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Coalition Suspects Near Miss on Iraq Air Strike; Peterson Prosecution Witness Caught in Omission

Aired June 25, 2004 - 14:00   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Close call for a killer. The terrorist who says he's behind beheadings and attacks in Iraq, barely escapes American bombs.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush on the road to Ireland. But focus on Iraq. Will he be able to built more support for Iraq after the handover?

PHILLIPS: Campaign collapse. A Hollywood sex scandal forces a Senate candidate to give up his run for Washington.

NGUYEN: And the speediest man in a Speedo. Nine-time Olympic gold medalist and swimming legend, Mark Spitz, on the Athens games, terror and what it takes to be a champ.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Betty Nguyen.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips, Miles is on assignment. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM... starts right now.

Up first this hour, a possible near-miss for the coalition, a possible close call for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. CNN has learned the infamous terror instigator was the target of a U.S. air strike, the third in a week in the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has the details -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, hello to you. Well, a senior Pentagon -- a senior defense official has confirmed to CNN that they believe it is possible Abu Musab al-Zarqawi narrowly escaped an air strike in Fallujah earlier today. U.S. war planes were targeting the house there.

And as they dropped 500-pound bombs, U.S. intelligence assets believed to be a Predator unmanned drone overhead were circling and saw a convoy of cars pull up to the house. A security detail, a man got out. The bombs dropped, the man was thrown to the ground and then he was hustled back into the cars. Clearly alive, we are told, and driven away.

Now the senior defense official says to CNN the man, in his words, "wasn't wearing a name tag." They cannot be positive it was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. But one of the reasons they think it is likely it may have been is because they have not seen anyone but him travel with that level of security that was surrounding the person who drove up to that house in Fallujah earlier today.

Also, they have, they say, fairly fresh intelligence that indicates Zarqawi has continued over the last several days to operate in the Fallujah area. It is one of the reasons they have been striking so many safe houses there. Publicly, of course, the Pentagon saying -- the coalition in Baghdad saying they are not specifically targeting Zarqawi, but to be quite clear that is exactly what they're doing.

They're certainly hoping to target him and kill him before the June 30 handover. It simply would make things less complicated. But they will continue to go after him, every reason to believe he is one of the key masterminds because behind so many of the recent attacks against both U.S. and coalition forces -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Barbara Starr live from the Pentagon, thank you.

Joining me on the phone now, CNN military analyst, retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd. Barbara mentioned this also, General, and that is you have got to have pretty good intel to drop a 500-pound bomb.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, USAF (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, you do. Indeed you do, Kyra. You're not going to go in the middle of a city and just start to bomb houses where you think people might be. This is good intel. You have to have the exact coordinates or be marking the targets at the time. So we have good intelligence and we know where these safe houses are. It's where people gather, where large numbers of people. It's where you store munitions. So this indicates to me that we have some really good intel coming out of Fallujah.

PHILLIPS: Explain to our viewers, too, when you see this type of destruction you think, OK, how could someone get away from this? Explain to viewers about the 500-pound bomb, the frag pattern and the details to where it would be easy for someone to escape if they had somewhat of an idea that an air strike was in-bound?

SHEPPERD: Yes, well, every bomb has a fragmentation pattern that basically goes out a certain distance, the frag pattern of a 500-pound bomb, as I remember, is around 300 feet. So that means if you're close to the bomb, you're probably going to get hit.

If you're 150, 200 feet away, your chances are less of getting hit by the fragment that comes off the bomb, the metal that comes off the bomb. So you could be blown to the ground by the blast and still not be hit by the frag elements there. It's really hard to tell.

When Barbara says that they report he wasn't wearing a name tag, that military vernacular and it means we don't know for sure. We see white spots on our scope. We can't tell who exactly it is. The entourage of vehicles is what Zarqawi has been seen to travel in. So that might indicate it was him.

