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The Situation Room
Bush Makes Surprise Visit to Baghdad; Interview With Joe Biden
Aired June 13, 2006 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much, Lou. 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 tonight's top stories.
Happening now, it's 3:00 a.m. in Baghdad where President Bush dropped in on Iraq's prime minister and on U.S. troops. The president is heading home right now. Will the troops follow any time soon? We'll get the inside story of a very secret visit. I'll speak with a democratic critic, Senator Joe Biden.
Its 7:00 p.m. here in Washington where the Bush administration is breathing easier as prosecutors let presidential adviser Karl Rove off the hook. So what's next in the CIA leak investigation?
And it's 4:00 p.m. in California. Did border agents take bribes to keep illegal immigrants and let them go through? We'll have the latest on court proceedings. I'm Wolf Blitzer and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
Happening now, President Bush flying back to Washington after a very covert, very dangerous trip to Baghdad where he rallied both U.S. troops and Iraq's new government. It was a journey heavy with symbolism, secrets and risks. Our chief national correspondent John King is the network television pool reporter on the president's trip, he filed this report from Baghdad for the U.S. pool.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Air Force One arrived in Baghdad after a secret overnight flight. First up on the president's surprise trip to Iraq a heavily armed helicopter ride into the heart of the city's fortified green zone. The daylight arrival only added to the security concerns. Iraqi officials were kept in the dark. Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki receiving a five-minute head's up that the president of the United States was here to see him. Mr. Bush's official schedule called for him to be on the other end of this meeting at cozy Camp David back home for a second day of Iraq planning meetings. Instead this first face to face meeting with Iraq's new leader and his key ministers, the culmination of top secret planning dating back almost a month.
Facing critical decisions about U.S. troop levels, reconstruction spending and a host of other issues, aides say Mr. Bush wanted to meet Prime Minister Maliki in person as soon as possible after the completion of the new Iraqi cabinet and wanted to visit Baghdad as a gesture of support. It is also an image the White House hopes back home where the unpopular war is the biggest election year drag on the president and his party. This dramatic visit part of yet another White House effort to rally public support or at least help the erosion. Secrecy was paramount. Monday's planning session was organized at remote Camp David instead of the White House to allow the president and a handful of top aides to leave undetected after dinner. In hindsight, maybe a playful hint during a break Monday, when the president talked of how much he was looking forward to a secure video session with the new Iraqi cabinet.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And that will be a very interesting experience for all of us to be able to talk to our respective counterparts.
KING: Of the top level team on hand, the White House says only Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Rice and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld knew the president wouldn't be there for breakfast, and would surprise both the Iraqi and most of the U.S. cabinet by joining Tuesday's session from the Baghdad end of the video link.
BUSH: Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for this opportunity to visit with your cabinet.
KING: Iraqi officials have talked of dropping U.S. troop levels from more than 130,000 now to below 100,000 by the end of the year. While the White House would welcome that, previous Iraqi governments have struggled. So, one goal of the visit was to get a personal confidence level in the new prime minister and his national security team and a face to face assessment from the U.S. military commander, General George Casey. The president made no promises in this pep rally with troops stationed in the green zone that serves as coalition headquarters.
BUSH: The fate and future of Iraq is in their hands and our job is to help them succeed and we will.
KING: This the second Bush visit to Iraq. The first was for a surprise Thanksgiving meal back in 2003, eight months after the war began when the president was on the ground for just three hours, and did not leave the airport.
BUSH: I was just looking for a warm meal somewhere.
KING: That trip gave the president a bounce in the polls heading into the 2004 re-election campaign. A look at the numbers then and now is a telling snap shot of Mr. Bush's political troubles. Back then in late 2003 six in ten Americans said they supported the war now 55 percent call the invasion a mistake. Again, back then Mr. Bush had a 55 percent approval rating. Roughly 20 points higher than it stands now. And when Mr. Bush was last in Baghdad Thanksgiving 2003, the U.S. death toll was just shy of 450. It's at the 2500 mark now.
The president's caution about promising troop reductions or sounding overly upbeat, his one legacy of setbacks and disappointments. This trip under extraordinary security designed for a firsthand assessment of whether he might finally have reason to turn more optimistic. John King with the president in Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And later this hour we're going to have much more on the extraordinary measures the White House took to keep this trip a secret, that's coming up. When it comes to the president's surprise trip to Iraq many democrats are taking a wait and see approach on whether the visit actually accomplished anything. But many are not letting up in their criticism of the president's Iraq policy.
