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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

President Bush to Undergo Colonoscopy; Explosion Rocks Hebron; Sex Outside Marriage Still Illegal in Georgia

Aired June 28, 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, "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS": Now on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS, President Bush makes an announcement about his health.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Tomorrow I'm going to have a colonoscopy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: From Manson family member to model prisoner ...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you in turn then stab Mrs. LaBianca?

LESLIE VAN HOUTEN: Yes, I did, in the lower torso approximately 14 to 16 times.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Decades after a killing spree, does she deserve parole?

New clues in the missing girl mystery as investigators study clothing and a jeep belonging to the family's former handyman. We'll speak with a lawyer and with two aunts of Elizabeth Smart.

Al Qaeda under cover, are terrorist sleeper cells awaiting orders for new attack. Authorities want you to keep your eyes open.

Israeli teens talk of terrorism and their future, but will desperation rob another generation of its future?

Sex is illegal in Georgia when it occurs outside of marriage. Is it time to change that law?

It's Friday, June 28, 2002. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Jerusalem. We're following several major stories right now, including the situation involving the president's health. Also, here in the Middle East, a huge explosion in Hebron only within the past hour.

There it is at a Palestinian Authority compound in Hebron. We'll have much more on that coming up. I also want to go to CNN's Miles O'Brien. He's standing by in Atlanta. He also is following some developments. Miles, tell us what you're working on.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you very much, Wolf. A woman who took part in one of the nation's most grizzly murders asked to be set free. Dramatic testimony from Leslie Van Houten on her role in the so-called Manson family killing spree.

We'll bring you all the details on that, but first let's go back to Wolf for the day's top story - Wolf.

BLITZER: Thank you very much, Miles, and we're going to go right to the White House where we're following a situation involving the president's health. Let's bring in our senior White House correspondent, John King.

John, give us the details. What did the president announce today?

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the president told the reporters before leaving the White House and heading up to Camp David for the weekend that tomorrow morning at Camp David he will have a - have a colonoscopy.

That is a routine screening for men 50 and over. It is recommended by your doctors to check for colon cancer. Mr. Bush having this, this will be his third colonoscopy. He's having it now because two in the past detected benign polyps. Those benign polyps were removed. His doctors recommended that he should have one every two years or so just to check in.

Now again, the White House saying this is a routine procedure that all men in their 50s should have and are recommended by their doctors, but the president is taking some extraordinary precautions.

He says he will transfer power temporarily to the vice president, so Dick Cheney will be the acting president of the United States for somewhere, we are told, in the range of one to three hours, most likely, tomorrow. Mr. Bush saying he makes this decision out of an abundance of caution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're at war, and I just want to, you know, be super, you know, super cautious. And I informed the vice president of this, and he's fully prepared to - he's standing by. He realizes he's not going to be president that long.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The president obviously joking about all this. We are told Mr. Cheney will be here at the White House for some time, otherwise in Washington. The president will transfer power by sending a letter to the speaker of the house and the president pro temps of the United States Senate.

Again, White House officials say they can't say for sure just how long it will be. But they believe the vice president will be acting president for somewhere in the area of one to three, maybe four hours as the president undergoes this procedure up at Camp David.

Mr. Bush will be given an intravenous anesthetic. It is not even certain that he will completely lose consciousness. That depends on his comfort level during the procedure. But again, Mr. Bush having the screening on the advice of his doctors.

A team of military doctors will perform it, and Mr. Bush saying because this is a nation at war, he has decided to take what he says is unprecedented in this case, and transfer power temporarily to the vice president.

That has been done once before, Ronald Reagan transferring power for about eight hours to his vice president, George Herbert Walker Bush, back in 1985 - Wolf.

BLITZER: John, this is the decision that's been in the works for some time, and it's not an easy decision. The president had to consult with his lawyers, his physicians and a lot of other people, as well, I assume.

KING: He did. He -- about two and a half weeks ago decided that this is the weekend he would this procedure. He has known for a little more than a year that his doctors wanted him to have it at about this time.

And we are told over the past several days the White House Counsel Al Gonzalez (ph), as well as the vice president's staff, have been brought into the discussions.

They reviewed all the precedents. They reviewed the terms of the constitutional transfer of power. Mr. Bush himself, we are told, decided out of an abundance of caution, again, given the fact that there are military troops deployed overseas, the risk of terrorism here at home, that Mr. Bush decided it was the right thing to do, even though he might never be completely unconscious, and even if he is, he's expected -- the procedure, Wolf, expected to take 30 to 60 minutes.

