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Alleged bin Laden Chauffeur Faces Military Tribunal; Battleground Ohio

Aired August 24, 2004 - 15:00   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: "Animal House" on the night shift: That's the word on the atmosphere at Abu Ghraib prison from a Pentagon panel that investigated abuses by American soldiers. Just a short time ago, the panel's chairman says the share of the responsibility goes all the way to Washington. The full story just ahead.
Another ultimatum to the militants in Najaf, and loud explosions heard within the last few minutes. Live pictures from the area now. American troops applying relentless pressure. The Iraqi defense minister warns beleaguered holdouts to leave the city's mosque or face death. Now, the militants say, they want to talk again. We're going to have the latest from Najaf just a little later.

Back on the stand, the defense has finished its cross-examination of Amber Frey at the Scott Peterson murder trial. The prosecution is getting another turn. The jury heard more taped conversations between the former lovers. In them, Peterson denied he had anything to do with his wife Laci's disappearance.

Beating the odds and going for a medal in Athens. Right now, the Iraqi soccer team is playing in a semi-final match against Paraguay. If the Iraqis win, they are guaranteed at least a silver and a chance to go for the gold in Saturday's final against Argentina. Right now, they're down 2-0.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour, animal house at Abu Ghraib. If you were with us last hour, you heard that and other vivid descriptions of Iraqi inmate abuse and humiliation from a former U.S. defense secretary who doesn't spare the Pentagon in allocating blame.

James Schlesinger led a panel that investigated the Abu Ghraib debacle at the request of Donald Rumsfeld, the current secretary of defense. And its findings? Freelance and senseless brutality, inadequate supervision by commanders in Iraq, institutional and personal responsibility leading all the way to Washington. But no -- we repeat -- no official policy of abuse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES SCHLESINGER, CHAIRMAN OF ABU GHRAIB INVESTIGATIVE PANEL: There was direct responsibility for those activities on the part of the commanders on the scene up to the brigade level because they did not adequately supervise what was going on at Abu Ghraib.

In addition, there was indirect responsibility at higher levels and that the weaknesses at Abu Ghraib were well known and that corrective action could have been taken and should have been taken.

We believe that there is institutional and personal responsibility right up the chain of command, as far as Washington is concerned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Schlesinger says he does not believe the scandal warrants Rumsfeld's resignation. For his part, Rumsfeld in a written statement says he looks forward to viewing the panel's analysis and recommendations in detail.

The ex-commander of the MP brigade at the center of the scandal will be the guest tomorrow on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING." That's Brigadier General Janis Karpinski. And it will be here at 7:00 a.m. Eastern, 4:00 a.m. Pacific, if you're up early, on the left coast right here on CNN.

PHILLIPS: Guantanamo justice: A detainee from Yemen who supposedly served as Osama bin Laden's chauffeur and bodyguard took his place today in the first U.S. military tribunal since World War II. He appeared to take the whole affair in stride.

CNN's Susan Candiotti has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a very windy day here at the Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The legal proceedings going on in that building you can see far away from me over my shoulder. This is the closest that security will allow us to be. Defendant Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen, he entered the courtroom smiling and then shook hands with his attorney. He is wearing traditional Arab garments. He has had a relaxed demeanor throughout, smiling often, rising even when he doesn't have to, to answer the presiding officers.

He is listening to an interpret interpreter through headphones. Everything is very procedural so far through this sort of pretrial hearing. Formally, the charges were read to him, conspiring to commit murder, to attack civilians and property, various acts of terrorism.

Hamdan was captured and brought to Guantanamo from Afghanistan back in 2001. The Pentagon identifies him as a former bodyguard and driver for Osama bin Laden. And during this proceeding, his defense attorney, a lawyer who belongs to the military, had an opportunity to question the presiding officer, who is a retired military judge brought back into active service. The defense has now officially challenged the presiding officer's qualifications and his ability to be impartial.

And this will now be referred to the military's presiding authority over this commission -- this entire process very controversial. The defense attorneys maintain and insist that the rules of evidence amount to everything being stacked against them. The Pentagon insists that everyone here will receive a full and fair hearing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: News across America now.

