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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Horror Hits Afghan Wedding Party; Al Qaeda Lieutenants Give Clues to bin Laden's Whereabouts; Airport Screeners Fail Bomb Detection Tests

Aired July 01, 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, CNN ANCHOR: Now on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS: horror hits a wedding party in Afghanistan; were U.S. bombs responsible?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coalition forces were moving to conduct an operation. They came under fire. They called in close air support.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: A letter from bin Laden, the latest clues about the al Qaeda leader from one of his top lieutenants.

Terror summit: how the September 11 hijackers may have hatched their plot.

Secret tests reportedly show airport screeners are still failing to detect many fake weapons and bombs. So what happens when they come up against the real thing?

And an American adventurer reaches for a record.

It's Monday July 1, 2002. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

Dozens of people have been killed and injured in an Afghan village. Local officials say it was bombed by U.S. aircraft during a wedding party. The Pentagon confirms that a U.S. bomb has gone astray.

CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson has the story.

He joins me now live from the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf, the chief staff of the Afghan defense ministry says he believes between 20 and 30 people were killed. He says another 60 civilians were injured as well. Many of those have been taken to the Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar, which is the nearest city.

He explained what happened. He said a U.S. aircraft was flying over the province of Oruzgan just north of Kandahar. He said it flew over a wedding party. He said people at the wedding party were celebrating, that they were firing in the air, and as they fired in the air a bomb was dropped, hurting people.

Now the Associated Press has been to that hospital in Kandahar, the Mirwais Hospital. They've take pictures of some of the injured. There is a girl there, 7-year-old girl Melitza (ph). She, we're told, is the only surviving member of her family. In another bed in the hospital, a 6-year-old girl, Pulka (ph).

We are told she is also the only surviving member of her family. She is in a party dress -- an indication, as we have heard, that the people involved in this incident were at a wedding. In another bed Galam Mohammed (ph), a 5-year-old boy being tended to by his brother.

In another bed in the hospital, a 35-year-old man being assisted by his brother-in-law, we are told, and yet in another bed and elderly woman, we are told was also caught up in that bombing. She is being tended by her husband, we are told.

Now the military briefers who brief us here at Bagram Air Base say that the -- what happened a Special Forces operation was underway in Oruzgan Province, a large Special Forces operation. They went into an area in Oruzgan. They were fired upon. They called in close air support.

Those planes that came included a B-52 bomber and an AC-130 Spectre gunship. Military briefers also say a number of other aircraft were involved in the operation as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. ROGER KING, U.S. ARMY: I know that there were bombs dropped by B-52 on one location, which was not near the town. There was also some air support from an AC-130 gunship. There may have been other aircraft involved but I don't have specifics on that.

ROBERTSON: Now the reason that the bombs were dropped and the aircraft responded in this way, we are told, is because they believed anti-aircraft guns were firing at them, from the ground, from those Afghan positions. Now the briefers here tell us a joint Afghan and coalition forces investigation team will travel to this area in Oruzgan on Tuesday and there will be a joint investigation put in place Wolf.

BLITZER: And I'm sure that investigation will be intense. Nic Robertson reporting live from the scene at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Thank you very much.

Fresh intelligence has U.S. officials deeply worried about a possible terrorist strike against the United States this summer.

Let's go straight to our national security correspondent David Ensor. He has details -- David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf, U.S. officials have said they have no evidence that any sort of attack could be planned this week, but intelligence gathered in recent weeks has made U.S. officials seriously concerned that terrorists may try to strike against the United States again this summer.

There are a lot of indications that something is up, as one U.S. official put it to me, although there are no specific indications about what targets al Qaeda sleeper cells may hope to attack. The level of chatter by individuals suspected of association with al Qaeda and related terrorist groups is as high, officials say, as it was last summer prior to the attack of September 11 against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

So a good deal of concern here today, Wolf.

BLITZER: David Ensor with the very latest. Thank you very much.

