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CNN Saturday Morning News

An Analysis of Guilty Verdict in Scott Peterson Trial. Live Reports on U.S. Offensive in Falluja.

Aired November 13, 2004 - 07:00   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.


CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
It is November 13, 7:00 a.m. in the East. It's 4:00 a.m. out West.

I'm Catherine Callaway.

I'm in for Betty today.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Tony Harris.

Thank you for being with us.

Now in the news, U.S. troops battle diehard insurgents in southern Falluja. Wow! The Americans fight their way through streets empty of civilians, rooting out pockets of now you see me, now you don't insurgents.

Meanwhile, violence flares to the north in Mosul.

A somber scene this morning as Palestinian officials and other mourners gather at the tomb of their leader, Yasser Arafat, to pay final respects. It's in sharp contrast to the frenzied scene yesterday, when thousands turned out as Arafat was laid to rest in Ramallah in the West Bank. More than 200 people in the crowd were injured.

Secretary of State Colin Powell says he has been in contact with the new Palestinian leaders and hopes to meet with them in the very near future. Powell says he wants to talk with Yasser Arafat's successors about peace in the Middle East and about a Palestinian state.

Two senior Bush administration officials say Rod Paige plans to leave his post as education secretary. There is no official confirmation of that and the two officials would not say if Paige has submitted a resignation letter. Earlier this year, Paige apologized for calling the National Education Association a terrorist organization.

CALLAWAY: Much more coming up this hour.

Guilty as charged -- a jury decides Scott Peterson murdered his wife and unborn son. So what will happen to him next? We have all the details coming up. And U.S. troops in Falluja are running off with a string of successes. But the door to door battle against insurgents continues. Retired Air Force General George Harrison will join us in just a minute with his take on this offensive and what lies ahead.

Also, a stunning charge and perhaps a tale of too much Miami vice. Police use a taser gun to subdue not an adult, but a 6-year-old boy. And you will not believe how it all unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "State of California v. Scott Peterson," we the jury in the above entitled cause find the defendant, Scott Lee Peterson, guilty of the crime of murder of Laci Debeese (ph) Peterson.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: His guilt judged by a jury. His life now in their hands. Those same 12 people will decide whether Scott Peterson will die for murdering his wife and their unborn son.

Joining us to share some legal analysis is former U.S. attorney Kendall Coffey -- Kendall, good morning.

How are you?

KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, good morning.

HARRIS: Good to see you.

Well, after all of this time, five months -- and the case goes back two years -- five months of actual trial in chief. I guess 180 witnesses.

Did this jury, in your estimation, get this right?

COFFEY: I think they did. At the end of it all, this came down to Scott Peterson maybe even signing his own guilty verdict. He's the one who placed himself with a very suspicious gone fishing alibi in San Francisco Bay on December 24, the same day Laci Peterson disappeared, in the same location where, four months later, the bodies of Laci and Conner Peterson washed ashore.

HARRIS: And, Kendall, was that, in your mind, the single most compelling piece of evidence in this case?

COFFEY: That was the critical thing. No one could deny it. And the only way you could explain these bodies washing ashore where Scott Peterson had supposedly gone fishing was if somebody had framed him. And I was framed, Your Honor, I was framed just doesn't come across. And the key thing here was with all the questions that the defense raised about different parts of the prosecution's case, they could never answer that.

HARRIS: Yes. COFFEY: And they could never point to a credible explanation of how it could have been done by someone else if it wasn't done by Scott Peterson.

HARRIS: But, Kendall, I have to ask you, shouldn't the standard be a little higher than that? I mean we're talking about a man's life here and there was very little, if any, direct evidence. What we're talking about is basically a circumstantial evidence case here.

COFFEY: But, you know, circumstantial evidence is what's used in a whole lot of convictions. Most of the time you don't have a witness, you don't have audio or videotape. What the jurors are instructed by a judge is that circumstantial evidence can be just as probative, just as compelling as direct evidence and if the evidence points in one direction beyond a reasonable doubt, that's a guilty verdict and that's what the jury found.

HARRIS: And, Kendall, didn't this jury convict him, in addition to what you mentioned about Scott Peterson basically putting himself in the vicinity, they didn't like him, did they? I mean they listened to these audiotapes of him and his conservatives with Amber Frey and they just decided they didn't like Scott Peterson very much.

