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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

'Code Red' Worm Set to Strike; House Votes to Ban Human Cloning

Aired July 31, 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.
KATE SNOW, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, Code Red. Lurking on the Internet, a computer worm is programmed to strike at this hour. Earlier, it targeted the White House Web site: What's next? How much damage can it do? We'll take you live to the operations center at a computer security firm that's tracking Code Red right now.

Human cloning is no longer science fiction, and Congress is wrestling with the implications amid calls for an outright ban. We'll have a live update.

Investigators may have a new lead in the Chandra Levy case. Did she visit a Washington hardware store after her last reported sighting in April?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN WOODFOLK, CLERK: I didn't see her on the 30th, so it had to be after that, that during that week of May.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: I'll speak with a former D.C. homicide commander and a top D.C. private eye.

I'm Kate Snow, reporting tonight from Capitol Hill. Wolf Blitzer is off.

Coming up shortly, there are new developments in the Chandra Levy case. But first, targeting the world's computer systems, the latest assault by the Code Red computer worm was due to begin just moments ago. And that is our top story.

Let's go live to San Francisco and CNN's James Hattori.

James, what's the latest?

JAMES HATTORI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, the hour of infection is at hand, but the effect of the Code Red worm probably won't be noticed right away. It all depends on how quickly it spreads, and that depends on how many companies went to the trouble of patching their software to block the worm.

Now it can spread quickly, and to show you we have some animation from the San Diego Supercomputer Center to show us what happened last time around, over July 19th and 20th. The worm infected 360,000 computers around the world in less than 14 hours. Each infected computer in turn scans the Internet for 99 more computers to affect and on and on and on. And that rush of traffic is what causes a slowdown on the Net.

Although as bad as all that red looks, experts tell us the result was that downloads took perhaps 10 percent longer than usual. That's barely noticeable for most home users.

The worm is taking advantage of a widely known flaw caused by something called buffer overflow in Microsoft NT and 2000 software. It's nothing new, and some wonder how can vendors sell products with those kinds of vulnerabilities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREG HOGLUND, COMPUTER SECURITY EXPERT: That's not just Microsoft. That's the entire software business really. I think if you ask anybody and any software vendor, that's pretty much the way it work. There's a time-to-market issue. In the interest of haste, the stuff is released, you know, with problems. I mean, that's just the way it works in software.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HATTORI: Now, just to repeat something that bears repeating, this worm is not targeting home computers. It's targeting Web servers, which are used mostly in business. And it may not be -- the effect of it may not be felt for some hours. Remember, Kate, this program is scheduled to run for 20 days. So a lot of businesses will be watching over the coming hours and days -- Kate.

SNOW: Absolutely, James. Briefly, this is a worm and not a virus. What's the difference and why so much concern about a worm?

HATTORI: Well, a virus we all pretty much have come to know is something that comes -- attacks, for example, on an e-mail. You have to click it to make it take effect, and it affects and somehow damages your computer. A worm, however, travels over the Internet on its own and can be infecting your computer if it's not blocked by this patch -- and operate without you even knowing it. And of course, the damage is depending on how it's written. In this case, it was set to attack the whitehouse.gov, dot-gov page, which it did in a previous version.

This time around, it's been mutated, rather altered by some people. So the concern is it may do something unpredictable -- Kate.

SNOW: James Hattori in San Francisco, thank you.

Of course, computer security experts are on constant alert against both worms and viruses, trying to stay ahead -- one jump ahead of those who try to harass or bring down computer systems. CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena is in the operations center of Riptech. That's a computer security firm tracking the Code Red worm.

Kelli joins us now live from Alexandria, Virginia.

Kelli, what are the experts there looking for?

KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, they're looking for any signs of an attack on their clients' Internet sites. You have many more staff here tonight than you usually do, although this firm does monitor sites 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Tonight, there's a high level of concern. However, this company has alerted its clients and had alerted them month ago to download that patch that we heard about from Microsoft to make sure that their sites were not vulnerable to the Code Red worm.

