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The Situation Room

Suicide Bombers Attack Police Academy, Killing At Least 36; Saddam Hussein Trial Had Dramatic Moments; DNC Chairman Howard Dean Says Iraq War Can't Be Won; Sami Al-Arian Acquitted; Massachusetts Right To Die Case; U.S. Under Fire In Europe For Anti-Terror Detentions Of A German Citizen; Ramsey Clark Interview; Cindy Sheehan Writes Book; Bill Clinton Helps Hillary's Campaign; Ford Ads Targeting To Gays And Lesbians Start Controversy

Aired December 06, 2005 - 19:00   ET

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

WOLF ANCHOR, CNN ANCHOR: And to our viewers, you're in THE SITUATION ROOM, where new pictures and information are arriving all the time.
Standing by, CNN reporters across the United States and around the world to bring you the day's top stories. Happening now, it's 3:00 a.m. in Baghdad. A devastating double bombing in an Iraqi police academy. Dozens are dead.

And there's also outrage in the courtroom. A defiant former dictator Saddam Hussein, shouting at the judge to, quote, "go to hell."

In Tampa, Florida, it's 7 p.m. A stunning verdict as a jury fails to buy the federal government's terrorism case against a former university professor.

It's also 7 p.m. in New York City, where Senator Hillary Clinton is getting some high-powered help from her husband. Which one is the campaigner in chief right now? We're live this hour, covering the Clintons on the campaign trail.

I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

We begin with an escalating war of words at home, and a bloody bombing and a bitter legal battle in Iraq, a bold attack by a pair of suicide bombers in Baghdad. They attacked a police academy, killing at least 36 police officers and recruits. Dozen more were wounded.

The U.S. military says one bomber struck outside a classroom. The other then blew himself up in a bunker where people had fled after the first explosion.

In a Baghdad courtroom, witnesses recount horrors from decades ago. Still terrified, their faces hidden behind a curtain. Their voices disguised, they testify of torture and killings by the regime of Saddam Hussein.

An outburst, angry one at that, from the former dictator himself. He's shouting at the judge telling him to, quote, "go to hell." Here's a sampling of Saddam Hussein's defiance. We'll get to that in a moment.

The trial of Saddam Hussein is to resume in a few hours. Our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson was in the courtroom for today's dramatic events.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well right at the end of the trial today, clear evidence that Saddam Hussein and his half brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, are feeling tired. Saddam Hussein said, "I've been in the same shirt, in the same underwear for three days. I don't want to come to the court tomorrow." The judge said the trial is going to go ahead on Wednesday. There are only two more witnesses to be heard from.

Saddam Hussein just before he left the court said, "I will not appear in a court where there's no justice. Go to hell, all you agents of America." Earlier in the court proceedings, there had been five witnesses, all keeping their identities hidden, giving their testimony from behind a curtain. Their voices were disguised.

Perhaps the most intense testimony coming from one woman. Witness A, she was described as, she had been rounded out from her home. She described how she was taken to an interrogation facility in Baghdad, where she said she was told to strip her clothes off. She said her captives raised her leg, handcuffed her hands, she said, and then beat her with cables.

She described conditions where they were forced to make their own socks and underwear, she said, from blankets. Forced to improvise shoes out of newspapers. Such were the harsh conditions, she said, they were forced to live in for four years -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Nic Robertson reporting for us. Here is an example of Saddam Hussein's defiance in the courtroom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Criminal, to hell fire. You to hell fire, please don't interrupt the testimony.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We heard Saddam Hussein there in the courtroom. That opened defiance in Baghdad. Typical Saddam Hussein, literally shouting at the judge. Coming up, I'll speak with a key member of the former dictator's defense team, the former United States Attorney General Ramsey Clark. He'll be joining us here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Meanwhile, an Islamic militant group in Iraq has released a video of what the group claims is an American hostage. It shows a man sitting with his hands, apparently bound. A passport and other identification cards are also shown. The video first aired on Al Jazeera. The group is demanding the release of detainees.