BLITZER: OK, John King, thanks very much for that report. Let's get some analysis now on what the transfer of power actually means. For that I'm joined by Professor Mark Tushnet of the Georgetown University Law Center. He specializes in constitutional law.

Professor Tushnet, thanks for joining us. Give our viewers some background -- precisely what does this mean?

PROF. MARK TUSHNET, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: It basically means that the vice president will serve, as the Constitution says, acting president. He'll have the full authority that the president would have for the period of this operation.

BLITZER: During this procedure, will the vice - will the vice president actually be in the White House? Will the vice president be able to walk around freely? What exactly will be the burdens on the vice president?

TUSHNET: He will be performing in the same way that the president would. He may not be in the White House, but the president isn't always in the White House.

He'll have the same communication facilities that the president would have and would be able to do anything that the president would have to do during this period. If there's some sort of emergency that would come up, the vice president, as acting president, could address it, just as the president could.

BLITZER: You heard the president say that he was doing this, this transfer of power, as part of an abundance of caution, because the country's in a state of war right now. If the country were not in a state of war, would it be a good idea to undertake this transfer of power as part of the 21st Amendment (sic) to the Constitution as well?

TUSHNET: I think it would depend a lot on how cautious the president was. Anything can go wrong during an operation, even the most routine one. And you might assume that it would be one to three hours, but something could go wrong.

And you might want to have the authority transferred. I think it would be probably good practice for presidents who are undergoing these sorts of procedures generally to transfer authority pursuant to the constitution.

BLITZER: And for those of our history buffs out there, walk us through the birth of this transfer of power amendment. What -- when and why did it come about?

TUSHNET: It was adopted in the 1970s, I believe in response to a series of sort of medical emergencies of various sorts that put the president out of commission under circumstances where nobody really knew who had authority and the idea was to insure in writing that the constitution provided proper authority for the vice president to do whatever was necessary.

In the past, when presidents have been out of commission for these sorts of circumstances, actually nothing urgent really came up. But there was always a sense that something might have gone wrong and we needed something in the constitution to make sure that we could work through it in a regular way.

BLITZER: Thank you very much, Professor Mark Tushnet of the Georgetown University Law School. And later this hour we'll speak with a physician who knows a lot about this procedure the president will undergo tomorrow. When we get that, we'll be speaking with the doctor and we'll get some specific medical opinions about the ordeal the president will have to go through tomorrow. Meanwhile, up on Capitol Hill, there was a brief scare although it turned out to be not much of a scare today when the U.S. Capitol was evacuated briefly because of the smell of smoke. Emergency vehicles raced to the scene where the problem was soon traced to an attic fan on the House side, gave an odor, but there was no fire and no smoke. According to Capitol police the building was reopened after about only an hour.

Let's check some other news. Miles O'Brien is standing by for that in Atlanta - Miles.

O'BRIEN: Thank you, Wolf. One of the most notorious murder sprees in U.S. history back in the public eye today. Leslie Van Houten, a Charles Manson follower, serving life in prison for her role in the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders, went before the California Parole Board today, seeking her release yet again.

CNN's Charles Feldman has our story for us. Hello, Charles.

CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles, and it was a horrific crime. It happened 33 years ago. It was the year man landed on the moon and Leslie Van Houten was then 19 years old, and part of the Charles Manson gang. The day after Manson and his clan killed actress Sharon Tate, they went to the home of the LaBiancas, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, a home selected in Los Angeles, purely at random.

And while the husband was being killed in one room, Leslie Van Houten and her cohorts were holding down his wife in another room with a pillow over her head. Another member of the Manson gang thrust a bayonet into her and then Leslie Van Houten, by her own admission, took a knife and stabbed her 16 times in the back.

Now, for the past 33 years she's been behind these fences at this prison here. She's tried through 13 parole attempts to get out, 13 times the Parole Board has turned her down. This time she is up for it one more time. There's a possibility that things may be different, but at her hearing now, she was asked whether or not she even recalled the murders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you in turn then stab Mrs. LaBianca?

LESLIE VAN HOUTEN: Yes I did in the lower torso approximately 14 to 16 times. I didn't know at that time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you remember doing that?

HOUTEN: Yes I do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And after that, what happened?

HOUTEN: I told Pat that I had touched a lamp, and I began wiping off fingerprints in the bedroom.