Is it something in the water? That mysterious illness still hitting visitors at an Ohio resort. Apart from a handful of cases involving identifiable bugs, state health officials are stymied. Almost 900 have reported suffering nausea, vomiting and other symptoms after visiting the Bass Island and surrounding area. Today, officials are checking for possible cross-contamination between drinking water and waste water.

All aboard the Rx Express. These seniors left California en route to Canada to buy cheaper prescription drugs and make a political statement along the way. The rolling protest is funded by a taxpayers group. It is pushing for a national bulk purchasing plan to cut drug costs for Medicare patients and others.

And in Utah, Garrett Bardsley's father says the family has not given up hope he is still alive, despite harsh conditions in the mountains where he vanished. The search continues today for the 12- year-old last seen on Friday during a camping trip. Yesterday, cold weather, rain and snow moved into the area.

PHILLIPS: Well, they could be a deciding factor in the election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARL MCGINNIS, OHIO RESIDENT: I'm behind on just about everything. If it wasn't for my parents, I'd be living in a box.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: America's working poor and the race for the White House.

Ring around the Olympics. We extend an olive branch of sorts to this Games' biggest fashion statement.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Tightening their grip on a sacred Shiite shrine. Several loud explosions have been heard in Najaf. Iraqi security forces are now advancing on the Imam Ali mosque. Not far away, there is another shrine, less well known. It, too, is serving a purpose for which it was not intended, as a home for refugees.

Our Diana Muriel takes us inside.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is one of the mosques you have not heard about, the mosque of Umm Abathiat (ph) in a Najaf suburb about five miles from holy shrine of Imam Ali. This mosque is now home to around 50 families who have fled the fighting between U.S.-backed Iraqi forces and Mehdi militant loyal to the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Living conditions here couldn't be more basic.

AMAL KAREEM, NAJAF REFUGEE (through translator): We had to leave our houses, all of our belongings. Here we are one on top of the other, men sleeping beside women. It is not acceptable. This is a holy mosque and all sacred mosques should be respected.

MURIEL: The very young and the very old, like this elderly blind woman, bewildered at their fate. To get by, the refugees rely on aid from religious bodies, this food paid for by donations from other mosques, a benevolent gesture served up with more than a taste of bitterness.

KARIM HAMMADI, AID PROVIDER (through translator): We came to feed our brothers. It is a simple thing that we do for them. America came to liberate Iraq, but where is the democracy? The democracy is that these people were forced to flee and their homes were looted.

MURIEL: Some, like this baker, lost their businesses in the bombing around the old city of Najaf. Homes, too, destroyed in the fighting that has engulfed the city for more than two weeks.

The Najaf police chief, echoing a statement by the Iraqi minister of defense, says it's time to end the conflict over the other mosque, Shia Islam's holiest site.

GHALIB AL-JAZAARI, NAJAF POLICE CHIEF (through translator): We are going to break into the Imam Ali shrine in the coming hours, but because this is a holy place, we're just taking special measures, including telling the few that remain in the shrine to leave. Many of the followers and friends of the Mehdi Army have already left and returned to their cities. We haven't arrested any of them. We've even provided transport for them, but we told them to go home.

MURIEL: But within the Imam Ali shrine compound, evidence fighters remain, including this young man, an Iraqi educated in Britain. Styling himself Abutarab, the nickname of Imam Ali, he says he came to Najaf a month ago to join al-Sadr's Mehdi Army.

"ABUTARAB," MEHDI MILITIAMAN: I'm very confident and I'm happy what I'm doing and I feel that I'm doing the right -- because I just can't keep watching what they're doing. I have to fight to defend my people and my country.

MURIEL: While he and the others fight on, Najaf refugees huddle and wait.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I just want to go home. We are the people who bear the brunt of the fighting. What did we do to deserve this?

MURIEL: The fighting for control in Najaf has intensified, with night bombardments and daylight skirmishes involving tanks and machine gunfire. The next few hours may bring an end to the conflict, but it's unlikely to bring much relief to the citizens there. Diana Muriel, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Now to politics, where the working poor could factor into the presidential election in one key battleground state. President Bush won Ohio and its 20 electoral votes in the 2000 election, but Ohio has a large union vote and thousands of workers reeling because of the state's shrinking manufacturing base.