COFFEY: Well, he was so bad that the defense itself used the dirty rotten scoundrel argument, saying hey, he's a skirt chaser, he's a liar, but he's not a killer.

But, you know, the reality was he came across as so cold-blooded and deceptive that I think the jury concluded that he was not only lying about women, he was lying when he professed his innocence, denying that he killed his wife and unborn son in the various audio and videotapes.

HARRIS: OK, Kendall, we're looking at video of Mark Geragos there and I want you to put these two attorneys side-by-side and evaluate the jobs that they did in this case, Rick Distaso for the prosecution and Mark Geragos for the defense.

COFFEY: Well, Rick Distaso started out stumbling and bumbling. Everyone was criticizing him, including me. But, boy, did he come on strong in the end. His closing was a masterful connect the dots closing. And, also, he tore apart the defense expert on time of death.

You may recall that the big thing the defense was going to convince everybody is that Laci and Conner were still alive well after December 24, the time that the prosecution would have said she was necessarily killed. That defense expert blew up on the stand and at that point the fate of Scott Peterson was probably sealed.

HARRIS: And now we move on to the penalty phase.

Kendall Coffey, good to see you.

Thanks for taking time this morning. We appreciate it.

COFFEY: Hey, thanks for inviting me.

HARRIS: OK.

We'll take a closer look at the Peterson case and the upcoming sentencing phase when we're joined by Court TV anchor Lisa Bloom in the 9:00 a.m. hour on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

And here is our e-mail question for this morning. Do you think Scott Peterson received a fair trial? E-mail us as wam@cnn.com. We will be reading your replies throughout the program.

CALLAWAY: "Burn the earth under the invaders," a call to war allegedly by Iraq's top terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. That audiotape heard on an Islamic Web site.

Meanwhile, U.S. troops attacked pockets of insurgent fighters in Falluja and the Iraqi government rushes reinforcements to Mosul. Now is that northern city the new hot spot?

Barbara Starr has a report from the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As U.S. and Iraqi forces continue to hunt down insurgents in Falluja, this purported audiotape from terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi surfaced on an Islamic Web site. The voice urges fighters in Falluja and across Iraq to press on. The tape's authenticity has not been confirmed. But Zarqawi, still on the loose, raises the question -- what has the Falluja campaign really meant for achieving stability across Iraq?

Pentagon officials say the primary objective in Falluja is not defeating the insurgency but instead terrain, getting the city under control before January's elections. Insurgents got the message. Many fled and hundreds who stayed were killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we leave now, somebody else will come in and we'll just have to come back later.

STARR: No U.S. official believes the insurgency itself is defeated. In fact, they say new attacks across Iraq indicate insurgents are trying to send their own message. The top U.S. commander in Mosul.

BRIG. GEN. CARTER HAM, U.S. ARMY: The enemy is pretty savvy and I don't want to underestimate their capability. They look for weakness and they try to strike that.

STARR: Some of the worst fighting this week in Mosul. Air strikes and U.S. and Iraqi forces moving in after insurgents attacked and overran police stations. The entire Sunni Triangle is a problem, says one official, and Baghdad remains on the negative side of the ledger, he says. U.S. officials say former members of Saddam Hussein's regime who fled Iraq have set up shop in nearby countries and are directing attacks.

HAM: You cannot defeat an insurgent by using sheer firepower. As I've said, it's a political battle. Those people who say turn the troops loose and kill them all, the Russians had a pretty good run at that in Afghanistan. They killed maybe as high as two million Afghans. And they ended up losing the war.

STARR (on camera): U.S. officials say these new attacks around Iraq are not a second front in the war, but brush fires they will be able to put out.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

CALLAWAY: And to talk more about this, retired General George Harrison with us this morning.

General, thanks for getting up early to be with us today.

GEN. GEORGE HARRISON, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.): Good to be here.

CALLAWAY: As we just saw in Barbara Starr's report, a lot of activity in Mosul.

But is that because we're seeing insurgents leave Falluja or are we just seeing a more organized effort?

