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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

North Korea May Have Nuclear Weapons; Sniper Investigation Continues in Washington, D.C. Suburbs

Aired October 17, 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 HOST: It's Thursday, October 17, 2002. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. Investigators in the sniper case are dealing with what must be an infuriating setback in their search for the killer. CNN's Kathleen Koch is at the nerve center of the investigation in Montgomery County, Maryland. She's standing by with more on this late-breaking development - Kathleen.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, today's was perhaps the most frustrating briefing that we have had since these sniper shootings began more than two weeks ago because suddenly facts weren't facts and witnesses weren't witnesses.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH (voice over): It was stunning news on a shooting where police had seemed to have so many leads, so much hope.

CHIEF TOM MANGER, FAIRFAX CO. POLICE: The information provided by one of the witnesses at the scene of the shooting in the Home Depot describing a cream-colored van with a malfunctioning taillight is not credible.

KOCH: Also false the same witness' compelling description of the shooter being an olive-skinned man who shouldered and fired an AK-74 rifle. Sources tell CNN the man didn't recall other details that he should have if he'd actually been in the parking lot. He admitted to police Wednesday night that he'd instead been inside the Home Depot. Police are considering pressing charges.

Authorities also admitted they had erred in telling reporters another witness had seen the shooter and they say there's now no credible witness information linking any type of van to Monday's shooting. Virginia police insist the bad information didn't hamper their search for the killer that night despite the fact that the focus was on light-colored vans.

LT. AMY CUBAS, FAIRFAX CO. POLICE: Certainly, we would not have wanted that to be the case, to have information that we were looking for, something that was not accurate; however, it did not truly make null and void the search because our officers are trained to look for other types of suspicious vehicles as well.

KOCH: Police insist there are other witnesses and information about other vehicles spotted at other scenes is still credible.

CHIEF CHARLES MOOSE, MONTGOMERY CO. POLICE: All of the information about the white box truck, the composites that we put out about the vans from Spotsylvania County, all of that is still relevant information, very important information to our investigation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH (on camera): Just a few minutes ago at a hearing on Capitol Hill, FBI Director Robert Mueller spoke out about the calls that have been coming in to the FBI's consolidated tip line and the promise that some of them hold.

BLITZER: Kathleen, we're going to have that excerpt from Director Mueller's testimony coming up. Before I leave you go, is there any sense at all that they have something hard to go on that is suggesting that this is about to break this case?

KOCH: Wolf, certainly not after today's revelation about this witness who apparently fabricated so much of what he had seen and it's also very exasperating because even the news that we have that the killer had perhaps changed his M.O. and was now approaching the victims at a very close distance, some 30 yards, now that information is negated. You can't say the investigation is back to square one but certainly it isn't at the point that they had thought they were yesterday, back to you.

BLITZER: Kathleen Koch on the scene for us in Rockville, Maryland thanks very much. And, as Kathleen just reported the Director of the FBI Robert Mueller spoke out on the progress or perhaps lack thereof in the sniper case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: I'll tell you we've had thousands of leads whether it be on our tip line or others that we are investigating and there are hopeful leads amongst those that we have received over the last week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Robert Mueller sounding an upbeat note but for many it's back to square one today for the police who are investigating the most recent shooting there at the suburban Home Depot where a 45-year- old woman was killed Monday, an FBI intelligence analyst, and they're now doing a new sweep of the parking lot for possibly some overlooked evidence. Our National Correspondent Bob Franken, once again on the scene for us tonight in Falls Church, Virginia - Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well as you know, Wolf, yesterday we were talking about the search, focusing on that area over there because the witness who has now been discredited, actually it was described to us as witnesses, had said that the vehicle, the van was there and the shooter was there.

Now, however, there was a re-jiggering of the investigation and, as a matter of fact, they moved from there over there, over to the parking lot, to the grassy areas over there. Earlier today we saw police recruits from Fairfax County scouring the area. They went up and down over ever inch of that area over there, looking in the parking lot, looking at the grass on their hands and knees, looking for evidence.

Then, they came over to this median strip here, which is by the access road that earlier witnesses said that the man had taken, the sniper had taken after the shooting on Monday night. There was a very thorough search there and what we've been told by police officials is that they have not absolutely given up on the possibility that the shooting occurred in there. As a matter of fact, there were officers today mapping it, experts who mapped every inch of that garage and every inch of the area that we pointed out just a moment ago.

So, the investigation as we've all been discussing really is much set back from where it was. Instead of being so firm about the position of the shooter in there, they know are emphasizing the area over there. One other thing, while all of this was going on today, on the roof police with binoculars making sure, making sure that there was no trouble while this search was going on. It is an area that is very nervous and the police today, while they wouldn't say so, were somewhat discouraged about the fact that they didn't have as strong a lead as they thought they had - Wolf.

BLITZER: Very briefly, Bob, is that Home Depot reopened?

FRANKEN: Oh, the Home Depot opened the very next day and the customers, the number of people here went back to just about normal according to officials.

BLITZER: Bob Franken on the scene for us once again. We can only imagine, Bob, what the reaction of this sniper is to all this conflicting information. We'll try to assess that as we go along.

Federal investigators say there's no evidence that any organized terror group is behind these D.C. area shootings but they are looking into that possibility. Once again, CNN Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena is joining us from our investigation desk in the newsroom - Kelli.

KELLI RENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, investigators say that they're simply not ruling anything out, and as part of the investigation U.S. officials will be questioning al Qaeda detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and elsewhere.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA (voice over): U.S. officials say it makes good investigative sense to question al Qaeda detainees in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere to see if they know about any plans to use snipers in terror attacks. Even though there is no evidence linking the recent sniper attacks to al Qaeda or any terrorist organization, investigators want to make absolutely sure, after all al Qaeda documents obtained by CNN and law enforcement agencies, detail how sniper teams could easily get guns and train in the United States. But, when asked about a possible terror link, officials would not comment. MOOSE: We're not going to talk about the investigation. We're not going to talk about anything that is in a manual that, you know, we haven't brought out here and distributed. Obviously you're talking about matters of national security.

ARENA: Speculation about whether al Qaeda may be involved intensified after Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said earlier this week he could not rule out a terror connection.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY DIRECTOR: I don't think we can foreclose that.

ARENA: Counterterrorism officials say they don't think there is a terror connection because many terrorist organizations take credit for attacks and that has not happened. Also, al Qaeda terrorists typically do not leave tarot cards behind. What's more terror organizations usually plan operations, such as the September 11th attacks, which claim more than one life at a time.

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I have no information that it's terrorist related, do you?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA (on camera): But the sniper attacks come amid warnings that al Qaeda continues to plan a major attack against U.S. interests. Now against that backdrop, one U.S. official said that it would simply be irresponsible if officials did not go back to Gitmo to try to get more information - Wolf.

BLITZER: Gitmo, Guantanamo Bay, thanks very much Kelli Arena for that report. And even though most authorities doubt al Qaeda is linked to the Washington area shootings, Congress heard a chilling new warning today about overall al Qaeda activity. Our National Security Correspondent David Ensor is on Capitol Hill and heard this chilling testimony - David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well that's right, Wolf. The director of the CIA and other intelligence officers were here to discuss what clues they might have missed before 9/11, but the striking thing today was the very pessimistic language from CIA Director George Tenet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: When you see the multiple attacks that you've seen occur around the world from Bali to Kuwait, the number of failed attacks that have been attempted, the various messages that have been issued by senior al Qaeda leaders, you must make the assumption that al Qaeda is in an execution phase and intends to strike us both here and overseas. That's unambiguous as far as I am concerned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENSOR: Tenet said that the threat level, the sort of intelligence information that the U.S. has been collecting is as high as it was in the summer before 2001. Now you'll recall that during that period Tenet was warning. He thought a major terrorism attack might come against the United States. Those warnings did not get very much attention. Perhaps these will - Wolf.