CNN's Aaron Brown with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A humid Thursday morning at a food bank in Canton, Ohio. More than 1,000 people will go through this line today.

LISA HAMLER PODOLSKI, OHIO ASSOCIATION OF SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANKS: We're seeing unprecedented increase in demand for emergency food assistance in the state of Ohio. We've experienced over a 40 percent increase in demand for assistance.

BROWN: They are the new poor, many of them here for the first time, people who in their whole lives never imagined they would line up at a food bank. Michelle McCollister was laid off by her software company in April. Her husband, a carpenter, hasn't worked for two months.

MICHELLE MCCOLLISTER, OHIO RESIDENT: We had savings. And now we're just down to the bottom of it. So, once that's gone and the unemployment runs out, I'm not sure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In this state, we've had over 60,000 individuals exhaust their unemployment benefits without securing new jobs over a period of the past four months.

DEBBI SEDEY, OHIO RESIDENT: I have already worked 35 out of the 51 years that I've lived on this planet. And I have nothing to show for it. It's totally not how I saw my life.

BROWN: Debby Sedey, a graphic artist, was laid off more than two years ago right after she closed on her first home, right before she found out she had a tumor.

SEDEY: But when it came down to it, it was a choice between paying my medical bills or paying my house payment. So, I started paying my medical bills.

BROWN: Debbi lost her house, then spent three months at a homeless shelter with her teenage daughter before moving into low- income housing. She works 129 hours at the food pantry in exchange for $340 a month in public assistance. SEDEY: When the chuck comes in, we pay the rent. We pay the phone bill. And then we take care of necessities. My van right now costs me about $25 to fill it up. And that lasts for about a week. So, now I'm down to $30. If my daughter needs something, she can just forget it.

BROWN: In Clark County alone, 7,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in just the last two years. Carl McGinnis lost his last job making car parts when work at the factory slowed down.

MCGINNIS: I have no income whatsoever. I have no savings, no checking. I've lost my house. I've lost my truck. I'm behind on just about everything. If it wasn't for my parents, I'd be living in a box.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What we see now is the total loss of the manufacturing base. Those factories are gone and they're never coming back.

TAMMY HEDGE, OHIO RESIDENT: You get to choose two items off of the top shelf.

BROWN: Tammy Hedge, a single mom, lost her job at a leather factory when the company started outsourcing the work to China. She recently found a new job, but the take-home pay is not enough to live on.

HEDGE: Seven an hour and 40 hours a week. And they take the taxes and what they do out of it, it is not enough to live on. Somebody's got to change what's happening to us people here. We just don't not exist anymore just because the company's moved to Mexico and China and all them. We're still here. We've still got groceries to buy and kids to raise.

BROWN: Everyday responsibilities that are now an everyday challenge to the new poor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: And now to Redwood City, California, Scott Peterson murder trial. His former paramour, Amber Frey, has finished her testimony. This is her attorney, Gloria Allred.

Let's listen.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY FOR AMBER FREY: So, I say, if he had an innocent explanation, why wouldn't his attorney want it to be stated? So, the attorney argument is garbage and, therefore, properly placed in the garbage bag.

Finally, I know all of you recollect that yesterday I predicted and anticipated that Mr. Geragos would do exactly what in fact he did today. I said yesterday, we anticipate that Mr. Geragos will try and emphasize the self-serving portions of the tapes, where Mr. Peterson declares his innocence. But that will not take away from the numerous evasions and refusals on the part of Mr. Peterson to answer Ms. Frey's questions.

And I said the jury may infer that he refused to answer these questions because he knew that whatever answers he gave could incriminate him or end up in a court of law. Well, that is exactly what Mr. Geragos did this morning. He tried to display a number of self-serving statements by Mr. Peterson.

But guess what? These are garbage. So, they are properly placed in the garbage bag. In short, our client is now finished with the direct, the cross, the redirect, the recross. However, Mr. Geragos wants to possibly recall her as a defense witness. You all remember the time when we were here for the preliminary hearing and Mr. Geragos said, well, if the prosecution's not going to call her, wait a minute, maybe I'll call her?