(END VIDEO CLIP) FELDMAN: Now, she was also asked in her own defense, because she says she's been rehabilitated over the past few years, if she takes responsibility.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOUTEN: I take very seriously what happened, that I in no way, because of the circumstance or my particular involvement, I carry full responsibility for what occurred.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FELDMAN: Now the parole board is deliberating even as we speak. Their decision expected shortly. Regardless of what they decide, though, it will ultimately end up on the desk of the governor of the state of California - Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Charles Feldman in Frontera, California. We'll probably be checking in with you a little bit later as he monitors that decision out there.

Police investigating Elizabeth Smart's disappearance, meanwhile, deny that Richard Ricci is a suspect. But they appear to be paying closer and closer attention to Ricci, an ex-con who once worked at the Smart home as a handyman.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is on the case in Salt Lake City. He has the latest for us. Hello, Ed.

All right, obviously some audio problems with Ed Lavandera. We're going to iron those things out and we'll get him back to you after we take a quick break. Stay with us for more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Authorities in Salt Lake City are not calling Richard Ricci a suspect, but they seem to be building a case around him. Let's go to Ed Lavandera who is watching this case for us, the case of 14-year old Elizabeth Smart still missing - Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles. Well there's more evidence today that police continue to scrutinize Richard Ricci. We spoke with his father-in-law this afternoon and he tells us FBI agents have come out to his house today and taken hair samples from him. Now you remember that he's also had a golf style hat taken away from his house and a machete taken away from his house.

It's important because the golf style hat and the original description of the suspect that abducted Elizabeth Smart, the suspect was said to have been wearing a golf-style hat at the time. So he presumes that they're trying to test to see if there are anything hair fibers that perhaps come from Richard Ricci that might have been in that hat because a couple of days ago, his father-in-law said that Richard Ricci never have access to that hat.

Now there's also been a pair of tan pants and a white polo shirt taken from Richard Ricci's mobile home. He lives right next door to his father-in-law and beside - despite all of this the authorities continue to do their testing on all of this material and they continue to look in the alibis that the Riccis have been telling police. His family maintains that he's an innocent man.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID MORSE, RICCI'S FATHER-IN-LAW: What I've seen in the way he's lived and we've lived that I don't think he had anything to do with it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. He couldn't have.

MORSE: And it's - I know they have to find Elizabeth, but ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes ...

MORSE: They're sure ruining a couple of lives here, I'll tell you that ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They've sure messed us up.

MORSE: ... on what's happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Now investigators also continue to look into this Jeep Cherokee that Ricci received from Ed Smart, Elizabeth's father, for partial payment on work that he had done at the house last year.

Now that Jeep Cherokee was taken into the shop, into an auto shop sometime in May, and we're told by the auto mechanic and some sources, investigative sources that tell CNN that Richard Ricci came to Martin (ph) - on May 31st came to the auto shop, took the Jeep out and then returned it on June 8th.

Now during that time it appears that 1,000 miles were put on the car, so investigators are trying to figure out where that Jeep Cherokee might have been. We're told that it wasn't seen at Ricci's house during that time, so they're doing sophisticated testing or they're trying to figure out some test that can be done on the wheel wells and dirt that's found on the car to try to determine where that car might have gone to, where it might have been and if there's any other evidence that might be possible.

That auto mechanic also tells us that he saw Richard Ricci taking some seat covers off the car and a pole digger out of the back of the car after - on June 8th when he was returning that car back to the auto shop. So those of some of the details investigators here in Salt Lake City are following as they continue to investigate Richard Ricci, who they say is at the top of the list of the theories they're looking into.

But with having said that, they're still not calling him a suspect at this time - Miles. O'BRIEN: All right, Ed Lavandera, let's find out if that whole issue of whether he is a suspect is semantics or whether there's something more to it. David K. Smith is Richard Ricci's lawyer. He joins us from Salt Lake City.

Mr. Smith, good to have you with us.

DAVID K. SMITH, RICHARD RICCI'S LAWYER: Good to be with you.

O'BRIEN: Your client is not being - well authorities aren't using the "S" word, let's say. But it seems like everything they're doing is building a case or attempting to build a case on him. Would you agree with that?

SMITH: I would agree with that.

O'BRIEN: So where does it go from here? What are you going to do to position your client? How are you defending your client at this point?

SMITH: We're attempting at this point to get his part of the story out, tell about his defense in terms - in general terms, at least, not specifics. But we want the public to know that his position is he had nothing to do with it.

