing.

FRANKEN: That is so not true. That is so not true.

BUCHANAN: He has no alternative whatsoever. And that is why he's in trouble. The Democrats have no alternative to the president. Ralph Nader is the only alternative when it comes to Iraq.

FRANKEN: No, no, no. That's ridiculous. The president is moving toward Kerry's position. Kerry said months and months ago that we should internationalize this coalition and get NATO in there. That is absolutely not true, Bay. It is not true.

BUCHANAN: The president has -- we've been trying to get them in. And what they've said is they will not come in until we have an interim government that is clearly Iraqi. So the president is moving towards that on June 30 and doing exactly as quickly as he can.

COOPER: We're going to have to leave it right there. Bay Buchanan and Al Franken, thank you very much...

FRANKEN: He has not taken responsibility.

COOPER: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Today's buzz is this. Do you think the outcome of the presidential election hinges on what happens in Iraq? Log on to CNN.com/360. Cast your vote. Results in just a few moments at the end of the show.

Today John Kerry unveiled a brand-new aircraft that will carry him from campaign stop to convention, from stump speech to stump speech. May not be Air Force One, but the Boeing 757 is fitted with all the gadgets a candidate and his guests might need because if you're a serious presidential contender, it's important to travel in style.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): The aircraft was launched with a fanfare befitting a campaign plane. And candidate John Kerry like a kid with a new toy couldn't contain his excitement.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And in the event of emergency my hair can be used as a flotation device.

COOPER: The plane carried the candidate and his staff in comfort from Washington, D.C. to Portland, Oregon. And the media, too, got its first ride. It cost the Kerry campaign $26,000 per flight hour to operate. Seats 94 passengers in 5 cabins for staff, the media and the Secret Service. The plane has two conference tables, 8 phone lines, a copy machine, a printer, and of course a bar. It's a plane fit for a, well, a candidate. But it's on a long-term lease. Good idea since the candidate's hoping to trade up, as it were, in November, to Air Force One.

Now technically that's the term for any airplane the president flies on but there are two 747s that can become official Air Force Ones. They each hold 102 passengers and crew, have a bedroom, bathroom and workout area for the president, a conference room that doubles as dining room, 85 phones, 19 televisions and a nuclear shield. And, of course, if they're at your disposal, that makes you the leader of the free world.

As for Dennis Kucinich, yes, he's still in the race, he doesn't have a plane but he does get from place to place in a 2002 Ford Focus. (END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, coming up, taking heavy lifting to the Nth Degree. A sumo wrestler goes for the top prize in Tokyo. And today's buzz. Do you think the outcome of the presidential election hinges on what happens in Iraq? Log on to CNN.com/360. Cast your vote, we're going to have results when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Time now for the buzz. Earlier we asked you, do you think the outcome of the presidential election hinges on what happens in Iraq? About 25,000 of you have voted. 66 percent of you said yes, 34 percent no. Not a scientific poll but it is your buzz. Thanks for voting.

Tonight taking big winners to the Nth Degree. I don't want to brag or anything but I've been telling anyone who'd listen how this was going to come out pretty much from the get-go. Take the Mongolian and the points I've been saying and that's exactly how it went the other day in Tokyo.

Yes, sir, Asashoryu the Mongolian bad boy of sumo took his third straight Emperor's Cup on the last day of the Summer Grand Basho (ph) by making short work of Hokutoriki. He charged out of the blocks, picked Hokutoriki up by the back of the belt and lifted all 340 pounds of him right up (UNINTELLIGIBLE), nice as you please. The loser was awarded the Fighting Spirit prize. Yes, right. The Fighting Spirit prize. You know what the yokozuna say, that and a couple of hundred yen will get you a seat on the Akasaka (ph) line. I'm Anderson Cooper. Thanks for watching 360. "PAULA ZAHN NOW" is next.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired May 25, 2004 - 19:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. I'm Anderson Cooper.
President Bush utters the "F" word France, reaching out to French President Jacques Chirac for help in Iraq, 360 starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): Bush hits the road selling his Iraq policy but are Americans and our allies buying?

Did Iran trick the U.S. into doing its dirty work in Iraq? New claims Ahmed Chalabi was a double agent.

Hundreds evacuated as a massive chemical plant fire spews a toxic cloud in Georgia.

Authorities prepare for a possible al Qaeda attack this weekend at the World War II memorial.

And, miracle cure or medical scam, can this dental device actually help you lose weight?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Good evening.

Old Europe suddenly seems kind of new again. Today, President Bush placed a call to French President Jacques Chirac requesting support for U.S. political plans in Iraq.

On the military front tonight, the top U.S. commander in Iraq will step down. We're tracking all the angles with CNN White House Correspondent Dana Bash in Washington and CNN Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre.

We begin at the White House. Dana, what response did the president get from France today?

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, President Chirac spoke on the phone with President Bush for about 20 minutes and President Bush was told that in order to win French support there has to be clearly written into the U.N. resolution that Iraqis have control over their country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BASH (voice-over): The morning after launching a major campaign to revive support for his Iraq policy, the president stepped up his personal diplomacy calling a war foe, French President Jacques Chirac to enlist international support.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: President Chirac and others have said is they want to make sure that the transfer of sovereignty to the interim government is a real transfer and that's what we want.

