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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports
White House Drumming Up U.N. Support; Unclear Whether Great White Had Permission for Pyrotechnics
Aired February 25, 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.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Another crucial deadline for Saddam Hussein is imminent. The clock is ticking, fast approaching. Will he follow the U.N.'s order destroy his arsenal of battlefield missiles by Saturday?
And while the U.N. pressures Iraq, President Bush pressures the U.N. We'll go live to the White House.
And I'll talk missiles, war and how the U.S. would rebuild Iraq after a war, with retired General Wesley Clark.
WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(voice-over) Showdown: Iraq. What would it take to avoid a war?
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's only one thing: full disarmament.
BLITZER: Will Iraq destroy its missiles?
BUSH: I suspect that he will try to fool the world one more time.
BLITZER: Preparing for war. We'll take you on a training mission with U.S. special forces, live from Fort Perez (ph).
Urban combat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unit two (ph) is going to have their gun teams in the church, suppressing the entire northern sector.
BLITZER: We're with the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell, ready to ship out.
After a war: rebuilding Iraq, but at what cost? I'll ask former NATO supreme commander Wesley Clark.
Investigating an inferno: were there warnings before the nightclub fire?
Catastrophe strikes: how you can stay safe in a crowd.
(END VIDEO CLIP) It's Tuesday, February 25, 2003. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.
While the world waits to see if Saddam Hussein will a U.N. demand to destroy battlefield missiles by Saturday, the United States prepares for war and there are signs Iraq right now may be doing the same thing.
We're following all of the late-breaking developments in the showdown with Iraq. Let's get right to it.
CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is standing by at the White House with word on the president's endgame strategy -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, really, we're looking at a two-week window here when President Bush has to make up his mind whether or not the United States is going to go to war. We have been told at that time they'll also decide just who is going to be on the team here.
President Bush says the one thing that will avert a war, that is if Saddam Hussein completely disarms. The White House saying that they have no indication that that will happen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over) President Bush says there's only one way to avert war with Iraq.
BUSH: Full disarmament.
MALVEAUX: No sign of that, the White House says, despite news from the inspection team that Iraq has discovered a forbidden bomb that it says it will turn over to the U.N.
BUSH: I suspect that he will try to fool the world one more time. After all, he's had a history of doing that for 12 years. He's been successful at gaming the system.
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: Given the fact that another weapon has been found today, 4,294 days after they were instructed to destroy all their weapons, it does raise questions about whether Iraq ever intends to comply with disarmament or not.
MALVEAUX: President Bush leads the lobbying effort with his top advisers to get the nine votes necessary from the U.N. Security Council to pass the U.S.-backed second resolution that would set the stage for war.
Today Mr. Bush met with one of his supporters, the prime minister of Bulgaria. Britain and Spain are also continuing their full court press on U.N. members.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer admits the president doesn't yet have the votes, but he insists with or without them the U.S. will move forward. BUSH: It would be helpful and useful, but I don't believe we need a second resolution. Saddam Hussein hasn't disarmed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Now, in an interesting twist today Republican congressman, Senator Peter Fitzgerald, says that he recently spoke with the president, who told him that if the United States got a clear shot at Saddam Hussein, the president says that he would consider rescinding the ban on assassinating foreign leaders.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer today saying the president has absolutely no recollection of that conversation and that executive order still stands -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Suzanne, I assume the president in the coming days is going to be engaged personally in trying to win support for that U.N. Security Council resolution with those undecided members. I guess he's going to be doing a lot of phone diplomacy. Is that right?
MALVEAUX: Absolutely. We are told that he is going to be on the phone making calls to those members, that also Vice President Dick Cheney as well as Secretary Powell and many of the other aides -- top aides are going to be making those calls.
The president also going to be meeting with leaders personally in the next couple of weeks to really push to try to get those nine votes to pass that resolution in the U.N. Security Council.
BLITZER: And the clock is ticking. Suzanne Malveaux, thanks very much for that report.
While the president says Saddam Hussein will try to fool the world and pretend to disarm, the British prime minister, Tony Blair, thinks the Iraqi leader will give in, at least when it comes to those Al-Samoud II missiles that the U.N. wants destroyed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: At present he's saying he will not destroy the Al-Samoud missiles the inspectors have found were in breach of 1441, but he will, under pressure, claiming that this proves his cooperation.
But does anyone think that he would be making any such concessions, that indeed the inspectors would be within a thousand miles of Baghdad were it not for the U.S. and the U.K. troops massed on his doorstep?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: The chief U.N. weapons inspector, Hans Blix, wants Iraq to begin destroying those Al-Samoud II missiles, of course, by Saturday. Senior officials in Baghdad say Iraq is studying Blix' call, but CBS News says that in an exclusive interview with Dan Rather, Saddam Hussein indicated Iraq will resist that demand. Blix was asked about that today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Hussein stated that he would not destroy the Al- Samoud. Do you have a reaction to that? And if that's true, what happens next?
