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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports
America Remembers its War Dead; Israel Rocked by Terror Bombing; Search is on for Bodies After Barge Hits Bridge
Aired May 27, 2002 - 17:00 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: Now on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS, the nation once again at war remembers its war dead at the scene of an epic battle against tyranny, a price to defend freedom against terrorism.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This defense will require the sacrifice of our forefathers but it's a sacrifice I can promise you we will make.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Israel is once again rocked by a terror bombing. An eerie silence from al Qaeda, with the FBI wrapped in controversy, what's the next threat? A search for bodies and a search for answers after a barge knocks out a highway bridge in Oklahoma. And on this Memorial Day, I'll look back at a special conversation on the beach at Normandy.
It's Monday, Memorial Day, May 27th, 2002. Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. We'll get to President Bush at Normandy Beach in France on this Memorial Day right after this news alert.
A Palestinian group is claiming responsibility for today's suicide bombing in Israel, which killed a woman and a two-year-old girl. The attack took place at a cafe in a suburb of Tel Aviv. Israeli police say about 26 people were injured. We'll have a live report from the scene coming up.
Divers working at the site of that Oklahoma bridge collapse recovered a fourth body today. As many as a dozen people were killed yesterday when a barge hit the bridge, which carries Interstate 40 over the Arkansas River. Officials say the pilot of the barge apparently passed out shortly before the accident, but preliminary tests show no evidence of alcohol or drugs. Much more later on this story in this hour.
America is observing Memorial Day. Ceremonies included a gathering at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial here in Washington. Former Senator Bob Dole, a World War II veteran, spoke about America's latest conflict and voiced confidence that the United States and its allies will win the war on terrorism. President Bush is now in Rome, his final stop on a European trip that took him today to hallowed ground, the D-Day battlefield in France. CNN's Senior White House Correspondent John King reports on the president's Memorial Day observance.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Retracing the costly steps of a battle long ago but remembering those who paid the price for freedom then and those fighting a very different war now.
BUSH: Our wars have won for us every hour we live in freedom. Our wars have taken from us the men and women we honor today, and every hour the lifetimes they had hoped to live.
KING: The American Cemetery at Normandy was the backdrop for a president overseas on the Memorial Day holiday. The graves are marked with crosses and the Star of David, 9,386 in all, each with a story and a place in history.
BUSH: Private Jimmy Hall was seen carrying the body of his brother Johnny saying "he can't, he can't be dead. I promised mother I'd look after him."
KING: As he arrived, the president looked down on the rough water and rocky cliffs, then peered from the overlook at what the D- Day battle maps call Omaha Beach.
Earlier, services at the Church of San Mere Eglise, a simple memorial outside to the U.S. paratroopers who arrived June 6, 1944 to help end the Nazi siege, some old enough to remember, some far too young but told by a visiting president history is calling again today.
BUSH: This defense will require the sacrifice of our forefathers, but it's a sacrifice I can promise you we'll make.
KING: There was an unspoken message. The country that twice helped liberate Europe is counting on its allies now. The French president said not to worry.
JACQUES CHIRAC, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): Whenever essential values are in jeopardy, you can count on us, just as we know that we can count on you.
KING: This memorial is to the more than 1,500 Americans listed as missing because their remains never were recovered or identified after one of history's most deadly and defining battles.
BUSH: Units of Army Rangers on shore in one of history's bravest displays, scaled cliffs directly into gunfire, never relenting even as comrades died all around them. When they had reached the top, the Rangers radioed back the code for success. Praise the Lord.
KING: John King, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: Later this hour, a segment you won't want to miss. Legendary CBS News Anchor Walter Cronkite was among the first journalists to join the U.S. invasion force after the first wave at D- Day. I'll show you a special excerpt from my interview with Walter Cronkite. That was recorded at Normandy Beach on the 50th anniversary of the invasion.
With the FBI under fire for its handling of pre-September 11th warnings, CNN has learned more about what happened to an agent's information on the suspected 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui. Let's go live to our Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena for more -- Kelli.
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the information about Zacarias Moussaoui was sent to the FBI's Radical Fundamentalist Unit. Now that terrorist unit also received information from the Phoenix agent with suspicions that Osama bin Laden may have been sending Middle Eastern men to U.S. flight schools.
Now it's unclear at this time whether the same people within the unit got both pieces of information to be able to connect the dots, but as one government official says, it underscores the problem with information flow within the FBI and the intelligence community as a whole.
