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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Federal Grand Jury Delivers Indictments for Bombing of Khobar Towers

Aired June 21, 2001 - 20:00   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.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Tonight, beating a deadline. A federal grand jury delivers indictments for the 1996 bombing of a U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a result of this terrorist act, 19 United States airmen were killed and 372 American citizens were wounded.

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BLITZER: Thirteen Saudis and a Lebanese are charged, but what role did Iran play?

A Houston area mother is charged with murdering her five children and could face the death penalty. Her husband speaks out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSSELL YATES, VICTIMS' FATHER: Andrea, if you see this, I love you, you know.

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BLITZER: The parents of a missing intern believe she didn't just walk away. Their lawyer calls on a congressman, and, quote, "all other friends" to come forward.

Good evening. I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting tonight from Washington.

It was shortly before 10:00 p.m. on June 25, 1996, when terrorists drove a tanker truck up to building 131 at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. Inside the truck, a huge amount of plastic explosives. Inside the building, hundreds of U.S. military personnel, many of them getting ready for bed.

After the terrorist detonated the truck bomb, 19 U.S. airmen were dead and another 372 Americans were wounded, many of them very seriously. Today, the U.S. government filed charges, and that is our top story.

CNN Justice correspondent Kelli Arena is in our Washington bureau with details -- Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the indictment successfully closes a chapter for Louis Freeh, who ends his tenure as FBI director this week. He has said for years it was a top priority of his to try to bring Khobar suspects to justice.

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ARENA (voice-over): Nearly five years to the day after the deadly bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, U.S. officials announced the indictment of 13 Saudis and one Lebanese man listed only as John Doe, but who is suspected of helping build the bomb that killed 19 U.S. servicemen.

But no Iranians were indicted, despite U.S. allegations that the 14 men charged all are members of the group Hezbollah, and reported to Iranian government officials they had targeted Americans at Khobar Towers.

JOHN ASHCROFT, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: The indictment alleges that the charged defendants reported their surveillance activities to Iranian officials, and were supported and directed in those activities by Iranian officials.

ARENA: But intelligence sources tell CNN, in the end, the evidence just wasn't enough to indict Iranian officials. State Department and other officials were consulted, sources say, before that decision was made.

But both Attorney General Ashcroft and FBI Director Freeh say the ultimate call was based on what could be proved in court, not on U.S. efforts to improve relations with Iran.

LOUIS FREEH, FBI DIRECTOR: This was a charging decision made ultimately by the attorney general, recommended by the line prosecutors.

ARENA: The mother of Air Force Captain Chris Adams, killed in the blast, wants Iranian officials to face U.S. justice.

CATHERINE ADAMS, MOTHER OF VICTIM: If an Iranian official had anything to do with it, I believed he should be touched and brought to justice, just as the Lebanese and Saudis.

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ARENA: None of those named in the indictment are in U.S. custody, but several are in Saudi hands. The trouble now: bringing the alleged terrorists to the United States for a trial, and it's not an insignificant obstacle -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Kelli, so what is the obstacle? What is standing in the way of bringing those 14 to the United States?

ARENA: Well, first of all, as I said, not all of them are in Saudi custody either. So, it will be a problem finding the rest of those suspects, and this is a very big world, Wolf.

Secondly, those that are in Saudi custody, there will have to be a very delicate extradition agreement reached, and the cooperation from the Saudis, according to intelligence sources, while it has been -- it has been forthcoming, not as forthcoming as some would like. So, it is going to be a very difficult negotiating game, Wolf.

BLITZER: Kelli Arena in Washington, thank you very much.

Now following up the tragic story we told you about last night. A suburban Houston mother has been charged with capital murder in the deaths of her five children. Her husband calls the killings "incomprehensible," but spoke today of his wife's depression. Let's go live to the scene once again, and CNN's Ed Lavandera -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Russell Yates has been spending the day trying to find an attorney for his wife and making funeral arrangements for his five children. But as he has done that all day and he's still working on that this evening, he stood on his front lawn before the glaring cameras, and talked about the ordeal that he has had to endure during the last 36 hours.

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LAVANDERA (voice-over): In the drizzling rain, Russell Yates grabbed the teddy bears, flowers and prayers left at a growing memorial in front of his home, thoughts from unknown people who share his pain, and welcome support on a day Mr. Yates chose to share his thoughts about the tragedy, while clutching a family photo for comfort.