PHILLIPS: And General, although Zarqawi may not be in the hands of coalition forces, you do see this video, you see this destruction, and it's just one part of a safe house and one part of the network that is sort of taken out of the system, I guess we could say. And that is a tremendous advantage, tearing down the network, because that will eventually lead to Zarqawi.

SHEPPERD: Well, hopefully it will. But he is a very wily guy and he may move out of Fallujah. The problem in Fallujah is it has been a total failure so far, we have not gotten the security we wanted, the weapons, the foreign terrorists handed over by the forces there. Fallujah is going to have to be dealt with. So we're hunting and picking based upon intelligence we may or may not get him, but, again, we are certainly after him, no question about that.

PHILLIPS: And so finally, when we talk about these safe houses, safe houses for weapons, communications ability, training, other parts of the network, is this a positive hit for U.S. forces?

SHEPPERD: Yes, it is, because I think a couple of things may come up. One, you may get some of the bad guys, you may get Zarqawi himself. And also it's a message to the people in Fallujah. If you don't deal with these people, we will. And you're liable to see the destruction of your own house or Fallujah in its entirety, So there's a message, an important message that goes out by us making these strikes.

PHILLIPS: Major General Don Shepperd, thanks for your time.

SHEPPERD: You bet.

PHILLIPS: All right -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Shifting to Baghdad today, and at least through the power transfer next Wednesday police are out in force like never before. The country's incoming defense minister warns a showdown with outlaws and traitors is at hand, and God willing, he says, the showdown will be great. All Baghdad police are on full alert throughout midweek and foreigners are being warned not to even venture onto the streets.

Through it all, a U.S. Army panel considers what to do with Sabrina Harman. Harman is a one of the half dozen GIs still facing charges in the inmate abuse debacle at Abu Ghraib Prison. Her so- called Article 32 hearing now in its second day examines whether evidence exists to warrant a court-martial.

PHILLIPS: Now or very soon commotion in County Clare. It starts in earnest in about an hour when President Bush sets foot in the west of Ireland for weekend summit with his E.U. counterparts. More than a third of the soldiers and police in the Irish republic will be very nearby as the summiteers talk terror, trade and especially Iraq in 16th century Dromoland Castle.

Now chances are they'll still be outnumbered by protesters given much of Europe's fierce opposition to the war. From Ireland it's off to a NATO summit in Turkey where Mr. Bush will try to muster in allied help in, at a minimum, training Iraqi forces. Now on the home front, support for the war has soured to the point where a majority of Americans say the whole thing was a mistake. CNN's senior political analyst Bill Schneider weighs in now from Washington with more on that.

Bill, let's talk about Bush here, is he in trouble?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, well, there's certainly a big turnaround in public opinion on Iraq. Americans no longer feel that the Iraq war made them safer from terrorism and they no longer believe that Saddam Hussein was linked to the attacks on 9/11 since that report came out from the 9/11 Commission saying there is no evidence of any cooperation between Iraq and al Qaeda. The results of this, a majority now for the first time say the war in Iraq was a mistake.

PHILLIPS: Let's look at those numbers, right now sending troops to Iraq, 54 percent of Americans saying, yes, they believe this was a mistake. Now war down but with regard to the economy, isn't that lifting him up?

SCHNEIDER: Well, the economy is helping President Bush, there is no question about it. The economic signs are good and what we're seeing in the figures is that Bush's approval rating on handling the economy has actually gone up. Look at that, from early June to now it has gone from 41 to 47 percent. It's not exactly irrational exuberance, but it's moving up there. Wouldn't this be an irony if the economy, which doomed his father's re-election, ended up saving up this President Bush's re-election?

PHILLIPS: The other part of the survey, Bill, likely voters' choice for president. Right now 49 percent Bush, 48 percent say Kerry. Well, we've talked about Bush possibly being in trouble here but it doesn't look like Kerry is making that much of a jump.