And I said, Mr. Geragos call her as a defense witness? Now, how could anything she say possibly help him with his case? And after a few days of dangling it in front of you like bait, which you were all smart enough not to jump at, he never did call her. Well, he's now saying he's going to possibly call her or at least reserving the right to call her as a defense witness.

Will he actually do so? I don't know what is in his mind. But all I can tell you is, if she needs to come back, she will and she will continue to tell the truth whether or not she's a prosecution witness or a defense witness. I don't know what she could say to help the defense. But if he wants to have another shot at her after he reviews his notes and tries to figure out why his cross-examination went nowhere, it went south, well, hey, if he wants another shot, she'll be ready for it.

It does mean, of course, that she will still remain under the gag order. She will not be able to give any interviews. In summary, we are really proud of our client. She continued to be composed on the stand. She continued to tell the truth. She continued not to be misled or -- and not to be confused by compound questions that had parts that maybe could be a bit misleading. She stood her ground. She held onto her rock, which is the truth.

I think she was a model witness, credible, sympathetic, all those things that Scott Peterson never could be, never will be, because here's another prediction. He's not taking the witness stand on this case.

O'BRIEN: All right, that's Gloria Allred. She's the attorney representing Amber Frey. Amber Frey has finished her testimony, but, who knows, she might be back as a defense witness, we're told, if Mark Geragos' statements have any veracity.

Nevertheless, perhaps we haven't heard the last of this one way or another, as we continue to follow the story of Scott Peterson's murder case out there in Redwood City, California.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Checking entertainment headlines this Tuesday, we've all heard it and most of have said it: Elvis has left the building. The man who made that line famous was named Al Dvorin. He toured with the King from the early days until the end of 1977 and used those words to disperse lingering fans after those shows. Dvorin died Sunday in a California car accident at the age of 81. But his signature line, as you know, lives on.

Just wondering how some people will react to the news that Ellen DeGeneres has gotten a new gig, not just any job, mind you. The comic actress has been tapped for the role of God in a remake of the 1977 film "Oh, God."

That is going to be a hard one to redo, Miles, the original version -- Do you think she'll have a cigar? -- starred George Burns as the cigar-puffing deity.

Finally, Michael Jackson has a big wack attack. The tabloid- beleaguered pop star posted a Web site message saying he's had it with being tagged as Wacko Jacko in the public eye. His latest beef is with VH-1's movie "Man in the Mirror."

O'BRIEN: All right, quickly, we told you we'd bring you a story with Jeanne Moos on those wreath things.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

O'BRIEN: We'll try to do that another time.

PHILLIPS: OK.

O'BRIEN: Imagine wreaths on dogs and all kinds of funny places.

PHILLIPS: They still...

O'BRIEN: It's a laugh a minute.

CNN's Election Express is on the road, and that's where we find...

PHILLIPS: ... our Judy Woodruff. She's aboard. She joins us now with a preview of "INSIDE POLITICS." Hi, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Hi there, Kyra. Hello, Miles. Thank you both.

What with just six days to go until the Republican National Convention, we're continuing to make our way toward New York City. You can see it behind me. Today, I'm here at the Frank Sinatra Park in Hoboken, New Jersey. We're going to take a little look at ol' blue eyes' political connections to both parties next hour.

Plus, we're going to do a summary of what both sides are saying happened the day a young John Kerry earned a bronze star. "INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: I'm Kyra Phillips.

Now in the news -- placing blame for Abu Ghraib. A panel appointed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has released its findings into the Iraq prison abuse scandal. It says that while there was no policy of abuse, there were many perpetrators to the point of sadism, and higher ups didn't do anything to stop it. CNN will have a live report from the Pentagon at 5:00 Eastern.

The key witness has stepped down from the stand in the Scott Peterson trial. Amber Frey wrapped up her testimony a little more than 20 minutes ago after a second day of cross-examination. Jurors also heard a taped phone call in which Frey asked Peterson if his wife's disappearance had anything to do with his feelings for her. Peterson said no.

Assembled during war, now with a shot at the Olympic medal. Right now, the Iraqi men's soccer team is on the field in Athens playing Paraguay in a semifinals match. Paraguay is up 3-0. Whoever wins will play Argentina for the gold medal. The loser plays Italy for the bronze.