BASH: More than a year after France, among others, blocked U.N. support for war in Iraq, the president now needs them to bless a U.N. blueprint for peace and U.S. officials took pains to acknowledge Mr. Bush understands the French president wants adjustments to the administration's U.N. plan.

Some of the key sticking points the precise definition of Iraqi sovereignty, what political power the interim government will have, whether there should be a date certain for troop withdrawal as France and Germany want and how much authority the interim government will have over the coalition military.

Several Security Council members say real Iraqi sovereignty can't be achieved without official power over a multinational force. Bush officials say U.S. troops must maintain the ability to protect themselves.

BUSH: I will continue to ask the world to help.

BASH: But the administration is eager to paint an optimistic picture. One senior official calls all difference bridgeable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And French officials were also somewhat optimistic that they could get a deal on a U.N. Security Council resolution very soon but one senior French official said that we hope this time they'll listen to us -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Dana Bash at the White House thanks Dana.

June 30 that's the handover date of course. Today word of one change already in the works, a new U.S. military commander. After 13 months in Baghdad, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez is on his way out. He'll be replaced this summer. Some have said it's a demotion for the top military man in Iraq. The Pentagon insists it is anything but.

CNN Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pentagon officials insist Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez' rotation out of the top commander's job was in the cards all along and has nothing to do with his handling of the abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib Prison.

BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, COALITION MILITARY SPOKESMAN: We have always expected General Sanchez to depart sometime after sovereignty, transferred sovereignty.

MCINTYRE: After June 30, the U.S. plans to reorganize the command structure in Iraq sending in a four-star general who sources say will be Army Vice Chief of Staff General George Casey to work alongside U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte. Under them will be Lieutenant General Thomas Metts who is now Sanchez' deputy.

The arrangement is intended to facilitate coordination with the new interim Iraqi government which is supposed to be in charge but not of U.S. forces. But what if as happened recently in Fallujah the U.S. wants to get tough and Iraq's interim leaders don't? Britain's prime minister suggests they would have a veto.

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: If there's a political decision as to whether you go into a place like Fallujah in a particular way that has to be done with the consent of the Iraqi government and the final political control remains with the Iraqi government. That's what the transfer of sovereignty means.

MCINTYRE: But the U.S. insists it will have the final say in launching military action.

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: The U.S. forces remain under U.S. command and will do what is necessary to protect themselves.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: The U.S. wants to keep some strategic ambiguity in the arrangement not nailing down every possible scenario in a U.N. resolution. They say it's often easier to just work these things out on the ground or, as Secretary Powell said today, Anderson, it's no big deal -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Jamie McIntyre thanks from the Pentagon.

We're going to talk more about Sanchez and U.S. policy in Iraq with former Secretary of Defense William Cohen. That is coming up later on 360.

In Iraq today, fears confirmed. Lab tests show the nerve agent sarin was indeed in an artillery shell used in a roadside bomb earlier this month. Two soldiers suffered minor health problems after the shell exploded before they could disarm it.

Meanwhile in Najaf, heavy fighting and damage at the city's holiest shrine. Coalition forces say they are not responsible for the damage as they battle militia loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

And more explosions in Baghdad as insurgents fired at the city's central police station causing minor damage and wounding one U.S. soldier. Southeast of Baghdad, still along the Tigris River in the city of Amara, British forces continue to come under attack from insurgents on patrol when fighting erupted.

Here's ITN's Bill Neely.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL NEELY, ITN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a convoy of armored vehicles we moved into the city to join a patrol of the regiment who had been here just a month and who have been shot at and bombed every day. They had just begun patrolling on foot when an Iraqi on a rooftop threw his blast bomb.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Contact.

NEELY: Contact, their word for an attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody all right? Welcome to Amara.

NEELY: As Iraqis stood stunned, one soldier anticipated what would come next.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Face the river.

NEELY: From the other side, the river, and within a minute of the first attack a second.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Possibly 30 meters.

NEELY: We had fallen. A grenade had been thrown at us. It was a coordinated ambush from both sides of the street.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay with the vehicle. That's it. It's the only cover you've got.

NEELY: They couldn't see their attackers. They began to pull back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep going. Keep going.

NEELY (on camera): It's now about two minutes since that blast bomb went off and we are retreating. Obviously the fear is that there's more to come.

(voice-over): There was, a second grenade was thrown but like the first it failed to explode.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We haven't got a clue where it came from. We thought possibly that it was a rooftop.

NEELY (on camera): These are, without question, the most dangerous streets in Iraq for British troops to patrol as we've just seen and they've taken a very few casualties to prove it. They now believe though that they dominate this city. The problem, well it is one of the most rebellious and dangerous places in Iraq. (voice-over): Tough by day and tough by night. The attackers strike again hitting the soldiers' base. Listen to the whiz of the bullets pass.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Unintelligible.)

NEELY: On every night the Princess of Wales' royal regiment go to meet their enemy. Fourteen months since the war started and here at least the violence has gotten worse not better. Tonight again there is here a regiment under fire.