SCHNEIDER: Well, he's holding Bush to a standoff, a president running for re-election. For Bush not to get 50 percent or more at this stage is not a good sign. His approval rating is just below 50. People are having problems with this president and they can be summarized in a single word, Iraq.

Much will depend on what happens in the handover next week and the aftermath of that handover. Americans want to see American troops stop getting killed. And they would like to see them start coming home. That may not happen any time soon. So it's not clear if that handover will be more than a symbolic gesture, although there will be an Iraqi government in place. And that has got to be considered a step forward.

PHILLIPS: Bill, finally, you haven't -- or you believe it hasn't been this isolated since World War II, right?

SCHNEIDER: Well, yes, that I think Americans are quite aware of. And the president's journeys overseas, first to the European summit and then to NATO and the meeting in Turkey I think brings home to Americans that the United States is probably I think more isolated in the world today than it has been at any time since World War II.

We're going to see protesters. We're going to see difficult relations, the president wants other NATO countries to help contribute to the Iraq effort. They seem very little interested in doing that. So I think when John Kerry makes the charge that the United States is an isolated power, I think Americans worry about that.

PHILLIPS: Bill Schneider, thanks.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

NGUYEN: An investigation into possible police brutality by members of the LAPD, that story tops our look at news across America. The FBI and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department are investigating whether three LAPD officers used excessive force in the beating and arrest of an unarmed African-American motorist. A total of eight police officers involved in Wednesday's videotaped incident as you see here are on desk duty during the investigation.

California animal lovers are unleashing some major criticism on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is asking the state legislature to repeal a 1998 law requiring shelters to hold animals up to six days before destroying them. Schwarzenegger's office says a new three-day requirement for cats and dogs would save $14 million.

NGUYEN: From rap videos to wrapped in legal trouble. Rapper DMX and a friend are expected in court today after being arrested at New York's Kennedy Airport. Police say DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, tried to pull a carjacking by posing as an FBI agent.

NGUYEN: Well, testimony causes trouble for prosecutors in the Scott Peterson trial. The credibility of their case was dealt a blow after an admission by the lead detective. CNN's Rusty Dornin has the details now from Redwood City, California.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a key piece of the prosecution's theory. Laci Peterson never knew about or saw her husband Scott's boat which was stored at his the warehouse, but on the stand, one of the lead detectives, Al Brocchini, admitted he omitted part of an interview with a woman who claims that Laci Peterson was at the warehouse and asked to use a restroom there on the day before she disappeared.

Some legal observers say the credibility of investigators may be the big issue here.

MICHAEL CARDOZA, LEGAL ANALYST: This is unbelievable. How is this jury going to believe one more thing any prosecution witness says in this case? He writes a police report from his dictation and leaves a major paragraph out.

DORNIN:: The omission also plays into the defense theory that police zeroed in on Scott Peterson as only suspect in the killing of his pregnant wife, ignoring leads that may have implicated others. Defense attorney Mark Geragos also implied that the hair found in the pliers on the bottom of Scott Peterson's boat might have been left there by Laci during that visit.

Prosecutors claim the only way the hair could be there is because Peterson ferried his wife's body out to San Francisco Bay after she was killed.

(on camera): Next week prosecutors will have a chance to try and repair the damage by asking their own questions of Detective Al Brocchini, but not until defense attorney Mark Geragos has finished his cross-examination.

Rusty Dornin, CNN, Redwood City, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Keeping an eye on America. Is new technology to patrol the borders prying a little too much into your privacy? We'll talk more about that just ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is a battle. It reminds me very much of the person who once said that when the church is on fire, everyone carries a bucket.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: But the pastor's grabbing his uniform to do the lord's work for Uncle Sam.

And second generation daredevil. Knievel goes for a ride and gives a thrill. We're revving it up here on LIVE FROM...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: News around the world now. High-stakes diplomacy. North Korea is threatening to test a nuclear weapon if the U.S. doesn't accept its proposal for a nuclear freeze. The threat came during a meeting between the North Korean foreign minister and U.S. envoy James Kelly in Beijing, China.

