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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Hussein Is Preparing for War; Transplant Mistake Victim Gets Second Transplant; Bush Meets with Spanish President to Discuss New U.N. Resolution

Aired February 20, 2003 - 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.


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Coming up this hour, was a fifth attack planned for 9/11? Who was the target and why was it called off? We'll talk to the reporter breaking this exclusive story this hour.

And terror on the streets of Los Angeles. Another exclusive look inside the gangs that make the City of Angels the murder capital of the nation.

WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER (voice-over): The Iraq showdown. President Bush is already looking ahead.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And for the oppressed people of Iraq, people whose lives we care about, the day of freedom is drawing near.

BLITZER: But with U.S. troops already on their way, will Turkey agree to be a launching point for an invasion? We'll look at the bidding war.

A college professor under arrest.

JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: Palestinian Islamic Jihad is one of the most violence terrorist organizations in the world.

BLITZER: What's the American connection?

Gangs of L.A.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Weapons are a big part of your life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like everyday life. We have to carry a gun. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you fight with your hands?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I like to fight and shoot. BLITZER: An exclusive look at urban warfare in the murder capitol of America.

Marine hygiene. U.S. forces living under rough conditions in the Kuwaiti Desert are already at war against disease.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In worst (UNINTELLIGIBLE) it's been shown that, you know, the diarrhea and dysentery and things like that lead to a lot of morbidity in the troops, take the troops' strength away.

BLITZER: And after a tragic mistake in the operating room...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This has been a very difficult and a heart wrenching time for many people here at Duke.

BLITZER: A second heart/lung transplant gives a teenager a second chance.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: It's Thursday, February 20, 2003. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

Checking some of the stories making headlines right now.

A new report that a fifth attack was planned for 9/11, the target, a U.S. warship with everyone on board. We'll have details of this breaking story later this hour.

Also, a Florida professor arrested for terrorism. Did he help fund one of the most violent groups in the world?

And fighting for life after a tragic transplant mistake. A 17- year-old girl gets another chance.

But first, our top story. We begin with the showdown with Iraq.

President Bush was on the road today selling his economic proposals, but it rounded like the road to war. Given the latest obstacles thrown up by a key ally, is the president looking too far ahead?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUSH: There's going to be a conflict...

BLITZER: President Bush may have been in Georgia, but he pointedly spoke of a new Iraq, one without Saddam Hussein.

BUSH: For the oppressed people of Iraq, people whose lives we care about, the day of freedom is drawing near.

BLITZER: The president outlined a vision for a post-Saddam region.

BUSH: A free Iraq can be a source, a hope for all the Middle East. Instead of threatening his neighbors and harboring terrorists, Iraq can be an example of progress and prosperity in a region that needs both.

If we liberate the Iraqi people, they can be -- they can rest assured that we will help them build a country that is disarmed and peaceful and united and free.

BLITZER: And the president said the spillover benefits for the U.S. will be significant.

BUSH: By defeating this threat, we will show other dictators that the path of aggression will lead to their own ruin. By defeating the threat of Iraq, we will show the world -- we will show that the world is able and prepared to meet future dangers, wherever they arise.

BLITZER: Mr. Bush's words suggest publicly what his aides have insisted for days. The anti-war demonstrations around the world and the deep division among the U.S. allies will not stop him.

BUSH: Military action is this nation's last option. Let me tell you what's not an option. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not an option.

BLITZER: His aides also insist Turkey now has one last chance to reconsider its refusal so far to permit 40,000 U.S. troops to stage an incursion into northern Iraq from Turkish bases.

The two allies are haggling over money. Turkey wants a package of U.S. assistance totaling some $30 billion, most in the form of various loans, but $10 billion in an outright cash grant. The Bush Administration offers $26 billion. $6 billion of which would be in cash.

Secretary of state Colin Powell spoke by phone with Turkey's prime minister Abdullah Gull.

COLIN POWELL, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: There may be some other creative things we can do, but the level was our ceiling and I know that they are in consultation now within their government, within their council of ministers and I expect to hear back from them before the day is out.

BLITZER: One note to Secretary's Powell's comment, a resolution could really come at any time. The Turkish prime minister, Abdullah Gull, tells reporters he'll make a statement tomorrow regarding his country's negotiations with the United States.

Here's your chance to weigh on the story. Our Web question of the day is this, "Should the U.S. give money and aid to countries in exchange for cooperation in dealing with Iraq?" We'll have the results later in this broadcast. Vote at CNN.com/Wolf.

While you're there I'd love to hear from you; 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.

Let's look at some other developments right now in the showdown with Iraq.

Several nonaligned members of the United Nations say they want a peaceful solution to the crisis and they want weapons inspectors to get more time.

Officials from Angola, New Guinea, Pakistan and Chile spoke ahead of a non-aligned movement summit. Their votes could determine whether the U.N. authorizes a war against Iraq.

Representatives of 52 Arab nations today declared, quote, "there is an alternative to war." They urged the U.S. not to use force without U.N. approval. They met in Paris at the Franco-African summit and details of their declaration were released by the office of the French president, Jacques Chirac, whose views they echoed.

As the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, appeared on television, discussing war preparations with his commanders, hundreds of Iraqi clerics, Muslims and Christians held a march for peace in the streets of Baghdad.

Some of the Imans, however, called for a holy war in the face of any U.S.-led attack. As one put it and I'm quoting, "to defend Iraq and our wise leadership."

And in a thinly-veiled attack on U.S. policy, The Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, today said U.N. inspectors are coming under strong pressure to either leave Iraq or to produce reports that could serve as a pretext for military action. At the same time, Ivanov called on Iraq to cooperate fully with the inspectors.

President Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi television, but there's been a subtle and important shift in the tone. Our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, is in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, perhaps a subtle shift in the Iraqi leader, President Saddam Hussein, seen on Wednesday on television here, talking about peace, on Thursday seen meeting with top ministers, including the defense chief, General Sultan Hashim.

General Sultan Hashim was rumored to have been under house arrest. He was there today, apparently smiling, meeting with President Saddam Hussein.

The talk at this high level meeting about Iraq's war preparations. That's the subtle shift away from the talk of peace.

Recently, also, the Iraqi leader talking about the necessity for the Iraqi people to be properly equipped and properly prepared to be able to defend the sovereignty of their country.

We've also seen again for the fifth day in succession, U.N. weapons inspectors, the missile teams, focusing a huge amount of effort on locating and tagging the Al-Samoud II missiles, the components and engine parts for the Al-Samoud II missiles.

These missiles have recently been proscribed by U.N. weapons chief Hans Blix. No word at this time whether or not he's going to call upon Iraqi authorities to destroy those missiles. That is something Iraqi officials here seem reluctant at this stage to move towards.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And coming up at the half hour, President Bush under fire inside the White House during these times of crisis. The former presidential adviser, David Gergen, he served under four presidents, will join me live. He'll answer your questions, as well. E-mail me your questions at Wolf@CNN.com.

War is dirty and so is preparing for it. For the thousands of U.S. troops already in Kuwait, hygiene is a top priority, but it's not as easy as soap and water.

Our Marty Savidge explains from Camp Grizzly in northern Kuwait.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTY SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the U.S. marines at this gunnery unit, the battle begins long before the bombs and bullets fly.

Living under the toughest of conditions in the Kuwaiti Desert far from running water and modern conveniences, history has taught one important lesson, more soldiers will fall from disease than enemy fire.

LT. MICHAEL RUDISLE, BATTALION SURGEON, USMC: In wars past it's been shown that diarrhea and dysentery and things like that, lead to a lot of morbidity in the troops and takes the troops' strength away. So that's what we try to focus on out here is to keep people healthy.

SAVIDGE: The marines follow a strict daily routine of hygiene. But since water is rationed, substitutions have to be made.

Baby wipes are used for washing the face and body. Instead of at the bathroom sink, tooth brushing is done from a canteen, in an area set aside for washing away from camp.

Shaving is another ritual that takes on new meaning in the modern war of possible biochemical attacks. The face has to be clean to allow for a good seal of a marine's gas mask.

Now we come to the part I probably get the most questions about whenever I return to the military adventure. What do you do for a bathroom?

Well, it actually varies quite a bit. I'll show you and remember, we're all adults.

Now, let's say you're doing number one. You come to this slit trench here and you position yourself over the trench. The convenient thing about this set-up here on these boards is they actually have footprints so you know how to place yourself and then you do your business. The important thing you must always remember is knowing which way the wind is blowing.

Latrines or bathrooms are placed far away from where the troops sleep and eat. There's nothing pretty about them. They're just basic.

Staying clean is part of staying healthy which, for the U.S. marines, is all part of staying in the fight.

Martin Savidge, CNN, Kuwait.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: You could have a few laughs, but this is a deadly serious business. Marty Savidge, thanks very much for that report.

A Florida college professor busted, accused of funding terrorism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's all about politics. It's all about politics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have they told you why they're arresting you?