I am joined right now by Tim Belcher, the co-founder of Riptech. Tim, can you just tell me exactly what your technicians are looking at?

TIM BELCHER, CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER, RIPTECH: Sure. What we have here are our analysts and engineers using software that we've developed over the last several years that let's them visualize attacks on our clients' networks. They're looking for the telltale signs of Code Red worm activity.

ARENA: How quickly can you tell if a site has been attacked?

BELCHER: We actually monitor our clients' networks in real-time 24 hours a day. So as the attack is taking place, our software and technology is finding, locating the attack and presenting it to our experts.

ARENA: Now, since this worm does not go after, it doesn't destroy data, is it just an increase in traffic or volume that alerts you to the fact that there's something unusual going on?

BELCHER: Sure. Also remember this is a worm we're talking about that's been inactive for 10 days. So the previous worm, or the worm that occurred prior to the 20th of this month, was not very destructive, and the most disruptive aspect of that worm was its consumption of companies' bandwidth.

ARENA: Are you at all concerned that if there is a company that hasn't been inoculated by this patch, that this -- that there may be a variation of that original worm that may be destructive at this point?

BELCHER: Well, certainly. Absolutely, one of our concerns is the fact that the worm has been inactive for 10 days and has given time for hackers to modify the worm and make it more disruptive or attack different vulnerabilities.

ARENA: I don't know if you can see, Kate. It looks very much like a command center here on the floor. We do have some charts that I'd like to point you to monitoring the activity of the Code Red worm, not only over the span of this month since it was first sighted, but also tonight.

Tim, can you explain to me what we're seeing? Let's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the top chart that we're looking at. BELCHER: The top chart represents activity that we monitor on a day-to-day basis over the course of July. The black line represents the typical hacker activity against our clients. And you see the ebbs and flows of normal activity. The red line represents specifically Code Red activity. You see that it started very low about the 15th of the month and spiked dramatically on the 19th.

ARENA: OK, and then, of course, and then it ebbed back to normal after that.

BELCHER: Absolutely. The second phase of the worm, it goes inactive at attacking other sites, and actually launched the denial of the service against the White House, or an attempted denial of service against the White House.

ARENA: Which we're expecting again this time around.

BELCHER: Potentially.

ARENA: Once it goes and finds vulnerable computers, then it goes into attack mode again.

BELCHER: Absolutely.

ARENA: All right. Now, the bottom -- the bottom chart that we're looking at, that is -- it's supposed to illustrate Code Red activity...

BELCHER: Today.

ARENA: Today.

BELCHER: We're looking at any Code Red activity over the last 24 hours. You see again the black lines representing our normal hacker activity that we're detecting and specifically the red line, which is nearly zero today, for Code Red activity. We expect that to start past 7:00 p.m. Eastern time tonight.

ARENA: OK. So 8 -- 8 o'clock now. So we expect that it could pick up probably, but Kate, we'll wait and see. Hopefully, most companies have heeded the warnings from the FBI and other industry groups to inoculate themselves against the worm, which is the expectation, by the way, that we won't see the same effects that we saw last time around -- Kate.

SNOW: Hope for no big spikes on that graph behind you there.

ARENA: That's right.

SNOW: Thanks, Kelli Arena, reporting from Alexandria, Virginia.

Turning now to the frontier of a brave new world, where science and ethics clash: A day after the White House announced its strong support for a federal ban on human cloning, the issue was hotly debated here on Capitol Hill as the House of Representatives took up competing bills. In the end, lawmakers overwhelmingly approved an outright ban on human cloning and rejected a measure that would have allowed such cloning for research purposes.

Joining me now is CNN congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl.

Quite a debate today. Fill us in on the debate.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was interesting. You had some heated rhetoric, but this was not your typical debate. There was a real sense on the floor of the House that members were grappling -- grappling not only with kind of complex science, but difficult moral questions.