We're joined now by the ranking democrat on the senate foreign relations committee, Joe Biden of Delaware. Senator thanks very much for coming in. You have to be a little encouraged by the president's decision to make this trip and meet the Iraqi government eyeball to eyeball.
SEN. JOE BIDEN, (D) DELAWARE: I am. I think it's a great opportunity and I think that the setting up of the government, coupled with the fact that Zarqawi has been killed, presents an opportunity for the president to change course, set out a plan, just like he changed course in Iran. I think it's good. I'm encouraged depending on what he said to the Iraqis.
BLITZER: So you're not like some of those democrats who say this is only a publicity stunt.
BIDEN: That will remain to be seen. If come September things are just as bad as they are now then it wasn't much more than that. But look, everybody knows three things have to be done in order to have a shot to bring our troops home and leave something stable behind. The first thing is you have to get the Sunnis to buy in, so you have to amend the constitution to give them a piece of the oil revenues.
The second thing you have to do everybody knows is you have to purge the militia out of the Iraqi army and out of the police force so the Iraqis have a force that can actually gain the confidence of all the people and they can restore order. And the third thing you got to do is you have to keep the neighbors out of Iraq and that can only occur if we call an international conference, the major powers, and work out an arrangement where all of the neighbors stay out of Iraq. I hope that's what the president is talking to the Iraqi government about.
BLITZER: This new Gallup poll asked the American public of the U.S. do you believe the U.S. will win in Iraq. In April only 39 percent said yes, now it's up to 48 percent. You've criticized the administration for not having a strategy to win in Iraq. You've said that the strategy was to avoid defeat.
BIDEN: That's right. And that's what it has been so far. That's why I'm hopeful, Wolf, the way I think of these things when people ask me what would I do, I think of, what would I say to the president if the president said, senator, what should I do now? And up to now all the president has said is we have a unity government, it's up to the Iraqis they'll get the job done. Maybe this trip to Iraq means that he's going and saying look, folks, you've got to be resolute in bringing down the militias. You have to be resolute in including the Sunnis. No ifs, ands or butts. And we will help you keep the neighbors out. If he's doing those three things, that's a plan. That's a plan how we can get our forces out by the end of next year and leave a stable government behind.
BLITZER: You don't -- I take it you disagree with Senator John Kerry when he says just set a deadline by the end of this year to withdraw troops.
BIDEN: Well I didn't hear John say that. If he did, I do disagree. Setting the date is not a plan. I understand Senator Kerry's frustration and the frustration of millions of Americans but that is not a plan. A plan relates to what are you going to leave behind as well as how do you get out? And as I said, I said to my colleagues today in a planning meeting on Iraq, I turned and I said gentlemen, if the president turned and said what do we do now, what would you say?
Leave by 2006? Is that a plan? What do you do in the meantime? That's what we need and the president hopefully is going to come back and articulate to the American public what he said and did with the Iraqi government to give it a chance, not just to stand up but stand together. If you don't get them standing together, all of the king's horses and all the king's men are not going to stop a civil war Wolf.
BLITZER: Do you see any evidence, do you believe this new Iraqi government will take concrete steps to disband the Shiite militias, whether the Badr organization or the Mehdi militia and to unify the country and to disband these various groups?
BIDEN: Put it another way, if they don't, if they don't, there will be a civil war. There will be increased sectarian violence. If that's the case, keeping American forces whether it's 100,000 or 138,000 caught in the middle of that, it would be a tragedy. And so they better. That's why the president should have an alter call with these guys, should be saying, look, okay, you got a government. We'll support you. But you got to be resolute along with us in purging the police of the death squads. You have to be resolute along with us over the next six months in purging the military of the militia and you got to make it clear, you got to unite.
Shia, Kurd and Sunni, no more militia involvement and you can be integrated into the military. If you don't do that, how are they going to establish any resemblance of security in a country? If they don't establish security how are they going to get the electricity turned on, the sewage working, people back to work and have any kind of country?
BLITZER: We have time for one final question, unrelated. Karl Rove off the hook from the special prosecutor. What do you make of this?
BIDEN: Oh I make of it that there weren't facts to make the case against him and I respect the prosecutor because obviously it was overwhelming pressure for him to do something. I think the hardest job for a prosecutor is not to indict and I trust his judgment that if he said there weren't the facts here to indict, that he shouldn't and Karl Rove as far as I'm concerned then is innocent of any wrongdoing.