Back here in Washington, the sparks flying once again tonight over Iraq. Here's what lit the match. The Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean saying the war can't be won. Listen to this. (BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

HOWARD DEAN, DNC CHAIRMAN: I supported this president's war in Afghanistan. But I do not believe in making the same mistake twice. And America appears to have made the same mistake twice. I wish the president had paid more attention to the history of Iraq before we'd gotten in there. The idea that we're going to win this war is an idea that unfortunately is just plain wrong.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BLITZER: President Bush fired back later in the day, saying the United States can and will win in Iraq. The Republican Party Chairman, meanwhile, had very harsh words for Howard Dean. That would be Ken Mehlman. He took direct aim at his Democratic counterpart when he joined me here in THE SITUATION ROOM earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEN MEHLMAN, RNC CHAIRMAN: For Howard Dean to echo that and for Howard Dean to say to our troops who are fighting right now: the war you're fighting, you can't win. I think is an outrageous statement, and I think that it sends the wrong message to our troops, sends the wrong message to the Iraqi people, who in 10 days are going to vote in elections.

And it certainly sends the wrong message to the enemy who likes what they hear, probably, because Mr. al-Zawahiri said something somewhat similar just a few weeks ago in a letter that was intercepted.

BLITZER: The American public though, as you know, according to all the most recent polls, are very worried what's happening in Iraq right now. The most recent "TIME Magazine" poll asked how the Americans are -- if they approve or disapprove of the way the president is handling the situation in Iraq. Only 38 percent approve of the way he's doing his job as far as Iraq is concerned, 60 percent disapprove. Seems a lot of Americans might agree with Howard Dean right now.

MEHLMAN: Well, Wolf, they don't. The American people also overwhelming have told pollsters they think it's a mistake for us to retreat and defeat, for us to leave Iraq and not finish the job, for us to leave it in the hands of terrorists. They understand what the stakes would be. It's not just...

BLITZER: ... well why do so many Americans -- why are so many Americans not confident in the way the president's handling his job, as far as the war in Iraq is concerned?

MEHLMAN: Well, Wolf, look, war is incredibly hard. This war is also hard. In past wars, whether it was World War II or Korea or other wars, you could follow on a map with flags, how your forces were doing.

When it's a war against terrorists, it's a very different kind of battle. The fact is, we're making progress. We're going to see that progress next week when the Iraqi people vote. There are more than 200,000 Iraqi troops who have been trained.

And again, the question is, does saying we can't win the war, which is what Mr. Dean said, does saying it -- comparing our troops to terrorists, which John Kerry did this past weekend?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: All right, let's stop Ken Mehlman right there. I spoke with him earlier in the day. I want you to see and hear exactly what he's talking about. Here is Senator John Kerry, what he said this past Sunday about U.S. troops in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: There is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, women, breaking sort of the customs of the historical customs, religious customs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: That's what Ken Mehlman was referring to, and was angry about. After he had back at John Kerry, the senator spokesman responded sending this statement right here into THE SITUATION ROOM. Let me read it to you: Ken Mehlman's filthy and shameful lie about a decorated combat veteran is disgraceful. Political hack Ken Mehlman and draft-dodging, donut-eating Rush Limbaugh have something in common. Neither of them know anything about how to make American troops safe. John Kerry will continue to speak out about how to succeed in Iraq and protect brave American troops.

The exchange of words, quite intense right here in THE SITUATION ROOM. And as if the debate weren't hot enough already, the president will add some more fuel to the fire tomorrow. Our White House correspondent Dana Bash is joining us now live with a little preview of what the president has in store. Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, tomorrow's speech is the second in a series on Iraq leading up to the elections there December 15th.

Tomorrow's focus, Bush aides say, will be on reconstruction, rehabilitation of the economy there. The president will give examples. They say here of basic changes and rebuilding of things like schools, hospitals, getting back, restoring power, electricity and water.

Those are the kinds of things the White House says the American people don't get to see enough of through the daily images of violence that are coming from Iraq. And Mr. Bush will also repeat the kind of tone that he did last week when talking about Iraqi security forces, saying the administration didn't essentially do it right.

Get it right in terms of how to do that before they had to switch approaches. He will say the same thing about how they are approaching reconstruction in Iraq -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Dana Bash at the White House. Thank you, Dana, very much. Other news we are following.

Not guilty, that's the stunning verdict from a federal jury in Florida on a closely-watched terror case. The jury has acquitted a former professor accused of supporting a Palestinian terrorist group. Sami Al-Arian, who taught computer engineering at the University of South Florida was acquitted of eight counts against him. The jury dead-locked on the nine other charges.

Prosecutors had said the Kuwaiti native effectively served as the communications arm for the militant group Islamic Jihad. Let's get some analysis of what exactly has happened. The former United States attorney in Florida, Kendall Coffey joining us. Huge setback for the federal government. What happens now, Kendall?