Now the letter from the FBI Special Agent Coleen Rawley has been described as scathing. It accuses FBI headquarters of thwarting the investigation into Zacarias Moussaoui, who investigators now believe was supposed to be the 20th hijacker.
Now specifically, Rawley complains about attempts made to obtain a FISA. In plain English, that's a special warrant to search Moussaoui's computer files, and she accuses headquarters of ignoring French intelligence on Moussaoui.
Now Rawley says that an agent at FBI headquarters, "deliberately further undercut that FISA effort by not adding the further intelligence information, which he had promised to add that supported Moussaoui's foreign power connection and making several changes in the wording of the information that had been provided by the Minneapolis agent."
Now a congressional investigation into what the FBI knew pre-9/11 continues, and FBI Director Robert Mueller is expected to announce more changes this week. Now those changes are aimed at turning the FBI into an intelligence gathering agency, rather than a crime fighting agency. Wolf.
BLITZER: Kelli Arena here in Washington, thank you very much. And there area also new reports today about what the airlines knew before September 11th. CNN's Patty Davis joins us now live from just outside Washington at Reagan National Airport. Patty.
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the airlines knew as far back as 1998 that Osama bin Laden posed a threat. In fact, the Federal Aviation Administration in that year issued three information circulars basically alert bulletins to the airlines, telling them to be on alert.
They said things like, Osama bin Laden operatives had trained to hijack or bring a plane down, that unidentified individuals might be planning to hijack or bomb an airliner in the metropolitan airports in the U.S. and also urged vigilance due to statements by bin Laden about killing Americans. That was first reported in the Boston Globe and confirmed by a U.S. government source.
Now this information on top of about 15 directives, 15 alerts sent to airlines in 2001, telling them that Middle Eastern men could possibly be interested in hijacking or blowing up a U.S. commercial plane.
The problem is here, Wolf, that none of these circulars ever mentioned suicide hijackings, so the airlines never changed their policy of cooperating with hijackers. That's what happened on September 11th and those planes crashed. The policy has now changed. They are to bring the plane down immediately and never open the cockpit door. Wolf.
BLITZER: Patty Davis at Reagan National Airport, thank you very much. And al Qaeda's silence is leaving investigators uneasy as they try to guess where the terror network will strike next. What's al Qaeda up to? That's the focus of Michael Elliott's piece in the latest edition of "TIME" magazine. Michael joins us now live from New York.
I want to read one excerpt, Michael, from your excellent article that you have in "TIME" this week. "There could be another al Qaeda cell out there just as good, just as quiet as the one that mounted the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon." Specifically, Michael, what are you talking about?
MICHAEL ELLIOTT, TIME MAGAZINE: Well, one of the extraordinary things that we've discovered, Wolf, is that in all the hundreds of interviews of al Qaeda detainees that have been done, in all the mountains of documents that we took away from Afghanistan and went through, in all the computer diskettes that were examined, we have found essentially no record of the September 11 hijackers.
What that, of course, makes investigators concerned about is the possibility that there's another cell that's just as good. One of the questions that investigators have to concern themselves with is what's more frightening, noise, chatter as they call it in the intelligence field, the things that they hear, the things that they pick up in telephone intercepts, or silence.
And the extraordinary fact that we can find virtually no signals or human intelligence of the September the 11th hijackers, the 19, has really got people worried that there may be others out there who are just as good.
BLITZER: That they might be that compartmented, they might be that efficient that nobody knows, in fact, if anything is going on right now?
ELLIOTT: Precisely.
BLITZER: You do raise some specific questions about Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber. Was he or was he not part of this loosely-based al Qaeda operation?
ELLIOTT: I don't have any doubt that he was part of it and I never have had any doubt of it since we starting reporting this immediately after that incident. Our sources in Europe and, you know, I've talked about this before, Wolf, a time -- you spend a lot of time talking to European sources on al Qaeda because they have tremendous experience at dealing with Islamic terrorist groups.
Our European sources have never really been in any doubt that Richard Reid was an al Qaeda operation. So when people say rather kind of oddly, in my view, when is the second wave of attacks, of al Qaeda attacks on the United States, my answer is, we've already had it. The attempt to blow an American Airlines plane out of the sky just before Christmas, I'm quite sure, was an al Qaeda attack. We've also had a few other -
BLITZER: What about -
ELLIOTT: Yes, go ahead, sorry.
BLITZER: Yes, I was going to say what about that synagogue bombing in Tunisia, Jerba, and that attack on those French personnel in Pakistan?
ELLIOTT: Exactly.
