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On the Story

Will U.S. Send Troops Into Liberia?; Hussein Releases New Audiotape; Travelers Face Delays at Airports

Aired July 05, 2003 - 10:00   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.


DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to CNN's ON THE STORY, where our journalists have the inside word on the stories we covered this week. I'm Dana Bash on the story of tough talk from President Bush this week on Iraq and Liberia.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: I'm Barbara Starr, on the story of how far the U.S. military can stretch to make sure when the White House orders come, the answer will be, yes, sir.

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jane Arraf, on the story of an unpredictable new Iraq, the return of the voice of Saddam Hussein, continuous attacks on U.S. soldiers and the Iraqis working with them, and a brief glimpse at 3,000-year-old treasures.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Patty Davis on the story of what millions of us face at airports this holiday weekend and through the summer. We're talking about all of these stories, and we'll hear shortly from Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty about explosions at a rock concert outside the Russian capital earlier today. We'll talk about how the trial of D.C. sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo has moved from Washington, away from the crime scene, and a search for a fair and impartial jury.

And we want to hear from you. Send your questions and comments to onthestory@cnn.com.

Now to Barbara Starr on the story of mission: Liberia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In order for there to be peace and stability in Liberia, Charles Taylor needs to leave now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: President Bush on Tuesday calling for the president of the West African nation of Liberia to step down. And in recent days, U.S. military brass already heavily involved in Iraq and Afghanistan have been preparing for various plans on how the U.S. might intervene in Liberia as part of an international peacekeeping force.

Well, last week, when we were sitting here, I don't think I was thinking about Liberia. It was the furthest thing from anybody's mind. BASH: You can say that again.

STARR: Yes, and now we appear to be on the brink of sending troops. But what I can tell you is I have talked to sources this morning, and they say already this mission is beginning to change just a bit. Maybe not a peacekeeping force, but instead a force that would engage in humanitarian assistance, because the feeling is there is a looming crisis in this country than -- in Liberia that they have to deal with.

BASH: Barbara, let me ask you about that. Isn't that essentially semantics? I mean, if U.S. troops go on the ground, even I know we're talking about a limited force here, isn't it -- doesn't it sort of not matter if they're going specifically for peacekeeping or humanitarian assistance? They are on the ground and that presents all kinds of dangers for them.

STARR: It puts lives at risk. It puts U.S. solders' lives at risk. No question about it. Very volatile situation in Liberia as it now exists, but the words are very interesting when you decode them, both politically and militarily. The issue appears to be that the U.S. wants to make sure other West African nations are with them, other militaries from Africa will go in and take the heaviest load on peacekeeping, enforcing some sort of a cease-fire, separating the militia groups, and the U.S. will try and come in and support that effort. But hard to say at the moment.

DAVIS: I'll tell you, what comes to mind is Somalia. Is the military worried about a possible repeat of that, where they were ambushed there?

STARR: It is a concern. The question is how much does the U.S. military really understand at this point about what it may be getting into, and every indication is they're taking a very deliberate, slow planning approach to this. It could be another two weeks perhaps at the outside before U.S. forces are on the ground. Every indication now they are looking at sending Marines, Marines from the East Coast of the United States, possibly. It would take them about two weeks to get there. An advance party could certainly go, but the Pentagon today taking very slow, deliberate planning steps. Reminding everybody the president hasn't made a final decision.

But there is one tremendous difficulty in all of this, which is this is a very tough country to do business in. We could see the prospect of U.S. soldiers for the first time, you know, facing the child soldiers of Africa, the 10-, 12-year-old boys that have automatic weapons, that are part of these militia groups that are very unpredictable. Whether Charles Taylor leaves the country or not, it will be a very volatile situation by all accounts that they'll be going into. Very tough business ahead for them.

ARRAF: Barbara, can they do this and Iraq at the same time? Two very difficult calls there.

STARR: It is, Jane. You know, now Iraq, of course, 145,000 or so U.S. troops. A much bigger deployment. Nobody's really talking in the Liberia case about more than 1,000 troops. So, can they do it? Sure. But the question, obviously, the lessons of Iraq very much on their minds. What is the exit strategy? First, what is the mission? Could the mission grow? Could the mission get out of control? Will Liberians welcome them? Are they facing the problems in Iraq -- that Iraq has right now, and how are they going to get out once they go there?

BASH: What I want to know from you is, is there a reluctance at the Pentagon, particularly from Donald Rumsfeld, to engage in any kind of mission like this? I mean, this is completely different from what we saw in Afghanistan and what we see in Iraq. I mean, this is going in to really help keep the peace, to be the world's police force, and it's something that the Bush administration had, at least during the campaign, been very reluctant to do. Is there a reluctance at the Pentagon to actually go down that road? It would be the first time this would happen in this administration.

STARR: For the record, of course, no. We salute smartly, they say. We do what the president tells us to do. There is never a reluctance at the Pentagon officially to do anything that the president asks them to do, but let's remember, the U.S. military has, in fact, been involved in Africa any number of times. It was the former President Bush who first sent U.S. troops to Somalia. Africa has always been a very tough place. None of the African deployments have really gone very well for the U.S. military. It's always been a tough challenge.

And the war planners right now, the Pentagon planners, they know that. And that's why they're taking very slow steps here, trying to come up with a plan that they feel will be workable. But you know, there's an old military saying, plan for the worst, hope for the best.

DAVIS: Barbara, attacks in Iraq, U.S. soldiers being killed almost every day. What is the strategy from the Pentagon's perspective on how to stop that?

STARR: Well, from Washington's perspective, stick with the plan again. The very aggressive raids and patrols, focus on what's going well. But Jane, I would ask you, because it seems to me from here there's a disconnect. You and I talked about this during the week. The Pentagon says it's prepared to stay the course, it's prepared to go with the aggressive raids, but in Iraq, what is the mood on the street? Do the people see these troubles emerging?

ARRAF: It is just not good, and that goes all the way from Iraqis in the street to these soldiers, and you have got to feel sorry for them. It's about 120 degrees here. So you can imagine what that feels like, wearing full body armor and the helmet, and standing patrol in a neighborhood that doesn't particularly want you there.

And it's really interesting that the top generals here keep saying, resolve has not weakened, which clearly in the bigger sense, that political sense, it hasn't, but I've talked to so many of these young soldiers who are really wondering when they're going to go home. Some of them have been sent here for a year. They don't have telephones. They're eating meals ready to eat, and it kind of gets old pretty quickly.

And the continuing attacks. And I want to ask you, Barbara, when officials say statistically insignificant, the number of deaths so far, and it's about 27 American soldiers who have died in attacks, when does that number get statistically significant?

STARR: Well, that's a darn interesting question. Because that is what you hear from the top military brass. Small number, not significant. Doesn't affect the battle plan. But clearly, it does become significant when it begins to affect morale on the front line, on the streets of Baghdad. You would have a good sense of that. It seems that the soldiers there do understand that there have been all of these incidents, that they are in in the crosshairs virtually every day. Do they begin to feel -- as the war turns, do they feel now like maybe the Iraqis don't really want them there, do they feel they are in a more hostile environment than they were when they first got there?

ARRAF: I get the sense they really do. In the last few weeks in Baghdad, particularly, because what we're seeing now are just incidents really every day. And military officials here say there are about a dozen of them throughout Iraq, attacks and attempted attacks.

Now, some of them involve people coming up to soldiers on the street, shooting them in the back of the neck. Other ones involve throwing grenades at them. It is just really hard to guard against these sorts of things, particularly when they have to be out on the street.

In other parts of the country, it's different. In the north, it's more stable. But here in Baghdad, it is just not a good feeling.

STARR: And you raise an interesting point, Jane, because aren't we now starting to see homemade, improvised explosive devices? Disarming the Iraqis, making them give up their rifles and their Kalashnikovs may not be the answer anymore, if they're making the homemade bombs now.

ARRAF: That's an excellent point. It's just even with the weapons, the traditional weapons, and traditional weapons here include rocket-propelled grenades, unfortunately, hardly anyone is willing to give those up. It's actually not so unusual that you would have an arsenal in your home, particularly if you're from one of the tribal areas. And no one here feels safe. If you drive through these streets at night, they're empty. There's no electricity. They still haven't got a handle on that. There's still continued sabotage on the power lines.

And people just feel very, very insecure.

We'll be talking more about that and about -- I want to tell you all about this museum opening. And a lot of other things when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really only 12 weeks ago that we had a war here. It's only 12 weeks ago that every Iraqi was living under one of the most tyrannical regimes in recent history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARRAF: He is unfailingly upbeat as are top military officials here. Unfortunately, it's not something that translates right down to the ground level in Iraq.

And the $25 million is still, where is Saddam? Is he alive? Now, a lot of Iraqis think that this tape that appeared of him yesterday, this recording said to be him, it was recorded three weeks ago but released just yesterday by Al-Jazeera TV, was because he was upset that there was not as much of a reward issued for him as there was for Osama bin Laden. They have now issued word and it is being repeated on Iraqi TV, $25 million for his capture, or proof that he's been killed.

Now, the tape is really interesting. I played it this morning for an Iraqi official who has worked with Saddam Hussein for many years. He didn't get a chance to watch it on TV, he said, because the electricity is off, as it frequently is, but he listened to this tape and he said, that's him. And it was really chilling. And it was Saddam saying that he missed his people very much, but that he was still among them. It was very much like a horror movie.

But he said it was him because he could recognize the mistakes that Saddam made in reading. He is not very educated in classical Arabic.

Now, that's part of the reason why these attacks keep happening, according to U.S. officials, the fact that people believe he's still out there. But they are trying to create a sense of normalcy. And one of the things was the brief reopening of the Iraq Museum.

