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Lou Dobbs Tonight
Senate Challenges White House on Iraq; Bush Calls on China to Introduce Democracy
Aired November 15, 2005 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everybody.
The Senate today challenged the White House on Iraq as public support for the administration's handling of this war is plummeting. We'll have a special report.
And President Bush to call upon communist China and other Asian countries to introduce democracy, but Beijing won't be listening. Critics say the Bush White House has simply failed to comprehend the military, economic and political threat of China.
Also tonight, outrage over a new law that allows religious groups to shelter illegal aliens, including possible terrorists. We'll have that report.
And new controversy at the Food and Drug Administration. Did the FDA put politics over science when it rejected the so-called morning- after pill?
And there are severe weather warnings in the Midwest tonight. Major storm systems are spreading tonight across large parts of this country. We'll be bringing you the very latest developments.
Tonight, it turns out that the U.S. Congress has mustered the will to assert its constitutional powers as a co-equal branch of the government. The Senate, in a rare bipartisan vote, is now demanding answers from the White House about the war in Iraq amid rising public anxiety about the direction of this war and American casualties.
Republican and Democratic senators today declared Iraqis should take the lead in providing security in Iraq so the American military can begin the process of withdrawal. And they want regular progress reports on this war, but they did reject a Democratic plan that would have required a public timetable for withdrawals.
Ed Henry has the report from Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The message to President Bush traveling in Asia was clear and bipartisan: explain the plan for ending the war in Iraq.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MINORITY LEADER: The administration's Iraq policy is adrift and rudderless. All they're offering is a bumper sticker slogan, stay the course. Staying the course is not a winning strategy.
HENRY: Republicans directed their criticism at the Iraqi people, but were also prodding the White House.
SEN. JOHN WARNER (R-VA), CHAIRMAN, ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: This amendment as drawn is very powerful, very powerful -- the statement by the Congress of the need to tell the Iraqi people that we have done our share. We're not going to leave them, but we expect from them equal if not greater support than they've given to this state.
HENRY: The amendment to the defense policy bill passed overwhelmingly 79 to 19, demanding the Bush administration explain "its strategy for the successful completion of the mission in Iraq." It directs the White House to provide progress reports to Congress every 90 days and urges the administration to force the Iraqis to pick up a larger share of the security burden.
SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D-DE), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Only this president could unite the United States Senate. He has united the United States Senate on a single point: what is the plan?
HENRY: But the Senate rejected a Democratic move to also require the president to craft a flexible timetable to start withdrawing U.S. troops.
SEN. BILL FRIST (R-TN), MAJORITY LEADER: Some have referred to this as the cut-and-run provision. That is, pick an arbitrary timeline and get out of Iraq, regardless of what is happening on the ground.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-MI), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: What we propose in Paragraph 7 is that there be estimated dates, estimated dates. If the conditions on the ground are met, then give us estimated dates for a phased redeployment.
HENRY: There are other signs of trouble for the White House in the defense bill, like Republican Senator John McCain's ban on torture of detainees, included over the strong objections of Vice President Cheney, and Republican Lindsey Graham's amendment giving detainees at Guantanamo Bay legal -- limited legal rights, resting some power away from the administration.
(on camera): House Republicans could water down the defense bill, but this is still a wakeup call to the White House. Republicans up here are nervously watching the polls. They have to face the voters next year. The White House does not.
Ed Henry, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: While the Senate today was asserting itself for the first time into oversight of the war in Iraq, more Americans were killed fighting insurgents and terrorists in Iraq. Three U.S. Marines were killed in the town of Ubaydi near the Syrian border during an offensive by the 2nd Marine Division. Two thousand seventy-three of our troops have now been killed in Iraq. And in Afghanistan, a U.S. service member was killed in combat near the border with Pakistan. Two hundred four of our troops have been killed fighting al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan.
Another American has died after the suicide bombings in three international hotels in Amman, Jordan, last week. Four Americans were among the 57 people killed in those bombings. It was the worst terrorist attack in Jordanian history. Those attacks carried out by al Qaeda. One suicide bomber was captured after her bomb failed to explode.
As the United States fights radical Islamist terrorism around the globe, President Bush tonight to deliver a major speech on spreading democracy throughout the world. The president's speech in Japan comes just days before he will be in communist China, a country that is nothing less than a one-party dictatorship.
Dana Bash is traveling with the president and joins us live now from Kyoto, Japan. Dana?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Lou. Well, the president comes to Japan as his first stop, which is relatively friendly territory for him certainly, as he leaves the troubles that he has back home, and as even as fellow Republicans back in the Senate are debating and even symbolically questioning the president's policy when it comes to Iraq.