BLITZER: You suggest those may be al Qaeda operations as well.
ELLIOTT: I think the one in Tunisia is pretty much plainly accepted now in Germany but no one's quite come out and said it was an al Qaeda operation. The name of the group in Whose name that atrocity was claimed was precisely the same name that was used in 1998 for the embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya.
There are also some leads in the German investigation of the synagogue bombing that takes one back towards the Hamburg al Qaeda cell that we think originated the September 11th attacks.
The attack on the French contract workers in Karachi in Pakistan, that's a bit more difficult to take a conclusive view on. What the Pakistanis say is that they have lots of militant groups there.
Some of them are closely associated with al Qaeda, some aren't. Some just kind of share the same broad aims, share information, share objectives. So it's a little bit more difficult in the Karachi case to say that that's an al Qaeda operation.
But, you know, one of the things that we've learned, Wolf, is that this is a very fuzzy, very loose network. Some parts of it are tightly organized and work under tight instructions. Others are just, if you like, fellow travelers and sympathizers, and it's rather difficult to kind of put your finger on any one ring and say with hand on heart Osama bin Laden ordered that.
BLITZER: Michael Elliott of "TIME" magazine, thanks once again for your good reporting and helping us better understand this story. Our web question of the day is this: Do you think that al Qaeda does have sleeper cells in the United States? Go to my web page cnn.com/wolf. That's where you can vote.
While you're there, let me know what you're thinking. There's a "click here" icon right on the left side of the page. Send me your comments. I'll try to read some of them on the air each day at the end of this program. That's also, by the way, where you can read my daily online column, cnn.com/wolf.
In Israel, the terror attacks continue without let up. A suicide bomber today killed at least two people, including a two-year-old girl, the target, a cafe in the city of Petach Tikvah near Tel Aviv. CNN's Martin Savidge is on the scene. He joins us now live. Marty.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, in the background here, you can hear the noise of the high pressure hoses that are being brought to bear. It's part of the clean-up in the aftermath of this latest suicide bombing attack in Israel in specifically Petach Tikvah.
It happened at 6:45 p.m. just outside of this shopping mall here. It is a very modern shopping mall and that would have been a very popular time of day. In the background, you may see the skeletal remains of the awning. It is that exact spot where precisely the suicide bomber detonated his device.
It was also an area where there were men, women, and as you already point out children. One of the victims a two-year-old child and also a 30-year-old woman, not clear if there was a relation between the two. Twenty-eight other people were injured.
We can show you the aftermath immediately from that detonation and it was a chaotic scene because this is such a popular place. Now there is some speculation on the part of authorities that perhaps the suicide bomber might have intended originally to try to get inside the shopping mall.
As you know, shopping malls and many other places here in Israel have their own private security to prevent just that. It's possible that security may have dissuaded the suicide bomber from going in, and instead he chose a softer target, that being an outdoor cafe under the awning and that being where women and children were.
We also want to show you something else that's developed here. Shortly after the attack, volunteers showed up on scene and then there were young people that showed up to hold a quiet candlelight vigil. It is their hope, their desire, to clean up and have this ice cream shop open within 24 hours.
That's important to them because to all Israelis, they do not want these terrorist attacks to dissuade what they say is their normal life, to have an impact. They want to get back to normal. It's their way of demonstrating defiance. Already one group has come forward, Wolf, to say that they are responsible and that is the Al Aqsa Brigade. It was announced on Hezbollah television. Wolf.
BLITZER: Martin Savidge on the scene at Petach Tikvah, just outside Tel Aviv, thanks for that report.
So is there an answer to the plague of suicide bombings? Should Yasser Arafat be held accountable? Joining me now live from Little Rock, Arkansas, the retired NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Wesley Clark, General Clark, is it possible for Yasser Arafat to completely stop these kinds of terrorist strikes?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Probably not possible to stop them all, but it's up to him to set the agenda for the Palestinian people so that they will stop the terrorist attacks.
The real battle here, Wolf, is the battle for intelligence. It's intelligence that has to come to Yasser Arafat about what's being planned. It's intelligence that has to come to the Israelis to be able to stop it. We can't really see the outcome of that battle, so it's still in doubt.
BLITZER: Yesterday, Secretary of State Colin Powell told me he hopes by the end of this week, the CIA Director George Tenet will be back in the region working with the Palestinians to reform their security apparatus. Is that doable?