HARRISON: I think it's because there's a little more central organization, but it's hard to tell. There's a great distance between Falluja and Mosul. That's a good trek. And remember, there's no air transportation for the insurgents. They have to move across the road networks. So to get up there within the three days, unless they were already in position anticipating this, would be a pretty daunting task.

CALLAWAY: Right. Definitely some organization.

Let's talk about the situation in Falluja. A lot of video we've seen in the past week of incredible fighting going on there.

What kind of battle do these troops have in front of them?

We're talking about a city the size of St. Louis.

HARRISON: That's right. Just a little smaller than St. Louis. And if you can imagine, as we were talking earlier, the daunting task. If there were 3,000 drug dealers in St. Louis and you had to clean up 3,000 drug dealers and do as little damage as possible to the infrastructure in the city, a huge city spread across, and let the people have a place to go back to when the battle for the 3,000 people is over, it's really quite a task.

They have to go through house to house. They have to go through most of the rooms in each house. And they have to detain, examine, inspect almost every person that they encounter.

CALLAWAY: It's hard to tell who the civilians are.

HARRISON: Well, of course. These aren't uniformed troops. This is not like armies standing off and having front lines. So they have to, again, look at every person, even the children.

CALLAWAY: We're talking about door to door searches, as you said, a city of over 300,000 people.

HARRISON: That's right.

CALLAWAY: Are our troops prepared to -- for this kind of warfare?

HARRISON: Yes, I think they are, as a matter of fact. The Army and the Marine Corps have significantly changed their training regimen, their pre-deployment training regimen over the last -- actually over the last year. And now even the troops who are veterans of the Iraq war go through a new training process before they are redeployed.

CALLAWAY: All right, General, stay with us.

HARRISON: Sure.

CALLAWAY: On the phone with us now, we have CNN's Jane Arraf, who is embedded with troops near Falluja.

Jane -- good morning to you.

And what is the situation there?

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

The situation is they're closing in on what military commanders believe might be the last pockets of organized insurgents. Now, that doesn't mean there aren't more insurgents out there. There are, and they keep popping up. But here in the southeast corner of town, they have been dropping 500 pound laser guided bombs on a series of spider holes, hiding places of insurgents that they've been finding.

They've also been finding tunnels, bunkers, landmines, homemade bombs and a variety of defensive positions and defensive strategies as they move through these streets. So far in the last couple of hours, they believe that they have killed about 20 suspected insurgents in the latest fight and they say they believe that this is where insurgents have been channeled from other parts of the city. This is, perhaps, the last stand, they hope, of organized insurgents.

CALLAWAY: Jane, we're hearing numbers from 600 to 1,000 insurgents who have been killed in this battle.

What are you hearing from the field there?

ARRAF: That would fit. We're with an Army unit that is essentially paving the way with its heavy armor and other assets for infantrymen from the Marines and other units to follow. They have been, their casualty count has been quite high. They've been using a variety of things, as I've mentioned. When you drop a laser guided bomb on a bunker, you're bound to kill quite a lot of people. So they have actually been keeping quite a high, relatively high count.

We have to point out that we are in an area of town which has been an insurgent stronghold. Here it is thought to be a particular stronghold of the Zarqawi network. And it has long ago been cleared of civilians. Not a single civilian in sight in this part of town.

CALLAWAY: Do the troops feel as if they've turned a corner yet in this operation into taking full control of Falluja?

ARRAF: Not full control. Certainly they believe they have control of most of it and that they're rapidly continuing to take control of the remaining parts. Full control in the sense that they have control of major sectors. But what they still have to do and what they will continue to do for some time to come is that street by street, building by building process.

Now, they've been doing some of that here, the Army unit task force from the 1st Infantry Division. And we were taken into a house earlier this morning where they had found a vehicle mounted with a machine gun, rocket propelled grenades. As we walked into the house, there were two suspected gunmen lying on the floor.

CALLAWAY: Wow!

ARRAF: That's the kind of thing they've been doing, going house to house.

CALLAWAY: All right, Jane Arraf somewhere near Falluja.

Thank you, Jane, for that report.

General, just as she described it as we heard from Jane, the situation there door to door. Hard to tell what you're going to find behind each door. Trying to get Falluja ready for the November -- excuse me.