BLITZER: David, so why aren't they changing, at least have not yet changed the threat level? It's yellow, elevated, but they're not moving up yet to orange or even perhaps red.

ENSOR: Well actually, one Senator asked that same question, Wolf, and Tenet said he would be having discussions with the Homeland Security Office and with the White House about that subject and relating to the general threat level in the coming days. So, it is possible that threat level could go up, although nothing certain on that from here.

BLITZER: David Ensor on Capitol Hill for us monitoring this very important story. David, thank you very much. How reliable are eyewitnesses when it comes to describing suspects? We put our staff to the test. Did they see what they thought they saw? We'll have a live demonstration of a sketch artist at work when we come back. Also, a nuclear weapons secret out of the bag, North Korea makes a bombshell admission literally. Plus, a governor's daughter, the president's niece, and now ten days in jail, the trials and tribulations of Noelle Bush, all that still to come.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. As we've heard, investigators are now discounting information from a witness who claimed to have seen the Washington area sniper, his weapon and the van. Earlier, police said distance, darkness, and adrenalin had thwarted efforts to put together a sketch based on witness sightings. That's a difficult job even under the best of circumstances.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice over): How hard is it to draw a composite sketch of suspect based on eyewitness accounts? We put Davis Morton to the test. Morton was a policeman in Montgomery County, Maryland for 18 years. He's also a professional artist and a big part of his jobs as a policeman was to draw composite sketches. He's not retired and is affiliated with the Zenith Gallery in Washington, D.C. but he agreed to do a simulation with us.

Our producer, Carrie Connor (ph) played the role of a suspect. We had Carrie walk from one obscured position behind a pillar to another, down a driveway into a garage. We positioned CNN employees, playing the roles of witnesses, at three positions nearby. None of our witnesses knew Carrie previously and none was allowed to see her before we started taking and, of course, our sketch artist had never seen her before either.

Each witness was told beforehand they'd have to observe someone walking from one point to another. Producer Ben Geldon observed Carrie was across the street slightly behind her and about 40 yards away. Intern Boram Han witnessed her from across the street about 80 yards away but with Carrie walking straight toward her and then ducking down into the garage. Intern Megan Driscoll was on an overpass about 45 yards up the street and almost 100 feet above the ground. They each watched her for about 15 seconds, then came inside to tell Davis Morton what they saw.

BEN GELDON, WITNESS: I only saw her in profile. She had brown hair sort of down to her neck, sort of a - I couldn't see much of her eyes since she was looking sort of forward as she walked on the side.

DAVIS MORTON FMR. POLICE ARTIST: The color of her hair?

BORAM HAN, WITNESS: It was light brown with red in it.

MORTON: Light brown with red. About how long was it?

HAN: It probably touched her collarbone.

MORTON: How tall to you think she was?

MEGAN DRISCOLL, WITNESS: I was thinking about it and I would say 5'8", 5'9". She was relatively tall.

MORTON: Thin build, medium build, heavy

DRISCOLL: On the thin side.

MORTON: Emaciated thin or athletically thin?

DRISCOLL: Athletically thin.

BLITZER: It's important to note two things told to us by retired police officer Gary Hankins who's now a consultant to police unions. The situation we illustrated had no component of fear or adrenalin. Hankin says those conditions can trigger certain characteristics like tunnel vision, which can impair a witness' judgment.

And our simulation took place in mid afternoon with vastly different lighting conditions from Monday evening's sniper shooting in Fairfax, Virginia. Still, Hankins said this is a good illustration of the process. So based on the descriptions from our simulated witnesses, Davis Morton went to work on a composite sketch.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (on camera): And joining me now here live is the former Montgomery police artist Davis Morton. Thanks Mr. Morton for joining us. Also, our cast of characters, our so-called witnesses, CNN Producer Ben Geldon and the interns Boram Han and Megan Driscoll. Thanks to all of you and I see you've been working away. You've been making some pretty impressive progress. We're not going to show our viewers what you've done yet, but what do you think so far of the eyewitness accounts that they've given?

MORTON: Well, they're very good witnesses. The problem is they were so far away. It was such a short period of time and I know Megan just saw her from the top. He just saw a profile. She never saw her eyes. So it's very difficult to do a drawing like that. It's very hard.

BLITZER: But these are under unusually good circumstances. It was daylight.

MORTON: Yes. Oh, they are. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

BLITZER: I mean oftentimes in your history you've had a lot less to go on, right?

MORTON: Oh yes, a lot less to go on and the problem they just saw her from profile. They saw her from profile. Boram saw her full face so we went with that because it's much better to do a full face drawing, but then again if it's full face and you don't see the eye's then it's very difficult, so.

BLITZER: Why do you believe, and you're an expert on this, you've done this for Montgomery County Police over the years. Why are they having such a hard time coming up with a composite sketch of the sniper?

MORTON: Well from what I understand, if you just see somebody walking by or running and you just see a profile and if they have a hat on, it's very difficult. It's very, very hard to do. I've done it as a witness. I'm a horrible witness myself. I mean I've tried this and it's very difficult to remember. I mean it all depends on what kind of a witness you are.

BLITZER: To our viewers who were watching and want to be helpful to the police, what should they be looking for in a situation like this?

MORTON: Well, I mean first of all for a composite drawing just try to memorize the face as best you can, just try to, just write it down as soon as you can, as soon as you see somebody, and that sort of thing and it's hard to say because you want the peripheral vision. You want to take the whole face in so it's hard to just memorize the nose, the mouth, eyes, that sort of thing. It's hard for all of us.

BLITZER: I tried to do it myself. It's very hard.

MORTON: Well, I've tried it and I'm very bad at it.

BLITZER: I see what you're doing. We're going to show our viewers later the sketch that you've done. We're going to bring Carrie Connor, our producer, in and make a comparison to see how close you got. I see you've made some pretty good progress. I got to tell you, it looks pretty good.

MORTON: Well, I'm not.

BLITZER: But we'll show it later to our viewers and we'll get our eyewitnesses. We'll get their reaction as well. Davis Morton thanks again.

MORTON: Thank you.

BLITZER: We'll be coming back to you. And here's your chance to weigh in on our story. Our web question of the day is this: Do you think eyewitnesses are reliable? We'll have the results later in this program. Go to my web page, cnn.com/wolf. While you're there, send me your comments. We'll try to read some of them on the air each day at the end of this program. It's also where you can read my daily online column, cnn.com/wolf.

Saddam Hussein might have nuclear weapons but now it's known that North Korea almost certainly does. So who's the bigger threat and what's President Bush going to do about it? We'll go live to the White House for some answers when we return. Plus, a witness who didn't witness anything the last time the sniper struck, so where do police go from here? We'll have a closer look, all that coming up, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. We'll have much more on the search for a sniper in the Washington area. But now, we turn to the stunning admission by North Korea that it does indeed have a secret nuclear weapons program, a program which was stepped up years after that country promised to be nuclear free. Let's go live to our Senior White House Correspondent John King. He has all the details. This is an amazing story, isn't it John?

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: An amazing story, Wolf, an admission that stunned the U.S. delegation in Pyongyang now 13 days ago when it happened U.S. officials now deciding what to do about it, President Bush saying nothing about this at all today, that part of the deliberate White House strategy to low key this for now, the president traveling in Florida, a political trip.

White House officials say the urgent focus now is on diplomacy. There is a high level administration team that arrived in Beijing today, trying to get the Chinese to join an effort along with Japan, South Korea, Moscow as the delegations stop in the days ahead trying to create international pressure on North Korea to disavow its nuclear weapons program, to let inspectors in to verify that that program is being dismantled.