HANS BLIX, U.N. CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR: This is not an official response to us. We're still awaiting the official response.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Hans Blix also cited what he called the positive developments, saying Iraq has informed the U.N. it has found an R400 aerial bomb containing liquid at a site where Iraq had disposed of biological weapons after the 1991 Gulf War.
With more on the missile dispute and other developments in Iraq, let's go to our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, joining us from the Iraqi capitol.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Two senior Iraqi officials here saying that Iraq continues to study Hans Blix, the U.N. weapons chief's letter, telling them that they must begin destroying the Al- Samoud II missiles by Saturday.
That was both Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and President Saddam Hussein's top scientific adviser, General Amir Al-Sadir, both saying Iraq continues to study this letter.
U.N. officials here reporting some progress on another issue. They say Iraqi officials have informed them about a site where Iraq unilaterally disposed of some of its biological warfare munitions in 1991.
Now, the U.N. spokesman here said that Iraq had begun to dig up this particular site about six days ago. He said that U.N. weapons inspectors have been to the site twice now and he said that they've been shown by Iraqi officials fragments of munitions at that site.
However, the U.N. has not been able to make a determination yet on what was disposed of at that site, whether or not it contained biological agents.
According to U.N. spokesmen, more U.N. officials expected to arrive here this weekend. They will aid in that particular work. They are specialists in that area apparently.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Here's your chance to weigh in on this story. Our Web question of the day is this: "Should the U.S. attack Iraq if it fails to destroy its Al-Samoud II missiles by Saturday?"
We'll have the results later in this broadcast. Vote at CNN.com/Wolf.
While you're there I'd like 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 take a look at other developments in the showdown with Iraq happening right now.
Turkey's parliament has taken up a proposal to allow American troops to deploy for a possible war with Iraq. The cabinet approved the deployment yesterday, but an all-night meeting between U.S. and Turkish officials failed to resolve questions about a multi-billion dollar U.S. aid package to Turkey.
The parliamentary vote is now expected later this week.
Denver, Colorado, is the latest American city to speak out officially against the possible war with Iraq. Following a sometimes emotional debate, a divided city council passed a resolution stating that President Bush should go to war only as a last resort.
More than 100 cities have passed similar anti-war measures.
Soaring oil prices pulled back today after a march by the Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. With all of the talk about the possibility of war with Iraq, oil futures have been at the highest levels since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.
But Abraham apparently taunting somewhat, saying that if necessary the administration will move quickly to release oil from the strategic oil reserves if -- if war breaks out.
As the U.S. military puts the final touches on its war plans, Baghdad also appears to be circling the wagons to brace for the expected assault. For that, let's go live to our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre -- Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the latest U.S. overhead imagery seems to indicate that a large number of 16-wheel flatbed transport trucks that were parked in various areas are now on the move.
What does it mean? Well, Pentagon officials believe that it shows Iraq is planning to reposition or redeploy some of its heavy armored tanks and armored vehicles to either defend Baghdad or perhaps other high value areas, such as the Kirkuk oilfields or perhaps even Tikret, the ancestral home of Saddam Hussein.
Pentagon planners also fear that one reason Saddam may be so reluctant to destroy his Al-Samoud II missiles is they could give him the best capability for delivering chemical and biological weapons against advancing U.S. troops. And today Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said he believes Iraq's chemical and biological capability is better than ever.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over) A U.S. military transport ship begins unloading equipment at a port in southern Turkey, as the Turkish parliament considers an agreement in principle that would allow 62,000 U.S. troops to be based there.
Deployment of troops to Turkey will essentially complete the U.S. military buildup and set the stage for war with Iraq any time after the U.N. either accepts or rejects the latest disarmament resolution.
DONALD RUMSFELD, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Clearly, you give up strategic surprise when you decide you want to flow forces over a prolonged period of months. You do not necessarily give up tactical surprise.
MCINTYRE: Meanwhile, Iraq continues to make defensive moves. Pentagon sources say U.S. Reconnaissance photos show that dozens of flatbed trucks are on the move north of Baghdad.
Pentagon officials suspect Iraq plans to use the heavy equipment transport vehicles to reposition tanks and armored vehicles to fortify the defense of Baghdad or perhaps other high value assets such as the Kirkuk oilfields or Saddam Hussein's ancestral home of Tikret.
Pentagon planners also fear one reason Saddam Hussein is so reluctant to destroy his Al-Samoud missiles is that with their 150 kilometer-plus range, they may be his best weapon to deliver chemical or biological weapons against advancing U.S. troops.
Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to use air strikes in the no-fly zones to prepare the battlefield. One of three strikes Tuesday was against an Astros (ph) multiple rocket launcher spotted near the town of Basra, close enough to hit U.S. troops massed across the border in Kuwait.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: So far no Al-Samoud missiles have been spotted in the no-fly zones. If they are, Pentagon officials say they would be taken out in a heartbeat -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jamie, but we remember that during the Gulf War, the first Gulf War, those Scud missiles on the mobile launchers were very hard to find.
Any indication those Al-Samoud II missiles might be mobile, which of course would make them much more difficult to find?
MCINTYRE: Yes, they are mobile, and they would be hard to find. And finding Scuds and other missiles would be one of the first priorities of the U.S. war plan. They understand they're a lot better at finding these things than they were last time. They have a lot more assets and they have a much better idea, having watched Iraq for more than a decade.
So they're hopeful they would be able to find and stop these missiles before they could do much damage.
BLITZER: Obviously, if they're destroyed earlier by the inspectors, that makes the life of the U.S. military a lot easier.
Jamie McIntyre, thanks very much for that report.
Much more coverage coming up on the showdown with Iraq, but we're also following other important news today.
Were the Rhode Island nightclub owners warned about fire dangers before the club burned to the ground? We'll have the latest in that investigation.
Plus the Pentagon's great escape. See what government workers are using in case of chemical attack and worst-case scenario.
And worst case scenario: our own Kyra Phillips takes you along for urban combat training.
All that, but first, today's news quiz: "Who was the last U.S. president to have engaged in combat during a war? John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Dwight Eisenhower, George Herbert Walker Bush?" The answer, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Were there warnings given before the deadly fire at the Rhode Island nightclub? The stage manage is now speaking out. All of that, that's coming up on WOLF BLITZER REPORT. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: There are reports a Rhode Island grand jury will be convened tomorrow to investigate last week's deadly nightclub fire and there are also new claims the club owners were warned about pyrotechnics months ago.
Our Brian Cabell now has the latest on what's going on in this investigation from Warwick, Rhode Island -- Brian.
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Wolf. The governor held a press conference just about an hour ago. He said the number of dead still remains at 97. They have now identified 93 of them. Four still unidentified.
And he said there is one missing persons account that has still not been satisfied. They're not certain about it at this point, so they are out there today with a piece of equipment. You can see behind me right now, checking through the rubble, going through the rubble to see if possibly there are human remains.
They've also had canine teams out here for the last several hours as well, checking to see if possibly there is one missing person still there. Again, there is just one person they have not accounted for yet to their satisfaction.
As for the overall investigation, as you indicated, a grand jury is being convened here in Rhode Island in the next couple of days, we are told. The band in California is being subpoenaed. They will be appearing back here in Rhode Island.
We are told they are still being very cooperative, but the attorney general reiterated again today that the owners of this club have not been especially cooperative.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK LYNCH, RHODE ISLAND ATTORNEY GENERAL: Days now have passed. Our investigation has not slowed down and I credit the incredible men and women in uniform for that progress, but I reiterate to all of you again, we're all looking for answers. I believe that the Dederians could offer some that would help all of us, but specifically me as the chief law enforcement officer, to make a determination of whether or not this was criminal.
CABELL (voice-over): The question is still out there. Did the band Great White have permission last Thursday night to use pyrotechnics?
They have said repeatedly and their attorney has said repeatedly they did have explicit permission. The club owners have said on TV they did not have permission. That is a question that has yet to be resolved.
The stage manager for the club did come forward here in the last day, and he has said that he talk to one of the club owners about three months ago and warned them about the danger of pyrotechnics.
PAUL VANNER, STAGE MANAGER: I just said -- I have serious issues with these pyro guys and guaranteed safety. You want guaranteed safety, Mike? None. There's no gray area, Mike, black and white, none. That's the guarantee that I can give you. Certainly, he was -- certainly like, you know, seemed to take it to heart.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What he may have said to them, though, you don't know.
VANNER: No. I have no idea.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What led you...
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CABELL; Other questions that are still out there, Wolf, is what kind of insulation was used in this building? Was it flammable? Was it substandard? Was it cheap? That is being looked at by investigators today.
And as you can see behind me right now, the investigation goes on. Back to you.
BLITZER: Frank Cabell, thanks very much in West Warwick, Rhode Island.
After the Rhode Island nightclub fire and the stampede at a Chicago nightclub only four days earlier, many of us are now thinking twice before we enter a crowded room. How can anyone blame us?
How can we protect ourselves, though?
CNN's Maria Hinojosa has been looking into that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the last minutes of their lives in Chicago's E club, it was human against human, the antithesis of the old adage that there is safety in numbers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You just felt people just pushing from behind and started pushing from behind going out the door.