HARRISON: January elections.

CALLAWAY: For the January elections.

HARRISON: Sure.

CALLAWAY: How, you know, is this a realistic goal?

HARRISON: Oh, I think it probably is. I think it'll probably be a very difficult thing. As the troops go through this, they're just going to have to recognize that they have some time pressure. They have to get on with it and there has to be peace and calm in at least this city for the elections to be successful.

CALLAWAY: All right, thank you, General, for joining us this morning and for your insights on this.

HARRISON: Thank you.

CALLAWAY: General George Harrison.

HARRIS: Miami police say they did the right thing after a 6- year-old lost control at school. We'll tell you why they say a Florida boy had to be brought down with a dangerous weapon.

CALLAWAY: And something that's usually a treat at a child's birthday party is used for a more disturbing purpose. And we'll have the entire story for you coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: After the guilty verdict, what kind of penalty is ahead for Scott Peterson? Our legal eagles are on the case in the next hour of CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And it's time for your cold and flu report.

I'm Rob Marciano at the CNN Weather Center.

Twenty-eight states reporting sporadic influenza activity across the country. Hope you're feeling well this morning.

CNN will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CALLAWAY: Some news across America this morning.

We begin at the Mexico border in southern California. U.S. agents conducting a routine car search discovered a 4 or 5-year-old little girl stuffed inside this pinata you see. She was able to breathe and was discovered unharmed. Her mother was hidden inside the trunk of the car. A brother was stashed underneath a collapsible seat.

And in Miami, police are defending the use of a taser gun on a 6- year-old boy. The unruly youngster apparently broke a picture frame in his principal's office and then waved a shard of glass at a security guard. When he then began to cut himself, one officer tasered him. The other caught him as he fell.

HARRIS: And doctors say American figure skating legend Scott Hamilton has been diagnosed with a benign brain tumor. A treatment plan is being worked out. Hamilton, a four time national champ and 1984 Olympic gold medalist, was treated for testicular cancer seven years ago.

And don't forget to drop us an e-mail. Did Scott Peterson get a fair trial? Tell us what you think. We are at wam@cnn.com. We will read your replies ahead on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Rob Marciano joins us now with a great forecast for every single part of the nation this morning, right -- Rob.

MARCIANO: What are you talking about?

CALLAWAY: Hey, there's snow on that map.

MARCIANO: Yes. No, there's snow in a couple of parts of the country, so we're starting to slide now into the holidays.

HARRIS: Absolutely.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Boy, we've been talking about our e-mail Question of the Morning, which is do you believe Scott Peterson received a fair trial? And we knew we would get a lot of e-mails and they're starting to roll in for us, Catherine.

CALLAWAY: Yes. Here's the first one. "I have had a real problem with this trial from day one. I think he was unfairly treated. If I was on that jury, I doubt it would be over yet." That's from Lauren.

HARRIS: And this is from J.C. Max, who says: "Of course he got a fair trial. He murdered two people."

So we're going to encourage you to send more of your e-mails to us. The address is wam@cnn.com. Do you believe Scott Peterson received a fair trial?

Reality TV shows help make it a business so lucrative, so enticing some unlikely medical professionals are joining the party. We're talking about plastic surgery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An under eye lift, a nose job, liposuction under her jaw, a chin implant and the fat was removed from her cheeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Now we have dentists offering reconstructive face surgery, dermatologists performing liposuction, cats and dogs living together. Is this a good thing? Plastic surgery on the examination table tomorrow on CNN SUNDAY MORNING at 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

CALLAWAY: But up next, politics aside, "CROSSFIRE" is on the case of Scott Peterson. That's right, CNN's most opinionated gang brings you a heated reaction to the verdict during the next half hour of CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

Stay with us, everyone.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE) HOLLY FIRFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We know exercise is good for you, but in a recent survey, 74 percent of women say they experienced foot pain. And although many people think there's little you can do to treat your aching tootsies, you do have a few options. If your activities have you moving side to side like playing tennis, you might want a firm shoe insert to keep your foot from rolling in your shoe. If you're a jogger, runner or power walker, cushioning insoles can soften the pounding your feet take during your fitness routine.