Meanwhile President Bush today asked Americans to keep in mind that Afghanistan was a country that had been, quote, "hijacked by al Qaeda" and stressed again that the United States is in for the long haul when it comes to the war on terrorism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's not the kind of war where there's tanks moving across you know some plane. Everybody gets to see the progress of the tanks. It's not the kind of war where planes are in formation. This is a -- this is a war that we fight against these shadowy terrorists that hide in caves or hide in big cities and send young souls to their death through suicide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: As the war against terrorism grinds on inside and outside Afghanistan, the hunt for Osama bin Laden also goes on. As the president's National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told me yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NAT'L SECURITY ADVISER: Nothing changes in what we've said several times. We don't know whether Osama bin Laden is alive or dead. We do know that he is not commanding this organization in the way that he once did because their home base is gone in Afghanistan. Yes, we're continuing to fight pockets of al Qaeda and pockets of Taliban inside and outside the country, but we've said for a very long time that we don't have any reason to believe that he's dead and we have no evidence that he's dead or alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The latest issue of "TIME" magazine reports on what it describes as a "tantalizing" document suggesting Osama bin Laden was alive at least as recently as December. The clue, a letter it describes coming from Osama bin Laden to top lieutenant Abu Zubaydah, who was captured during a March police raid in Pakistan and remains under U.S. custody at a secret location outside the United States. Right now joining me from New York, "TIME" world editor Lisa Beyer, who wrote the story. What supposedly does this letter say Lisa?

LISA BEYER, "TIME" MAGAZINE: The contents of the letter aren't particularly interesting. Our understanding is that essentially bin Laden was giving an exhortation to his deputy to continue the jihad even if something happened to bin Laden or to his number one lieutenant Ayman al Zawahiri. But what's interesting is the date on the letter, which is December 28.

This would suggest that not only did Osama bin Laden survive the massive American bombardment of Afghanistan in general, but the he potentially survived the assault on Tora Bora where American forces thought he was toward the middle of December.

BLITZER: And if he survived then, though, there's no reason to believe one way or another that he might be still be alive today, right?

BEYER: That's right. December was some time ago, and we know that Osama bin Laden is in failing health. It's been understand for some time, I think, by experts, that he has some sort of kidney ailment, perhaps caused by diabetes, quite possibly necessitating dialysis.

We've also heard that a group of physicians have done a study on behalf of an intelligence agency studying Osama bin Laden's appearance in various photographs over time, and they've come to the hypothesis that he's also suffering from secondary osteoporosis, which can be caused by a fundamental kidney problem, or even by the dialysis used to treat the problem, which would mean that not only is he potentially in excruciating back pain, but that his bones would become very brittle in the same way that sometimes elderly women find themselves.

BLITZER: If he requires dialysis treatment, that's a pretty sophisticated kind of technology. Is it theoretically feasible he's roaming around between Eastern Pakistan or Western Afghanistan someplace in caves with the dialysis equipment?

BEYER: Well, it's been some time since Osama bin Laden has been able to keep a regular address. And yet apparently he's been -- there's good indication that he's been on dialysis for some time, even when he was moving from cave to cave in Afghanistan.

So at one point he seemed to have that technology. He seemed to be able to move around with it and to keep it up to date, and keep himself alive.

Whether he's still got it now, it's an open question. No one knows where he is. I mean I think that it's all together possible that he's not living in a cave, that he's living in a house somewhere in the tribal areas of Pakistan, which is exactly where his lieutenant Abu Zubaydah was found in March.

BLITZER: Speaking about Abu Zubaydah, what are your sources telling you Lisa about the reliability of the information he's providing U.S. interrogators?

BEYER: Well I think that it's clear that he's probably saying to the extent that he's taking, he's probably saying some things that aren't true. He's probably trying to deliberately put out some misinformation. One of the things that struck me and a number of my colleagues who closely follow the al Qaeda network is how much he seems to be singing, how much information seems to be coming out of his interrogation.

But I think that quite possibly we have a clearer understanding now that it's not so much Abu Zubaydah who's singing as his documents. When the -- when the -- when the Pakistanis seized Abu Zubaydah, they took something like 10,000 pages worth of documents. I also understand there were videotapes and CDs, as well, and that is now being translated and processed and it's quite possibly the source of a lot of the terror alerts that we're starting to see now.

BLITZER: Lisa Beyer of "TIME" magazine, thanks for joining us.

As the busy summer travel season gets under way here in the United States, there are new doubts about airport security. A report says that in recent tests, screeners at the nation's largest airports frequently failed to detect fake guns, dynamite or bombs.

CNN national correspondent Frank Buckley's over at LAX, Los Angeles International Airport.

What's going on over there, Frank?

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, pretty startling statistics here at LAX, according to that report by the Transportation Security Administration first reported in "USA Today." You can see that it's a busy time here at LAX, as it always is, but as we enter the holiday season in particular it's starting to pick up quite a bit.

We got some information about the worst airports and as we say LAX 41 percent failure rate according this report. Some of the other worst airports according to this report, Cincinnati at 58 percent; Las Vegas, 50 percent failure rate; Jacksonville also 50 percent failure rate; Sacramento, 40 percent of the fake explosives and guns got through.

The best airports according to the report, Miami, Newark, Fort Lauderdale, Honolulu and JFK Airport in New York. A spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration says the numbers in the study have not been analyzed yet, but they are considered to be part of a baseline to determine exactly where things stand right now in the federal screening process.