Bill Neely, ITV News, al-Amara.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, an article in a British paper "The Guardian" caught out attention today, the theory rather controversial. Did Iran trick the United States into the war in Iraq?

Ahead my exclusive interview with Larry Johnson, former counterterrorism official at the State Department on his belief that Iran used the U.S. to fight its battles with Saddam Hussein.

On the home front terror watch fears of a possible attack this weekend at the dedication of the National World War II memorial on the Washington Mall.

With a look at security preparations underway, CNN's Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve. Jeanne no specific threat about this weekend.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Homeland Security officials say there is no specific and credible threat information regarding the dedication ceremony but security will be tighter than it has been for any other event ever on the national mall. The security planning has been underway for a year, although the physical parts of it are just beginning to be put in place.

Besides road closures, barricades and checkpoints, canine explosive detection teams will be widely deployed. Chemical and biological sensors already on the mall will be supplemented with radiological detection gear. The Coast Guard will patrol the Potomac River. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will police the air space, which is already closed.

Unprecedented medical preparedness steps are also being taken because of the age and health of those attending. Emergency medical personnel will be in the subways in first aid tents and in the crowd on bicycles with defibrillators. Officials hope they're ready for anything.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN ETTER, SPOKESMAN D.C. FIRE AND EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES DEPT.: We have engaged our mass casualty unit. We have engaged our medical ambulance bus. I mean we are prepared. I mean God forbid anything drastic were to occur. We are prepared for a mass casualty situation. We've been working with the hospitals for a number of time as well as you know hospital capacity is a big factor of this component.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: The dedication is just the first in a series of high profile events this summer that will require high security. Still to come the G8 Economic Summit, Fourth of July celebrations, the Democratic and Republican conventions, the Olympics, the General Election. Officials fear that terrorists will try to do something to disrupt the political process just as they did in Spain -- Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: But at this point there's no talk about raising the national threat level?

MESERVE: No. For the moment it's staying at yellow. What they've always said is it will take specific and credible information to move it up. They don't have that at this point.

COOPER: All right, Jeanne Meserve thanks from Washington.

We're tracking a number of other important stories right now coast to coast. Let's take a look "Cross Country."

Northwest Missouri, surveying the damage and a lot of damage there is. The entire town of Albany still without power after tornadoes swept through last night. Between five and ten twisters touched down in the area destroying houses, businesses, causing only minor injuries however.

San Francisco, same-sex marriage in the courts. California Supreme Court hears arguments on whether San Francisco's mayor went beyond his authority in issuing marriage licenses to about 4,000 gay and lesbian couples.

In Boston, shutting church doors. The Boston Archdiocese will close 60 churches, about a fifth of its parishes in the wake of the priest sex abuse scandal, declining attendance and a shortage of priests.

In Washington, the unusual suspect. Law enforcement officials say they've arrested Spanky the Clown from the Ringling Brothers Circus, the charges child pornography. The arrest was the latest in the ongoing investigation of subscribers to a child porn Web site that was shut down last summer.

360 next a chlorine-laced fire forces a mass evacuation. How big a threat is it? We're going to take you there live.

Also tonight, a small town rocked by allegations of rape and child molestation. Did dozens of people get sent to prison because of a big lie?

And the politics of war, how much will Iraq really matter this election year? Al Franken and Babe Buchanan sound off.

First let's take a look at your picks the most popular stories on cnn.com right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: A massive plume of chlorine-laced smoke spreads for hundreds of miles as firefighters in Georgia prepare to work through the night to battle a stubborn blaze at a chemical warehouse. Hundreds of homes within a five-mile radius of the fire have been evacuated. Even residents of a neighboring state were advised to stay indoors.

David Mattingly joins us from Conyers, Georgia with the latest -- David.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, for nearly 16 hours now that yellowish plume of smoke you see behind me has towered over the city of Conyers, Georgia, east of Atlanta and word tonight is it's not going to go away nearly as quickly as it appeared.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Between 3:30 and 4:00 in the morning a loud explosion startled the city of Conyers, Georgia, east of Atlanta and soon an ominous plume of smoke billowed eastward at times blocking out the morning sun.

DAVID GATTIS, EVACUEE: I walked outside and saw the haze, just the big, thick smoke coming of the top of my house. I walked in, turned on the news and saw it on television and saw that everything was going literally right over my property.

MATTINGLY: A warehouse full of chlorinated compounds used to treat swimming pools burned out of control. There were no mandatory evacuations. Still hundreds sought out local shelters.

LATRELLE WILSON, EVACUEE: I thought it would just be a few hours and it never occurred to me that it might be all night tonight because I didn't bring a toothbrush or anything.

MATTINGLY: Twenty-eight people were admitted at areas hospitals for respiratory problems, none serious. Airborne chlorine can also cause eye and skin irritation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything's closed.

MATTINGLY: A 26-mile stretch of Interstate 20, the main east/west route for thousands of Atlanta commuters, was shut down temporarily due to poor visibility and air quality. According to firefighters the chlorinated compounds continue to burn slowly and are proving extremely difficult to extinguish.