O'BRIEN: All right, would you call him a suspect then? Would you use that term?

SMITH: I don't think he's a suspect yet, but they may declare him a suspect soon.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's go through a couple of items. First of all, this vehicle issue, the vehicle which was the mechanic saw before and then after the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart.

During that nine-day period some 1,000 miles was put on the vehicle. Now if you do the math on that, that's a little more than 100 miles each day. I suppose a good attorney could make a case of a little more than 100 miles each day is not that much, particularly in a big state like Utah. But having said that, Mr. Ricci wasn't a commuter, was he?

SMITH: No, he wasn't.

O'BRIEN: All right, so what - how do you explain the mileage?

SMITH: I really can't comment on it at this point. I'd like to be able to. There's a lot I would like to say, but I can't tell you.

O'BRIEN: All right, there's another issue that Ricci had been seen digging a hole outside of his mobile home. What can you tell us about that?

SMITH: That's not true. He was weeding. He was digging for some weeds. He was actually digging near his neighbor's porch or under his neighbor's porch, doing some weeding and then fixing a hole where cats were getting in and out. It was an access hole to his neighbor's trailer.

O'BRIEN: An access hole to his neighbor's trailer, is what you're talking about, then?

SMITH: Yes.

O'BRIEN: So it's purely innocent (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and finally this issue ...

SMITH: Yes.

O'BRIEN: ... of the machete-like knife, which apparently belonged to Ricci's father-in-law ...

SMITH: Yes.

O'BRIEN: ... nevertheless has been confiscated by authorities as part of this investigation apparently.

SMITH: It has.

O'BRIEN: Tell me about the knife and did Mr. Ricci use it frequently for reasons that are benign?

SMITH: Let me talk about both the knife and the hat because I think they go together.

O'BRIEN: OK.

SMITH: His father-in-law has indicated that Mr. Ricci has never had access to either of those, have never used either of those. Mr. Ricci's story is that he never used either the hat or the knife, and I think it's a red herring, really.

O'BRIEN: OK, but the hat does match that description, which comes from Elizabeth Smart's younger sister, nine years old, kind of a Scottish style golf hat. That -- you don't find that to be a coincidence.

SMITH: Yes. Well, the police are welcome to examine the hat. I'm sure they already are. My client's position is he's never worn the hat. He has never used the hat. It's not his hat.

O'BRIEN: In your last conversation with Mr. Ricci, give us a sense of his frame of mind.

SMITH: He's a little worn - excuse me, he's a little worn, but he's holding in there and he maintains his innocence.

O'BRIEN: David K. Smith, attorney for Richard Ricci, not considered a suspect, although he just admitted it certainly seems like authorities are building a case around his client. Thanks for being with us from Salt Lake City.

SMITH: You're welcome. O'BRIEN: We appreciate it. Two of Elizabeth's aunts will join us at the half hour to give the family reaction to all this. We invite you to stay tuned for that as well.

Now let's go back to Wolf Blitzer in Jerusalem - Wolf.

BLITZER: Thank you, Miles. There are developments in the U.S. war against terrorism. The government may continue, at least for now, its blanket procedure of closing hearings, immigration hearings for foreign terrorist suspects.

The Supreme Court today stated district judges ruling that it's unconstitutional to close all such detention or deportation hearings. The Bush administration argues that national security would be threatened if reporters and others are allowed to attend. A federal appeals court will now study the matter and give its opinion.

Meanwhile, are al Qaeda operatives on the loose in the United States? U.S. officials have urged the public to remain vigilant. CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena has our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Sources tell CNN intelligence intercepts strongly suggest there is a network of al Qaeda operatives at work in the United States. In a speech before the American Muslim Council, FBI Director Robert Mueller said the terrorist threat is nearly invisible.

ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: The front lines are right here at home in our own streets, in our cities and in our own neighborhoods.

ARENA: Mueller has admitted there are individuals in the U.S. under surveillance. Sources tell CNN FBI field offices continue to watch an undisclosed number of people that are here legally and illegally for clues that could lead to so-called sleeper cells, terrorist units awaiting orders for future attacks.

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R), ALABAMA: The question is where are these people? Are they in the fabric of this country? Are they citizens? Are they lying low to hit us again? I think we have to be concerned with all of that.

ARENA: Take, for example, Jose Padilla. He was on his way to the U.S., according officials, as part of a plot to build and set off a radio active dirty bomb. Law enforcement sources tell CNN it's highly unlikely he had the resources or skill to pull that off alone.