TSA started having jurisdiction over this in February, but the federal screeners will not be fully in place until November 19. Got a couple of folks here, Ron Fredrickson (ph) and Betty Smith (ph), who are traveling today from Los Angeles to Hawaii and you were telling me you have actually traveled quite a bit since September 11.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This will be the third time.

BUCKLEY: This will be your third time. Do these numbers surprise you or concern you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes they do. It's scary that I mean security can still be that lax after what happened.

BUCKLEY: What do you think Ms. Smith (ph)? Were you surprised by the numbers?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, this is my first time since September 11, and I kind of thought they'd have all these security measures intact and where things like that wouldn't get past them.

BUCKLEY: And Ron, you've traveled three times since September 11. Tell me what it's like for you when you go through the checkpoints.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I flew back from Hawaii and arrived just hours on September 11, and then the next trip I went on, it was just -- it wasn't that much of a chaos, but I was still surprised how easy we could still through with anything, although I noticed they did cart my golf clubs off separately, so maybe they're going to check them thoroughly and that's a good thing...

BUCKLEY: We hope it'll help your game, Ron (ph). We appreciate it sir. Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

BUCKLEY: Thank you both. So just the view of a couple passengers here and really to give it some balance, Wolf, we should say that millions of passengers are traveling safely every day. In fact from LAX alone, just this year alone, so far 25 million passengers have passed through LAX safely -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Let's hope it's safe for everyone. Frank Buckley at LAX, thank you very much. And can Americans feel safe getting on planes these days?

Jim Hall is the former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. He joins me now live from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Mr. Hall, thanks so much for joining us. In this most recent test, look at this, 24 percent of potential weapons and 30 percent of simulated bombs managed to get through. What does that say about these screeners?

JIM HALL, FORMER NTSB CHAIRMAN: Well I think it says, Wolf, that basically we have tried to put a bureaucracy in place without a real systematic look at the problems around aviation security. It's very disappointing, obviously considering the billions of dollars that have been invested by taxpayers and those who buy tickets into this system.

BLITZER: What is the basic problem though here? What has to be done in order to get these kinds of statistics to go way, way down?

HALL: Well I think first of all, Wolf, all passengers should know they are much safer just because of one philosophy change that occurred as a result of 9/11, and that is the crews and passengers not cooperating with hijackers. That, of course, has already stopped several hijackings in place.

However, we have not had an independent investigation of what happened on 9/11, and building on that independent investigation, come up with recommendations for a systematic approach, a layered security approach similar to what we have in aviation safety where we have a layered approach, so that we can be sure that the money that is being invested is not just being invested in one thing, which is what we're doing now with all this over investment in gate security.

We have a layered security system that makes common sense. I hope that Congress will consider going back to the drawing board and putting a systematic approach to security into our airports.

BLITZER: I can already vision the e-mail I'm going to be receiving from our viewers saying you're putting on the screen the airports that are the worst as far as screeners are concerned. Aren't you giving good information to potential terrorists out there? What do you say about that kind of criticism that I'm anticipating we will get.

HALL: Well, the American people need to know the truth. It's our tax dollars that are paying for these security systems, and we need to know exactly how they're performing and the airports that are on the screen, obviously need to be much more serious about addressing concerns that have come out of these reports, Wolf.

You know, I'm a firm believer that the more information, not the less information, the American people have, the safer we'll be.

BLITZER: On Saturday morning I flew from Tel Aviv to London, connected London back to Washington. I have to tell you, the security I went through at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv was much, much more intense than anything at Washington, Dulles, or JFK or Newark or any place else in the United States. Is it going to come down to that in the United States, do you believe, what we have to go through to get on a plane...

HALL: I don't believe...

BLITZER: ... at Ben Gurion Airport?

HALL: ... I don't believe it has to. As you know, there's only one international airport in Israel and all their resources are focused on that one particular airport. You know I think we are not using technology. We're screening, attempting to screen all the passengers regardless of the risk of the passengers. We're not using technology. We're not using common sense profiling and trying to address some of these concerns.

We have a fundamentally flawed system right out of the box here. We started building this bureaucracy without a plan. It does not surprise me it's not serving us well.

BLITZER: Jim Hall, always good to have you on our program. Thanks for that good information, appreciate it very much.

HALL: Thank you -- thank you Wolf.

BLITZER: And in addition -- thank you -- in addition to the issue of airport screening, there's another major challenge facing government aviation officials. Thousands of air traffic controllers are expected to retire within the next few years, and some say the FAA isn't moving quickly enough to find replacements.

