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Gitmo Detainees Get Day in Court; DHS Warns of Terror Attacks in Summer/Fall of Big Events; Drugs Curb Heart Disease in Type II Diabetics

Aired April 20, 2004 - 12:59   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: This hour, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld briefing reporters on the war in Iraq. We'll take it live.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A street bomb strikes soldiers, the deadliest month so far for U.S. forces in Iraq. More on that. And moments from now we'll have a live briefing from the Pentagon.

PHILLIPS: Justice denied at Gitmo? A major court test of America's anti-terror tactics, holding prisoners indefinitely.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, hello everyone, I'm Kyra Phillips.

O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. CNN's LIVE FROM... starts right now.

PHILLIPS: Up first this hour, enemy combatants and the U.S. Constitution, do the latter's guarantees of due process apply to the former or is access to lawyers and judges one more casualty of the war on terror? Those questions command the attention of the highest court in the land today. CNN's Bob Franken was listening in -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, the ultimate arguments will be about the limits of presidential power, but this was about the limits of the power of the U.S. court. Does the jurisdiction of the courts extend to another country? If that country is Cuba and it's Guantanamo Bay? Cuba is the sovereign nation, even though the United States has exercised absolute control over the naval base there for over 100 years.

Now comes a petition on behalf of some of the detainees being held there. There are 16 of them, and their lawyer, John Gibbons, who was challenged repeatedly as he tried to make his claim.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JOHN GIBBONS, ATTORNEY: The court of appeals did rely on some mystical ultimate sovereignty of Cuba over, as we Navy types call it, Gitmo, treating the navy base there as a no-law zone. Now, Guantanamo Navy Base, as I can attest from my year of personal experience, is under complete United States control and has been for a century...

JUSTICE SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR, SUPREME COURT: We don't need your personal experience. That's what it says in the treaty. It says complete jurisdiction. Complete jurisdiction and control.

GIBBONS: That's exactly what it says in the lease, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It also says Cuba retains sovereignty.

GIBBONS: It does not say that. It says that if the United States decides to surrender the perpetual lease, Cuba has ultimate sovereignty, whatever that means. Now...

(END AUDIO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Gibbons was challenged repeatedly by justices as he tried to make point that an appeals court ruling that the courts did not have jurisdiction over Guantanamo should be overturned by the justices. The Supreme Court justices also challenged the solicitor general of the United States, Theodore Olson, as he presented the administration's point of view, that Guantanamo was beyond the reach of the court. It's part of the argument that it is up to the president to decide how enemy combatants are treated, with little or no involvement by the courts. And that troubled Justice Stephen Breyer.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER, SUPREME COURT: What I'm thinking now, assuming that it's very hard to interpret Isentrager (ph), is that if we go with you, it has a virtue of clarity. There is a clear rule, not a citizen, outside the United States, you don't get your foot in the door. But against you is that same fact. It seems rather contrary to an idea of a Constitution with three branches that the executive would be free to do whatever they want, whatever they want, without a check. That's problem one.

Problem two is that we have several hundred years of British history where the cases interpreting habeas corpus said to the contrary, anyway, and then we have the possibility of really helping you with what you're really worried about, which is undue court interference, by shaping the substantive right to deal with all those problems of the military that led you to begin your talk by reminding us of those problems. So if it's that choice, why not say, sure, you get your foot in the door, prisoners in Guantanamo, and we'll use the substantive rights to work out something that's protective, but practical?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Justice Stephens was pinning down the fact that this involved people who are not citizen of the United States, the detainees at Guantanamo. Next week, the arguments what about the president's power, are their any limits on cases in war that involve U.S. citizens? Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Bob Franken, LIVE FROM... the Supreme Court. Thank you.

O'BRIEN: This hour's headline from Baghdad is also about detainees. At least 22 of them are dead after a barrage of mortar fire targeting the city's main prison. Once home to enemies of Saddam Hussein, now holding men considered threats to the coalition. CNN's Jim Clancy joining us LIVE FROM... Baghdad with the latest on all of this -- Jim.