Now, this was really interesting and exciting, in fact, not just for archaeologists but for Iraqis in general. Although they really didn't get to see it. It was a press event to prove that the treasures of Nimrod were still there. And the treasures of Nimrod were discovered in the late 1980s by Iraqi archaeologists, exhibited once and then put into hiding in a bank vault, which was just reopened again last month. So there was some doubt as to whether they actually were intact. And they are spectacular. It's burial jewelry of Queen Yabba (ph) and two other queens. They include things like anklets, solid gold anklets, a pound of solid gold each.

Now, I asked, how would you ever wear those? And I was quite logically told, well, if you're a queen, you're carried around all the time. Absolutely stunning stuff.

BASH: Jane, I want to ask you about, going back to the Saddam tape. As you can imagine, this is basically not only your worst nightmare for the folks there on the ground, but for the Bush administration, because this is, as you mentioned, something that they think is the main reason for the continued unrest and the difficulty in getting things going there on the ground in Iraq. But is that actually the case? Do Iraqis on the ground still really have fear of Saddam, and is that, do you think, the number one reason why it's hard to get going, or is it a lot more than that?

ARRAF: It's unfortunately a lot more than that, but as you mentioned, that's a really big part of it, and they do have an incredible fear, a kind of fear that is ingrained and lasts for decades. And every day is reinforced for decades. Just does not go away. And it was really interesting when we were trying to play this tape to people on the street yesterday; a lot of them physically backed away. They didn't want to talk about it. They believed firmly it was him.

There's a lot of other things going on here, and one of the problems is it isn't all Saddam loyalists launching these attacks. And that's the really hard thing to fight against, because some of the people launching the attacks, some of the groups are now believed to be anti-Saddam, just anti-American as well, which makes them much harder to fight.

STARR: Well, that's an interesting question for Paul Bremer to have to deal with. As you say, this unfailing public optimism that he of course puts out and the top generals put out, but do they acknowledge privately yet that perhaps the page has turned a bit and there is anti-American sentiment from Iraqis who are also anti-Saddam? This isn't about just party loyalists that they talk about.

ARRAF: I really have to say there is, again, quite a large disconnect, and perhaps, you know, the thing I keep hearing over and over again from Iraqis is we don't understand them and they don't understand us, and it's really true and it's tragic. And that's applicable all the way from the ground level where you see these patrols, American patrols are going around without translators, because they don't have enough translators. People are trying to tell them things, they're in trouble, they're trying to tell them important things, and they don't understand them; all the way to this very important sense of respect.

Now, it sounds like a very ambiguous concept, but when you go into these towns where there have been attacks, where Iraqis have attacked U.S. forces, they say they don't respect us, and a lot of it goes down to the house-to-house searches, bringing dogs into houses, which is really taboo in Islam, and things that soldiers would routinely do, but it is really a clash of cultures, and it's really a problem, and it's not really something that's often acknowledged at those top levels.

STARR: And for the last several days at least, we are not hearing very much out of Bremer about putting a new Iraqi government in place, putting some elected officials or a transitional government in place at the top.

ARRAF: That's a really interesting one. He has just a little while ago given a briefing for Arab journalists. He does these routinely to give the Iraqi media particularly a chance to participate, and he has said that in the next two weeks, slipping a little behind schedule but not bad, in the next two weeks they intend to have an Iraqi governing council.

Now, you probably remember that this is a different name from what it started out. It was going to be a political council, but there was huge uproar about the fact that Iraqis weren't governing themselves, so they've changed the name. It's now governing council. They're going to have 35 people. They're putting it together. We'll see whether it gets to govern. But at least the name change and the fact that they are announcing they are going to have something soon is a good step. And it's really important to Iraqis, to be able to hold up that, at least, as something that they own.

DAVIS: On the museum exhibition, was that something almost of a public relations campaign, as well?

ARRAF: It was. It was kind of a public relations exercise gone wrong, I have to say, because they were so nervous about opening the museum, so nervous about the gold, and in fact, probably there was justification. As it opened, there was a grenade attack not far from the museum. Later that night, a museum guard was killed, not at that museum, but not far away at another museum. In fact it's not really the kind of climate, the kind of situation where you can open the doors of a museum and have pounds and pounds of 3,000-year-old gold jewelry.

But it was certainly a relations exercise, and that they wanted to prove that the museum wasn't looted, that they did take care of it. You'll remember the uproar when there was talk that the entire museum was looted because the Americans failed to secure it, so they really did want to counter that. Small step forward.

BASH: But is that actually the case, Jane? Is it the case that they have found most of the antiquities that they thought were gone, and is that essentially what we were seeing at this museum here, or was a lot actually taken?

ARRAF: There was some taken. The numbers are a bit misleading. The first report was 170,000 pieces were taken. It's much fewer than that. It's probably 32 display quality pieces, as they call them, and these are incredible, priceless, irretrievable things. For instance, what's believed to be the first sculpture of a real person, going back thousands of years. But a lot of the other ones are very small items, pottery shards, that sort of thing, that wouldn't necessarily have been displayed. It was a lot better than originally thought, and that's the case for the museum in general and some other things, but the big problem here is still that infrastructure, the electricity. And people just will not get over this. How comes the Americans can't fix the electricity, is what they keep saying. It reminds you of how basic this is. Electricity, water, lights on at night, and it's just not happening so far.

STARR: And also, we saw another figure from the war reemerge in the west, Baghdad Bob, the information minister. Do people in Iraq notice that he was back with a different color hair? ARRAF: Yes. They kind of wondered about that one, but they also noticed that he really didn't seem to want to give that interview. And yes, there's a story behind that one, as well. But clearly he's a man who doesn't have very much to do these days. In fact, he -- tell me what you think, but he seems to have gotten much more of a following outside of Iraq than he does inside of Iraq.

BASH: Well, he's definitely somebody who President Bush liked to watch. Apparently his aides would get him when he was on television and tell him to come run and watch TV, because he wanted to never miss one of his briefings during the war.

ARRAF: Wonderful. What is the feeling of the American public? I want to ask, are they still focused on -- is it disturbing them that almost every day there are soldiers being killed, being wounded?

STARR: Well, you know, it's hard to -- I think it's hard to get a sense. I think people when they see it, they feel very badly about it. They, I think, there is great support for what American soldiers are doing. I think people have a great deal of empathy for the circumstances that these young women and men find themselves in, but as a member of the Pentagon press corps, what we're generally told by the Pentagon is that we don't understand, that we are focusing on the bad news, and that we should, as reporters, should be focusing more on the good news that's coming out of Iraq.

But some days of the week it's awfully hard to find that news, so, you know, you focus on what happened on a given day.

DAVIS: Well, Jane Arraf, thanks as always for joining us. What are you looking for on the story, in coming days from the challenges of post-war Iraq to the challenges of traveling in the U.S. at the summer peak and coping with anti-terrorism safeguards. I'm back on the story in a moment.

ANNOUNCER: Patty Davis covers aviation in CNN's Washington bureau. Earlier, she was a correspondent in CNN's Chicago bureau. And she was a senior producer for CNN Financial News and shared an Overseas Press Club Award for coverage of Cuba.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are peak periods in some airports, where there's too much traffic, not enough lanes to handle the situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIS: We'll get to that story in a moment. But first, we're going to go to outside Moscow, to our correspondent Jill Dougherty, who is covering explosions at a rock concert -- Jill.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Yes. You know, we're just down the street from where that happened. It's right outside a big air base called Tushino, where a concert, a rock concert called Wings was taking place. There were about 20,000 people inside that stadium. And luckily, if you can say it's lucky, the two explosions took place outside of the stadium, apparently at the entrance. In fact, we're just close to that entrance a few minutes ago, where two female suicide bombers tried to get into the stadium.

That is the latest information that we have. It went up toward the gate. We're not allowed to go in. And one woman exploded whatever she had, the type of explosives, destroying herself and killing reportedly three people at that point. And then about 15 minutes later, the other explosion by the other woman at another gate.

You can still see, in fact, and I was down there as I said just a minute ago, you can still see two bodies lying on the street, and police are obviously taking forensic evidence and trying to figure out precisely how it happened, but I could say that it would appear to fit that scenario of having the two females suicide bombers.

The people who were inside the stadium really did not know what was going on. But outside the stadium, the latest reports, 18 people killed, and many wounded, although we don't have a final figure on that. The latest was 20, but the numbers have been increasing. Back to you.

DAVIS: Jill, have there been any claims of responsibility, Jill?

DOUGHERTY: Not that we have heard, although you would have to say that this really does have the fingerprint of Chechen terrorists. After all, just in the past month or so, we have had a couple of incidents in Chechnya and the region in the south of Russia of females suicide bombers with explosives strapped to their waist, blowing themselves up, and killing people besides.

So this would appear to fit that description. And also, police are saying that they found the passport of one of the women, a girl, 20 years old, who does have a name that is Chechen.

STARR: Now, Jill, has Vladimir Putin given any indication yet, even though it's very early on, of any further security crackdowns? Do the Russian people support his moves on the security issues against the Chechens?

DOUGHERTY: Well, if they're cracking down on security in Moscow, you would have to say that people do support that by and large, because they're scared. You know, they're worried. Remember last October, you had the theater hostage crisis, and people want security.

Now, if you're talking about the crackdowns in Chechnya, there you have to say that it's kind of a mixed bag. Many people think they ought to simply get rid of the terrorists, do whatever they can and get tough, but there are other people who believe that it's precisely that type of get tough and round them up type of approach that's spurring on the violence and -- by the Chechens.