He is here in Japan, and later today will meet with the person whom he calls "one of my best friends in the international community," somebody who has stuck by Mr. Bush -- and that's Prime Minister Koizumi -- stuck by him when it comes to Iraq. He has about 500 troops, a small contingent in Iraq. But he is actually going to keep them there probably after the deadline that has been set to bring those troops back from Japan. That is certainly something that is welcome for the president as he, as I mentioned, leaves his troubles back home.
But the president, before he leaves here in Japan, Lou, as you mentioned, will give a speech which the White House is billing as a major address talking about democracy in Asia. We just got -- just recently just got an advanced copy of the speech where he will talk about the progress in Japan and also South Korea towards moving towards democracy, the freedom -- the freedoms that have been going on in these two countries.
But he will also prod China, saying that they have not completed their journey. And he will talk about the fact that President Hu of China, in his words, must be more open to freedom and perhaps freedom of religion. In addition, he will press him on economic issues that certainly divide the two countries. But it is -- I guess probably the best way to put it is somewhat gentle in the way he is doing this. Interesting that he's doing it here in Japan, Lou. Not in China.
DOBBS: It is interesting. Is there some reason that we can share with our audience as to why the president would choose to talk about China in Japan? BASH: Well, certainly, we've been asking the White House that question. And essentially what they say is that this is a scene-setter for this trip.
It is an eight-day trip where he is going to be meeting with Chinese leaders, certainly see them at a broader APEC conference in South Korea, and then have some one-on-one meetings in Beijing itself. So they wanted the president to sort of open the trip, his first full day, with this broad discussion of how he envisions the continent. And in this discussion and in this speech he will be talking about China. But we will be certainly looking forward to see what kind of things he says while he's in the country itself.
Lou.
DOBBS: Dana, thank you very much. Dana Bash from Kyoto, Japan.
The focus of the president's four-nation tour of Asia is obviously China. The Bush administration continues to pursue a free trade policy that has opened the world's richest consumer market, the American market, to Chinese exports, and created a trade deficit this year that will likely top $200 billion.
China continues to build up its military, and the United States is financing much, if not most, of that surging defense spending in China. At the same time, China is cracking down on freedom of expression, constraining foreign media and pursuing the goals of the Chinese communist government without pause or apology.
All the while, the United States invests in a high-risk proposition, that the more we spend in China, the more likely it is that China will someday become a democracy.
Christine Romans reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Twenty years ago, Ronald Reagan used tough talk to isolate the Soviet economy, defeating a rise in communist power. Today, the Bush administration is financing one. The justification in Washington? China is an embryonic democracy.
But Professor Peter Morici says that assumption is false.
PROF. PETER MORICI, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: The Bush administration is betting that economic development and trade will cause China to become more democratic. The communist party which governs China is betting that economic development will keep it in power and so that it will not have to be more democratic. Right now, it appears the communist party is winning its bet, and George Bush is losing his bet.
ROMANS: What Washington and corporate America forget, Morici says, is that China is an authoritarian government and the communist party has no intention of relinquishing power. China adopts capitalism only where it benefits the government. There is no rule of law, no property rights, no independent judiciary.
And according to Human Rights Watch, recent economic growth has brought a brutal crackdown of freedom of expression.
MICKEY SPIEGEL, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Right now China has probably the most ambitious and the most sophisticated Internet firewall in the world. And they've just put in a whole mess of new regulations that involve any kind of news or commentary.
ROMANS: The very American-built technology we're told will empower the Chinese people is instead used to censor information and track dissidents -- to say nothing of the American technology used to build China's military.
MORICI: This is not a good regime. If America is interested in fostering democracy in Asia, I don't know what it's doing getting in bed with the Chinese.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: But that is indeed the U.S. strategy, supporters say, because American companies need China's markets and because our policymakers need China's help dealing with the North Koreans.
Such a stark contrast to 20 years or so ago, when in the Soviet Union it was tough talk and isolating the economy causing the destruction of a military industrial complex, and then democracy grew. This time they're hoping, I guess, for some sort of Chinese glasnost.
DOBBS: It is exactly the inverse, investing and spending billions and billions of dollars in China, investing -- foreign investment there at record highs, as you report. And at the same time, we are financing a staggering defense buildup on the part of the Chinese. It is a remarkable reversal of policy from one that obviously worked under the Reagan administration.
Christine Romans, thank you very much.
China this week appears to be a refuge for beleaguered American politicians: President Bush, with his plummeting poll numbers, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with his defeat at the polls. Governor Schwarzenegger, however, is likely to have far more fun than President Bush while in China.