KENDALL COFFEY, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Very big setback. Not a single conviction on a single count against a single defendant after a five-month trial with a huge investment, Wolf, in surveillance and all kinds of other law enforcement tools.

What they do now is very simple. They have two defendants that were not acquitted on everything, obviously including Sami Al-Arian. They have got to go back and decide whether to retry the case. My sense is that they probably will, but be very surprised if this case is tried the same way it was before. Obviously, something very significant didn't work, and I think this case is going to be looked at by prosecutors around the country as what went wrong in a very important terrorism case.

BLITZER: Kendall, the Patriot Act was used as a basis for this case against Sami Al-Arian. What does it say about the Patriot Act?

COFFEY: Well, I don't think it signals a failure in the Patriot Act in the sense that somebody found that some of the surveillance devices were unconstitutional.

What I think really happened here is the government simply couldn't connect domestic alleged terrorists with some specific violent act that either occurred here or somewhere else. Wherever you get in terms of people that are in this country that can't be specifically connected to some kind of violence, it can be a tough case for the prosecution. And as we saw, the jury simply couldn't make up their mind about a number of the counts.

Doesn't mean, though, that the Patriot Act is a failure as a tool. It simply means that maybe in this case the evidence wasn't strong enough.

BLITZER: And finally, you believe the government will proceed once again, start from square one basically and start all over again.

COFFEY: I think they will, and I think they are going to have to focus the case more carefully. Apparently, there may have just been too much stuff, too many phone conversations and faxes and documents. And it doesn't appear that they gave the jury a clear sense of exactly why these men were direct and meaningful participants in acts of terrorism.

BLITZER: Kendall Coffey, helping us better understand this important case. Kendall, thank you very much.

Jack Cafferty is off this week. He'll be back next week.

Coming up, will an 11-year-old girl live or die? The court could approve the removal of her feeding tube. Her stepfather hopes to save her, but some say he has an ulterior yore motive, that instead of trying to save her life, he's really trying to save his own. We'll tell you what's going on.

And he says he was whisked away by the CIA, tortured and sent to a prison in Afghanistan. Now, a German citizen is suing the former CIA Director George Tenet for false imprisonment.

And it's longer than a cat with red fur and a long tail. What is it? We'll tell you. The best guess, that's coming up right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Let's head down to the CNN Center in Atlanta for a closer look at some other stories making news. Zain Verjee standing by. Hi, Zain.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Wolf. Add another voice to those calling for clemency for California death row inmate Stanley "Tookie" Williams. Williams, a convicted murderer and co-founder of the Crips gang, has renounced his past and written extensively about the dangers of gang life. Now, the president of the NAACP says Williams is, quote, "secret weapon," in helping keep black men out of prison. Williams' execution date is one week away. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will hold a clemency hearing on Thursday.

The FBI says it's received at least 170 tips since releasing this videotape of a ring of jewel thieves last week. But the thieves, who have avoided capture for more than two and a half years, are still on the loose. Agents say over that time they've hit 56 jewelry stores from New Hampshire to Florida, making off with more than $5 million in loot.

The tough-talking attorney who worked with the real-life Erin Brockovich has died in California. Ed Masry was 73 years old. He'd been ill for some time. He was portrayed by actor Albert Finley -- excuse me, Finney -- in the movie "Erin Brockovich," starring Julia Roberts. Masry gave Brockovich, who was his file clerk, a chance to help secure a settlement in a multi-million-dollar environmental case.

Wolf, back to you in THE SITUATION ROOM.

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Zain. I appreciate it.

There's a bizarre story coming out of Massachusetts right now, with the similarities -- some similarities, at least, to the Terri Schiavo right-to-life case, a legal battle over whether or not to remove the feeding tube that's keeping an 11-year-old alive. But there's a disturbing twist in this case. CNN's Brian Todd explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jason Strickland is fighting desperately to keep his stepdaughter alive and has taken her case to the Massachusetts Supreme Court.

EDWARD J. MCDONOUGH, JASON STRICKLAND'S ATTORNEY: The question is whether or not and how an 11-year-old child will die. And there's no question that withdrawing a feeding tube and withdrawing water, you're going to have an awful death by starvation.

TODD: Strickland's attorneys say he has no ulterior motive. But a source close to the case tells CNN, if Strickland's stepdaughter, 11-year-old Haleigh Poutre, is taken off life support, Strickland could be charged with her murder.

According to a police report relayed to CNN by officials at the district court in Westfield, Massachusetts, police believe Strickland and his wife, Haleigh Poutre's adoptive stepmother, Holli Strickland, delivered the blows that put Haleigh in a vegetative state.