But you'd have to say, also, that and it is fair to say that there is an element of international terrorism, as well. It is not just, you know, rebels in Chechnya wanting to be free. There is also an element of international terrorism involved.

BASH: Jill, given that, you know, we know here in the United States what has changed at places like concerts and sporting events in terms of security. Have things changed there in Moscow, for instance? Do you have any idea at this concert there were security precautions, mags (ph) or other devices to try to keep terrorists or other things out of the concert?

DOUGHERTY: Yes. We don't know specifically about this concert, but I can tell you that at most concerts, they check you at the door, they check and check. We were at a concert not too long ago, shooting, and you could see they check purses, they did have a magnitometer, you know, that checks for weapons et cetera. I cannot speak for this venue, but with 20,000 people, I'm sure that they at least were checking purses and making sure people were not taking anything inside.

And also, if you look at the way this happened, apparently as we know it right now, the women were stopped outside. They didn't get in. Because if they had gotten in, you can imagine that it would have been far worse.

BASH: Jill, obviously, you've been there for a long time. I mean, are Russians feeling more on guard? Do you feel that there will be more drastic changes in terms of how they deal with their everyday lives now that this is really the second very large incident that we have seen in recent months?

DOUGHERTY: Well, you know, if you live in Moscow, if you drive around the streets, every day there are police on the street. They stop cars. They especially stop trucks and vehicles that could be carrying things. They regularly patrol. There's a lot of security in Moscow. I'd have to say compared to many places.

But one of the problems is that this is a city where, unfortunately, money can buy you anything. And there's a feeling that even if you had the most secure police presence in the world, you'd still could get some corrupt people who might be swayed and might allow terrorists to get through. That was the question, remember, back in October, with the theater hostage crisis, how do you have armed people, women with belts of explosives tied to them getting across town and getting into a crowded theater? How does that happen if there is security?

So that's, I think, the questions that Russia needs to raise, but as a whole, I'd have to say that Russians are used to this. They are used to terrorism. It goes back, remember, the biggest incidence were really back in like '99, which started the second Chechen war, when apartment buildings here in Moscow were blown up. So people are pretty used to this.

DAVIS: Thanks, Jill Dougherty, just outside of Moscow reporting for us. We'll have more ON THE STORY, looking at some serious airport delays here in the United States this summer, and now this news alert.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (NEWSBREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are peak periods in some airports where there's too much traffic, not enough lanes to handle the situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIS: TSA spokesman Robert Johnson (ph) says part of the reason some of us are complaining about long lines and delays at airports is not because of new security, it is because the buildings are poorly designed. Welcome back. We're ON THE STORY.

And I would have to say that the airports dispute that. What they're saying is the reason why you're running into these big delays are that there is an increase in passenger volume for the summer, and we're also seeing cuts of 6,000 screener positions that are taking place -- that are going to take place through the fall, and that was mandated by Congress.

But just let me tell you some of the delays that we've been seeing over the past two weeks. Two and a half hours in Seattle to get through the security checkpoint. And that was because of an influx of cruise ship passengers. Now, these are at peak times. In Atlanta, Monday morning specifically, 90 minutes delay just to get through the security checkpoint. Denver, an hour. So, people are asking, why is this going on?

BASH: OK. So I'm going to ask the question that every air traveler would ask. What are they going to do about it?

DAVIS: Well, that's a really good question. Denver Airport had a summit involving Congressman Bob Beauprez of Colorado with the Transportation Security Administration, and what they came up with and what you may see at other airports is that they're reconfiguring -- they are reconfiguring what times those screeners need to be at those checkpoints. Perhaps you need more screeners when you have peak hours. The airlines are funneling everybody maybe onto 6:00 flights in the evening. There should be maybe more screeners there at that point.

They're also looking at cross-training the screeners, having bag screeners when they have less to do come up and handle passengers at passenger checkpoints. So you may see some more of that at airports across the country as the summer goes on.

STARR: Well, it's interesting. I mean, Americans are probably willing to do an awful lot in this regard if you tell them it's for security, but is it going to get to the point where Americans are just going to be frustrated and think twice about traveling by air? Maybe going by car if it's feasible for them.

DAVIS: Well, and that happened. After 4th of July, we are seeing a big increase in the people traveling by car for the 4th of July. It's a small decrease in air travel, according to AAA. But I think the passengers that we talked to say they still like flying. They understand it. And I want to emphasize, this is not happening at all airports across the country. The Washington, D.C. airports, we're seeing not major delays. The Transportation Security Administration saying overall, you're still seeing about 10 to 12- minute delays to get through the security checkpoints. So there's just these certain bottlenecks that they have to work on, and that seems to be making the news.

STARR: But this does come at a time when airline economics are still pretty shaky.

DAVIS: They are, they are shaky right now. We have American Airlines coming up with a plan, a restructuring plan where they're saying, listen, we're going to have to make more cuts, we're going to have to make route cuts. All these areas that are getting nonstop service right now, that's not necessarily going to continue. We have got heavy debt loads among the airlines. The economy is still not doing well. So, you're not seeing a huge rebound in the number of passengers. Of course, airlines hoping that will change as the months go on.

BASH: Patty, one of the things that we've been told when we travel to do is not lock your bags, you take them, but there have been problems with stealing. Correct? And now they're trying to crack down on it.

DAVIS: They are cracking down. For the first time, we saw some TSA screeners, they are being prosecuted. Two baggage screeners at the Miami Airport arrested, charged with grand theft over the past week or so for allegedly taking CDs from someone's luggage. They were caught. Apparently red handed doing this.

TSA has had some 6,700 complaints of theft from passenger bags. And you're right. You don't lock your bags. You're not supposed to lock your bags. But one thing that I have been able to do in some airports, and I don't know if you've seen this, too, is as you come up to some of these checkpoints, if you go through the -- your EDS machine goes, scans your luggage, or a trace detection machine where they run a swab over the handle and inside, you can often go ahead then and lock your bag. And perhaps that's a smart thing to do.

But some tips I can tell you is, first of all, do not -- as you were asking me earlier, Barbara -- don't bring your valuable jewelry and put it in your luggage.

BASH: Put it in your purse.

DAVIS: Put it in your purse, or carry it with you.

And with all of these security checkpoints delays that you're seeing at peak times at airports, get there really early. We are having people missing flights according to airport directors, because you wait two hours just to get through security. Nobody gets to an airport two hours in advance. Get there really early. BASH: Well, Patty, airlines and homeland defense are just a few of the problems that end up on President Bush's desk. Iraq continues to be the big one. Take a look at the cartoon by Mike Keith (ph) of "The Denver Post." A GI reporting in, well, while under enemy fire in Iraq, bullets flying everywhere, still no weapons of mass destruction, sir, he says, but plenty of weapons of individual destruction.

We're back on the story and a check of what's making headlines in one minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: There are some who feel like the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is bring them on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: President Bush on Wednesday, and a blunt warning, some would call it a challenge, to people attacking U.S. troops in Iraq. Welcome back. We're ON THE STORY.

And this was really a classic Bushism. It sort of reminded us of wanted dead or alive when he was talking about Osama bin Laden, or, you know, hunting them out of their caves, and the White House does feel like this is who he is, and this is something he did off the cuff and it doesn't necessarily hurt him, but Democrats pounced on this. We got -- I got e-mails, we all got e-mails, from Democrats saying that this is too much macho from him, it's too much phony rhetoric, that it's unfitting of the presidency, and it was interesting to see that some of the Democratic presidential candidates clearly saw an opening here. Perhaps it's because they see that the public mood is shifting on Iraq.

DAVIS: Well, haven't Democrats been reluctant to take shots at the president on national security?

BASH: Well, it's interesting. They have been. I was talking to one of the senior strategists of one of the Democratic candidates who said, particularly with this quote this week, who said that, look, they understand that Americans like swagger. It's not a coincidence that the number one movie star in American history was John Wayne, but this might be something that soccer moms might have difficulty swallowing, and what was interesting was that Dick Gephardt, who was actually in the Rose Garden with the president when he was giving his orders to Congress to give him a resolution to go to war with Iraq, he was there, he was somebody who had supported the president on this. So, it is interesting to watch, to sort of see the shift from candidates like Dick Gephardt who didn't necessarily see an opening there. Perhaps he does.

STARR: But Dana, do the White House political operatives feel they had to put the president out there on this point because of the attacks against U.S. soldiers? That finally maybe it was raised in the public consciousness and he had to address the issue? BASH: It's interesting. The president, on the two-month anniversary of that famous carrier landing, where he declared that major combat was over, Tuesday was the two-month anniversary of that. And he actually did come out, he had a speech, and he talked about the fact that he understands that this is long and it's difficult, but the U.S. is in there for the long haul.

But when you look at the polls of exactly how Americans are feeling about this, we were talking about this earlier, they do sense that the reconstruction and rebuilding of Iraq isn't going well. But they also showed, the majority of Americans do feel that it's something that's necessary, and that Saddam Hussein was a bad guy who they really wanted to see go. So it seems as though there's patience right now from the American people, according to the polls, to let the president continue on and do this, even though we are getting this daily bad news from the ground in Iraq.

STARR: And we had a little bad news on the economy, also this week. Some not very good news on economic statistics.

BASH: Unemployment numbers at a nine-year high, at 6.4 percent. Again, talking about your inbox and your e-mail. Flooded with Democrats. I mean, this is the issue that Democrats think that they have on the White House now. From the White House perspective, they say that his tax cuts have not fully kicked in, and they also say that the job numbers are sometimes lagging behind all the other numbers that tell you how well the economy is doing.