JOHN OXENDINE, GEORGIA INSURANCE COMMISSIONER: The hydrochlorine is explosive. There are constantly explosions, small explosions going off in small containers. I mean it just sounds like a gun going off every few minutes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: An explosive pattern that's already resulted in at least one injury at the scene. A firefighter was treated for smoke inhalation. This fire now is expected to go at least well into tomorrow leaving some local residents to wonder, Anderson, when will it be safe to go back home?

COOPER: All right, David Mattingly in Conyers thanks David.

Officials in Georgia are calling the chemical smoke more an irritant right now than a danger, some good news there. We have seen bad chemical disasters in the past. Here's a quick 360 flashback.

December, 1984, the world's worst chemical disaster. A poisonous gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. More than 3,000 people were killed at the time, thousands more made ill. Union Carbide paid the Indian government some $470 million in damages.

Well many of you are likely to remember the McMartin case in California in which seven adults were accused of child molestation. That trial lasted six years, cost $15 million, resulting in no convictions though plenty of lives were ruined. Now it seems France is enduring a similar spectacle though the case has taken a very strange twist.

CNN's Jim Bittermann reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It has been called a judicial shipwreck, a farce if it weren't so tragic, a dramatic and horrifying pedophile trial in an obscure French village that has riveted the country.

After an investigation that began in early 2001, 18 defendants were accused of involvement in group rapes and bestiality of more than a dozen of their own and neighbors' children, ranging in age from three to 12.

The alleged crimes took place regularly between 1995 and 2000 in the grim apartment blocks where a number of the accused live. The defendants and their families were scorned by the community. Many spent years in jail waiting for trial. One committed suicide. Nearly all said they were innocent.

Then last week the principal witness in the trial who admitted she had abused her own children said she had lied about 13 of the 18 accused. There were emotional and angry reactions. Families were broken, said some of the accused. Lives were ruined.

But while several defendants were immediately set free, the trial continues and early this week the principal witness again changed her story. (on camera): While the notorious trial is expected to continue for weeks yet, it appears at this point that the charges against most of the accused will eventually be dropped even after they have spent years in jail waiting for justice from a system that many critics now say has serious flaws.

Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Remarkable.

360 next, devastating floods ravish a nation. Reports coming in that hundreds have been killed. We're going to bring you the very latest.

Also tonight, the Iran connection did the U.S. get duped by Iranian ayatollahs and by this man? Stunning allegations from a former counterterrorism official.

And a little later, Air Kerry, not enough parachutes for the press and his hair to be used as a flotation device. That's what he said. We'll take you sky high on a campaign jet tour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: On "Justice Served" tonight, riveting testimony for the fourth day today from a teenage girl who says she was raped by three young men, one of them the son of a sheriff's deputy. The incident was videotaped by the defendants. Today their lawyers went after the alleged victim's credibility.

Donna Tatro has the latest from Santa Ana, California.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONNA TATRO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She knew she had to "come clean." That's what Jane Doe, the alleged victim in the Orange County gang rape trial testified to in court after having admitted to lying to her parents and detectives during the investigation.

JOE CAVALLO, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: She admits that she will not fully tell you everything that she's supposed to tell you unless she feels like it, so I don't think there's anything that needs to be portrayed. She portrays herself rather well, as I said in my opening statement. She's a pathological liar.

TATRO: Greg Heidl (ph), Kyle Nockriner (ph) and Keith Spann are accused of 24 felony counts, including gang rape and rape with a foreign object, all of these scenes captured on videotape.

The defense questioned her about her past sexual behavior with the three defendants. One of the boys had a different videotape of him having sex with her. Later he and her boyfriend showed the tape at school. The defense asked why she didn't break ties with them after that. Jane Doe testified: "I liked him (Keith Spann). I thought he was a friend and I was stupid."

CAVALLO: I think she's pretty much laid out for the jurors who she is sexually, who she is as a person, who she is morally, ethically.

TATRO: But despite having admitted to lying, prosecutors say she's telling the truth about the rape.

SUSAN KANG SCHROEDER, D.A. SPOKESPERSON: That will be up to the jury to decide whether despite that whether she's still telling the truth as to whether she gave permission for these defendants to insert various foreign objects into her and to tape her.

TATRO (on camera): Up next defense attorneys will call several of Jane Doe's close friends who will testify that she told them she felt like she hadn't been raped and that she aspired to be a porn star.

Donna Tatro, for CNN, Santa Ana, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Let's get you up to date right now with what's happening around the world in the "Up Link."

In the Dominican Republic deadly floods. At least 76 people, about half of them children, have died. A river burst its banks, swept away dozens of homes yesterday in the western Dominican Republican. In all the Associated Press reports at least 363 people have been killed in floods in the D.R. as well as in Haiti in recent days.

Manchester, England, reproductive history, a doctor reveals that a British woman gave birth to a baby two years ago using 21-year-old frozen sperm from her husband. The husband had his sperm frozen before treatment for testicular cancer left him sterile. The hospital where the woman gave birth says the age of the sperm probably makes it a world record. Somebody call Guinness.

Beijing, this looks familiar, about 4,000 aspiring pop stars show up to audition for China's version of "American Idol." The winner gets a $120,000 recording contract.