Police say Haleigh was the victim of an ongoing pattern of abuse, and that when she was admitted to a western Massachusetts hospital back in September, her injuries included cuts, burns, shearing of her brain stem, and a subdural hematoma, a clot in the brain caused by a severe blow to the head.

Massachusetts Department of Social Services now has temporary custody of Haleigh, and wants to take her off life support. A juvenile court agreed. But Jason Strickland's attorneys are now fighting that ruling.

MCDONOUGH: Mr. Strickland, as the stepfather, has information about the child's upbringing, her religious faith, the fact that she received the religious sacraments. And none of that was included in the hearing.

TODD: Meanwhile, police have booked Jason Strickland on five counts of assault and battery. He has yet to be formally charged, and has maintained his innocence. The stepmother, Holli Strickland, was found dead, along with her grandmother, some days after Haleigh Poutre was admitted to the hospital. CNN is told the deaths are being investigated as a possible murder/suicide.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: State Supreme Court officials tells CNN the court should rule within a matter of weeks on whether to support the lower court's ruling to cut off the child's life support. Police have booked Jason Strickland on five counts of assault and battery. He has yet to be formally charged, and he maintains his innocence.

Still to come here in THE SITUATION ROOM, in Saddam Hussein's defense. What is the former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark has to say about his client, the charges against him and his emotional outbursts?

And later, political couples don't get much more powerful than this. Hillary and Bill Clinton. Find out how he's helping her tonight. We'll go live to New York. You are in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. Let's head back to the CNN Center in Atlanta for a closer look at other stories making news around the world. That means Zain Verjee is standing by. Zain.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi again, Wolf. An Iranian military transport plane carrying 94 people, more than half of them journalists, slammed into a ten story apartment building in Tehran earlier today. Everyone on board was killed in the crash. At least 21 people on the ground also died.

State-run radio is also reporting that some 90 people were injured.

China's reporting that a 10-year-old girl has tested positive for bird flu. It's the fourth confirmed case of the virus moving to humans in China.

Two of the four people to come down with the disease in China have died. Chinese authorities have reported 25 bird flu outbreaks in poultry just in the last two months.

You are looking now at what's thought to be one of the first photographs of what may be a brand new species of mammal. Now, biologists say that this is carnivorous and it looks like something between the cross of a cat and a fox.

It lives in the dense rain forests on the Southeast Asian island of Borneo. Researchers with a Swiss-based environmental group are planning to trap the animal so they can study it more closely.

BLITZER: Good work. Thanks very much.

VERJEE: Thank you.

BLITZER: A Lebanese born German citizen is suing former CIA Director George Tenet. Khaled al-Masri says he was kidnapped by CIA agents in Macedonia and flown to Afghanistan where he was tortured. The Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is defending U.S. anti-terror policies as she travels in Europe.

She has been asked repeatedly about the al-Masri case but wouldn't address it directly. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: When AND if mistakes are made we work very hard and as quickly as possible to rectify them. Any policy will sometimes have mistakes. And it is our promise to our partners that should that be the case that we will do everything we can to rectify those mistakes.

I believe that this will be handled in the proper course here in Germany and, if necessary, in American courts as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our national security correspondent, David Ensor, is joining us now with more on the al-Masri case. Why was he picked up in the first place?

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: You know, Khaled al-Masri is a common name in the Arab world. And his profile also resembled the wanted man in some other ways I am told. So officials I have talked to have said that it took a while to figure out they'd made a mistake.

Now, he was turned away from the U.S. until recently though, I gather because there are things on this al-Masri's record that raise questions. He is not as clean as driven snow. But he is told he will be allowed to come here.

BLITZER: What about the whole bigger question. All these questions coming from the Europeans on this U.S. government policy called extraordinary rendition? Is the tactic being defended? Is it being endangered? What's going on?

ENSOR: It's probably not going to stop. But this may create some problems for it. One former CIA official I spoke to today said he thinks the Europeans are making a mistake. Their own security forces are involved in this too. Working with the U.S. and for good reason.

He says that this rendition tactic has saved more European lives than American ones. And that they are at greater risk of additional terrorism than the U.S. is. He thinks some of this is a bit hypocritical for European governments to say they are shocked in public, when privately other officials are cooperating and benefiting from doing so.

BLITZER: Thanks very much. David Ensor our national security correspondent.