HINOJOSA: But people still like crowds like this hip New York dance club, Loaded, packed even on a Monday night.
ANDREW RASIEJ, NY NITECLUBS: If you're going out at night and having a good time you need to take some responsibility for your own safety.
HINOJOSA: Andrew Rasiej, head of the New York Nightlife Association, estimates that 30 million a year will hit New York City clubs.
So he checks to see that any club where he goes dancing has emergency exits with panic bars.
RASIEJ: A way that you can test every one. If you can press a button, it will go on.
HINOJOSA: That the emergency lights work, that he can reach the fire extinguishers and see the sprinklers on the ceiling. And he makes sure the exit signs are clearly marked.
Rasiej wants emergency evacuation information to become a part of our lives.
RISIEJ: When they tell you to turn off your cell phones and your beepers and they make their announcement at the beginning of the event, they tell you this building has eight exits, there's three in the front, three in the back.
HINOJOSA: And if you're caught in a crowd, this Chicago expert says...
PAUL WERTHEIMER, CROWD SAFETY EXPERT: Look for other options than the direction everybody else is going in, if they're available. Stay calm, don't yell. Don't use up your energy in a crowd crush or crowd surge, because you need all the energy you can.
HINOJOSA: Sadly, though, there comes a point where no study and no science might be able to help you.
WERTHEIMER: It doesn't matter how strong you are. It doesn't matter how big you are. It doesn't matter how smart you are and it doesn't even matter if you're a crowd safety expert. At some point, if you're caught in a crowd, you're helpless.
HINOJOSA: Like the hundreds of helpless people in Chicago and in Warwick, Rhode Island.
Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Hit by a plane on September 11, the Pentagon gets ready for another attack. We'll have a hands-on look at the escape route now being handed out to the 25,000-plus workers at the Pentagon. But is it enough to keep them protected?
Also, a deadly shooting rampage in Alabama.
And Michael Jackson is battling back. The pop star goes on court to protect his image.
All that and more. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: It's a nightmare scenario. The nerve center of the U.S. military is attacked with a weapon of mass destruction. Is there any chance for those inside to survive?
Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, looks at one device that may be a lifesaver.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where could you store it? When should you carry it? When should it be at your desk and how could it be used?
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is just a training session, but it's a chilling lesson being taught.
If the Pentagon comes under nuclear chemical, or biological attack, 20,000 military and civilian personnel will rush to put on escape hoods like these. Sixty minutes of filtered air to breathe, enough time to get to safety.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This bag is the actual mask, it's not opened unless you're planning to use it.
STARR: All employees will be given an emergency escape hood to keep at their desk. Extra hoods will be in cabinets around the building for visitors or people who may be away from their office when an attack comes.
SPEC. PHILIP MCCABE, U.S. ARMY: I'm feeling a lot more confident, you know, with this piece of equipment than if I didn't have anything at all. On 9/11 when we were attacked all we could do was just run out of the building.
STARR: Instructors show how to put it on. A snorkel mouthpiece draws in the filtered air. The hood is pulled over the face. A clip shuts off inadvertent breathing through the nose, providing critical protection much like on the battlefield.
JAMES NOE, TRAINING INSTRUCTOR: It's a wide range of chemical and biological agents, anything that the U.S. military mask would protect you again, this will also protect you against.
STARR (on camera): Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, enlisted soldiers, cafeteria workers and even the Pentagon press corps will receive escape hoods, a shield against what would have been unthinkable before this building was attacked on 9/11.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: I wonder if they will be distributed more broadly around the country, as well. We'll try to find that out in the coming days.
Is the U.S. military ready to occupy and rebuild Baghdad after a possible war? We'll take a closer look at what critics insist is a quagmire that lies ahead.
And Robert Blake speaks out. Hear what he has to say in an interview. His lawyers didn't want you to see.
But first let's take a look at other news making headlines around the world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over) Korea diplomacy: Secretary of State Colin Powell was among the guests as South Korea's new president, Roh Moo-hyun, was inaugurated.
Powell used the visit to announce the United States will send more food to fight starvation in North Korea, despite the ongoing dispute over North Korea's nuclear program.
Caracas bombs: Two bombs exploded in Venezuela outside the Spanish embassy and the Colombia consulate. Several people were hurt including a 4-year-old girl.
The explosions came two days after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accused Spain, Colombia and the United States of meddling in Venezuela's affairs. Rattling reminders: Aftershocks continue to hit western China one day after an earthquake killed at least 265 people and injured thousands more. Tens of thousands are homeless.
Sand and snow: A rare snowstorm hit the Middle East, leaving more than a foot of accumulation in Jerusalem. Roads, schools and businesses were closed.