Stay tuned -- "JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS" up next.

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


Aired August 24, 2004 - 15:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: "Animal House" on the night shift: That's the word on the atmosphere at Abu Ghraib prison from a Pentagon panel that investigated abuses by American soldiers. Just a short time ago, the panel's chairman says the share of the responsibility goes all the way to Washington. The full story just ahead.
Another ultimatum to the militants in Najaf, and loud explosions heard within the last few minutes. Live pictures from the area now. American troops applying relentless pressure. The Iraqi defense minister warns beleaguered holdouts to leave the city's mosque or face death. Now, the militants say, they want to talk again. We're going to have the latest from Najaf just a little later.

Back on the stand, the defense has finished its cross-examination of Amber Frey at the Scott Peterson murder trial. The prosecution is getting another turn. The jury heard more taped conversations between the former lovers. In them, Peterson denied he had anything to do with his wife Laci's disappearance.

Beating the odds and going for a medal in Athens. Right now, the Iraqi soccer team is playing in a semi-final match against Paraguay. If the Iraqis win, they are guaranteed at least a silver and a chance to go for the gold in Saturday's final against Argentina. Right now, they're down 2-0.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour, animal house at Abu Ghraib. If you were with us last hour, you heard that and other vivid descriptions of Iraqi inmate abuse and humiliation from a former U.S. defense secretary who doesn't spare the Pentagon in allocating blame.

James Schlesinger led a panel that investigated the Abu Ghraib debacle at the request of Donald Rumsfeld, the current secretary of defense. And its findings? Freelance and senseless brutality, inadequate supervision by commanders in Iraq, institutional and personal responsibility leading all the way to Washington. But no -- we repeat -- no official policy of abuse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES SCHLESINGER, CHAIRMAN OF ABU GHRAIB INVESTIGATIVE PANEL: There was direct responsibility for those activities on the part of the commanders on the scene up to the brigade level because they did not adequately supervise what was going on at Abu Ghraib.

In addition, there was indirect responsibility at higher levels and that the weaknesses at Abu Ghraib were well known and that corrective action could have been taken and should have been taken.

We believe that there is institutional and personal responsibility right up the chain of command, as far as Washington is concerned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Schlesinger says he does not believe the scandal warrants Rumsfeld's resignation. For his part, Rumsfeld in a written statement says he looks forward to viewing the panel's analysis and recommendations in detail.

The ex-commander of the MP brigade at the center of the scandal will be the guest tomorrow on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING." That's Brigadier General Janis Karpinski. And it will be here at 7:00 a.m. Eastern, 4:00 a.m. Pacific, if you're up early, on the left coast right here on CNN.

PHILLIPS: Guantanamo justice: A detainee from Yemen who supposedly served as Osama bin Laden's chauffeur and bodyguard took his place today in the first U.S. military tribunal since World War II. He appeared to take the whole affair in stride.

CNN's Susan Candiotti has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a very windy day here at the Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The legal proceedings going on in that building you can see far away from me over my shoulder. This is the closest that security will allow us to be. Defendant Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen, he entered the courtroom smiling and then shook hands with his attorney. He is wearing traditional Arab garments. He has had a relaxed demeanor throughout, smiling often, rising even when he doesn't have to, to answer the presiding officers.

He is listening to an interpret interpreter through headphones. Everything is very procedural so far through this sort of pretrial hearing. Formally, the charges were read to him, conspiring to commit murder, to attack civilians and property, various acts of terrorism.

Hamdan was captured and brought to Guantanamo from Afghanistan back in 2001. The Pentagon identifies him as a former bodyguard and driver for Osama bin Laden. And during this proceeding, his defense attorney, a lawyer who belongs to the military, had an opportunity to question the presiding officer, who is a retired military judge brought back into active service. The defense has now officially challenged the presiding officer's qualifications and his ability to be impartial.

And this will now be referred to the military's presiding authority over this commission -- this entire process very controversial. The defense attorneys maintain and insist that the rules of evidence amount to everything being stacked against them. The Pentagon insists that everyone here will receive a full and fair hearing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: News across America now.