BLITZER: Joe Biden, the senator from Delaware, thanks very much for joining us.
BIDEN: Thank you.
BLITZER: Jack Cafferty is off this week, he'll be back on Monday. Coming up, more on Karl Rove. We'll find out why the White House victory at least on this issue may mean some bad news for democrats. Plus, guilty plea. A Kennedy congressman takes the rap for drugging and driving. We'll have details.
And busted at the border. Customs agents accused of taking bribes for letting people into this country illegally. Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: The president's top political adviser Karl Rove is said to be elated and relieved tonight. He's now received official word from the CIA leak prosecutor that he will not be charged with any crime. Something else for the long battered Bush White House to feel good about at least on this day. Let's turn to our senior political correspondent Candy Crowley for more. Candy?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf a republican win in California's special election last Tuesday, the death of an Al Qaeda leader, the completion of the Iraqi cabinet and Karl Rove cleared by the special council. Said one republican strategist, we've had more good news in this week than we've had all year.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY: You are looking at the happiest man in America. Karl Rove. Free of the threat of indictment. The way his lawyer tells it Rove got the news last night just before he fried democrats who want out of Iraq now.
KARL ROVE, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF: They may be with you at the first shots but they are not going to be there for the last tough battles.
CROWLEY: Just like the old days in your face, uncompromising, swinging for the fences, defining the republican terms for the '06 elections.
ROVE: We were absolutely right with our coalition partners to remove him from power. We have no excuses to make for it.
CROWLEY: Politics a la Karl masked the reality that an indictment would have cost Rove his job and inflicted irreparable damage to a White House that can't afford any more. As the president visited Iraq, his closest longest serving adviser went through his daily paces and the White House offered up a low key reaction. What is remarkable said the president's communication chief is how Karl kept his focus, his energy and his great attitude during this entire period. Rove allies beg to differ. No matter how many times the White House claims Karl was going about his business said one, when you are staring down the barrel of an indictment and millions in lawyer fees it takes your eye off the ball. So now Rove is going about his business which is to say politics and republican world breathes easier.
KEN MEHLMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: It was so incredible to me is that the folks on the other side of the aisle people like Howard Dean, people like Harry Reid and others, they owe Karl Rove an apology.
CROWLEY: Two words. Fat chance.
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: Someone has to be held accountable for the leak itself, not just for perjury. Whether it's Vice President Cheney, Scooter Libby or anyone else in the administration.
CROWLEY: In fact the investigation goes on and Libby's trial on lying to the feds and the grand jury is scheduled for January.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY: But after 2 1/2 years of investigation and five grand jury appearances, no bad news for Karl Rove, which is very, very good news for the White House. Wolf?
BLITZER: Thanks Candy. Candy Crowley reporting. Congressman Patrick Kennedy is on a year's probation tonight after pleading guilty today to driving under the influence of prescription drugs. Two other charges are being dismissed under the plea deal struck here in Washington. Kennedy crashed his car into a security barrier near the capitol in early May. The Rhode Island democrat and the son of Senator Edward Kennedy then checked himself into drug rehab.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PATRICK KENNEDY, (D) RHODE ISLAND: I've always said that I wanted to take full responsibility for my actions. Today in court I did just that. I accepted the consequences of my actions. I've cooperated fully with the Capitol Police and with the attorney general's office.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Our Internet reporter Abbi Tatton is standing by with more on Kennedy's guilty plea. Abbi?
ABBI TATTON, INTERNET REPORTER: Wolf we put that plea agreement online signed today by Patrick Kennedy. Under its terms, 50 hours community service as well as a donation to a local charity. Also, Congressman Kennedy must attend weekly recovery group meetings and AA meetings. The police report from that traffic accident last month described the condition that Capitol Hill Police found Kennedy in after the crash. Eyes red, speech slurred. Kennedy's office later released a letter from a doctor describing the prescription medication that the congressman had been on. All of these documents have been put online at cnn.com/situationreport. Wolf?
BLITZER: Abbi thank you. Still to come tonight in THE SITUATION ROOM, we'll have more on the president's surprise trip to Baghdad. Who knew, who didn't and why the trip was started from Camp David instead of the White House. Plus, are there Iranian spies in New York City? We're going to show you why the city's police commissioner thinks so. Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back, let's turn to our CNN security watch. New York's police commissioner says Iran has been carrying out aggressive surveillance in New York City. One more reason why the city is upset over the cutting of homeland security funds. Let's bring in our Mary Snow she's live in New York. Mary?