In a lighter counterpoint to the region's frequent violence, some Israelis and Palestinians were seen having a snowball fight.
Jackson action: entertainer Michael Jackson has started legal proceedings against Britain's Grenada Television. Jackson is seeking ownership of unaired footage from Grenada's recent documentary, "Living with Michael Jackson."
He says the documentary's producers betrayed him.
Masks and merriment: it's carnival time in Venice. The pre- Lenten festival features parades, costumes and masked balls.
And that's our look around the world.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Welcome back to CNN. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Coming up, nation building in Iraq. Is the United States prepared for the human fallout of a potential war?
(NEWSBREAK)
BLITZER: As they plan for the possibility of war, officials at the Pentagon are looking ahead to humanitarian needs in Iraq if war does, in fact, break out. One key official says beyond a shadow of a doubt, a civilian will be in charge of day-to-day reconstruction in Iraq. For more on that, let's turn now to our CNN military analyst, General Wesley Clark.
I remember, as you well do, the six-day war in 1967 between the Israelis and the Arabs. It lasted only six days, a brilliant military victory. Years later, decades later, they're still fighting that. Is the U.S. facing that kind of prospect, two-week war you once predicted on this program, but decades in Iraq afterwards?
RET. GEN. WELSEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think a lot of it depends in part of how we go in and then, what are our actions when we first arrive. We don't have any desire for territory in Iraq. We don't want to stay there. We've got to persuade the people in the region that that's the case and that means we've got to quickly transition from military actions to civilian reconstruction. We've got to bring international efforts in and then we got to get troops out, but we've got to leave behind a stable government.
BLITZER: Well, how do you do that? You have experience from your Balkan experience, and in Kosovo -- war rebuilding Kosovo, for example. Iraq is a much larger area, a much more complicated political environment.
CLARK: It is and the first rule of thumb is it's going to take three times longer than anybody's sort of worst estimate. It's very hard.
Now, one thing about Iraq that wasn't true in Kosovo or in Bosnia, there's a lot of money in Iraq and it belongs to Saddam Hussein. So one of the first things that has to be done is not only provide humanitarian assistance for the people that need food, but to seize control with international elements of the Iraqi treasury so that the money that's come in can be used for the Iraqi people and so that money doesn't go out to pay for illicit weapons and other things...
BLITZER: And the Iraqis have a lot of oil, though, that will generate billions in revenue. The -- is the U.S. military prepared for the kind of reconstruction efforts, the occupation, if you will, of a huge country, what 25 million people in this territory with Kurds in the north, Shi'as in the south, Sunnis in the middle and a lot of political bickering?
CLARK: Well, the answer is yes and no. I meant the troops are the finest troops you can find anywhere, but the specific conditions, they remain to be determined on the ground. We talked earlier today about the agreement with Turkey that's going to be realized. Of course, we don't know what's in that agreement, actually and neither do the troops and that will have to be worked through and that'll be just the first of many contingencies that have to be dealt with as they arrive during the course of the occupation.
BLITZER: The great fear -- I know you have this and a lot of experts have it -- is that, yes, most of the Iraqis might be happy to lose Saddam Hussein, but there will be plenty of others who see the U.S. as the great Satan, if you will, and there's a fertile ground for al Qaeda and other terrorist elements to recruit them.
CLARK: I think that's exactly right. Two dangers here -- no. 1, the Sunni population itself in Baghdad and Tekrit and the other areas that were loyal to Saddam Hussein will feel threatened by the Kurds in the north and the Shi'a in the south and there will be fighting amongst these elements. And so, they will not look kindly on the United States. And then in the aftermath, we can be sure that the Islamic charities will come in and some number of these Islamic charities -- and we can't predict how many -- are actually recruiting fronts for extremist elements. They provide food. They provide assistance and then they screen the people who come to the mosques or who accept the charities and they forward the names and the people on for training and radicalization elsewhere.
BLITZER: Is there a scenario -- and I've heard this from some military experts -- that it might be more dangerous for those U.S. troops after a war than during a war in this notion. Recalling what happened in Beirut that the U.S. Marines at that barracks when that truck came in at more than 200 Marines in 1983 were killed after the U.S. helped them -- and supposedly that cease-fire between the various factions in Lebanon? CLARK: Right. I think that's true. I think there's sort of two polls of risk. The first is getting started. While we're in Kuwait, while Saddam has his weapons of mass destruction, he'll have an incentive to strike first. We've got to start moving quickly and get out from under that threat and take away his capability to threaten us. And then, once we take Saddam out and we've gotten rid of the Iraqi armed forces, there will be a period when, I think, we're going to be welcomed very warmly by all of the Iraqi people. And we're going to look very fresh and very new. But as we stay there, as we get involved in the issues, as we take sides as we inevitably will, we'll become a target and that's when the risks goes up.