But White House officials say they simply do not know how this will play out in the days and weeks ahead. They say there is no talk of any military confrontation right now. The emphasis is on diplomacy but, Wolf, the delegation was simply stunned. They presented evidence to the North Koreans that despite that 1994 promise North Korea was now enriching uranium and developing more facilities to enrich even more uranium.

At first, the North Koreans denied it. The very next day, they admitted it. They blamed it on the United States and the Bush administration's policy, the so-called axis of evil. The U.S. delegation said that explanation did not fly with them because the program dates back to the late 1990s. The emphasis now on the administration is diplomacy but this is a major crisis for the administration even as it goes ahead with the confrontation with Iraq - Wolf.

BLITZER: John, based on what I'm hearing, the administration has had these suspicions now for a long time but what almost two weeks ago they confronted the North Koreans directly with it. At first, the North Koreans denied it. Later, they confessed. Why the delay in making all this information public?

KING: Well, that is the key question for members of Congress, especially Democratic leaders who say they would have liked this information when they voted on the resolution authorizing military force against Iraq. The White House says it told key congressional committees last summer when it moved from suspicions to an actual intelligence finding based on new information that North Korea had a nuclear weapons program involving highly enriched uranium.

White House officials say they were so taken aback by the North Korean admission that the delegation did stop in Seoul, did stop in Tokyo and tell those key governments and that there were a series of deliberations here within the administration, a National Security Council meeting on Tuesday. At that point, they started telling key committees up in Congress but you can be certain as this plays out, one question from Capitol Hill will be why were we not told earlier that North Korea had confessed to this program?

BLITZER: Obviously a serious question. John King at the White House thanks very much. We'll continue to pursue this story for some time, clearly a major, major development. When we come back, hard times for Noelle Bush, the president's niece heads to jail, reaction from her father, the Florida governor Jeb Bush when we come back.

Also, two young teens convicted of killing their father while the man who molested one of them walked free, now the boys are getting a new trial. We'll have all the latest legal twists and turns. Plus, the witnesses weren't reliable so where do police go from here in the sniper case? An in-depth look when we come back. First, a look at other news making headlines around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice over): A terror attack in the Philippines has killed at least five people and wounded more than 100. Bombs devastated two department stores in a predominantly Christian city. The same city was hit by a deadly explosion earlier this month.

After an eight month standoff, there's a sign of easing tensions along the Pakistani-Indian border. Pakistan says it will withdraw troops to their peacetime positions following a similar announcement from India.

Russia's space program is back on track two days after a launch accident that killed a soldier. A successful launch today put an astrophysics satellite into orbit for the European Space Agency. A new trial is underway in Britain for Princess Diana's former butler who's accused of stealing hundreds of items from Kensington Palace. The original jury was dismissed yesterday for undisclosed legal reasons.

And the snows of Kilamanjaro, which inspired the title of the famed Earnest Hemingway novel are melting away. Scientists say the snowcap on Africa's highest mountain has been shrinking for the past century and will disappear in two decades because of rising temperatures, and that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANGER: It's been determined through further investigation that the information provided by one of the witnesses at the scene of the shooting in the Home Depot, describing a cream colored van with a malfunctioning taillight is not credible. In addition, there has been several media reports related to the description of a specific weapon and the suspect, that information, as well, is not reliable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: That was Fairfax County Police Chief Tom Manger on what turned out to be unreliable information from a man who claimed to have been a witness in Monday night's sniper shooting. We'll have much more coming up on this in just a moment.

(INTERRUPTED BY NEWS UPDATE)

BLITZER: Now more on the dramatic turnabout today in a Florida courtroom. A judge threw out the convictions of 13-year-old Alex King and 14-year-old Derek King, who were found guilty just last month in a controversial trial under -- of killing their father. Our legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin is joining us now from New York with some analysis.

What exactly happened, Jeff?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, the judge did something very unusual and very clever today. He said, "I am going to grant a new trial, but I'm not doing it yet." Instead he said, "You two sides, the defense and prosecution, work something out so I don't have to grant a new trial, do something that is a settlement of the case, some sort of plea bargain." He didn't say what and I think he's -- what he's trying to do is get this case out of the legal system. I think he recognizes that the 20 or 30 years that these kids were likely looking at would have been excessive. But he's leaving the responsibility on the parties, not on him to resolve how this should all work out.

BLITZER: Some of this was the result of some of the jurors coming out after the verdict and saying, "We have no desire to see this happen."

TOOBIN: Right, I mean that was part of the problem. The forewoman was especially outspoken saying that she didn't want it see these kids go away. It's actually not all that unusual for jurors to have misgivings later.

The key issue in this case has always been the fact that the prosecution has two separate and contradictory theories of what happened here. First, as everyone, I assume, recalls, Ricky Chavez, the convicted child molester, who was a so-called friend of the family, he was charged and acquitted of the murder of Terry King, the father. Then the next week, the two boys were charged and convicted of the murder. A prosecutor who comes forward with two separate theories of who did it was destined for trouble and this judge said, "I want this thing to go away" and that's what he did today.

BLITZER: Let's see what happens next. Jeff Toobin in New York, thanks for that analysis. And this footnote -- recently on LARRY KING LIVE, the grandmother of the two boys was asked that question by a caller. I want you to listen to precisely that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CALLER: I wanted to ask if the kids ever did come out, would the grandmother consider taking them in then?

LISA FRENCH, GRANDSONS COMMITTED OF MURDERING THEIR FATHER: We would consider it. I don't feel that my husband and I are capable of giving them the kind of help that they need at this point in their life. They need some serious help and they need to be put in a place where they can get that help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Now, more on that story, we've been following in the Washington area, a sniper on the loose. Now that a supposed shooting witness has turned out to be a fake, police looking for the D.C. area sniper have even less to go on than they thought. The former Washington D.C. homicide commander, Lou Hennessey, is joining me for some analysis, some insight into this amazing -- very, very strange investigation.

What do you make of this?

LOU HENNESSY, FORMER D.C. HOMICIDE COMMANDER: Well, obviously, it's troubling when you have somebody come forward and provide information and later on it turns out that the information is either inaccurate or intentionally misleading to police. And it does set the investigation back a little bit, but I think the police did an excellent job of being able to determine that it was not credible information relatively early on as opposed to much later in the investigation.

BLITZER: This person who made up or concocted this story, I assume he's going to be under a lot of legal -- he's in legal trouble right now. HENNESSY: Well, depending on all the circumstances surrounding it, he could be facing some type of criminal charges for intentionally lying to the police. If he was mistaken, obviously he wouldn't be. But if he intentionally lied to the police, there is a distinct possibility that he may be facing some criminal charges.

BLITZER: What -- why is it so hard to get eyewitness testimony? There have been 11 shootings, nine people dead, two people critically injured. Is it -- is this guy that good?

HENNESSY: Well, what is so much different about this case than most cases that we handle is the distance between the shooter and the victim. In most shootings, say in Washington D.C., you know, the shootings are within eight to 10 feet and the person who fired the shot, there's no question where the shot came from.

BLITZER: It's a handgun usually doing it.

HENNESSEY: Absolutely. In these cases, the suspect, in many instances, is hundreds of yards away. And when a shot goes off and somebody is struck, people are not even sure where the shot came from. So it's -- and if the person has secreted himself behind some cover, it's going to make it that much more difficult for people to be able to make a quick determination where the shot came from. And it's not surprising that we've had some difficulty getting an eyewitness eyeball on this individual.

BLITZER: In my years of covering these kinds of cases, nothing maybe as spectacular as these kinds of murders, ex post facto, after the fact, I usually learn police knew a lot more than they were letting on at the time. Do you believe that might be the situation right now?