CLARK: I think a certain amount of the security apparatus can be restructured, but you can be sure that George Tenet is going to have a deeper agenda than that because the administration is pressing Arafat very strongly for reforms inside the Palestinian Authority to make it more accountable and more transparent and push toward democratization. And I'm sure all of these factors have to go in, along with the strengthening of the intelligence and security apparatus there.
BLITZER: You probably saw the piece in the New York Times on the front page yesterday, suggesting a major debate inside the Bush Administration, whether to continue counting on Yasser Arafat. Some officials apparently saying he can't get the job done, find an alternative to Yasser Arafat. Is there an alternative?
CLARK: I think there could be an alternative, but I think that the pragmatic way to go about this is for George Tenet to go back in to push, not only to reform the intelligence apparatus, but also for democratization and a lot of other quiet, behind the scenes efforts that George Tenet will know how to work for, and then let's see if Yasser Arafat can produce. Let's see if the leopard does change its spots.
BLITZER: General, before I let you go, on this Memorial Day, the first since September 11th, you're the retired Supreme Allied Commander, the NATO Commander, is this Memorial Day different than previous ones we've all observed?
CLARK: Oh absolutely it's different, Wolf, because we've always been cognizant of the sacrifices of those who went before, but this is a nation in conflict right now. As President Bush says, it's a war, but it's a different kind of war. Sacrifices have been made, the president saying that more will be made.
The American people are ready, but we're also expectant. We don't know what's going to happen. We don't know exactly how we're going to be called. It's been ten months of this and so we're anxious, and so it makes us even more cognizant of those who have gone before and given their lives for this country.
BLITZER: General Clark, thanks for spending at least part of your Memorial Day with us here at CNN, appreciate it very much.
Danger on the water. Who's watching over the rivers? The search effort still underway in Oklahoma. The latest on the bridge collapse when we return.
Plus, a tearful Memorial Day reunion, fighter pilots from the USS Stennis home at last. And a special look back, remembrances of a D-Day with the legendary anchor, Walter Cronkite.
Memorial Day was originally intended to honor the fallen of which war? The Revolutionary War; the Civil War; World War I; World War II? The answer coming up.
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BLITZER: You just saw a live picture of the Iwo Jima Memorial outside Washington near Arlington National Cemetery on this Memorial Day here in the nation's capitol.
The grim task of recovering victims of a bridge collapse is underway in Eastern Oklahoma. Divers are searching the swift and muddy waters of the Arkansas River below a portion of Interstate 40 that buckled after being hit by a barge yesterday.
CNN's Jeff Flock is in Webbers Falls, Oklahoma. Jeff, first of all, how many bodies have been recovered so far?
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At this hour, Wolf, so far, four bodies and four vehicles. The last of those recovered today, a woman in a Dodge vehicle that was pulled out of the bottom.
I am perched out here along State Road 100. You see if off behind me. This is one of the detour routes around that bridge collapse on Interstate 40, which is a very busy road.
I want to give you an aerial picture out at the scene right now. We can tell you some of what's going on there.
Indeed, they were diving earlier today, but they have now suspended that recovery operation. Two reasons; one, the weather, we had some real good squalls come through with thunder and lightning. They wanted to take the divers out of the water because of that.
The other problem is that they had some problems when they made that final recovery, that one Dodge that was pulled up out of there. It created some problems on the bottom of the Arkansas River. Lieutenant Chris West of the Oklahoma State Patrol explains.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIEUTENANT CHRIS WEST, OKLAHOMA STATE PATROL: When they retrieved that vehicle from the bottom of the river, it creates kind of a void where it had been laying and it stirred up a lot of debris. It also uncovered a lot of rebar, a lot of concrete, and other obstacles for the divers, which they felt were pretty burdensome to deal with.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FLOCK: And, Wolf, if you know about diving, obviously that's the worst thing for divers if you get yourself hooked on rebar or any kind of problems like that under the water and you can get trapped down there, so they had that problem.
I want to show you also, the very first pictures that were taken after the accident yesterday. This is home video. Someone with a camera walking right up to the edge of the start of the bridge there, it gives you kind of a picture of what happened before -- just right after it took place. Visible in the water, one of the semi-tractors, and at this hour, we still don't know exactly how many are in there, both semi-tractors as well as cars, they think at this hour, still between six and eight. How many people, however, that they do not know.
That is the latest from here, Wolf, back to you.
BLITZER: Well, before I let you go, Jeff, what about the pilot of the barge? The story is that he supposedly passed out; a) what do we know about him, and what was the apparent cause of passing out that may or may not have had a role to play in the crash into the bridge?