On day two of his visit to China, Schwarzenegger urged the Chinese to embrace Silicon Valley, fuel cell technology. The governor calling it the energy source of tomorrow. We've heard that somewhere before.
Schwarzenegger is also warning China to stop its rampant theft of U.S. intellectual property, a warning that China has consistently ignored from government leaders who actually have armies.
Still ahead here, the Food and Drug Administration. Are politics overwhelming science at your expense? We'll have the report. And then, how much did the U.S. government know a full year before 9/11? I'll be talking with a congressman who wants to open a national security investigation into Able Danger.
And as President Bush gears up to meet with leaders, Asian leaders in South Korea, the debate over free trade is already well under way in the streets of Seoul. We'll have the report.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: The United States faces a showdown with some of the world's least democratic states over just who should control the Internet. Countries like China, Iran and Cuba want to end the U.S. role as the guardian of the Internet. Instead, those countries want the United Nations, an organization accused of corruption from top to bottom, to supervise the Internet.
Kitty Pilgrim has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MECHANIZED VOICE: Welcome. You've got mail.
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's an outright power grab. The United Nations says it wants to internationalize the Internet -- U.N. speak for taking control away from the United States, the country that built it.
PETER BROOKES, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: The Internet has been -- is basically run -- or the technical aspects of the Internet is run by a nonprofit American organization. But now they want to put this under U.N. control. And imagine putting anything under U.N. control, especially just in the shadow of things like the U.N. oil-for-food program and the scandal there. So this is -- this is very troubling, and we need to stand fast.
PILGRIM: At a U.N. meeting taking place in Tunisia this week, the U.N. is talking about making the Internet a truly global organization. Countries that suppress free speech, like Cuba, Iran and China, are leading the effort. Even those with poor human rights track records, such as Zimbabwe and Syria, are weighing in.
In countries like China, where Internet users are monitored and censored, legitimizing government oversight would be a nightmare.
The European countries, in a surprise move, joined forces with the U.N. effort, raising fears they are looking for ways to regulate and tax Internet transactions.
Congress is outraged.
SEN. NORM COLEMAN (R), MINNESOTA: I think one of the concerns is that part of this movement has been, I think, in part flamed by anti- American sentiment. We were a little taken aback about a month or so ago when the Europeans, some of the Europeans joined in concert with the Chinese and the Iranians to move in the direction of international control.
(END VIDEOTAPE) PILGRIM: Well, the fact is the United States can refuse to consider changing how the Internet operates. Late today, negotiators at the summit, by the way, toned down the rhetoric, saying they had agreed to work toward evolutionary change, whatever that means.
Lou.
DOBBS: Well, I'm afraid we know what that means. The way this government has pursued national interest in recent years, it could mean just about anything, and much of it probably not good for U.S. national interests.
Thank you very much. Kitty Pilgrim.
This next story another example of why the United States -- United Nations shouldn't be in charge of anything. The United Nations today reinstated the only employee it fired in the wake of the oil- for-food scandal in Iraq. Joseph Stephanides was fired for unfairly steering an oil-for-food contract to a British company. But the United Nations now says his punishment was far too harsh.
Stephanides, however, won't get his old job back. He was planning to retire anyway. But the U.N. will pay him for the four months after he was fired and before he planned to retire. His lawyer says that amounts to something around $40,000.
Just ahead here tonight, the Food and Drug Administration under fire, again. Did the agency make a decision about a controversial drug based on politics alone? Our special report next.
And then, the separation of church and state apparently didn't matter to those who drafted and passed the latest agricultural bill. What senators snuck into the bill this time.
That story, a great deal more, still ahead here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito today defended himself against a memo he wrote 20 years ago. Judge Alito was on Capitol Hill today meeting with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein.
Senator Feinstein said Judge Alito tried to downplay that memo in which he said the Constitution doesn't guarantee the right to abortion. She added that Judge Alito wrote that memo as an advocate seeking a political job with the administration.
Judge Alito, of course, has been working now for the past 15 years not as an advocate, but as a judge.
Turning now to an emerging controversy over the so-called morning-after pill. The Food and Drug Administration rejected that pill for over-the-counter sales last year. But tonight, a congressional investigation suggests that decision was not based on science but instead politics and perhaps religion. Lisa Sylvester reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The facts are straightforward. The prescription drug Plan B is known as the morning- after pill. If taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, it can prevent an unintended pregnancy.
The drug's maker asked the Food and Drug Administration to allow it to be sold over the counter. In May 2004, the acing director for the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research turned down that request. But it's what happened leading up to the decision that is now the center of controversy.