The FBI arrested Padilla before he could make contact with anyone here in the United States. Sources say he called this man, Adham Hassoun of Sunrise, Florida before his trip to the U.S. Hassoun is in custody for a visa violation.

CNN has reported the two knew each other, even attended the same mosque in Florida, but was Padilla counting on Hassoun to hook him up with other al Qaeda operatives at work in this country? That's what investigators are trying to find out.

PAUL BREMER: That involves things like 24-hour surveillance. It may involve where the courts will order it, wiretaps on people's phones or Internet connections and so forth.

ARENA: FBI officials around the country contacted by CNN have said they don't feel they have a - quote - "accurate view of the full extent of possible terrorist suspects in the U.S." And some say the FBI doesn't even have the resources to keep an eye on the ones they do know about.

Those officials also say making inroads into the Muslim community has been very difficult in some places. There remains and antigovernment, anti-law enforcement sentiment among any American Muslims. Changing that is obviously a top FBI priority.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And here's your chance to weigh in on this important story. Our Web question of the day is this. Do you worry about the prospect of al Qaeda sleeper cells in the United States? Go to my Web page, cnn.com/wolf. That's where you can vote.

Meanwhile there's a breaking story we're following here in the Middle East right now. Israeli - the Israeli military siege of a Palestinian town has taken a dramatic turn within the past hour or so. Explosions have torn through large parts of a compound, a Palestinian authority compound in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Palestinian sources say the blast came shortly after Israeli troops briefly entered carrying large bags. Israel says terrorist suspects have been holed up inside the complex, perhaps a half dozen or 15 or so. Bulldozers earlier have torn down portions of the complex. We're following the story. We'll have more details as it unfolds in the next several hours.

Meantime, the Israeli military has released a photo of a Palestinian baby dressed up as a suicide bomber, said to have been seized during the search of a militant's house. The toddler's family insist the photo was taken simply as a joke.

We have much more news coming up. New leads in the case of Elizabeth Smart all points apparently to one man. But still no suspect and no sign of Elizabeth. Her two aunts will talk with Miles O'Brien when we come back. Plus, is Xerox a copy cat? The corporate accounting mess just got messier.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. Let's go back to our top story now. President Bush will undergo a colonoscopy tomorrow at Camp David, the presidential retreat in the Catoctin Mountains.

Let's get some medical expertise now on what this precisely means. Joining me Dr. Stanley Benjamin, Chief of Gastroenterology at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Benjamin, thanks for joining us. How dangerous, how difficult a procedure is this?

DR. STANLEY BENJAMIN, CHIEF OF GASTROENTEROLOGY, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: It's good to be here, Wolf. I think it's important to understand that the colonoscopy is something that goes on thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of times a day. It's a routine, now a routine exam that is used to prevent colon cancer, so it's something, it is not without complications, but the complications are very, very small in terms of relative risk.

BLITZER: Now, the president said that he had a colonoscopy about two years ago. There were some benign polyps there. As a result of some precaution, the doctors suggested maybe he should have another one within two years. The words "benign polyps" what does that mean?

BENJAMIN: The way that this works is all colon cancers come from benign polyps or adenomas, so that you must have a benign polyp in the colon and you can develop a cancer. The strategy is that if you remove the benign polyps, you can prevent cancer.

Colon cancer is a preventable disease unlike some of the other major cancers we deal with. So what happens when someone finds a polyp is they tell that patient that they are in an ongoing program of surveillance to remove other polyps that might be there and to prevent colon cancer. This is within the standard of care for colon cancer prevention.

BLITZER: The doctors, the president's doctors say he will have an intravenous anesthetic called Propofol that will put him out, I guess, for at least an hour or so. Is that standard operating procedure to use that anesthetic?

BENJAMIN: Well, Propofol is used when there are anesthesiologists available in this country. For a gastroenterologist like myself, without anesthesia, we would not use Propofol, but Propofol is much more rapidly acting.

It goes away much quicker and for people who want to be back on their feet, as our president might want to be very quickly, Propofol seems like an excellent choice.

BLITZER: If there are some more benign polyps in there, God forbid something worse, then they just go ahead and do the procedures. They cut them out as the president is under the - on the table right then and there, is that right?

BENJAMIN: Absolutely, it's called colonoscopy with possible polypectomy. This is a search and destroy mission and we know that it works. The National Polyp Study proved that you can prevent colon cancer by doing this at some interval. Everyone's supposed to have it, including the president.