BLITZER: Is he the victim of a political politics or the witch- hunt or the perpetrator of violence? A closer look when we return.

Also, gangs of L.A., the murder capital of the country. We'll have an exclusive look inside the lives of these domestic terrorists.

And a horrible mistake botched her first transplant, now this 17- year-old girl is fighting for another chance at life. We'll go live to Duke University.

But first, today's news quiz. "The first successful human transplant was of what body part? Kidney, liver, hand, cornea." The answer, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The Pentagon is reviewing detention procedures at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

In the past week three more of the Al Qaeda suspects being held there have attempted suicide. That brings the total number to 19 since January of last year.

Eight of those suicide attempts have occurred in the last five weeks, but officials say they can't identify any particular reason for the recent increase. Attorney General John Ashcroft today announced the indictment of eight more people accused of supporting terrorism. They're said to be members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. They include a professor at the University of South Florida.

CNN's Mike Brooks has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE BROOKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Justice Department says this suicide attack, which killed 20 people last June in Haifa, Israel, was among a string of Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror operations in the Middle East.

Financial support for those operations, the government says, came from a cell operating from south Florida. Four members of that cell, the government says, have been arrested, including this man, Sami Amin Al-Arian, a suspended professor at the University of South Florida.

The Justice Department says he's the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the United States and its chief fund-raiser.

ASHCROFT: We make no distinction between those who carry out terrorist attacks and those who knowingly finance, manage or supervise terrorist organizations. We will bring justice to the full network of terror.

BROOKS: Al-Arian's attorney called the charges a work of fiction. Al-Arian first drew the attention of U.S. authorities in 1995 when he founded an Islamic think tank at his university.

His partner was Ramadan Shallah, who is now the current worldwide leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Shallah, also indicted, is not in custody. Law enforcement sources say he is believed to be in Syria.

Al-Arian has been a high profile figure in Florida, campaigning among Arab-Americans for George W. Bush's presidential bid. And he has been in a battle with the University of South Florida to keep his job after this tape became public, showing him shouting death to Israel in Arabic.

In an interview with CNN, he voiced strong support for the Palestinian cause, but...

SAMI AL-ARIAN, TERRORIST SUSPECT: I don't support suicide bombings. I don't support the targeting of any civilian of any nationality, background or religion. I'm deeply against it.

BROOKS: That's not how the Justice Department sees it.

Sources say newly relaxed rules allowing law enforcement use of intelligence intercepts helped make the case that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad was involved in a racketeering enterprise to support the terrorist operations. ASHCROFT: A very substantial and important aspect of this case is the facilitation that comes between the intelligence effort and the law enforcement effort, which previously had been forbidden.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKS: Wolf, the attorney general concedes that these arrests and indictments mostly likely will not impair the overall operations of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

And Mr. Al-Arian's attorney says that his client will stage a hunger strike to protest his detention -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Mike Brooks, our law enforcement correspondent. Mike, thanks very much for that report.

A 17-year-old girl fights for her life after getting her second heart transplant in less than two weeks. We'll go live to Duke University.

And the White House under intense pressure. We'll talk to a man who's been there and we'll be taking your questions for David Gergen. That's all ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Earlier we asked, "The first successful human transplant was of what body part?" The answer, the cornea.

The operation was performed in what's now the Czech Republic in 1905. The first successful kidney transplant came almost 50 years later.

There's hopeful news today about an organ transplant case that's drawn national, even international attention.

Because of a medical mistake, 17-year-old Jesica Santillan received an incompatible heart and lung transplant two weeks ago. Today she had a new operation.

Our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is joining us now live from Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina.

This is a sad story. Give us the latest, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a sad story that's taken a much happier turn, Wolf.

This is just what Jesica's family and friend his hoped for, a second set of organs, this time ones that match for a gravely ill young woman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over) For the people who love Jesica Santillan, it was a day of hope and a day of anger. Hope because her new heart and lungs are working, although she's still in critical condition at Duke University Medical Center. The odds are about 50/50 that she'll live through the next year.

It was a day of anger for family and friends because they say Duke Medical Center was slow to admit that the first time around they'd given the 17-year-old girl the wrong organs, organs that were type A, while she's type O.

The family says delay cost them precious time to find the right organs.

MACK MAHONEY, FAMILY SPOKESMAN: What kind of guy -- everybody, we're going to find that baby some organs. You're going to have a lot better chance.

COHEN: Duke says they weren't slow to admit the mistake and Jesica never went off the transplant list.

And they say that they figured out what went wrong. Doctors, after receiving notice from the organ bank of a match, assumed the blood types matched and never double-checked.

DR. WILLIAM FULKERSON, DUKE UNIVERSITY: We have put in place additional procedures in order to prevent these kind of errors from ever happening again in the future.

COHEN: Duke hasn't said whether they'll pay for the second procedure to correct the problem. Family friends say they'd better.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Now, the surgeons here at Duke say that not one, not two, but three doctors confirmed that this time the organs were really the correct match -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, we'll be standing by, we expect to hear from some family members soon. We'll monitor that and bring that to our viewers.

A very, very important story, let's hope for the best for the little girl. Little teenager, actually.

President Bush under fire. And he's under pressure as well. Is the leader of the free world in too deep? We'll ask former presidential adviser David Gergen. He'll join me live next.

You can e-mail him your questions. Mail us now at Wolf@CNN.com.

Plus, another attack planned for September 11. Details of this late-breaking story. We're following, still to come.

And...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like to fight. He likes to shoot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'll tell him, I'll be the type like, no, we'll just beat him up first and then, like, you know, he beats me up then shoot him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The gangs of Los Angeles. We'll go live to the murder capitol of the United States for an exclusive look at the kids who run the streets.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name for news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN. I'm Wolf Blitzer.

Coming up, President Bush under pressure. A look inside the White House. The former presidential adviser David Gergen will join us live.

Plus, was another terror plot avoided on 9/11, was a U.S. warship a target? We'll have details.

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

A federal jury has convicted Brian Patrick Regan of trying to sell U.S. secrets to Iraq and China. The former air force master sergeant was acquitted of attempting to spy for Libya.

The jury now has to decide whether Regan offered Iraq documents on U.S. war plans or major weapons systems. Those charges could get him the death penalty.

Sources tell CNN the Pentagon plans to allow U.S. special operations forces to fight side by side with Philippine troops battling the rebel group Abu Sayyaf.

Until now, U.S. troops could only travel on patrols with them and defend themselves if they came under fire.

The Red Cross is issuing an urgent nationwide appeal for blood donations. Officials say snowstorms in the east closed some collection centers for several days, leaving the U.S. with only a one- or a two-day supply of blood.

The Red Cross prefers to have a one week supply on hand. Officials say the shortage could mean some surgeries will be delayed.

Let's get back to the showdown with Iraq.

Right now the Bush Administration having trouble getting its ducks in a row, among the allies and over at the United Nations.

Let's get a situation update now from our White House correspondent, Suzanne Malveaux -- Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the White House making the case that Saddam Hussein must be disarmed immediately.

President Bush earlier today in Cobb County, Georgia, that's where he said that the U.N. Security Council must act quickly. He also made the argument, trying to convince the American people that war still can be avoided.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: But as we insist that Congress be wise with your money we're going to make sure we spend enough to win this war. And by spending enough to win a war, we may not have a war at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So the president rather optimistic about that -- rather optimistic about that.

He's at the Crawford ranch this weekend. That's where he is hosting Spanish President Jose Aznar. They're going to be working on a second Security Council resolution, calling for Iraq to disarm, saying that it's an material breach of previous resolutions -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And what about this deadline for this deal with Turkey, if there is in fact going to be a deal with Turkey, what's the story on that?

MALVEAUX: Well, certainly, there's a sense of urgency for the military. They want to get those U.S. troops in as soon as possible, but senior administration officials whom I spoke with today say there's no deadline, there's no timetable for Turkey to respond.

They are really handling this rather gingerly. A White House senior administration official telling us that Turkey is a close friend, that diplomacy is not always pretty.

But at the same time, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer earlier today saying that the U.S. really needs to know sooner as opposed to later just when they'll be able to get those U.S. troops in, if at all.

BLITZER: Finally, Suzanne, while I have you, is there going to -- in the second U.N. resolution, the U.S. And Britain may introduce as early as next week, any sense there will be a formal deadline given to Saddam Hussein?

MALVEAUX: Well, actually they're working out that language and we've asked that question a number of times. They haven't yet figured that out. That is a possibility.

But what is interesting, Wolf, is that one senior administration official I spoke with talked about, really, a timetable for the U.N. Security Council to act. In his words he said this is not going to be Resolution 1441 all over again, referring to the seven weeks that it took for them to sign on board to that one -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Suzanne Malveaux at the White House, thanks very much.

If the U.S. does go to war against Iraq, it would be a major test for the two-year-old presidency of George W. Bush.