He was once the top American legal official. He's since carved out quite a controversial career defending the likes of tyrants and dictators. Earlier I spoke with the former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, now a member of Saddam Hussein's legal defense team in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Thanks very much for joining us. At the end of this trial today, Saddam Hussein burst out with these words, and I'll read it to you, he said, "I will not return, I will not come to an unjust court. Go to hell."

What does that mean? You are his attorney.

RAMSEY CLARK, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, we'll find out. But it certainly meant that at the time, he was pretty tired and pretty disgusted. It was a long day, and it felt like a rush to judgment. Five witnesses, and big long recesses in which they'd have to sit there in the dark, and everybody else would be someplace else. Then they'd come back and push through a few more witnesses.

BLITZER: So what do you advise him? Should he avoid this trial? Should he stay away? Or should he cooperate and be in the docket?

CLARK: Well, I think he wants to have his say. I don't think he wants to run away. But if he gets the idea that it's not a real trial, it's not a fair trial, I don't think he'll want to legitimatize it by being there. It's not to time to be presenting something like this when it's not that urgent and when there are other reasons. I mean, they are not even protecting the defendant's lawyers yet.

I've been pleading with them to protect the defendant's lawyers. They've already had two assassinated. And as this trial goes on, the emotion about the trial heats up here, and the danger increases. The judges are protected. The prosecutors are protected. The defense counsel, you know, you don't get into a suicide pact just by representing a defendant in this case. That's pretty much what they seem to be pushing for.

BLITZER: The government says they have offered security for the defense attorneys, including for yourself. Do you have security while you are in Baghdad?

CLARK: I don't have a problem. The people that have the problem are the people who live here, the Iraqi attorneys. They've got families here. And they have big families in this country. And they have to worry about them, and they want to see them, and they come back and forth. And they have no -- they have no protection. They've had no serious offer of protection that I'm aware of. I think I'd know.

BLITZER: What kind of protection do you have?

CLARK: Well, I walked over here from where we stayed, several hundred yards, and I walked by myself. That's the kind of protection I have. But I'm not concerned about it. I think I'm safe. We are in the international zone. I'm safe in the international zone.

The defendants in this case, it's probably the most dangerous part of the country for them, because you have got the Interior Ministry, and some of these death squads. And everybody here is being protected from people who would have been more supportive of the old administration, the old government.

BLITZER: I want you to listen to what President Bush said today on the Saddam Hussein trial. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He should be on trial. I think his trial is -- is indicative of the change that has taken place in the Iraqi society. In the old days, if Saddam and his cronies didn't like you, you didn't get a trial, you were just put to death or tortured.

Today, there is a system, a judicial system in place that'll give Saddam Hussein a chance to make his case in court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: What do you think about what the president said?

CLARK: Well, you know, the president organized the court. The court's a creation of Paul Bremer and the people who were working for him. They've been pushing for this all the time. The question is whether they want a fast trial and a quick execution.

And if they do, they are just going to tear this country and the Arab and the Muslim world apart. You don't get over injustice quickly, and particularly something that is -- if this trial doesn't appear to be fair, you have to hope it's fair in fact. But if it doesn't appear to be fair, it's going to create irreconcilable division, anger, violence and war.

BLITZER: Do you think he should be standing before this court as a defendant for the crimes he has committed?

CLARK: Well, wait a minute, you've already concluded he's committed the crime. I believe in the presumption of innocence. Not because it's a legal rule, but because it keeps you open-minded, you know. If you have already decided the case, why try anyway? Let's keep open minds and wait until we hear the facts. You don't know. You haven't seen what he's done. You just heard a lot of stuff.

BLITZER: Well, we've heard a lot of...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: ... evidence over the years that he ordered the poison gassing of Kurds in the north. He used poison gas and chemical weapons against Iranians, and that he slaughtered a lot of his own citizens.

CLARK: Yes, you saw the evidence or you read it in the newspaper, you heard it on CNN. What are you trying to tell me? What do you really know about the use of poison gas? Have you seen the...

BLITZER: All of the above.

CLARK: Have you seen "The New York Times" op-ed piece by -- yes, but you haven't seen the evidence. But you know that. If you are going to presume his guilt, then you don't care about a trial. You say, go ahead and first the punishment and then the trial. Join in with Alice in wonderland. I believe in the presumption of innocence. I think everything in life depends on keeping open minds.

BLITZER: Well, I think you're right. He certainly deserves...

CLARK: I also believe in a fair trial.

BLITZER: He certainly deserves a fair trial. But over the years, don't you think Saddam Hussein...