However, if your pain continues or is severe, make sure to see your doctor.

Holly Firfer, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired November 13, 2004 - 07:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
It is November 13, 7:00 a.m. in the East. It's 4:00 a.m. out West.

I'm Catherine Callaway.

I'm in for Betty today.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Tony Harris.

Thank you for being with us.

Now in the news, U.S. troops battle diehard insurgents in southern Falluja. Wow! The Americans fight their way through streets empty of civilians, rooting out pockets of now you see me, now you don't insurgents.

Meanwhile, violence flares to the north in Mosul.

A somber scene this morning as Palestinian officials and other mourners gather at the tomb of their leader, Yasser Arafat, to pay final respects. It's in sharp contrast to the frenzied scene yesterday, when thousands turned out as Arafat was laid to rest in Ramallah in the West Bank. More than 200 people in the crowd were injured.

Secretary of State Colin Powell says he has been in contact with the new Palestinian leaders and hopes to meet with them in the very near future. Powell says he wants to talk with Yasser Arafat's successors about peace in the Middle East and about a Palestinian state.

Two senior Bush administration officials say Rod Paige plans to leave his post as education secretary. There is no official confirmation of that and the two officials would not say if Paige has submitted a resignation letter. Earlier this year, Paige apologized for calling the National Education Association a terrorist organization.

CALLAWAY: Much more coming up this hour.

Guilty as charged -- a jury decides Scott Peterson murdered his wife and unborn son. So what will happen to him next? We have all the details coming up. And U.S. troops in Falluja are running off with a string of successes. But the door to door battle against insurgents continues. Retired Air Force General George Harrison will join us in just a minute with his take on this offensive and what lies ahead.

Also, a stunning charge and perhaps a tale of too much Miami vice. Police use a taser gun to subdue not an adult, but a 6-year-old boy. And you will not believe how it all unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "State of California v. Scott Peterson," we the jury in the above entitled cause find the defendant, Scott Lee Peterson, guilty of the crime of murder of Laci Debeese (ph) Peterson.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: His guilt judged by a jury. His life now in their hands. Those same 12 people will decide whether Scott Peterson will die for murdering his wife and their unborn son.

Joining us to share some legal analysis is former U.S. attorney Kendall Coffey -- Kendall, good morning.

How are you?

KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, good morning.

HARRIS: Good to see you.

Well, after all of this time, five months -- and the case goes back two years -- five months of actual trial in chief. I guess 180 witnesses.

Did this jury, in your estimation, get this right?

COFFEY: I think they did. At the end of it all, this came down to Scott Peterson maybe even signing his own guilty verdict. He's the one who placed himself with a very suspicious gone fishing alibi in San Francisco Bay on December 24, the same day Laci Peterson disappeared, in the same location where, four months later, the bodies of Laci and Conner Peterson washed ashore.

HARRIS: And, Kendall, was that, in your mind, the single most compelling piece of evidence in this case?

COFFEY: That was the critical thing. No one could deny it. And the only way you could explain these bodies washing ashore where Scott Peterson had supposedly gone fishing was if somebody had framed him. And I was framed, Your Honor, I was framed just doesn't come across. And the key thing here was with all the questions that the defense raised about different parts of the prosecution's case, they could never answer that.

HARRIS: Yes. COFFEY: And they could never point to a credible explanation of how it could have been done by someone else if it wasn't done by Scott Peterson.

HARRIS: But, Kendall, I have to ask you, shouldn't the standard be a little higher than that? I mean we're talking about a man's life here and there was very little, if any, direct evidence. What we're talking about is basically a circumstantial evidence case here.

COFFEY: But, you know, circumstantial evidence is what's used in a whole lot of convictions. Most of the time you don't have a witness, you don't have audio or videotape. What the jurors are instructed by a judge is that circumstantial evidence can be just as probative, just as compelling as direct evidence and if the evidence points in one direction beyond a reasonable doubt, that's a guilty verdict and that's what the jury found.

HARRIS: And, Kendall, didn't this jury convict him, in addition to what you mentioned about Scott Peterson basically putting himself in the vicinity, they didn't like him, did they? I mean they listened to these audiotapes of him and his conservatives with Amber Frey and they just decided they didn't like Scott Peterson very much.