David Gergen has served presidents in four administrations, Republican and Democratic. He is currently the public service professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He's joining us now live from Boston.

Thanks very much, David, for joining us.

DAVID GERGEN, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Good afternoon, Wolf.

BLITZER: This president now not only facing Saddam Hussein, but Osama bin Laden, Kim Jong-Il, a bad economy. How many of these crises can he juggle at the same time without being overwhelmed?

GERGEN: Well, there's a sense today that perhaps they are being overwhelmed, Wolf. But I imagine they're going to catch up with this pretty soon.

Normally, Wolf, in a White House, as you know, because you've been there so often, a White House -- any White House can handle one ball in the air and a good White House can, and this is a very good White House, can handle two or three in the air. But when you get five or six, as they have today, normally you drop one and it's going to be -- have to be an extraordinarily adroit and adept White House to pull this off.

They might do it, but the trouble they're having with Turkey right now, you know, there's -- as we just heard in that report, the White House is saying there's no deadline. Well, the State Department today, earlier today, seemed to be saying there was a deadline of today on the Turks coming around and clearly now they've shifted off that because they don't have an answer from the Turks.

BLITZER: As you well know, David, the White House and the State Department not always on the same page, but we can talk about that on another occasion.

GERGEN: We could.

BLITZER:: Let's get to poll numbers because these are fascinating numbers.

Look at this latest CNN/"USA Today" Gallup poll. How is President Bush handling his job as president? Look at this. Still 58 percent job approval rating. That's obviously not as good as it was right after 9/11, but it's still pretty good.

GERGEN: It's a hefty poll approval rating for a president with an economy in this shape; it's lost as many jobs as we had.

Clearly, people remain very impressed with his decisiveness coming after September 11 and they want to see him succeed.

In fact, I think all of us realize, whatever you may think about the war, about war policy in Iraq, we only have one president at a time and most -- I think most Americans are very skeptical about this war and they really are not enthusiastic about it, but they still support this president.

BLITZER: Well, that leads me to my next question. Look at this poll number, this other CNN/"USA Today" Gallup poll about sending U.S. troops to Iraq. Forty percent say only if the United Nations supports it in a new vote; 30 percent say even if the U.N. does not hold any new vote; 26 percent say no troops should go at all. That bodes not necessarily all that well for the president.

GERGEN: Those numbers are coming down, Wolf, and it does suggest that it's very important to get some sort of resolution for this president, just as it's increasingly important for Tony Blair.

In this country, 3 out of 10 say you can go without a U.N. resolution. In Britain, as you know, it's less than 1 out of 10. And so there's enormous pressure on Blair. I think there is a feeling among many of the presidential advisers that once he goes, that the country will rally to him and that the war will be quick enough and successful enough that these polls won't matter. But these numbers are descending and things are getting mushier for him.

Ever -- you know, ever since the U.N. Security Council meeting last Friday, events have been moving south for him and it's no wonder the White House now wants to get a deadline in the next couple of weeks to get this over with and get it resolved.

BLITZER: All right, David. We're getting flooded with e-mails for you. Let me read one of them.

From Terrence: "If the people of Iraq could speak our freely, what would they say about our weekend warrior protesters? Are they helping the Iraqi people by protecting them from war or are they hurting them by delaying their chances at freedom?"

GERGEN: I honestly don't know the answer to that question, Wolf.

There are obviously people in Iraq who have been oppressed by Saddam, who feel he's a monster and would love to see us come in and will feel liberated.

There are others there who are going to fight us. You know, I think that what we know in some parts of the Middle East is that Saddam is hated, but an American occupation is hated even more by many in the Middle East and that's part of our dilemma.

BLITZER: All right.

We have another e-mail from Shirley. A good question from Shirley. "What has happened to Dick Cheney? He used to be so active in the news. Now you almost never hear his name. Why?" GERGEN: Because the president has moved into his commander in chief role on the eve of a war and I think the vice president very rightly realizes that this is a good time to step back. And, of course, he's also been separated out physically from the president by all of the recent terrorist threats.

Let's not be mistaken here, though. The single most important adviser in the George W. Bush entourage is Dick Cheney. He's the man who gets to speak into the ear every day in a very important way.

BLITZER: Very -- very quickly, David, before I let you go, let's get a third e-mail, from Kate.

"Bush has been trying to sell this war for more than six months. I'm tired of it. Where is Osama? Where is the anthrax killer?"

We got flooded with questions like that.

GERGEN: Who knows? I mean, I don't think any of us knows, but I think it's one of the reasons this is dragging down and I tell you, the president has not yet made the sale to the world and that's what's really dragging this down. That's why we're having trouble with Turkey right now, why we're France and Germany -- trouble with France and Germany.

We have to make this case much better to the world as well as to the American people before the actual conflict starts.

BLITZER: David Gergen, thanks as usual, for joining us. David Gergen, a professor at Harvard University. Former...

GERGEN: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: ...White House official, served four presidents.

BLITZER: Los Angeles -- it's the homicide capital of the United States and more than half the murders there are gang related. Our Charles Feldman has an exclusive look inside the gangs of L.A. He risked his life to get this story for you. He'll bring it to us live.

Plus, new reports of an aborted operation on September 11. Was there a fifth attack planned that day. And if there was, why was it called off? We'll have the details.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: According to its new police chief, Los Angeles has earned a dubious new title: homicide capitol of the United States. There were more than 650 murders last year, more than half of them gang related.

Our Charles Feldman is joining us now live with an exclusive look inside the violent world of gangs -- Charles. CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Los Angeles is infested with gangs. And so, CNN producer Stan Wilson and I set out to find out what makes these gangsters tick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FELDMAN (voice-over): Week after week, the killings continue on the streets of Los Angeles; 1200 different gangs, say law enforcement officials, 90, 000 gang members, some as old as 50, some as young as 10. Those are the figures.

Now, meet some of the gangsters.

(on camera): How old were you when you went into the gang?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was about in 7th grade, but it was more about -- for me it was more about the respect I saw my other family members getting.

FELDMAN: They were in gangs?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. It was more about the respect I saw them earn on the street.

FELDMAN (voice-over): This L.A. Latino gangster did not want his face revealed or name used.

The others we met with gave us names.

We met in a gang-infested area of Los Angeles, under the watchful eye of a former gang member who now does gang intervention work. He was there to keep the peace.

(on camera): How do you join a gang?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For me, we didn't join a gang. We were already like, all together, like a group of friends, you know? Childhood friends. We grew up into it. Some of our family members are from the same gang or have gang backgrounds.

It's nature for us, you know? We live in Boyle Heights. Gangs are -- revolve around us.

FELDMAN (voice-over): According to law enforcement statistics, most of the gangs in L.A. are Latino, followed by black gangs. Asian, white and Samoan-Pacific islander gangs also compete for turf.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of decisions you make you feel like you make because you have no other options. A lot of it, for me, was making decisions that I thought I did either to feel like I was trying to survive or out of self-defense.

FELDMAN: (on camera): When you talk about a gang lifestyle, right? What does that mean?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A gang lifestyle is I guess, the way we are say from you. You know, we wear big pants, bald head, (UNINTELLIGIBLE). You know, it's not like I can walk into one of your parties and...

FELDMAN: You both have tattoos, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

FELDMAN: Explain what yours says and is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mine says the fence.

FELDMAN: The fence? What does that mean?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm from a gang called White Fence in East Los Angeles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't have a neighborhood name on me. On my back I have "todos contra todos" which means everybody against everybody.

FELDMAN: What do you do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd rather not say. It will incriminate me, I think.

FELDMAN: Incriminate you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's drugs involved.

FELDMAN: We go on the hunt, you know?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What does that mean?

FELDMAN: The hunt?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. How would you say that?

FELDMAN: What is it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the hunt. It's our little thing, you know? It's called you go on the hunt.

FELDMAN: What does that mean?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, what does hunt mean?

It means you're looking for something.

FELDMAN: What are you looking for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we're looking for, preys, I guess?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you say it, just like...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Other gang members we don't get along with.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gang banging in other words.

FELDMAN (voice-over): Hardly a day goes by when there isn't a gang-related shooting in Los Angeles, prompting L.A.'s New York City imported police chief to declare a war on gangs.

(on camera): Weapons were a big part of your lives?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every day we liked to live, we have to carry a gun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my row-dog.

FELDMAN: You fight with your hands or...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like to fight, he likes to shoot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll tell him, I'll be the type like, let's just beat them up first. And then he beats me up and then shoot him. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) like that.

FELDMAN: Are you making this up?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

FELDMAN: Why do you like to shoot?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's fun. I don't know.

FELDMAN: It's fun?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's pretty fun. I don't know.

FELDMAN: Have you had run-ins with the law?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I mean, I've been arrested for everything. That's what I am saying you guys -- I haven't been arrested in a long time because my nose is clean right now. I am not doing nothing.