But they are just hitting the president hard on this, because 2.5 million jobs have been lost since the president has been in office, and this is what the Democrats -- we have talked about this on the show before -- are really banking on. So when they see numbers like that, they would say not that they want people to be out of work, but it certainly doesn't hurt them politically.

DAVIS: But what about the backrooms of the White House? Do they see any Bush replay of his father's election campaign, where he lost over the economy?

BASH: Well, it's -- the similarities are striking in that what President Bush 41 had said was the economy was getting better at the end of his presidency, and turned out it actually was getting better. So that is why you see the president over and over and over again talking about the economy and actually talking about why he thinks the economy isn't doing well, talking about the fact that we had the attacks of 9/11, and you had these corporate fraud issues, so it is why you see the president talking about it over and over again, because they remember his father.

STARR: And Liberia complicates his plate even more on this. I mean, as he's going to Africa this coming week, front and center, what to do about Liberia. How's that decision being made at the White House?

BASH: Well, you know very well, Barbara, that it's a tough decision, and it's interesting that they decided to send this assessment team to the region this weekend. It certainly buys the president a little bit of time in order to make that decision, because this would be a shift from what he said as candidate Bush. He made it very clear that he wanted to be very judicious in sending American troops abroad to sort of be peacekeepers.

STARR: And he had said Africa was not a priority.

BASH: Explicitly said that several times, that Africa wasn't in the national interest of the United States. Perhaps economically, yes, but not in the national interest, but it is a different world. That's what the White House says, and it is in a post-9/11 world, where they have to make sure that places like Africa and other prices around the world are not chaotic, because that is what breeds terrorists.

STARR: Condy Rice making that link this week of 9/11 was a reason to send troops to Liberia, to try and calm things down. You know, saying, again, they don't want ungoverned territories, as they call them, to become breeding grounds. So you wonder where that leaves U.S. policy from the White House, because there are so many of those areas out there.

BASH: There are so many, and where does it end? I mean, that is the question. But that's why this Liberia situation is such -- is one to watch, because it would be the first time that the president would send any kind of troops, and whether it's humanitarian or peacekeeping, send them in a situation where it's not actually war. And the president has made it clear, he talked about it yesterday. He was in Ohio talking about the state of the troops, and thanking the troops, but he also made it clear that he now believes that it is the responsibility of the United States and using its military to help keep the peace around the world, and to help bring liberty and freedom around the world. Different kind of rhetoric than we heard from him when he was a candidate.

DAVIS: Now, what about Howard Dean, the Democratic presidential candidate? What has the White House's reaction been to him?

BASH: He raised $7 million according to his campaign, in just three months, and that is amazing. I mean, even first of all, the Democratic candidates, the other ones are just of looking at it with awe. But from the White House perspective, nothing could please them more, because Howard Dean is, of course, perceived as somebody who is to the left of all the other candidates. Nothing would make Republicans happier than have somebody strong like Howard Dean pulling the rest of the field to the left, especially since President Bush doesn't have somebody pulling him to the right. He would be much more comfortable running really in the middle when he has a field that is being pulled to the left. They're certainly not upset about Howard Dean doing so well in these past couple of months.

DAVIS: Well, publicity and public opinion aren't just for politicians. Huge publicity surrounding the D.C. sniper case last year this week prompted a judge to move the trial of the teenage sniper suspect. I'm back on the story in just 30 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We felt that this was not the best venue for the trial that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) cost and the security reasons and disruption to our own citizens and the normal flow of business. However, the court has made a decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIS: Chesapeake, Virginia Mayor William Ward says, trouble is coming to my town. The mayor and others in this community are worried about their tranquil town. Chesapeake, Virginia will be trampled by a big murder trial media event. Welcome back. We're ON THE STORY.

That's a town of about 200,000. And in fact, the courthouse is new, it's beautiful, but it has one way in and one way out. And officials were telling me, they can't even get the people in for traffic court without a line in the mornings. What are they going to do when hundreds of media, like us, are camped outside waiting to get into that trial? It is going to be a log jam according to the city.

STARR: Well, did this town get a vote in this? You know, did they volunteer for this kind of thing?

DAVIS: Well, the judge, Judge Jane Marivrausha (ph) of Fairfax County went shopping. She looked there, she looked at Virginia Beach, and what it boiled down to is that the city lobbied do not bring this trial here and they didn't win, and they don't have a choice. It's theirs, and they are going to get it come November. That's it.

STARR: This could be coming to your town next.

DAVIS: It could be. Well, that's very interesting, because in fact, John Muhammad, Malvo's alleged accomplice, has also asked for a change of venue. We could see that going on maybe at the same time. Muhammad's trial scheduled for October; Malvo for November. But it depends how long that first one goes. We could have them both happening at the same time. Will they be both be in Chesapeake? I don't know.

BASH: This is obviously something that the defense was asking for. They wanted it to be moved, because they didn't think that they could get a fair jury in the Washington, D.C. area, but isn't it something that the prosecution might not be too unhappy about, because if he were convicted in Washington, it would be sort of you would think top of the list for the appeal for the defense. This way, it's harder to make the argument that he didn't get a fair trial.

DAVIS: It does take away one of the possible points of appeal, if they do grant him a change of venue, and the judge really was saying that it's only fair here. Look at the publicity you have had. Also, you have a book coming out by Chief Charles Moose. That's coming out mid-September, and both of these lawyers in both of these cases have worried that that may somehow be read by people in Virginia and that could somehow taint a jury pool, as well. In fact, Muhammad's lawyer filed with in federal court asking the federal judge, please delay the coming of that book in September. Make it come after the trial, because we're worried about that. We want to get a fair trial here.

STARR: This Chief Moose book is still really big news, at least here in the Washington Metropolitan Area. A lot of people have a lot of opinions about it. Have any of the families of the victims of the snipers spoken about their feelings about Chief Moose making money on this book, off this tragedy?

DAVIS: Well, he is billing it as an inside story. This is his life. But lawyers are saying, well, wait a second, it's going to be a lot more than just his life. It's going to be about what happened, and the case and how they tracked these two alleged murderers down. But yes, there are members of families, some of them saying, we really think this is not a good move on the part of Chief Moose. Of course he has a right to go out and write a book, but can't he wait, at least a little while, until at least the trial gets under way? They don't want there to be any chance of tainting the jury as well. They want a conviction if indeed these two are found guilty.

STARR: Because, of course, I mean, I think it's the case that Chief Moose singlehandedly didn't solve the case.

DAVIS: It was an FBI involvement, as well. Absolutely. Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, a large panoply of officials who were involved in solving this. You're right. So it was a multipronged effort on all fronts.

STARR: So it should be a really interesting fall here in the Metropolitan area.

DAVIS: Oh, it's going to be wild, that's for sure.

STARR: Yes. Well, thank you. Thanks to all of my colleagues, and thank you for watching ON THE STORY. We'll be back next week. Still ahead, "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," focusing this week on General Tommy Franks and Vice President Dick Cheney. At 12:00 noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific, "CNN LIVE SATURDAY." And at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, 10:00 a.m. Pacific, CNN's "IN THE MONEY."

Coming up at the top of the hour, news headlines. See you next time ON THE STORY. But first, the president's weekly radio address.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUSH: Good morning.

Every Fourth of July we take special pride in the first generation of Americans, the men and women who waged a desperate fight to overcome tyranny and live in freedom. Centuries later, it is hard to imagine the Revolutionary War coming out any other way. Yet victory was far from certain, and came at great cost.

Six years passed from the fighting at Concord Bridge to the victory at Yorktown, six years of struggle and hardship for American patriots. By their courage and perseverance, the colonies became a country. That land of 13 states and fewer than 4 million people grew and prospered. And today, all who live in tyranny and all who yearn for freedom place their hopes in the United States of America.

For more than two centuries, Americans have been called to serve and sacrifice for the ideals of our founding. And the men and women of our military have never failed us. They have left many monuments along the way: an undivided union, a liberated Europe, the rise of democracy in Asia, and the fall of an evil empire. Millions across the world are free today because of the unselfish courage of America's veterans.

The current generation of our military is meeting the threats of a new era and fighting new battles in the war on terror. People in every branch of the service and thousands of Guard and Reserve members called to active duty have carried out their missions with all the skill and honor we expect of them. This nation is grateful to our men and women in uniform.

On this Fourth of July weekend, we also remember the brave Americans we've lost in Afghanistan and Iraq. We honor each one for their courage and sacrifice. We think of the families who miss them so much. And we are thankful that this nation produces such fine men and women who are willing to defend us all.

At this hour, many are still serving, sacrificing and facing danger in distant places. Many military families are still separated. Our people in uniform do not have easy duty, and much depends on their success. Without America's active involvement in the world, the ambitions of tyrants would go unopposed and millions would live at the mercy of terrorists. With America's active involvement in the world, tyrants have learned to fear and terrorists are on the run.

This nation is acting to defend our security, yet our mission in the world is broader. The Declaration of Independence holds a promise for all mankind. Because Americans believe that freedom is an unalienable right, we value the freedom of every nation. Because we are committed to the God-given worth of every life, we work for human dignity in every land.

We protect our friends and raise up former enemies to be our friends. We bring food and disaster relief to the nations of the world in times of crisis. And in Africa, where I will go next week, the United States of America is leading the effort to fight AIDS and save millions of lives with the healing power of medicine. Just as our enemies are coming to know the strong will of America, people across this earth are seeing the good and generous heart of America.

As citizens of this good nation, we can be proud of our heritage and confident in our future. The ideals of July 4th, 1776, still speak to all humanity, and the revolution declared that day goes on.

As we celebrate our independence in 2003, we still place our trust in divine providence. We still pledge our lives and honor to freedom's defense. And we will always believe that freedom is the hope and the future of every land.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.