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, their court cases haven't been decided at all, but they're still considered innocent civilians. And coalition officials say today they came under attack by insurgents in the form of a mortar barrage that was lodged against the Baghdad Confinement Facility. Some 22, the inmates there, out of 4400, were killed, 92 others were wounded. Some of them had to be transported to outside facilities when the mortars hit that prison on Tuesday.

Meantime, in the troubled city of Fallujah, or actually outside the lines around it, hundreds and hundreds of Iraqi civilians tried to stream back to their homes. There's limited vehicle traffic. They had to go in on foot. The U.S. military commanders on the ground warning that some of this may be premature. They say while talks between coalition officials and religious and civic leaders inside the town have produced a relative calm right now, they have not solved the underlying problems. They say until and unless foreign fighters are surrendered and the residents there, the fighters there, surrender their weapons, this is not over. And they warn there could be a return to exercising the military option, which would mean renewing the siege of Fallujah, unless some of those underlying problems are solved -- Miles..

O'BRIEN: CNN's Jim Clancy in Baghdad, thanks much -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Back in D.C., the general says March, not, repeat, not January. This question raised again this week with the new Bob Woodward book "Plan of Attack," is when President Bush decided to go to war in Iraq. Woodward says that January 2003 and adds that Saudi ambassador to Washington was told before the secretary of state, former four-star general Colin Powell.

Powell says that's not the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: Prince Bandar, as he said last night, when the question arose on certain television programs, he was briefed on the plan and he was told that if it came to war, this is the plan that we are developing. And as he said last night, and as Dr. Rice said on Sunday, and as I said yesterday, no decision was communicated to Prince Bandar, of a decision on the part of the president to go to war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Last night on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE," the author stood by his story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, FROM "LARRY KING LIVE")

BOB WOODWARD, AUTHOR, "PLAN OF ATTACK": January 11, a Saturday, Cheney and Rumsfeld, the defense secretary, called Bandar in with the chairman of the joint chiefs, who, by the way, has said my account is correct, publicly, and presented the war plan. And Don Rumsfeld is on the record, if you look at the Pentagon Web site, saying that he said, this war plan, you can take it to the bank, it's going to happen.

LARRY KING, HOST: And Bandar was there?

WOODWARD: And Bandar was there. And Cheney then said, when we start, not if, but when we start, Saddam is toast. The president confirmed all of this when I interviewed him four or five months ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: As for those reports of a secret Saudi pledge to boost oil production ahead of the U.S. election, Woodward says that's not what he wrote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, FROM "LARRY KING LIVE")

WOODWARD: What I say in the book is, according to Bandar, the Saudis hoped to control oil prices in the 10 months running up to the election, because if they skyrocketed it would hurt the American economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: In a phone call to last night's telecast, Saudi Prince Bandar did confirm Woodward's account, adding, "this is nothing unusual."

O'BRIEN: What is unusual in government circles is George Tenet's uncanny ability to rebound. Having reportedly declared the case for Iraqi WMDs a "slam dunk," the CIA director had to publicly admit he was wrong. And that's not his first brush with professional embarrassment. Yes Tenet not only survives, he thrives. And CNN's David Ensor looks at some of the reasons why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SLADE GORTON, 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: Mr. Tenet, we're here of course because of a massive intelligence failure.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): First, there were the 9/11 attacks. Then, the CIA's assurance to the president that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Now, word in the Bob Woodward book that before the war, George Tenet called it a "slam dunk" case, which even Tenet now admits it has turned out not to be.

GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: We may have overestimated the progress Saddam was making.

ENSOR: Lesser men might have been ousted for less, but the nation's second-longest serving intelligence director still has the president's confidence. Mr. Bush has said so repeatedly, and recently. DANIEL BENJAMIN, FMR. NSC STAFF MEMBER: Look, he's a very charming, very intelligent and shrewd person. And it's no surprise that the president took to him.