And that's tonight's "Up Link" for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): Did Iran trick the U.S. into doing its dirty work in Iraq? New claims Ahmed Chalabi was a double agent.

And miracle cure or medical scam, can this dental device actually help you lose weight, 360 continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BREAKING NEWS)

COOPER: We have breaking news just coming in to CNN. We are just receiving word that U.S. officials have obtained new intelligence information that is deemed highly credible indicating that al Qaeda or other terrorists are in the United States and preparing to launch a major attack this summer.

For more we go live to Washington and CNN Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena, Kelli what do you know?

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, I checked in with several U.S. officials who confirm a report that was first reported by the AP that there is new information that has come in that has built on previous information, electronic intercepts from overseas and so on, suggesting that there is a major attack planned on U.S. soil sometime this summer.

There was previous information suggesting that that attack might take place prior to the November presidential elections, sometime between the conventions and the election to try to somehow affect the U.S. elections as we saw in Spain, Anderson.

The information though is not very specific. I'm told it does not include a date, a time of day, a target, nothing as specific at that but it has always been thought that there were sleeper cells that were here in the United States.

We've heard repeatedly from U.S. officials saying that that was their biggest problem was trying to identify anyone who may be here in the United States just waiting for orders to attack. There does seem to be some indication that those -- that those suspicions were true.

Beyond that, Anderson, not sure if we're going to hear anything more specifically about if they're actually looking for individuals but we are expecting to hear from the attorney general and FBI director sometime this week in a press conference, we're told, going to lay out for the American people sort of a threat assessment.

Also tomorrow happens to be Wednesday. That is the day that the FBI sends out guidance to its state and local law enforcement partners, 18,000 of them, and we are told that in that weekly bulletin there will be some guidance issued to state and local partners in terms of dealing with this new information and what to be on the lookout for.

COOPER: At this point, Kelly, though, there is no plan or at least no word of a plan to actually raise the national threat level, is that correct?

ARENA: That's right. Our homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve confirming that for us. There's no plan at this time to raise the threat level which currently stands at yellow which is elevated already, to orange. They've really been trying not to do that unless they have something very specific to hang their hats on. We'll see. I think this is very much a work in progress, Anderson. This is the information that has been building and building. And as one source suggested to me, it's the assessment that is new. It was the corroboration of information coming in from various sources that was starting to make some sense for the counterterrorism officials who are given the task of trying to piece all of this together.

COOPER: Kelly, the AP, and I'm reading the wire right now, is saying or categorizing this information, as the, and I quote, "the most disturbing received by the government since the attacks of September 11, 2001." They put that according to a senior federal counterterrorism official. Are you hearing that, as well?

ARENA: Anderson, it depends on who you talk to. I have spoken to some officials who say that they believe that this is the most credible. That they do believe that something is in the works. I have spoken to other people who have suggested that until they see something much more specific, that they will continue to work through the intelligence.

But I can tell you, though, that this has been a building situation. We have had several conversations, my colleagues and I, not just me, have had several conversations with officials throughout the last two weeks and we've all been hearing pretty much the same thing, Anderson.

There is a building concern about the upcoming time frame. We have lots of big events going on. You have the G-8 summit in Georgia. You have, of course, the conventions. You have the dedication of the World War II memorial here in Washington. And of course those elections in November. Lots of opportunity. I think we discussed it on your show, Anderson. Lots of opportunity to strike where there are a large number of people where al Qaeda or another terrorist organization can deal a significant blow.

COOPER: And of course the big fear, biological, chemical or radiological weapons.

ARENA: That's right but that's always been a fear, Anderson. I would not underscore that. That's been out there for a long time. If you want to get the most bang for your buck, being a terrorist, a chemical, biological or nuclear attack would be the way to go. But there's no new intelligence I am told on that front that any terrorist organization or al Qaeda is any closer, there's nothing specific on that front. So I want to just back off from that just a little bit.

COOPER: Some alarming news tonight. Again, this is just breaking news coming in to CNN. We're going to continue to follow this story over the next couple of minutes. Bring you any updates as warranted. Kelli Arena, thanks very much from Washington. Want to bring in former defense secretary William Cohen in now. Mr. Secretary, appreciate you being on the program. New concerns about terror attacks. What do you make of them?

WILLIAM COHEN, FMR. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, it shouldn't come as a surprise. We've known for some time that there are terror cells in the United States, al Qaeda, and others. And so, it shouldn't be greeted as some alarming news. We've known it for some time. The question is what are we doing about it? To simply alarm the American people is not going to be sufficient. A notice should go out and the credibility of the assessments coming in now should go out to law enforcement officials, defense officials and others who are charged with the responsibility to counter the terrorist activities. But I think this should not come as shocking news. We've known it for a long time.

COOPER: Do you think that the message that was received by what happened after the Madrid train bombings, the changeover of power in Spain, sent a message to terrorists that you can affect elections?

COHEN: I think that that is one of the messages certainly that has come out that they can, by the exquisite timing of that particular attack, affect the elections. They also may be trying to affect the elections here. And, of course, it's a different dynamic at work here. Whether the people would rally around the president under those circumstances, or whether they were see this as an opportunity to vote for Senator Kerry as president. I don't think anyone can calculate that right now. But obviously they're going to try to extract as much in the way of a political consequence as possible.