COFFEY: Well, he was so bad that the defense itself used the dirty rotten scoundrel argument, saying hey, he's a skirt chaser, he's a liar, but he's not a killer.

But, you know, the reality was he came across as so cold-blooded and deceptive that I think the jury concluded that he was not only lying about women, he was lying when he professed his innocence, denying that he killed his wife and unborn son in the various audio and videotapes.

HARRIS: OK, Kendall, we're looking at video of Mark Geragos there and I want you to put these two attorneys side-by-side and evaluate the jobs that they did in this case, Rick Distaso for the prosecution and Mark Geragos for the defense.

COFFEY: Well, Rick Distaso started out stumbling and bumbling. Everyone was criticizing him, including me. But, boy, did he come on strong in the end. His closing was a masterful connect the dots closing. And, also, he tore apart the defense expert on time of death.

You may recall that the big thing the defense was going to convince everybody is that Laci and Conner were still alive well after December 24, the time that the prosecution would have said she was necessarily killed. That defense expert blew up on the stand and at that point the fate of Scott Peterson was probably sealed.

HARRIS: And now we move on to the penalty phase.

Kendall Coffey, good to see you.

Thanks for taking time this morning. We appreciate it.

COFFEY: Hey, thanks for inviting me.

HARRIS: OK.

We'll take a closer look at the Peterson case and the upcoming sentencing phase when we're joined by Court TV anchor Lisa Bloom in the 9:00 a.m. hour on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

And here is our e-mail question for this morning. Do you think Scott Peterson received a fair trial? E-mail us as wam@cnn.com. We will be reading your replies throughout the program.

CALLAWAY: "Burn the earth under the invaders," a call to war allegedly by Iraq's top terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. That audiotape heard on an Islamic Web site.

Meanwhile, U.S. troops attacked pockets of insurgent fighters in Falluja and the Iraqi government rushes reinforcements to Mosul. Now is that northern city the new hot spot?

Barbara Starr has a report from the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As U.S. and Iraqi forces continue to hunt down insurgents in Falluja, this purported audiotape from terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi surfaced on an Islamic Web site. The voice urges fighters in Falluja and across Iraq to press on. The tape's authenticity has not been confirmed. But Zarqawi, still on the loose, raises the question -- what has the Falluja campaign really meant for achieving stability across Iraq?

Pentagon officials say the primary objective in Falluja is not defeating the insurgency but instead terrain, getting the city under control before January's elections. Insurgents got the message. Many fled and hundreds who stayed were killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we leave now, somebody else will come in and we'll just have to come back later.

STARR: No U.S. official believes the insurgency itself is defeated. In fact, they say new attacks across Iraq indicate insurgents are trying to send their own message. The top U.S. commander in Mosul.

BRIG. GEN. CARTER HAM, U.S. ARMY: The enemy is pretty savvy and I don't want to underestimate their capability. They look for weakness and they try to strike that.

STARR: Some of the worst fighting this week in Mosul. Air strikes and U.S. and Iraqi forces moving in after insurgents attacked and overran police stations. The entire Sunni Triangle is a problem, says one official, and Baghdad remains on the negative side of the ledger, he says. U.S. officials say former members of Saddam Hussein's regime who fled Iraq have set up shop in nearby countries and are directing attacks.

HAM: You cannot defeat an insurgent by using sheer firepower. As I've said, it's a political battle. Those people who say turn the troops loose and kill them all, the Russians had a pretty good run at that in Afghanistan. They killed maybe as high as two million Afghans. And they ended up losing the war.

STARR (on camera): U.S. officials say these new attacks around Iraq are not a second front in the war, but brush fires they will be able to put out.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

CALLAWAY: And to talk more about this, retired General George Harrison with us this morning.

General, thanks for getting up early to be with us today.

GEN. GEORGE HARRISON, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.): Good to be here.

CALLAWAY: As we just saw in Barbara Starr's report, a lot of activity in Mosul.

But is that because we're seeing insurgents leave Falluja or are we just seeing a more organized effort?