Thank you for listening.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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Audiotape; Travelers Face Delays at Airports>


Aired July 5, 2003 - 10:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to CNN's ON THE STORY, where our journalists have the inside word on the stories we covered this week. I'm Dana Bash on the story of tough talk from President Bush this week on Iraq and Liberia.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: I'm Barbara Starr, on the story of how far the U.S. military can stretch to make sure when the White House orders come, the answer will be, yes, sir.

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jane Arraf, on the story of an unpredictable new Iraq, the return of the voice of Saddam Hussein, continuous attacks on U.S. soldiers and the Iraqis working with them, and a brief glimpse at 3,000-year-old treasures.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Patty Davis on the story of what millions of us face at airports this holiday weekend and through the summer. We're talking about all of these stories, and we'll hear shortly from Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty about explosions at a rock concert outside the Russian capital earlier today. We'll talk about how the trial of D.C. sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo has moved from Washington, away from the crime scene, and a search for a fair and impartial jury.

And we want to hear from you. Send your questions and comments to onthestory@cnn.com.

Now to Barbara Starr on the story of mission: Liberia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In order for there to be peace and stability in Liberia, Charles Taylor needs to leave now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: President Bush on Tuesday calling for the president of the West African nation of Liberia to step down. And in recent days, U.S. military brass already heavily involved in Iraq and Afghanistan have been preparing for various plans on how the U.S. might intervene in Liberia as part of an international peacekeeping force.

Well, last week, when we were sitting here, I don't think I was thinking about Liberia. It was the furthest thing from anybody's mind. BASH: You can say that again.

STARR: Yes, and now we appear to be on the brink of sending troops. But what I can tell you is I have talked to sources this morning, and they say already this mission is beginning to change just a bit. Maybe not a peacekeeping force, but instead a force that would engage in humanitarian assistance, because the feeling is there is a looming crisis in this country than -- in Liberia that they have to deal with.

BASH: Barbara, let me ask you about that. Isn't that essentially semantics? I mean, if U.S. troops go on the ground, even I know we're talking about a limited force here, isn't it -- doesn't it sort of not matter if they're going specifically for peacekeeping or humanitarian assistance? They are on the ground and that presents all kinds of dangers for them.

STARR: It puts lives at risk. It puts U.S. solders' lives at risk. No question about it. Very volatile situation in Liberia as it now exists, but the words are very interesting when you decode them, both politically and militarily. The issue appears to be that the U.S. wants to make sure other West African nations are with them, other militaries from Africa will go in and take the heaviest load on peacekeeping, enforcing some sort of a cease-fire, separating the militia groups, and the U.S. will try and come in and support that effort. But hard to say at the moment.

DAVIS: I'll tell you, what comes to mind is Somalia. Is the military worried about a possible repeat of that, where they were ambushed there?

STARR: It is a concern. The question is how much does the U.S. military really understand at this point about what it may be getting into, and every indication is they're taking a very deliberate, slow planning approach to this. It could be another two weeks perhaps at the outside before U.S. forces are on the ground. Every indication now they are looking at sending Marines, Marines from the East Coast of the United States, possibly. It would take them about two weeks to get there. An advance party could certainly go, but the Pentagon today taking very slow, deliberate planning steps. Reminding everybody the president hasn't made a final decision.

But there is one tremendous difficulty in all of this, which is this is a very tough country to do business in. We could see the prospect of U.S. soldiers for the first time, you know, facing the child soldiers of Africa, the 10-, 12-year-old boys that have automatic weapons, that are part of these militia groups that are very unpredictable. Whether Charles Taylor leaves the country or not, it will be a very volatile situation by all accounts that they'll be going into. Very tough business ahead for them.

ARRAF: Barbara, can they do this and Iraq at the same time? Two very difficult calls there.

STARR: It is, Jane. You know, now Iraq, of course, 145,000 or so U.S. troops. A much bigger deployment. Nobody's really talking in the Liberia case about more than 1,000 troops. So, can they do it? Sure. But the question, obviously, the lessons of Iraq very much on their minds. What is the exit strategy? First, what is the mission? Could the mission grow? Could the mission get out of control? Will Liberians welcome them? Are they facing the problems in Iraq -- that Iraq has right now, and how are they going to get out once they go there?

BASH: What I want to know from you is, is there a reluctance at the Pentagon, particularly from Donald Rumsfeld, to engage in any kind of mission like this? I mean, this is completely different from what we saw in Afghanistan and what we see in Iraq. I mean, this is going in to really help keep the peace, to be the world's police force, and it's something that the Bush administration had, at least during the campaign, been very reluctant to do. Is there a reluctance at the Pentagon to actually go down that road? It would be the first time this would happen in this administration.

STARR: For the record, of course, no. We salute smartly, they say. We do what the president tells us to do. There is never a reluctance at the Pentagon officially to do anything that the president asks them to do, but let's remember, the U.S. military has, in fact, been involved in Africa any number of times. It was the former President Bush who first sent U.S. troops to Somalia. Africa has always been a very tough place. None of the African deployments have really gone very well for the U.S. military. It's always been a tough challenge.

And the war planners right now, the Pentagon planners, they know that. And that's why they're taking very slow steps here, trying to come up with a plan that they feel will be workable. But you know, there's an old military saying, plan for the worst, hope for the best.

DAVIS: Barbara, attacks in Iraq, U.S. soldiers being killed almost every day. What is the strategy from the Pentagon's perspective on how to stop that?

STARR: Well, from Washington's perspective, stick with the plan again. The very aggressive raids and patrols, focus on what's going well. But Jane, I would ask you, because it seems to me from here there's a disconnect. You and I talked about this during the week. The Pentagon says it's prepared to stay the course, it's prepared to go with the aggressive raids, but in Iraq, what is the mood on the street? Do the people see these troubles emerging?

ARRAF: It is just not good, and that goes all the way from Iraqis in the street to these soldiers, and you have got to feel sorry for them. It's about 120 degrees here. So you can imagine what that feels like, wearing full body armor and the helmet, and standing patrol in a neighborhood that doesn't particularly want you there.

And it's really interesting that the top generals here keep saying, resolve has not weakened, which clearly in the bigger sense, that political sense, it hasn't, but I've talked to so many of these young soldiers who are really wondering when they're going to go home. Some of them have been sent here for a year. They don't have telephones. They're eating meals ready to eat, and it kind of gets old pretty quickly.

And the continuing attacks. And I want to ask you, Barbara, when officials say statistically insignificant, the number of deaths so far, and it's about 27 American soldiers who have died in attacks, when does that number get statistically significant?

STARR: Well, that's a darn interesting question. Because that is what you hear from the top military brass. Small number, not significant. Doesn't affect the battle plan. But clearly, it does become significant when it begins to affect morale on the front line, on the streets of Baghdad. You would have a good sense of that. It seems that the soldiers there do understand that there have been all of these incidents, that they are in in the crosshairs virtually every day. Do they begin to feel -- as the war turns, do they feel now like maybe the Iraqis don't really want them there, do they feel they are in a more hostile environment than they were when they first got there?

ARRAF: I get the sense they really do. In the last few weeks in Baghdad, particularly, because what we're seeing now are just incidents really every day. And military officials here say there are about a dozen of them throughout Iraq, attacks and attempted attacks.

Now, some of them involve people coming up to soldiers on the street, shooting them in the back of the neck. Other ones involve throwing grenades at them. It is just really hard to guard against these sorts of things, particularly when they have to be out on the street.

In other parts of the country, it's different. In the north, it's more stable. But here in Baghdad, it is just not a good feeling.

STARR: And you raise an interesting point, Jane, because aren't we now starting to see homemade, improvised explosive devices? Disarming the Iraqis, making them give up their rifles and their Kalashnikovs may not be the answer anymore, if they're making the homemade bombs now.

ARRAF: That's an excellent point. It's just even with the weapons, the traditional weapons, and traditional weapons here include rocket-propelled grenades, unfortunately, hardly anyone is willing to give those up. It's actually not so unusual that you would have an arsenal in your home, particularly if you're from one of the tribal areas. And no one here feels safe. If you drive through these streets at night, they're empty. There's no electricity. They still haven't got a handle on that. There's still continued sabotage on the power lines.

And people just feel very, very insecure.

We'll be talking more about that and about -- I want to tell you all about this museum opening. And a lot of other things when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really only 12 weeks ago that we had a war here. It's only 12 weeks ago that every Iraqi was living under one of the most tyrannical regimes in recent history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARRAF: He is unfailingly upbeat as are top military officials here. Unfortunately, it's not something that translates right down to the ground level in Iraq.

And the $25 million is still, where is Saddam? Is he alive? Now, a lot of Iraqis think that this tape that appeared of him yesterday, this recording said to be him, it was recorded three weeks ago but released just yesterday by Al-Jazeera TV, was because he was upset that there was not as much of a reward issued for him as there was for Osama bin Laden. They have now issued word and it is being repeated on Iraqi TV, $25 million for his capture, or proof that he's been killed.

Now, the tape is really interesting. I played it this morning for an Iraqi official who has worked with Saddam Hussein for many years. He didn't get a chance to watch it on TV, he said, because the electricity is off, as it frequently is, but he listened to this tape and he said, that's him. And it was really chilling. And it was Saddam saying that he missed his people very much, but that he was still among them. It was very much like a horror movie.

But he said it was him because he could recognize the mistakes that Saddam made in reading. He is not very educated in classical Arabic.

Now, that's part of the reason why these attacks keep happening, according to U.S. officials, the fact that people believe he's still out there. But they are trying to create a sense of normalcy. And one of the things was the brief reopening of the Iraq Museum.