BLITZER: One final point, doctor, a lot of our viewers probably remember Katie Courick of "The Today Show" had a colonoscopy. I myself had a colonoscopy about a year or so ago. The doctor in my particular case told me I don't need another one for five years. Everything was fine with me. The fact that he's had a requirement for one after two years, what if anything does that say to you?

BENJAMIN: What it says is it's more likely that the number and size of polyps that were found vary. Whenever I see a patient, I take out a polyp, or before I take out the polyp, I say, "Your follow-up will be based on what I find. How big is the polyp? Is it greater than a centimeter? How many do you have?"

And two to three years there's slight variation from one doctor to the other, but the standard of care is that three to five years for people who have pre-cancerous polyps, and two years might simply mean that one of them was a little bit larger. But, this is all within the standard of care for colon cancer prevention.

BLITZER: All right, colon cancer is obviously a serious subject and we're glad our viewers are learning a lot about preventing it. Dr. Stanley Benjamin, thanks for joining us.

BENJAMIN: You're welcome.

BLITZER: Let's go back to Miles at the CNN Center for other news. Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, thank you very much, Wolf. Where in the world is Elizabeth Smart? It's a question many people are asking and among them, perhaps most - of great interest to them are two of her aunts; in Salt Lake City joining us Angela Smart and Cynthia Smart Owens, thank you very much for being with us.

ANGELA SMART, ELIZABETH SMART'S AUNT: You're welcome.

CYNTHIA SMART OWENS, ELIZABETH SMART'S AUNT: You're welcome.

O'BRIEN: Give us a sense of how you and the rest of the family are doing these days.

OWENS: We just try to take one day at a time. It's interesting to see the things that are developing and it's nice to have some kind of information that we can see is being gathered and yet still police are releasing very little you have of it and a lot of it is really kind of hearsay and, you know, that you see over this.

SMART: Speculation.

OWENS: You see over the news. So, we still aren't holding absolute hopes that we see as the man. We still feel like there's a great need to keep our eyes open and look for Elizabeth.

O'BRIEN: Would you put him in the category of suspect? That's been a bit of discussion that's been around. He hasn't been labeled as such by authorities. Would you label him as that?

SMART: I think that, I mean they told us everybody, every one of us is a suspect, so but I think that it's very important that we realize that they are just looking at this information about him and that people are trying to connect the dots, but a lot of those dots maybe shouldn't be connected. And so, we're really trying to stress that we keep looking for the abductor that this is not necessarily the person and so we need to keep looking. We need to keep looking for Elizabeth.

OWENS: One thing is clear though. He is suspicious.

O'BRIEN: You are part of a family that has continued with a very concerted media campaign to keep awareness out there about Elizabeth, daily press briefings, interviews like this. There's a website, elizabethsmart.com where people can go to on the web to find out about potential clues, information and perhaps share information. I'm curious how difficult that is to continue that very public role in all of this.

OWENS: Well, it is difficult, especially when we don't have more information forthcoming, but one thing we feel strongly about is that it's easy when you have a tragedy to kind of forget about it if it's not in your own backyard.

You know every night Elizabeth dad is antsy and we can't forget that and it's made us so much more aware of all the other missing children.

Three hundred fourteen every day are attempted non family abductions in the United States, and it's made us so much more aware that we just really have to be on a campaign and draw the line and say, this is not all right. We need to pursue these people until we find them.

You know, it's like Osama bin Laden, we can't just forget what happened nine months ago, and so we're trying to keep it in front of the people so they will continue to look for Elizabeth and not forget and be watchful for other children, children who have already been missing or might be abducted.

O'BRIEN: Angela, to follow up on what Cynthia just said, she mentioned the 300 some odd children that go missing every day. This particular case has attained media attention way beyond many of those other cases, and in many cases there's a lot of criticism about the media's handling of all of this.

SMART: Right.

O'BRIEN: What's it like on the inside of this?

SMART: Well, on the inside of it we're, of course, exhausted. We'd love to all go home but - and I'm sure as everybody would like to find Elizabeth and have this all over and have a happy, you know, fairytale ending.

What we really need to do is we want to be pushing the heightened awareness, not just for Elizabeth, but for other children, and as we're going about looking at these searches and trying to lay out this area, we're trying to come up with a program that won't just help find Elizabeth, but will help find other children.

We were fortunate enough to be able to use the Rachael (ph) Alert and get Elizabeth's picture right out there. That's the first time that has ever been used, and we're hoping that that's maybe what has helped give us some of this momentum.