Is it something in the water? That mysterious illness still hitting visitors at an Ohio resort. Apart from a handful of cases involving identifiable bugs, state health officials are stymied. Almost 900 have reported suffering nausea, vomiting and other symptoms after visiting the Bass Island and surrounding area. Today, officials are checking for possible cross-contamination between drinking water and waste water.

All aboard the Rx Express. These seniors left California en route to Canada to buy cheaper prescription drugs and make a political statement along the way. The rolling protest is funded by a taxpayers group. It is pushing for a national bulk purchasing plan to cut drug costs for Medicare patients and others.

And in Utah, Garrett Bardsley's father says the family has not given up hope he is still alive, despite harsh conditions in the mountains where he vanished. The search continues today for the 12- year-old last seen on Friday during a camping trip. Yesterday, cold weather, rain and snow moved into the area.

PHILLIPS: Well, they could be a deciding factor in the election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARL MCGINNIS, OHIO RESIDENT: I'm behind on just about everything. If it wasn't for my parents, I'd be living in a box.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: America's working poor and the race for the White House.

Ring around the Olympics. We extend an olive branch of sorts to this Games' biggest fashion statement.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Tightening their grip on a sacred Shiite shrine. Several loud explosions have been heard in Najaf. Iraqi security forces are now advancing on the Imam Ali mosque. Not far away, there is another shrine, less well known. It, too, is serving a purpose for which it was not intended, as a home for refugees.

Our Diana Muriel takes us inside.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is one of the mosques you have not heard about, the mosque of Umm Abathiat (ph) in a Najaf suburb about five miles from holy shrine of Imam Ali. This mosque is now home to around 50 families who have fled the fighting between U.S.-backed Iraqi forces and Mehdi militant loyal to the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Living conditions here couldn't be more basic.

AMAL KAREEM, NAJAF REFUGEE (through translator): We had to leave our houses, all of our belongings. Here we are one on top of the other, men sleeping beside women. It is not acceptable. This is a holy mosque and all sacred mosques should be respected.

MURIEL: The very young and the very old, like this elderly blind woman, bewildered at their fate. To get by, the refugees rely on aid from religious bodies, this food paid for by donations from other mosques, a benevolent gesture served up with more than a taste of bitterness.

KARIM HAMMADI, AID PROVIDER (through translator): We came to feed our brothers. It is a simple thing that we do for them. America came to liberate Iraq, but where is the democracy? The democracy is that these people were forced to flee and their homes were looted.

MURIEL: Some, like this baker, lost their businesses in the bombing around the old city of Najaf. Homes, too, destroyed in the fighting that has engulfed the city for more than two weeks.

The Najaf police chief, echoing a statement by the Iraqi minister of defense, says it's time to end the conflict over the other mosque, Shia Islam's holiest site.

GHALIB AL-JAZAARI, NAJAF POLICE CHIEF (through translator): We are going to break into the Imam Ali shrine in the coming hours, but because this is a holy place, we're just taking special measures, including telling the few that remain in the shrine to leave. Many of the followers and friends of the Mehdi Army have already left and returned to their cities. We haven't arrested any of them. We've even provided transport for them, but we told them to go home.

MURIEL: But within the Imam Ali shrine compound, evidence fighters remain, including this young man, an Iraqi educated in Britain. Styling himself Abutarab, the nickname of Imam Ali, he says he came to Najaf a month ago to join al-Sadr's Mehdi Army.

"ABUTARAB," MEHDI MILITIAMAN: I'm very confident and I'm happy what I'm doing and I feel that I'm doing the right -- because I just can't keep watching what they're doing. I have to fight to defend my people and my country.

MURIEL: While he and the others fight on, Najaf refugees huddle and wait.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I just want to go home. We are the people who bear the brunt of the fighting. What did we do to deserve this?

MURIEL: The fighting for control in Najaf has intensified, with night bombardments and daylight skirmishes involving tanks and machine gunfire. The next few hours may bring an end to the conflict, but it's unlikely to bring much relief to the citizens there. Diana Muriel, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Now to politics, where the working poor could factor into the presidential election in one key battleground state. President Bush won Ohio and its 20 electoral votes in the 2000 election, but Ohio has a large union vote and thousands of workers reeling because of the state's shrinking manufacturing base.