BLITZER: So what you're saying is get the U.S. military out of there as quickly as possible, get an international U.N. presence, if you will, including Muslim nations, Arab nations involved in the reconstruction of Iraq?
CLARK: Absolutely.
BLITZER: Is that doable?
CLARK: Well, it's personal partially doable. But there's no risk-free solution to this. The more we turn over the hard work of reconstruction and maintaining security to others, the less control we have over it and that means that it expands the opportunities for al Qaeda recruiting networks to spring up. And so, we're going to want to maintain a presence.
And we haven't talked about one other thing, Wolf, and that's the weapons of mass destruction. Now, we're probably not going to get those out during the combat. That's post-combat activity. We're going to have teams that rush around that country investigating every lead, looking for a bag of anthrax here, a bomb containing a liquid there and it may take six months. And during that period the military has to remain in charge and that has to take priority.
BLITZER: It's a frightening scenario not just for -- if it's a short war, two weeks as you predicted but the months and years that follow, a frightening scenario for those U.S. troops who may be engaged.
CLARK: A lot of uncertainties.
BLITZER: General Clark, thanks for that information.
We have much more news coming up, including this. Urban combat in Baghdad.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDNET: What you're going to see here live, exclusive access, Wolf, inside Special Forces training. The U.S. Army getting ready to go to Baghdad if indeed the president says they have to go. That's coming up straight ahead.
BLITZER: Thanks, Kyra. We'll look forward to that. We'll get to that and more, but first a look at some other news making headlines around the world. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Earlier we asked -- who was the last U.S. president to have engaged in combat during a war? The answer, George Herbert Walker Bush. He flew 58 combat missions as a Navy fighter pilot during World War II.
The U.S. Army Special Forces will play a key role in the battlefield if the United States goes on war against Iraq. These troops are being put through a tough realistic training exercise right now at the U.S. Army Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Our own Kyra Phillips has been right in the middle of this all day -- is joining us now live.
Kyra tell us what's going on right now.
PHILLIPS: You bet, Wolf. What you're looking at right now is sort of a mock city, let's say, example of that Baghdad. Special Forces are getting ready to roll in hot, clear these buildings. Enemy forces hiding. Innocent civilians will pop out of certain areas. And basically, what's happening in this training is to see how prepared the Special Forces soldiers are.
Lieutenant Colonel Sean Mulholland, he's in charge of the advanced training out here, the urban combat training, also, the military freefall training. Let's start with urban combat and talk with what is so important about this training. First of all, talk about the daytime training that we observed today as we watched some video of what took place.
LT. COL. SEAN MULHOLLAND, U.S. SPECIAL FORCES TRAINING: Well, with the urban combat training, it's important to first let them go through the crawl and walk around the place. And that's why we go through the daytime phase, so they learn from their mistakes during the daytime. And afterwards, the after action review is conducted and they review their mistakes and then they go forward and go through a different scenario. That's why we move the sites. We want them to be familiar with all different scenarios, so basically they're panic proof.
Eventually, the end state is later on you'll see the -- when we go to night phase, when the soldiers and our -- or the operators are using NBGs, night vision goggles, where we would prefer to attack urban centers at night.
PHILLIPS: And we'll get into the night issues as we prepare -- or as you're preparing for us to observe coming up. But the urban combat training, as they clear the buildings, what exactly are they looking for with regard to. I mean obviously, they're focused on a certain target, but how do you prevent civilian casualties? How do you contain a scenario that can get like a Mogadishu, "Blackhawk Down" scenario? How do you prevent that kind of chaos?
MULHOLLAND: Whenever you go into an urban area, as Chief Smith covered earlier, you are concerned with security, external to the buildings outside and internal to the inside of the buildings. You want to do every room by room, clear them and whenever there's a person in the room, you identify what he has or she has in her hands. So that is the threat. So whatever they're holding in their hands is what could kill you or what could not kill you. So that is the threat. If they have nothing that threatens your life in their hands, that's when they're deemed a civilian and safeguarded.
PHILLIPS: Another important asset, military freefall, quickly as we look at video out of Yuma, all your Special Forces soldiers are trained to insert by land and by air.
MULHOLLAND: And also by sea. We -- I also -- we have the scuba school, Charlie Company, down in Key West. So it's either by scuba operations, maritime operations, over the horizon navigation, military freefall and insertion.
PHILLIPS: Why is that so important, freefall?
MULHOLLAND: Freefall and scuba are important because it gives the commanders options. It gives them capabilities that otherwise other conventional units could not give them.
PHILLIPS: Lieutenant Colonel Sean Mulholland, thank you so much.