CLARK: He more than deserves a fair trial. We need a fair trial. We need it more than he does.

BLITZER: Of course -- everyone needs a fair trial, including Saddam Hussein. But don't you believe in your heart that over the years he's committed...

CLARK: This trial is unique.

BLITZER: I was going to say, don't you believe that he has committed....

CLARK: This trial...

BLITZER: ... that he has ordered atrocities? Do you believe he has?

CLARK: Look, I've just told you, I believe in the presumption of innocence. I believe in keeping an open mind. I don't prejudge people. If you are going to prejudge people, just forget fairness, just forget reconciliation. You know, how do you know?

You know, the head CIA person that went up and investigated the claims about gas in Halabja say that the Iraqis did not do it. That's what he said. I don't know if he's right. I don't know if the others are right. I know this: He's been systemically demonized. It's one of the most dangerous things that happens in life. You can't consider the possibility that he might be a human being.

But if you want a fair trial, you better presume innocence, because you are not going to have a fair trial otherwise. You are not going to have one unless you protect the defense counsel. You're not going to have one unless you determine whether this court is legal, whether these judges are impartial, whether the court itself is independent of outside pressures saying here's what you do, you do what we say.

And those are essential things to a fair trial. And it will be very important to the future of this area. You are dealing with historic truth. This case is about history. You distort history when you have an unfair trial. It's public justice. Is it possible to have -- is it possible to have justice of a public figure? And it's about peace more than anything else, because if you don't have a fair trial, you are going to have more violence.

BLITZER: Well, Ramsey Clark, be careful over there. Thanks very much for joining us. We appreciate it.

CLARK: OK. Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And this footnote on this sensitive issue of the use of poison gas against the Kurds in Halabja in March, 1988. Ramsey Clark referred to a "New York Times" article published in 2003 by Stephen Pelletier, who had served as a CIA political analyst during that controversial period. Pelletier concluded that the Iraqis did use poison gas at Halabja, but he says they had aimed that gas against Iranian military forces.

He says the Kurds were killed, and he says this, with a quote, "the Kurds who were killed had the misfortune to be caught up in that exchange." Pelletier says they were not Saddam's, quote, "main target." Kurds and other historians, on the other hand, sharply disagree with that analysis. My conversation with Ramsey Clark earlier in the day.

Just ahead here in THE SITUATION ROOM, some call her the peace mom. Others say she's a traitor. My interview with the controversial anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan. That's still ahead right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: She's become the face of the anti-war movement in this country. That would be Cindy Sheehan. Her son Casey died in Iraq. Now she's out with a new book. It's called "Not One More Mother's Child." I spoke with Cindy Sheehan earlier and I asked what she thinks about critics who say she is exploiting her son's death.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CINDY SHEEHAN, ANTI-WAR PROTESTER: It's not about politics to me, Wolf. Casey was a living, breathing, human being. And I have criticized leaders on the left, or Democratic leaders, as much as leaders on the right for getting us into this mess and for not speaking out against it. To me, it's not about right or left; it's about right or wrong and flesh and blood.

And all I'm trying to do -- and since my son has been killed, all I've been trying to do is end the occupation of Iraq, so no other families or mothers have to go through what I'm going through.

It's not about politics or exploiting anything. It's about getting the fact out that killing people to solve problems is barbaric. And nobody wants that to happen to them, what was happened to my family.

BLITZER: I know you've been very critical of the president and his advisers. We all remember the protests outside his ranch in Crawford. But you correctly point out, you've also been critical of Democrats, including the junior senator from New York state, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. What are you critical -- criticizing her for? SHEEHAN: Well, she believes that the war is a mistake. She believes that she was lied to and that the president is mishandling it. But she is not calling for a withdrawal of the troops.

To me, it's not rocket science. Our troops are over there because of lies and betrayals. They are being killed. Innocent Iraqis are being killed. And to me, I side with people like John Murtha, who say that they are not the solution. Our military presence there is not the solution, it's the problem. And we have to get our kids out of there.

And I wish she would come out and vocalize that point, if she knows that it's a mistake.

BLITZER: But it's not just her. It's John Kerry, it's Joe Biden...

SHEEHAN: Right, right.

BLITZER: ... it's Joe Lieberman.

SHEEHAN: Right.

BLITZER: A lot of the mainstream leaders of the Democratic Party say, yes, there were mistakes, plenty of mistakes that were made, and maybe the U.S. should not have gotten into this war to begin with, but the U.S. in their words, simply can't cut and run right now.