Eight British servicemen detained by Iran have returned to their base in southern Iraq. The men were held for three days after they strayed into Iranian territorial waters on the border with Iraq. Iran seized their boats and equipment.

Out of a job. The chair umpire who erroneously awarded a point to Venus Williams' opponent at Wimbledon will not be working another match at the tournament. Ted Watt of Britain mistakenly gave Karolina Sprem a point she didn't earn in the final tie-breaker of the match. Williams went on to lose that match.

And spacewalk aborted. A leak in an astronaut's oxygen supply prompted NASA to call off the space walk outside the International Space Station. NASA ordered two crew members to return to the station only 14 minutes after that walk began.

PHILLIPS: Protection versus privacy. A high-tech tool armed with cameras and censors is being tested as way to keep the nation's border secure. But some fear that there could be too much prying from the eye in the sky.

CNN homeland correspondent Jeanne Meserve reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At an Army base 20 miles from the Mexican border, an unmanned aerial vehicle is launched, but not for a military mission. Its high-tech cameras and censors are scanning the brush and sands of the desert landscape for illegal immigrants. It is part of a four-month study by the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection to determine if the UAVs have a part to play in protecting the border.

(on camera): Is it potentially a silver bullet?

MICHAEL WIMBERLY, U.S. BORDER PATROL: Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

MESERVE (on camera): But the UAVs may be a valuable tool. Able to stay aloft for up to 20 hours at a stretch sending back real-time images night or day, the UAVs are virtually invisible and inaudible to people on the ground making them ideal for surveillance.

And some worry for spying.

ROBERT SMITH, U.S. BORDER PATROL: I can tell you from a policy standpoint the Department of Homeland Security is not going to use these things to be able to spy on people in their homes or in their backyards any more than they do any other piece of equipment that they have. We just don't do that.

CHRISTOPHER BOLKOM, CONG. RESEARCH SERVICE: You don't want people to fear that they're being spied on while sunbathing or engaging in personal activities in their backyard.

MESEREVE: UAVs are not cheap. This four-month trial has a price tag of $4 million. But perhaps could bring some monetary efficiencies, giving customs and border protection information that allows them to calibrate their responses to intrusions.

WIMBERLY: We should have been here looking at this technology long ago.

MESERVE: Why weren't you?

WIMBERLY: Frankly, I don't think we had the vision.

MESERVE: There is little argument that the situation right now is dire. More than 100 migrants have died in the desert heat along the southwest border already this year. (on camera): UAV surveillance might save some and stop others. In the Tucson sector of the Mexican border alone, 1500 people a day are stopped. Nobody knows how many go undetected.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: The end of the campaign trail at the end of a messy divorce paper trail. A Senate candidate calls it quit after a sex scandal bombshell. We'll have those details ahead on LIVE FROM...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: He dropped out of high school to care for his sick father but still graduated with distinction. 20-year-old earned Zack Ocklewitz (ph) earned a diploma and a place in history by making a perfect score on his high school equivalency test. He was one of just six students to do so, even passing the GED exam is no cakewalk. The seven-hour test requires students to outperform 40 percent of California's high school graduates. Congratulations to him.

The Florida State Seminoles have earned two national football championships, but you'd never know it by looking at their trophy case. A pair of Waterford Crystal footballs naming FSU the national champs in '93 and '99 was stolen from a locked case outside coach Bobby Bowden's office last weekend. They're worth about $30,000 each but investigators point out, they'll be kind of hard to sell on eBay.

Well it seems motorcycle daredevil Robbie Knievel is above the law, literally. Check it out as he jumps over 20 police cars at a New Jersey car dealership. Wow. The 42-year-old son of Evel Knievel has completed more than 250 jumps in his 30-year career and says he wants to keep at it just as long as he can.