Wolf, in the next hour -- thank you very much, you're going to see the live training, so stay tuned as they get ready for urban combat training night-side.
BLITZER: Kyra, we've been watching you all day. Thanks for all the good work. Kyra Phillips at Fort Bragg. I've been to the facility and it's a very impressive piece of work. Thanks very much to Kyra Phillips.
On their way to Iraq, Meet some other U.S. troops most likely to be engaged in battlefields conditions actually in Baghdad. It's the 101st Airborne Division. Travel along as they get ready for action. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: If war breaks out with Iraq, soldiers of the Army's 101st Airborne would be among the first troops to go into battle. Veterans of Afghanistan and many other past wars, the so-called Screaming Eagles are due to head out of the Persian Gulf very soon. CNN's Ryan Chilcote, who will travel with them, was on hand for an exercise to prepare these men and women for street-to-street fighting in Baghdad.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the soldiers of today's salute the veterans of the 187th Infantry Regimen, commemorating their 60 years of service, young 187 Infantrymen or the 101st Airborne Division, are touching up on their marksmen for the next fight.
(on camera): The 101st Airborne hasn't had the luxury of preparing for a possible war in Iraq in theater, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been practicing back here at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. (voice-over): The focus now is on urban warfare.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first platoon is going to have their gun teams in the church, suppressing the entire northern sector.
CHILCOTE: For the only unit in the Army to see combat in Afghanistan and be deployed to the Persian Gulf, this is still scary stuff. Casualties can easily reach 50 percent in urban environments. An enemy could be anywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, coming in!
CHILCOTE: Friendlies in between.
SPEC. ROBERT ATKINSON, U.S. ARMY: I mean, you know that right now that the Iraq, even -- all civilians could have weapons. So you could be going up against a force of three million. And to me, it's four against whatever I come into.
CHILCOTE: But the soldiers can find comfort in the numbers of infantrymen that have gone before them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first time, I think, we have ever seen combat was a year.
CHILCOTE: Now, billeted in an Econolodge, the veterans here share the weight of the wars they fought with the young soldiers and the battles they didn't finish.
RALPH DETZEL, U.S. ARMY VETERAN: We didn't get to finish it in Korea. They didn't get to finish in Vietnam. We'd like to see them start finishing a war once in a while instead of quitting at the -- in the middle of it. So, you know, it's good to see them going back and trying to finish it up.
CHILCOTE: The men of 187, the slogan here on the base goes, Have a Rendezvous With Destiny.
Ryan Chilcote, CNN, Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And as the United States gears up for a possible war, hundreds of other American troops face the prospect of attacking fellow Arabs. CNN's Brian Cabell gives us a closer look at one Arab- American in uniform and his fierce loyalty to the U.S. military.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CABELL (voice-over): Gunnery sergeant, Jamal Baadani, is a man with a mission. His parents are Yemeni. He was born in Cairo, Egypt, but he is an American Marine.
GUN. SGT. JAMAL BAADANI, U.S. MARINE CORPS.: I will demonstrate.
CABELL: He was active duty for 10 years, then left in 1992 for the corporate world. But last March in the wake of 9/11 and what he felt was lingering anti-Arab sentiment in the U.S., he returned to active duty.
BAADANI: I wanted to prove and -- that Arab-Americans aren't the ones that did this atrocity. It was foreign nationals that came and attacked our homeland and this is my home.
CABELL: Now, as he trains his platoon, he, along with an estimated 3,500 Arab-Americans in the military, faces the prospect of attacking Iraq, an Arab nation. No problem, he insists. He's a Marine.
(on camera): Baadani says in the Marines he's never felt the sting of discrimination, not even since 9/11. He's never seen any suspicious stares. He's never heard any muttered insults. In the Marines, he says, his ethnic background simply hasn't mattered.
(voice-over): Back home in Dearborn, Michigan, where there's a heavy concentration of Arab-Americans, his family has faced an occasional insult. His uncle, Khalid, for example, says he got the silent treatment from some fellow employees after 9/11.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They didn't want to, you know, work with me.
CABELL: (on camera): Because you were Arab?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CABELL (voice-over): His solution, he hung a photo of his nephew, Gunnery Sergeant Baadani, in full uniform in his office. The silent treatment ended.
Baadani cherishes his time at home, the adoring family, the distinctive food, the good-natured talk, the sweet tea, but even in Dearborn, he remains above all a Marine, taking time to promote the Corps to skeptical Arab-American boys. They question the idea of fighting fellow Arabs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just imagine if you're fighting your own family.
CABELL: They criticize American policy in the Middle East.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's shown itself that America does basically support -- has too much support for the state of Israel.