ENSOR: Tenet is respected by many, liked by most in U.S. intelligence, and he is extremely loyal to President Bush.

TENET: He has told me firmly and directly that he's wanted it straight and he's wanted it honest and he's never want the facts shaded, and that's what we do every day.

ENSOR: If any administration officials ever thought of making Tenet the fall guy for intelligence failures, former officials say they would not have considered it for long.

BENJAMIN: The last thing the administration wants right now is to have a disaffected former director of central intelligence out on the street. I'm sure that he could, if he wanted to, cast the administration's deliberations over war and over the issues of WMD and the link to terrorism in an unflattering light if he so chose.

ENSOR (on camera): Aides and friends insist tenet would never do that. When he does leave office, which they say he will do by January 20 of next year, however the election goes, they say there will be no kiss and tell memoirs from George Tenet.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The hockey player and the hitman. A National Hockey League player arrested, an alleged murder-for-hire plot. We'll have the details.

And in a few minutes, expect more information on the war in Iraq, a live briefing from the Pentagon.

PHILLIPS: And, ouch, we'll capture this one. Hey, doc, I've got something slicing in my stomach. The story behind the picture, later on LIVE FROM...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: News across America now. In San Antonio, Texas, three killed early this morning in a fiery crash as a tractor trailer rig slammed into several cars, burst into flames, on I-35. Two others seriously injured trying to rescue one of the victims. A truck driver also injured.

In McAlester, Oklahoma, a judge decides he will allow testimony from Michael Fortier, the prosecution's star witness in the Terry Nichols' murder trial. The judge says evidence in Nichols' trial indicates there was a conspiracy between Nichols and Tim McVeigh and that Fortier knew about it. Fortier is currently serving 12 years in prison for knowing about the bombing plot but not telling authorities. And a somber anniversary in Littleton, Colorado, today. It's been five years since Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting rampage at the Columbine High School. Twelve students and a teacher were shot to death before Harris and Klebold took their own lives.

coming up in our next hour, we'll talk with one of the students who survived the massacre. Kasey Ruegsegger was in the school library. She was shot when she acknowledged that she was a Christian. She shares the challenges of living with the memory of that day, a little later on LIVE FROM...

PHILLIPS: Now to quite a bizarre story that has the National Hockey League reeling, especially the teammates of the St. Louis Blues' player Mike Danton. CNN's Josie Burke with more on the alleged murder-for-hire scheme.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSIE BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The arrest of 23- year-old NHL player Mike Danton on charges that he tried to engineer a murder-for-hire scheme left his St. Louis Blues' teammates grasping for answers.

BRYCE SALVADOR, BLUES TEAMMATE: It's unfortunate because he's a great guy and -- you know, hopefully, you know, something, you know, is misunderstood here and it just all works out.

BURKE: A criminal complaint alleges Danton used a friend, 19- year-old college student Katie Wolfmeyer, to hire a hitman to kill an unidentified male acquaintance. The plot failed. Details contained in the FBI's affidavit: like the pair argued over Danton's alleged promiscuity and alcohol use; and according to an FBI wiretap, "Danton also felt the acquaintance was going to leave him, left questions about a possible motive."

DERRICK GOOLD, "ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH": It implies on first read maybe a romantic entanglement or maybe that's what we want to see there, but really it's something that you would say of many different people of your life.

BURKE: Danton's agent says Danton recently came to him for help with emotional problems, including paranoia. Danton was formerly named Mike Jefferson but changed his name in 2002 after a long estrangement from his family.

GOOLD: He certainly has a lot of emotional baggage that he was carrying with him that he was reluctant to talk about publicly. Privately with his teammates, he spoke about some of it. But even they had a sense that there was something much deeper going on.

BURKE: Danton was known as an agitator on the ice, instigating fights and drawing penalties from opponents. Both Danton and Wolfmemeyer remain in custody on charges of conspiracy to commit murder.

