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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Latest Killing in D.C. Area Is Connected to Other Sniper Murders; House Endorses Resolution Allowing Bush to Use Force Against Iraq

Aired October 10, 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: A deadly shooting in suburban Washington, is it the latest work of the serial sniper?
As U.S. action against Iraq gets a key congressional endorsement, CNN's Nic Robertson gets a firsthand look inside a suspected Iraqi weapons plant.

New threats allegedly from al Qaeda's top leaders, what do they tell us about al Qaeda's ability to wage war against America?

And, some say it was a few minutes too many with Andy Rooney, find out why many women think the curmudgeonly commentator has gone too far.

It's Thursday, October 10, 2002. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. The House of Representatives has passed a resolution authorizing President Bush to launch an attack on Iraq and the Senate is poised to do the exact same thing. We'll go live to Capitol Hill and the White House in just a few moments for more on this critical vote.

But first, what police are treating as the latest deadly attack by the sniper terrorizing the metropolitan Washington area. A 53- year-old man was shot and killed as he filled his car with gas at a station in Manassas, Virginia about 8:15 last night. The investigation there is going full force this hour and if it's confirmed, it would be the sniper's ninth attack in eight days and the seventh death.

We have two reports. Ed Lavandera is in Prince William County, that's in Virginia, with more on the investigation. Kathleen Koch is in Montgomery County in Maryland where the killing spree began. Let's begin with Ed -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, at 6:00 Eastern time police here in Prince William County, Virginia will hold another briefing and what we're expecting to hear is perhaps the answer to the looming question that has many people here in the Virginia area very nervous as to whether or not authorities here have been able to connect this latest shooting with the sniper that has been terrorizing the Washington, D.C. area.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Around 8:15 Wednesday night, 53-year-old Dean Harold Meyers got out of his car at this Manassas, Virginia gas station. He was about to start fueling his tank when a single gunshot struck him in the upper body. Myers who was working in Virginia, but from Maryland, died at the scene. Prince William County Police shut down the highway where the shooting happened casting a wide net, searching for clues and evidence the killer might have left behind. The initial details of this case are familiar to authorities.

CHIEF CHARLIE DEANE, PRINCE WILLIAM CO. VA.: The autopsy results did reveal some evidence. That evidence has been turned over to the ATF laboratory who are conducting analysis at this time.

LAVANDERA: Two of the shootings also occurred at a gas station. Only a single gunshot was fired and police again say they're searching for a white paneled vehicle described by an eyewitness in this case as looking like a Dodge Caravan without side or rear windows.

DEANE: The overall circumstances of this case still appears to be consistent with the other shootings, that is the overall circumstances are consistent with the other shootings in the region.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: Now, Wolf, police weren't able to get any license plate information off that white minivan that they say they saw, but they do saw they're able to get some help from other witnesses that were in the area as well. In the meantime, after school activities and sporting events here in Prince William County have been canceled through Sunday -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And once again, Ed, we're standing by for this news conference. That's coming up, you say at the top of the hour?

LAVANDERA: Yes, sir, top of the hour they'll come out, the chief of police here in Prince William County will be coming out and they have said that they had originally canceled all of the press briefings that were scheduled for the rest of the day, only to say that they would come out if there was something important to pass along, so that's why we anticipate it might perhaps be that kind of news.

BLITZER: And by then it will have been almost 22 hours since the shooting. Ed Lavandera thanks. We'll be standing by awaiting that news conference of course here on CNN.

Now this latest shooting gives added urgency to the investigation in Montgomery County, Maryland. CNN's Kathleen Koch is there with more on a potentially key piece of evidence, the death card from a Tarot deck.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Tarot calling card that may or may not have been left by the killer has more than a grim statement to police. Besides the words "Dear Policeman, I am God" a highly placed source close to the investigation says there was writing warning police not to make the message or the existence of the card public. Police believe the sniper may have been trying to make contact and it hoped to establish a rapport with the killer. Experts say the instructions are revealing.

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: He doesn't want to think he's on par with them. He wants to think he's above them and controlling them but he wants to start some kind of communication so he can have fun with this.

KOCH: Meanwhile, as police struggle with an investigation that now spans four counties and the District of Columbia, they've set up a new centralized tip line run by the FBI for all the shootings. Montgomery County's police chief was asked if the federal government should take over the case.

CHIEF CHARLES MOOSE, MONTGOMERY COUNTY POLICE: It really doesn't matter to myself or Mr. Duncan who runs the investigation. We would like to find the person or the people responsible for this, arrest them, indict them, and get a conviction.

KOCH: With word that a witness saw a white paneled van leaving the scene of the gas station shooting in Virginia, police in Maryland continue to search for what a witness there called a white box truck near the scene of a sniper shooting. It's raised questions about whether the two vehicles could be one and the same.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH: And we will be asking some of those questions at a news briefing here in Montgomery County that is also scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m., so we'll be hoping that they'll have some answers, but the police chief has not been saying much today.

I think again we perceive it to be perhaps because of the whole controversy over the Tarot card that police are being a little more careful here in Montgomery County about what they say, about what they share with reporters and also another hope here Wolf, that the weather continues to improve. We've had a lot of rain today.

It not only makes it tough on the law enforcement officers out there on the scene but it also has the potential for washing away evidence, DNA and other things, that could help the police solve this case -- back to you.

BLITZER: Kathleen Koch in Rockville, Maryland, in Montgomery County. We'll be monitoring that news conference at the top of the hour as well. A lot of potential news out there and the appearance of the so-called death card from the Tarot deck adds a macabre twist to this terrifying string of killings. Investigators are left to puzzle over whether the killer is telling them more than meets the eye.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Police have still not determined whether a Tarot card found near the scene of Monday's shooting in a middle school was actually left by the D.C. area sniper. Do we have a signature killer on our hands? Authorities aren't sure.

There have been signature killers in modern American history. The Son of Sam David Berkowitz and the Zodiac Killer in California corresponded with police and journalists during their killing sprees, but what about the Tarot card? It carries its own mystique.

PROF. DAVID RODIER, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: You could use them for any sort of game you wanted, although they aren't normally now used for that. They were centuries ago. Now, they're primarily a sort of occult, new age fortune telling.

BLITZER: Tarot cards are supposed to decipher events in one's life to predict the future or to symbolize something. A card reader lays them out on a table after shuffling them, then starts to interpret them based on where they're laid out. But Tarot cards can be interpreted in many different ways. The death card, like the one found near the middle school Monday, often doesn't even mean death.

RODIER: It's not in most of the occult versions not usually thought of as bad or negative although it can have that meaning too but it doesn't -- it means change and breaking out of a particular routine into something new.

BLITZER: Most experts trace the history of Tarot cards back to the 1300s and believe they were created by European gypsies. They're not just some oddball prop from the world's of voodoo and cults.

RODIER: In popular cultures since the '60s, they've been fairly standard symbolism in things like rock music album covers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And police in this area are spending a lot of time studying those Tarot cards to see if perhaps there could be a clue out there that could result in the capture of this killer. When we come back, the House lines up behind the president on Iraq, does this mean the United States is on the verge of an attack? We'll get reaction from Capitol Hill. We'll also go live to the White House.

Also, mounting evidence that top al Qaeda leaders are alive, well, and planning their next attack. We'll tell you what prompted a worldwide alert, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A warning to certain Americans about al Qaeda terror operations overseas. That's coming up on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. President Bush got some good news from Capitol Hill today. The House overwhelmingly passed a strong measure of support for the president's Iraq policy and the Senate is getting ready to follow suit.

Our Congressional Correspondent, Kate Snow, is standing by with details -- Kate.

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, a vote of support for the president to be sure. All but six Republicans in the House, along with 81 of the Democrats, voted to endorse this resolution authorizing the president to use force against Iraq. Throughout the day, members went to the floor of the House, many of them, most of them supportive of this resolution, railing against Saddam Hussein. As one Republican leader put it at one point, he said he has a wicked litany of crimes.

One key endorsement, of course, coming from the Democratic Leader in the House Dick Gephardt who stood, you will remember, last week shoulder-to-shoulder with the president at the White House. He told members they should vote their consciences but he was very clear about how he would vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DICK GEPHARDT (D-MO), MINORITY LEADER: September 11 was the ultimate wakeup call. We must now do everything in our power to prevent further terrorist attacks and ensure that an attack with a weapon of mass destruction can not happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: Obviously, Dick Gephardt voting for this resolution but other Democrats parting company with him including his own number two, the number two Democrat in the House. She argued that actually if you force against Iraq it could detract from the war on terrorism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY WHIP: I rise in opposition to the resolution on national security grounds. The clear and present danger that our country faces is terrorism. I say flat out that unilateral use of force without first exhausting every diplomatic remedy and other remedies and making a case to the American people will be harmful to our war on terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: In the end the final tally 296 votes for the resolution, 133 against. Within that vote, though, 120 plus Democrats voting against this resolution, Wolf, so quite a few members expressing their discontent with the resolution but overwhelmingly it did pass and we do expect that to happen in the Senate as well -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Especially now, Kate, that Tom Daschle, the Democratic Leader, the Majority Leader in the Senate jumped on the president's bandwagon, but the head counting that I can tell in the Senate looks it's pretty much 50/50 among the Democrats. Half will go along with the president, half won't.