HENNESSEY: I hope so because there's not a whole lot out there and this is a very difficult case. But I'm sure they had -- they're following leads that they're getting from the public and the public's going to be very, very important in this investigation. They're also probably following up leads about the ammunition that was used in the case and potential people who possessed weapons that were capable of firing these rounds. So they're probably following up some things but it's not -- probably not enough -- well, obviously not enough yet to make an arrest.

BLITZER: Let's hope they do very, very soon. Lou Hennessey, thanks for your insight.

The sniper attacks have added new security concerns to almost every outdoor event in the metropolitan Washington area and college football is no exception. CNN's Mike Okwu is in College Park at the University of Maryland right now. It's taking on Georgia Tech tonight.

Give us a little flavor. What's going on, Michael?

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's raining here and people are beginning to arrive for the game. And people are very bored, a very spirited place right now. And it's interesting, Wolf, there's actually no extra security here, but the University of Maryland Police say the don't really need to have extra security because they were planning to beef up security long before the sniper became news. That's because this is a Thursday night game, which is unusual. This is a televised national game today and they're expecting some 45,000 to 50,000 spectators.

Now, they do say that they will be taking some extra precautions that they normally don't take, but they were not prepared to give us the details on that. We know that some of the state police who would normally be directing traffic will be on the look out for anything suspicious.

We want to get a good sense of what people are thinking and that's why we are joined now by Bernie and Reagan.

Let me ask you, what was your feeling coming to the game tonight? Were you concerned, Bernie?

BERNIE: Yes, I was concerned. As a mater of fact, driving into the stadium on the access road this evening, we had clear view of the upper deck of the stadium and it dawned on both my son and I that certainly this could be within a sniper's range.

OKWU: And Reagan, you're a recent graduate of University of Maryland.

REAGAN: Last May, last May.

OKWU: Do you talk to some of the friends you still have here? Are they concerned for...

REAGAN: They're concerned also. They're, you know, looking over their back, afraid to pump gas, afraid to walk down the street, afraid to go anywhere -- out in public, to a store. So they're also concerned as well.

OKWU: I have about 10 seconds, but still not so concerned that you wouldn't come to the game?

BERNIE: That's right.

REAGAN: That's right. We always support our turf.

OKWU: Thanks so much for joining us.

Wolf, I got to tell you that people here are concerned, but there's also a sense of just wanting to watch this game tonight. I should mention to you that 13 miles from here is the Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Buoy, Maryland, where of course, a teenager was shot last week. And this is also 13 miles away from the closest shooting site in Montgomery County, so people are clearly concerned. But they're very much focused on the game tonight. And I should mention the fact that the University of Maryland is a slight favorite over Georgia Tech -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Michael Okwu in College Park, just outside Washington D.C. Thanks for that report. Thanks to your guests as well.

More than half -- about 3.5 million people live in the metro D.C. area and most have felt the impact of the sniper attacks. That's more than the entire population of either Connecticut or Oklahoma.

Police are putting out the word in the D.C. area on how to be a good witness. So how did our own staff do in a test? The results of our witness simulation when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. We've testing the powers of observance of some simulated witnesses her at CNN, producer Ben Gelden (ph) and interns Boram Ham and Megan Driscoll. Based on their descriptions, the former police artist, Davis Morton, who's been working on a composite sketch of our subject, our producer Carrie Conners (ph). Let's take a look at the results.

And Davis, I want to show our viewers first of all the sketch that you drew, you -- this -- we're seeing it right here. Take off -- I want our viewers to take a close look at the hair, the eyes, the mouth. What was the most distinguishing characteristic that you felt that you heard from these three eyewitnesses?

DAVIS MORTON, FORMER POLICE ARTIST: Well, unfortunately -- I mean probably the most was the thin face. That's about it really. The eyes weren't clearly seen, the nose or the mouth. So we kind of just went with impressions and that's why we use photographs. A lot of times when you can't verbally explain it, you can just point.

BLITZER: So what you do is you would show pictures to the witnesses and say, "Did it look like this? Did her eyes look like this? Did her nose look like this? Did her hair look like this?" And then you try to come up with this composite sketch.

MORTON: And then the parts that are unknown, you just leave them vague. So you end up with a very vague drawing often.

BLITZER: All right, now I want our viewers to take a look -- a close look at this sketch. And this was done obviously a lot more quickly than normally. Normally, you would have how long to do this?

MORTON: About a tenth of the time...

BLITZER: Really?

MORTON: ... usually. So yes, about four hours for the whole process.

BLITZER: And this was about, what...

MORTON: Three of four hours.

BLITZER: You did this in about three or four hours, but normally you could have a few days to do it.

MORTON: Well, yes...

BLITZER: So...

MORTON: ... this was like about 45 minutes it seems.

BLITZER: All right, I want our viewers now to take a look at Carrie Connors (ph) live picture. We're going to show our viewer right now. There's the real Carrie Connors (ph). She was -- as you can see, it's not bad if you ask me. Maybe we can do a split screen, if our director can do that. We can show the sketch together with Carrie Connors (ph) and give a comparison to see how accurate you were. Well, there's the sketch. And if the police went out and said, "Well, we're looking for a woman like this," and of course, they would never be anxious to look for Carrie Connors (ph). She's the most law- abiding person we know around.

On the other hand, it could give some viewers a sense of what Carrie Connors (ph) might look like. What do you think?

MORTON: Well, I'm not happy with the drawing myself. I mean I -- she's the prettiest bad guy I've seen in quite a while. So -- but like I say, this is about one-tenth of the time. It would have been much more of a polished situation.

BLITZER: And I was really...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: And obviously, you're at the mercy of what these three witnesses had to describe to you.

MORTON: Well, all we can do is try to put the image down on paper that the witness has. And the witness, unfortunately, didn't have much time for a proper interview. So to me, this would be about a six out of a 10, 10 being perfect, which is good. I mean I would tell the detective in this case, "Keep this in your case file for elimination purposes."

BLITZER: But not necessarily to release it.

MORTON: Not to release it.

BLITZER: You could do a wanted poster as a result of that.

MORTON: Because I would estimate it would about a six to a seven out of a 10 before seeing her.

BLITZER: And I presume that's why police right now in the search for a sniper are so reluctant to release something that may not be good.

MORTON: Well, the problem is, if they release a bad drawing. You have 10 times the work. You get the snow blindness effect. We have all these phone calls coming in where people are going, "Oh, I know that guy. He's my next door neighbor." And you have the wrong drawing. If you have the wrong drawing, then it's really compounding your problem. So you don't release something like that.

BLITZER: Davis Morton, good work under the circumstances, under very difficult circumstances. You came pretty close.

MORTON: Well, thank you.

BLITZER: She's a lot prettier though.

MORTON: I -- much prettier

BLITZER: And I want to thank our witnesses as well. Thanks to all of you as well. Good work.

Turning now to "Health News" that includes this, anyone who eats beef of course should be very concerned when they hear this. A seemingly healthy woman diagnosed with the human form of Mad Cow Disease. She's the only known victim living in the United States. A look at the daily struggle she and her family face, an exclusive look when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Time is running out now for you to weigh in on our "Web Questions of The Day." Do you think eyewitnesses are reliable? Log on to CNN.com/Wolf. That's where you can vote. The results when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in our "Web Question of The Day." Earlier we asked -- do you think eyewitnesses are reliable? Look at this, 30 percent of you say yes, 70 percent of you say no. You can find the exact vote tally and continue to vote on my Web site, CNN.com/Wolf. Remember, this is not a scientific poll.

Let's get to your e-mails. Bill writing this: "I don't want to know all the details of every investigation or military plan. If the police of Defense Department want something kept from the public, it is for our own good."

Alan disagrees -- "The public has the right to know about criminal investigations. The more information the police release, the more likely someone will recognize the suspect and help put them behind bars."