FLOCK: At this point, we don't know if in fact it has not been confirmed, and in fact he passed out, and also don't know the source of that. There was a report earlier today, which we have not been able to confirm that, not only did he take the drug and alcohol test, but that he passed the drug and alcohol test.
We do know this is a guy with a lot of experience, particularly out here on the Arkansas River, a man with 25 years in the wheelhouse. So, clearly inexperience not a problem, but as to what caused it all at this point, still don't know.
BLITZER: You saw that story in one of the papers out there earlier today that this barge that crashed into the bridge does have a history; at least two other incidents of having at least an accident or a near accident in 1994 in the Mississippi River near St. Louis, and in 1999 a steering pump on the barge failed. I assume they're also looking into the mechanical problems that may or may not have existed on the barge?
FLOCK: Indeed, that's one of the members of one group that the NTSB has put together, one of their investigation groups that George Black is putting together will look specifically at the history of that. And, you're right, that Eades (ph) Bridge collision at St. Louis in '94 and then one in Chicago.
We are told, though, that this is not tremendously uncommon to have various problems with the tow boats. So whether or not that bears any fruit or not, we'll have to see.
BLITZER: Jeff Flock, as usual, thanks for joining us, appreciate it very much.
FLOCK: Thanks, Wolf.
BLITZER: There have been other bridge collapses similar to the one in Oklahoma. In Texas, a barge wreck let to chaos in the days after the September 11th attacks. A barge crashed into the South Padre Island Causeway, collapsing the bridge and killing five people.
And in May of 1980, a 600-foot freighter tore out a support of the Sunshine Skyway in Tampa, Florida during bad weather. A 1,400- foot section of the concrete roadway fell 150 feet into the water carrying several vehicles with it.
A special Memorial Day for some veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom, a look at their emotional homecoming when we come back. Plus, the cure for ulcers may, repeat may, be in your refrigerator. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: In our news alert, Pakistan's president says he doesn't want to start war with India over the disputed province of Kashmir, but would respond forcefully if one broke out. In a live television address, General Pervez Musharraf said tension with nuclear rival India was "at its height." The speech follows a weekend in which Pakistan successfully test fired two missiles.
With a resounding victory in hand, Colombia's new president- elect, Alvaro Uribe (ph) says he will begin immediately forming his cabinet. Uribe, who won 53 percent of the vote, is pledging to bring law and order to the nation and continue predecessor's strong ties with the United States.
Iraq says it forced a pilotless U.S. spy plane it land in the northern part of the country. But while U.S. military officials confirm, a predator surveillance drone, like this one, crashed in the region yesterday. They deny Iraqi forces caused the downing. The U.S. central command says the wreckage has been recovered.
In Afghanistan today there were solemn ceremonies. The commanding officer of U.S. troops in southern Afghanistan dedicated a chapel honoring the memory of 47 Americans and four Canadian who have died since Operation Enduring Freedom began.
The fighting in Afghanistan is bringing in new immediacy to a holiday that often focuses on wars of the past. Joining us now from Detroit is the historian Douglas Brinkley. Thanks so much for joining us. Is this Memorial Day, historically speaking, different than previous ones?
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, HISTORIAN: Yes it is. I think more people are included now. It will always be known as Memorial Day after September 11. And here in Detroit for example today, in addition to the veterans of World War II or Vietnam and Korea, we had the grand marshal for 11 New York City fire fighters and police officers mixing it up with the veterans coming out in their uniforms, repinning old medals on their chest.
It has kind of been morphed, this Memorial Day in between sort of a memorial for the civilians that lost their lives on September 11, the military people that lot of their lives, the few so far in the war in Afghanistan and all of the soldiers of past wars.
BLITZER: It is eight and a half months or so since September 11. Is the country getting back to business as usual or how much of an impact do you see as a whole on the country from September 11?
BRINKLEY: Well, of course we are getting back to business as usual but we have regular, you know, terror warnings out, color codes people are trying to understand. It is kind of a new thought, Wolf. I think in the future if we just pause in this Memorial Day, the question I have is, are we just going to be, you know, having memorial for veterans of wars or is this going to be for the people of Oklahoma City or the Trade Center, Pentagons, are we kind of having a new kind of Memorial Day?
Remember the original Memorial Day started after the CIVIL WAR and was known as Decoration Day and people would put flowers on graves. And it has kind of changed over a period of time. I would be interested to see if next Memorial Day we continue this kind of mourning for September 11 or if it is a one-time event sentiment because of the closeness to the date.