Josie Burke, CNN. (END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, expected soon, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with a live briefing from the Pentagon. We'll bring that to you live as soon as it happens.

Also ahead, new guidelines for diabetes patients to prevent heart disease.

And later, instead of ordering up some chicken, how would you like to order one around? Meet the subservient chicken, later on LIVE FROM...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Two-thirds of Americans with type II diabetes will die of heart disease or stroke. And now the experts say a common type of drug could help diabetics live longer.

CNN medical correspondent Holly Firfer with details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLLY FIRFER, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins can help save the life of someone with coronary artery disease. Now the American College of Physicians says the more than 18 million adults with type II diabetes shows take the same live-saving drugs.

After numerous studies, the ACP developed new guidelines. And doctors are recommending all adults with type II diabetes and coronary heart disease take statin or the non-statin drug, gemfibrozil. The drugs are very effective in lowering cholesterol and preventing heart disease from even developing. They also recommend those with type II diabetes and risk factors such as high pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, physical inactivity, obesity, or those 55 and older, take statins as well. Doctors once thought pre-menopausal women with type II diabetes were inherently protected against heart disease, but these new aggressive guidelines say even these women should take statins.

According to the ACP, they are extremely safe, except for people with liver problems or for someone taking drugs that can interact with statins. The American College of Physicians suggest doctors should get diabetes patients on a statin regiment as soon as possible and not wait until that patient has high cholesterol.

Holly Firfer, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So are terrorists taking a new approach in picking potential targets in the U.S.? CNN's Jeanne Meserve looks at the government's effort to stay one step ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The terrorist bombing of trains in Madrid just before the Spanish elections may have influenced the results, and has certainly influenced the thinking of U.S. intelligence analysts. According to an administration official, this summer's political conventions, the election, the inaugural, as well as the G-8 summit in Georgia, which will bring together world leaders, are now of more concern to security officials than other large symbolic events like the Fourth of July celebration on the National Mall. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice says the U.S. election cycle might prove too tempting a target for terrorists to pass up.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECY.: At this time, obviously, we do not have specific threat information around any of these events. But, ladies and gentlemen, we do have our common sense. And we don't need a change in the threat level to make us safer and more secure.

MESERVE: To improve the nation's preparation for all the high- profile events on the calendar, Ridge announced a new interagency working group to include his own department, the Departments of Justice, Energy, Transportation, and others. It will pay particular attention to critical infrastructure such as chemical plants and the electrical grid, increasing coordination with state and local governments and the private sector. Some are asking why this wasn't done sooner.

REP. CAROLYN MALONEY (D), NEW YORK: My question is, what has he been doing all this time? His job is to protect the American people. I don't see how what he's proposing is any different from what he has been charged with from day one.

MESERVE (on camera): That's not to say the potential for attack isn't real. An intelligence intercept led to a warning to law enforcement on April 9 about possible attacks over Easter and Passover. The advisory warned of in-place persons, posing threats to soft targets like shopping malls. Though the information was not specific or corroborated, it was another reminder that the nation must prepare.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: A deadly firefight with suspected terrorists in Jordan kicks off our news around the world. Responding to a tip, police storm a house in Amman and kill three terror suspects in a shootout. Jordanian security officials tell the Associated Press the suspects had links to a group that planned to detonate a powerful chemical bomb in the capital.

Sweden launches its first big roundup of suspected terrorists, arresting four at apartments in Stockholm and elsewhere. A Swedish newspaper saying the four are accused of supporting Iraqi resistance attacks on U.S. troops. And round one of voting in the world's largest democracy. For the first time ever, voters in India are using electronic machines as they begin three weeks of parliamentary elections. Despite extra security, 19 were killed in election day violence. The coalition of the prime minister there is expected to win a five-year term yet again.

(MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Live pictures now, the Pentagon. The secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, the vice chairman of the general chiefs of staff, General Peter Pace, briefing reporters. Let's listen.