(MARKET REPORT)

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Aired June 25, 2004 - 14:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Close call for a killer. The terrorist who says he's behind beheadings and attacks in Iraq, barely escapes American bombs.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush on the road to Ireland. But focus on Iraq. Will he be able to built more support for Iraq after the handover?

PHILLIPS: Campaign collapse. A Hollywood sex scandal forces a Senate candidate to give up his run for Washington.

NGUYEN: And the speediest man in a Speedo. Nine-time Olympic gold medalist and swimming legend, Mark Spitz, on the Athens games, terror and what it takes to be a champ.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Betty Nguyen.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips, Miles is on assignment. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM... starts right now.

Up first this hour, a possible near-miss for the coalition, a possible close call for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. CNN has learned the infamous terror instigator was the target of a U.S. air strike, the third in a week in the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has the details -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, hello to you. Well, a senior Pentagon -- a senior defense official has confirmed to CNN that they believe it is possible Abu Musab al-Zarqawi narrowly escaped an air strike in Fallujah earlier today. U.S. war planes were targeting the house there.

And as they dropped 500-pound bombs, U.S. intelligence assets believed to be a Predator unmanned drone overhead were circling and saw a convoy of cars pull up to the house. A security detail, a man got out. The bombs dropped, the man was thrown to the ground and then he was hustled back into the cars. Clearly alive, we are told, and driven away.

Now the senior defense official says to CNN the man, in his words, "wasn't wearing a name tag." They cannot be positive it was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. But one of the reasons they think it is likely it may have been is because they have not seen anyone but him travel with that level of security that was surrounding the person who drove up to that house in Fallujah earlier today.

Also, they have, they say, fairly fresh intelligence that indicates Zarqawi has continued over the last several days to operate in the Fallujah area. It is one of the reasons they have been striking so many safe houses there. Publicly, of course, the Pentagon saying -- the coalition in Baghdad saying they are not specifically targeting Zarqawi, but to be quite clear that is exactly what they're doing.

They're certainly hoping to target him and kill him before the June 30 handover. It simply would make things less complicated. But they will continue to go after him, every reason to believe he is one of the key masterminds because behind so many of the recent attacks against both U.S. and coalition forces -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Barbara Starr live from the Pentagon, thank you.

Joining me on the phone now, CNN military analyst, retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd. Barbara mentioned this also, General, and that is you have got to have pretty good intel to drop a 500-pound bomb.

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, USAF (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, you do. Indeed you do, Kyra. You're not going to go in the middle of a city and just start to bomb houses where you think people might be. This is good intel. You have to have the exact coordinates or be marking the targets at the time. So we have good intelligence and we know where these safe houses are. It's where people gather, where large numbers of people. It's where you store munitions. So this indicates to me that we have some really good intel coming out of Fallujah.

PHILLIPS: Explain to our viewers, too, when you see this type of destruction you think, OK, how could someone get away from this? Explain to viewers about the 500-pound bomb, the frag pattern and the details to where it would be easy for someone to escape if they had somewhat of an idea that an air strike was in-bound?

SHEPPERD: Yes, well, every bomb has a fragmentation pattern that basically goes out a certain distance, the frag pattern of a 500-pound bomb, as I remember, is around 300 feet. So that means if you're close to the bomb, you're probably going to get hit.

If you're 150, 200 feet away, your chances are less of getting hit by the fragment that comes off the bomb, the metal that comes off the bomb. So you could be blown to the ground by the blast and still not be hit by the frag elements there. It's really hard to tell.

When Barbara says that they report he wasn't wearing a name tag, that military vernacular and it means we don't know for sure. We see white spots on our scope. We can't tell who exactly it is. The entourage of vehicles is what Zarqawi has been seen to travel in. So that might indicate it was him.