SNOW: Yes, there was a telling vote earlier today, Wolf, as you know, a procedural vote but it broke out 75 for and 25 against and we expect that that will be very close to what happens in the end in the Senate, but about 75 or roughly most of the Republicans, all but one probably, and about half of the Democrats will go along with the president in the U.S. Senate. BLITZER: Kate Snow doing our work on Capitol Hill thanks for that report. It didn't take very long for the president to come out and express satisfaction on what's going on. He went over and spoke to reporters.

Our John King is over at the White House and he'll tell us all about it -- John.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And, Wolf, the president spoke to reporters briefly after placing a telephone call to the House Speaker Dennis Hastert and the House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt, the president thanking them for their work. Yes, the White House would have liked it if a majority of Democrats in the House had supported this resolution, but the president coming into the Roosevelt Room to declare victory here, thanking the House of Representatives for standing with him and sending a message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The House of Representatives has spoken clearly to the world and to the United Nations Security Council. The gathering threat of Iraq must be confronted fully and finally. Today's vote also sends a clear message to the Iraqi regime. It must disarm and comply with all existing U.N. resolutions or it will be forced to comply.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: A more than two-to-one margin for the president in the House, the White House expecting perhaps close to a three-to-one margin in the Senate vote that comes. By this time tomorrow, the president should have both chambers of Congress on record, authorizing him to use force against Iraq, look Wolf to see the president at this time tomorrow asking the United Nations to act as well, saying America is speaking with one voice.

It is time for the Security Council to pass a tough new resolution or the president will lead a coalition outside of the United Nations but privately U.S. officials continue to tell us the diplomacy at the United Nations going well. The president hopes for U.N. action perhaps, and they say they might be a bit optimistic here, but perhaps by the end of next week.

BLITZER: So, John, are they thinking that these strong votes in the Senate and the House will convince the French and the Russians, for example, to go along with the U.S. version of a new Security Council resolution?

KING: They certainly think it helps in the diplomacy with the French and the Russians to make clear that the president is on very firm political footing here in the United States, domestic political footing. The concerns of the Russians and the French are outside of the issues being debated on the floor of the House of Representatives and on the floor of the Senate.

But they do think it helps the president when he can go to the United Nations, and especially those key members of the Security Council, France and Russia, and say I have the support of the Congress. I will do this with the United Nations support or without the United Nations support. If you want to have any influence in the outcome, you should join us now.

BLITZER: John King at the White House thanks very much. And here's your chance to weigh in on this story. Our web question of the day is this: Do you agree with the House of Representatives vote authorizing President Bush to go to war against Iraq if necessary? We'll have the results later in this program.

Go to my web page cnn.com/wolf. That's where you can vote. While you're there, 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, of course, where you can read my daily online column, cnn.com/wolf.

Stepped up security in New York City and now evidence that top al Qaeda leaders are still alive and that sparks concern for many Americans worldwide, a closer look at some unfinished business in the war on terror. And, a super smallpox virus that could wipe out thousands is it really possible to protect the nation? We'll talk to one expert who has some serious doubts, but first today's news quiz. Smallpox was first used as a weapon during what war; Civil War, French and Indian Wars, World War I, Vietnam, the answer coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We've got a major development we're watching right now. I want to go to CNN's Barbara Starr. She's over at the Pentagon standing by with word about that explosion that crippled a French supertanker off the coast of Yemen on Sunday. What's going on Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, U.S. investigators now say there is firm evidence it was an attack on the French supertanker Lindbergh off the coast of Yemen on October 6 that caused a massive fire and explosion onboard the ship.

Military sources tell CNN that French authorities who have looked at the wreckage, who have been on board the supertanker have found three things. They have found the residue of TNT explosives. They have found fiberglass chards and they have found parts from a small marine engine on the Lindbergh.

Now, investigators who are there from the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service say the pattern of the explosion indicates a blast initiated from the outside very similar to the pattern of the explosion onboard the U.S. Navy warship USS Cole that was bombed in Yemen about two years ago.

U.S. officials also tell CNN tonight that a local newspaper in Yemen has now received a claim of responsibility from an Islamic group. They do not know at this point if that group is connected to the al Qaeda -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And, as you remember Barbara, right after the explosion on the Cole, the Yemeni government at that time initially said no, this was an accident, couldn't be terrorism. They said exactly the same thing on Sunday. What does this say about the government of Yemen and its cooperation in the war on terror?

STARR: Well, officials here know that the Yemen government has some challenges and sensitivities within its own country. They certainly expected some of this same language from the government of Yemen, but U.S. officials had been suspicious since the beginning when they first saw the fire and the size of the hole ripped in this tanker.

Officials had said to us from the very beginning that it would be very unusual if it had been some sort of engineering failure or mechanical explosion onboard this supertanker. These tankers are constructed very carefully. They had suspected this from the beginning.

BLITZER: Barbara Starr, our Pentagon Correspondent, breaking news here on this program as she often does. Thanks for that report.

And, 13 months after September 11, government officials are taking very seriously a series of audiotapes in which al Qaeda leaders threaten new attacks on the United States. That's prompting a warning by the FBI and some increased security precautions.

Our Justice Correspondent, Kelli Arena, reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. officials are worried that al Qaeda could be ready for another major strike. The FBI warns the new audiotape featuring Ayman Al-Zawahiri could be a signal that a plan for an attack has been approved, a suspicion confirmed by a senior al Qaeda detainee.

ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: The possibility is still unfortunately with us that there are terrorists, al Qaeda terrorists, who seeking to regroup still want to bring harm to the United States and to our interests abroad.

ARENA: In a warning sent to law enforcement agencies around the country, the FBI reminds colleagues of a 1998 fatwah calling for attacks against Americans worldwide, and it says al Qaeda is attempting to manipulate the broader Islamic extremist community to attack the United States.

JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We take very seriously intelligence, which might alert us to signaling that might be given to those who would be in the terrorist inclined toward terrorism to act.

ARENA: The fact that Zawahiri is presumed alive and his unsubstantiated claim that Osama bin Laden is alive as well, suggests there could be enough leadership intact to direct another broad attack.

BRUCE HOFFMAN, RAND CORP.: You still have an entity that sees a need to and, in fact, actively issues propaganda that is still trying to rally the troops, which I think demonstrates that this is an adversary that will be very difficult to crush completely.

ARENA: Even without direction from the upper echelon, al Qaeda cells dispersed around the globe after attacks in Afghanistan do pose a threat. Counterterrorism officials point to the shootout involving marines in Kuwait as a possible example of a smaller attack that may have been pulled off independently.

HOFFMAN: That's why I think it's very important to be vigilant because terrorists will attack when they sense an opening, when they sense a lowering of the guard.

ARENA: There is no specific intelligence regarding a target or timing, but al Qaeda members repeatedly threaten the U.S. economy. As a result, New York City for one has further tightened security.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA: And here in Washington, the State Department is expected to issue a new worldwide caution warning Americans abroad to be on alert. Also, Wolf, they have directed all posts overseas, including embassies, to maintain the highest of vigilance.

BLITZER: OK. Kelli Arena thanks for that report.

Sniper shootings one week later, the Washington area tries to live life as normal but will it be possible with a killer on the loose? Also, some favorable news on the money front, find out why buying a house just got a little bit easier. And, Andy Rooney's foot in mouth, the CBS commentator shares some unkind words for women on the sidelines. First, a look at news making headlines around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Scattered violence as Pakistan held its first general election since the 1999 coup that brought General Pervez Musharraf to power. Almost 100 political parties are on the ballot, although two popular former prime ministers were effectively barred.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is working on the latest scandal to threaten Northern Ireland's power sharing government. The unionist leaders are calling for the Irish Republican Army's political ring, Sinn Fein to be expelled after police uncovered an IRA spy ring allegedly holding stolen British documents.

In Caracas, thousands protested against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. His term lasts until 2007 but opponents want early elections accusing Mr. Chavez of plunging the economy into recession. Mr. Chavez was temporarily ousted in an April coup.