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, New York City's police commissioner outlined a list of nearly 20 terrorist incidents or potential threats to the city since 1990. Of that list three are linked to Iran and he says no other city is being targeted in this way.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SNOW: Is Iran keeping a close eye on New York City landmarks like the Brooklyn Bridge, major buildings and subways? New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly lists three surveillance cases involving Iranians since 2002 as reasons for concern.
COMMISSIONER RAY KELLY, NEW YORK POLICE: We know the Iranians have always had an aggressive surveillance program in the United States, in particularly New York City.
SNOW: In 2004 the State Department expelled two security guards at Iran's U.N. mission in New York after authorities say they were discovered taking pictures of subways, buses, tunnels and other landmarks. Security officials say for countries like Iran which has no diplomatic ties to the United States, employees at missions are a concern.
KELLY: They may be onto the guys who are performing particular functions whether it's working at the mission performing administrative duties or chauffeur duties or other things and they're here for another purpose.
SNOW: At the time the Iranian mission dismissed the incident saying the photos were tourist shots but two other pairs of security guards at the Iranian mission have been forced to leave the United States since 2002 under similar circumstances. Kelly says he believes it adds up to a pattern. KELLY: Well here's three incidents that we know of but it's certainly been the word in the intelligence community that they engage in this sort of thing quite regularly.
SNOW: Just what would they do with these pictures? Kelly says there's no specific information on that but some Iran scholars take the threat seriously.
MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: My view is that there is a hypothetical danger here but it's not imminent.
SNOW: Police Commissioner Kelly counts these incidents among potential terrorism threats to the city. He is protesting a 40 percent cut in Homeland Security grants to New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SNOW: CNN has made repeated calls to the Iranian mission here in New York but we did not receive a response. Wolf?
BLITZER: Mary, thank you. And stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security. Zain Verjee is joining us from the CNN Center with a closer look at some other stories making headlines. Hi Zain.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Wolf. Over two years in prison, a $6,000 fine, and a year of supervision. That's the sentence for former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell. In April a jury convicted him on counts of tax evasion and racketeering. Campbell had been accused but not convicted of taking kickbacks during his eight years as Atlanta mayor. And today the judge who sentenced him said that he was appalled at what he believes was Campbell's gross misconduct.
And the worries outpace the reality. So far tropical storm Alberto has not been as rough as expected. It did threaten Florida but only managed to menace the state with heavy rain. Alberto barely remained a tropical storm in the hours after it made landfall in Florida overnight. Tropical storm warnings and mandatory evacuations though still remain in place.
Actress Daryl Hannah was not up there to build a tree house. She once famously played a mermaid. Today she was perched on a tree branch in Los Angeles County. Down now, she was there as a form of protest, the trees in a 14 acre urban community garden. Hannah and others were basically protesting a plan to clear the garden to make way for a warehouse.
And what could follow a big trip to Baghdad? A visit to Graceland. President Bush and the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will meet at Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, at the end of the month. Graceland is of course Elvis Presley's home. A day before their visit to that house the two leaders will meet at the White House.
And Wolf did you know Junichiro Koizumi is a huge Elvis fan? I think he actually has one of the biggest Elvis collections in the world.
BLITZER: I heard that from Bill Schneider who was in Japan. Thank you, Zain for that.
When we come back, much more on our top story. The president's secret trip to Baghdad. How did the White House keep it secret? Our Tom Foreman is standing by, he has the inside story.
And he says he was harassed and beaten as a terror detainee in Guantanamo Bay. But he also says he never should have been there in the first place. Coming up, we'll hear this man's unique story.
And it might not seem that unusual. U.S. border agents riding around in luxury cars. But that's exactly what's making the bosses of some border officials very suspicious. Stay with us. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to THE SITUATION ROOM. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. Let's get back to our top story. The president's secret trip to Iraq. Part of its purpose was to rally the new Iraqi government and encourage it to take up more of the burden from U.S. forces. There were also some personal elements.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: I've come to not only look you in the eye, I've also come to tell you that when America gives its word it will keep its word.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: It's a long dangerous trip to Baghdad for anyone let alone the president of the United States and trying to do it in secret makes it so much more complicated. CNN's Tom Foreman is here with the inside story of how he did it.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This was a pretty slick trick. They have been under a lot of fire lately for maybe not handling things the way many people want them. But this thing, take a look at this, they got the president from Washington, D.C. up to Camp David about 60 miles north of here. That's no surprise. Everybody knew they were going up there. No big deal to be up at Camp David, that's it right there in the mountains out here.