PHILLIPS: And General, although Zarqawi may not be in the hands of coalition forces, you do see this video, you see this destruction, and it's just one part of a safe house and one part of the network that is sort of taken out of the system, I guess we could say. And that is a tremendous advantage, tearing down the network, because that will eventually lead to Zarqawi.

SHEPPERD: Well, hopefully it will. But he is a very wily guy and he may move out of Fallujah. The problem in Fallujah is it has been a total failure so far, we have not gotten the security we wanted, the weapons, the foreign terrorists handed over by the forces there. Fallujah is going to have to be dealt with. So we're hunting and picking based upon intelligence we may or may not get him, but, again, we are certainly after him, no question about that.

PHILLIPS: And so finally, when we talk about these safe houses, safe houses for weapons, communications ability, training, other parts of the network, is this a positive hit for U.S. forces?

SHEPPERD: Yes, it is, because I think a couple of things may come up. One, you may get some of the bad guys, you may get Zarqawi himself. And also it's a message to the people in Fallujah. If you don't deal with these people, we will. And you're liable to see the destruction of your own house or Fallujah in its entirety, So there's a message, an important message that goes out by us making these strikes.

PHILLIPS: Major General Don Shepperd, thanks for your time.

SHEPPERD: You bet.

PHILLIPS: All right -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Shifting to Baghdad today, and at least through the power transfer next Wednesday police are out in force like never before. The country's incoming defense minister warns a showdown with outlaws and traitors is at hand, and God willing, he says, the showdown will be great. All Baghdad police are on full alert throughout midweek and foreigners are being warned not to even venture onto the streets.

Through it all, a U.S. Army panel considers what to do with Sabrina Harman. Harman is a one of the half dozen GIs still facing charges in the inmate abuse debacle at Abu Ghraib Prison. Her so- called Article 32 hearing now in its second day examines whether evidence exists to warrant a court-martial.

PHILLIPS: Now or very soon commotion in County Clare. It starts in earnest in about an hour when President Bush sets foot in the west of Ireland for weekend summit with his E.U. counterparts. More than a third of the soldiers and police in the Irish republic will be very nearby as the summiteers talk terror, trade and especially Iraq in 16th century Dromoland Castle.

Now chances are they'll still be outnumbered by protesters given much of Europe's fierce opposition to the war. From Ireland it's off to a NATO summit in Turkey where Mr. Bush will try to muster in allied help in, at a minimum, training Iraqi forces. Now on the home front, support for the war has soured to the point where a majority of Americans say the whole thing was a mistake. CNN's senior political analyst Bill Schneider weighs in now from Washington with more on that.

Bill, let's talk about Bush here, is he in trouble?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, well, there's certainly a big turnaround in public opinion on Iraq. Americans no longer feel that the Iraq war made them safer from terrorism and they no longer believe that Saddam Hussein was linked to the attacks on 9/11 since that report came out from the 9/11 Commission saying there is no evidence of any cooperation between Iraq and al Qaeda. The results of this, a majority now for the first time say the war in Iraq was a mistake.

PHILLIPS: Let's look at those numbers, right now sending troops to Iraq, 54 percent of Americans saying, yes, they believe this was a mistake. Now war down but with regard to the economy, isn't that lifting him up?

SCHNEIDER: Well, the economy is helping President Bush, there is no question about it. The economic signs are good and what we're seeing in the figures is that Bush's approval rating on handling the economy has actually gone up. Look at that, from early June to now it has gone from 41 to 47 percent. It's not exactly irrational exuberance, but it's moving up there. Wouldn't this be an irony if the economy, which doomed his father's re-election, ended up saving up this President Bush's re-election?

PHILLIPS: The other part of the survey, Bill, likely voters' choice for president. Right now 49 percent Bush, 48 percent say Kerry. Well, we've talked about Bush possibly being in trouble here but it doesn't look like Kerry is making that much of a jump.