Now, this was really interesting and exciting, in fact, not just for archaeologists but for Iraqis in general. Although they really didn't get to see it. It was a press event to prove that the treasures of Nimrod were still there. And the treasures of Nimrod were discovered in the late 1980s by Iraqi archaeologists, exhibited once and then put into hiding in a bank vault, which was just reopened again last month. So there was some doubt as to whether they actually were intact. And they are spectacular. It's burial jewelry of Queen Yabba (ph) and two other queens. They include things like anklets, solid gold anklets, a pound of solid gold each.

Now, I asked, how would you ever wear those? And I was quite logically told, well, if you're a queen, you're carried around all the time. Absolutely stunning stuff.

BASH: Jane, I want to ask you about, going back to the Saddam tape. As you can imagine, this is basically not only your worst nightmare for the folks there on the ground, but for the Bush administration, because this is, as you mentioned, something that they think is the main reason for the continued unrest and the difficulty in getting things going there on the ground in Iraq. But is that actually the case? Do Iraqis on the ground still really have fear of Saddam, and is that, do you think, the number one reason why it's hard to get going, or is it a lot more than that?

ARRAF: It's unfortunately a lot more than that, but as you mentioned, that's a really big part of it, and they do have an incredible fear, a kind of fear that is ingrained and lasts for decades. And every day is reinforced for decades. Just does not go away. And it was really interesting when we were trying to play this tape to people on the street yesterday; a lot of them physically backed away. They didn't want to talk about it. They believed firmly it was him.

There's a lot of other things going on here, and one of the problems is it isn't all Saddam loyalists launching these attacks. And that's the really hard thing to fight against, because some of the people launching the attacks, some of the groups are now believed to be anti-Saddam, just anti-American as well, which makes them much harder to fight.

STARR: Well, that's an interesting question for Paul Bremer to have to deal with. As you say, this unfailing public optimism that he of course puts out and the top generals put out, but do they acknowledge privately yet that perhaps the page has turned a bit and there is anti-American sentiment from Iraqis who are also anti-Saddam? This isn't about just party loyalists that they talk about.

ARRAF: I really have to say there is, again, quite a large disconnect, and perhaps, you know, the thing I keep hearing over and over again from Iraqis is we don't understand them and they don't understand us, and it's really true and it's tragic. And that's applicable all the way from the ground level where you see these patrols, American patrols are going around without translators, because they don't have enough translators. People are trying to tell them things, they're in trouble, they're trying to tell them important things, and they don't understand them; all the way to this very important sense of respect.

Now, it sounds like a very ambiguous concept, but when you go into these towns where there have been attacks, where Iraqis have attacked U.S. forces, they say they don't respect us, and a lot of it goes down to the house-to-house searches, bringing dogs into houses, which is really taboo in Islam, and things that soldiers would routinely do, but it is really a clash of cultures, and it's really a problem, and it's not really something that's often acknowledged at those top levels.

STARR: And for the last several days at least, we are not hearing very much out of Bremer about putting a new Iraqi government in place, putting some elected officials or a transitional government in place at the top.

ARRAF: That's a really interesting one. He has just a little while ago given a briefing for Arab journalists. He does these routinely to give the Iraqi media particularly a chance to participate, and he has said that in the next two weeks, slipping a little behind schedule but not bad, in the next two weeks they intend to have an Iraqi governing council.

Now, you probably remember that this is a different name from what it started out. It was going to be a political council, but there was huge uproar about the fact that Iraqis weren't governing themselves, so they've changed the name. It's now governing council. They're going to have 35 people. They're putting it together. We'll see whether it gets to govern. But at least the name change and the fact that they are announcing they are going to have something soon is a good step. And it's really important to Iraqis, to be able to hold up that, at least, as something that they own.

DAVIS: On the museum exhibition, was that something almost of a public relations campaign, as well?

ARRAF: It was. It was kind of a public relations exercise gone wrong, I have to say, because they were so nervous about opening the museum, so nervous about the gold, and in fact, probably there was justification. As it opened, there was a grenade attack not far from the museum. Later that night, a museum guard was killed, not at that museum, but not far away at another museum. In fact it's not really the kind of climate, the kind of situation where you can open the doors of a museum and have pounds and pounds of 3,000-year-old gold jewelry.

But it was certainly a relations exercise, and that they wanted to prove that the museum wasn't looted, that they did take care of it. You'll remember the uproar when there was talk that the entire museum was looted because the Americans failed to secure it, so they really did want to counter that. Small step forward.

BASH: But is that actually the case, Jane? Is it the case that they have found most of the antiquities that they thought were gone, and is that essentially what we were seeing at this museum here, or was a lot actually taken?

ARRAF: There was some taken. The numbers are a bit misleading. The first report was 170,000 pieces were taken. It's much fewer than that. It's probably 32 display quality pieces, as they call them, and these are incredible, priceless, irretrievable things. For instance, what's believed to be the first sculpture of a real person, going back thousands of years. But a lot of the other ones are very small items, pottery shards, that sort of thing, that wouldn't necessarily have been displayed. It was a lot better than originally thought, and that's the case for the museum in general and some other things, but the big problem here is still that infrastructure, the electricity. And people just will not get over this. How comes the Americans can't fix the electricity, is what they keep saying. It reminds you of how basic this is. Electricity, water, lights on at night, and it's just not happening so far.

STARR: And also, we saw another figure from the war reemerge in the west, Baghdad Bob, the information minister. Do people in Iraq notice that he was back with a different color hair? ARRAF: Yes. They kind of wondered about that one, but they also noticed that he really didn't seem to want to give that interview. And yes, there's a story behind that one, as well. But clearly he's a man who doesn't have very much to do these days. In fact, he -- tell me what you think, but he seems to have gotten much more of a following outside of Iraq than he does inside of Iraq.

BASH: Well, he's definitely somebody who President Bush liked to watch. Apparently his aides would get him when he was on television and tell him to come run and watch TV, because he wanted to never miss one of his briefings during the war.

ARRAF: Wonderful. What is the feeling of the American public? I want to ask, are they still focused on -- is it disturbing them that almost every day there are soldiers being killed, being wounded?

STARR: Well, you know, it's hard to -- I think it's hard to get a sense. I think people when they see it, they feel very badly about it. They, I think, there is great support for what American soldiers are doing. I think people have a great deal of empathy for the circumstances that these young women and men find themselves in, but as a member of the Pentagon press corps, what we're generally told by the Pentagon is that we don't understand, that we are focusing on the bad news, and that we should, as reporters, should be focusing more on the good news that's coming out of Iraq.

But some days of the week it's awfully hard to find that news, so, you know, you focus on what happened on a given day.

DAVIS: Well, Jane Arraf, thanks as always for joining us. What are you looking for on the story, in coming days from the challenges of post-war Iraq to the challenges of traveling in the U.S. at the summer peak and coping with anti-terrorism safeguards. I'm back on the story in a moment.

ANNOUNCER: Patty Davis covers aviation in CNN's Washington bureau. Earlier, she was a correspondent in CNN's Chicago bureau. And she was a senior producer for CNN Financial News and shared an Overseas Press Club Award for coverage of Cuba.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are peak periods in some airports, where there's too much traffic, not enough lanes to handle the situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIS: We'll get to that story in a moment. But first, we're going to go to outside Moscow, to our correspondent Jill Dougherty, who is covering explosions at a rock concert -- Jill.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Yes. You know, we're just down the street from where that happened. It's right outside a big air base called Tushino, where a concert, a rock concert called Wings was taking place. There were about 20,000 people inside that stadium. And luckily, if you can say it's lucky, the two explosions took place outside of the stadium, apparently at the entrance. In fact, we're just close to that entrance a few minutes ago, where two female suicide bombers tried to get into the stadium.

That is the latest information that we have. It went up toward the gate. We're not allowed to go in. And one woman exploded whatever she had, the type of explosives, destroying herself and killing reportedly three people at that point. And then about 15 minutes later, the other explosion by the other woman at another gate.

You can still see, in fact, and I was down there as I said just a minute ago, you can still see two bodies lying on the street, and police are obviously taking forensic evidence and trying to figure out precisely how it happened, but I could say that it would appear to fit that scenario of having the two females suicide bombers.

The people who were inside the stadium really did not know what was going on. But outside the stadium, the latest reports, 18 people killed, and many wounded, although we don't have a final figure on that. The latest was 20, but the numbers have been increasing. Back to you.

DAVIS: Jill, have there been any claims of responsibility, Jill?

DOUGHERTY: Not that we have heard, although you would have to say that this really does have the fingerprint of Chechen terrorists. After all, just in the past month or so, we have had a couple of incidents in Chechnya and the region in the south of Russia of females suicide bombers with explosives strapped to their waist, blowing themselves up, and killing people besides.

So this would appear to fit that description. And also, police are saying that they found the passport of one of the women, a girl, 20 years old, who does have a name that is Chechen.

STARR: Now, Jill, has Vladimir Putin given any indication yet, even though it's very early on, of any further security crackdowns? Do the Russian people support his moves on the security issues against the Chechens?

DOUGHERTY: Well, if they're cracking down on security in Moscow, you would have to say that people do support that by and large, because they're scared. You know, they're worried. Remember last October, you had the theater hostage crisis, and people want security.

Now, if you're talking about the crackdowns in Chechnya, there you have to say that it's kind of a mixed bag. Many people think they ought to simply get rid of the terrorists, do whatever they can and get tough, but there are other people who believe that it's precisely that type of get tough and round them up type of approach that's spurring on the violence and -- by the Chechens.

But you'd have to say, also, that and it is fair to say that there is an element of international terrorism, as well. It is not just, you know, rebels in Chechnya wanting to be free. There is also an element of international terrorism involved.