But then, what they secretly did was get the president from there back down here to Andrews Air Force Base near the city, and from here all the way across the ocean to Baghdad, which is where we found them when America woke up this morning to quite a surprise.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN (voice-over): A surprise, yes, but hardly spontaneous. White House officials say planning for the president's trip to Baghdad started almost a month ago. They say Camp David was the chosen departure point from the beginning because it was easier to sneak him out from there than it would be from the White House. The president himself may have been hinting at the top secret trip yesterday when he spoke about today's teleconference between Camp David and Baghdad.
BUSH: That will be a very interesting experience for all of us to be able to talk to our respective counterparts.
FOREMAN: According to plan, the president had dinner with members of his cabinet last night, all of them in the dark except the vice president, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Aides say Mr. Bush excused himself at about 7:45, saying he was, quote, "losing altitude" and going to read.
Instead, he was flown by helicopter, not the usual Marine One, to Andrews Air Force Base where he announced his own arrival to reporters already on board Air Force One, saying "POTUS, the president of the United States, is on board."
The reporters themselves had been given little notice of the trip, in one case just a few hours. And they were asked not to tell even their spouses where they were going. Cell phones and BlackBerries were confiscated just in case.
Eleven hours later, Air Force One landed at Baghdad International Airport. After a series of corkscrew turns designed to minimize its exposure as a potential target. Then the final and riskiest leg of the journey, the president and his entourage boarded a fleet of helicopters with many donning 25-pound flak jackets for the six-minute flight to the Green Zone.
The new prime minister was informed only five minutes ahead of time that the president of the United States was coming to call.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN: Now that's a surprise visit. It is not unheard of for presidents to slip out of the White House to go out for personal reasons, to visit people, to do things in secret. Some in the past have done it. Nonetheless, to undertake a trip like this is quite perilous, particularly leaving the country once they already know you are already there. But now it is off to Graceland and all is well.
BLITZER: Let him enjoy Graceland.
FOREMAN: I think so.
BLITZER: I'm sure it will be a little more fun than Baghdad.
FOREMAN: A lot less secret too.
BLITZER: Thanks, Tom, for that.
The U.S. military says the nearly 500 terror detainees being held at the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba are there for good reason. And the recent actions and ongoing plights of many of them, though, are very much in the news right now.
Let's bring back Zain Verjee from the CNN Center in Atlanta with details from one man's story -- Zain.
VERJEE: Wolf, that man says he's lived to tell what happened to him at Guantanamo Bay, and the tale of just how he got there in the first place.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE (voice-over): Soon after 9/11, Shafiq Rasul left his home in northwest England to travel to Pakistan with two companions. One of them was getting married. They say they crossed into Afghanistan for humanitarian reasons.
As U.S. bombing raids mounted, Rasul and his companions say they were captured by an anti-Taliban militia, and later handed over to the U.S. military. And then, like these detainees, they were flown from Kandahar to Guantanamo Bay.
They claim that while held at the camp, they were struck with rifle butts, kicked and punched, and threatened with unmuzzled dogs. They also say their heads and beards were shaved.
Rasul says a sense of despair led him and his friends to make false confessions that they had attended a rally addressed by Osama bin Laden. They remained at Guantanamo until March of 2004, when all three were released without charge.
Soon after they were freed, the Supreme Court ruled that foreign- born suspects held at Guantanamo had a right to challenge their detention in the U.S. courts. The three men, along with one other detainee, have since filed a $10 million lawsuit against the U.S. government for alleged violation of their religious rights.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: Wolf, the Defense Department is responding to some of the accusations made by Rasul. In a statement, they say this: "The Manchester Manual, an al Qaeda training resources, provides instruction on making false accusations in order to influence public opinion. Detainee 'fictional' assertions are another manifestation of this training.
"Simply stated, it is Department of Defense policy that all detainees will be treated humanely. U.S. law and policy condemn and prohibit torture, and U.S. personnel are required to follow these policies and applicable law. Credible allegations of illegal conduct by U.S. personnel are investigated and people are held accountable for violations or misconduct" -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Zain, thank you very much. And as Zain just mentioned, Shafiq Rasul was in Afghanistan when he was rounded up. Was he in the wrong place at the wrong time?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Shafiq Rasul, thanks very much for joining us. Why did you go to Afghanistan a month after 9/11? SHAFIQ RASUL, FORMER GUANTANAMO BAY DETAINEE: Basically, we went to -- initially, we went to Pakistan. My friend was going to get married, and during the time that we were say staying in Karachi, we were staying in the mosque. And they were was a sermon in the mosque talking about how we, as Muslims, should be helping fellow Muslims who are less off than ourselves.