SCHNEIDER: Well, he's holding Bush to a standoff, a president running for re-election. For Bush not to get 50 percent or more at this stage is not a good sign. His approval rating is just below 50. People are having problems with this president and they can be summarized in a single word, Iraq.

Much will depend on what happens in the handover next week and the aftermath of that handover. Americans want to see American troops stop getting killed. And they would like to see them start coming home. That may not happen any time soon. So it's not clear if that handover will be more than a symbolic gesture, although there will be an Iraqi government in place. And that has got to be considered a step forward.

PHILLIPS: Bill, finally, you haven't -- or you believe it hasn't been this isolated since World War II, right?

SCHNEIDER: Well, yes, that I think Americans are quite aware of. And the president's journeys overseas, first to the European summit and then to NATO and the meeting in Turkey I think brings home to Americans that the United States is probably I think more isolated in the world today than it has been at any time since World War II.

We're going to see protesters. We're going to see difficult relations, the president wants other NATO countries to help contribute to the Iraq effort. They seem very little interested in doing that. So I think when John Kerry makes the charge that the United States is an isolated power, I think Americans worry about that.

PHILLIPS: Bill Schneider, thanks.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

NGUYEN: An investigation into possible police brutality by members of the LAPD, that story tops our look at news across America. The FBI and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department are investigating whether three LAPD officers used excessive force in the beating and arrest of an unarmed African-American motorist. A total of eight police officers involved in Wednesday's videotaped incident as you see here are on desk duty during the investigation.

California animal lovers are unleashing some major criticism on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is asking the state legislature to repeal a 1998 law requiring shelters to hold animals up to six days before destroying them. Schwarzenegger's office says a new three-day requirement for cats and dogs would save $14 million.

NGUYEN: From rap videos to wrapped in legal trouble. Rapper DMX and a friend are expected in court today after being arrested at New York's Kennedy Airport. Police say DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, tried to pull a carjacking by posing as an FBI agent.

NGUYEN: Well, testimony causes trouble for prosecutors in the Scott Peterson trial. The credibility of their case was dealt a blow after an admission by the lead detective. CNN's Rusty Dornin has the details now from Redwood City, California.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a key piece of the prosecution's theory. Laci Peterson never knew about or saw her husband Scott's boat which was stored at his the warehouse, but on the stand, one of the lead detectives, Al Brocchini, admitted he omitted part of an interview with a woman who claims that Laci Peterson was at the warehouse and asked to use a restroom there on the day before she disappeared.

Some legal observers say the credibility of investigators may be the big issue here.

MICHAEL CARDOZA, LEGAL ANALYST: This is unbelievable. How is this jury going to believe one more thing any prosecution witness says in this case? He writes a police report from his dictation and leaves a major paragraph out.

DORNIN:: The omission also plays into the defense theory that police zeroed in on Scott Peterson as only suspect in the killing of his pregnant wife, ignoring leads that may have implicated others. Defense attorney Mark Geragos also implied that the hair found in the pliers on the bottom of Scott Peterson's boat might have been left there by Laci during that visit.

Prosecutors claim the only way the hair could be there is because Peterson ferried his wife's body out to San Francisco Bay after she was killed.

(on camera): Next week prosecutors will have a chance to try and repair the damage by asking their own questions of Detective Al Brocchini, but not until defense attorney Mark Geragos has finished his cross-examination.

Rusty Dornin, CNN, Redwood City, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Keeping an eye on America. Is new technology to patrol the borders prying a little too much into your privacy? We'll talk more about that just ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is a battle. It reminds me very much of the person who once said that when the church is on fire, everyone carries a bucket.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: But the pastor's grabbing his uniform to do the lord's work for Uncle Sam.

And second generation daredevil. Knievel goes for a ride and gives a thrill. We're revving it up here on LIVE FROM...

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NGUYEN: News around the world now. High-stakes diplomacy. North Korea is threatening to test a nuclear weapon if the U.S. doesn't accept its proposal for a nuclear freeze. The threat came during a meeting between the North Korean foreign minister and U.S. envoy James Kelly in Beijing, China.