YATES: I said: "What's wrong, Andrea?" And she said -- she said, like, you know, like "you need to come home," and I said: "Is anyone hurt?" And she said "yes." And I said -- I said: "Who?" And she said, "all of them." And I just -- I mean, my heart just sunk.

LAVANDERA: Mr. Yates says he will remain devoted to his 36-year- old wife. He wants the world to know that the woman who is accused of murdering their children is not the wife he knows.

YATES: She obviously wasn't herself. I think that will come out, you know, that she is -- everyone that knows her knows she loves the kids, and it is -- she is a kind, gentle person, and what you see here, what you saw yesterday, you know, is not her.

LAVANDERA: During the last two years, the Yates family struggled through Andrea's postpartum depression psychosis. Mrs. Yates had been taking powerful antidepressant medication, but the recent death of her father, said her husband, triggered a severe personality change.

YATES: That really just sent her spiraling down, and I think she was just primed, you know, for that depression, you know, that postpartum depression, and you know, the environment just triggered it.

LAVANDERA: The only time child protection investigators came across Andrea Yates was in 1999, after a suicide attempt. But at the time, no one thought Mrs. Yates could be a threat to the family.

JUDY HAY, CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES: I cannot find any proof of that, that she did fall through the cracks or that her children did. There was, again, no issues that they were in danger, no doctor picked it up, no family member, no friend, no neighbor. Any one of those people could have called and initiate an investigation.

YATES: Just ask anybody that has seen us, you know, I mean, you know, seen us in the store, or restaurants, or -- good family.

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LAVANDERA: Russell Yates says he would love desperately -- like to talk with his wife, but she is in jail and being held without bond. Perhaps the first time she will -- he will be able to see her is tomorrow morning, at 7:30 Central time, when Andrea Yates is expected to be arraigned in a Houston courtroom. Wolf, back to you.

BLITZER: Ed Lavandera, outside of Houston, Texas, thank you. Once again, at the bottom of the hour, Greta Van Susteren and THE POINT will have much more on this tragic case.

Here in Washington, meanwhile, the attorney for the parents of missing intern Chandra Levy is calling on police to step up their investigation and calling on friends of the young woman to come forward. Congressman Gary Condit of California says he is willing to cooperate. Let's go live to CNN national correspondent Bob Franken for more -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, just a situation report. The Levys are getting set to leave Washington and return to Modesto, California. They met with Washington, D.C. police today who said they would not, in fact, upgrade this from a missing persons investigation into a criminal investigation, saying there is no evidence of foul play.

The Levys also said they would be willing to meet with Congressman Gary Condit. Condit had earlier said he would like to meet with them. Among the things they want to discuss is the persistent accusation that Condit had a romantic relationship with her 24-year-old daughter who was an intern for the Bureau of Prisons here, before she was about to head back and disappeared.

Condit, through his staff people, has persistently, consistently denied that there was a romantic relationship, and he put out a statement this evening saying: "I met with police officials as soon as Chandra Levy was reported missing, and answered their questions. I have spoken with police again and have reached out to Ms. Levy's parents. If there's any new information I can provide, I will do so without hesitation."

Now, that refers to the fact that Condit and the police have been trying to arrange a second interview. Condit in his statement pointed out he had been interviewed by police shortly after, in fact, the missing person report was filed. The police now say they want to talk to him among other things about those persistent accusations that there was a romantic relationship.

Now, as for the Levys and new lawyer Billy Martin, who has been hired, a Washington attorney, hired because he has an extensive investigative background, he says the one thing that he doesn't want to talk about yet is the relationship with Condit.

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BILLY MARTIN, ATTORNEY FOR CHANDRA LEVY'S PARENTS: The congressman has indicated that they were friends. As a friend, we reiterate, please come forward, please meet with the police, please tell anything that you can regarding Chandra. We have no further comments.

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FRANKEN: Now, the Levys are departing from Washington without any new information about the whereabouts of their daughter. And Wolf, of course, fundamentally this more than a political conflict, more than a controversy over whether there was a romantic relationship. This is really about parents who are desperate to find their daughter.