And later on in the sermon, he said that there's going to be a convoy leaving with aid, food, water, to take to the people in Afghanistan and if anyone would like to come with us that they should then put their names forward.
And we discussed it amongst ourselves for awhile, and on that basis, we decided to go, thinking that we're going to be there for the maximum of about seven days.
BLITZER: Did you think -- or do you think right now that Osama bin Laden is a terrorist?
RASUL: Of course. He's committed crimes against people. So I think if he was found, he should be tried for his crimes.
BLITZER: Well, do you believe he is responsible for the 9/11 -- the killing of 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, here in the United States?
RASUL: I think he has said it himself, that they were responsible for what happened in America. So on that basis, I think if he was caught, he should be tried for his crimes.
BLITZER: But what do you think? Do you think he's a terrorist?
RASUL: Of course, because he's terror -- he's killed people. He's killed mass people. So on that basis, yes.
BLITZER: OK, good. Because I'm trying to understand the mentality, what motivated to you go on that convoy to Afghanistan. Did you have any sympathy for al Qaeda or for the Taliban?
RASUL: No. We weren't going for al Qaeda. We weren't going for Taliban. We were going for the people of Afghanistan. And it was a humanitarian group who were taking this aid. And we were going with them. It had nothing to do with Taliban, and it had nothing to do with Al Qaeda. We thought we'd be there for about seven days. We'd get to see, like, Kandahar, and we'd be back in Pakistan within seven days.
BLITZER: And then you were picked up and brought -- and arrested, clearly, and brought eventually to Guantanamo Bay. The mistreatment that you allege in your lawsuit against Rumsfeld and others here in the United States, was that mistreatment on the battlefield in Afghanistan, on the way to Guantanamo, or were you mistreated at Guantanamo Bay itself?
RASUL: On the way to Guantanamo, and in Guantanamo itself.
BLITZER: What specifically happened to you at Guantanamo that was so bad?
RASUL: Basically, all it amounts down to is we were tortured physically and mentally. We were beaten constantly, taken to interrogation, put in interrogation rooms for hours and hours and hours in positions that are very stressful, that cause a lot of pain and having taken out of your cell on numerous occasions, getting beaten, put into isolation for months on end and constantly having this fear inside of you that you don't know on a daily basis what's going to happen to you and having our religious rights abused.
BLITZER: Was that at Guantanamo, though -- I just want to precise on this -- or was it before you were brought to the U.S. naval base, the detention center there?
RASUL: This is in Guantanamo.
BLITZER: So the extensive -- the interrogation and the brutal treatment that you allege, that occurred by U.S. military personnel on the scene at Guantanamo? Is that your complaint?
RASUL: The only people that run Guantanamo is U.S. personnel. There's no one else running it. And these are the people who were doing all this us to.
BLITZER: Here's what a Pentagon spokesman, Michael Shavers, Maj. Michael Shavers, told the "Boston Globe" in October of 2004, in response to your lawsuit.
"These individuals were captured in Afghanistan fighting illegally for al Qaeda. They were properly classified as enemy combatants. Their detention was directly related to this combat activity as determined by an appropriate DOD official before they were taken to Guantanamo. There is no basis in U.S. law to pay claims to those captured and detained as a result of combat activity." Do you want to respond to that assertion by this Pentagon spokesman?
RASUL: We were in a prison in Afghanistan. We were taken out of that prison on the basis that we spoke English and we were British, and we were taken to Kandahar, the camp they had in Kandahar, and we were interrogated there numerous times, beaten there as well. And then one day, they decided to send us to Guantanamo Bay. On what basis, we do not know.
BLITZER: Were you surprised the other day when you learned that three detainees committed suicide at Guantanamo?
RASUL: I was shocked because I didn't think it would happen. But inevitably, it was going to happen because there was numerous amounts of suicide attempts that would happen in front of me, and we'd hear about a lot them. There's a lot more than the people running Guantanamo are saying.
BLITZER: Did you ever think about committing suicide while you were there?
RASUL: Yes, because in the beginning, we were taken to Guantanamo. We didn't know where we were, and we were interrogated constantly, being told that you are members of al Qaeda, that you're going to be spending the rest of your life in Guantanamo.