Critics accuse higher-ups at the FDA of putting politics before science.
REP. HENRY WAXMAN (D), CALIFORNIA: I think this is a real abuse of power if the political people wanted to satisfy the religious right and made a science-based organization like FDA do something that the science didn't sustain.
SYLVESTER: A GAO report found the FDA's review process unusual, saying it was the only drug during the period not approved after the advisory committee's recommended approval. In fact, even before the scientific review was completed, FDA staffers were told the decision had been made.
The FDA, in a statement, said, "We question the integrity of the investigative process that results in impartial conclusions by the GAO. The report mischaracterize facts and does not appear to take into consideration the input provided by the FDA."
But former FDA Assistant Commissioner Susan Wood resigned because she says science was not the driving force.
SUSAN WOOD, FMR. FDA OFFICIAL: It was all very, very clear. There was no debate inside the agency. So if the agency had been allowed to do its job, the product would have been approved for over- the-counter use.
SYLVESTER: If science is pushed aside for politics, then the FDA loses its credibility with the public, not just with the morning-after pill, but on everything from drug safety to the safety of the blood supply.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: GAO investigators were trying to get emails and correspondence from then FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan, but they were told that those communications had been deleted or destroyed. Now Representative Henry Waxman is calling for hearings to see if any federal record-keeping laws were broken.
Lou. DOBBS: Lisa, thank you. Lisa Sylvester from Washington. Coming up next here, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, remember when he said the insurgency in Iraq was comprised of dead-enders, bitter-enders and thugs? Well, now he has some strong words for critics of the conduct of the war in Iraq. We'll have that report.
And a leading congressman says the September 11 attacks could have been prevented. His call for a criminal investigation into intelligence failures gaining momentum on Capitol Hill tonight. Congressman Curt Weldon is my guest next.
And South Korean farmers are mad as hell about something that a lot of people are a little annoyed about, free trade. They're doing something about it in rather dramatic fashion. That story next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Quite a statement tonight from French government officials. France said last night that 215 cars were torched by radical Islamists. Some of them, at least, in continued unrest across the country. And they consider that a victory. That's because it's fewer than the 285 cars torched Sunday night.
The French government says France has returned to what it calls "a near normal situation," despite the country's 19 straight nights of rioting by Muslim youth. The French national assembly today voted to extend the state of emergency across France by three months.
In Seoul, South Korea, today, a disturbing scene as farmers clashed with riot police during a trade protest, a protest of free trade. This occurring right in front of the South Korean parliament building.
Those Korean farmers attacking police with steel pipes, bamboo sticks. And police in full riot gear, battling back with water canons, trying to restore order.
Dozens of farmers and at least 10 policemen were injured and taken to the hospital. The farmers were protesting a new bill that would open up that country's rice market to foreign competition.
President Bush will be in South Korea tomorrow as part of his eight-day trip to Asia, his attendance at the APEC meeting.
Tonight, shocking new details of how our public officials are turning their back on the illegal alien crisis and putting American lives at risk. Many of our nation's largest cities are now openly refusing to enforce U.S. immigration laws, and in the process, they're allowing illegal aliens to roam our streets and commit, in many cases, violent crimes.
Bill Tucker reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Juan Lizcano is being held on a $1 million bond in the Dallas, Texas, county jail -- the illegal alien charged with the killing of 28-year-old Dallas Police Officer Brian Jackson. There is an additional bond of $25,000 for aggravated assault, and an emigration hold has been placed Lizcano, meaning that he cannot be released without being turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Too bad that wasn't the case in September, when Dallas police arrested Lizcano twice, once in a domestic violence complaint, and again less than a week later on a DWI. There was never a routine check run on his immigration status. That's because the police in Dallas, like the police in New York and Los Angeles and many other cities, don't check immigration status because their cities have what are known as sanctuary policies, policies which call for the ignoring of federal immigration law.
LEAH DURANT, FED. FOR AM. IMMIGRATION REFORM: What you have are these -- these localities that just decide, you know, by not choosing -- by choosing to not enforce the law that they are going to be part of the problem rather than part of the solution. It's a very unfortunate situation.
TUCKER: The stated policy of the Dallas Police Department is that -- quote -- "the U.S. immigration code denies us the right to enforce immigration law, so we don't enforce immigration violations".
CRAIG NELSON, FRIENDS OF IMMIGRATION LAW ENFORCEMENT: You know what's really outrageous about that? Congress passed a law in 1996 saying sanctuary policies are illegal.