BLITZER: Bob, is there any indication when there will be a meeting between Congressman Condit and the Levys or Billy Martin, the attorney representing the Levys?

FRANKEN: Well, we have been told from all sides now that they are willing to have a meeting. I talked to sources in various parts of this story, and they all say that maybe there will be something. At last word, there had not been a meeting neither between the Levys and Congressman Condit, nor Congressman Condit and the police.

And one thing I would like to do is just to quote the parents, who say: "All we want is to find our daughter. We are," quote, "very heartbroken and we don't know where she is."

But as Mrs. Levy said, I believe and I continue to hope and pray that she will come back to us alive -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Bob Franken in Washington, thank you very much.

He's still on the world's stage 30 years after his secret trip to China helped start a new relationship. I'll ask Henry Kissinger how President Bush is doing in the international arena.

And blood pressure rises as the Senate begins debate on a patients' bill of rights.

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BLITZER: Welcome back. He was the secret advance man for President Nixon's historic trip to China. He won the Nobel Prize for his role in the Vietnam peace negotiations, and his shuttle diplomacy helped put the Middle East on the long road to peace. A short while ago I spoke with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in our Washington studios, and asked him how President Bush is faring on the world stage.

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BLITZER: Dr. Kissinger, thanks for joining us. Congratulations on the new book. We'll get to talk about that in a minute or two.

But on President Bush's recent visit to Europe, you would think that on the heels of the generally favorable coverage he received his numbers would go up, but you saw that "New York Times" poll out today. On foreign policy issues, only 47 percent approve of President Bush's handling of foreign policy, only 42 percent have confidence in Bush's ability to deal wisely with an international crisis, and only 37 percent think the leaders of other countries have respect for the president.

How do you explain that?

HENRY KISSINGER, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I really can't explain it. It must be due to the what the media covered before he went, went away, because I think he did very well on the trip. He maintained the American position. He established the principle that that is the framework within which one should talk. And I know that the European leaders that he met gained increased respect for him.

BLITZER: But he was widely criticized after his summit, his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the effusive praise that he offered. I want you to listen to this excerpt from what President Bush had to say following that first meeting with President Putin. Listen to this.

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GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This was a very good meeting, and I look forward to my next meeting with President Putin in July. I very much enjoyed our time together. He's an honest, straightforward man who loves his country. He loves his family. We share a lot of values.

I view him as a remarkable leader.

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BLITZER: That was pretty effusive. You agree with that assessment about President Putin, that he's a remarkable leader, loves his family, shares a lot of values?

KISSINGER: I think he may well love his family. I -- I'm more skeptical in general. And that is an occupation overseas of American presidents, when they meet a Russian leader, they seem carried away by the personality, and Russians are very warm-hearted people.

But still on essence of what -- I would not have made that statement but -- or recommended that statement. But on the other hand, I think President Bush did extremely well with Putin. He made progress on the basic issue of missile defense. He established a framework for continuing discussion. And he showed his European colleagues that they were not needed as mediators between Russia and the United States, so that we now meet them on an even level.

So I think as a strategic performance it was very good, even if one grants a little exuberance on that one statement.

BLITZER: The review that was written in "The New York Times" book review section by Thomas Friedman, a columnist, a foreign affairs columnist for "The New York Times," among other things he said of your new book, he said: "As you get into it, you start to realize that it is not intended for library shelves or academic colleagues. In many ways, it has an audience of one, President George W. Bush."

KISSINGER: I've been in the White House and I know presidents have very little time to read books. And it's a foolhardy enterprise to write a book for a president. I'd be delighted and honored if he read it. But it...

BLITZER: But were you offering him some tutoring from the sidelines, in effect as Tom Friedman suggests?

KISSINGER: No, because I've had the opportunity to do it without writing a book. I think it was -- the book is intended to affect the thinking of people who reflect about where we are at the turn of the century, when one period of foreign policy is ending, a new period is beginning. That's what I had in mind.

If the president and his associates read it, that's a great bonus.

BLITZER: As you know, I've covered you now for many years, going back to after the 1973 war in the Middle East, shuttle diplomacy that you invented in those years.

KISSINGER: I remember that. You gave me a hard time.

BLITZER: Well, I tried to give you a hard time, but you got used to it.