FELDMAN: What sort of things in the past have you been arrested for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been busted -- mostly robbed -- robbery, murder, attempted murders.

FELDMAN (voice-over): Most of the gangsters we talked with claim arrest and conviction histories, though they say only as children, not as adults.

Soon, we were joined by another self-proclaimed L.A. gangster, Mitchell.

(on camera): Do you know people who died, right here?

"MITCHELL": Yes.

FELDMAN: How many?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot. Probably a good 15 or 20 friends of mine didn't even make it to the age of 16.

FELDMAN: Really. How did they die?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gunfights, stabbed, rumbles, end up getting hit in the head hard.

FELDMAN: Do you think about that you may not be alive in a few years?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't think like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I keep it short and simple. I hope for the best and always prepare for the worst.

FELDMAN (voice-over): All of the gangsters we interviewed expressed feelings of feeling trapped in their circumstances. Their communities lacked badly-needed recreational facilities. Jobs are almost impossible to find. Even education, they feel, can't lift them out of their abyss.

Dan, a gang interventionist who helped set up our meeting knows his fight to save these young men from themselves is an uphill one.

(on camera): Do you see this ever ending and how?

DANNY GULLART, FORMER GANG MEMBER: Maybe not in my lifetime, you know. To tell you the truth, I hope -- I hope there can be an ending to it, but, you know, in all honesty, I don't see no ending to it.

FELDMAN (voice-over): L.A. City and County officials say they are determined to end it, but they've said that before. And yet generation after generation in this inner city that is all, but invisible to outsiders, the beatings and killings continue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody gots a good side. Everybody hopes and wishes that all of this comes to an end, you know what I mean? But it's not going to come to an end, man. It's already -- there are too many roots to it, man.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FELDMAN: And just two days ago, LAPD Cops opened fire and killed an alleged gang member after that alleged gang member pointed a gun and according to the police opened fire at them first -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Charles Feldman with an incredible job of reporting, thanks, Charles.

I know it was not necessarily easy for you and your producer to go into that area. Thanks for effectively risking your life to bring our viewers that story.

Charles Feldman, Los Angeles.

And for more on the gangs of Los Angeles, click on to cnn.com/wolf. You'll find a link over there to information on gang awareness. That's at cnn.com/wolf.

New reports that a 5th attack was planned for September 11. Details on that coming up.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name for news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: "Newsweek Magazine" is reporting that in addition to the four September 11 plane hijackings, was there a fifth terror attack planned as well. It was allegedly to happen at the strait of Hormuz, but the attack never took place.

Let's get the detail from the man who Wrote the story "Newsweeks" Paris Bureau Chief, Christopher Dickey. He is joining us by phone.

Chris, thanks so much for joining us to give our viewers the gist of your reporting.

CHRISTOPHER DICKEY, "NEWSWEEK", PARIS BUREAU CHIEF: Well, the gist of it is there was a planner for Osama bin Laden named Abd al- Rahim al-Nashiri who was putting together a major element of Osama's activities. And one of them was that he was supposed to try and blow up a war ship in the strait. The idea was he'd use a big mother ship, if you will, a big freighter that al Qaeda had bought and they would launch small vessels, little speed boats off of it, suicide bombs, in fact, that would attack the war ship. If those failed then the mother ship itself, the big freighter was set to go as probably the biggest bomb of its kind ever constructed.

BLITZER: One -- some of our sources here in Washington, intelligence sources, are telling our reporters in the aftermath of your story on "Newsweek" that they're wondering whether or not the information, the assertion that this attack in the Strait of Hormuz was specifically planned for September 11.

They're not questioning that there was such an attack planned but how do you know specifically it was planned for 9/11?

DICKEY: Well, that's what I'm being told by the sources who have access to al-Nashiri's testimony. I mean, basically, we were depending on his word for it. Maybe he's making it up. Maybe he's fabricating it. I don't know. But that is what he said, and apparently the pieces were put in police for it.

What my sources were telling me is it would have happened, but there was too much of a rush. Osama bin Laden wanted to do this as a sign of global reach, to show that it wasn't just possible to hit in the United States, but around the world. Nashiri, was given the job. He tried to pull the elements together, but at the end of day he couldn't pull it all together and get it in place in time to do it on September 11.

BLITZER: And you report that if those speed boats wouldn't have gotten the job done, they were prepared to move that freighter in loaded with explosives. That could have done the job as well. Is that right?

DICKEY: Well, that was the idea. It wouldn't have even had to ram the war ship. If you've got a bomb that's that big, if you think of a freighter filled with explosives, that's a suicide freighter, if you will. The potential is there for it to severely damage a war ship in any kind of proximity.

BLITZER: Christopher Dickey, the "Newsweek" Paris bureau chief. Thanks, Christopher, for your -- for that report. Appreciate it very much.

Meanwhile, the final chapter is being written in a landmark murder case that began more than a quarter century ago here in the United States. Among the things that made it so unusual, the trial was among the first to be televised, the defense strategy was very controversial and the defendant just 15 years old.

Our National Correspondent Susan Candiotti has this exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While Florida's parole board was deciding whether to set an early release date for Ronnie Zamora, he awaited word in a prison on the edge of the Florida Everglades.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much, please have a seat.

CANDIOTTI: His lawyer instructed him to say nothing. Now, 40 years old, Zamora has served 25 years of a minimum, mandatory sentence and faced another ten years.

It is startling to see him grown up. Barely resembling the wide- eyed 15-year-old who stood trial for robbing and fatally shooting his 83-year-old neighbor and who then took a trip to Disney World before giving himself up.

(on camera): This is the courtroom where the Ronnie Zamora trial took place. Back in 1977 it was the very first time a Florida criminal trial was televised. At the time the jury rejected the defense explanation that Zamora shot his elderly neighbor because in the words of the defense, Zamora was intoxicated by watching too much violence on television.

(voice-over): Zamora's attorney making his case in 1977.

ELLIS RUBIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: And a the good guys get killed, and the bad guys get killed and it all comes down the tube again next week, same time, same station.

CANDIOTTI: The defense argued Zamora's favorite crime shows, including "Kojak", clouded his judgment and made him insane.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP -- "KOJAK")

TELLY SAVALAS, ACTOR: Not too shabby, huh?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE YOSS, ZAMORA'S ATTORNEY: The defense was absurd.

CANDIOTTI: Zamora's current attorney remembers the case well.

YOSS: Everyone knew he didn't have a chance because of this defense. Everyone except his lawyer.

RUBIN: F. Lee Bailey said it was off the wall. Alan Dershowitz said that I should have been reprimanded. I've been criticized by experts and that means that did I something right.

CANDIOTTI: Even now, defense attorney Ellis Rubin insists his TV violence theory has been worn out over time.

RUBIN: I'm sorry that our defense did not work with the jury, but Ronnie wasn't in prison because of my defense. Ronnie was in prison because he confessed to a brutal murder.

CANDIOTTI: Zamora has earned praise as a model inmate, tutoring others and taking college courses. Zamora's staunchest defenders now include his former prosecutor.

TOM HEADLEY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: It would not be necessary for him to stay in prison any longer in order for him to be properly punished for the terrible crime he committed.

CANDIOTTI: At that time the parole board hearing, word that three grandchildren of the victim opposed an early release for Zamora. But even the now-deceased officer who took his confession sent the governor a letter asking Zamora be set free.

YOSS: Could he change? I think he has.

CANDIOTTI: The parole commission agreed. Deciding he should be set free in 2005, shaving seven years from his sentence, giving Ronnie Zamora two more years to contemplate what life will be like outside prison walls.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And I want to update our viewers on the condition of Jesica Santillan, the 17-year-old girl who had her second heart/lung transplant at Duke University Hospital earlier today. We're told now she's still unconscious, she's on kidney dialysis. We also, within the past few minutes, heard from her mother. Her mother speaking to through a niece's translation. I want you to listen to what her mother said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMERICA SANTILLIAN, FAMILY MEMBER: She says she's really blessed and she thanks the family that has donated the organs for her little girl and she wants to meet them one day so they can meet Jesica and she thanks them for saving her life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We're all praying for Jesica. Thanks very much for that.

Don't forget, time's running out for your turn to weigh in on "Our Web Question of the Day." Should the U.S. give money and aid to countries in exchange for cooperation in dealing with Iraq? Log on to cnn.com/wolf to vote and we'll have the results immediately when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in on the "Web Question of the Day. Remember, we've been asking you this, should the U.S. give money and aid to countries in exchange for cooperation in dealing with Iraq? Look at this. Nineteen percent of you say yes but 81 percent of you say no.

Remember you can find the exact vote tally, continue to vote, by the way on our Web site, cnn.com/wolf. Remember, this is not a scientific poll.

That's all of the time we have today. Please join me tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. Noon Eastern for "SHOWDOWN: IRAQ" as well. Until then, thanks very much. "LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE" is coming up. Jan Hopkins sitting in tonight for Lou.