(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)

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Aired April 20, 2004 - 12:59   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: This hour, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld briefing reporters on the war in Iraq. We'll take it live.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A street bomb strikes soldiers, the deadliest month so far for U.S. forces in Iraq. More on that. And moments from now we'll have a live briefing from the Pentagon.

PHILLIPS: Justice denied at Gitmo? A major court test of America's anti-terror tactics, holding prisoners indefinitely.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, hello everyone, I'm Kyra Phillips.

O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. CNN's LIVE FROM... starts right now.

PHILLIPS: Up first this hour, enemy combatants and the U.S. Constitution, do the latter's guarantees of due process apply to the former or is access to lawyers and judges one more casualty of the war on terror? Those questions command the attention of the highest court in the land today. CNN's Bob Franken was listening in -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, the ultimate arguments will be about the limits of presidential power, but this was about the limits of the power of the U.S. court. Does the jurisdiction of the courts extend to another country? If that country is Cuba and it's Guantanamo Bay? Cuba is the sovereign nation, even though the United States has exercised absolute control over the naval base there for over 100 years.

Now comes a petition on behalf of some of the detainees being held there. There are 16 of them, and their lawyer, John Gibbons, who was challenged repeatedly as he tried to make his claim.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JOHN GIBBONS, ATTORNEY: The court of appeals did rely on some mystical ultimate sovereignty of Cuba over, as we Navy types call it, Gitmo, treating the navy base there as a no-law zone. Now, Guantanamo Navy Base, as I can attest from my year of personal experience, is under complete United States control and has been for a century...

JUSTICE SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR, SUPREME COURT: We don't need your personal experience. That's what it says in the treaty. It says complete jurisdiction. Complete jurisdiction and control.

GIBBONS: That's exactly what it says in the lease, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It also says Cuba retains sovereignty.

GIBBONS: It does not say that. It says that if the United States decides to surrender the perpetual lease, Cuba has ultimate sovereignty, whatever that means. Now...

(END AUDIO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Gibbons was challenged repeatedly by justices as he tried to make point that an appeals court ruling that the courts did not have jurisdiction over Guantanamo should be overturned by the justices. The Supreme Court justices also challenged the solicitor general of the United States, Theodore Olson, as he presented the administration's point of view, that Guantanamo was beyond the reach of the court. It's part of the argument that it is up to the president to decide how enemy combatants are treated, with little or no involvement by the courts. And that troubled Justice Stephen Breyer.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER, SUPREME COURT: What I'm thinking now, assuming that it's very hard to interpret Isentrager (ph), is that if we go with you, it has a virtue of clarity. There is a clear rule, not a citizen, outside the United States, you don't get your foot in the door. But against you is that same fact. It seems rather contrary to an idea of a Constitution with three branches that the executive would be free to do whatever they want, whatever they want, without a check. That's problem one.

Problem two is that we have several hundred years of British history where the cases interpreting habeas corpus said to the contrary, anyway, and then we have the possibility of really helping you with what you're really worried about, which is undue court interference, by shaping the substantive right to deal with all those problems of the military that led you to begin your talk by reminding us of those problems. So if it's that choice, why not say, sure, you get your foot in the door, prisoners in Guantanamo, and we'll use the substantive rights to work out something that's protective, but practical?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Justice Stephens was pinning down the fact that this involved people who are not citizen of the United States, the detainees at Guantanamo. Next week, the arguments what about the president's power, are their any limits on cases in war that involve U.S. citizens? Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Bob Franken, LIVE FROM... the Supreme Court. Thank you.

O'BRIEN: This hour's headline from Baghdad is also about detainees. At least 22 of them are dead after a barrage of mortar fire targeting the city's main prison. Once home to enemies of Saddam Hussein, now holding men considered threats to the coalition. CNN's Jim Clancy joining us LIVE FROM... Baghdad with the latest on all of this -- Jim.