TUCKER: But in passing the law, Congress never provided any sanctions for ignoring it. And it is repeatedly refused to pass a law imposing punishment.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCKER (on camera): In Austin, Texas, one man is doing what he can to punish the city for its sanctuary policy. Last week the father of Virginia Garcia filed suit against the city, claiming it was the city's sanctuary policy which led to his daughter's murder by an illegal alien. Lou, we first told viewers of that murder back at the beginning of this year.
DOBBS: It is remarkable, and as we look at the polls, the most recent survey done by CNN and the Gallup organization, along with "USA Today", showing only 26 percent of those surveyed support the president's immigration policy, if this is a policy.
At some point, there will be an accountability asserted for this failure to enforce laws. And the sanctuary laws are just unconscionable.
TUCKER: There already is accountability. This weekend, we had a police officer killed. Earlier this year, we had a young girl that was killed.
DOBBS: Accountability, Bill, for those who will not enforce the law. Those are unfortunately the consequences of their failure. Bill, thank you very much.
The chairman of the House Homeland Security Commission says our nation's illegal alien crisis has become a national security emergency of immense proportions.
New York Congressman Peter King has now introduced legislation that would back up our nation's border patrol with military support and Department of Defense aerial surveillance. And it would greatly beef up military presence at our nation's ports and waterways to prevent terrorists and their weapons from entering this country. Congressman Peter King will be our guest here tomorrow night on this broadcast.
There is outrage tonight over a new law passed by Congress that actually protects religious institutions from prosecution if they shelter illegal aliens.
The author of the law says it protects the church from liability. Opponents say it allows churches, synagogues, mosques and other religious institutions to harbor illegal aliens without the risk of prosecution for doing so.
Casey Wian has the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When President Bush signed the agriculture appropriations bill into law last week, few noticed it contained an unrelated provision that exempts religious groups from prosecution if they use illegal aliens as volunteers or missionaries.
The amendment was added by Utah Senator Robert Bennett at the request of attorneys for the Mormon Church.
SEN. ROBERT BENNETT (R), UTAH: If ICE for whatever reason has decided not to pick them up, and they are still in this country doing volunteer work for a charitable organization, the charitable organization should not be held liable for having them there while they're doing that work.
WIAN: In a statement, the Mormon Church says this narrow exception to the Immigration Act allows people of all faiths to fulfill their religious obligations. The law does not change the legal status of the undocumented persons or provide them a safe haven from the enforcement of the immigration laws.
KRIS KOBACH, LAW PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI: I think this is a case of solving a problem that doesn't exist. A church that accidentally shelters someone who's an illegal alien and they didn't know it, is really not going to be prosecuted under the criminal law as it existed before this.
WIAN: Some say the new law provides cover for religious groups seeking to harbor terrorists, such as at the mosque that engineered the first World Trade Center bombings in 1993. Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo found out about the amendment after the fact, and is now seeking to overturn it. He says, this provision opens a hole in our immigration system so big, a terrorist could drive a truck bomb through it.
Senator Bennett counters that there's nothing in his amendment preventing the prosecution of religious groups who harbor terrorists.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIAN (on camera): Now Senator Bennett also says the amendment was approved informally by the Department of Homeland Security's congressional relations staff, and by the Judiciary Committees of both the House and the Senate.
Lou.
DOBBS: Well, of course those committees are the ones who are not demanding accountability for our borders, or for enforcement of our immigration law. And of course, Homeland Security is the one who has such tight control of our borders, that three million illegal aliens crossed the border unimpeded last year.
WIAN: A lot of people say churches should not be charged with enforcing immigration laws. They wouldn't have to if we had true border security and inland enforcement, Lou.
DOBBS: And we we've learned, just charging any institution, governmental, private or even religious with obeying or enforcing the law seems to be a waste of time in this country, anyway. Perhaps that will change.
WIAN: For now at least.
DOBBS: Casey Wian, thank you very much. Reporting from Los Angeles.
Turning now to another urgent issue involving our national security -- the fast growing Able Danger controversy.
My next guest is demanding an investigation. Congressman Curt Weldon says the secret Army intelligence unit identified Mohammed Atta and other 9/11 terrorists more than a year before those attacks.
The congressman also accuses the Defense Intelligence Agency of conducting a smear campaign against the man who blew the whistle on the intelligence, Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer.
Last night, I asked former 9/11 Commission member Tim Roemer for his reaction to the congressman's call for an investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM ROEMER, FORMER 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: Lou, I like Congressman Weldon a lot. But the way he talks about Able Danger these days, you'd think it would have prevented Pearl Harbor and maybe had Congress spend money responsibly or develop some kind of immigration policy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOBBS: Congressman Weldon now joins us from Capitol Hill. Congressman, what is your reaction to Tim Roemer's remarks?