BLITZER: Doug, as you know, there is a debate underway here in Washington whether there should a formal commission of inquiry, an outside blue ribbon panel along the lines of the commission that was formed after Pearl Harbor, after President Kennedy's assassination or whether the intelligence committees that are already investigating should be allowed to continue that job. From an historical perspective, what's better for the country? What answers more of the lingering questions?
BRINKLEY: I think the answer is both. These commissions, incidentally, on September 11, maybe one that happens very quickly, we might get reports. But there will be new commissions decades from now trying to understand what happened.
You know when the Maine blew up, it was with the bomb, the ship and you know port in Cuba which really triggered American entry in to the Spanish-American war in 1898. It wasn't well into the 1970s with Admiral Rickover (ph) where we finally had what we considered definitive conclusive evidence of what occurred with the explosion of the Maine. Oftentimes the problem with public commissions, just like the Warren commission, the Kennedy assassination, they come out quickly but it doesn't really answer questions. We are still asking ourselves who killed John Kennedy and the commissions tend to give simpler answers that, you know, for the American public, for the sake of national security and for the sake of getting on with the business of America, which is business.
BLITZER: This war against terror is now a conventional war along the lines of World War I, or World War II, or even the Vietnam War. It is an unconventional war. Can the administration, can the Bush Administration sustain the level of fervor in this war, given the very nature of it being an unconventional war?
BRINKLEY: I don't know if they will be able to or not. There is something called politics that happens. And you are going to start having the Democratic Party emboldened to publicly criticize the Bush Administration for withholding information leading up to September 11, not sharing threats and I think there is, if you like, finally an Achilles heel on George W. Bush that Democrats are going after right now. We will have to see how it plays out. It'll play out in this year's mid term election and the presidential election if 2004.
BLITZER: Historically speaking right now, eight and half, almost nine months after September 11, President Bush's job approval ratings remain remarkably high, in the 70s according to all the public opinion polls. You remember his father, nine months after the Persian Gulf War didn't have those sky high job approval ratings. Can President Bush keep that up?
BRINKLEY: I think he can. I think it is tough. Remember with his father, we add clear set objective, which was Iraq invaded Kuwait, let's push them back. We did that. We can call it a victory and we sent home the troops. We never made it our object against Saddam Hussein. We are in much murkier waters right now. We are unclear just what and who the enemy is, how long this may go on.
I would make the analogy that George W. Bush, like Harry Truman, is leading -- Truman had to lead against an anti-communist crusade for decades. And each year, almost monthly you had to remind the people the threat of the Soviet Union or communism. I think George W. Bush is constantly going to have to remind and reremind people about September 11 and about future terrorist risks, and the fact that it is a dangerous world out there and he is trying to bring some order.
I think if he communicates to the people the truth, he can stand tall for quite a long time. But if they start seeing that there are things being swept under the rug or that there is a coverup or things like Enron start catching up with him, I think you can you see his popularity start tumbling as this mid-term election comes and particularly by 2004.
Bin Laden has not been captured. The administration says it is not important, but I think to the American people it is. He was made as the symbol of September 11. And hence until he is captured or dead or we know what happened to him, I think the Bush Administration has a weak spot there.
BLITZER: As usual, thank you for joining us on this Memorial Day.
BRINKLEY: Thank you, Wolf.
BLITZER: Thank you. Memorial Day always has had a special significance at military bases. But this day is taking on even more significance than usual at a naval base near Fresno, California. The crews of 24 jets arrive back at Lemoore Naval Air Station after serving six months of Operation Enduring Freedom. CNN's Rusty Dornin was there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the Immerman family there were only two words had meaning this week. Coming home to Lemoore Naval Air Station in California, 24 F-18s, after seven months of duty aboard the USS John Stennis. They left October 29. Since then, the word has been anticipation, now at fever pitch. But even with daddy so close, this mother of five must still give assurances.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They will land, honey.
DORNIN: Finally, the walk they have all been waiting for.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, man. Hey, quit crying. You are making me cry. Come on.
DORNIN: The USS John Stennis left two months early to join the campaign in Afghanistan.
BRICK IMMERMAN, U.S. NAVY: It's big. You know, we went out and did something important for America and this is who we did it for.
DORNIN (on camera): Was it different from the time you have been out on other (UNINTELLIGIBLE) just the whole feeling?
IMMERMAN: The whole thing for America this time was fantastic. You know, we were up in Nevada on September 11 when this all happened. And that day we sent planes out over San Diego to defend San Diego. We knew then we were going early. We left two months early.