It's National Day in Taiwan marking the 1911 overthrow of China's last dynasty. Taiwan's president used the holiday to call on China to remove hundreds of missiles targeting the self-ruled island and replaced threats with talks. Too much information from Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, responding to a reporter who asked the 55-year-old mother of three if she still had sex, Mrs. Arroyo responded "plenty." She went on to ask the journalist to make international policy the headline not her love life.

And, is this the face of Egypt's most famous pharaoh? Scientists in London used digital technology to reconstruct King Tut's face based on X-rays of his skull, and that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Coming up -- a sniper on the loose. A look at how Washington area residents are coping with everyday fear.

But first, let's look at some other stories making news right now.

Two more former WorldCom executives have pled guilty to security fraud charges. Former accounting department officials Betty Vincent and Troy Norman entered their pleas today in a federal courtroom in New York. Prosecutors say they participated in an illegal scheme to inflate the telecommunication company's reported earnings.

Israeli officials say a Palestinian bomber killed a woman and injured 20 others when he blew himself up at a bus stop near Tel Aviv earlier today. Police describe a frantic scene in which the driver and a passenger subdued the bomber and tried to disarm his device.

Thirty-year mortgage rates in the United States are at a 30- year low. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac reports today's average rate is down to 5.98 percent, the lowest since its began tracking rates in 1971. The low mortgage rates are feeding a nation-wide boom in home sales and refinancing.

And there's a tropical storm watch over the Florida and Georgia coastlines, ahead of Tropical Depression Kyle. This storm system has enjoyed the six-longest life on record. It's been a tropical storm and a hurricane. Forecasters say it could reach tropical storm strength again before making landfall tonight or early tomorrow.

Until a week ago, life in Montgomery County, Maryland and near the nation's capital was much like any normal American suburb. But a sniper's deadly rampage has changed much of that for at least six serial killings -- five have taken place there.

CNN's Michael Okwu revisits the Montgomery County locations where's the first snipers shootings took place a week ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT(voice-over): A week later, it's become difficult to take the little things for granted. Sitting on a public bench. Packing the groceries. Pumping gas. Never has the mundane been so closely linked with death. And that's changed life in Montgomery County.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't really go and do the things that we normally do.

OKWU: Susie Jean Patroni (ph) still makes the morning coffee run. But the franchise she visits has pulled its chairs indoors. And she won't bring her three children.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't play outdoors. We have a great backyard, we all the toys in the driveway and we play in the garage.

OKWU: Five people were shot and killed last week during 16 hours of random murders. 55-year-old James Martin was the first to die. As rain fell on Washington's suburbs, residents walk through the shadow of his memorial.

(on camera): The second victim was shot here near Rockville Pike. Perhaps the county's busiest commercial corridor. The sort of place that's a dime a dozen all across America, where your mind might wander off to what your children are doing or what you might be having for dinner.

(voice-over): James "Sonny" Buchanan was shot as he mowed a wedge of grass behind this car dealership. Some of the silent men who knew him, who lived by the old-fashioned rule of grinning and bearing hardship, have come to rely on professional help.

DOTTI FITZGERALD, FITZGERALD MOTORS: There's been degrees of trauma because some knew Sonny very well. Some knew him to wave to because he was very friendly. Some saw the after effect.

OKWU: Fear is deepest in the county's most nondescript corners. Fifty-four-year-old Prem Kumar Walekar was killed at this gas station.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You always find yourself looking over your shoulder. And it's that feeling -- the nervousness, you're just waiting for something to happen. And I noticed the sirens more. And I also notice loud noises more.

OKWU: Less than a mile away, clients in this beauty shop won't be the same. Sarah Ramos was gunned down as she sat on a bench just steps away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People call and ask whether it's safe -- it's safe to come in.

OKWU: Lori Rivera was shot while vacuuming her van. And still some people say the rule they live by was to carry on as normal. Bold, perhaps, but not as brazen as a sniper tried to change the most basic rule of all.

Michael Okwu, CNN, Montgomery County, Maryland.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: The chilling message this sniper seems to be sending to the D.C. area residents is this: no one anywhere is safe.

Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is following this story. Elizabeth, how do people deal with this kind of fear?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, because it's a faceless fear. And it is indeed hard to deal with. And the people who I've been talking to are dealing with it by really pretty much rethinking every little step of their daily lives, all in an effort to try to figure out how best to protect themselves and their families.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW DAVIS, D.C. RESIDENT: Hand, please. Hand, please.

COHEN (voice-over): Do you walk your child to school? Do you return library books? Do you pump gas? Such everyday things, yet the Davis family, Christine and Matthew, parents of Nathan and Luke, now ask themselves these questions all the time.

CHRISTINE DAVIS, D.C. RESIDENT: You can't presume that you're safe outside of your house, you know?

M. DAVIS: They're going to do that calculation. OK, this doesn't seem like a busy street here. Surely he wouldn't be up in here. But there's a park and some trees. But then you tell yourself stop thinking about that. You're walking your kid to school.

COHEN: The he that Matthew's talking about is the sniper that authorities say is responsible for six, possibly seven, deaths in the past eight days. At first, the Davises tried not to worry, even though one of the attacks was two miles from their home in Northwest Washington, D.C.

M. DAVIS: Then, a child is shot. And so you then think, I have young children that are 4 and 6. Would he go that low? And that is the sort of absurdity. The mere fact that you're going through that level of calculation, to go about your daily business, is a fairly strange way to live one's life.

Give me a hug and a kiss.

COHEN: Strange, too, that at Nathan's school, kids aren't allowed to go outside for any reason. No recess, no outdoor sports.

M. DAVIS: The question is, is this going on for another week? Is this going on for another month? Is this the routine we follow for another year?

COHEN: Nothing's normal anymore. Soccer practices aren't held on soccer fields. They're held in people's backyards. Christine let her gas tank run down to empty because she was afraid to get gas.

C. DAVIS: Somewhat of the feeling when the anthrax attacks were occurring or after the terrorism attacks. It's like sometimes I feel like I'm living with a big bull's eye over my head.

COHEN: Matthew constantly keeps up with the story on the Internet.

COHEN (on-camera): He was a 53-year-old man from Gaithersburg, Maryland.

(voice-over): He knows that no matter how well-informed he is, it doesn't really matter. He can only do what the experts tell him to do -- shield his children from the news and talk about his worries with his wife. The attacks are so random that for now, it's anxiety without end.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: Now many people wonder what do you tell young children? And experts say to do what the Davises are doing. And also, for example, at the school that their 6-year-old goes to -- they didn't tell the first graders exactly why they couldn't go out on the playground. They're making up excuses -- it's too cold, something's broken on the jungle gym -- because they don't really feel that they're ready for the truth.

BLITZER: I think it's fair to say, Elizabeth, all of us who live here in the D.C. area are scared. Our lives have changed.

COHEN: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Let's hope this is resolved quickly. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks.

My next guest says it's the mother of biological weapons. But is smallpox the greatest threat to national security? A look at the war against the super-virus.

And why is Andy Rooney's comments getting him into hot water with women and many men? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Earlier we asked: "Smallpox was first used as a weapon during what war?" The answer: the French and Indian Wars, by British forces against Native Americans.

The British distributed blankets to Native Americans that had been used by smallpox patients. Epidemics killed more 50 percent of affected tribes.

Last year's anthrax attacks alerted the country to the threat of bioterrorism.

My next guest says a super string of smallpox may be the next wave. Richard Preston is the author of the new book "The Demon in the Freezer." He's joining us now live from our New York bureau. Richard, thanks for joining us.

Why do you believe -- why do you say that smallpox, especially a new strain, might be even much more dangerous, for example, than other bioterrorism including anthrax?

RICHARD PRESTON, AUTHOR, "THE DEMON IN THE FREEZER": Well, natural smallpox is considered by most experts to be the most dangerous pathogen to the human species. And there's little doubt, I think, that a number of countries around the world now have secret stocks for potential use as a biological weapon.

Recently, just within the last year or so, there's been new scientific evidence that it might be possible, by adding just a single certain gene to smallpox, to make it able to get around the vaccine, to make it proof or resistant against the vaccine.

And virus engineering itself has gotten pretty easy to do. It can be done with kits that cost about $200. And I've spent some time watching scientists actually engineer viruses. I've seen it done. One of them said to me, Well, you know, you could probably learn to do this in about two months.

But I think this kind of engineering of a virus, to make it more deadly, say, is really more the work of national laboratories, secret bioweapons labs that may exist in some countries.

BLITZER So who -- when you say -- wait, excuse me for interrupting -- some countries, some governments, some terrorists might have this, who, specifically, should the U.S. be worried about?