That's all the time we have today. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

TO ORDER A COPY OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired October 17, 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 HOST: It's Thursday, October 17, 2002. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. Investigators in the sniper case are dealing with what must be an infuriating setback in their search for the killer. CNN's Kathleen Koch is at the nerve center of the investigation in Montgomery County, Maryland. She's standing by with more on this late-breaking development - Kathleen.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, today's was perhaps the most frustrating briefing that we have had since these sniper shootings began more than two weeks ago because suddenly facts weren't facts and witnesses weren't witnesses.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH (voice over): It was stunning news on a shooting where police had seemed to have so many leads, so much hope.

CHIEF TOM MANGER, FAIRFAX CO. POLICE: The information provided by one of the witnesses at the scene of the shooting in the Home Depot describing a cream-colored van with a malfunctioning taillight is not credible.

KOCH: Also false the same witness' compelling description of the shooter being an olive-skinned man who shouldered and fired an AK-74 rifle. Sources tell CNN the man didn't recall other details that he should have if he'd actually been in the parking lot. He admitted to police Wednesday night that he'd instead been inside the Home Depot. Police are considering pressing charges.

Authorities also admitted they had erred in telling reporters another witness had seen the shooter and they say there's now no credible witness information linking any type of van to Monday's shooting. Virginia police insist the bad information didn't hamper their search for the killer that night despite the fact that the focus was on light-colored vans.

LT. AMY CUBAS, FAIRFAX CO. POLICE: Certainly, we would not have wanted that to be the case, to have information that we were looking for, something that was not accurate; however, it did not truly make null and void the search because our officers are trained to look for other types of suspicious vehicles as well.

KOCH: Police insist there are other witnesses and information about other vehicles spotted at other scenes is still credible.

CHIEF CHARLES MOOSE, MONTGOMERY CO. POLICE: All of the information about the white box truck, the composites that we put out about the vans from Spotsylvania County, all of that is still relevant information, very important information to our investigation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH (on camera): Just a few minutes ago at a hearing on Capitol Hill, FBI Director Robert Mueller spoke out about the calls that have been coming in to the FBI's consolidated tip line and the promise that some of them hold.

BLITZER: Kathleen, we're going to have that excerpt from Director Mueller's testimony coming up. Before I leave you go, is there any sense at all that they have something hard to go on that is suggesting that this is about to break this case?

KOCH: Wolf, certainly not after today's revelation about this witness who apparently fabricated so much of what he had seen and it's also very exasperating because even the news that we have that the killer had perhaps changed his M.O. and was now approaching the victims at a very close distance, some 30 yards, now that information is negated. You can't say the investigation is back to square one but certainly it isn't at the point that they had thought they were yesterday, back to you.

BLITZER: Kathleen Koch on the scene for us in Rockville, Maryland thanks very much. And, as Kathleen just reported the Director of the FBI Robert Mueller spoke out on the progress or perhaps lack thereof in the sniper case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: I'll tell you we've had thousands of leads whether it be on our tip line or others that we are investigating and there are hopeful leads amongst those that we have received over the last week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Robert Mueller sounding an upbeat note but for many it's back to square one today for the police who are investigating the most recent shooting there at the suburban Home Depot where a 45-year- old woman was killed Monday, an FBI intelligence analyst, and they're now doing a new sweep of the parking lot for possibly some overlooked evidence. Our National Correspondent Bob Franken, once again on the scene for us tonight in Falls Church, Virginia - Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well as you know, Wolf, yesterday we were talking about the search, focusing on that area over there because the witness who has now been discredited, actually it was described to us as witnesses, had said that the vehicle, the van was there and the shooter was there.

Now, however, there was a re-jiggering of the investigation and, as a matter of fact, they moved from there over there, over to the parking lot, to the grassy areas over there. Earlier today we saw police recruits from Fairfax County scouring the area. They went up and down over ever inch of that area over there, looking in the parking lot, looking at the grass on their hands and knees, looking for evidence.

Then, they came over to this median strip here, which is by the access road that earlier witnesses said that the man had taken, the sniper had taken after the shooting on Monday night. There was a very thorough search there and what we've been told by police officials is that they have not absolutely given up on the possibility that the shooting occurred in there. As a matter of fact, there were officers today mapping it, experts who mapped every inch of that garage and every inch of the area that we pointed out just a moment ago.

So, the investigation as we've all been discussing really is much set back from where it was. Instead of being so firm about the position of the shooter in there, they know are emphasizing the area over there. One other thing, while all of this was going on today, on the roof police with binoculars making sure, making sure that there was no trouble while this search was going on. It is an area that is very nervous and the police today, while they wouldn't say so, were somewhat discouraged about the fact that they didn't have as strong a lead as they thought they had - Wolf.

BLITZER: Very briefly, Bob, is that Home Depot reopened?

FRANKEN: Oh, the Home Depot opened the very next day and the customers, the number of people here went back to just about normal according to officials.

BLITZER: Bob Franken on the scene for us once again. We can only imagine, Bob, what the reaction of this sniper is to all this conflicting information. We'll try to assess that as we go along.

Federal investigators say there's no evidence that any organized terror group is behind these D.C. area shootings but they are looking into that possibility. Once again, CNN Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena is joining us from our investigation desk in the newsroom - Kelli.

KELLI RENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, investigators say that they're simply not ruling anything out, and as part of the investigation U.S. officials will be questioning al Qaeda detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and elsewhere.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA (voice over): U.S. officials say it makes good investigative sense to question al Qaeda detainees in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere to see if they know about any plans to use snipers in terror attacks. Even though there is no evidence linking the recent sniper attacks to al Qaeda or any terrorist organization, investigators want to make absolutely sure, after all al Qaeda documents obtained by CNN and law enforcement agencies, detail how sniper teams could easily get guns and train in the United States. But, when asked about a possible terror link, officials would not comment. MOOSE: We're not going to talk about the investigation. We're not going to talk about anything that is in a manual that, you know, we haven't brought out here and distributed. Obviously you're talking about matters of national security.

ARENA: Speculation about whether al Qaeda may be involved intensified after Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said earlier this week he could not rule out a terror connection.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY DIRECTOR: I don't think we can foreclose that.

ARENA: Counterterrorism officials say they don't think there is a terror connection because many terrorist organizations take credit for attacks and that has not happened. Also, al Qaeda terrorists typically do not leave tarot cards behind. What's more terror organizations usually plan operations, such as the September 11th attacks, which claim more than one life at a time.

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I have no information that it's terrorist related, do you?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA (on camera): But the sniper attacks come amid warnings that al Qaeda continues to plan a major attack against U.S. interests. Now against that backdrop, one U.S. official said that it would simply be irresponsible if officials did not go back to Gitmo to try to get more information - Wolf.

BLITZER: Gitmo, Guantanamo Bay, thanks very much Kelli Arena for that report. And even though most authorities doubt al Qaeda is linked to the Washington area shootings, Congress heard a chilling new warning today about overall al Qaeda activity. Our National Security Correspondent David Ensor is on Capitol Hill and heard this chilling testimony - David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well that's right, Wolf. The director of the CIA and other intelligence officers were here to discuss what clues they might have missed before 9/11, but the striking thing today was the very pessimistic language from CIA Director George Tenet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE TENET, CIA DIRECTOR: When you see the multiple attacks that you've seen occur around the world from Bali to Kuwait, the number of failed attacks that have been attempted, the various messages that have been issued by senior al Qaeda leaders, you must make the assumption that al Qaeda is in an execution phase and intends to strike us both here and overseas. That's unambiguous as far as I am concerned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENSOR: Tenet said that the threat level, the sort of intelligence information that the U.S. has been collecting is as high as it was in the summer before 2001. Now you'll recall that during that period Tenet was warning. He thought a major terrorism attack might come against the United States. Those warnings did not get very much attention. Perhaps these will - Wolf.