CNN's Patty Davis takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ray Gibbons (ph) is hoping to do a lot more of this with his son once he retires in five years. The 44-year-old air traffic controller directs planes around Chicago's O'Hare Airport, but he isn't alone in planning to retire.

RAY GIBBONS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Where I work, for example, we have approximately 75 controllers and 32 of those are eligible within the next four years.

DAVIS: In fact a report by the general accounting office finds nearly half of the current 20,000 air traffic controllers and their supervisors will retire by 2011. That will leave too few fully trained controllers to do the jobs says the GAO and it says the FAA isn't doing enough to replace them. While the controllers say it won't jeopardize safety it will add to passenger hassle.

JOHN CARR, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER ASSN.: You're going to have fewer people trying to work more airplanes and there are going to be increased delays, increased gate hold, increased cancellations, less of a reliable transportation infrastructure, less of a service to the American flying public.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Delta (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

DAVIS: The FAA plans to hire 1,200 controllers next year alone and says there won't be a shortage.

BILL PEACOCK, FAA: We have the safest air traffic control system in the world, been that way for a long time, and we'll do whatever it takes to ensure that. We will work with Congress to have enough controllers to have the number that we need.

DAVIS: While it normally takes three to five years to train a controller, the FAA says it can use smaller airports to get more in the pipeline faster. The agency says it's also working closely with 14 colleges to find candidates.

GIBBONS: It's a young person's game. It really is. It gets much harder, and to the point where you say, no more. DAVIS: With the end of six-day work weeks and mandatory overtime in sight, Ray Gibbons says now is the time to train the next generation of controllers.

Patty Davis, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: American troops and accountability: Should U.S. troops face the same criminal proceedings as others overseas? That story just ahead.

Plus: Is the death penalty unconstitutional? A federal judge says it is. Court TV's Catherine Crier helps sort out what today's ruling means.

And he tried, tried, tried again. Now, Steve Fossett is on the fast track to a world record. We'll go live to his mission control.

But first, today's news quiz. This is Steve Fossett's sixth attempt to circle the world in a hot air balloon. His last attempt ended when storms forced Fossett to land where? Argentina? Chile? South Africa? The English Channel?

The answer coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. We're learning more about the planning behind the terror strikes against the United States, plans that were apparently in the works for quite some time. A number of Osama bin Laden's followers met, for example, in Malaysia in January 2000.

Among them, key suspects in the bombing of the USS Cole and the September 11 attacks. And now a leading Spanish newspaper reports that the 9/11 ringleader and five other alleged conspirators held a summit meeting of their own in Spain only last July.

More now from CNN Madrid bureau chief Al Goodman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL GOODMAN, CNN MADRID BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): The story in "El Pais" citing Spanish police documents adds intriguing details to the investigation about the alleged summit meeting in Spain to plan the September 11 attacks. Spanish police have previously told CNN that Mohamed Atta, a suspected linchpin of the World Trade Center attacks, visited Spain in July last year.

Now the newspaper says this secluded three-star hotel near Madrid airport is where he stayed on the first night, July 8, 2001. A senior Spanish law enforcement official confirmed to CNN on Sunday that Atta did stay here.

The newspaper reported that on the morning of July 9 Mohamed Atta walked out of this hotel and was videotaped by a security camera from a nearby building. He boarded the hotel van much like this one for the short ride back to the airport.

There he rented a car and began a long drive to northeastern Spain, to the city of Tarragona. That's the reported scene of the alleged summit meeting. The newspaper says that while Atta was driving there, another September 11 suspect was flying from Germany to the small airport at Reus near Tarragona.

That suspect Ramsi Ben Asheeb (ph) then checked into this Tarragona hotel, a previously undisclosed detail. Ben Asheeb (ph) was not a suicide hijacker on September 11, but has been the subject of an international manhunt ever since. The newspaper says Atta checked into this nearby Tarragona hotel also previously undisclosed.

The senior Spanish official told CNN it was quite possible the two men did use those hotels, but he added there is not enough evidence to prove a summit took place. The newspaper, citing police documents, said there was a summit meeting, but it did not name a specific location and no one has reported seeing the conspirators together in Tarragona.

Al Goodman, CNN, Madrid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The United States wants its military personnel exempted from the jurisdiction of a new international criminal court and the Pentagon may -- repeat may pull out of some peacekeeping missions if an accommodation isn't reached soon.

More now from CNN senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Pentagon argues U.S. troops are already accountable for any war crimes under U.S. law and that the just-established international criminal court could be used as a propaganda tool by America's foes.