PRESTON: Well, I think immediately, Iraq comes to mind. There is quite a bit of circumstantial evidence that Iraq does, in fact, possess smallpox.

Now, whether they would use it or not, no one can say. But there's been a recent CIA assessment of Iraq that kind of gets into the profile of Saddam Hussein, in which it's felt that there's a possibility, at least, that if his back was to the wall, if he felt he had nothing to lose, then he might cause a terrorist-style release of smallpox in the U.S.

And -- so the question one has to ask is, you know, are we really ready to defend ourselves against this and, if so, how?

BLITZER: What -- what -- what -- how would you envision a worst case scenario smallpox attack unfolding?

PRESTON: Well, the experts are highly uncertain. Much is not known biologically about this virus. For example, scientists don't even know the mechanism of death in the human being. That's how little we really know about the virus. So it's not known how rapidly it would spread.

But we're a modern society. We're highly mobile. People travel on airplanes. They go to shopping malls. The virus spreads through the air from person to person. So, it could spread rapidly, in which case -- well, for example, I'm hearing some experts are saying if there was a small point release of the virus into say, let's say 10 people ended up getting it, it might be necessary to vaccinate as many as 40 billion people quickly in order to stop the outbreak.

And then globally, it could go global, potentially in about 15 weeks. And many people around the world, not the United States, but in many other countries, simply have no vaccine at all.

BLITZER: Very briefly -- so, are you saying that the government should immediately begin vaccines for all Americans to deal with this issue?

PRESTON: Yes, that's a great question. I don't think so. The vaccine itself holds dangers for some people and I think it would be wiser to begin limited vaccinations, only of emergency health care providers and doctors on the front line. And probably only on a voluntary basis.

But that would be good because we would get some experience in using the vaccine. People would be more knowledgeable about it, better able to handle it, if it suddenly had to be used widely.

BLITZER: Richard Preston. He's got a new book, "The Demon in the Freezer." I recommend it. Thanks for joining us.

PRESTON: Nice to be with you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Now, let's get back to "Showdown Iraq."

Iraq is denying U.S. allegations it's producing weapons of mass destruction. In a bid to bolster its case today, Iraq gave journalists a tour of what they described as a suspected weapons site.

Our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson went along.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Opening the doors to journalists, Iraqi authorities initiate a tour of the contentious Al-Nassr Heavy Industry Complex.

The aim: to disspell U.S. accusations Iraq is using it to manufacture components for a nuclear weapons program.

HUSSAN AMIN, IRAQI WEAPONS MONITOR: Your entry here, in this site is a signal or a message from Iraq government that this site is not involved in any activities related to the so-called mass -- weapon of mass destruction.

ROBERTSON: The first stop on the tour -- a mostly empty machine shop. Of interest here, so-called CNC machines. Computer-controlled and able to work to the high tolerances required for specialized equipment used in the nuclear and other industries.

Although to the untrained eye there appears to be little to link this manufacturing equipment to weapons of mass destruction, the United States, in a recent dossier, that it believes Iraq does have sufficient manufacturing capability to restart its nuclear weapons program.

How many people work here at this site?

AMIN: I don't know, but I think about, maybe, 2,000 to 3,000.

ROBERTSON: Iraqi officials say this is the best manufacturing site in Iraq, and charge that is why it is accused of involvement in weapons of mass destruction, because that would give the U.S. reason to bomb it.

Much of the site, we have seen, does seem to support Iraqi government claims that Al Nassr is mostly used for civilian projects. Making molds for glass factories and other applications, as well as casting iron and other metals.

Iraqi officials Al Nassr was visited by U.N. weapons inspection teams before 1998, and did have U.N. video monitoring cameras placed around the site.

However, they say, the U.N. cameras were all destroyed during the allied bombing in 1998.

At the end of the tour, the question remains, however: how do, technically untrained journalists, know what they have seen?

AMIN: You have seen them. You have seen them. The whole factory -- it was the machinery factory. And I can make use -- to let you visit some other departments with me.

ROBERTSON: It is a similar open-door policy that Iraq says it plans to offer U.N. weapons inspectors, if and when they return. U.N. officials will likely be looking for a more exhaustive survey than the one provided this day, before they can give this site a clean bill of health.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Al Nassr Factory Complex, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And remember, you still have time to vote on our "Web Question of the Day, which is this: Do you agree with the House vote authorizing President Bush to go to war against Iraq?

Go to my Web page: cnn.com/wolf. That's where you can vote. We'll have the results a little bit later in this program.

When we come back: He's known for his commentary, but now he may be notorious for it. What came out of Andy Rooney's mouth?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Veteran CBS News commentator Andy Rooney is being accused of sexism for some comments he made on Boomer Esiason's cable TV talk show. Rooney took a swipe at women who appear as sideline reporters during televised football games.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY ROONEY, CBS' "60 MINUTES": The only thing that really bugs me about television's coverage is those damn women they have down on the sidelines that don't know what the hell they're talking about.

I mean, I'm not a sexist person, but a woman has no business being down there trying to make some comment about a football game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The National Council of Women's Organizations calls Rooney's remarks "bigoted and insensitive." CBS says Rooney's comments are his own and do not reflect the network's opinions.

A spokesman says Rooney will have no further comment on this controversy. We asked Rooney to appear on this program through CBS, and he declined.

Time is running out for you to weigh in on our Web question for the day: Do you agree with the House vote authorizing president Bush to go to war against Iraq?

Logon to cnn.com/wolf to vote. The results, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: It's official: CNN has now learned that ballistic tests show that last night's shooting in Manassas, Virginia and Prince William County, just outside D.C. -- those tests show that it is related, it is connected to the earlier shootings that have been going on in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

The same kind of weapon, the same kind of ammunition, the same kind of bullet was, indeed, used that resulted in the death of a 53- year-old Gaithersburg, Maryland man. A man who was filling up his car at a gas station -- this gas station. A Sunoco gas station in Manassas, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.

Our Ed Lavandera, he's standing by on the scene. He's got additional details.

Unfortunately, Ed is not yet ready. We're going to go to Ed as soon as he is ready.

But we can confirm that ballistic evidence does, indeed, tie this latest shooting to the earlier shootings in the greater Washington, D.C. area. Earlier six individuals were killed. Six people were killed in those shootings, two seriously injured. Now, the seventh person confirmed -- a 53-year-old Maryland man who was filling up his pump -- his gas at a pump in Manassas, Virginia.

I think Ed Lavandera is now ready. he's joining us now, live.

Ed, what other information do you have? LAVANDERA: Well, the information here that we're getting from Prince William County police has come in the form of a press release for now, although we do -- have been told that the chief of police will be coming out here shortly to address the news media about these developments.

And this is essentially -- all of this work started last night after that latest shooting around 8:15 here in Prince -- in Manassas, Virginia, which is in Prince William County, just south of Washington, D.C.

And the press release saying that there is a conclusive link in this shooting with the others in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

And I think the authorities here suspected this all along because of the initial information, as it was starting to come out last night, the single shot that was heard, the white van that was seen spotted at the crime scene as well. And that -- also that this latest shooting also occurred at a gas station, similar to two of the other shootings.

Some of that initial information led police to initially say that this information was not conclusive at the time, which is what it is now, but that there was enough information -- it was similar enough to lead them to believe that perhaps it was very similar to the other shootings that had happened in the Washington, D.C. area.

Now, the ballistic tests that were done today go on to prove conclusively to the authorities that are investigating this case that it is conclusive that it is connected to the other shootings in this area as well, and that authorities will now continue to work with other authorities -- FBI and the federal authorities are all working on this -- to try to catch this killer -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Ed Lavandera, thanks for that report. We'll be standing by for that news conference from authorities -- law enforcement authorities in Prince William County in Virginia, just outside Washington.

Everything we didn't want to hear: We have just heard, yes, there is, indeed, a connection to this last shooting last night, the earlier shootings in this Washington area.

Before we go, let me tell you how you are weighing in on our Web question of the day. Our question was: Do you agree with the House vote authorizing President Bush to go to war against Iraq? Thirty- seven percent of you are saying yes, 63 percent say no. You can find the exact vote tally -- continue to vote, by the way -- on my Web site, cnn.com/wolf.

Remember, this is not -- repeat, not -- a scientific poll.

And that's all the time we have today. Please join me again, 5:00 p.m. Eastern.

Please join us, of course, for my new program "SHOWDOWN: IRAQ" every weekday at noon Eastern. Tomorrow among my guests, Salman Rushdie.

Until then, thanks very much for watching.

I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

"LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE" is up next.