HARRISON: I think it's because there's a little more central organization, but it's hard to tell. There's a great distance between Falluja and Mosul. That's a good trek. And remember, there's no air transportation for the insurgents. They have to move across the road networks. So to get up there within the three days, unless they were already in position anticipating this, would be a pretty daunting task.

CALLAWAY: Right. Definitely some organization.

Let's talk about the situation in Falluja. A lot of video we've seen in the past week of incredible fighting going on there.

What kind of battle do these troops have in front of them?

We're talking about a city the size of St. Louis.

HARRISON: That's right. Just a little smaller than St. Louis. And if you can imagine, as we were talking earlier, the daunting task. If there were 3,000 drug dealers in St. Louis and you had to clean up 3,000 drug dealers and do as little damage as possible to the infrastructure in the city, a huge city spread across, and let the people have a place to go back to when the battle for the 3,000 people is over, it's really quite a task.

They have to go through house to house. They have to go through most of the rooms in each house. And they have to detain, examine, inspect almost every person that they encounter.

CALLAWAY: It's hard to tell who the civilians are.

HARRISON: Well, of course. These aren't uniformed troops. This is not like armies standing off and having front lines. So they have to, again, look at every person, even the children.

CALLAWAY: We're talking about door to door searches, as you said, a city of over 300,000 people.

HARRISON: That's right.

CALLAWAY: Are our troops prepared to -- for this kind of warfare?

HARRISON: Yes, I think they are, as a matter of fact. The Army and the Marine Corps have significantly changed their training regimen, their pre-deployment training regimen over the last -- actually over the last year. And now even the troops who are veterans of the Iraq war go through a new training process before they are redeployed.

CALLAWAY: All right, General, stay with us.

HARRISON: Sure.

CALLAWAY: On the phone with us now, we have CNN's Jane Arraf, who is embedded with troops near Falluja.

Jane -- good morning to you.

And what is the situation there?

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

The situation is they're closing in on what military commanders believe might be the last pockets of organized insurgents. Now, that doesn't mean there aren't more insurgents out there. There are, and they keep popping up. But here in the southeast corner of town, they have been dropping 500 pound laser guided bombs on a series of spider holes, hiding places of insurgents that they've been finding.

They've also been finding tunnels, bunkers, landmines, homemade bombs and a variety of defensive positions and defensive strategies as they move through these streets. So far in the last couple of hours, they believe that they have killed about 20 suspected insurgents in the latest fight and they say they believe that this is where insurgents have been channeled from other parts of the city. This is, perhaps, the last stand, they hope, of organized insurgents.

CALLAWAY: Jane, we're hearing numbers from 600 to 1,000 insurgents who have been killed in this battle.

What are you hearing from the field there?

ARRAF: That would fit. We're with an Army unit that is essentially paving the way with its heavy armor and other assets for infantrymen from the Marines and other units to follow. They have been, their casualty count has been quite high. They've been using a variety of things, as I've mentioned. When you drop a laser guided bomb on a bunker, you're bound to kill quite a lot of people. So they have actually been keeping quite a high, relatively high count.

We have to point out that we are in an area of town which has been an insurgent stronghold. Here it is thought to be a particular stronghold of the Zarqawi network. And it has long ago been cleared of civilians. Not a single civilian in sight in this part of town.

CALLAWAY: Do the troops feel as if they've turned a corner yet in this operation into taking full control of Falluja?

ARRAF: Not full control. Certainly they believe they have control of most of it and that they're rapidly continuing to take control of the remaining parts. Full control in the sense that they have control of major sectors. But what they still have to do and what they will continue to do for some time to come is that street by street, building by building process.

Now, they've been doing some of that here, the Army unit task force from the 1st Infantry Division. And we were taken into a house earlier this morning where they had found a vehicle mounted with a machine gun, rocket propelled grenades. As we walked into the house, there were two suspected gunmen lying on the floor.

CALLAWAY: Wow!

ARRAF: That's the kind of thing they've been doing, going house to house.

CALLAWAY: All right, Jane Arraf somewhere near Falluja.

Thank you, Jane, for that report.

General, just as she described it as we heard from Jane, the situation there door to door. Hard to tell what you're going to find behind each door. Trying to get Falluja ready for the November -- excuse me.

HARRISON: January elections.