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: A politicized or a loose cannon prosecutor in a court like that can impose enormous difficulties and disadvantages on people, individuals, governments.

MCINTYRE: Unlike the world court, which rules on disputes between governments, the international criminal court claims jurisdiction over individuals, whenever nations refuse to prosecute.

RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: We cannot allow our peacekeepers to be subject to the extra national legal jurisdiction of the international criminal court nor can we allow the international criminal court to second guess our legal system.

MCINTYRE: So far the U.S. has vetoed only a small U.N. police training mission in Bosnia as it argues for immunity for U.S. troops. A bigger NATO led mission is unaffected. For now the 3300 U.S. troops will remain as part of the 18,000 strong NATO peacekeeping force, but some fear the U.S. will use the treaty as a pretext for pulling out of peacekeeping chores around the world.

KEN BACON, REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIP FOR EFFECTIVE PEACEKEEPING: I think it's very destructive and I think it could be just the tip of the iceberg, because the U.S. has threatened to pull out of all peacekeeping operations and maybe even to veto future peacekeeping operations if it doesn't get what it wants on the ICC.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: One of the things that concerns Pentagon officials is the nebulous nature of the jurisdiction. Take Afghanistan where in theory, the court would not have jurisdiction. It could be argued by some that today's accidental bombing, for instance, possibly of a wedding party could result in some overzealous prosecutor trying to bring charges against the U.S. commander or perhaps even the pilot who may have dropped the bomb accidentally -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre, this is a very important story with enormous potential ramifications. Thank you very much.

And here's your chance to weigh in on this story. Our Web question of the day is this. Should U.S. peacekeepers have immunity from prosecution by the international criminal court? Go to my Web page, cnn.com/wolf. You can vote there. While you're there, let me also know what you're thinking. Send me your comments. I'll read some of them on the air each day at the end of this program. It's also, by the way, where you can read my daily online column -- cnn.com/wolf.

A federal judge says too many innocent people have been sentenced to die. Now, he's declared the death penalty unconstitutional. The controversy over the latest court firestorm when we return.

Plus, a suspected serial kidnapper kills himself in south Carolina. Now, police turn to DNA for evidence of his crimes.

And what really happened to Daniel Pearl? The inside story of his last days. That's coming up. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. I'm Wolf Blitzer. In Washington, in a moment, Catherine Crier on today's decision by a federal judge declaring the death penalty unconstitutional. First, though, a look at the top stories making news right now.

An Afghan defense spokesman says between 20 and 30 people were killed and more than 60 were injured when a U.S. plane dropped a bomb on a wedding party. The spokesman says the attendees were firing into the air to celebrate when they were bombed. A Pentagon spokesman says a bomb went a stray and an investigation is now underway.

In Washington, the Longworth House Office Building was evacuated briefly today after smoke filled the building. Fire officials say the smoke came from insulation ignited by welders in the sub-basement. No injuries were reported. The only African-American Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives is calling it quits. Congressman J.C. Watts of Oklahoma says he's retiring at the end of his term. Watts says it's time to return home and pursue other things in his life. He calls his time on Capitol Hill, quote, "a wonderful ride, a wonderful journey."

A federal judge in New York today declared the federal Death Penalty Act unconstitutional. The judge said too many innocent people have been sentenced to death. The ruling, which reaffirms an earlier opinion, is likely to be challenged by the government.

And on a related note, "The Washington Post" reports that Attorney General John Ashcroft is aggressively pursuing federal death penalty cases and has frequently overruled his own prosecutors' recommendations. A short time ago, the former Texas judge Catherine Crier, who's now with "Court TV," talked with me about the judge's ruling and Ashcroft's record.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Catherine Crier, thanks, as usual, for joining us. What's the practical impact of this decision today Judge Rakoff?

CATHERINE CRIER, "COURT TV": Well, the decision doesn't have a lot of practical effect because we've had only two federal executions in the last 14 years, since it was reestablished. So unless you were lining up people, like it occurs in Texas or Florida, it's not going to have a lot of impact. However, what this may do is get a more definitive ruling ultimately from the Supreme Court because if they take the case out of federal jurisdiction, we might get a better idea of what direction they're going take, the particular statute, death penalty.

BLITZER: Assuming this comes up to the Supreme Court with the current members of the Supreme Court, it looks like they're pretty much five to four at least in favor of capital punishment. So this ruling would be overturned, am I right?

CRIER: Yes, I don't expect this ruling to stay. In fact, most -- I think most legal experts looking at his opinion will say that, primarily for this reason -- he is quoting, for us, state statistics, that the rate of innocence, the rate of release in the state courts is so high, he is sure that we are executing innocent people. That doesn't, however, apply to the federal cases because we have had only two executions and those, we are pretty certain, were, in fact, guilty, thank goodness. So these simply relied on state evidence to come up with a federal decision and that will probably toss it out on that basis.