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






Gets Second Transplant; Bush Meets with Spanish President to Discuss New U.N. Resolution>


Aired February 20, 2003 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Coming up this hour, was a fifth attack planned for 9/11? Who was the target and why was it called off? We'll talk to the reporter breaking this exclusive story this hour.

And terror on the streets of Los Angeles. Another exclusive look inside the gangs that make the City of Angels the murder capital of the nation.

WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER (voice-over): The Iraq showdown. President Bush is already looking ahead.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And for the oppressed people of Iraq, people whose lives we care about, the day of freedom is drawing near.

BLITZER: But with U.S. troops already on their way, will Turkey agree to be a launching point for an invasion? We'll look at the bidding war.

A college professor under arrest.

JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: Palestinian Islamic Jihad is one of the most violence terrorist organizations in the world.

BLITZER: What's the American connection?

Gangs of L.A.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Weapons are a big part of your life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like everyday life. We have to carry a gun. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you fight with your hands?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I like to fight and shoot. BLITZER: An exclusive look at urban warfare in the murder capitol of America.

Marine hygiene. U.S. forces living under rough conditions in the Kuwaiti Desert are already at war against disease.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In worst (UNINTELLIGIBLE) it's been shown that, you know, the diarrhea and dysentery and things like that lead to a lot of morbidity in the troops, take the troops' strength away.

BLITZER: And after a tragic mistake in the operating room...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This has been a very difficult and a heart wrenching time for many people here at Duke.

BLITZER: A second heart/lung transplant gives a teenager a second chance.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: It's Thursday, February 20, 2003. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

Checking some of the stories making headlines right now.

A new report that a fifth attack was planned for 9/11, the target, a U.S. warship with everyone on board. We'll have details of this breaking story later this hour.

Also, a Florida professor arrested for terrorism. Did he help fund one of the most violent groups in the world?

And fighting for life after a tragic transplant mistake. A 17- year-old girl gets another chance.

But first, our top story. We begin with the showdown with Iraq.

President Bush was on the road today selling his economic proposals, but it rounded like the road to war. Given the latest obstacles thrown up by a key ally, is the president looking too far ahead?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUSH: There's going to be a conflict...

BLITZER: President Bush may have been in Georgia, but he pointedly spoke of a new Iraq, one without Saddam Hussein.

BUSH: For the oppressed people of Iraq, people whose lives we care about, the day of freedom is drawing near.

BLITZER: The president outlined a vision for a post-Saddam region.

BUSH: A free Iraq can be a source, a hope for all the Middle East. Instead of threatening his neighbors and harboring terrorists, Iraq can be an example of progress and prosperity in a region that needs both.

If we liberate the Iraqi people, they can be -- they can rest assured that we will help them build a country that is disarmed and peaceful and united and free.

BLITZER: And the president said the spillover benefits for the U.S. will be significant.

BUSH: By defeating this threat, we will show other dictators that the path of aggression will lead to their own ruin. By defeating the threat of Iraq, we will show the world -- we will show that the world is able and prepared to meet future dangers, wherever they arise.

BLITZER: Mr. Bush's words suggest publicly what his aides have insisted for days. The anti-war demonstrations around the world and the deep division among the U.S. allies will not stop him.

BUSH: Military action is this nation's last option. Let me tell you what's not an option. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not an option.

BLITZER: His aides also insist Turkey now has one last chance to reconsider its refusal so far to permit 40,000 U.S. troops to stage an incursion into northern Iraq from Turkish bases.

The two allies are haggling over money. Turkey wants a package of U.S. assistance totaling some $30 billion, most in the form of various loans, but $10 billion in an outright cash grant. The Bush Administration offers $26 billion. $6 billion of which would be in cash.

Secretary of state Colin Powell spoke by phone with Turkey's prime minister Abdullah Gull.

COLIN POWELL, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: There may be some other creative things we can do, but the level was our ceiling and I know that they are in consultation now within their government, within their council of ministers and I expect to hear back from them before the day is out.

BLITZER: One note to Secretary's Powell's comment, a resolution could really come at any time. The Turkish prime minister, Abdullah Gull, tells reporters he'll make a statement tomorrow regarding his country's negotiations with the United States.

Here's your chance to weigh on the story. Our Web question of the day is this, "Should the U.S. give money and aid to countries in exchange for cooperation in dealing with Iraq?" We'll have the results later in this broadcast. Vote at CNN.com/Wolf.

While you're there I'd love to hear from you; 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.

Let's look at some other developments right now in the showdown with Iraq.

Several nonaligned members of the United Nations say they want a peaceful solution to the crisis and they want weapons inspectors to get more time.

Officials from Angola, New Guinea, Pakistan and Chile spoke ahead of a non-aligned movement summit. Their votes could determine whether the U.N. authorizes a war against Iraq.

Representatives of 52 Arab nations today declared, quote, "there is an alternative to war." They urged the U.S. not to use force without U.N. approval. They met in Paris at the Franco-African summit and details of their declaration were released by the office of the French president, Jacques Chirac, whose views they echoed.

As the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, appeared on television, discussing war preparations with his commanders, hundreds of Iraqi clerics, Muslims and Christians held a march for peace in the streets of Baghdad.

Some of the Imans, however, called for a holy war in the face of any U.S.-led attack. As one put it and I'm quoting, "to defend Iraq and our wise leadership."

And in a thinly-veiled attack on U.S. policy, The Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, today said U.N. inspectors are coming under strong pressure to either leave Iraq or to produce reports that could serve as a pretext for military action. At the same time, Ivanov called on Iraq to cooperate fully with the inspectors.

President Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi television, but there's been a subtle and important shift in the tone. Our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, is in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, perhaps a subtle shift in the Iraqi leader, President Saddam Hussein, seen on Wednesday on television here, talking about peace, on Thursday seen meeting with top ministers, including the defense chief, General Sultan Hashim.

General Sultan Hashim was rumored to have been under house arrest. He was there today, apparently smiling, meeting with President Saddam Hussein.

The talk at this high level meeting about Iraq's war preparations. That's the subtle shift away from the talk of peace.

Recently, also, the Iraqi leader talking about the necessity for the Iraqi people to be properly equipped and properly prepared to be able to defend the sovereignty of their country.

We've also seen again for the fifth day in succession, U.N. weapons inspectors, the missile teams, focusing a huge amount of effort on locating and tagging the Al-Samoud II missiles, the components and engine parts for the Al-Samoud II missiles.

These missiles have recently been proscribed by U.N. weapons chief Hans Blix. No word at this time whether or not he's going to call upon Iraqi authorities to destroy those missiles. That is something Iraqi officials here seem reluctant at this stage to move towards.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And coming up at the half hour, President Bush under fire inside the White House during these times of crisis. The former presidential adviser, David Gergen, he served under four presidents, will join me live. He'll answer your questions, as well. E-mail me your questions at Wolf@CNN.com.

War is dirty and so is preparing for it. For the thousands of U.S. troops already in Kuwait, hygiene is a top priority, but it's not as easy as soap and water.

Our Marty Savidge explains from Camp Grizzly in northern Kuwait.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTY SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the U.S. marines at this gunnery unit, the battle begins long before the bombs and bullets fly.

Living under the toughest of conditions in the Kuwaiti Desert far from running water and modern conveniences, history has taught one important lesson, more soldiers will fall from disease than enemy fire.

LT. MICHAEL RUDISLE, BATTALION SURGEON, USMC: In wars past it's been shown that diarrhea and dysentery and things like that, lead to a lot of morbidity in the troops and takes the troops' strength away. So that's what we try to focus on out here is to keep people healthy.

SAVIDGE: The marines follow a strict daily routine of hygiene. But since water is rationed, substitutions have to be made.

Baby wipes are used for washing the face and body. Instead of at the bathroom sink, tooth brushing is done from a canteen, in an area set aside for washing away from camp.

Shaving is another ritual that takes on new meaning in the modern war of possible biochemical attacks. The face has to be clean to allow for a good seal of a marine's gas mask.

Now we come to the part I probably get the most questions about whenever I return to the military adventure. What do you do for a bathroom?

Well, it actually varies quite a bit. I'll show you and remember, we're all adults.

Now, let's say you're doing number one. You come to this slit trench here and you position yourself over the trench. The convenient thing about this set-up here on these boards is they actually have footprints so you know how to place yourself and then you do your business. The important thing you must always remember is knowing which way the wind is blowing.

Latrines or bathrooms are placed far away from where the troops sleep and eat. There's nothing pretty about them. They're just basic.

Staying clean is part of staying healthy which, for the U.S. marines, is all part of staying in the fight.

Martin Savidge, CNN, Kuwait.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: You could have a few laughs, but this is a deadly serious business. Marty Savidge, thanks very much for that report.

A Florida college professor busted, accused of funding terrorism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's all about politics. It's all about politics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have they told you why they're arresting you?

BLITZER: Is he the victim of a political politics or the witch- hunt or the perpetrator of violence? A closer look when we return.