CALLAWAY: For the January elections.

HARRISON: Sure.

CALLAWAY: How, you know, is this a realistic goal?

HARRISON: Oh, I think it probably is. I think it'll probably be a very difficult thing. As the troops go through this, they're just going to have to recognize that they have some time pressure. They have to get on with it and there has to be peace and calm in at least this city for the elections to be successful.

CALLAWAY: All right, thank you, General, for joining us this morning and for your insights on this.

HARRISON: Thank you.

CALLAWAY: General George Harrison.

HARRIS: Miami police say they did the right thing after a 6- year-old lost control at school. We'll tell you why they say a Florida boy had to be brought down with a dangerous weapon.

CALLAWAY: And something that's usually a treat at a child's birthday party is used for a more disturbing purpose. And we'll have the entire story for you coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: After the guilty verdict, what kind of penalty is ahead for Scott Peterson? Our legal eagles are on the case in the next hour of CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And it's time for your cold and flu report.

I'm Rob Marciano at the CNN Weather Center.

Twenty-eight states reporting sporadic influenza activity across the country. Hope you're feeling well this morning.

CNN will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CALLAWAY: Some news across America this morning.

We begin at the Mexico border in southern California. U.S. agents conducting a routine car search discovered a 4 or 5-year-old little girl stuffed inside this pinata you see. She was able to breathe and was discovered unharmed. Her mother was hidden inside the trunk of the car. A brother was stashed underneath a collapsible seat.

And in Miami, police are defending the use of a taser gun on a 6- year-old boy. The unruly youngster apparently broke a picture frame in his principal's office and then waved a shard of glass at a security guard. When he then began to cut himself, one officer tasered him. The other caught him as he fell.

HARRIS: And doctors say American figure skating legend Scott Hamilton has been diagnosed with a benign brain tumor. A treatment plan is being worked out. Hamilton, a four time national champ and 1984 Olympic gold medalist, was treated for testicular cancer seven years ago.

And don't forget to drop us an e-mail. Did Scott Peterson get a fair trial? Tell us what you think. We are at wam@cnn.com. We will read your replies ahead on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Rob Marciano joins us now with a great forecast for every single part of the nation this morning, right -- Rob.

MARCIANO: What are you talking about?

CALLAWAY: Hey, there's snow on that map.

MARCIANO: Yes. No, there's snow in a couple of parts of the country, so we're starting to slide now into the holidays.

HARRIS: Absolutely.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Boy, we've been talking about our e-mail Question of the Morning, which is do you believe Scott Peterson received a fair trial? And we knew we would get a lot of e-mails and they're starting to roll in for us, Catherine.

CALLAWAY: Yes. Here's the first one. "I have had a real problem with this trial from day one. I think he was unfairly treated. If I was on that jury, I doubt it would be over yet." That's from Lauren.

HARRIS: And this is from J.C. Max, who says: "Of course he got a fair trial. He murdered two people."

So we're going to encourage you to send more of your e-mails to us. The address is wam@cnn.com. Do you believe Scott Peterson received a fair trial?

Reality TV shows help make it a business so lucrative, so enticing some unlikely medical professionals are joining the party. We're talking about plastic surgery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An under eye lift, a nose job, liposuction under her jaw, a chin implant and the fat was removed from her cheeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Now we have dentists offering reconstructive face surgery, dermatologists performing liposuction, cats and dogs living together. Is this a good thing? Plastic surgery on the examination table tomorrow on CNN SUNDAY MORNING at 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

CALLAWAY: But up next, politics aside, "CROSSFIRE" is on the case of Scott Peterson. That's right, CNN's most opinionated gang brings you a heated reaction to the verdict during the next half hour of CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

Stay with us, everyone.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE) HOLLY FIRFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We know exercise is good for you, but in a recent survey, 74 percent of women say they experienced foot pain. And although many people think there's little you can do to treat your aching tootsies, you do have a few options. If your activities have you moving side to side like playing tennis, you might want a firm shoe insert to keep your foot from rolling in your shoe. If you're a jogger, runner or power walker, cushioning insoles can soften the pounding your feet take during your fitness routine.

However, if your pain continues or is severe, make sure to see your doctor.

Holly Firfer, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

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