Eight British servicemen detained by Iran have returned to their base in southern Iraq. The men were held for three days after they strayed into Iranian territorial waters on the border with Iraq. Iran seized their boats and equipment.

Out of a job. The chair umpire who erroneously awarded a point to Venus Williams' opponent at Wimbledon will not be working another match at the tournament. Ted Watt of Britain mistakenly gave Karolina Sprem a point she didn't earn in the final tie-breaker of the match. Williams went on to lose that match.

And spacewalk aborted. A leak in an astronaut's oxygen supply prompted NASA to call off the space walk outside the International Space Station. NASA ordered two crew members to return to the station only 14 minutes after that walk began.

PHILLIPS: Protection versus privacy. A high-tech tool armed with cameras and censors is being tested as way to keep the nation's border secure. But some fear that there could be too much prying from the eye in the sky.

CNN homeland correspondent Jeanne Meserve reports.

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JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At an Army base 20 miles from the Mexican border, an unmanned aerial vehicle is launched, but not for a military mission. Its high-tech cameras and censors are scanning the brush and sands of the desert landscape for illegal immigrants. It is part of a four-month study by the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection to determine if the UAVs have a part to play in protecting the border.

(on camera): Is it potentially a silver bullet?

MICHAEL WIMBERLY, U.S. BORDER PATROL: Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

MESERVE (on camera): But the UAVs may be a valuable tool. Able to stay aloft for up to 20 hours at a stretch sending back real-time images night or day, the UAVs are virtually invisible and inaudible to people on the ground making them ideal for surveillance.

And some worry for spying.

ROBERT SMITH, U.S. BORDER PATROL: I can tell you from a policy standpoint the Department of Homeland Security is not going to use these things to be able to spy on people in their homes or in their backyards any more than they do any other piece of equipment that they have. We just don't do that.

CHRISTOPHER BOLKOM, CONG. RESEARCH SERVICE: You don't want people to fear that they're being spied on while sunbathing or engaging in personal activities in their backyard.

MESEREVE: UAVs are not cheap. This four-month trial has a price tag of $4 million. But perhaps could bring some monetary efficiencies, giving customs and border protection information that allows them to calibrate their responses to intrusions.

WIMBERLY: We should have been here looking at this technology long ago.

MESERVE: Why weren't you?

WIMBERLY: Frankly, I don't think we had the vision.

MESERVE: There is little argument that the situation right now is dire. More than 100 migrants have died in the desert heat along the southwest border already this year. (on camera): UAV surveillance might save some and stop others. In the Tucson sector of the Mexican border alone, 1500 people a day are stopped. Nobody knows how many go undetected.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: The end of the campaign trail at the end of a messy divorce paper trail. A Senate candidate calls it quit after a sex scandal bombshell. We'll have those details ahead on LIVE FROM...

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NGUYEN: He dropped out of high school to care for his sick father but still graduated with distinction. 20-year-old earned Zack Ocklewitz (ph) earned a diploma and a place in history by making a perfect score on his high school equivalency test. He was one of just six students to do so, even passing the GED exam is no cakewalk. The seven-hour test requires students to outperform 40 percent of California's high school graduates. Congratulations to him.

The Florida State Seminoles have earned two national football championships, but you'd never know it by looking at their trophy case. A pair of Waterford Crystal footballs naming FSU the national champs in '93 and '99 was stolen from a locked case outside coach Bobby Bowden's office last weekend. They're worth about $30,000 each but investigators point out, they'll be kind of hard to sell on eBay.

Well it seems motorcycle daredevil Robbie Knievel is above the law, literally. Check it out as he jumps over 20 police cars at a New Jersey car dealership. Wow. The 42-year-old son of Evel Knievel has completed more than 250 jumps in his 30-year career and says he wants to keep at it just as long as he can.

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