BLITZER: The study that the judge, Judge Rakoff, based his analysis on is somewhat controversial to begin with. What's the background there?

CRIER: Well, you've got a variety of studies to look at and anyone can pull up statistics for their own position. But I think the judge is correct in demonstrating that there is no way our fallible human system can, in fact, avoid convicting innocent people. And as long as we have the death penalty, there will be innocent people convicted and executed under that statute.

BLITZER: The Attorney General John Ashcroft is making no secret of his determination to proceed with death penalty cases especially against suspected terrorists. Does this decision in New York today have any practical effect in what the federal government might do in the short term?

CRIER: Well, there you go. That's the kind of case that would be affected, a federal case like that. Of course, we all know that eight, nine years is the average time to appeal a death penalty case so it's still well into the future. But the Supreme Court, if they review this, will have those sorts of cases in mind. Those are the kind of actions that would dominate the federal court system rather than the state court system.

BLITZER: Catherine Crier of "Court TV," thanks as usual for joining us.

CRIER: Good to see you, Wolf.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The federal Death Penalty Act has been in effect now for some 14 years.

Also, on our "Justice Files," the retrial of a former New York City police officer in the Abner Louima case. Today, former police officer Justin Volpe, who is serving a prison sentences in the case, testified that his former colleague, Charles Schwartz, never participated in the assault on Louima. The Haitian immigrant was assaulted in a Brooklyn police station some five years ago. Schwartz's conviction was overturned this year.

A Detroit woman is jailed without bond after her two children died while left alone in a hot car. Police have charged Tarajee Maynor with first-degree murder. She's accused of leaving her 3-year- old son and 10-month-old daughter in her car while she had her hair done. The children were in the vehicle with windows rolled up for more than three hours. The temperature outside was in the 80's.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF JOSEPH THOMAS, SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN POLICE: We are trying to send a strong message to parents that a young child in your custody and your control, they need a safe and secure environment and you are responsible for that. And when you put those young people's lives in jeopardy, there are serious sanctions for that type of activity. And we, as law enforcement personnel, are here to act decisively and act swiftly and with confidence that we're going to put you in jail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Police say Maynor, who's pregnant, first said she was kidnapped and raped before she returned to her car. Investigators in Salt Lake City are asking neighbors of kidnapped teenager Elizabeth Smart to agree to be fingerprinted. But a police spokesman says the neighbors are not targets of the investigation. There is no word on how many neighbors have been asked to provide prints. Smart disappeared from her home June 5.

Authorities in South Carolina say a man who abducted a teenage girl may have been a serial kidnapper. The South Carolina teen escaped after she was kidnapped at gunpoint last week. Police tracked the man to Florida where he killed himself as officers closed in. CNN's Brian Cabell has more on the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): it all ended for Richard Evonitz on a dark street in Sarasota, Florida. Police pursuing him for a suspected abduction and rape in South Carolina cornered him. He put a gun to his head and killed himself.

The 38-year-old Evonitz, who was married and has worked as a machinist and salesman, apparently was carrying some dark secrets with him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we're only at the tip of an iceberg. A statement that he made to one of his family members -- to this day, he can't remember how many murders he's been involved in. So I think we've got a lot of work ahead of us.

CABELL: In his Columbia, South Carolina apartment, authorities discovered meticulous notes and a press clipping dealing with previous murders, specifically the kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Kristin Lisk and her 12-year-old sister, Kati, in Spotsylvania, Virginia in 1997. Their bodies were found in a river five days after they disappeared.

In 1996, another local girl, 16-year-old Sofia Silva, had been kidnapped and murdered. Police believe the three murders were all connected.

And authorities now say the abduction and murder of 25-year-old Alicia Reynolds, also in Virginia, in 1996, may also have been the work of Evonitz. All of which shocked some of his former friends and neighbors.

KEITH RABA, FRIEND OF EVONITZ: We've had dinner at each other's houses several times. Summertime, he'd come over for barbecues and everything.

DANIEL MINTER, FRIEND OF EVONITZ: I don't think we ever talked about women or sex or anything like that.

CABELL: Should authorities have linked him to the murder before this? Well, they confirmed that Evonitz was convicted of a sex felony in 1996 and was, in fact, on the initial suspect list for the Virginia murders.

Brian Cabell, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Daniel Pearl was involved in a very dangerous assignment and ultimately paid a major price. Few details of Pearl's last days have been released until now. Up next, the inside story of the Pearl case from investigate journalist, Robert Sam Anson, of "Vanity Fair."