DORNIN (voice-over): A homecoming that, for Navy wives, is often tearfully joyful.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The emotions are always running high. You think you will get through it and you won't cry, but you can never do it.
DORNIN: For a dad away from his five children, you may be defending your country, but it means you miss out on a few things.
IMMERMAN: You know, I miss all of the ball games. They all play ball and I missed their ball games. And I missed their teeth falling out. See that? They are all losing teeth. Look at that.
DORNIN: Things missed. The things they don't want it miss now, like games with 5-year-old gunner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Play trains. He makes a good crashing sound.
DORNIN (on camera): He makes a good crashing sound.
(voice-over): Sounds of joy from families whose wait is finally over.
Rusty Dornin, CNN, Lemoore, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And there was a special Memorial Day ceremony in Georgetown, Texas that honored Army Sergeant 1st Class Nathan Chapman, the first U.S. soldier to die from hostile fire in Afghanistan. His mother read a letter she received from her son during his first combat mission 13 years ago. Chapman was a member of the Green Berets and volunteered for the mission that killed him.
As President Bush honors Americans who gave their lives at Normandy, I will look back at my conversation with Walter Cronkite on the 50th anniversary of that fateful day.
And later, fighting stomach cancers and ulcers may be as simple as eating your broccoli. Stay with us.
Earlier we asked: Memorial Day was originally intended to honor the fallen of which war? On May 5, 1868, by proclamation of General John Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, Memorial Day, then called Declaration Day, was first observed to honor the fallen of the Civil War. Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday in 1971.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Live picture of the U.S. Capitol on this Memorial Day. And as we reported earlier, President Bush observed Memorial Day with a visit to the D-Day battlefield in France, the sight of the invasion that marked the turning point of World War II.
In his remarks the president remembered the Americans who fought and died on the beaches of Normandy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Only a man who was there, charging out of a landing craft could know what it was like. For the entire liberating force, there was only the ground in front of them. No shelter, no possibility of retreat. They were part of the largest amphibious landing in history and perhaps the only great battle in which the wounded were carried forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: Retired CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite covered the D-Day invasion when he was a young reporter. I interviewed him about D-Day back in 1994, the 50th anniversary of the invasion. Here is part of that interview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER CRONKITE, FMR. CBS. NEWS ANCHOR: I think that by reviewing again, looking again at the sacrifice of young men and women today that was taken in the name of warfare, we ought to be sobered into a realization that conflict resolution is far more important than picking up arms to settle our disagreements.
It's a terrible thing to think of the thousands and thousands of young people who will never have a chance to live their lives, never see their children. As Dwight Eisenhower told me sitting on this very wall over here, on the 20th anniversary of D-Day, he thinks of the grandchildren that these young kids will never have. And that's something for all of us to think about. It's no way to settle our disagreements.
BLITZER: Is it your sense that this younger generation, born after World War II, knows what happened or is beginning to think of it as some long forgotten past?
CRONKITE: It is a long forgotten thing for them. Back when I was 20-year-old, looking back 50 years, beyond the Spanish American War and I didn't think much of the Spanish American War. Of course, it was a vastly different war than this one which was a fully justified conflict, in defense of liberty and attempt to win it back for people who have been trammelled under the boot of that despicable Hitler. There wasn't any disagreement about this war on the part of the American people. Very few dissenters. It was war for a very just cause.
BLITZER: What goes through your mind, 50 years ago today, where were you right now?
CRONKITE: Right now I was back in London, when (UNINTELLIGIBLE) at the moment that the guys hit the beach for the first time, 6:30 a.m., I was about 12,000 feet overhead in a B-17, Flying Fortress.
BLITZER: Did you know what was going on?
CRONKITE: Yes. We knew it was D-Day by that time. I didn't know a few hours before that when an Air Force officer came by my apartment, saying we have a very dangerous assignment. I can't say anything more about it than that, but if you want to come, here we go. After we got in the car, he said, this is D-Day. The Air Force has a very late mission, army has asked for some close support behind the beaches from heavy bombers. We weren't trained to do that kind of mission, but a squadron from the 303 group led by then Major Lewis Lyle (ph) came over and I was aboard.
BLITZER: You had friends, acquaintances who were killed on D- Day? CRONKITE: Quite a few, quite a few including some correspondents. Not on D-Day, but within a few days of the landing.
BLITZER: Have you been thinking about them over these past few days?