Here's a sense of what they were talking about on the floor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JERROLD NADLER (D), NEW YORK: We must not say to millions of sick or injured human beings "Go ahead and die, stay paralyzed," because we believe the blastocyst, the clump of cells, is more important than you are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM DELAY (R-TX), MAJORITY WHIP: We shouldn't draw medical solutions from the unwholesome well of an ungoverned, monstrous science that lacks any reasonable consideration for the sanctity of human life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: Now, in the end, many Democrats joined Tom DeLay on this. They voted in favor, overwhelming, of that outright ban on human cloning, rejecting that option of allowing the cloning of some embryos for scientific research. The final vote was 265 to 162. So it wasn't even close.

SNOW: And this all comes in light of the president needing to make a decision soon about federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and whether that should be allowed. How does today's debate play into that debate?

KARL: Well, clearly, these are related issues, and in one sense, this was a victory for those that want the president to disallow any funding of embryonic stem cell research. This was a victory for Tom DeLay, for those who think that that embryo is a human life and shouldn't be researched on.

But this was a different issue in another sense, in that this was about creating embryos for research using cloning, a very complicated and controversial technique. And many of those who supported Tom DeLay on this question point out that, look, the fund -- funding issue for embryonic re -- stem cell research is really about something else. It's about embryos already that are already in existence in fertility clinics and that are going to be discarded anyway.

So it's a different issue, and it'll be tough to say how it will exactly affect that debate.

SNOW: OK, thank you, Jon Karl here on Capitol Hill.

Turning now to the Chandra Levy investigation. Police have come up empty-handed in their sweeps through Washington-area parks, and have now suspended such efforts. But there may be a new lead in the disappearance of that former intern. Let's go live now to CNN national correspondent Bob Franken in our Washington bureau -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And, Kate, the operative word is "may." But three months after Chandra Levy disappeared, authorities are quick to admit that they have very little new. They have no understanding of where she might be, and so the investigation is really at a crossroads, and we're getting some mixed signals where it's going to go from here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN (voice-over): Washington D.C. police said they'd scale back their investigation by the end of this week. But the end came early. After scouring thousands of acres for more than two weeks, police recruits wrapped up their search of area parklands by midday, officially ending, for now, that phase of the Chandra Levy investigation. No items were recovered, said the police department.

Back in Modesto, California, Levy's parents refuse to give up hope.

DR. ROBERT LEVY, CHANDRA LEVY'S FATHER: We just beg anyone who has information to please, you know, good information, to please, please call it in and not to let the whole thing go away.

FRANKEN: While one phase of the investigation is going away, others go forward. Lead FBI agent Brad Garrett joined D.C. detectives at a hardware store across the street from the health club frequented by Chandra Levy, not far from her apartment. They were there to question John Woodfolk, after the employee claimed he made keys for the former Washington intern sometime after April 30th.

Up until now. Monday, April 30th had been the last time investigators knew anyone had seen Levy.

WOODFOLK: It was in the daytime in the morning, and she came back to pick the keys up.

QUESTION: Do you know the date?

WOODFOLK: I don't know the date. All I know is that week of May.

(CROSSTALK)

WOODFOLK: Yes, May -- it was Tuesday was the first of May. She wasn't here Tuesday. It was either Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.

FRANKEN: Woodfolk says Levy wrote her name on a paper bag similar to this one. But law enforcement sources tell CNN he's not sure it was before or after April 30th. He's not sure how many keys Levy had made, and not sure about his earlier belief that she charged them to a credit card or debit card.

Investigators say they have no record of any financial transactions by Chandra Levy after April 30th. Why did Woodfolk not come forward before? Well, he answered, nobody ever came and asked me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKEN: But investigators say they're going to check this out thoroughly, check out every lead as they try and figure out where their investigation goes now -- Kate.

SNOW: Bob Franken live in Washington. This footnote: the hardware store worker, Mr. Woodfolk, who you just saw, was scheduled to appear live on this program tonight. At the last minute, he called and canceled. We hope to speak with him later in the week.

Just ahead, I'll discuss the latest twist in the Chandra Levy investigation with two former D.C. homicide detectives.