REP. CURT WELDON (R), PENNSYLVANIA: Outrageous. We're talking about the loss of 3,000 people. The largest loss of American lives, including Pearl Harbor in the history of our country, in one incident. And we brush it aside like it's nothing.
Talk to the families of these people as I have. I have a wife and two kids in my district whose husband was on one of the planes. When he had his throat slit by the terrorists. The chief of all rescue in New York, Ray Downey left five kids and grandkids. Talk to them. Talk to the 17 sailors' families on the U.S.S. Cole, a couple of whom have already written me emails that they really want to know what happened and what could have prevented the attack. I just can't believe the cavalier attitude of responding to this, Lou.
DOBBS: Cavalier, perhaps, certainly glib.
At the same time, Tim Roemer is asking, where is the chart? Where is the information? And why are you asking for a criminal investigation when the 9/11 Commission members say they never saw any evidence of this? Why is there that disconnect?
WELDON: Well, the chart is not the issue. The 9/11 Commission is using that because they're embarrassed. They've got egg all over their face. The reason they didn't report on it, is because for some reason, I think it was deliberate. They never interviewed the key participants in Able Danger.
The people that I've talked to had one meeting, and that was a debrief by Jamie Gorelick's staffer. And it was in Jamie Gorelick's best interest not to have the story told.
Perhaps that's why she called my office the first week of August when the story broke in the "New York Times" and said to my chief of staff, please tell Congressman Weldon that I did nothing wrong.
She also made similar calls to Arlen Specter's staff on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Personal calls to tell us that she did nothing wrong. Lou, there's something here that the American people need to understand.
DOBBS: Well, there is so much that we need to understand, Congressman. And your call for a criminal investigation, when we last talked had 100 signatures. How many, Congressman, do you now have, congressman and congresswomen, supporting your call for an investigation of the Defense Department and the controversy surrounding Able Danger?
WELDON: Lou, last week was the first day I circulated the letter. On the final day of the session, I got as you pointed out, 100 signatures. We're going back into session in five minutes. I'll guarantee you by the close of your hour here, I'll have at least 125 names on this letter, if not more. And these are senior members of both parties, these are conservatives and liberals who want these people to be able to testify in open, before the Congress and before the American people.
DOBBS: Congressman, thank you, and we'll be following up with you as we approach the end of this hour to report on how many signatures have been added to the list.
Congressman Curt Weldon, thank you.
WELDON: My pleasure.
DOBBS: Taking a look now at some of your thoughts.
Claire in Florida wrote in to say: "Thank you Lou, for keeping your coverage of Able Danger going for the people. It's amazing how our country has gone to hell in a hand basket. And not too many people seem to see the real truth."
Claire, sometimes what you see is the truth.
And Gary in Pennsylvania: "This is the administration that can't manage FEMA, Homeland Security and the office of the vice president, agencies all under its control. Now manage the Chinese? You're kidding, right?"
Only partially. The rest is hope.
Robert in Ohio: "Lou, I wish Bush would bring some relief for the middle class back from China. However, I'm confident he will stay the course and continue to sell us out with the support of Congress."
Alex in California, said: "Lou, what's all this concern about the Chinese wanting our technology secrets? Didn't President Clinton already given them all that?"
Well, not all ,but the rest is at risk.
Clarence in Florida: "Why are all of Bush's speeches made from a military base? I believe it's because they are in the military and can't get up and walk out on him."
And Lynda in South Carolina: "I would like to start a campaign to eliminate two words from the English dictionary -- illegal and secret -- because neither one of them seem to mean anything anyway."
Well, Lynda, I understand the way you feel, your frustration, but why don't we instead start a campaign to make sure people understand the definitions of those two words and act accordingly.
We love hearing from you. Send us your thoughts at loudobbs.com.
That brings us to the subject of our poll tonight. Do you believe it is time for the Republican-led Congress to assert leadership and oversight in U.S. foreign, economic and military policy? Yes or no? Cast your vote at loudobbs.com. We'll have the results coming up here.
Still ahead, the Senate delivers a stinging setback to the White House over the war in Iraq. The Senate asserting itself -- Senator Carl Levin among them, a senator on the Armed Services Committee. Senator Levin will be our guest.