Also, gangs of L.A., the murder capital of the country. We'll have an exclusive look inside the lives of these domestic terrorists.

And a horrible mistake botched her first transplant, now this 17- year-old girl is fighting for another chance at life. We'll go live to Duke University.

But first, today's news quiz. "The first successful human transplant was of what body part? Kidney, liver, hand, cornea." The answer, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The Pentagon is reviewing detention procedures at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

In the past week three more of the Al Qaeda suspects being held there have attempted suicide. That brings the total number to 19 since January of last year.

Eight of those suicide attempts have occurred in the last five weeks, but officials say they can't identify any particular reason for the recent increase. Attorney General John Ashcroft today announced the indictment of eight more people accused of supporting terrorism. They're said to be members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. They include a professor at the University of South Florida.

CNN's Mike Brooks has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE BROOKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Justice Department says this suicide attack, which killed 20 people last June in Haifa, Israel, was among a string of Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror operations in the Middle East.

Financial support for those operations, the government says, came from a cell operating from south Florida. Four members of that cell, the government says, have been arrested, including this man, Sami Amin Al-Arian, a suspended professor at the University of South Florida.

The Justice Department says he's the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the United States and its chief fund-raiser.

ASHCROFT: We make no distinction between those who carry out terrorist attacks and those who knowingly finance, manage or supervise terrorist organizations. We will bring justice to the full network of terror.

BROOKS: Al-Arian's attorney called the charges a work of fiction. Al-Arian first drew the attention of U.S. authorities in 1995 when he founded an Islamic think tank at his university.

His partner was Ramadan Shallah, who is now the current worldwide leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Shallah, also indicted, is not in custody. Law enforcement sources say he is believed to be in Syria.

Al-Arian has been a high profile figure in Florida, campaigning among Arab-Americans for George W. Bush's presidential bid. And he has been in a battle with the University of South Florida to keep his job after this tape became public, showing him shouting death to Israel in Arabic.

In an interview with CNN, he voiced strong support for the Palestinian cause, but...

SAMI AL-ARIAN, TERRORIST SUSPECT: I don't support suicide bombings. I don't support the targeting of any civilian of any nationality, background or religion. I'm deeply against it.

BROOKS: That's not how the Justice Department sees it.

Sources say newly relaxed rules allowing law enforcement use of intelligence intercepts helped make the case that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad was involved in a racketeering enterprise to support the terrorist operations. ASHCROFT: A very substantial and important aspect of this case is the facilitation that comes between the intelligence effort and the law enforcement effort, which previously had been forbidden.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKS: Wolf, the attorney general concedes that these arrests and indictments mostly likely will not impair the overall operations of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

And Mr. Al-Arian's attorney says that his client will stage a hunger strike to protest his detention -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Mike Brooks, our law enforcement correspondent. Mike, thanks very much for that report.

A 17-year-old girl fights for her life after getting her second heart transplant in less than two weeks. We'll go live to Duke University.

And the White House under intense pressure. We'll talk to a man who's been there and we'll be taking your questions for David Gergen. That's all ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Earlier we asked, "The first successful human transplant was of what body part?" The answer, the cornea.

The operation was performed in what's now the Czech Republic in 1905. The first successful kidney transplant came almost 50 years later.

There's hopeful news today about an organ transplant case that's drawn national, even international attention.

Because of a medical mistake, 17-year-old Jesica Santillan received an incompatible heart and lung transplant two weeks ago. Today she had a new operation.

Our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is joining us now live from Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina.

This is a sad story. Give us the latest, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a sad story that's taken a much happier turn, Wolf.

This is just what Jesica's family and friend his hoped for, a second set of organs, this time ones that match for a gravely ill young woman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over) For the people who love Jesica Santillan, it was a day of hope and a day of anger. Hope because her new heart and lungs are working, although she's still in critical condition at Duke University Medical Center. The odds are about 50/50 that she'll live through the next year.

It was a day of anger for family and friends because they say Duke Medical Center was slow to admit that the first time around they'd given the 17-year-old girl the wrong organs, organs that were type A, while she's type O.

The family says delay cost them precious time to find the right organs.

MACK MAHONEY, FAMILY SPOKESMAN: What kind of guy -- everybody, we're going to find that baby some organs. You're going to have a lot better chance.

COHEN: Duke says they weren't slow to admit the mistake and Jesica never went off the transplant list.

And they say that they figured out what went wrong. Doctors, after receiving notice from the organ bank of a match, assumed the blood types matched and never double-checked.

DR. WILLIAM FULKERSON, DUKE UNIVERSITY: We have put in place additional procedures in order to prevent these kind of errors from ever happening again in the future.

COHEN: Duke hasn't said whether they'll pay for the second procedure to correct the problem. Family friends say they'd better.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Now, the surgeons here at Duke say that not one, not two, but three doctors confirmed that this time the organs were really the correct match -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, we'll be standing by, we expect to hear from some family members soon. We'll monitor that and bring that to our viewers.

A very, very important story, let's hope for the best for the little girl. Little teenager, actually.

President Bush under fire. And he's under pressure as well. Is the leader of the free world in too deep? We'll ask former presidential adviser David Gergen. He'll join me live next.

You can e-mail him your questions. Mail us now at Wolf@CNN.com.

Plus, another attack planned for September 11. Details of this late-breaking story. We're following, still to come.

And...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like to fight. He likes to shoot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'll tell him, I'll be the type like, no, we'll just beat him up first and then, like, you know, he beats me up then shoot him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The gangs of Los Angeles. We'll go live to the murder capitol of the United States for an exclusive look at the kids who run the streets.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name for news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to CNN. I'm Wolf Blitzer.

Coming up, President Bush under pressure. A look inside the White House. The former presidential adviser David Gergen will join us live.

Plus, was another terror plot avoided on 9/11, was a U.S. warship a target? We'll have details.

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

A federal jury has convicted Brian Patrick Regan of trying to sell U.S. secrets to Iraq and China. The former air force master sergeant was acquitted of attempting to spy for Libya.

The jury now has to decide whether Regan offered Iraq documents on U.S. war plans or major weapons systems. Those charges could get him the death penalty.

Sources tell CNN the Pentagon plans to allow U.S. special operations forces to fight side by side with Philippine troops battling the rebel group Abu Sayyaf.

Until now, U.S. troops could only travel on patrols with them and defend themselves if they came under fire.

The Red Cross is issuing an urgent nationwide appeal for blood donations. Officials say snowstorms in the east closed some collection centers for several days, leaving the U.S. with only a one- or a two-day supply of blood.

The Red Cross prefers to have a one week supply on hand. Officials say the shortage could mean some surgeries will be delayed.

Let's get back to the showdown with Iraq.

Right now the Bush Administration having trouble getting its ducks in a row, among the allies and over at the United Nations.

Let's get a situation update now from our White House correspondent, Suzanne Malveaux -- Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the White House making the case that Saddam Hussein must be disarmed immediately.

President Bush earlier today in Cobb County, Georgia, that's where he said that the U.N. Security Council must act quickly. He also made the argument, trying to convince the American people that war still can be avoided.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: But as we insist that Congress be wise with your money we're going to make sure we spend enough to win this war. And by spending enough to win a war, we may not have a war at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So the president rather optimistic about that -- rather optimistic about that.

He's at the Crawford ranch this weekend. That's where he is hosting Spanish President Jose Aznar. They're going to be working on a second Security Council resolution, calling for Iraq to disarm, saying that it's an material breach of previous resolutions -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And what about this deadline for this deal with Turkey, if there is in fact going to be a deal with Turkey, what's the story on that?

MALVEAUX: Well, certainly, there's a sense of urgency for the military. They want to get those U.S. troops in as soon as possible, but senior administration officials whom I spoke with today say there's no deadline, there's no timetable for Turkey to respond.

They are really handling this rather gingerly. A White House senior administration official telling us that Turkey is a close friend, that diplomacy is not always pretty.

But at the same time, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer earlier today saying that the U.S. really needs to know sooner as opposed to later just when they'll be able to get those U.S. troops in, if at all.

BLITZER: Finally, Suzanne, while I have you, is there going to -- in the second U.N. resolution, the U.S. And Britain may introduce as early as next week, any sense there will be a formal deadline given to Saddam Hussein?

MALVEAUX: Well, actually they're working out that language and we've asked that question a number of times. They haven't yet figured that out. That is a possibility.

But what is interesting, Wolf, is that one senior administration official I spoke with talked about, really, a timetable for the U.N. Security Council to act. In his words he said this is not going to be Resolution 1441 all over again, referring to the seven weeks that it took for them to sign on board to that one -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Suzanne Malveaux at the White House, thanks very much.

If the U.S. does go to war against Iraq, it would be a major test for the two-year-old presidency of George W. Bush.

David Gergen has served presidents in four administrations, Republican and Democratic. He is currently the public service professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He's joining us now live from Boston.