BASH: Jill, given that, you know, we know here in the United States what has changed at places like concerts and sporting events in terms of security. Have things changed there in Moscow, for instance? Do you have any idea at this concert there were security precautions, mags (ph) or other devices to try to keep terrorists or other things out of the concert?

DOUGHERTY: Yes. We don't know specifically about this concert, but I can tell you that at most concerts, they check you at the door, they check and check. We were at a concert not too long ago, shooting, and you could see they check purses, they did have a magnitometer, you know, that checks for weapons et cetera. I cannot speak for this venue, but with 20,000 people, I'm sure that they at least were checking purses and making sure people were not taking anything inside.

And also, if you look at the way this happened, apparently as we know it right now, the women were stopped outside. They didn't get in. Because if they had gotten in, you can imagine that it would have been far worse.

BASH: Jill, obviously, you've been there for a long time. I mean, are Russians feeling more on guard? Do you feel that there will be more drastic changes in terms of how they deal with their everyday lives now that this is really the second very large incident that we have seen in recent months?

DOUGHERTY: Well, you know, if you live in Moscow, if you drive around the streets, every day there are police on the street. They stop cars. They especially stop trucks and vehicles that could be carrying things. They regularly patrol. There's a lot of security in Moscow. I'd have to say compared to many places.

But one of the problems is that this is a city where, unfortunately, money can buy you anything. And there's a feeling that even if you had the most secure police presence in the world, you'd still could get some corrupt people who might be swayed and might allow terrorists to get through. That was the question, remember, back in October, with the theater hostage crisis, how do you have armed people, women with belts of explosives tied to them getting across town and getting into a crowded theater? How does that happen if there is security?

So that's, I think, the questions that Russia needs to raise, but as a whole, I'd have to say that Russians are used to this. They are used to terrorism. It goes back, remember, the biggest incidence were really back in like '99, which started the second Chechen war, when apartment buildings here in Moscow were blown up. So people are pretty used to this.

DAVIS: Thanks, Jill Dougherty, just outside of Moscow reporting for us. We'll have more ON THE STORY, looking at some serious airport delays here in the United States this summer, and now this news alert.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (NEWSBREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are peak periods in some airports where there's too much traffic, not enough lanes to handle the situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIS: TSA spokesman Robert Johnson (ph) says part of the reason some of us are complaining about long lines and delays at airports is not because of new security, it is because the buildings are poorly designed. Welcome back. We're ON THE STORY.

And I would have to say that the airports dispute that. What they're saying is the reason why you're running into these big delays are that there is an increase in passenger volume for the summer, and we're also seeing cuts of 6,000 screener positions that are taking place -- that are going to take place through the fall, and that was mandated by Congress.

But just let me tell you some of the delays that we've been seeing over the past two weeks. Two and a half hours in Seattle to get through the security checkpoint. And that was because of an influx of cruise ship passengers. Now, these are at peak times. In Atlanta, Monday morning specifically, 90 minutes delay just to get through the security checkpoint. Denver, an hour. So, people are asking, why is this going on?

BASH: OK. So I'm going to ask the question that every air traveler would ask. What are they going to do about it?

DAVIS: Well, that's a really good question. Denver Airport had a summit involving Congressman Bob Beauprez of Colorado with the Transportation Security Administration, and what they came up with and what you may see at other airports is that they're reconfiguring -- they are reconfiguring what times those screeners need to be at those checkpoints. Perhaps you need more screeners when you have peak hours. The airlines are funneling everybody maybe onto 6:00 flights in the evening. There should be maybe more screeners there at that point.

They're also looking at cross-training the screeners, having bag screeners when they have less to do come up and handle passengers at passenger checkpoints. So you may see some more of that at airports across the country as the summer goes on.

STARR: Well, it's interesting. I mean, Americans are probably willing to do an awful lot in this regard if you tell them it's for security, but is it going to get to the point where Americans are just going to be frustrated and think twice about traveling by air? Maybe going by car if it's feasible for them.

DAVIS: Well, and that happened. After 4th of July, we are seeing a big increase in the people traveling by car for the 4th of July. It's a small decrease in air travel, according to AAA. But I think the passengers that we talked to say they still like flying. They understand it. And I want to emphasize, this is not happening at all airports across the country. The Washington, D.C. airports, we're seeing not major delays. The Transportation Security Administration saying overall, you're still seeing about 10 to 12- minute delays to get through the security checkpoints. So there's just these certain bottlenecks that they have to work on, and that seems to be making the news.

STARR: But this does come at a time when airline economics are still pretty shaky.

DAVIS: They are, they are shaky right now. We have American Airlines coming up with a plan, a restructuring plan where they're saying, listen, we're going to have to make more cuts, we're going to have to make route cuts. All these areas that are getting nonstop service right now, that's not necessarily going to continue. We have got heavy debt loads among the airlines. The economy is still not doing well. So, you're not seeing a huge rebound in the number of passengers. Of course, airlines hoping that will change as the months go on.

BASH: Patty, one of the things that we've been told when we travel to do is not lock your bags, you take them, but there have been problems with stealing. Correct? And now they're trying to crack down on it.

DAVIS: They are cracking down. For the first time, we saw some TSA screeners, they are being prosecuted. Two baggage screeners at the Miami Airport arrested, charged with grand theft over the past week or so for allegedly taking CDs from someone's luggage. They were caught. Apparently red handed doing this.

TSA has had some 6,700 complaints of theft from passenger bags. And you're right. You don't lock your bags. You're not supposed to lock your bags. But one thing that I have been able to do in some airports, and I don't know if you've seen this, too, is as you come up to some of these checkpoints, if you go through the -- your EDS machine goes, scans your luggage, or a trace detection machine where they run a swab over the handle and inside, you can often go ahead then and lock your bag. And perhaps that's a smart thing to do.

But some tips I can tell you is, first of all, do not -- as you were asking me earlier, Barbara -- don't bring your valuable jewelry and put it in your luggage.

BASH: Put it in your purse.

DAVIS: Put it in your purse, or carry it with you.

And with all of these security checkpoints delays that you're seeing at peak times at airports, get there really early. We are having people missing flights according to airport directors, because you wait two hours just to get through security. Nobody gets to an airport two hours in advance. Get there really early. BASH: Well, Patty, airlines and homeland defense are just a few of the problems that end up on President Bush's desk. Iraq continues to be the big one. Take a look at the cartoon by Mike Keith (ph) of "The Denver Post." A GI reporting in, well, while under enemy fire in Iraq, bullets flying everywhere, still no weapons of mass destruction, sir, he says, but plenty of weapons of individual destruction.

We're back on the story and a check of what's making headlines in one minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: There are some who feel like the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is bring them on.

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BASH: President Bush on Wednesday, and a blunt warning, some would call it a challenge, to people attacking U.S. troops in Iraq. Welcome back. We're ON THE STORY.

And this was really a classic Bushism. It sort of reminded us of wanted dead or alive when he was talking about Osama bin Laden, or, you know, hunting them out of their caves, and the White House does feel like this is who he is, and this is something he did off the cuff and it doesn't necessarily hurt him, but Democrats pounced on this. We got -- I got e-mails, we all got e-mails, from Democrats saying that this is too much macho from him, it's too much phony rhetoric, that it's unfitting of the presidency, and it was interesting to see that some of the Democratic presidential candidates clearly saw an opening here. Perhaps it's because they see that the public mood is shifting on Iraq.

DAVIS: Well, haven't Democrats been reluctant to take shots at the president on national security?

BASH: Well, it's interesting. They have been. I was talking to one of the senior strategists of one of the Democratic candidates who said, particularly with this quote this week, who said that, look, they understand that Americans like swagger. It's not a coincidence that the number one movie star in American history was John Wayne, but this might be something that soccer moms might have difficulty swallowing, and what was interesting was that Dick Gephardt, who was actually in the Rose Garden with the president when he was giving his orders to Congress to give him a resolution to go to war with Iraq, he was there, he was somebody who had supported the president on this. So, it is interesting to watch, to sort of see the shift from candidates like Dick Gephardt who didn't necessarily see an opening there. Perhaps he does.

STARR: But Dana, do the White House political operatives feel they had to put the president out there on this point because of the attacks against U.S. soldiers? That finally maybe it was raised in the public consciousness and he had to address the issue? BASH: It's interesting. The president, on the two-month anniversary of that famous carrier landing, where he declared that major combat was over, Tuesday was the two-month anniversary of that. And he actually did come out, he had a speech, and he talked about the fact that he understands that this is long and it's difficult, but the U.S. is in there for the long haul.

But when you look at the polls of exactly how Americans are feeling about this, we were talking about this earlier, they do sense that the reconstruction and rebuilding of Iraq isn't going well. But they also showed, the majority of Americans do feel that it's something that's necessary, and that Saddam Hussein was a bad guy who they really wanted to see go. So it seems as though there's patience right now from the American people, according to the polls, to let the president continue on and do this, even though we are getting this daily bad news from the ground in Iraq.

STARR: And we had a little bad news on the economy, also this week. Some not very good news on economic statistics.

BASH: Unemployment numbers at a nine-year high, at 6.4 percent. Again, talking about your inbox and your e-mail. Flooded with Democrats. I mean, this is the issue that Democrats think that they have on the White House now. From the White House perspective, they say that his tax cuts have not fully kicked in, and they also say that the job numbers are sometimes lagging behind all the other numbers that tell you how well the economy is doing.

But they are just hitting the president hard on this, because 2.5 million jobs have been lost since the president has been in office, and this is what the Democrats -- we have talked about this on the show before -- are really banking on. So when they see numbers like that, they would say not that they want people to be out of work, but it certainly doesn't hurt them politically.