SHEEHAN: And I totally disagree with that point. I believe that it's time for us to get our military presence out of there, send in an army of diplomats, help them solve their problems and rebuild their country. But we don't need our military there to do that. And I disagree with the Democratic leadership who keeps on saying those points over and over and over again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Cindy Sheehan speaking with me earlier in the day. The name of her book "Not One More Mother's Child."

Up next, this hour Bill Clinton in New York set to give his wife a helping hand. We are not talking housework, we're talking groundwork for her political future. We'll take you to the Clinton's big event live in New York. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Tonight the former president, Bill Clinton, is doing something he often does: help a fellow Democrat's campaign. This time though, his efforts hitting especially close to home. Mary Snow's in New York where Mr. Clinton is giving a helping hand to Mrs. Clinton. What's going on, Mary?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, Mrs. Clinton will not be at tonight's event, but her campaign is calling out the big guns. Former President Bill Clinton will be the headliner here. This is a nightclub where the fundraiser is being held, really targeting young professionals. The closest you'll get to Hillary Clinton are these trendy Marc Jacobs designed T-shirts that go for about $25.

Now, Mrs. Clinton was in upstate New York today, and this is not the first time that her husband has stepped in to help raise funds for her 2006 Senate campaign. He wrote a fundraising letter back in June. So far her campaign has raised $27 million, that's $14 million in cash on hand.

And so far, the biggest contender out there has been Republican prosecutor Jeanine Pirro. Her campaign has been lackluster. There's been talk that she may have to withdraw. She says she's sticking by it right now. But that is pretty much the biggest contender so far where polls show Senator Clinton with a wide margin against anyone who would challenge her.

But as Mrs. Clinton is making the rounds, there is one issue that is dogging her in upstate today. There were about 12 protesters, anti-war protesters at one of her events.

And here tonight in New York City, as this event is scheduled to get underway at about 8:00, there are about a dozen anti-war protesters, protesting Senator Clinton's position not to withdraw troops from Iraq immediately, some of the signs saying "Hillary, are you listening," "hawk or duck" -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Mary. Thanks very much, Mary Snow, at that Clinton event in New York City. And we just heard Cindy Sheehan criticize the senator from New York as well.

Could one or both of those Clintons be named "Time" magazine's person of the year? The magazine gives the title to the person or people whom the editors believe had the greatest impact on the year's events for good or for bad. CNN's Anderson Cooper takes a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Five years after leaving the White House, the powerhouse couple of Bill and Hillary Clinton are still in the spotlight. And in the brass knuckle world of politics, they are working hand in hand with some unlikely high profile public figures, making the two candidates for "Time" magazine's person of the year.

PRISCILLA PAINTON, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "TIME": I think they're symbols of a yearning for this country for reaching out to the other side of the aisle. President Clinton himself was allied with former President Bush in an effort to raise money both for the tsunami and for Katrina. And, you know, essentially going around the world with your old enemy is a powerful symbol.

Hillary has, from the beginning, formed alliances with Republican senators across the aisle. She's even collaborated with Newt Gingrich of all people, the man who almost took down the Clinton presidency on healthcare. So they basically stand for the two politicians who have gone out of their way to signal, you know, let's bury our hatchets and start working on the business of Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And "Time" magazine will announce this year's person of the year on Sunday, December 18th.

Still ahead here in THE SITUATION ROOM, why is Ford Motor Company pulling some of its ads targeting gay consumers? We'll explain this new controversy that's happening right now. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here's a look at some of the hot shots coming in from our friends over at "The Associated Press." Pictures likely to be in your hometown newspapers tomorrow.

We begin in Iran. Rescue workers on the scene after a military plane clipped an apartment building and crashed south of the capital city of Tehran, 115 people were killed. Most of them passengers.

In neighboring Iraq, this curtain booth sits in the courtroom of Saddam Hussein's trial. Five witnesses kept their identities hidden today by testifying against the former dictator anonymously from behind the curtain.

In the Ukraine, an emergency worker sets fire to domestic birds. The Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko declared a state of emergency after a type of bird flu was detected nearby.

And in New York City, Police Chief Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg leave after a funeral for murdered police officer Dillon Stewart. Stewart was shot and killed last week. The first NYPD officer killed in the line of duty this year.

Those are some of the hot shots, pictures often worth a thousand words.