And so from here, we're hoping that maybe because of the things we have learned that if - when this happens again unfortunately, that they will be able to use these same things to be able to go forward and do a full court press quickly so that this will not happen again, so that they can get any little boy or little girl who's taken back quickly.

O'BRIEN; All right, we'll leave it at that; Angela Smart, Cynthia Smart Owens, thank you very much for being with us on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

Time for us to take a break, then the issue of sex outside a marriage. If you do it in Georgia, it's a crime. We'll debate a controversial Georgia law just ahead. The big milestone for the man known as 007, we'll tell you about that in just a bit.

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O'BRIEN: An Ohio judge wants an enamored couple to apologize for openly having sex at a popular lakeside beach, while shocked families looked on. The Painesville judge gave the 33-year-old man and the 24- year-old woman this option. Buy ads in two local newspapers apologizing or go to jail. The couple opted for two days of community service and saying I'm sorry.

Sex and the law making some news in Georgia as well, the ACLU is asking the State Supreme Court to repeal a law that makes it illegal for anyone at any age to have sex if they are not married. We've asked two legal experts to weigh in on this today. In Atlanta, Gerald Weber, the Legal Director of the ACLU in Georgia.

GERALD WEBER, DIRECTOR, ACLU, GEORGIA: Hello.

O'BRIEN: And Phil Kent, President of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, joining us from Jacksonville, Florida. Gerry, let's begin with you. On what grounds will you petition the Supreme Court here to rule this particular law unconstitutional?

WEBER: Well, it's a basic government-in-your-bedroom sort of issue. The law, which dates back to 1854, makes it a crime punishable by as much as a year in jail for unmarried persons over the age of consent to engage in private sexual activity in their own bedroom.

O'BRIEN: All right, but what's the constitutional issue there?

WEBER: Our basic Constitutional issue is a privacy claim, that it is a privacy right to engage in this sort of activity in your own bedroom without the government coming in and interfering. O'BRIEN: Phil, it's a privacy issue, consenting adults and people who can make their own decisions. What's the matter with that?

PHIL KENT, PRESIDENT OF SOUTHEAST LEGAL FOUNDATION: Well, I think he's on weak ground with privacy decision. Really, the only constitutional privacy should be the Fourth Amendment search and seizure privacy in your home.

Now since 1973, since the Rowe Decision, I know an activist core and judges have expanded privacy, but I don't buy that. I think this actually in Georgia is a tool to especially keep down teenagers from having sex, a big problem. I would hope my friends with the ACLU would agree.

O'BRIEN: Is it a tool that you think is working?

KENT: Well, I don't think hundreds of thousands of people are being arrested in Georgia. I think it's a selective tool to be used, and in the case of the Georgia teenagers, they both were 16 and the mother didn't want the girl to be with this boy and the law worked in this case and Juvenile Court took the case.

O'BRIEN: You're making reference to the case which got the ACLU involved. Gerry, this particular case, is this the right case? We're talking about 16 years old. There's a gray area here as to whether they were legal consenting adults, whatever you may say. Aren't there perhaps more clear cut cases that you could use?

WEBER: Under Georgia law, a person who's 16 years old can get married, can engage in intimate sexual activity. They are considered an adult.

O'BRIEN: So that sounds like there's a contradiction inherent in the law there then, is that right? Would you go along with that, Phil?

KENT: Well, that's a good point. I think before the ACLU rushes to court like they do all the time, why don't they go to lobby the Georgia State Legislature and maybe narrow the law or change the law? I think that ought to be the first thing.

O'BRIEN: So you're just talking about tactics here. You don't mind if the ACLU petitions some sort of body to change this. Phil, let me back up. Would you say this is an anachronism and really is kind of silly in 2002 to have a law like this on the books?

KENT: I think the people of Georgia, through their elected representatives, really ought to decide that. I think the court ought to be a last resort. Why doesn't the ACLU lobby the Georgia legislature? I dare say they will probably keep the law or perhaps narrow it, especially because of the problem of teenage sex in Georgia.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's look at - we got a graphic here just to give you a sense of the efficacy of this law, a law that I'm sure most Georgians didn't even know existed until this story of these two 16-year-olds came to light. California, which has no such law, two percent of the population, unmarried partners living together, Georgia 1.8 percent, statistically insignificant difference there, Phil. How would you respond to that? Clearly, the law has no impact on all of this.