And strike and counterstrike as the Middle East cycle of violence threatens to spiral out of control.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Welcome back. Just as police have shut down their search operations in area parks in Washington, a new door may have opened in the Chandra Levy investigation. A Washington hardware store worker says he saw the former intern at some point after her last official sighting.

Joining me now to discuss the investigation, Jeff Greene, a former D.C. homicide detective. He's now a private investigator. And attorney Lou Hennessy, a former commander of the D.C. police homicide unit. The two of you actually worked together for a time here in Washington.

Mr. Hennessy, if you were investigating and this man came forward with this information about the hardware store, Chandra Levy appearing there at some point after April 30th, the last time we had known that she was seen in Washington, what would you make of that?

W. LOUIS HENNESSY, FORMER D.C. HOMICIDE COMMANDER: Well, a lot would depend on how certain he was. Obviously, it's three months later. A lot of things have happened between now and then, and he's an elderly gentleman. He may not be exactly certain of the dates, but certainly something that need to be checked out.

SNOW: Why, Mr. Greene, would he not have been found sooner? Any clue about that?

JEFF GREENE, FORMER D.C. HOMICIDE DETECTIVE: Well, if he didn't come forward and notify law enforcement that he had some information, it's unlikely that he would have been reached during a normal canvass.

SNOW: But wouldn't they be looking for people just like that in the neighborhood, Mr. Hennessy?

HENNESSY: Well, that's exactly what they have done. I mean, the Levys, particularly, have it made clear that they want anybody with any information to come forward, and they've done a great job of keeping this case in the public spotlight, just for that purpose. And people need to take it upon themselves to come forward with this type of information, because they can't go to everybody in the city and knock on the door and ask.

SNOW: He clearly has a little bit of confusion about when he saw her, what exactly he saw. Does that contribute at all to the way you judge his information?

GREENE: Well, it really doesn't. I think you have to understand, you're talking about something that occurred 89 to 91 days ago. If this gentleman was aware of her disappearance within the last 90 days, one would think that he would have come forward prior to now to let law enforcement know that he may have waited on this young lady and cut keys for her. But we don't know what this gentleman's mind- set is. We don't know whether or not he follows the news on a regular basis. We just simply don't know that. The investigators clearly know that. But it's unlikely -- in my belief, it's very unlikely that he had firsthand dealings with this young woman.

SNOW: This case, Mr. Hennessy, some would say has gone rather cold for the D.C. police and for the FBI. In fact, the FBI recently put it into a separate unit. It used to be known as the cold case unit, the major crime squad. Today they stopped the searches, D.C. police stopped the searches in the wooded areas. Is this case cold quote/unquote?

HENNESSY: I don't think it's necessarily cold. I think a couple of weeks ago, or last week, Chief Ramsey was on TV and said the case is still generating 50 to 100 leads a day. That's a tremendous amount of activity for any case. And with that type of information coming in and the amount of it, it needs to be evaluated and prioritized and followed up on. So it still has a tremendous amount of information coming in.

SNOW: Mr. Greene, you're a private investigator. If you got the call today on this case -- we need you to come in, it's quite cold, we need your help -- what would you do?

GREENE: Well, you would do what any routine investigator or detective would do. You go back and recanvass and recanvass and reinterview and reinterview, and you find these people that have not been talked with, or you find people that you've made some notes in your notebook about that you want to go back and do second, third or a fourth interview with. It's just basic gumshoe detective work, knocking on doors and talking with people.

HENNESSY: It is a little disturbing, though, that there's a $200,000 reward out there. And that type of money jars information loose from people. You would think that this man and Mr. Woodfolk, he knew there was $200,000 out there, it's been out there for a couple of weeks. It makes you wonder why he didn't come forward before.