And with President Bush now out of the country, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has harsh words for his critics. A special report next.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: This just in to CNN. Officials say three Chinese immigrants who allegedly stole sensitive information about U.S. Naval warships and tried to smuggle that information to China have been indicted in Los Angeles by a federal grand jury. Those charged included a 65-year-old Chinese-American engineer, his wife and his brother. Federal authorities say those three conspired to steal sensitive information about U.S. Navy warships and to send it to China.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is blasting all critics of the war in Iraq. Today, the Defense secretary declared top Clinton administration officials asserted that Saddam Hussein was a serious threat to the United States.
Kathleen Koch has the report from the Pentagon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: "Saddam Hussein will use these terrible weapons again."
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One by one, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld threw the words of Democrats back in their faces. Former National Security Advisor Samuel Berger on Saddam Hussein.
RUMSFELD: "He will rebuild his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, and someday, some way, I am certain he'll use that arsenal again."
KOCH: Similar quotes from President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, all expressing concern posed by the Iraqi leader and his weapons of mass destruction. All, Rumsfeld said, to prove a point.
RUMSFELD: We have people suggesting that the reason we're there was because this president decided to go in, based on information that was unique to him, and it wasn't unique to him. The information that he based his decision on was the same information that President Clinton and the previous administration had.
KOCH: Democrats in Congress were not amused. SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D-IL), MINORITY WHIP: What is wrong with this picture? What was Al Gore's access to intelligence before our invasion in Iraq? The answer is, little to no access. This administration portrayed a situation in Iraq that was not true, it was not accurate. They need to be held accountable.
KOCH: Despite their anger, Senate Democrats could not get the votes for a measure mandating a timetable for a withdrawal from Iraq. Instead, the Senate overwhelmingly endorsed a statement calling on the Bush administration to explain its Iraq policy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOCH: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld did admit that mistakes were made in pre-war intelligence. He called them honest mistakes. And Rumsfeld insisted that the United States must maintain a very firm stance in the global war against what he called Islamo-fascists, who he says want to impose their dark vision on free societies.
Lou.
DOBBS: Kathleen, thank you. Kathleen Koch from Washington.
A reminder now to vote in our poll. Do you believe it's time for the Republican-led Congress to assert leadership and oversight in U.S. foreign, economic and military policy? Yes or no? Cast your vote at loudbobbs.com. We'll have the results coming up in just a few minutes.
Just ahead, a rare bipartisan effort to call for accountability in the war in Iraq. The ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, Senator Carl Levin, joins me here next.
And then, an ugly, bitter dispute between the leaders of Mexico and Venezuela. We'll tell you who's cheering on all of that nastiness, next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: The Senate today demanded the White House give it regular updates on the progress of the war in Iraq. Senators also declaring the administration must provide answers on the progress of Iraqi forces taking over security responsibilities from American troops.
The Senate did vote against a Democratic call for a public timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Joining me now is the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Carl Levin. Senator, good to have you here.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-MI), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Good to be here, Lou.
DOBBS: How does it feel? Because by my count, this is the first time that the U.S. Senate has actually asserted itself as a partner, a co-equal branch of government in the conduct and the oversight of the war in Iraq? LEVIN: It's a couple of years overdue, but it happened today, where the Senate adopted an amendment, which was basically the Democratic amendment, with a few changes that we didn't like, but nonetheless basically a Democratic amendment, which explicitly said that the purpose of the amendment was to recommend changes to the policy of the United States relative to Iraq.
This amendment recommends a whole host of changes in that policy. It's long overdue. It's not a cut-and-run amendment. It is changes of course instead of staying the course.
DOBBS: Remarkable in that this is bipartisan legislation. Only two senators abstained, Senator Alexander of Tennessee, Senator Corzine of New Jersey. Nineteen against, but 79 for. That's a remarkable vote in this day and age.
LEVIN: It is a remarkable bipartisan vote, and it shows the Senate acting like a Senate must act, which, as you put it, as a co- equal branch. Using oversight, legislative oversight in this case, but what we haven't done yet is the committee oversight which is also so critically important.
DOBBS: I want to turn to something that the secretary of defense said today in his briefing at the Pentagon. He noted that in 1998, Congress passed the Iraq Liberation Act to make it U.S. policy supporting efforts to oust of Saddam Hussein from power, that president Clinton ordered four days of bombing in December. His basic point is, if you didn't believe that Saddam Hussein was a threat, why were you supporting and passing that legislation and moving ahead?
LEVIN: Well, Saddam Hussein was a threat, that's not the issue. There's a lot of threats in this world. One country doesn't attack another country because there's a threat, otherwise India and Pakistan would be attacking each other. Otherwise, we would have attacked the Society Union. There's got to be an imminent threat, which there was not here or that country must have participated in an attack on us which Saddam Hussein did not do.