BLITZER: David, so why aren't they changing, at least have not yet changed the threat level? It's yellow, elevated, but they're not moving up yet to orange or even perhaps red.

ENSOR: Well actually, one Senator asked that same question, Wolf, and Tenet said he would be having discussions with the Homeland Security Office and with the White House about that subject and relating to the general threat level in the coming days. So, it is possible that threat level could go up, although nothing certain on that from here.

BLITZER: David Ensor on Capitol Hill for us monitoring this very important story. David, thank you very much. How reliable are eyewitnesses when it comes to describing suspects? We put our staff to the test. Did they see what they thought they saw? We'll have a live demonstration of a sketch artist at work when we come back. Also, a nuclear weapons secret out of the bag, North Korea makes a bombshell admission literally. Plus, a governor's daughter, the president's niece, and now ten days in jail, the trials and tribulations of Noelle Bush, all that still to come.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. As we've heard, investigators are now discounting information from a witness who claimed to have seen the Washington area sniper, his weapon and the van. Earlier, police said distance, darkness, and adrenalin had thwarted efforts to put together a sketch based on witness sightings. That's a difficult job even under the best of circumstances.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice over): How hard is it to draw a composite sketch of suspect based on eyewitness accounts? We put Davis Morton to the test. Morton was a policeman in Montgomery County, Maryland for 18 years. He's also a professional artist and a big part of his jobs as a policeman was to draw composite sketches. He's not retired and is affiliated with the Zenith Gallery in Washington, D.C. but he agreed to do a simulation with us.

Our producer, Carrie Connor (ph) played the role of a suspect. We had Carrie walk from one obscured position behind a pillar to another, down a driveway into a garage. We positioned CNN employees, playing the roles of witnesses, at three positions nearby. None of our witnesses knew Carrie previously and none was allowed to see her before we started taking and, of course, our sketch artist had never seen her before either.

Each witness was told beforehand they'd have to observe someone walking from one point to another. Producer Ben Geldon observed Carrie was across the street slightly behind her and about 40 yards away. Intern Boram Han witnessed her from across the street about 80 yards away but with Carrie walking straight toward her and then ducking down into the garage. Intern Megan Driscoll was on an overpass about 45 yards up the street and almost 100 feet above the ground. They each watched her for about 15 seconds, then came inside to tell Davis Morton what they saw.

BEN GELDON, WITNESS: I only saw her in profile. She had brown hair sort of down to her neck, sort of a - I couldn't see much of her eyes since she was looking sort of forward as she walked on the side.

DAVIS MORTON FMR. POLICE ARTIST: The color of her hair?

BORAM HAN, WITNESS: It was light brown with red in it.

MORTON: Light brown with red. About how long was it?

HAN: It probably touched her collarbone.

MORTON: How tall to you think she was?

MEGAN DRISCOLL, WITNESS: I was thinking about it and I would say 5'8", 5'9". She was relatively tall.

MORTON: Thin build, medium build, heavy

DRISCOLL: On the thin side.

MORTON: Emaciated thin or athletically thin?

DRISCOLL: Athletically thin.

BLITZER: It's important to note two things told to us by retired police officer Gary Hankins who's now a consultant to police unions. The situation we illustrated had no component of fear or adrenalin. Hankin says those conditions can trigger certain characteristics like tunnel vision, which can impair a witness' judgment.

And our simulation took place in mid afternoon with vastly different lighting conditions from Monday evening's sniper shooting in Fairfax, Virginia. Still, Hankins said this is a good illustration of the process. So based on the descriptions from our simulated witnesses, Davis Morton went to work on a composite sketch.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (on camera): And joining me now here live is the former Montgomery police artist Davis Morton. Thanks Mr. Morton for joining us. Also, our cast of characters, our so-called witnesses, CNN Producer Ben Geldon and the interns Boram Han and Megan Driscoll. Thanks to all of you and I see you've been working away. You've been making some pretty impressive progress. We're not going to show our viewers what you've done yet, but what do you think so far of the eyewitness accounts that they've given?

MORTON: Well, they're very good witnesses. The problem is they were so far away. It was such a short period of time and I know Megan just saw her from the top. He just saw a profile. She never saw her eyes. So it's very difficult to do a drawing like that. It's very hard.

BLITZER: But these are under unusually good circumstances. It was daylight.

MORTON: Yes. Oh, they are. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

BLITZER: I mean oftentimes in your history you've had a lot less to go on, right?

MORTON: Oh yes, a lot less to go on and the problem they just saw her from profile. They saw her from profile. Boram saw her full face so we went with that because it's much better to do a full face drawing, but then again if it's full face and you don't see the eye's then it's very difficult, so.

BLITZER: Why do you believe, and you're an expert on this, you've done this for Montgomery County Police over the years. Why are they having such a hard time coming up with a composite sketch of the sniper?

MORTON: Well from what I understand, if you just see somebody walking by or running and you just see a profile and if they have a hat on, it's very difficult. It's very, very hard to do. I've done it as a witness. I'm a horrible witness myself. I mean I've tried this and it's very difficult to remember. I mean it all depends on what kind of a witness you are.

BLITZER: To our viewers who were watching and want to be helpful to the police, what should they be looking for in a situation like this?

MORTON: Well, I mean first of all for a composite drawing just try to memorize the face as best you can, just try to, just write it down as soon as you can, as soon as you see somebody, and that sort of thing and it's hard to say because you want the peripheral vision. You want to take the whole face in so it's hard to just memorize the nose, the mouth, eyes, that sort of thing. It's hard for all of us.

BLITZER: I tried to do it myself. It's very hard.

MORTON: Well, I've tried it and I'm very bad at it.

BLITZER: I see what you're doing. We're going to show our viewers later the sketch that you've done. We're going to bring Carrie Connor, our producer, in and make a comparison to see how close you got. I see you've made some pretty good progress. I got to tell you, it looks pretty good.

MORTON: Well, I'm not.

BLITZER: But we'll show it later to our viewers and we'll get our eyewitnesses. We'll get their reaction as well. Davis Morton thanks again.

MORTON: Thank you.

BLITZER: We'll be coming back to you. And here's your chance to weigh in on our story. Our web question of the day is this: Do you think eyewitnesses are reliable? We'll have the results later in this program. Go to my web page, cnn.com/wolf. While you're there, send me your comments. We'll try to read some of them on the air each day at the end of this program. It's also where you can read my daily online column, cnn.com/wolf.

Saddam Hussein might have nuclear weapons but now it's known that North Korea almost certainly does. So who's the bigger threat and what's President Bush going to do about it? We'll go live to the White House for some answers when we return. Plus, a witness who didn't witness anything the last time the sniper struck, so where do police go from here? We'll have a closer look, all that coming up, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. We'll have much more on the search for a sniper in the Washington area. But now, we turn to the stunning admission by North Korea that it does indeed have a secret nuclear weapons program, a program which was stepped up years after that country promised to be nuclear free. Let's go live to our Senior White House Correspondent John King. He has all the details. This is an amazing story, isn't it John?

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: An amazing story, Wolf, an admission that stunned the U.S. delegation in Pyongyang now 13 days ago when it happened U.S. officials now deciding what to do about it, President Bush saying nothing about this at all today, that part of the deliberate White House strategy to low key this for now, the president traveling in Florida, a political trip.

White House officials say the urgent focus now is on diplomacy. There is a high level administration team that arrived in Beijing today, trying to get the Chinese to join an effort along with Japan, South Korea, Moscow as the delegations stop in the days ahead trying to create international pressure on North Korea to disavow its nuclear weapons program, to let inspectors in to verify that that program is being dismantled.