COOPER: Let's talk -- a number of subjects to talk about tonight. Let's talk about Ricardo Sanchez being removed as the top commander in Iraq sometime this summer. Pentagon saying it is not a demotion in any way. Is it? What's your take on it?

COHEN: Well, it could be a matter of coincidence or that of calculation. I think I'm not in a position to make that judgment. But clearly the administration wants to start anew. They want a new beginning, a new government in Iraq. A new commander in the field, as such. A new ambassador. A new opportunity for the Iraqi people. And so this all comes coincidentally with the timing of the June 30 handover of political authority. So I think it could be coincidence. But it could be a calculated move on the part of the administration saying we're starting over.

COOPER: Do you think Abu Ghraib, the situation there, the handling of it by Sanchez or the perceived handling of it by Sanchez would have anything to do with this?

COHEN: Well, it might. But General Sanchez has been a dedicated soldier. He's been in a very difficult position. There may be some accountability there. We haven't had all of the facts come in. Congress is still investigating, the administration's still investigating. So I think it's premature to reach a judgment that that is the factor involved. But he's been there for 13 months now. And it's been a hard tour for him. And they want to put a four star in, which again will signal that this is going to be a new beginning with even a higher level of commander on the ground.

COOPER: President Bush talked to President Jacques Chirac of France today. A lot of people are sort of surprised by that. Or at least commenting on it. Of course going back to old Europe, if you will. The French basically said that more talk needs to happen in the United Nations, and a real transfer of power needs to happen on June 30. Do you think there's going to be a real transfer of power? COHEN: I think there will be a substantial transfer of power. I think France is going to ask in not so many direct words for the United States to eat a bit of humble pie. But they have to be careful they don't ask the United States to try and choke on it. And so the president is prepared to go to not only President Chirac, but also Chancellor Schroeder to say we need your help. We need the U.N.'s help. We need NATO's help. We're in this war, and it's a difficult position for us. But a lot is at stake and much will affect France, Germany and the entire industrialized world. So we need your help. We're asking for it. And I think they have to take some care that they don't overplay the hand that they have right now by making us be so contrite that it undermines the credibility of the United States and the credibility as the world power.

COOPER: Do we go back to eating French fries or is it still freedom fries?

COHEN: We can wear French cuffs as I do and maybe that will be sufficient.

COOPER: Secretary Cohen, thank you very much for being on the program.

So interesting question tonight, did Iran dupe the United States into war against its arch enemy, Iraq? Larry Johnson, a former counterterrorism official, is at the State Department. He says Iran passed along bogus intelligence through Pentagon friend turned foe Ahmed Chalabi. Just last week, you'll recall, U.S. forces raided Chalabi's compound in Iraq amid allegations a key member of his staff passed U.S. secrets to Iran. This report came out of the British paper, "The Guardian" today.

Earlier, I spoke exclusively from Casablanca with the man making the charge against Iran, Larry Johnson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: You reported in "The Guardian" this morning saying, quote, "when the story ultimately comes out, we'll see that Iran has run one of the most masterful intelligence in history. They persuaded the U.S. and Britain of its greatest enemy." Are you saying that Iran duped the U.S. into going into war in Iraq?

LARRY JOHNSON, FMR. SR. COUNTERTERRORISM OFFICIAL: Ultimately, yes. I don't think they started out with that as a plan. But at the end of the day, that's what came out. They had managed to establish a person, Ahmed Chalabi, who was into the highest centers of power in the United States, they were able to run this individual just looking from a classic intelligence standpoint where you try to put agents of influence in a position where they can help direct what other governments do. That looks like exactly what happened in this case.

COOPER: So you believe that Ahmed Chalabi was actually used by Iran as an agent of influence, given false information about WMD, about other things, that was funneled into the Pentagon, that information was then used to go to war? JOHNSON: I don't know if it was Ahmed Chalabi specifically. But someone in Ahmed Chalabi's organization definitely, possibly him, but it is clear that false intelligence was fed into the United States government.

COOPER: CNN has looked into this story that was published in "The Guardian" today. According to one senior U.S. intelligence official who talked to CNN, reports that an urgent investigation, which is the words used by "The Guardian," that an urgent investigation was underway into this is simply false. That, in this person's opinion, it was not happening. They have no evidence of it. Ahmed Chalabi has completely denied this, saying yes, he had contacts with Iran, he had regular contacts for many years, that's well known. But there was no misinformation, no information was passed either way. Do you have any evidence of what your theory is?

JOHNSON: Well, it's not a matter of theory. Let's start with fact. One of the major sources of information was the Iraqi National Congress, who was being hired to provide intelligence to the U.S. government. But yet now that we've seen what is happening, these guys were meeting with Iranian intelligence officials. At the end of the day, you have to ask, who's better off in the Middle East? Iran or the United States? I think by any objective measure today, Iran is in a much stronger position than is the United States.

COOPER: It's one thing, though, to say that false information was passed by Ahmed Chalabi or people in his organization to the United States. It's another thing to say that that information was misinformation purposely given by the government of Iran to Ahmed Chalabi or to the INC. You have no evidence of that?