This is not just by the Americans, this is by the British officials that came there as well. And on that basis, you start losing hope. And the only thing that's going through your head is to end it all.
BLITZER: But you never really thought about actually trying to kill yourself?
RASUL: I did think about it, but I had to be strong. I didn't want to fall into that. When you see it happen in front of you, then you start thinking about it. But I had to be stronger and not actually try and do it.
BLITZER: And now, you've been freed. You've been freed for more than two years. You're a British citizen. You're living back home in Britain. Has anyone charged you in Britain with any crime?
RASUL: No, we've never been charged. We came out of Guantanamo. We spent 48 hours in a British police station. And after the 48 hours, we were free to walk the streets. And that was impossible to comprehend, from being under 24-hour lockdown, being called the worst of the worst, 48 hours later, walking the streets of the U.K.
BLITZER: So your bottom line, Shafiq...
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: We lost the end of that interview. That was Shafiq Rasul. He had been detained at the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Up ahead, coming up tonight, is North Korea on the verge of testing a long range missile capable of hitting the United States?
Also coming up, new details in the case of border agents accused of smuggling people into the United States. And forget about the Emmys, right now many are buzzing about the Webbys. Our Jeanne Moos will tell us what it's all about. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back. We're learning more about two federal border agents accused of taking bribes to allow illegal immigrants into this country. CNN's Chris Lawrence is near the border in San Ysidro, California, with details of this controversial case. Chris.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this is the busiest port of entry in the world and where thousand of honest customs and border protection agents work tirelessly every day. One of their officers is accused of taking bribes to smuggle illegal immigrants across his lane.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: On Tuesday, a federal judge allowed this border protection agent to post bail and go free, but only tethered to an active GPS monitor. The U.S. attorney accused Richard Elizalda of taking a car and cash and then waving smugglers through his inspection lane.
Investigators who searched his home said they found a briefcase with $36,000 inside. Elizalda's defense attorney says he served nearly two decades in the Marine Corps and did his best to protect the border.
GENE IREDALE, ELIZALDA DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That doesn't mean he knowingly permitted contraband into the United States or permitted illegal aliens into the United States. What it means is that in an intensely stressful situation, he let somebody get through.
LAWRENCE: Michael Gilliland is the other inspector accused of helping smugglers. Prosecutors say Gilliland told smugglers he'd meet them for a movie at a certain time and asked them how many tickets they need, code words for the times he'd be working the line, and how many illegal immigrants were coming through.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Now, so far, we have not been able to get in touch with Gilliland's attorney, but both he and Officer Elizalda have both pleaded not guilty to these charges. Wolf?
BLITZER: Thank you. The U.S. Marine Corps is condemning a video that is circulating online right now that purports to show a U.S. Marine performing a song about gunning down an Iraqi family. Let's bring in our Internet, Jacki Schechner, she is watching this story. Jacki.
JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: This is that video. It showed up on a Web site called Youtube where people shoot their own videos and post them on the Internet for anyone to see. It seems to suggest it is a Marine singing. The lyrics to the song are very graphic, they talk about a Marine killing an Iraqi woman's family, gunning them down after being confronted with weapons. We blurred out his face because we can't confirm independently the authenticity or the source of the video and the man in it has not been identified.
But the council on American Islamic relations is calling for an investigation into this video and they want the Pentagon and Congress to look into it and if it turns out it is real they want them to take the appropriate disciplinary actions.
They say it was viewed tens of thousands of times when it was initially put up on the Web site since March. It has since been taken down and then put up again. It has 20,000 views so far today according to statistics on that Web site. CAIR itself is linking to the video saying people should see for themselves what this is about.
We spoke to the Marines. They have issued a statement. They say that the video is clearly inappropriate. Contrary to the high standards expected of all Marines. They say the video doesn't reflect the tremendous sacrifices and dedication that is demonstrated on a daily basis by the tens of thousands of Marines currently serving in Iraq.
BLITZER: Thank you. Let's go back to Zain in Atlanta for a quick look at some other headlines from around the world.
VERJEE: Hi again, Wolf. U.S. and South Korean officials say North Korea appears to be preparing to test an inter-continental ballistic missile that could reach American territory. Some say that North Korean leader may be trying to gain leverage in the stalled six party talks on his country's nuclear program. South Korea's ambassador to U.S. calls the whole situation quite worrisome.