But White House officials say they simply do not know how this will play out in the days and weeks ahead. They say there is no talk of any military confrontation right now. The emphasis is on diplomacy but, Wolf, the delegation was simply stunned. They presented evidence to the North Koreans that despite that 1994 promise North Korea was now enriching uranium and developing more facilities to enrich even more uranium.

At first, the North Koreans denied it. The very next day, they admitted it. They blamed it on the United States and the Bush administration's policy, the so-called axis of evil. The U.S. delegation said that explanation did not fly with them because the program dates back to the late 1990s. The emphasis now on the administration is diplomacy but this is a major crisis for the administration even as it goes ahead with the confrontation with Iraq - Wolf.

BLITZER: John, based on what I'm hearing, the administration has had these suspicions now for a long time but what almost two weeks ago they confronted the North Koreans directly with it. At first, the North Koreans denied it. Later, they confessed. Why the delay in making all this information public?

KING: Well, that is the key question for members of Congress, especially Democratic leaders who say they would have liked this information when they voted on the resolution authorizing military force against Iraq. The White House says it told key congressional committees last summer when it moved from suspicions to an actual intelligence finding based on new information that North Korea had a nuclear weapons program involving highly enriched uranium.

White House officials say they were so taken aback by the North Korean admission that the delegation did stop in Seoul, did stop in Tokyo and tell those key governments and that there were a series of deliberations here within the administration, a National Security Council meeting on Tuesday. At that point, they started telling key committees up in Congress but you can be certain as this plays out, one question from Capitol Hill will be why were we not told earlier that North Korea had confessed to this program?

BLITZER: Obviously a serious question. John King at the White House thanks very much. We'll continue to pursue this story for some time, clearly a major, major development. When we come back, hard times for Noelle Bush, the president's niece heads to jail, reaction from her father, the Florida governor Jeb Bush when we come back.

Also, two young teens convicted of killing their father while the man who molested one of them walked free, now the boys are getting a new trial. We'll have all the latest legal twists and turns. Plus, the witnesses weren't reliable so where do police go from here in the sniper case? An in-depth look when we come back. First, a look at other news making headlines around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice over): A terror attack in the Philippines has killed at least five people and wounded more than 100. Bombs devastated two department stores in a predominantly Christian city. The same city was hit by a deadly explosion earlier this month.

After an eight month standoff, there's a sign of easing tensions along the Pakistani-Indian border. Pakistan says it will withdraw troops to their peacetime positions following a similar announcement from India.

Russia's space program is back on track two days after a launch accident that killed a soldier. A successful launch today put an astrophysics satellite into orbit for the European Space Agency. A new trial is underway in Britain for Princess Diana's former butler who's accused of stealing hundreds of items from Kensington Palace. The original jury was dismissed yesterday for undisclosed legal reasons.

And the snows of Kilamanjaro, which inspired the title of the famed Earnest Hemingway novel are melting away. Scientists say the snowcap on Africa's highest mountain has been shrinking for the past century and will disappear in two decades because of rising temperatures, and that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANGER: It's been determined through further investigation that the information provided by one of the witnesses at the scene of the shooting in the Home Depot, describing a cream colored van with a malfunctioning taillight is not credible. In addition, there has been several media reports related to the description of a specific weapon and the suspect, that information, as well, is not reliable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: That was Fairfax County Police Chief Tom Manger on what turned out to be unreliable information from a man who claimed to have been a witness in Monday night's sniper shooting. We'll have much more coming up on this in just a moment.

(INTERRUPTED BY NEWS UPDATE)

BLITZER: Now more on the dramatic turnabout today in a Florida courtroom. A judge threw out the convictions of 13-year-old Alex King and 14-year-old Derek King, who were found guilty just last month in a controversial trial under -- of killing their father. Our legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin is joining us now from New York with some analysis.

What exactly happened, Jeff?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, the judge did something very unusual and very clever today. He said, "I am going to grant a new trial, but I'm not doing it yet." Instead he said, "You two sides, the defense and prosecution, work something out so I don't have to grant a new trial, do something that is a settlement of the case, some sort of plea bargain." He didn't say what and I think he's -- what he's trying to do is get this case out of the legal system. I think he recognizes that the 20 or 30 years that these kids were likely looking at would have been excessive. But he's leaving the responsibility on the parties, not on him to resolve how this should all work out.

BLITZER: Some of this was the result of some of the jurors coming out after the verdict and saying, "We have no desire to see this happen."

TOOBIN: Right, I mean that was part of the problem. The forewoman was especially outspoken saying that she didn't want it see these kids go away. It's actually not all that unusual for jurors to have misgivings later.

The key issue in this case has always been the fact that the prosecution has two separate and contradictory theories of what happened here. First, as everyone, I assume, recalls, Ricky Chavez, the convicted child molester, who was a so-called friend of the family, he was charged and acquitted of the murder of Terry King, the father. Then the next week, the two boys were charged and convicted of the murder. A prosecutor who comes forward with two separate theories of who did it was destined for trouble and this judge said, "I want this thing to go away" and that's what he did today.

BLITZER: Let's see what happens next. Jeff Toobin in New York, thanks for that analysis. And this footnote -- recently on LARRY KING LIVE, the grandmother of the two boys was asked that question by a caller. I want you to listen to precisely that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CALLER: I wanted to ask if the kids ever did come out, would the grandmother consider taking them in then?

LISA FRENCH, GRANDSONS COMMITTED OF MURDERING THEIR FATHER: We would consider it. I don't feel that my husband and I are capable of giving them the kind of help that they need at this point in their life. They need some serious help and they need to be put in a place where they can get that help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Now, more on that story, we've been following in the Washington area, a sniper on the loose. Now that a supposed shooting witness has turned out to be a fake, police looking for the D.C. area sniper have even less to go on than they thought. The former Washington D.C. homicide commander, Lou Hennessey, is joining me for some analysis, some insight into this amazing -- very, very strange investigation.

What do you make of this?

LOU HENNESSY, FORMER D.C. HOMICIDE COMMANDER: Well, obviously, it's troubling when you have somebody come forward and provide information and later on it turns out that the information is either inaccurate or intentionally misleading to police. And it does set the investigation back a little bit, but I think the police did an excellent job of being able to determine that it was not credible information relatively early on as opposed to much later in the investigation.

BLITZER: This person who made up or concocted this story, I assume he's going to be under a lot of legal -- he's in legal trouble right now. HENNESSY: Well, depending on all the circumstances surrounding it, he could be facing some type of criminal charges for intentionally lying to the police. If he was mistaken, obviously he wouldn't be. But if he intentionally lied to the police, there is a distinct possibility that he may be facing some criminal charges.

BLITZER: What -- why is it so hard to get eyewitness testimony? There have been 11 shootings, nine people dead, two people critically injured. Is it -- is this guy that good?

HENNESSY: Well, what is so much different about this case than most cases that we handle is the distance between the shooter and the victim. In most shootings, say in Washington D.C., you know, the shootings are within eight to 10 feet and the person who fired the shot, there's no question where the shot came from.

BLITZER: It's a handgun usually doing it.

HENNESSEY: Absolutely. In these cases, the suspect, in many instances, is hundreds of yards away. And when a shot goes off and somebody is struck, people are not even sure where the shot came from. So it's -- and if the person has secreted himself behind some cover, it's going to make it that much more difficult for people to be able to make a quick determination where the shot came from. And it's not surprising that we've had some difficulty getting an eyewitness eyeball on this individual.

BLITZER: In my years of covering these kinds of cases, nothing maybe as spectacular as these kinds of murders, ex post facto, after the fact, I usually learn police knew a lot more than they were letting on at the time. Do you believe that might be the situation right now?