I was intrigued by what you write in the book about President Clinton's final years, final effort to achieve a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians. You write this: "The irony of the American role in the Arab-Israeli conflict is that the attempt in the last year of the Clinton administration to resolve it once and for all may well have taken it from the difficult to the intractable."

Was President Clinton, did he allow his ego to get in the way of a step-by-step approach that you had for so long advanced?

KISSINGER: I think it was his desire to culminate the peace process. It wasn't so -- it was more his idealism than his ego, but he got carried away with a prospect that was unachievable.

BLITZER: And is it intractable now? Can Secretary of State Powell, for example, who's going to the Middle East next week, can he get it back on track?

KISSINGER: He can get it back on a track, but nobody can get it back on trying to get a final peace agreement in a limited period of time, after which all the parties say all problems have disappeared and we now will live in a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of harmony.

What Secretary Powell could contribute to is to maintain the cease-fire, to begin a negotiation on concrete subjects, gradually return this negotiation into a sort of an agreement for coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians, and not worry about what the heading is or whether that says final peace, interim agreement. And that I think is attainable.

BLITZER: Dr. Kissinger, the book is "Does America Need a Foreign Policy Toward a Diplomacy for a 21st Century?" Thanks for joining us.

KISSINGER: Pleasure to be here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And a pair of American icons have died. We will remember the man who made Archie Bunker a legend, and we will reflect on a legendary blues artist who has been silenced.

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BLITZER: Welcome back.

Looking at some of the day's other top stories: He worked steadily as a stage, film, and television actor, and he later won an Emmy for his role as the small town police chief in the series "In the Heat of the Night." But he will always be known as the softhearted bigot Archie Bunker on the long running comedy "All in the Family." Carol O'Connor died in Los Angeles of a heart attack, today. He was 76.

With his pounding beat and roughest gravel voice, he was a living symbol of the blues. He recorded more than 100 albums over nearly 7 decades. Forty years ago, the Rolling Stones opened for him! In years, he won a Grammy for "I'm in the Mood" and "Made it Seductive." Boogie king John Lee Hooker died today at age 83.

In a written statement, President Bush issued a formal threat to veto a patients' bill of rights, which is backed by Democrats, and Republican Senator John McCain. The bill was hotly debated in the Senate today.

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SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Our bill allows Americans to seek reasonable relief once all options to receive medical care have been exhausted. I find it incredible that HMOs and their employees are able to avoid responsibility for negligent or harmful medical care.

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SEN. MICHAEL ENZI (R), WYOMING: I'm not a lawyer but I'm an accountant; I can tell you this adds up to employers scaling back, even dropping the coverage they now provide. Is this how we propose to protect patients?

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BLITZER: The president says the bill would encourage lawsuits and drive up the cost of health insurance. Sponsors note the measure has widespread support among doctors, nurses and patients' groups.

Tonight on the Leading Edge, satellites brought magnificent pictures of a solar eclipse visible in Africa into living rooms around the world. The first total eclipse of this millennium produced a spectacle of darks and lights that left only a fiery halo around the moon.

As early as this weekend, NASA is planning to test an unmanned flying wing that runs on solar power. It's designed to cruise at altitudes reaching 100,000 feet, and eventually could replace some space satellites.

Up next, I'll open our mailbag. We received lots of reaction to the killing of those five little children in Houston. One of you offers a very personal and heartbreaking explanation why a mother might want to kill a child. Stay with us.

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BLITZER: Welcome back.

Time now to open our mailbag. The drowning of those five children in Houston generated lots of reaction. Lisa from New Jersey writes:

"I also suffered from postpartum depression. Unfortunately, mine never went away and I am now on medication for the rest of my life. It took a long time for me to really love our first child. I always took care of him, but the love wasn't there.

We went on and had another child, and I had the same problem. This time we knew what it was and I went to the doctor right away. It's a lonely, horrible feeling."

C.S. from Alabama writes:

"Has it ever occurred to anyone in this country that perhaps we should decide to shift societal pressures off of women/men to have children, and instead encourage the option not to have any at all?"

Remember, I want to hear from you. Please e-mail me at wolf@cnn.com. And you can read my daily online column and sign up for my e-mail previewing our nightly programs by going to my web site, cnn.com/wolf.

That's all the time we have tonight. Thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

THE POINT with Greta Van Susteren begins right now.

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