SNOW: Yesterday the D.C. police were very clear in saying that Congressman Gary Condit is not the central figure in this investigation. Let me let you listen to what Robert Levy, Chandra Levy's father, had to say about that point today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT LEVY, CHANDRA LEVY'S FATHER: As far as being the central figure, my daughter is a central figure, they will try to find her. They have to look at everyone who knows her or who's involved with her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: He seemed to suggest, as we went on, he seemed to suggest that Congressman Condit does need to be sort of central to this investigation. GREENE: Well, there's no (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in law enforcement that states that the only people that are not suspect are the investigators working on the case at hand. And the police department can be politically correct and say that the congressman, or the representative is not a suspect. In the broad sense of the word, any gentleman that had an affair, an ongoing relationship with this woman is considered a suspect.

SNOW: Do you agree with that?

HENNESSY: To a degree. I think that what is important from the Levys' perspective is once Condit is out of the investigation, this case loses all its video appeal and the leads will dry up. They want the focus of this case to stay on Condit so that the media stays in so that they can continue to generate leads and hopefully get their daughter back.

SNOW: Mr. Greene, would you want the police to reconsider on the polygraph test? They have said that they don't feel that they need another polygraph test from Mr. Condit.

GREENE: I don't think that a polygraph test from the congressman is going to be productive at this point. He has taken one on his own from his attorney. If he's not a suspect, then the police don't want to give him a polygraph. So, the police can hide behind that veil of not calling him a suspect. That's the politically correct thing to do in an investigation of this nature.

SNOW: How typical is it for a case at this stage to be where we are right now, where you're calling off the searches. Is this typical of a missing persons' case?

HENNESSY: Absolutely not. Most missing persons' never get to this point. Most missing person cases the missing person is returned very shortly to their home. In ones where they are missing, I have never seen a missing person case in this city generate the type of interest and activity on the part of the police as this one has.

GREENE: For what appears to be a local crime, this is the largest reward that has ever been offered. I have been around this town for 40 years and I've never seen a reward that even came close to this.

SNOW: And we continue to watch it. Jeff Greene, thank you so much. Lou Hennessy, I appreciate you being with us tonight.

When we return, the catch of the day. Rescuers in New York snag three stranded fishermen. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SNOW: Welcome back. In other news tonight, President Bush received a new report on election reform today from a commission co- chaired by former Presidents Carter and Ford. It calls for a national holiday for election day, free network television time for qualified presidential candidates, and a call for news outlets not to project winners as long as polls are still open in the 48 contiguous states.

The government may borrow $51 billion to help cover the expense of tax rebates. The Treasury Department expected a surplus, but that was before Congress passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut and changed when corporate tax payments are due. It would be the largest single quarter of borrowing by the government since 1996.

An extreme rescue in New York, where police raced against the rising tide to save three fishermen stranded on a concrete channel marker. An air and sea rescue team spent 35 minutes snatching the men from harm's way. They became stranded as the tide began to rise.

Cries of revenge in the West Bank, as thousands of Palestinians vow to strike back after Israeli forces killed eight people. The Israeli attack targeted a headquarters of the militant Islamic group Hamas. The United States is deploring the attack, calling it, quote, "a new and dangerous escalation of violence."

Just ahead, I'll open our mailbag. Have the media gone overboard covering the Chandra Levy case? Our viewers certainly don't mince words. I'll share some of them with you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SNOW: Welcome back. Time now to open our mailbag. Should the media continue its heavy coverage of the Chandra Levy investigation? Bob in Nevada has this: "Why keep reporting the same thing? There is nothing new, yet you keep talking."

And this from Adam from New Hampshire: "Please turn off the Chandra tap and start giving us hard political analysis and insights again. I can't take it anymore."

But Fredrick appreciates the coverage: "We are thankful that you keep us well informed in the Chandra Levy case. And we hope you will continue to do so. Chandra's case is a tragic situation. It's important to the common man."

Remember, you can e-mail us with your thoughts at wolf@CNN.com, or go to our WOLF BLITZER REPORTS Web site, CNN.com/wolf.

And that's all the time we have tonight. Thanks very much for watching. I'm Kate Snow in Washington. "THE POINT WITH GRETA VAN SUSTEREN" begins right now.

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