JOHNSON: No. I don't have evidence of that. But what I stepped back and looked at the process that we know factually happened and what we know were the results on the ground. It has the hall marks of an intelligence operation.

COOPER: Larry Johnson, thanks for being on the program.

JOHNSON: Thanks for having me, Anderson.

COOPER: As we mentioned before, President Bush spent some time on the phone with French President Jacques Chirac today to talk about the future of Iraq. The French so far seem unconvinced Mr. Bush has a viable plan, but what about the American public?

Al Franken and Bay Buchanan will weigh in when we come back.

Also tonight, this is not flying coach. We'll take a look at John Kerry's brand-spanking new campaign plane.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: On 360 next, Al Franken and Bay Buchanan sound off on the president, politics and the war in Iraq. That in a moment.

But first, the story from "The Homefront." In World War II the homefront was personified by Rosie the Riveter and the idea that what happened at home was every bit as important as what happened on the battlefield. Today, despite the fear that there might be a terror attack, the effects of the war in Iraq here in this country have been much less obvious. So this week we'll look at "The Homefront." How towns and families, not just those in the military, are dealing with the war.

CNN's Jonathan Freed tonight in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a warm, spring day in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Time to bait a hook. But what's biting at people here by the shores of Lake Winnebago is the war.

Jerry Morse's son is serving in Iraq.

JERRY MORSE, SON SERVES IN IRAQ: He went over there to do his job. The job's half done. You don't finish it, there was no sense starting it.

FREED: That's a nonstarter for some. Insisting it's time to wind it all up.

MARTY NEIS, OSHKOSH RESIDENT We need to get everything up and running and get all our people out of there, because, you know, I just see the death toll going up from here.

FREED: Military matters matter more in this town. That's an MTVR, just one of many severe duty vehicles built for the armed forces by the Oshkosh truck corporation. Workers riveted on images of their 4,500 trucks on duty in Iraq.

(on camera): When you hear people saying that it's time to bring the troops home, what's your reaction to that?

ANDY SCHALLER, SPECIALIZED ASSEMBLER: I believe that that's the wrong answer. All the troops that have passed or perished will have died in vain. And they already gave the ultimate sacrifice, as well as their families.

FRIED, (voice-over): Most at the plant say they support the war. But how it's being fought is fodder for this Vietnam veteran.

ED DEMIER, TUBE CUTTER: We shouldn't worry about world opinion. We've got a job we need to do. Lets accomplish that job and come on back home.

FREED: While the politics of war can create a slippery slope, workers believe their trucks offer traction where it counts the most, supporting troops on the front lines.

Jonathan Freed, CNN, Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Last night, of course, the president made his case. How was it received?

Let's talk about that. From New York I'm joined by Al Franken, author of "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them," host of the O'Franken Factor on Air America Radio.

And in Washington, Bay Buchanan, president of the American Cause.

Thanks both of you for being on the program. Bay, how did the president do last night?

BAY BUCHANAN, PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN CAUSE: I think he did well. Anderson, I think he made a very strong case. What he needed to do was to let the American people know that this is going to be tough. That we have a plan. That we're putting it in place. And that he needs their support. And he also needed to send a message to Iraq and our soldiers that this is a good cause, but that they're going to need to step up to the plate here as we turn a lot of the responsibility over to them. I think he did that. And I think the American people will response.

COOPER: Al, is that what you heard last night?

AL FRANKEN, AUTHOR: I was sort of disturbed last night, and didn't hear anything new. I really heard the president who is in denial about how chaotic that country is. I just want to take a few lines out of the speech if I could and talk about them. He said, many of Iraq's cities and towns have now elected town councils or city governments. But in a "Christian Science Monitor" article it said that counselors across the country have been assassinated. An official at the Baghdad City Council says 52 neighborhood and district counselors have been killed since the middle of last year. Among them Mohammed Munther (ph), A Shiekh Munther (ph) counselor who was gunned down outside his small shop. There's no security there. And there's no security because we didn't send in enough troops. And part of his -- he's just in denial. Part of his denial is passing the buck. He said our commanders had estimated that a troop level below 115,000 would be sufficient at this point in the conflict. And he's passing the buck to the generals there.

COOPER: Well, Bay...

FRANKEN: He didn't mention Rumsfeld once. As you know, General Shinseki said there should be several hundred thousand troops there.

COOPER: Bay, are...

BUCHANAN: All right, it's quite clear that there's some dispute. I've heard generals say there should be more. And I've heard others say no it's quite adequate. The president made it quite clear...

FRANKEN: It's not adequate.

BUCHANAN: But you know, when the general in the field is telling the president of the United States the guy is out there right now and he says, Mr. President, this is adequate. This is what we need. The president says all right, if you need more I'll give you more. But he's giving them what they ask for.

COOPER: Bay, you don't think politics are playing into that at all?

FRANKEN: That's not what happened.

BUCHANAN: I believe that he -- I believe that the generals on the field said we need more troops. That they would be there. I hear a lot of talk from the military that it's not -- that we need certain kinds of troops. We need the special ops people now. We need those kind who can work with the Iraqis and train them. It's not that we just need numbers. So there's no question and the president admitted it, that we had planned on backing out of -- reducing our troop level and we're not able to because the Iraqi Army has not come up and done the job we anticipated. Those things are mistakes, those things worked out not to our advantage and the president's responded according.