CNN's Aaron Brown with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A humid Thursday morning at a food bank in Canton, Ohio. More than 1,000 people will go through this line today.

LISA HAMLER PODOLSKI, OHIO ASSOCIATION OF SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANKS: We're seeing unprecedented increase in demand for emergency food assistance in the state of Ohio. We've experienced over a 40 percent increase in demand for assistance.

BROWN: They are the new poor, many of them here for the first time, people who in their whole lives never imagined they would line up at a food bank. Michelle McCollister was laid off by her software company in April. Her husband, a carpenter, hasn't worked for two months.

MICHELLE MCCOLLISTER, OHIO RESIDENT: We had savings. And now we're just down to the bottom of it. So, once that's gone and the unemployment runs out, I'm not sure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In this state, we've had over 60,000 individuals exhaust their unemployment benefits without securing new jobs over a period of the past four months.

DEBBI SEDEY, OHIO RESIDENT: I have already worked 35 out of the 51 years that I've lived on this planet. And I have nothing to show for it. It's totally not how I saw my life.

BROWN: Debby Sedey, a graphic artist, was laid off more than two years ago right after she closed on her first home, right before she found out she had a tumor.

SEDEY: But when it came down to it, it was a choice between paying my medical bills or paying my house payment. So, I started paying my medical bills.

BROWN: Debbi lost her house, then spent three months at a homeless shelter with her teenage daughter before moving into low- income housing. She works 129 hours at the food pantry in exchange for $340 a month in public assistance. SEDEY: When the chuck comes in, we pay the rent. We pay the phone bill. And then we take care of necessities. My van right now costs me about $25 to fill it up. And that lasts for about a week. So, now I'm down to $30. If my daughter needs something, she can just forget it.

BROWN: In Clark County alone, 7,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in just the last two years. Carl McGinnis lost his last job making car parts when work at the factory slowed down.

MCGINNIS: I have no income whatsoever. I have no savings, no checking. I've lost my house. I've lost my truck. I'm behind on just about everything. If it wasn't for my parents, I'd be living in a box.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What we see now is the total loss of the manufacturing base. Those factories are gone and they're never coming back.

TAMMY HEDGE, OHIO RESIDENT: You get to choose two items off of the top shelf.

BROWN: Tammy Hedge, a single mom, lost her job at a leather factory when the company started outsourcing the work to China. She recently found a new job, but the take-home pay is not enough to live on.

HEDGE: Seven an hour and 40 hours a week. And they take the taxes and what they do out of it, it is not enough to live on. Somebody's got to change what's happening to us people here. We just don't not exist anymore just because the company's moved to Mexico and China and all them. We're still here. We've still got groceries to buy and kids to raise.

BROWN: Everyday responsibilities that are now an everyday challenge to the new poor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: And now to Redwood City, California, Scott Peterson murder trial. His former paramour, Amber Frey, has finished her testimony. This is her attorney, Gloria Allred.

Let's listen.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY FOR AMBER FREY: So, I say, if he had an innocent explanation, why wouldn't his attorney want it to be stated? So, the attorney argument is garbage and, therefore, properly placed in the garbage bag.

Finally, I know all of you recollect that yesterday I predicted and anticipated that Mr. Geragos would do exactly what in fact he did today. I said yesterday, we anticipate that Mr. Geragos will try and emphasize the self-serving portions of the tapes, where Mr. Peterson declares his innocence. But that will not take away from the numerous evasions and refusals on the part of Mr. Peterson to answer Ms. Frey's questions.

And I said the jury may infer that he refused to answer these questions because he knew that whatever answers he gave could incriminate him or end up in a court of law. Well, that is exactly what Mr. Geragos did this morning. He tried to display a number of self-serving statements by Mr. Peterson.

But guess what? These are garbage. So, they are properly placed in the garbage bag. In short, our client is now finished with the direct, the cross, the redirect, the recross. However, Mr. Geragos wants to possibly recall her as a defense witness. You all remember the time when we were here for the preliminary hearing and Mr. Geragos said, well, if the prosecution's not going to call her, wait a minute, maybe I'll call her?