Thanks very much, David, for joining us.

DAVID GERGEN, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Good afternoon, Wolf.

BLITZER: This president now not only facing Saddam Hussein, but Osama bin Laden, Kim Jong-Il, a bad economy. How many of these crises can he juggle at the same time without being overwhelmed?

GERGEN: Well, there's a sense today that perhaps they are being overwhelmed, Wolf. But I imagine they're going to catch up with this pretty soon.

Normally, Wolf, in a White House, as you know, because you've been there so often, a White House -- any White House can handle one ball in the air and a good White House can, and this is a very good White House, can handle two or three in the air. But when you get five or six, as they have today, normally you drop one and it's going to be -- have to be an extraordinarily adroit and adept White House to pull this off.

They might do it, but the trouble they're having with Turkey right now, you know, there's -- as we just heard in that report, the White House is saying there's no deadline. Well, the State Department today, earlier today, seemed to be saying there was a deadline of today on the Turks coming around and clearly now they've shifted off that because they don't have an answer from the Turks.

BLITZER: As you well know, David, the White House and the State Department not always on the same page, but we can talk about that on another occasion.

GERGEN: We could.

BLITZER:: Let's get to poll numbers because these are fascinating numbers.

Look at this latest CNN/"USA Today" Gallup poll. How is President Bush handling his job as president? Look at this. Still 58 percent job approval rating. That's obviously not as good as it was right after 9/11, but it's still pretty good.

GERGEN: It's a hefty poll approval rating for a president with an economy in this shape; it's lost as many jobs as we had.

Clearly, people remain very impressed with his decisiveness coming after September 11 and they want to see him succeed.

In fact, I think all of us realize, whatever you may think about the war, about war policy in Iraq, we only have one president at a time and most -- I think most Americans are very skeptical about this war and they really are not enthusiastic about it, but they still support this president.

BLITZER: Well, that leads me to my next question. Look at this poll number, this other CNN/"USA Today" Gallup poll about sending U.S. troops to Iraq. Forty percent say only if the United Nations supports it in a new vote; 30 percent say even if the U.N. does not hold any new vote; 26 percent say no troops should go at all. That bodes not necessarily all that well for the president.

GERGEN: Those numbers are coming down, Wolf, and it does suggest that it's very important to get some sort of resolution for this president, just as it's increasingly important for Tony Blair.

In this country, 3 out of 10 say you can go without a U.N. resolution. In Britain, as you know, it's less than 1 out of 10. And so there's enormous pressure on Blair. I think there is a feeling among many of the presidential advisers that once he goes, that the country will rally to him and that the war will be quick enough and successful enough that these polls won't matter. But these numbers are descending and things are getting mushier for him.

Ever -- you know, ever since the U.N. Security Council meeting last Friday, events have been moving south for him and it's no wonder the White House now wants to get a deadline in the next couple of weeks to get this over with and get it resolved.

BLITZER: All right, David. We're getting flooded with e-mails for you. Let me read one of them.

From Terrence: "If the people of Iraq could speak our freely, what would they say about our weekend warrior protesters? Are they helping the Iraqi people by protecting them from war or are they hurting them by delaying their chances at freedom?"

GERGEN: I honestly don't know the answer to that question, Wolf.

There are obviously people in Iraq who have been oppressed by Saddam, who feel he's a monster and would love to see us come in and will feel liberated.

There are others there who are going to fight us. You know, I think that what we know in some parts of the Middle East is that Saddam is hated, but an American occupation is hated even more by many in the Middle East and that's part of our dilemma.

BLITZER: All right.

We have another e-mail from Shirley. A good question from Shirley. "What has happened to Dick Cheney? He used to be so active in the news. Now you almost never hear his name. Why?" GERGEN: Because the president has moved into his commander in chief role on the eve of a war and I think the vice president very rightly realizes that this is a good time to step back. And, of course, he's also been separated out physically from the president by all of the recent terrorist threats.

Let's not be mistaken here, though. The single most important adviser in the George W. Bush entourage is Dick Cheney. He's the man who gets to speak into the ear every day in a very important way.

BLITZER: Very -- very quickly, David, before I let you go, let's get a third e-mail, from Kate.

"Bush has been trying to sell this war for more than six months. I'm tired of it. Where is Osama? Where is the anthrax killer?"

We got flooded with questions like that.

GERGEN: Who knows? I mean, I don't think any of us knows, but I think it's one of the reasons this is dragging down and I tell you, the president has not yet made the sale to the world and that's what's really dragging this down. That's why we're having trouble with Turkey right now, why we're France and Germany -- trouble with France and Germany.

We have to make this case much better to the world as well as to the American people before the actual conflict starts.

BLITZER: David Gergen, thanks as usual, for joining us. David Gergen, a professor at Harvard University. Former...

GERGEN: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: ...White House official, served four presidents.

BLITZER: Los Angeles -- it's the homicide capital of the United States and more than half the murders there are gang related. Our Charles Feldman has an exclusive look inside the gangs of L.A. He risked his life to get this story for you. He'll bring it to us live.

Plus, new reports of an aborted operation on September 11. Was there a fifth attack planned that day. And if there was, why was it called off? We'll have the details.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: According to its new police chief, Los Angeles has earned a dubious new title: homicide capitol of the United States. There were more than 650 murders last year, more than half of them gang related.

Our Charles Feldman is joining us now live with an exclusive look inside the violent world of gangs -- Charles. CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Los Angeles is infested with gangs. And so, CNN producer Stan Wilson and I set out to find out what makes these gangsters tick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FELDMAN (voice-over): Week after week, the killings continue on the streets of Los Angeles; 1200 different gangs, say law enforcement officials, 90, 000 gang members, some as old as 50, some as young as 10. Those are the figures.

Now, meet some of the gangsters.

(on camera): How old were you when you went into the gang?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was about in 7th grade, but it was more about -- for me it was more about the respect I saw my other family members getting.

FELDMAN: They were in gangs?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. It was more about the respect I saw them earn on the street.

FELDMAN (voice-over): This L.A. Latino gangster did not want his face revealed or name used.

The others we met with gave us names.

We met in a gang-infested area of Los Angeles, under the watchful eye of a former gang member who now does gang intervention work. He was there to keep the peace.

(on camera): How do you join a gang?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For me, we didn't join a gang. We were already like, all together, like a group of friends, you know? Childhood friends. We grew up into it. Some of our family members are from the same gang or have gang backgrounds.

It's nature for us, you know? We live in Boyle Heights. Gangs are -- revolve around us.

FELDMAN (voice-over): According to law enforcement statistics, most of the gangs in L.A. are Latino, followed by black gangs. Asian, white and Samoan-Pacific islander gangs also compete for turf.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of decisions you make you feel like you make because you have no other options. A lot of it, for me, was making decisions that I thought I did either to feel like I was trying to survive or out of self-defense.

FELDMAN: (on camera): When you talk about a gang lifestyle, right? What does that mean?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A gang lifestyle is I guess, the way we are say from you. You know, we wear big pants, bald head, (UNINTELLIGIBLE). You know, it's not like I can walk into one of your parties and...

FELDMAN: You both have tattoos, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

FELDMAN: Explain what yours says and is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mine says the fence.

FELDMAN: The fence? What does that mean?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm from a gang called White Fence in East Los Angeles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't have a neighborhood name on me. On my back I have "todos contra todos" which means everybody against everybody.

FELDMAN: What do you do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd rather not say. It will incriminate me, I think.

FELDMAN: Incriminate you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's drugs involved.

FELDMAN: We go on the hunt, you know?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What does that mean?

FELDMAN: The hunt?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. How would you say that?

FELDMAN: What is it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the hunt. It's our little thing, you know? It's called you go on the hunt.

FELDMAN: What does that mean?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, what does hunt mean?

It means you're looking for something.

FELDMAN: What are you looking for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we're looking for, preys, I guess?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you say it, just like...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Other gang members we don't get along with.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gang banging in other words.

FELDMAN (voice-over): Hardly a day goes by when there isn't a gang-related shooting in Los Angeles, prompting L.A.'s New York City imported police chief to declare a war on gangs.

(on camera): Weapons were a big part of your lives?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every day we liked to live, we have to carry a gun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my row-dog.

FELDMAN: You fight with your hands or...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like to fight, he likes to shoot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll tell him, I'll be the type like, let's just beat them up first. And then he beats me up and then shoot him. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) like that.

FELDMAN: Are you making this up?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

FELDMAN: Why do you like to shoot?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's fun. I don't know.

FELDMAN: It's fun?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's pretty fun. I don't know.

FELDMAN: Have you had run-ins with the law?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I mean, I've been arrested for everything. That's what I am saying you guys -- I haven't been arrested in a long time because my nose is clean right now. I am not doing nothing.

FELDMAN: What sort of things in the past have you been arrested for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been busted -- mostly robbed -- robbery, murder, attempted murders.