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, their court cases haven't been decided at all, but they're still considered innocent civilians. And coalition officials say today they came under attack by insurgents in the form of a mortar barrage that was lodged against the Baghdad Confinement Facility. Some 22, the inmates there, out of 4400, were killed, 92 others were wounded. Some of them had to be transported to outside facilities when the mortars hit that prison on Tuesday.

Meantime, in the troubled city of Fallujah, or actually outside the lines around it, hundreds and hundreds of Iraqi civilians tried to stream back to their homes. There's limited vehicle traffic. They had to go in on foot. The U.S. military commanders on the ground warning that some of this may be premature. They say while talks between coalition officials and religious and civic leaders inside the town have produced a relative calm right now, they have not solved the underlying problems. They say until and unless foreign fighters are surrendered and the residents there, the fighters there, surrender their weapons, this is not over. And they warn there could be a return to exercising the military option, which would mean renewing the siege of Fallujah, unless some of those underlying problems are solved -- Miles..

O'BRIEN: CNN's Jim Clancy in Baghdad, thanks much -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Back in D.C., the general says March, not, repeat, not January. This question raised again this week with the new Bob Woodward book "Plan of Attack," is when President Bush decided to go to war in Iraq. Woodward says that January 2003 and adds that Saudi ambassador to Washington was told before the secretary of state, former four-star general Colin Powell.

Powell says that's not the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: Prince Bandar, as he said last night, when the question arose on certain television programs, he was briefed on the plan and he was told that if it came to war, this is the plan that we are developing. And as he said last night, and as Dr. Rice said on Sunday, and as I said yesterday, no decision was communicated to Prince Bandar, of a decision on the part of the president to go to war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Last night on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE," the author stood by his story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, FROM "LARRY KING LIVE")

BOB WOODWARD, AUTHOR, "PLAN OF ATTACK": January 11, a Saturday, Cheney and Rumsfeld, the defense secretary, called Bandar in with the chairman of the joint chiefs, who, by the way, has said my account is correct, publicly, and presented the war plan. And Don Rumsfeld is on the record, if you look at the Pentagon Web site, saying that he said, this war plan, you can take it to the bank, it's going to happen.

LARRY KING, HOST: And Bandar was there?

WOODWARD: And Bandar was there. And Cheney then said, when we start, not if, but when we start, Saddam is toast. The president confirmed all of this when I interviewed him four or five months ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: As for those reports of a secret Saudi pledge to boost oil production ahead of the U.S. election, Woodward says that's not what he wrote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, FROM "LARRY KING LIVE")

WOODWARD: What I say in the book is, according to Bandar, the Saudis hoped to control oil prices in the 10 months running up to the election, because if they skyrocketed it would hurt the American economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: In a phone call to last night's telecast, Saudi Prince Bandar did confirm Woodward's account, adding, "this is nothing unusual."

O'BRIEN: What is unusual in government circles is George Tenet's uncanny ability to rebound. Having reportedly declared the case for Iraqi WMDs a "slam dunk," the CIA director had to publicly admit he was wrong. And that's not his first brush with professional embarrassment. Yes Tenet not only survives, he thrives. And CNN's David Ensor looks at some of the reasons why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SLADE GORTON, 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: Mr. Tenet, we're here of course because of a massive intelligence failure.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): First, there were the 9/11 attacks. Then, the CIA's assurance to the president that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Now, word in the Bob Woodward book that before the war, George Tenet called it a "slam dunk" case, which even Tenet now admits it has turned out not to be.

GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: We may have overestimated the progress Saddam was making.

ENSOR: Lesser men might have been ousted for less, but the nation's second-longest serving intelligence director still has the president's confidence. Mr. Bush has said so repeatedly, and recently. DANIEL BENJAMIN, FMR. NSC STAFF MEMBER: Look, he's a very charming, very intelligent and shrewd person. And it's no surprise that the president took to him.

ENSOR: Tenet is respected by many, liked by most in U.S. intelligence, and he is extremely loyal to President Bush.