He's tried this five times before. And now, Steve Fossett is on the verge of becoming the first person to make it around the world alone in a balloon. How close is he? A live report just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Murdered American journalist Daniel Pearl was not reckless and there's no way he could have avoided being abducted in Pakistan. That's the focus of a new article in the new issue of "Vanity Fair," which hits newsstands beginning this week. It's author, contributing editor, Robert Sam Anson is with us from New York now. He joins me to talk about his story.

Good work in your reporting, Robert.

ROBERT SAM ANSON, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "VANITY FAIR": Thank you.

BLITZER: I guess the only way he could have avoided being kidnapped is to not show up in Karachi. Is that the bottom line?

ANSON: Exactly. The fellow who did arrange the kidnapping, Ahmed Omar Sheikh, is an extremely smart, extremely charming, very persuasive, former British public school boy. Anyone would have gone with Sheikh in a moment. That includes yours truly.

BLITZER: All right. I remember when I was in Pakistan a couple of years ago, I was in Islamabad and Lahore, but everybody said stay away from Karachi. You have some rules of the game that you say. Among things, you write in the article, "Do not take a taxi from the airport. Arrange for the hotel to send a car and confirm the driver's identity before getting in. Do not stay in a room that faces the street. Do not interview sources over the phone. Do not leave notes or tape recordings in your room. Do not discard work papers in the wastebasket; flush them down the toilet. Above all, do not go alone, ever."

That last rule, Danny Pearl, avoided. He went out alone.

ANSON: He did go out alone. It's something, again, that any journalist, I think, who had been in Pakistan as long as Danny had and who had interviewed as many Muslim militants as he had and he felt very comfortable about the situation. And you have to realize too that the Pakistanis are among the world's most charming and warm and welcoming people and it's very easy to get lulled in a situation like that and you think that everybody is the fine. I was in a similar situation myself 30 years ago and it's something that anyone can blunder into. BLITZER: You paint a very gripping picture of the suspect, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh. Talk about him briefly.

ANSON: He's an interesting fellow. I mean he comes from a very good family, born in Britain. These are Pakistani immigrants. He has British citizenship, very well educated, extremely bright by all accounts, went to the London School of Economics, very charming, has a sense of humor about himself, is not a fanatic in the generally accepted sense of the word.

He's unusual for a jihadi, as these militants are called, because most of them are not terribly well educated. He's extremely smooth, very much like bin Laden in that respect. And he did set up the kidnapping and he lured Danny into it, but he was not around when Danny was killed. In fact...

BLITZER: You have a very, also, tantalizing, little nugget in there about Pakistani intelligence, the ISI. And you leave us all hanging. What was, if any role, they may have played in the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl?

ANSON: Well, there's very few terrorist incidents that occur either in Pakistan or Afghanistan or anywhere in the general neighborhood, including India. But the ISI either is not intimately aware of or in -- and often behind. Omar Sheikh was very much their man. The terrorist groups to which he belonged were supported and had been for years by the ISI, which is today one of our principal allies in the fight against bin Laden. And they have a special thing about foreign journalists, especially journalists, who like Danny, happen to Jewish and was living in India at the time.

I had my own run-ins with the ISI when I was in Pakistan. Everybody does.

BLITZER: All right, Robert Sam Anson wrote a very strong piece in "Vanity Fair." Of course, we got to point out Pakistani government and President Musharraf flatly denies, of course, any role in this and they've been very helpful to the family as far as we can tell.

Robert Sam Anson, thanks for joining us.

ANSON: Thank you.

BLITZER: They're excited at mission control because their man, Steve Fossett, is cruising toward a world record in his balloon. A live report from mission control is just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Earlier we asked, Steve Fossett's last attempt to circle the world in a hot air balloon ended when storms forced Fossett to land where? The answer -- after 12 days in flight, Fossett was forced to land over Argentina.

And he's now in the home stretch. And by this time tomorrow, balloon adventurist, Steve Fossett, may have achieved his long sought goal. Fossett is trying to become the first balloonist to fly solo are around the world. His five previous attempts have been unsuccessful. But this time, only a few hours stand between his balloon and western Australia, where the quest began.

Bert Padelt, his systems director for the flight, he joins us now live from Washington University in St. Louis.

How's he doing? How's it look between now and his destination?

BERT PADELT, SYSTEMS DIRECTOR: Things are looking really good actually. Right now, Steve and his balloon, the Bud Light Spirit of Freedom, is approximately 800 miles east of Australia, heading -- or west of Australia, heading east. And all systems are working well at this point.