DAVIS: But what about the backrooms of the White House? Do they see any Bush replay of his father's election campaign, where he lost over the economy?

BASH: Well, it's -- the similarities are striking in that what President Bush 41 had said was the economy was getting better at the end of his presidency, and turned out it actually was getting better. So that is why you see the president over and over and over again talking about the economy and actually talking about why he thinks the economy isn't doing well, talking about the fact that we had the attacks of 9/11, and you had these corporate fraud issues, so it is why you see the president talking about it over and over again, because they remember his father.

STARR: And Liberia complicates his plate even more on this. I mean, as he's going to Africa this coming week, front and center, what to do about Liberia. How's that decision being made at the White House?

BASH: Well, you know very well, Barbara, that it's a tough decision, and it's interesting that they decided to send this assessment team to the region this weekend. It certainly buys the president a little bit of time in order to make that decision, because this would be a shift from what he said as candidate Bush. He made it very clear that he wanted to be very judicious in sending American troops abroad to sort of be peacekeepers.

STARR: And he had said Africa was not a priority.

BASH: Explicitly said that several times, that Africa wasn't in the national interest of the United States. Perhaps economically, yes, but not in the national interest, but it is a different world. That's what the White House says, and it is in a post-9/11 world, where they have to make sure that places like Africa and other prices around the world are not chaotic, because that is what breeds terrorists.

STARR: Condy Rice making that link this week of 9/11 was a reason to send troops to Liberia, to try and calm things down. You know, saying, again, they don't want ungoverned territories, as they call them, to become breeding grounds. So you wonder where that leaves U.S. policy from the White House, because there are so many of those areas out there.

BASH: There are so many, and where does it end? I mean, that is the question. But that's why this Liberia situation is such -- is one to watch, because it would be the first time that the president would send any kind of troops, and whether it's humanitarian or peacekeeping, send them in a situation where it's not actually war. And the president has made it clear, he talked about it yesterday. He was in Ohio talking about the state of the troops, and thanking the troops, but he also made it clear that he now believes that it is the responsibility of the United States and using its military to help keep the peace around the world, and to help bring liberty and freedom around the world. Different kind of rhetoric than we heard from him when he was a candidate.

DAVIS: Now, what about Howard Dean, the Democratic presidential candidate? What has the White House's reaction been to him?

BASH: He raised $7 million according to his campaign, in just three months, and that is amazing. I mean, even first of all, the Democratic candidates, the other ones are just of looking at it with awe. But from the White House perspective, nothing could please them more, because Howard Dean is, of course, perceived as somebody who is to the left of all the other candidates. Nothing would make Republicans happier than have somebody strong like Howard Dean pulling the rest of the field to the left, especially since President Bush doesn't have somebody pulling him to the right. He would be much more comfortable running really in the middle when he has a field that is being pulled to the left. They're certainly not upset about Howard Dean doing so well in these past couple of months.

DAVIS: Well, publicity and public opinion aren't just for politicians. Huge publicity surrounding the D.C. sniper case last year this week prompted a judge to move the trial of the teenage sniper suspect. I'm back on the story in just 30 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We felt that this was not the best venue for the trial that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) cost and the security reasons and disruption to our own citizens and the normal flow of business. However, the court has made a decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIS: Chesapeake, Virginia Mayor William Ward says, trouble is coming to my town. The mayor and others in this community are worried about their tranquil town. Chesapeake, Virginia will be trampled by a big murder trial media event. Welcome back. We're ON THE STORY.

That's a town of about 200,000. And in fact, the courthouse is new, it's beautiful, but it has one way in and one way out. And officials were telling me, they can't even get the people in for traffic court without a line in the mornings. What are they going to do when hundreds of media, like us, are camped outside waiting to get into that trial? It is going to be a log jam according to the city.

STARR: Well, did this town get a vote in this? You know, did they volunteer for this kind of thing?

DAVIS: Well, the judge, Judge Jane Marivrausha (ph) of Fairfax County went shopping. She looked there, she looked at Virginia Beach, and what it boiled down to is that the city lobbied do not bring this trial here and they didn't win, and they don't have a choice. It's theirs, and they are going to get it come November. That's it.

STARR: This could be coming to your town next.

DAVIS: It could be. Well, that's very interesting, because in fact, John Muhammad, Malvo's alleged accomplice, has also asked for a change of venue. We could see that going on maybe at the same time. Muhammad's trial scheduled for October; Malvo for November. But it depends how long that first one goes. We could have them both happening at the same time. Will they be both be in Chesapeake? I don't know.

BASH: This is obviously something that the defense was asking for. They wanted it to be moved, because they didn't think that they could get a fair jury in the Washington, D.C. area, but isn't it something that the prosecution might not be too unhappy about, because if he were convicted in Washington, it would be sort of you would think top of the list for the appeal for the defense. This way, it's harder to make the argument that he didn't get a fair trial.

DAVIS: It does take away one of the possible points of appeal, if they do grant him a change of venue, and the judge really was saying that it's only fair here. Look at the publicity you have had. Also, you have a book coming out by Chief Charles Moose. That's coming out mid-September, and both of these lawyers in both of these cases have worried that that may somehow be read by people in Virginia and that could somehow taint a jury pool, as well. In fact, Muhammad's lawyer filed with in federal court asking the federal judge, please delay the coming of that book in September. Make it come after the trial, because we're worried about that. We want to get a fair trial here.

STARR: This Chief Moose book is still really big news, at least here in the Washington Metropolitan Area. A lot of people have a lot of opinions about it. Have any of the families of the victims of the snipers spoken about their feelings about Chief Moose making money on this book, off this tragedy?

DAVIS: Well, he is billing it as an inside story. This is his life. But lawyers are saying, well, wait a second, it's going to be a lot more than just his life. It's going to be about what happened, and the case and how they tracked these two alleged murderers down. But yes, there are members of families, some of them saying, we really think this is not a good move on the part of Chief Moose. Of course he has a right to go out and write a book, but can't he wait, at least a little while, until at least the trial gets under way? They don't want there to be any chance of tainting the jury as well. They want a conviction if indeed these two are found guilty.

STARR: Because, of course, I mean, I think it's the case that Chief Moose singlehandedly didn't solve the case.

DAVIS: It was an FBI involvement, as well. Absolutely. Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, a large panoply of officials who were involved in solving this. You're right. So it was a multipronged effort on all fronts.

STARR: So it should be a really interesting fall here in the Metropolitan area.

DAVIS: Oh, it's going to be wild, that's for sure.

STARR: Yes. Well, thank you. Thanks to all of my colleagues, and thank you for watching ON THE STORY. We'll be back next week. Still ahead, "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," focusing this week on General Tommy Franks and Vice President Dick Cheney. At 12:00 noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific, "CNN LIVE SATURDAY." And at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, 10:00 a.m. Pacific, CNN's "IN THE MONEY."

Coming up at the top of the hour, news headlines. See you next time ON THE STORY. But first, the president's weekly radio address.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUSH: Good morning.

Every Fourth of July we take special pride in the first generation of Americans, the men and women who waged a desperate fight to overcome tyranny and live in freedom. Centuries later, it is hard to imagine the Revolutionary War coming out any other way. Yet victory was far from certain, and came at great cost.

Six years passed from the fighting at Concord Bridge to the victory at Yorktown, six years of struggle and hardship for American patriots. By their courage and perseverance, the colonies became a country. That land of 13 states and fewer than 4 million people grew and prospered. And today, all who live in tyranny and all who yearn for freedom place their hopes in the United States of America.

For more than two centuries, Americans have been called to serve and sacrifice for the ideals of our founding. And the men and women of our military have never failed us. They have left many monuments along the way: an undivided union, a liberated Europe, the rise of democracy in Asia, and the fall of an evil empire. Millions across the world are free today because of the unselfish courage of America's veterans.

The current generation of our military is meeting the threats of a new era and fighting new battles in the war on terror. People in every branch of the service and thousands of Guard and Reserve members called to active duty have carried out their missions with all the skill and honor we expect of them. This nation is grateful to our men and women in uniform.

On this Fourth of July weekend, we also remember the brave Americans we've lost in Afghanistan and Iraq. We honor each one for their courage and sacrifice. We think of the families who miss them so much. And we are thankful that this nation produces such fine men and women who are willing to defend us all.

At this hour, many are still serving, sacrificing and facing danger in distant places. Many military families are still separated. Our people in uniform do not have easy duty, and much depends on their success. Without America's active involvement in the world, the ambitions of tyrants would go unopposed and millions would live at the mercy of terrorists. With America's active involvement in the world, tyrants have learned to fear and terrorists are on the run.

This nation is acting to defend our security, yet our mission in the world is broader. The Declaration of Independence holds a promise for all mankind. Because Americans believe that freedom is an unalienable right, we value the freedom of every nation. Because we are committed to the God-given worth of every life, we work for human dignity in every land.

We protect our friends and raise up former enemies to be our friends. We bring food and disaster relief to the nations of the world in times of crisis. And in Africa, where I will go next week, the United States of America is leading the effort to fight AIDS and save millions of lives with the healing power of medicine. Just as our enemies are coming to know the strong will of America, people across this earth are seeing the good and generous heart of America.

As citizens of this good nation, we can be proud of our heritage and confident in our future. The ideals of July 4th, 1776, still speak to all humanity, and the revolution declared that day goes on.

As we celebrate our independence in 2003, we still place our trust in divine providence. We still pledge our lives and honor to freedom's defense. And we will always believe that freedom is the hope and the future of every land.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.

Thank you for listening.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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Audiotape; Travelers Face Delays at Airports>