TENET: He has told me firmly and directly that he's wanted it straight and he's wanted it honest and he's never want the facts shaded, and that's what we do every day.

ENSOR: If any administration officials ever thought of making Tenet the fall guy for intelligence failures, former officials say they would not have considered it for long.

BENJAMIN: The last thing the administration wants right now is to have a disaffected former director of central intelligence out on the street. I'm sure that he could, if he wanted to, cast the administration's deliberations over war and over the issues of WMD and the link to terrorism in an unflattering light if he so chose.

ENSOR (on camera): Aides and friends insist tenet would never do that. When he does leave office, which they say he will do by January 20 of next year, however the election goes, they say there will be no kiss and tell memoirs from George Tenet.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The hockey player and the hitman. A National Hockey League player arrested, an alleged murder-for-hire plot. We'll have the details.

And in a few minutes, expect more information on the war in Iraq, a live briefing from the Pentagon.

PHILLIPS: And, ouch, we'll capture this one. Hey, doc, I've got something slicing in my stomach. The story behind the picture, later on LIVE FROM...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: News across America now. In San Antonio, Texas, three killed early this morning in a fiery crash as a tractor trailer rig slammed into several cars, burst into flames, on I-35. Two others seriously injured trying to rescue one of the victims. A truck driver also injured.

In McAlester, Oklahoma, a judge decides he will allow testimony from Michael Fortier, the prosecution's star witness in the Terry Nichols' murder trial. The judge says evidence in Nichols' trial indicates there was a conspiracy between Nichols and Tim McVeigh and that Fortier knew about it. Fortier is currently serving 12 years in prison for knowing about the bombing plot but not telling authorities. And a somber anniversary in Littleton, Colorado, today. It's been five years since Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting rampage at the Columbine High School. Twelve students and a teacher were shot to death before Harris and Klebold took their own lives.

coming up in our next hour, we'll talk with one of the students who survived the massacre. Kasey Ruegsegger was in the school library. She was shot when she acknowledged that she was a Christian. She shares the challenges of living with the memory of that day, a little later on LIVE FROM...

PHILLIPS: Now to quite a bizarre story that has the National Hockey League reeling, especially the teammates of the St. Louis Blues' player Mike Danton. CNN's Josie Burke with more on the alleged murder-for-hire scheme.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSIE BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The arrest of 23- year-old NHL player Mike Danton on charges that he tried to engineer a murder-for-hire scheme left his St. Louis Blues' teammates grasping for answers.

BRYCE SALVADOR, BLUES TEAMMATE: It's unfortunate because he's a great guy and -- you know, hopefully, you know, something, you know, is misunderstood here and it just all works out.

BURKE: A criminal complaint alleges Danton used a friend, 19- year-old college student Katie Wolfmeyer, to hire a hitman to kill an unidentified male acquaintance. The plot failed. Details contained in the FBI's affidavit: like the pair argued over Danton's alleged promiscuity and alcohol use; and according to an FBI wiretap, "Danton also felt the acquaintance was going to leave him, left questions about a possible motive."

DERRICK GOOLD, "ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH": It implies on first read maybe a romantic entanglement or maybe that's what we want to see there, but really it's something that you would say of many different people of your life.

BURKE: Danton's agent says Danton recently came to him for help with emotional problems, including paranoia. Danton was formerly named Mike Jefferson but changed his name in 2002 after a long estrangement from his family.

GOOLD: He certainly has a lot of emotional baggage that he was carrying with him that he was reluctant to talk about publicly. Privately with his teammates, he spoke about some of it. But even they had a sense that there was something much deeper going on.

BURKE: Danton was known as an agitator on the ice, instigating fights and drawing penalties from opponents. Both Danton and Wolfmemeyer remain in custody on charges of conspiracy to commit murder.

Josie Burke, CNN. (END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, expected soon, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with a live briefing from the Pentagon. We'll bring that to you live as soon as it happens.