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Murders; House Endorses Resolution Allowing Bush to Use Force Against Iraq>


Aired October 10, 2002 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: A deadly shooting in suburban Washington, is it the latest work of the serial sniper?
As U.S. action against Iraq gets a key congressional endorsement, CNN's Nic Robertson gets a firsthand look inside a suspected Iraqi weapons plant.

New threats allegedly from al Qaeda's top leaders, what do they tell us about al Qaeda's ability to wage war against America?

And, some say it was a few minutes too many with Andy Rooney, find out why many women think the curmudgeonly commentator has gone too far.

It's Thursday, October 10, 2002. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. The House of Representatives has passed a resolution authorizing President Bush to launch an attack on Iraq and the Senate is poised to do the exact same thing. We'll go live to Capitol Hill and the White House in just a few moments for more on this critical vote.

But first, what police are treating as the latest deadly attack by the sniper terrorizing the metropolitan Washington area. A 53- year-old man was shot and killed as he filled his car with gas at a station in Manassas, Virginia about 8:15 last night. The investigation there is going full force this hour and if it's confirmed, it would be the sniper's ninth attack in eight days and the seventh death.

We have two reports. Ed Lavandera is in Prince William County, that's in Virginia, with more on the investigation. Kathleen Koch is in Montgomery County in Maryland where the killing spree began. Let's begin with Ed -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, at 6:00 Eastern time police here in Prince William County, Virginia will hold another briefing and what we're expecting to hear is perhaps the answer to the looming question that has many people here in the Virginia area very nervous as to whether or not authorities here have been able to connect this latest shooting with the sniper that has been terrorizing the Washington, D.C. area.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Around 8:15 Wednesday night, 53-year-old Dean Harold Meyers got out of his car at this Manassas, Virginia gas station. He was about to start fueling his tank when a single gunshot struck him in the upper body. Myers who was working in Virginia, but from Maryland, died at the scene. Prince William County Police shut down the highway where the shooting happened casting a wide net, searching for clues and evidence the killer might have left behind. The initial details of this case are familiar to authorities.

CHIEF CHARLIE DEANE, PRINCE WILLIAM CO. VA.: The autopsy results did reveal some evidence. That evidence has been turned over to the ATF laboratory who are conducting analysis at this time.

LAVANDERA: Two of the shootings also occurred at a gas station. Only a single gunshot was fired and police again say they're searching for a white paneled vehicle described by an eyewitness in this case as looking like a Dodge Caravan without side or rear windows.

DEANE: The overall circumstances of this case still appears to be consistent with the other shootings, that is the overall circumstances are consistent with the other shootings in the region.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: Now, Wolf, police weren't able to get any license plate information off that white minivan that they say they saw, but they do saw they're able to get some help from other witnesses that were in the area as well. In the meantime, after school activities and sporting events here in Prince William County have been canceled through Sunday -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And once again, Ed, we're standing by for this news conference. That's coming up, you say at the top of the hour?

LAVANDERA: Yes, sir, top of the hour they'll come out, the chief of police here in Prince William County will be coming out and they have said that they had originally canceled all of the press briefings that were scheduled for the rest of the day, only to say that they would come out if there was something important to pass along, so that's why we anticipate it might perhaps be that kind of news.

BLITZER: And by then it will have been almost 22 hours since the shooting. Ed Lavandera thanks. We'll be standing by awaiting that news conference of course here on CNN.

Now this latest shooting gives added urgency to the investigation in Montgomery County, Maryland. CNN's Kathleen Koch is there with more on a potentially key piece of evidence, the death card from a Tarot deck.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Tarot calling card that may or may not have been left by the killer has more than a grim statement to police. Besides the words "Dear Policeman, I am God" a highly placed source close to the investigation says there was writing warning police not to make the message or the existence of the card public. Police believe the sniper may have been trying to make contact and it hoped to establish a rapport with the killer. Experts say the instructions are revealing.

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: He doesn't want to think he's on par with them. He wants to think he's above them and controlling them but he wants to start some kind of communication so he can have fun with this.

KOCH: Meanwhile, as police struggle with an investigation that now spans four counties and the District of Columbia, they've set up a new centralized tip line run by the FBI for all the shootings. Montgomery County's police chief was asked if the federal government should take over the case.

CHIEF CHARLES MOOSE, MONTGOMERY COUNTY POLICE: It really doesn't matter to myself or Mr. Duncan who runs the investigation. We would like to find the person or the people responsible for this, arrest them, indict them, and get a conviction.

KOCH: With word that a witness saw a white paneled van leaving the scene of the gas station shooting in Virginia, police in Maryland continue to search for what a witness there called a white box truck near the scene of a sniper shooting. It's raised questions about whether the two vehicles could be one and the same.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH: And we will be asking some of those questions at a news briefing here in Montgomery County that is also scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m., so we'll be hoping that they'll have some answers, but the police chief has not been saying much today.

I think again we perceive it to be perhaps because of the whole controversy over the Tarot card that police are being a little more careful here in Montgomery County about what they say, about what they share with reporters and also another hope here Wolf, that the weather continues to improve. We've had a lot of rain today.

It not only makes it tough on the law enforcement officers out there on the scene but it also has the potential for washing away evidence, DNA and other things, that could help the police solve this case -- back to you.

BLITZER: Kathleen Koch in Rockville, Maryland, in Montgomery County. We'll be monitoring that news conference at the top of the hour as well. A lot of potential news out there and the appearance of the so-called death card from the Tarot deck adds a macabre twist to this terrifying string of killings. Investigators are left to puzzle over whether the killer is telling them more than meets the eye.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Police have still not determined whether a Tarot card found near the scene of Monday's shooting in a middle school was actually left by the D.C. area sniper. Do we have a signature killer on our hands? Authorities aren't sure.

There have been signature killers in modern American history. The Son of Sam David Berkowitz and the Zodiac Killer in California corresponded with police and journalists during their killing sprees, but what about the Tarot card? It carries its own mystique.

PROF. DAVID RODIER, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: You could use them for any sort of game you wanted, although they aren't normally now used for that. They were centuries ago. Now, they're primarily a sort of occult, new age fortune telling.

BLITZER: Tarot cards are supposed to decipher events in one's life to predict the future or to symbolize something. A card reader lays them out on a table after shuffling them, then starts to interpret them based on where they're laid out. But Tarot cards can be interpreted in many different ways. The death card, like the one found near the middle school Monday, often doesn't even mean death.

RODIER: It's not in most of the occult versions not usually thought of as bad or negative although it can have that meaning too but it doesn't -- it means change and breaking out of a particular routine into something new.

BLITZER: Most experts trace the history of Tarot cards back to the 1300s and believe they were created by European gypsies. They're not just some oddball prop from the world's of voodoo and cults.

RODIER: In popular cultures since the '60s, they've been fairly standard symbolism in things like rock music album covers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And police in this area are spending a lot of time studying those Tarot cards to see if perhaps there could be a clue out there that could result in the capture of this killer. When we come back, the House lines up behind the president on Iraq, does this mean the United States is on the verge of an attack? We'll get reaction from Capitol Hill. We'll also go live to the White House.

Also, mounting evidence that top al Qaeda leaders are alive, well, and planning their next attack. We'll tell you what prompted a worldwide alert, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A warning to certain Americans about al Qaeda terror operations overseas. That's coming up on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. President Bush got some good news from Capitol Hill today. The House overwhelmingly passed a strong measure of support for the president's Iraq policy and the Senate is getting ready to follow suit.

Our Congressional Correspondent, Kate Snow, is standing by with details -- Kate.

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, a vote of support for the president to be sure. All but six Republicans in the House, along with 81 of the Democrats, voted to endorse this resolution authorizing the president to use force against Iraq. Throughout the day, members went to the floor of the House, many of them, most of them supportive of this resolution, railing against Saddam Hussein. As one Republican leader put it at one point, he said he has a wicked litany of crimes.

One key endorsement, of course, coming from the Democratic Leader in the House Dick Gephardt who stood, you will remember, last week shoulder-to-shoulder with the president at the White House. He told members they should vote their consciences but he was very clear about how he would vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DICK GEPHARDT (D-MO), MINORITY LEADER: September 11 was the ultimate wakeup call. We must now do everything in our power to prevent further terrorist attacks and ensure that an attack with a weapon of mass destruction can not happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: Obviously, Dick Gephardt voting for this resolution but other Democrats parting company with him including his own number two, the number two Democrat in the House. She argued that actually if you force against Iraq it could detract from the war on terrorism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY WHIP: I rise in opposition to the resolution on national security grounds. The clear and present danger that our country faces is terrorism. I say flat out that unilateral use of force without first exhausting every diplomatic remedy and other remedies and making a case to the American people will be harmful to our war on terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: In the end the final tally 296 votes for the resolution, 133 against. Within that vote, though, 120 plus Democrats voting against this resolution, Wolf, so quite a few members expressing their discontent with the resolution but overwhelmingly it did pass and we do expect that to happen in the Senate as well -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Especially now, Kate, that Tom Daschle, the Democratic Leader, the Majority Leader in the Senate jumped on the president's bandwagon, but the head counting that I can tell in the Senate looks it's pretty much 50/50 among the Democrats. Half will go along with the president, half won't.