And I said, Mr. Geragos call her as a defense witness? Now, how could anything she say possibly help him with his case? And after a few days of dangling it in front of you like bait, which you were all smart enough not to jump at, he never did call her. Well, he's now saying he's going to possibly call her or at least reserving the right to call her as a defense witness.

Will he actually do so? I don't know what is in his mind. But all I can tell you is, if she needs to come back, she will and she will continue to tell the truth whether or not she's a prosecution witness or a defense witness. I don't know what she could say to help the defense. But if he wants to have another shot at her after he reviews his notes and tries to figure out why his cross-examination went nowhere, it went south, well, hey, if he wants another shot, she'll be ready for it.

It does mean, of course, that she will still remain under the gag order. She will not be able to give any interviews. In summary, we are really proud of our client. She continued to be composed on the stand. She continued to tell the truth. She continued not to be misled or -- and not to be confused by compound questions that had parts that maybe could be a bit misleading. She stood her ground. She held onto her rock, which is the truth.

I think she was a model witness, credible, sympathetic, all those things that Scott Peterson never could be, never will be, because here's another prediction. He's not taking the witness stand on this case.

O'BRIEN: All right, that's Gloria Allred. She's the attorney representing Amber Frey. Amber Frey has finished her testimony, but, who knows, she might be back as a defense witness, we're told, if Mark Geragos' statements have any veracity.

Nevertheless, perhaps we haven't heard the last of this one way or another, as we continue to follow the story of Scott Peterson's murder case out there in Redwood City, California.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Checking entertainment headlines this Tuesday, we've all heard it and most of have said it: Elvis has left the building. The man who made that line famous was named Al Dvorin. He toured with the King from the early days until the end of 1977 and used those words to disperse lingering fans after those shows. Dvorin died Sunday in a California car accident at the age of 81. But his signature line, as you know, lives on.

Just wondering how some people will react to the news that Ellen DeGeneres has gotten a new gig, not just any job, mind you. The comic actress has been tapped for the role of God in a remake of the 1977 film "Oh, God."

That is going to be a hard one to redo, Miles, the original version -- Do you think she'll have a cigar? -- starred George Burns as the cigar-puffing deity.

Finally, Michael Jackson has a big wack attack. The tabloid- beleaguered pop star posted a Web site message saying he's had it with being tagged as Wacko Jacko in the public eye. His latest beef is with VH-1's movie "Man in the Mirror."

O'BRIEN: All right, quickly, we told you we'd bring you a story with Jeanne Moos on those wreath things.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

O'BRIEN: We'll try to do that another time.

PHILLIPS: OK.

O'BRIEN: Imagine wreaths on dogs and all kinds of funny places.

PHILLIPS: They still...

O'BRIEN: It's a laugh a minute.

CNN's Election Express is on the road, and that's where we find...

PHILLIPS: ... our Judy Woodruff. She's aboard. She joins us now with a preview of "INSIDE POLITICS." Hi, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Hi there, Kyra. Hello, Miles. Thank you both.

What with just six days to go until the Republican National Convention, we're continuing to make our way toward New York City. You can see it behind me. Today, I'm here at the Frank Sinatra Park in Hoboken, New Jersey. We're going to take a little look at ol' blue eyes' political connections to both parties next hour.

Plus, we're going to do a summary of what both sides are saying happened the day a young John Kerry earned a bronze star. "INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: I'm Kyra Phillips.

Now in the news -- placing blame for Abu Ghraib. A panel appointed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has released its findings into the Iraq prison abuse scandal. It says that while there was no policy of abuse, there were many perpetrators to the point of sadism, and higher ups didn't do anything to stop it. CNN will have a live report from the Pentagon at 5:00 Eastern.

The key witness has stepped down from the stand in the Scott Peterson trial. Amber Frey wrapped up her testimony a little more than 20 minutes ago after a second day of cross-examination. Jurors also heard a taped phone call in which Frey asked Peterson if his wife's disappearance had anything to do with his feelings for her. Peterson said no.

Assembled during war, now with a shot at the Olympic medal. Right now, the Iraqi men's soccer team is on the field in Athens playing Paraguay in a semifinals match. Paraguay is up 3-0. Whoever wins will play Argentina for the gold medal. The loser plays Italy for the bronze.

Stay tuned -- "JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS" up next.

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