Also ahead, new guidelines for diabetes patients to prevent heart disease.

And later, instead of ordering up some chicken, how would you like to order one around? Meet the subservient chicken, later on LIVE FROM...

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O'BRIEN: Two-thirds of Americans with type II diabetes will die of heart disease or stroke. And now the experts say a common type of drug could help diabetics live longer.

CNN medical correspondent Holly Firfer with details.

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HOLLY FIRFER, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins can help save the life of someone with coronary artery disease. Now the American College of Physicians says the more than 18 million adults with type II diabetes shows take the same live-saving drugs.

After numerous studies, the ACP developed new guidelines. And doctors are recommending all adults with type II diabetes and coronary heart disease take statin or the non-statin drug, gemfibrozil. The drugs are very effective in lowering cholesterol and preventing heart disease from even developing. They also recommend those with type II diabetes and risk factors such as high pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, physical inactivity, obesity, or those 55 and older, take statins as well. Doctors once thought pre-menopausal women with type II diabetes were inherently protected against heart disease, but these new aggressive guidelines say even these women should take statins.

According to the ACP, they are extremely safe, except for people with liver problems or for someone taking drugs that can interact with statins. The American College of Physicians suggest doctors should get diabetes patients on a statin regiment as soon as possible and not wait until that patient has high cholesterol.

Holly Firfer, CNN, Atlanta.

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PHILLIPS: So are terrorists taking a new approach in picking potential targets in the U.S.? CNN's Jeanne Meserve looks at the government's effort to stay one step ahead.

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JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The terrorist bombing of trains in Madrid just before the Spanish elections may have influenced the results, and has certainly influenced the thinking of U.S. intelligence analysts. According to an administration official, this summer's political conventions, the election, the inaugural, as well as the G-8 summit in Georgia, which will bring together world leaders, are now of more concern to security officials than other large symbolic events like the Fourth of July celebration on the National Mall. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice says the U.S. election cycle might prove too tempting a target for terrorists to pass up.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECY.: At this time, obviously, we do not have specific threat information around any of these events. But, ladies and gentlemen, we do have our common sense. And we don't need a change in the threat level to make us safer and more secure.

MESERVE: To improve the nation's preparation for all the high- profile events on the calendar, Ridge announced a new interagency working group to include his own department, the Departments of Justice, Energy, Transportation, and others. It will pay particular attention to critical infrastructure such as chemical plants and the electrical grid, increasing coordination with state and local governments and the private sector. Some are asking why this wasn't done sooner.

REP. CAROLYN MALONEY (D), NEW YORK: My question is, what has he been doing all this time? His job is to protect the American people. I don't see how what he's proposing is any different from what he has been charged with from day one.

MESERVE (on camera): That's not to say the potential for attack isn't real. An intelligence intercept led to a warning to law enforcement on April 9 about possible attacks over Easter and Passover. The advisory warned of in-place persons, posing threats to soft targets like shopping malls. Though the information was not specific or corroborated, it was another reminder that the nation must prepare.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.

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O'BRIEN: A deadly firefight with suspected terrorists in Jordan kicks off our news around the world. Responding to a tip, police storm a house in Amman and kill three terror suspects in a shootout. Jordanian security officials tell the Associated Press the suspects had links to a group that planned to detonate a powerful chemical bomb in the capital.

Sweden launches its first big roundup of suspected terrorists, arresting four at apartments in Stockholm and elsewhere. A Swedish newspaper saying the four are accused of supporting Iraqi resistance attacks on U.S. troops. And round one of voting in the world's largest democracy. For the first time ever, voters in India are using electronic machines as they begin three weeks of parliamentary elections. Despite extra security, 19 were killed in election day violence. The coalition of the prime minister there is expected to win a five-year term yet again.

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O'BRIEN: Live pictures now, the Pentagon. The secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, the vice chairman of the general chiefs of staff, General Peter Pace, briefing reporters. Let's listen.

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