SNOW: Yes, there was a telling vote earlier today, Wolf, as you know, a procedural vote but it broke out 75 for and 25 against and we expect that that will be very close to what happens in the end in the Senate, but about 75 or roughly most of the Republicans, all but one probably, and about half of the Democrats will go along with the president in the U.S. Senate. BLITZER: Kate Snow doing our work on Capitol Hill thanks for that report. It didn't take very long for the president to come out and express satisfaction on what's going on. He went over and spoke to reporters.

Our John King is over at the White House and he'll tell us all about it -- John.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And, Wolf, the president spoke to reporters briefly after placing a telephone call to the House Speaker Dennis Hastert and the House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt, the president thanking them for their work. Yes, the White House would have liked it if a majority of Democrats in the House had supported this resolution, but the president coming into the Roosevelt Room to declare victory here, thanking the House of Representatives for standing with him and sending a message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The House of Representatives has spoken clearly to the world and to the United Nations Security Council. The gathering threat of Iraq must be confronted fully and finally. Today's vote also sends a clear message to the Iraqi regime. It must disarm and comply with all existing U.N. resolutions or it will be forced to comply.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: A more than two-to-one margin for the president in the House, the White House expecting perhaps close to a three-to-one margin in the Senate vote that comes. By this time tomorrow, the president should have both chambers of Congress on record, authorizing him to use force against Iraq, look Wolf to see the president at this time tomorrow asking the United Nations to act as well, saying America is speaking with one voice.

It is time for the Security Council to pass a tough new resolution or the president will lead a coalition outside of the United Nations but privately U.S. officials continue to tell us the diplomacy at the United Nations going well. The president hopes for U.N. action perhaps, and they say they might be a bit optimistic here, but perhaps by the end of next week.

BLITZER: So, John, are they thinking that these strong votes in the Senate and the House will convince the French and the Russians, for example, to go along with the U.S. version of a new Security Council resolution?

KING: They certainly think it helps in the diplomacy with the French and the Russians to make clear that the president is on very firm political footing here in the United States, domestic political footing. The concerns of the Russians and the French are outside of the issues being debated on the floor of the House of Representatives and on the floor of the Senate.

But they do think it helps the president when he can go to the United Nations, and especially those key members of the Security Council, France and Russia, and say I have the support of the Congress. I will do this with the United Nations support or without the United Nations support. If you want to have any influence in the outcome, you should join us now.

BLITZER: John King at the White House thanks very much. And here's your chance to weigh in on this story. Our web question of the day is this: Do you agree with the House of Representatives vote authorizing President Bush to go to war against Iraq if necessary? We'll have the results later in this program.

Go to my web page cnn.com/wolf. That's where you can vote. While you're there, 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, of course, where you can read my daily online column, cnn.com/wolf.

Stepped up security in New York City and now evidence that top al Qaeda leaders are still alive and that sparks concern for many Americans worldwide, a closer look at some unfinished business in the war on terror. And, a super smallpox virus that could wipe out thousands is it really possible to protect the nation? We'll talk to one expert who has some serious doubts, but first today's news quiz. Smallpox was first used as a weapon during what war; Civil War, French and Indian Wars, World War I, Vietnam, the answer coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We've got a major development we're watching right now. I want to go to CNN's Barbara Starr. She's over at the Pentagon standing by with word about that explosion that crippled a French supertanker off the coast of Yemen on Sunday. What's going on Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, U.S. investigators now say there is firm evidence it was an attack on the French supertanker Lindbergh off the coast of Yemen on October 6 that caused a massive fire and explosion onboard the ship.

Military sources tell CNN that French authorities who have looked at the wreckage, who have been on board the supertanker have found three things. They have found the residue of TNT explosives. They have found fiberglass chards and they have found parts from a small marine engine on the Lindbergh.

Now, investigators who are there from the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service say the pattern of the explosion indicates a blast initiated from the outside very similar to the pattern of the explosion onboard the U.S. Navy warship USS Cole that was bombed in Yemen about two years ago.

U.S. officials also tell CNN tonight that a local newspaper in Yemen has now received a claim of responsibility from an Islamic group. They do not know at this point if that group is connected to the al Qaeda -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And, as you remember Barbara, right after the explosion on the Cole, the Yemeni government at that time initially said no, this was an accident, couldn't be terrorism. They said exactly the same thing on Sunday. What does this say about the government of Yemen and its cooperation in the war on terror?

STARR: Well, officials here know that the Yemen government has some challenges and sensitivities within its own country. They certainly expected some of this same language from the government of Yemen, but U.S. officials had been suspicious since the beginning when they first saw the fire and the size of the hole ripped in this tanker.

Officials had said to us from the very beginning that it would be very unusual if it had been some sort of engineering failure or mechanical explosion onboard this supertanker. These tankers are constructed very carefully. They had suspected this from the beginning.

BLITZER: Barbara Starr, our Pentagon Correspondent, breaking news here on this program as she often does. Thanks for that report.

And, 13 months after September 11, government officials are taking very seriously a series of audiotapes in which al Qaeda leaders threaten new attacks on the United States. That's prompting a warning by the FBI and some increased security precautions.

Our Justice Correspondent, Kelli Arena, reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. officials are worried that al Qaeda could be ready for another major strike. The FBI warns the new audiotape featuring Ayman Al-Zawahiri could be a signal that a plan for an attack has been approved, a suspicion confirmed by a senior al Qaeda detainee.

ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: The possibility is still unfortunately with us that there are terrorists, al Qaeda terrorists, who seeking to regroup still want to bring harm to the United States and to our interests abroad.

ARENA: In a warning sent to law enforcement agencies around the country, the FBI reminds colleagues of a 1998 fatwah calling for attacks against Americans worldwide, and it says al Qaeda is attempting to manipulate the broader Islamic extremist community to attack the United States.

JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We take very seriously intelligence, which might alert us to signaling that might be given to those who would be in the terrorist inclined toward terrorism to act.

ARENA: The fact that Zawahiri is presumed alive and his unsubstantiated claim that Osama bin Laden is alive as well, suggests there could be enough leadership intact to direct another broad attack.

BRUCE HOFFMAN, RAND CORP.: You still have an entity that sees a need to and, in fact, actively issues propaganda that is still trying to rally the troops, which I think demonstrates that this is an adversary that will be very difficult to crush completely.

ARENA: Even without direction from the upper echelon, al Qaeda cells dispersed around the globe after attacks in Afghanistan do pose a threat. Counterterrorism officials point to the shootout involving marines in Kuwait as a possible example of a smaller attack that may have been pulled off independently.

HOFFMAN: That's why I think it's very important to be vigilant because terrorists will attack when they sense an opening, when they sense a lowering of the guard.

ARENA: There is no specific intelligence regarding a target or timing, but al Qaeda members repeatedly threaten the U.S. economy. As a result, New York City for one has further tightened security.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA: And here in Washington, the State Department is expected to issue a new worldwide caution warning Americans abroad to be on alert. Also, Wolf, they have directed all posts overseas, including embassies, to maintain the highest of vigilance.

BLITZER: OK. Kelli Arena thanks for that report.

Sniper shootings one week later, the Washington area tries to live life as normal but will it be possible with a killer on the loose? Also, some favorable news on the money front, find out why buying a house just got a little bit easier. And, Andy Rooney's foot in mouth, the CBS commentator shares some unkind words for women on the sidelines. First, a look at news making headlines around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Scattered violence as Pakistan held its first general election since the 1999 coup that brought General Pervez Musharraf to power. Almost 100 political parties are on the ballot, although two popular former prime ministers were effectively barred.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is working on the latest scandal to threaten Northern Ireland's power sharing government. The unionist leaders are calling for the Irish Republican Army's political ring, Sinn Fein to be expelled after police uncovered an IRA spy ring allegedly holding stolen British documents.

In Caracas, thousands protested against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. His term lasts until 2007 but opponents want early elections accusing Mr. Chavez of plunging the economy into recession. Mr. Chavez was temporarily ousted in an April coup.