Earlier, there was some weather that he was flying over. But currently, he's in blue skies and all of the equipment is working well. And if everything continues to go as it is now, it looks like tomorrow, around 11:00 St. Louis time, he should be coming across the coast.

BLITZER: That would be noon Eastern. Bert, I want to show our viewers, the route he has taken. I want to go to our Telestrator here. And he started in Australia right over here. He's gone around the world. He's managed to go through South America, through Africa. And this is the area right now, where he's -- as you say, only about 800 miles. He's gone some 18,000 miles already. What's the biggest, biggest issue right now between now and Australia?

PADELT: Well, right now, I guess the biggest issue would be equipment failure, but actually, the flight has gone pretty well as far as that goes. A few little flaws here and there, but overall the flight has gone extremely well as far as the equipment goes. Of course, weather would be an issue, but Luc Trullemans is forecasting blue skies and actually bringing him back into possibly Calguli, Australia into a high-pressure system with light winds for a landing at sunrise.

BLITZER: He goes around a hundred miles an hour, but he uses the jet stream to make him go faster, around 200 miles an hour. How does that work? Does he always -- can he always use that jet stream to his advantage?

PADELT: Well, yes, the jet stream varies, in path, as he's flying around the world. And there's actually more than one jet stream that he could be flying in. So basically, the strategy is Luc will raise his altitude or lower his altitude to adjust into a different jet stream to avoid weather systems that are in his way. He's done that three or four times during this flight.

And so, it's not just a matter of taking off and entering into a jet stream and flying it around the world. The balloon has to be flown and flown in and out of different jet streams.

BLITZER: And finally, Bert, when he's ready to slow down -- we're hoping that everything works out great -- how does he slow down from 200 miles an hour and manage to land safely in the western part of Australia?

PADELT: Well, Luc, again, has done an excellent job in forecasting the weather. He's bringing Steve into a beautiful high- pressure system and with a high-pressure system, there's light winds. So as he descends in altitude and is coming into Calguli, he should slow up considerably. And hopefully -- we're keeping our fingers crossed that the winds will be light and variable and hopefully, at least, not more than 10 miles an hour and his landing should be fairly safe and non-eventful.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: We're keeping our fingers crossed as well, Bert. What do you want to say?

PADELT: Incidentally, the mayor of Calguli presented Steve with a boomerang before he launched and -- with the idea that the boomerang, when flown, comes back to its point of destination. So coincidentally, it looks like we have a good shot of bringing him right back into Calguli.

BLITZER: We'll be watching and hoping. And good luck to you and good luck to the entire team and of course, good luck to Steve. Thanks for joining us, Bert.

Let's go to New York now and get a preview of "LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE," which of course, begins right at the top of the hour. Jan Hopkins is sitting in tonight for Lou -- Jan.

JAN HOPKINS, GUEST HOST, "MONEYLINE": Thanks, Wolf. Coming up on "MONEYLINE," an exclusive interview with a former WorldCom employee. He says he was fired after he blew the whistle on the company's accounting practices. A crisis of confidence pushed the Nasdaq to the lowest level in five years. We will have complete market coverage.

And firefighters in Arizona are gaining the upper hand in the battle against the state's worst wildfire in history. We'll have a live report from Show Low. All of that and a lot more ahead. Please join us.

Wolf back to you.

BLITZER: Thank you very much, Jan. We certainly will. Only two minutes left for you to weigh in on our question of the day -- should United States peacekeepers have immunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court? Go to my web page, CNN.com/wolf. That's where you can vote. The results, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Now here's how you're weighing in on our web question of the day. Earlier, we asked you -- do U.S. peacekeepers have immunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court? The votes are almost evenly split. Forty-six percent of you say yes, 54 percent say no. Remember, this is not a scientific poll. Our picture of the day is out of this world, literally. Satellite's focused on the sun captured this image of a massive solar eruption more than 30 times the length of Earth's diameter. Depending on where they're pointed, some solar eruptions can disrupt the Earth's magnetic field. This particular eruption is not pointed at the Earth. So we can just sit back and admire the view. Nice picture.

Time to hear directly from you. J.M. writes about terror threats. "Worry about sleeper cells? No. Believe they exist? Yes. The government is doing a good job of taking care of us. Though I do feel that sometimes they tell the public too much and cause unnecessary alarm."

On the Pledge of Allegiance controversy, Donella writes -- "I am an atheist and object to having references to God forced on me daily. However, this does not lessen my pride as an American; nor does it make me want to stop reciting the pledge. I merely omit the words 'under God' and continue."

That's all the time we have today. I'll be back tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. Until then, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

"LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE" begins right now.

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