COOPER: Al, today the president talked to French President Jacques Chirac.

Do you see that as a big change in policy?

FRANKEN: Well, of course, Kerry has been telling the president he should be speaking to the international community and talking to the U.N. and talking to our allies to try to get an international coalition there. But, Bay is just kidding herself. The -- the command is top down. And they wanted more troops in there. Shinseki was the chief of staff of the army, and when he had testified to that, he was immediately humiliated. They announced his retirement early. The military wanted more troops. But Rumsfeld, whose name was not even mentioned last night, was -- didn't want to have this lean, mean force. And we haven't established security. And that is the reason that this whole place is in chaos. And the president took no responsibility at all.

COOPER: Bay I want give (UNINTELLIGIBLE) respond.

BUCHANAN: Absolutely that's not true. The president has always taken responsibility for Iraq. He has placed the entire presidency and indeed his legacy on the line for Iraq. And last night he said he stands by his goals in Iraq. And he will pursue them and they're honorable ones and he's asking for the American people to support it. As for John Kerry, John Kerry has not come up with original thought. Every time he says the president doesn't have a plan and the press asks him, he basically says the president should do exactly what he is doing.

FRANKEN: That is so not true. That is so not true.

BUCHANAN: He has no alternative whatsoever. And that is why he's in trouble. The Democrats have no alternative to the president. Ralph Nader is the only alternative when it comes to Iraq.

FRANKEN: No, no, no. That's ridiculous. The president is moving toward Kerry's position. Kerry said months and months ago that we should internationalize this coalition and get NATO in there. That is absolutely not true, Bay. It is not true.

BUCHANAN: The president has -- we've been trying to get them in. And what they've said is they will not come in until we have an interim government that is clearly Iraqi. So the president is moving towards that on June 30 and doing exactly as quickly as he can.

COOPER: We're going to have to leave it right there. Bay Buchanan and Al Franken, thank you very much...

FRANKEN: He has not taken responsibility.

COOPER: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Today's buzz is this. Do you think the outcome of the presidential election hinges on what happens in Iraq? Log on to CNN.com/360. Cast your vote. Results in just a few moments at the end of the show.

Today John Kerry unveiled a brand-new aircraft that will carry him from campaign stop to convention, from stump speech to stump speech. May not be Air Force One, but the Boeing 757 is fitted with all the gadgets a candidate and his guests might need because if you're a serious presidential contender, it's important to travel in style.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): The aircraft was launched with a fanfare befitting a campaign plane. And candidate John Kerry like a kid with a new toy couldn't contain his excitement.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And in the event of emergency my hair can be used as a flotation device.

COOPER: The plane carried the candidate and his staff in comfort from Washington, D.C. to Portland, Oregon. And the media, too, got its first ride. It cost the Kerry campaign $26,000 per flight hour to operate. Seats 94 passengers in 5 cabins for staff, the media and the Secret Service. The plane has two conference tables, 8 phone lines, a copy machine, a printer, and of course a bar. It's a plane fit for a, well, a candidate. But it's on a long-term lease. Good idea since the candidate's hoping to trade up, as it were, in November, to Air Force One.

Now technically that's the term for any airplane the president flies on but there are two 747s that can become official Air Force Ones. They each hold 102 passengers and crew, have a bedroom, bathroom and workout area for the president, a conference room that doubles as dining room, 85 phones, 19 televisions and a nuclear shield. And, of course, if they're at your disposal, that makes you the leader of the free world.

As for Dennis Kucinich, yes, he's still in the race, he doesn't have a plane but he does get from place to place in a 2002 Ford Focus. (END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, coming up, taking heavy lifting to the Nth Degree. A sumo wrestler goes for the top prize in Tokyo. And today's buzz. Do you think the outcome of the presidential election hinges on what happens in Iraq? Log on to CNN.com/360. Cast your vote, we're going to have results when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Time now for the buzz. Earlier we asked you, do you think the outcome of the presidential election hinges on what happens in Iraq? About 25,000 of you have voted. 66 percent of you said yes, 34 percent no. Not a scientific poll but it is your buzz. Thanks for voting.

Tonight taking big winners to the Nth Degree. I don't want to brag or anything but I've been telling anyone who'd listen how this was going to come out pretty much from the get-go. Take the Mongolian and the points I've been saying and that's exactly how it went the other day in Tokyo.

Yes, sir, Asashoryu the Mongolian bad boy of sumo took his third straight Emperor's Cup on the last day of the Summer Grand Basho (ph) by making short work of Hokutoriki. He charged out of the blocks, picked Hokutoriki up by the back of the belt and lifted all 340 pounds of him right up (UNINTELLIGIBLE), nice as you please. The loser was awarded the Fighting Spirit prize. Yes, right. The Fighting Spirit prize. You know what the yokozuna say, that and a couple of hundred yen will get you a seat on the Akasaka (ph) line. I'm Anderson Cooper. Thanks for watching 360. "PAULA ZAHN NOW" is next.

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