HENNESSEY: I hope so because there's not a whole lot out there and this is a very difficult case. But I'm sure they had -- they're following leads that they're getting from the public and the public's going to be very, very important in this investigation. They're also probably following up leads about the ammunition that was used in the case and potential people who possessed weapons that were capable of firing these rounds. So they're probably following up some things but it's not -- probably not enough -- well, obviously not enough yet to make an arrest.

BLITZER: Let's hope they do very, very soon. Lou Hennessey, thanks for your insight.

The sniper attacks have added new security concerns to almost every outdoor event in the metropolitan Washington area and college football is no exception. CNN's Mike Okwu is in College Park at the University of Maryland right now. It's taking on Georgia Tech tonight.

Give us a little flavor. What's going on, Michael?

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's raining here and people are beginning to arrive for the game. And people are very bored, a very spirited place right now. And it's interesting, Wolf, there's actually no extra security here, but the University of Maryland Police say the don't really need to have extra security because they were planning to beef up security long before the sniper became news. That's because this is a Thursday night game, which is unusual. This is a televised national game today and they're expecting some 45,000 to 50,000 spectators.

Now, they do say that they will be taking some extra precautions that they normally don't take, but they were not prepared to give us the details on that. We know that some of the state police who would normally be directing traffic will be on the look out for anything suspicious.

We want to get a good sense of what people are thinking and that's why we are joined now by Bernie and Reagan.

Let me ask you, what was your feeling coming to the game tonight? Were you concerned, Bernie?

BERNIE: Yes, I was concerned. As a mater of fact, driving into the stadium on the access road this evening, we had clear view of the upper deck of the stadium and it dawned on both my son and I that certainly this could be within a sniper's range.

OKWU: And Reagan, you're a recent graduate of University of Maryland.

REAGAN: Last May, last May.

OKWU: Do you talk to some of the friends you still have here? Are they concerned for...

REAGAN: They're concerned also. They're, you know, looking over their back, afraid to pump gas, afraid to walk down the street, afraid to go anywhere -- out in public, to a store. So they're also concerned as well.

OKWU: I have about 10 seconds, but still not so concerned that you wouldn't come to the game?

BERNIE: That's right.

REAGAN: That's right. We always support our turf.

OKWU: Thanks so much for joining us.

Wolf, I got to tell you that people here are concerned, but there's also a sense of just wanting to watch this game tonight. I should mention to you that 13 miles from here is the Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Buoy, Maryland, where of course, a teenager was shot last week. And this is also 13 miles away from the closest shooting site in Montgomery County, so people are clearly concerned. But they're very much focused on the game tonight. And I should mention the fact that the University of Maryland is a slight favorite over Georgia Tech -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Michael Okwu in College Park, just outside Washington D.C. Thanks for that report. Thanks to your guests as well.

More than half -- about 3.5 million people live in the metro D.C. area and most have felt the impact of the sniper attacks. That's more than the entire population of either Connecticut or Oklahoma.

Police are putting out the word in the D.C. area on how to be a good witness. So how did our own staff do in a test? The results of our witness simulation when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. We've testing the powers of observance of some simulated witnesses her at CNN, producer Ben Gelden (ph) and interns Boram Ham and Megan Driscoll. Based on their descriptions, the former police artist, Davis Morton, who's been working on a composite sketch of our subject, our producer Carrie Conners (ph). Let's take a look at the results.

And Davis, I want to show our viewers first of all the sketch that you drew, you -- this -- we're seeing it right here. Take off -- I want our viewers to take a close look at the hair, the eyes, the mouth. What was the most distinguishing characteristic that you felt that you heard from these three eyewitnesses?

DAVIS MORTON, FORMER POLICE ARTIST: Well, unfortunately -- I mean probably the most was the thin face. That's about it really. The eyes weren't clearly seen, the nose or the mouth. So we kind of just went with impressions and that's why we use photographs. A lot of times when you can't verbally explain it, you can just point.

BLITZER: So what you do is you would show pictures to the witnesses and say, "Did it look like this? Did her eyes look like this? Did her nose look like this? Did her hair look like this?" And then you try to come up with this composite sketch.

MORTON: And then the parts that are unknown, you just leave them vague. So you end up with a very vague drawing often.

BLITZER: All right, now I want our viewers to take a look -- a close look at this sketch. And this was done obviously a lot more quickly than normally. Normally, you would have how long to do this?

MORTON: About a tenth of the time...

BLITZER: Really?

MORTON: ... usually. So yes, about four hours for the whole process.

BLITZER: And this was about, what...

MORTON: Three of four hours.

BLITZER: You did this in about three or four hours, but normally you could have a few days to do it.

MORTON: Well, yes...

BLITZER: So...

MORTON: ... this was like about 45 minutes it seems.

BLITZER: All right, I want our viewers now to take a look at Carrie Connors (ph) live picture. We're going to show our viewer right now. There's the real Carrie Connors (ph). She was -- as you can see, it's not bad if you ask me. Maybe we can do a split screen, if our director can do that. We can show the sketch together with Carrie Connors (ph) and give a comparison to see how accurate you were. Well, there's the sketch. And if the police went out and said, "Well, we're looking for a woman like this," and of course, they would never be anxious to look for Carrie Connors (ph). She's the most law- abiding person we know around.

On the other hand, it could give some viewers a sense of what Carrie Connors (ph) might look like. What do you think?

MORTON: Well, I'm not happy with the drawing myself. I mean I -- she's the prettiest bad guy I've seen in quite a while. So -- but like I say, this is about one-tenth of the time. It would have been much more of a polished situation.

BLITZER: And I was really...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: And obviously, you're at the mercy of what these three witnesses had to describe to you.

MORTON: Well, all we can do is try to put the image down on paper that the witness has. And the witness, unfortunately, didn't have much time for a proper interview. So to me, this would be about a six out of a 10, 10 being perfect, which is good. I mean I would tell the detective in this case, "Keep this in your case file for elimination purposes."

BLITZER: But not necessarily to release it.

MORTON: Not to release it.

BLITZER: You could do a wanted poster as a result of that.

MORTON: Because I would estimate it would about a six to a seven out of a 10 before seeing her.

BLITZER: And I presume that's why police right now in the search for a sniper are so reluctant to release something that may not be good.

MORTON: Well, the problem is, if they release a bad drawing. You have 10 times the work. You get the snow blindness effect. We have all these phone calls coming in where people are going, "Oh, I know that guy. He's my next door neighbor." And you have the wrong drawing. If you have the wrong drawing, then it's really compounding your problem. So you don't release something like that.

BLITZER: Davis Morton, good work under the circumstances, under very difficult circumstances. You came pretty close.

MORTON: Well, thank you.

BLITZER: She's a lot prettier though.

MORTON: I -- much prettier

BLITZER: And I want to thank our witnesses as well. Thanks to all of you as well. Good work.

Turning now to "Health News" that includes this, anyone who eats beef of course should be very concerned when they hear this. A seemingly healthy woman diagnosed with the human form of Mad Cow Disease. She's the only known victim living in the United States. A look at the daily struggle she and her family face, an exclusive look when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Time is running out now for you to weigh in on our "Web Questions of The Day." Do you think eyewitnesses are reliable? Log on to CNN.com/Wolf. That's where you can vote. The results when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in our "Web Question of The Day." Earlier we asked -- do you think eyewitnesses are reliable? Look at this, 30 percent of you say yes, 70 percent of you say no. You can find the exact vote tally and continue to vote on my Web site, CNN.com/Wolf. Remember, this is not a scientific poll.

Let's get to your e-mails. Bill writing this: "I don't want to know all the details of every investigation or military plan. If the police of Defense Department want something kept from the public, it is for our own good."

Alan disagrees -- "The public has the right to know about criminal investigations. The more information the police release, the more likely someone will recognize the suspect and help put them behind bars."

That's all the time we have today. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

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