More bloodshed in Gaza today. The Israeli military says it fired missiles at a van that were to be launched at Israel. Palestinian sources say that two children are among the dead. Meanwhile, Israel now says there is no chance whatsoever that one of its shells killed Palestinian beach goers last Friday. Israeli military sources suggest that militants had planted mines on the beach. Palestinians deny that and a human rights group says Israeli artillery was the likely cause of the explosion.
A new international poll shows people in Europe and Muslim countries see the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq as a greater threat to stability in the Middle East than the hard line government in Iran. The poll was conducted in 15 nations by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press. Wolf?
BLITZER: Zain, thank you very much.
Still ahead, "The Bottom Line" on the markets, plus Prince, Arianna Huffington and a marriage proposal in five words or less. Jeanne Moos on the Webbys. You'll want to stick around for this. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Bottom line on the markets today, the slide continued on Wall Street with all three major indices losing ground once again. The Dow is now down a tenth of a percent for the year.
They are called the Oscars of the Internet, the Webby Awards. But it isn't your typical award show, especially when it comes to the acceptance speeches, where brevity is beautiful. CNN's Jeanne Moos explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One thing you can count on at the Webbies is you can count on one hand the number of words in every acceptance speech.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happiest moment of my evening.
MOOS: Five words, that's the limit, whether you're NationalGeographic.com.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: More than just bare breast. MOOS: Or Arianna Huffington, winning best political blog for her Huffington Post.
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, BLOGGER: Darlings, make blogs, not war.
MOOS: But even five words is more than you usually get out of Prince.
PRINCE, SINGER: Everything you think is true.
MOOS: Prince won a lifetime achievement award for using his Web site to distribute his music. Another lifetime achievement award went to the Dr. Robert Kahn. The co-inventor of the Internet gave his speech in binary computer code. It was hard to compete with Al Gore's speech from last year.
AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: Please don't recount this vote.
MOOS: The winners tend to agonize over choosing a pithy phrase. In the Huffington Post, readers weighed in on suggestions.
I'm not Zsa Zsa Gabor had a nice ring to it.
HUFFINGTON: I liked, "I'm not Zsa Zsa Gabor," I like that. It's all Greek to me.
MOOS (on camera): That was a good one.
HUFFINGTON: You like that one?
MOOS: Especially -- you're Greek.
(voice-over): There was nothing Greek about this guy's marriage proposal. Dave Garr won a Webby for creating DaveLovesElizabeth.com to propose to the woman who is now his wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I want her to go up and say...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You had me at W-W-W.
MOOS: Instead he went up...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I proposed, Elizabeth said...
MOOS: ... Dave got booed for exceeding the five-word limit. A site called Cute Overload featuring nothing but cute animal pictures won a Webby.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not bad for posting kitten.
MOOS: Cats 'n' Racks is the most loved and hated part of the Web site. It features a combo of just that. No one objected after Prince's five-word speech when he sang a few more words. But whatever you do, don't try this with your P.C. or your Webby.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Congratulations to all of the winners. Let's find out what's coming up at the top of the hour. Paula is standing by -- Paula?
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Do I have to do this in five words, Wolf?
BLITZER: No, say it in 20.
ZAHN: OK, Thank you. We're going to meet a Virginia woman at the top of the hour who has found Kelly Ripa's Social Security number, Jeb Bush's, on the Internet. How did she do it and how much are you at risk for identity theft?
Plus the fathers of two marines. Did their sons do anything wrong in Iraq? Why do both fathers say their sons are being held in custody unfairly. Their disturbing story at the top of the hour. We hope you will join us then.
BLITZER: We always do, Paula. Thank you very much. And I'll be, in fact, joining you physically this time, as well. Still ahead, riots: World Cup madness and a 700-pound bear tamed by candy. Our Hot Shots coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Here's a look at some of the Hot Shots coming in from our friends at the "Associated Press," pictures likely to be in your hometown newspapers tomorrow.
In Turkey, riot police clash with demonstrators protesting prison conditions. In Afghanistan, soldiers from the second battalion 87th infantry regiment take a rest. The "A.P." reports a growing number of troops are moving into the southern part of the country as part of Operation Mountain Thrust. In Sudan, a world away from the World Cup, look at this. Boys from a refugee camp entertain themselves with a little soccer. And in Montana, a 700-pound grizzly bear named Brutus on a movie set. His trainer coaxes snarl from him using orange- flavored candy for the film "Iron Ridge."
Some of today's Hot Shots, pictures often worth a thousand words. That's it for me, let's go up to New York, "PAULA ZAHN NOW" starts right now. Paula's in New York.
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