FELDMAN (voice-over): Most of the gangsters we talked with claim arrest and conviction histories, though they say only as children, not as adults.

Soon, we were joined by another self-proclaimed L.A. gangster, Mitchell.

(on camera): Do you know people who died, right here?

"MITCHELL": Yes.

FELDMAN: How many?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot. Probably a good 15 or 20 friends of mine didn't even make it to the age of 16.

FELDMAN: Really. How did they die?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gunfights, stabbed, rumbles, end up getting hit in the head hard.

FELDMAN: Do you think about that you may not be alive in a few years?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't think like that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I keep it short and simple. I hope for the best and always prepare for the worst.

FELDMAN (voice-over): All of the gangsters we interviewed expressed feelings of feeling trapped in their circumstances. Their communities lacked badly-needed recreational facilities. Jobs are almost impossible to find. Even education, they feel, can't lift them out of their abyss.

Dan, a gang interventionist who helped set up our meeting knows his fight to save these young men from themselves is an uphill one.

(on camera): Do you see this ever ending and how?

DANNY GULLART, FORMER GANG MEMBER: Maybe not in my lifetime, you know. To tell you the truth, I hope -- I hope there can be an ending to it, but, you know, in all honesty, I don't see no ending to it.

FELDMAN (voice-over): L.A. City and County officials say they are determined to end it, but they've said that before. And yet generation after generation in this inner city that is all, but invisible to outsiders, the beatings and killings continue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody gots a good side. Everybody hopes and wishes that all of this comes to an end, you know what I mean? But it's not going to come to an end, man. It's already -- there are too many roots to it, man.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FELDMAN: And just two days ago, LAPD Cops opened fire and killed an alleged gang member after that alleged gang member pointed a gun and according to the police opened fire at them first -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Charles Feldman with an incredible job of reporting, thanks, Charles.

I know it was not necessarily easy for you and your producer to go into that area. Thanks for effectively risking your life to bring our viewers that story.

Charles Feldman, Los Angeles.

And for more on the gangs of Los Angeles, click on to cnn.com/wolf. You'll find a link over there to information on gang awareness. That's at cnn.com/wolf.

New reports that a 5th attack was planned for September 11. Details on that coming up.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name for news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: "Newsweek Magazine" is reporting that in addition to the four September 11 plane hijackings, was there a fifth terror attack planned as well. It was allegedly to happen at the strait of Hormuz, but the attack never took place.

Let's get the detail from the man who Wrote the story "Newsweeks" Paris Bureau Chief, Christopher Dickey. He is joining us by phone.

Chris, thanks so much for joining us to give our viewers the gist of your reporting.

CHRISTOPHER DICKEY, "NEWSWEEK", PARIS BUREAU CHIEF: Well, the gist of it is there was a planner for Osama bin Laden named Abd al- Rahim al-Nashiri who was putting together a major element of Osama's activities. And one of them was that he was supposed to try and blow up a war ship in the strait. The idea was he'd use a big mother ship, if you will, a big freighter that al Qaeda had bought and they would launch small vessels, little speed boats off of it, suicide bombs, in fact, that would attack the war ship. If those failed then the mother ship itself, the big freighter was set to go as probably the biggest bomb of its kind ever constructed.

BLITZER: One -- some of our sources here in Washington, intelligence sources, are telling our reporters in the aftermath of your story on "Newsweek" that they're wondering whether or not the information, the assertion that this attack in the Strait of Hormuz was specifically planned for September 11.

They're not questioning that there was such an attack planned but how do you know specifically it was planned for 9/11?

DICKEY: Well, that's what I'm being told by the sources who have access to al-Nashiri's testimony. I mean, basically, we were depending on his word for it. Maybe he's making it up. Maybe he's fabricating it. I don't know. But that is what he said, and apparently the pieces were put in police for it.

What my sources were telling me is it would have happened, but there was too much of a rush. Osama bin Laden wanted to do this as a sign of global reach, to show that it wasn't just possible to hit in the United States, but around the world. Nashiri, was given the job. He tried to pull the elements together, but at the end of day he couldn't pull it all together and get it in place in time to do it on September 11.

BLITZER: And you report that if those speed boats wouldn't have gotten the job done, they were prepared to move that freighter in loaded with explosives. That could have done the job as well. Is that right?

DICKEY: Well, that was the idea. It wouldn't have even had to ram the war ship. If you've got a bomb that's that big, if you think of a freighter filled with explosives, that's a suicide freighter, if you will. The potential is there for it to severely damage a war ship in any kind of proximity.

BLITZER: Christopher Dickey, the "Newsweek" Paris bureau chief. Thanks, Christopher, for your -- for that report. Appreciate it very much.

Meanwhile, the final chapter is being written in a landmark murder case that began more than a quarter century ago here in the United States. Among the things that made it so unusual, the trial was among the first to be televised, the defense strategy was very controversial and the defendant just 15 years old.

Our National Correspondent Susan Candiotti has this exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While Florida's parole board was deciding whether to set an early release date for Ronnie Zamora, he awaited word in a prison on the edge of the Florida Everglades.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much, please have a seat.

CANDIOTTI: His lawyer instructed him to say nothing. Now, 40 years old, Zamora has served 25 years of a minimum, mandatory sentence and faced another ten years.

It is startling to see him grown up. Barely resembling the wide- eyed 15-year-old who stood trial for robbing and fatally shooting his 83-year-old neighbor and who then took a trip to Disney World before giving himself up.

(on camera): This is the courtroom where the Ronnie Zamora trial took place. Back in 1977 it was the very first time a Florida criminal trial was televised. At the time the jury rejected the defense explanation that Zamora shot his elderly neighbor because in the words of the defense, Zamora was intoxicated by watching too much violence on television.

(voice-over): Zamora's attorney making his case in 1977.

ELLIS RUBIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: And a the good guys get killed, and the bad guys get killed and it all comes down the tube again next week, same time, same station.

CANDIOTTI: The defense argued Zamora's favorite crime shows, including "Kojak", clouded his judgment and made him insane.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP -- "KOJAK")

TELLY SAVALAS, ACTOR: Not too shabby, huh?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE YOSS, ZAMORA'S ATTORNEY: The defense was absurd.

CANDIOTTI: Zamora's current attorney remembers the case well.

YOSS: Everyone knew he didn't have a chance because of this defense. Everyone except his lawyer.

RUBIN: F. Lee Bailey said it was off the wall. Alan Dershowitz said that I should have been reprimanded. I've been criticized by experts and that means that did I something right.

CANDIOTTI: Even now, defense attorney Ellis Rubin insists his TV violence theory has been worn out over time.

RUBIN: I'm sorry that our defense did not work with the jury, but Ronnie wasn't in prison because of my defense. Ronnie was in prison because he confessed to a brutal murder.

CANDIOTTI: Zamora has earned praise as a model inmate, tutoring others and taking college courses. Zamora's staunchest defenders now include his former prosecutor.

TOM HEADLEY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: It would not be necessary for him to stay in prison any longer in order for him to be properly punished for the terrible crime he committed.

CANDIOTTI: At that time the parole board hearing, word that three grandchildren of the victim opposed an early release for Zamora. But even the now-deceased officer who took his confession sent the governor a letter asking Zamora be set free.

YOSS: Could he change? I think he has.

CANDIOTTI: The parole commission agreed. Deciding he should be set free in 2005, shaving seven years from his sentence, giving Ronnie Zamora two more years to contemplate what life will be like outside prison walls.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And I want to update our viewers on the condition of Jesica Santillan, the 17-year-old girl who had her second heart/lung transplant at Duke University Hospital earlier today. We're told now she's still unconscious, she's on kidney dialysis. We also, within the past few minutes, heard from her mother. Her mother speaking to through a niece's translation. I want you to listen to what her mother said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMERICA SANTILLIAN, FAMILY MEMBER: She says she's really blessed and she thanks the family that has donated the organs for her little girl and she wants to meet them one day so they can meet Jesica and she thanks them for saving her life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We're all praying for Jesica. Thanks very much for that.

Don't forget, time's running out for your turn to weigh in on "Our Web Question of the Day." Should the U.S. give money and aid to countries in exchange for cooperation in dealing with Iraq? Log on to cnn.com/wolf to vote and we'll have the results immediately when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in on the "Web Question of the Day. Remember, we've been asking you this, should the U.S. give money and aid to countries in exchange for cooperation in dealing with Iraq? Look at this. Nineteen percent of you say yes but 81 percent of you say no.

Remember you can find the exact vote tally, continue to vote, by the way on our Web site, cnn.com/wolf. Remember, this is not a scientific poll.

That's all of the time we have today. Please join me tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. Noon Eastern for "SHOWDOWN: IRAQ" as well. Until then, thanks very much. "LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE" is coming up. Jan Hopkins sitting in tonight for Lou.

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






Gets Second Transplant; Bush Meets with Spanish President to Discuss New U.N. Resolution>