Let's head back to New York now and get a preview of what's coming up at the top of the hour. Paula Zahn standing by. Hi, Paula.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Wolf, thanks so much. Just about seven minutes from now, we're going to take yet another look at a story that at first had some people cheering. Now they are arguing. Should doctors have even attempted a partial-face transplant? A lot of people tonight are saying no. I'll be talking with the man who received another first of its kind transplant, about the risks and rewards of experimental surgery. He got a new hand out of the deal.

Also, take a guess at how much money some parents are willing to spend on their teenager's parties. I'm going to show you, Wolf, what you can get tonight for a cool couple hundred thousand dollars. Yes, that's right. There are new kinds of bar mitzvahs and sweet 16 parties these days.

BLITZER: If you've got the cash, I guess, let the...

ZAHN: ... do you remember what your parents spent?

BLITZER: Yes, not much.

ZAHN: Yes, like $40 on mine, I think.

BLITZER: All right, thanks Paula. We'll be back. Paula will be with us at the top of the hour.

Still ahead, ad wars, culture wars, and Ford caught right in the middle. Our Ali Velshi standing by with details of a controversial move by the automaker. We'll tell you what's going on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A controversy has erupted over Ford advertising, specifically ads targeted to gay and lesbian car buyers. Ali Velshi standing by in New York with "The Bottom Line." What's going on, Ali?

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Wolf. We spoke to Ford Motor Company, who says it's committed to diversity in the workplace and in the marketplace. But acting on that commitment gave the company some controversy with anti-gay groups. And then trying to quell that controversy landed Ford in trouble with gay rights groups.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI (voice-over): It was another one of those damned if you do situations. Ford took out ads cheering its gay employees for their good work. It donated money to gay causes. And its Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo divisions even targeted gay car buyers worldwide with provocative ads like these.

That drew fire from the conservative American Family Association. They asked their members to boycott Ford. "Inform them you will not be buying a Ford product until they stop their promotion of the homosexual movement and homosexual marriage."

Ford was in a fix. Either alienate the self-proclaimed family values group with these ads or turn its back on credit card-carrying gay customers. In a letter to its gay employees, Ford said it would deep six the gay-friendly ads for Jaguar and Land Rover, but not for Volvo.

"Decisions on where Ford's brands advertise are made for business reasons, not as a social statement one way or another," Ford said. Ford told CNN its commitment to diversity remains unchanged.

Mike Wilke's Commercial Closet project tracks gay-themed advertising. He says the gay market is lucrative.

MIKE WILKE, COMMERCIAL CLOSET: Overall buying power for the market is roughly $610 billion. And a market somewhere between 14- and-22 million people.

VELSHI: The American Family Association met with Ford and says the decision is the right step. "While we still have a few differences with Ford, we feel that our concerns are being addressed in good faith and will continue to be addressed in the future."

Gay organizations have demanded their own meeting with Ford, calling the ad dust-up, another form of bigotry.

GLENDA TESTONE, REGIONAL MEDIA DIRECTOR, GLAAD: It does seem like another attempt by an anti-gay organization to intimidate corporate America into not supporting or not doing business with gays and lesbians. And we know that's just plain wrong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: Now that was Glenda Testone. Her group got a $50,000 donation from Wells Fargo in an unrelated story. Wells Fargo donates about $2 million a year to gay and lesbian organizations. And because of those donations, another conservative group Focus on the Family has stopped doing business with Wells Fargo. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Ali, thanks very much. Very interesting indeed. The Ford advertising story surfaced in the mainstream media, largely because of the online community that got hold of that story.

Now they are doing much more than spreading the word. Chasing down the story for us, our Internet reporter Jacki Schechner. Jacki?

JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Wolf, really good example on how something pops up online. And not only do they consider it news, they then push it forward.

John Aravosis at AMERICAblog. It's a big liberal blog that focus very often on gay civil rights issue, found the story online, pushed it forward.

Other liberal bloggers like Atrios and The Huffington Post picked it up. These are Web sites that have hundreds of thousands of readers. But it wasn't just making news. AMERICAblog decided to take it one step further.

They've got action items. They and their readers are flooding the e-mail in boxes, they are calling executives at Ford and I got to tell you, Wolf, this is a company that should take notice.

We're seeing many corporations that are now monitoring blogs so that they don't get in trouble with people online.

BLITZER: Thanks very much Jacki for that. Don't forget, we're in THE SITUATION ROOM weekdays, 4-6 and 7-8 p.m. Eastern. Till tomorrow, I'm Wolf Blitzer. Paula Zahn's picking up our coverage in New York -- Paula.

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