CRONKITE: You can't help but remember those who died and went through that, you know, suffered the ultimate sacrifice in these things. Correspondents were -- I had -- my motto was let's get the devil out of here. But the guys that went in on D-Day were a brave bunch. They knew what they were getting into. Attacking Hitler's fortress Europa, and they knew it was going to be tough on the beaches, but they came to do their job of informing the American people and I think we should all honor them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Walter CRONKITE speaking with me on Normandy Beach in France eight years ago.
Still ahead: A new study encourages you to take a snooze at work. When we come back, why a nap could make you a better employee -- OK, I'll buy that.
Plus: The new Viagra? Men taking the anti-impotence drug may soon have another option.
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BLITZER: Checking some stories making news in our "Health Beat": Men taking the anti-impotence drug, Viagra, may soon have another option. A new pill called Cialis (ph), that is yet to be approved by the FDA, appears to be longer-lasting. That is according to the drug's developers. Viagra made a stir when it was introduced four years ago to treat impotence. Patients spend more than $1 billion a year on the blue pills.
You can call broccoli a mean, green cancer-fighting machine. Researchers say it contains a chemical that, in laboratory tests, killed the bacteria responsible for most stomach cancers and stomach ulcers. They add, there is enough of the substance to benefit those who eat broccoli sprouts. The findings are reported in tomorrow's issue of "The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science."
Here is a study employers shouldn't close their eyes to. Researchers in Harvard's psychology department say workers who take a nap during the day can be up to 90 percent as alert as they were in the morning. They found those who take time for a siesta feel well for the rest of the day and also perform better. For more on those stories let's turn to our medical correspondent Rea Blakey. Thanks for joining us.
First of all, this Cialis, is this for real, this new anti- impotence drug?
REA BLAKEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It would appear to be, but yet FDA approved, but certainly by next year it is anticipated through the marketer that they will in fact have it on the market. What is interesting here is we have all heard about Viagra. That particular drug study shows the effects lasts about eight to 12 hours. Basically, with this new drug, that could potentially be approved next year the effect time could last up to 36 hours, which would be three times as long as what we've seen with Viagra.
And obviously the issue there being that people have a little bit more control over their own sexual lives. So that's extremely important. The FDA wants a few more t's crossed, i's dotted before they allow it on the market, but it appears it is going through fairly quickly.
BLITZER: My mother always told me broccoli was good for me. She's right?
BLAKEY: She was absolutely right. There is a substance in broccoli, a phyto-chemical, which basically means it is a chemical inside a food called sulfa forean (ph) , and sulfa forean is good particularly good, it turns out, Wolf, at attacking a bacterium that is mainly responsible for the ulcers people develop as well as stomach cancers.
And by the way, something like 21,000 Americans will be diagnosed with stomach cancer this year in particular. So it is an important finding. What they don't know yet is whether or not this particular phyto chemical will work specific to human ulcers. They have it in animals, we'll see.
BLITZER: Rea Blakey, thank you for the important medical news. Appreciate it very much.
And you have two minutes left to vote before we reveal the results of whether you think al Qaeda has sleeper cells in the U.S. The results of our question of the day when we return.
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BLITZER: Now for the results to our Web question of the day: "Do you think al Qaeda has sleeper cells in the United States? Almost all of you so far, at least 93 percent sat yes. Only 7 percent say no. Remember, this is not a scientific poll.
That is all the time we have today. Thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE begins right at the top of the hour. But, we leave you now with some of the sights and sounds of this Memorial Day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this place and so many other places across America and around the world, people struggle as I do now to find words that can give proper honor to the lives and memories of America's fallen heroes knowing that words alone are never enough.
Now we face another hour of great testing, and yes, liberty, our way of life is once again in peril. We will not waiver, we will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail.
(GUNFIRE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me close with a poem that someone sent me a long time ago but it has a message. Titled, "Around The Corner."
'Around the corner I have a friend in this great city that has no end. Days go by and weeks rush on, and before I know it, a year is gone. I never see my old friend's face, her life is a swift and terrible race. He knows I like him just as well as in the day when I rang his bell and he rang mine. We were younger then. And now we're busy tired men. Tired of playing a foolish game, tired of trying to make a name. Tomorrow, I say, I'll call on Jim. But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes, and the distance between us grows and grows. Around the corner, yet miles away, here's a telegram, sir, Jim, died today. And that's what we get and deserve in the end, around the corner a vanished friend. The next time you see somebody who served their country, just say, thank you, where you see a son, daughter or mother or a wife or a brother, just say thank you for service. It will mean a lot to them." God bless America.
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