KENT: Well, I would still say if the people want to narrow this, let's narrow the law but right now it's on the books. I would hope that we're not going to knock down incest laws or prostitution laws based on this phony privacy argument we hear from my friend with the ACLU.

O'BRIEN: Gerry, he's calling you a phony.

WEBER: Well, those issues, incest, are not at all at issue in this case. This is people over the age of consent in the privacy of their own bedroom. There are 140,000 Georgians that are living in committed relationships in Georgia but aren't married. Each one of those people can go to jail for a year for engaging in private activity in their own bedroom.

O'BRIEN: Yes, but Gerry, nobody is suggesting that police are going to be knocking on the door of these couples and hauling them off to jail. That's just not going to happen.

WEBER: Well, in fact, in this case neither family wanted to prosecute these two kids. The government prosecuted these two kids against the wishes of the very families involved. So yes, I think it is a very real possibility that the government will do just that.

O'BRIEN: Gerry Weber with the ACLU in Georgia, Phil Kent, president of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, thanks very much for this debate. We appreciate it.

KENT: Thanks.

O'BRIEN: Now back to Wolf Blitzer in Jerusalem. Wolf.

BLITZER: Thanks, Miles, very interesting. Let's move on and talk about something else now -- greed, lies and overstated revenue; when we come back another corporate giant with a billion dollar accounting blunder, the new mess at Xerox straight ahead.

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BLITZER: Welcome back. Yet another huge corporation is reporting accounting problems. The Xerox Corporation today said it would restate its revenues by as much as $2 billion over five years because of an error. An audit showed the company improperly posted revenues before they were actually made.

Investors dumped Xerox stock today in response to the news, causing the price to fall about 13 percent. Let's go to New York now and get a preview of Lou Dobbs "MONEYLINE." That begins right at the top of hour and I know he's going to have more on this story. Lou.

LOU DOBBS, ANCHOR, "MONEYLINE": Absolutely, Wolf, thank you very much. Coming up, the president tells corporate executives get the program accurate or simply get out of business, and why the American business model remains the model for the rest of the world. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger will be with us tonight to talk about the Middle East peace initiative. And the women of Enron hit New York City, we'll have that story for you, a great deal more at the top of the hour. Please join us. Now back to Wolf Blitzer. Wolf.

BLITZER: Thank you very much, Lou. He's been on the screen now for almost 40 years and he's hardly aged a day. Guns, gadgets, and girls, it's all part of the world of Bond, James Bond, and we'll give you the answer to our news quiz as well. Stay with us.

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BLITZER: Our picture of the day involves a man named Bond, James Bond. He's been on the screen now for 40 years. He still has a license to kill and to entertain.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice over): The hard-driving, skirt-chasing, martini- loving hero first hit the big screen in 1962. Sean Connery, the first to play Agent 007 introduced us to a world of super gadgets, outrageous stunts, risque women, special effects, and a man as British as kidney pie.

"Dr. No" was the first Bond film, but perhaps the best known bond villain was Goldfinger. Connery passed the role to one-hit Bond wonder George Lazenby in the 1969 film, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," the only film where 007 gets married. His wife expires at the end, of course.

Leaving the role of the single, smooth and available bond for Connery to play once again in "Diamonds are Forever." Roger Moore starred as 007 in the next seven films, including "The Spy Who Loved Me," the only Bond film not based on an Ian Flemming Novel.

"A View to Kill" was not only Moore's last film, but also farewell to actress Lois Maxwell, the original Mrs. Moneypenny. Timothy Dalton played Bond twice, taking a more serious approach to the role. Moviegoers had to wait out a six-year Bond drought before actor Pierce Brosnan lept into action in "Golden Eye," "Tomorrow Never Dies," and "The World is not Enough."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: That, of course, was O'Brien, Miles O'Brien. Thank you very much, Miles, for helping me out all week.

Now here's the results of our web question of the day. Earlier we asked: Do you worry about the prospect of al Qaeda sleeper cells in the United States? Look at this, 74 percent of you say yes, 26 percent of you say no. Remember, this is not a scientific poll.

That's all the time we have today. Please join me though on Sunday on "LATE EDITION," the last word in Sunday talk. Among my guests this Sunday, President Bush's National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice; she'll talk about the Middle East and a lot of other issues. Until then, thanks very much for watching.

I'll be back in Washington next week. For Miles O'Brien, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Jerusalem. Lou Dobbs "MONEYLINE" begins right now.

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