It's National Day in Taiwan marking the 1911 overthrow of China's last dynasty. Taiwan's president used the holiday to call on China to remove hundreds of missiles targeting the self-ruled island and replaced threats with talks. Too much information from Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, responding to a reporter who asked the 55-year-old mother of three if she still had sex, Mrs. Arroyo responded "plenty." She went on to ask the journalist to make international policy the headline not her love life.

And, is this the face of Egypt's most famous pharaoh? Scientists in London used digital technology to reconstruct King Tut's face based on X-rays of his skull, and that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Coming up -- a sniper on the loose. A look at how Washington area residents are coping with everyday fear.

But first, let's look at some other stories making news right now.

Two more former WorldCom executives have pled guilty to security fraud charges. Former accounting department officials Betty Vincent and Troy Norman entered their pleas today in a federal courtroom in New York. Prosecutors say they participated in an illegal scheme to inflate the telecommunication company's reported earnings.

Israeli officials say a Palestinian bomber killed a woman and injured 20 others when he blew himself up at a bus stop near Tel Aviv earlier today. Police describe a frantic scene in which the driver and a passenger subdued the bomber and tried to disarm his device.

Thirty-year mortgage rates in the United States are at a 30- year low. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac reports today's average rate is down to 5.98 percent, the lowest since its began tracking rates in 1971. The low mortgage rates are feeding a nation-wide boom in home sales and refinancing.

And there's a tropical storm watch over the Florida and Georgia coastlines, ahead of Tropical Depression Kyle. This storm system has enjoyed the six-longest life on record. It's been a tropical storm and a hurricane. Forecasters say it could reach tropical storm strength again before making landfall tonight or early tomorrow.

Until a week ago, life in Montgomery County, Maryland and near the nation's capital was much like any normal American suburb. But a sniper's deadly rampage has changed much of that for at least six serial killings -- five have taken place there.

CNN's Michael Okwu revisits the Montgomery County locations where's the first snipers shootings took place a week ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT(voice-over): A week later, it's become difficult to take the little things for granted. Sitting on a public bench. Packing the groceries. Pumping gas. Never has the mundane been so closely linked with death. And that's changed life in Montgomery County.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't really go and do the things that we normally do.

OKWU: Susie Jean Patroni (ph) still makes the morning coffee run. But the franchise she visits has pulled its chairs indoors. And she won't bring her three children.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't play outdoors. We have a great backyard, we all the toys in the driveway and we play in the garage.

OKWU: Five people were shot and killed last week during 16 hours of random murders. 55-year-old James Martin was the first to die. As rain fell on Washington's suburbs, residents walk through the shadow of his memorial.

(on camera): The second victim was shot here near Rockville Pike. Perhaps the county's busiest commercial corridor. The sort of place that's a dime a dozen all across America, where your mind might wander off to what your children are doing or what you might be having for dinner.

(voice-over): James "Sonny" Buchanan was shot as he mowed a wedge of grass behind this car dealership. Some of the silent men who knew him, who lived by the old-fashioned rule of grinning and bearing hardship, have come to rely on professional help.

DOTTI FITZGERALD, FITZGERALD MOTORS: There's been degrees of trauma because some knew Sonny very well. Some knew him to wave to because he was very friendly. Some saw the after effect.

OKWU: Fear is deepest in the county's most nondescript corners. Fifty-four-year-old Prem Kumar Walekar was killed at this gas station.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You always find yourself looking over your shoulder. And it's that feeling -- the nervousness, you're just waiting for something to happen. And I noticed the sirens more. And I also notice loud noises more.

OKWU: Less than a mile away, clients in this beauty shop won't be the same. Sarah Ramos was gunned down as she sat on a bench just steps away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People call and ask whether it's safe -- it's safe to come in.

OKWU: Lori Rivera was shot while vacuuming her van. And still some people say the rule they live by was to carry on as normal. Bold, perhaps, but not as brazen as a sniper tried to change the most basic rule of all.

Michael Okwu, CNN, Montgomery County, Maryland.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: The chilling message this sniper seems to be sending to the D.C. area residents is this: no one anywhere is safe.

Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is following this story. Elizabeth, how do people deal with this kind of fear?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, because it's a faceless fear. And it is indeed hard to deal with. And the people who I've been talking to are dealing with it by really pretty much rethinking every little step of their daily lives, all in an effort to try to figure out how best to protect themselves and their families.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW DAVIS, D.C. RESIDENT: Hand, please. Hand, please.

COHEN (voice-over): Do you walk your child to school? Do you return library books? Do you pump gas? Such everyday things, yet the Davis family, Christine and Matthew, parents of Nathan and Luke, now ask themselves these questions all the time.

CHRISTINE DAVIS, D.C. RESIDENT: You can't presume that you're safe outside of your house, you know?

M. DAVIS: They're going to do that calculation. OK, this doesn't seem like a busy street here. Surely he wouldn't be up in here. But there's a park and some trees. But then you tell yourself stop thinking about that. You're walking your kid to school.

COHEN: The he that Matthew's talking about is the sniper that authorities say is responsible for six, possibly seven, deaths in the past eight days. At first, the Davises tried not to worry, even though one of the attacks was two miles from their home in Northwest Washington, D.C.

M. DAVIS: Then, a child is shot. And so you then think, I have young children that are 4 and 6. Would he go that low? And that is the sort of absurdity. The mere fact that you're going through that level of calculation, to go about your daily business, is a fairly strange way to live one's life.

Give me a hug and a kiss.

COHEN: Strange, too, that at Nathan's school, kids aren't allowed to go outside for any reason. No recess, no outdoor sports.

M. DAVIS: The question is, is this going on for another week? Is this going on for another month? Is this the routine we follow for another year?

COHEN: Nothing's normal anymore. Soccer practices aren't held on soccer fields. They're held in people's backyards. Christine let her gas tank run down to empty because she was afraid to get gas.

C. DAVIS: Somewhat of the feeling when the anthrax attacks were occurring or after the terrorism attacks. It's like sometimes I feel like I'm living with a big bull's eye over my head.

COHEN: Matthew constantly keeps up with the story on the Internet.

COHEN (on-camera): He was a 53-year-old man from Gaithersburg, Maryland.

(voice-over): He knows that no matter how well-informed he is, it doesn't really matter. He can only do what the experts tell him to do -- shield his children from the news and talk about his worries with his wife. The attacks are so random that for now, it's anxiety without end.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: Now many people wonder what do you tell young children? And experts say to do what the Davises are doing. And also, for example, at the school that their 6-year-old goes to -- they didn't tell the first graders exactly why they couldn't go out on the playground. They're making up excuses -- it's too cold, something's broken on the jungle gym -- because they don't really feel that they're ready for the truth.

BLITZER: I think it's fair to say, Elizabeth, all of us who live here in the D.C. area are scared. Our lives have changed.

COHEN: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Let's hope this is resolved quickly. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks.

My next guest says it's the mother of biological weapons. But is smallpox the greatest threat to national security? A look at the war against the super-virus.

And why is Andy Rooney's comments getting him into hot water with women and many men? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Earlier we asked: "Smallpox was first used as a weapon during what war?" The answer: the French and Indian Wars, by British forces against Native Americans.

The British distributed blankets to Native Americans that had been used by smallpox patients. Epidemics killed more 50 percent of affected tribes.

Last year's anthrax attacks alerted the country to the threat of bioterrorism.

My next guest says a super string of smallpox may be the next wave. Richard Preston is the author of the new book "The Demon in the Freezer." He's joining us now live from our New York bureau. Richard, thanks for joining us.

Why do you believe -- why do you say that smallpox, especially a new strain, might be even much more dangerous, for example, than other bioterrorism including anthrax?

RICHARD PRESTON, AUTHOR, "THE DEMON IN THE FREEZER": Well, natural smallpox is considered by most experts to be the most dangerous pathogen to the human species. And there's little doubt, I think, that a number of countries around the world now have secret stocks for potential use as a biological weapon.

Recently, just within the last year or so, there's been new scientific evidence that it might be possible, by adding just a single certain gene to smallpox, to make it able to get around the vaccine, to make it proof or resistant against the vaccine.

And virus engineering itself has gotten pretty easy to do. It can be done with kits that cost about $200. And I've spent some time watching scientists actually engineer viruses. I've seen it done. One of them said to me, Well, you know, you could probably learn to do this in about two months.

But I think this kind of engineering of a virus, to make it more deadly, say, is really more the work of national laboratories, secret bioweapons labs that may exist in some countries.

BLITZER So who -- when you say -- wait, excuse me for interrupting -- some countries, some governments, some terrorists might have this, who, specifically, should the U.S. be worried about?