DOBBS: Senator, I have to ask you this question, as we watch what is happening in Washington. The president's poll numbers are plummeting. There is no question that he is wounded as the primary political rival, Democrats and Republicans squaring off on pre-war intelligence.
Is it -- are you at all concerned that there is too much focus on the past rather than oversight of the current war in Iraq and the current failures, frankly, of intelligence that should be perhaps of more interest and importance to preserving the lives of our young men and women in Iraq, intelligence failures of a current nature rather than intelligence failures of three-and-a-half years ago?
LEVIN: You always have to have a balance. There's a risk if you focus too much on the past. But if you ignore the past and don't learn from the mistakes of the past or if you don't hold people accountable for those mistakes, you're more likely to repeat them. But yes, we must focus more mainly on the future, but not give up the lessons to be learned from past mistakes.
DOBBS: Senator Carl Levin, as always good to talk with you.
LEVIN: Thank you, Lou.
DOBBS: We also invited, of course, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Senator John Warner, to join us tonight. Unfortunately, he could not do so.
When it comes to steroids, three strikes, as they say, and you're out in the major leagues. Seven months after the Congressional hearings on steroid abuse, Major League Baseball is finally taking what nearly everyone admits are serious steps and they're a little surprised at the fact in point of fact.
Beginning next season, any Major League ball player caught using steroids for the first time will be suspended for 50 games. Second time offenders will be suspended for 100 games. And third time offenders, three strikes and you're out, banned from baseball for life. Players will be tested for steroids at least twice a season, including one random test. The Players Union has already approved this new policy.
Still ahead, the leaders of Mexico and Venezuela aren't exactly playing nice. But guess which country's leader is just delighted? We'll tell all about it. And we'll have the results of tonight's poll, a preview of what's coming up tomorrow.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Mexican President Vicente Fox are now in a fierce war of words that has led to a rupture in diplomatic relations between their two countries. And no one, no one is happier than Fidel Castro.
Lucia Newman reports from Havana.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): During the recent Summit of the Americas, Mexico's leader Vicente Fox stepped up to the plate to defend President George Bush's regional free trade initiative, and in doing so questioned whether its arch-critic, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, really represented the interests of its people.
Even those used to the fiery Venezuelan's undiplomatic lingo were taken aback by his response to his Mexican counterpart for supporting the United States.
"It make one sad to see the sellout of President Fox. Really it make one sad. How sad that the president of the people like the people of Mexico let's himself become the puppy dog of the empire." NEWMAN: Observers say there's no mystery about where Chavez got his inspiration. This is how Cuba's Fidel Castro referred to Mexico's president just earlier this year.
"He's allied with the empire against Cuba, led by the hand by his master like a little lamb," said Castro.
NEWMAN: Little lamb, lapdog and servile lackey are just some of Castro's favorite descriptions for regional leaders he views as unconditional allies of Washington. And since Venezuela's Chavez is an unconditional ally of Castro's, the two are now sharing enemies. Eighteen months ago, Mexico nearly broke diplomatic ties with Cuba. Now President Fox has done the same with Venezuela.
VICENTE FOX, PRESIDENT OF MEXICO: Because we have dignity. I mean, other countries might accept his wording and the way he attacks everybody and he attacks institutions. We are not willing to do that in Mexico.
NEWMAN: Protests during President Bush's recent trip to South America show that beyond the insults and recriminations between Fox and Chavez, there's a growing division in Latin America based not just on economics but on ideology.
(on camera): By the end of next year, 11 Latin American nations will elect new leaders, and some of them could be as anti-American and as anti-free market as Castro, and the leader of oil rich Venezuela.
(voice-over): Remember former Sandinista President Daniel Ortega? He's again in the running in Nicaragua. Leftist Coca leader Eva Morales is leading the polls for next month's presidential elections in Bolivia, rich in natural gas.
And while not nearly as radical, the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party of Mexico is also leading in the polls, a changing political map that has significant implications for the region and relations with its powerful northern neighbor. Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOBBS: The results now of our poll. Overwhelmingly, 94 percent of you say it is time for the Republican-led Congress to assert leadership and oversight in U.S. foreign, economic, and military policy. Six percent of you say it's not time for the Republican-led Congress to assert its role as a co-equal branch of the government.
Thanks for being with us here tonight. Please join is here tomorrow. Among our guests will be Congressman Pete King. We'll be talking about his new legislation to protect our borders.
And our nation's education in crisis, why one leading educator says politics is to blame for our failures in public education. Please be with us.
For all of us here, good night from New York. THE SITUATION ROOM begins now with John King sitting in for Wolf Blitzer. John?
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