PRESTON: Well, I think immediately, Iraq comes to mind. There is quite a bit of circumstantial evidence that Iraq does, in fact, possess smallpox.

Now, whether they would use it or not, no one can say. But there's been a recent CIA assessment of Iraq that kind of gets into the profile of Saddam Hussein, in which it's felt that there's a possibility, at least, that if his back was to the wall, if he felt he had nothing to lose, then he might cause a terrorist-style release of smallpox in the U.S.

And -- so the question one has to ask is, you know, are we really ready to defend ourselves against this and, if so, how?

BLITZER: What -- what -- what -- how would you envision a worst case scenario smallpox attack unfolding?

PRESTON: Well, the experts are highly uncertain. Much is not known biologically about this virus. For example, scientists don't even know the mechanism of death in the human being. That's how little we really know about the virus. So it's not known how rapidly it would spread.

But we're a modern society. We're highly mobile. People travel on airplanes. They go to shopping malls. The virus spreads through the air from person to person. So, it could spread rapidly, in which case -- well, for example, I'm hearing some experts are saying if there was a small point release of the virus into say, let's say 10 people ended up getting it, it might be necessary to vaccinate as many as 40 billion people quickly in order to stop the outbreak.

And then globally, it could go global, potentially in about 15 weeks. And many people around the world, not the United States, but in many other countries, simply have no vaccine at all.

BLITZER: Very briefly -- so, are you saying that the government should immediately begin vaccines for all Americans to deal with this issue?

PRESTON: Yes, that's a great question. I don't think so. The vaccine itself holds dangers for some people and I think it would be wiser to begin limited vaccinations, only of emergency health care providers and doctors on the front line. And probably only on a voluntary basis.

But that would be good because we would get some experience in using the vaccine. People would be more knowledgeable about it, better able to handle it, if it suddenly had to be used widely.

BLITZER: Richard Preston. He's got a new book, "The Demon in the Freezer." I recommend it. Thanks for joining us.

PRESTON: Nice to be with you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Now, let's get back to "Showdown Iraq."

Iraq is denying U.S. allegations it's producing weapons of mass destruction. In a bid to bolster its case today, Iraq gave journalists a tour of what they described as a suspected weapons site.

Our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson went along.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Opening the doors to journalists, Iraqi authorities initiate a tour of the contentious Al-Nassr Heavy Industry Complex.

The aim: to disspell U.S. accusations Iraq is using it to manufacture components for a nuclear weapons program.

HUSSAN AMIN, IRAQI WEAPONS MONITOR: Your entry here, in this site is a signal or a message from Iraq government that this site is not involved in any activities related to the so-called mass -- weapon of mass destruction.

ROBERTSON: The first stop on the tour -- a mostly empty machine shop. Of interest here, so-called CNC machines. Computer-controlled and able to work to the high tolerances required for specialized equipment used in the nuclear and other industries.

Although to the untrained eye there appears to be little to link this manufacturing equipment to weapons of mass destruction, the United States, in a recent dossier, that it believes Iraq does have sufficient manufacturing capability to restart its nuclear weapons program.

How many people work here at this site?

AMIN: I don't know, but I think about, maybe, 2,000 to 3,000.

ROBERTSON: Iraqi officials say this is the best manufacturing site in Iraq, and charge that is why it is accused of involvement in weapons of mass destruction, because that would give the U.S. reason to bomb it.

Much of the site, we have seen, does seem to support Iraqi government claims that Al Nassr is mostly used for civilian projects. Making molds for glass factories and other applications, as well as casting iron and other metals.

Iraqi officials Al Nassr was visited by U.N. weapons inspection teams before 1998, and did have U.N. video monitoring cameras placed around the site.

However, they say, the U.N. cameras were all destroyed during the allied bombing in 1998.

At the end of the tour, the question remains, however: how do, technically untrained journalists, know what they have seen?

AMIN: You have seen them. You have seen them. The whole factory -- it was the machinery factory. And I can make use -- to let you visit some other departments with me.

ROBERTSON: It is a similar open-door policy that Iraq says it plans to offer U.N. weapons inspectors, if and when they return. U.N. officials will likely be looking for a more exhaustive survey than the one provided this day, before they can give this site a clean bill of health.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Al Nassr Factory Complex, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And remember, you still have time to vote on our "Web Question of the Day, which is this: Do you agree with the House vote authorizing President Bush to go to war against Iraq?

Go to my Web page: cnn.com/wolf. That's where you can vote. We'll have the results a little bit later in this program.

When we come back: He's known for his commentary, but now he may be notorious for it. What came out of Andy Rooney's mouth?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Veteran CBS News commentator Andy Rooney is being accused of sexism for some comments he made on Boomer Esiason's cable TV talk show. Rooney took a swipe at women who appear as sideline reporters during televised football games.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY ROONEY, CBS' "60 MINUTES": The only thing that really bugs me about television's coverage is those damn women they have down on the sidelines that don't know what the hell they're talking about.

I mean, I'm not a sexist person, but a woman has no business being down there trying to make some comment about a football game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The National Council of Women's Organizations calls Rooney's remarks "bigoted and insensitive." CBS says Rooney's comments are his own and do not reflect the network's opinions.

A spokesman says Rooney will have no further comment on this controversy. We asked Rooney to appear on this program through CBS, and he declined.

Time is running out for you to weigh in on our Web question for the day: Do you agree with the House vote authorizing president Bush to go to war against Iraq?

Logon to cnn.com/wolf to vote. The results, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: It's official: CNN has now learned that ballistic tests show that last night's shooting in Manassas, Virginia and Prince William County, just outside D.C. -- those tests show that it is related, it is connected to the earlier shootings that have been going on in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

The same kind of weapon, the same kind of ammunition, the same kind of bullet was, indeed, used that resulted in the death of a 53- year-old Gaithersburg, Maryland man. A man who was filling up his car at a gas station -- this gas station. A Sunoco gas station in Manassas, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.

Our Ed Lavandera, he's standing by on the scene. He's got additional details.

Unfortunately, Ed is not yet ready. We're going to go to Ed as soon as he is ready.

But we can confirm that ballistic evidence does, indeed, tie this latest shooting to the earlier shootings in the greater Washington, D.C. area. Earlier six individuals were killed. Six people were killed in those shootings, two seriously injured. Now, the seventh person confirmed -- a 53-year-old Maryland man who was filling up his pump -- his gas at a pump in Manassas, Virginia.

I think Ed Lavandera is now ready. he's joining us now, live.

Ed, what other information do you have? LAVANDERA: Well, the information here that we're getting from Prince William County police has come in the form of a press release for now, although we do -- have been told that the chief of police will be coming out here shortly to address the news media about these developments.

And this is essentially -- all of this work started last night after that latest shooting around 8:15 here in Prince -- in Manassas, Virginia, which is in Prince William County, just south of Washington, D.C.

And the press release saying that there is a conclusive link in this shooting with the others in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

And I think the authorities here suspected this all along because of the initial information, as it was starting to come out last night, the single shot that was heard, the white van that was seen spotted at the crime scene as well. And that -- also that this latest shooting also occurred at a gas station, similar to two of the other shootings.

Some of that initial information led police to initially say that this information was not conclusive at the time, which is what it is now, but that there was enough information -- it was similar enough to lead them to believe that perhaps it was very similar to the other shootings that had happened in the Washington, D.C. area.

Now, the ballistic tests that were done today go on to prove conclusively to the authorities that are investigating this case that it is conclusive that it is connected to the other shootings in this area as well, and that authorities will now continue to work with other authorities -- FBI and the federal authorities are all working on this -- to try to catch this killer -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Ed Lavandera, thanks for that report. We'll be standing by for that news conference from authorities -- law enforcement authorities in Prince William County in Virginia, just outside Washington.

Everything we didn't want to hear: We have just heard, yes, there is, indeed, a connection to this last shooting last night, the earlier shootings in this Washington area.

Before we go, let me tell you how you are weighing in on our Web question of the day. Our question was: Do you agree with the House vote authorizing President Bush to go to war against Iraq? Thirty- seven percent of you are saying yes, 63 percent say no. You can find the exact vote tally -- continue to vote, by the way -- on my Web site, cnn.com/wolf.

Remember, this is not -- repeat, not -- a scientific poll.

And that's all the time we have today. Please join me again, 5:00 p.m. Eastern.

Please join us, of course, for my new program "SHOWDOWN: IRAQ" every weekday at noon Eastern. Tomorrow among my guests, Salman Rushdie.

Until then, thanks very much for watching.

I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

"LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE" is up next.

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Murders; House Endorses Resolution Allowing Bush to Use Force Against Iraq>