CABELL: But Baadani reminds them that the United States allowed he and their families to come here to live. And he asks them, what do you like about this country? They respond with freedom, jobs, education. "Exactly," says Baadani.
BAADANI: OK, I'm fighting so you all can have everything that you told me about America, to keep it that way.
CABELL: Jamal Baadani is a man straddling two worlds and he's doing it gracefully, not hiding from his Arab heritage, but reveling in it. But he's a Marine now, ready to fight and die against Arabs if necessary.
BAADANI: I'm not going to be buried in Yemen. I'm not going to be buried in my birthland, which is Cairo, you know. But if something happens to me, you know, the highest honor for me would be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
CABELL: Gunnery Sergeant Baadani awaits his orders to ship out.
From Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, Brian Cabell, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And this footnote, the top commander, the top deputy commander of the Central Command, General Tommy Franks' no. 2 is also an Arab-American.
Time is running out for your turn to weigh in on our "Web Question of The Day." Should the U.S. attack Iraq if it fails to destroy its al-Samoud II missiles by Saturday? Log on to CNN.com/Wolf. That's where you can vote and we'll have the results immediately when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: This just in, police in Wellington, New Zealand, are investigating some threatening letters sent to the U.S., British and Australian embassies. Police say the letter sent to the British embassy contained a trace evidence of cyanide. The other letters were said to contain an innocuous white powder. We'll continue to follow that story.
Let's find out how you're weighing in on our "Web Question of The Day." We've been asking you if the U.S. -- should the U.S. attack Iraq if it fails to destroy its al-Samoud II missiles by Saturday? Forty-three percent of you say yes. Fifty-seven percent of you say no. Remember this, is not a scientific poll.
That's, unfortunately, all of the time we have today. I'll be back tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. "LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE" is coming up right now.
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Great White Had Permission for Pyrotechnics>
Aired February 25, 2003 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Another crucial deadline for Saddam Hussein is imminent. The clock is ticking, fast approaching. Will he follow the U.N.'s order destroy his arsenal of battlefield missiles by Saturday?
And while the U.N. pressures Iraq, President Bush pressures the U.N. We'll go live to the White House.
And I'll talk missiles, war and how the U.S. would rebuild Iraq after a war, with retired General Wesley Clark.
WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(voice-over) Showdown: Iraq. What would it take to avoid a war?
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's only one thing: full disarmament.
BLITZER: Will Iraq destroy its missiles?
BUSH: I suspect that he will try to fool the world one more time.
BLITZER: Preparing for war. We'll take you on a training mission with U.S. special forces, live from Fort Perez (ph).
Urban combat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unit two (ph) is going to have their gun teams in the church, suppressing the entire northern sector.
BLITZER: We're with the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell, ready to ship out.
After a war: rebuilding Iraq, but at what cost? I'll ask former NATO supreme commander Wesley Clark.
Investigating an inferno: were there warnings before the nightclub fire?
Catastrophe strikes: how you can stay safe in a crowd.
(END VIDEO CLIP) It's Tuesday, February 25, 2003. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.
While the world waits to see if Saddam Hussein will a U.N. demand to destroy battlefield missiles by Saturday, the United States prepares for war and there are signs Iraq right now may be doing the same thing.
We're following all of the late-breaking developments in the showdown with Iraq. Let's get right to it.
CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is standing by at the White House with word on the president's endgame strategy -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, really, we're looking at a two-week window here when President Bush has to make up his mind whether or not the United States is going to go to war. We have been told at that time they'll also decide just who is going to be on the team here.
President Bush says the one thing that will avert a war, that is if Saddam Hussein completely disarms. The White House saying that they have no indication that that will happen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over) President Bush says there's only one way to avert war with Iraq.
BUSH: Full disarmament.
MALVEAUX: No sign of that, the White House says, despite news from the inspection team that Iraq has discovered a forbidden bomb that it says it will turn over to the U.N.
BUSH: I suspect that he will try to fool the world one more time. After all, he's had a history of doing that for 12 years. He's been successful at gaming the system.
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: Given the fact that another weapon has been found today, 4,294 days after they were instructed to destroy all their weapons, it does raise questions about whether Iraq ever intends to comply with disarmament or not.
MALVEAUX: President Bush leads the lobbying effort with his top advisers to get the nine votes necessary from the U.N. Security Council to pass the U.S.-backed second resolution that would set the stage for war.
Today Mr. Bush met with one of his supporters, the prime minister of Bulgaria. Britain and Spain are also continuing their full court press on U.N. members.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer admits the president doesn't yet have the votes, but he insists with or without them the U.S. will move forward. BUSH: It would be helpful and useful, but I don't believe we need a second resolution. Saddam Hussein hasn't disarmed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Now, in an interesting twist today Republican congressman, Senator Peter Fitzgerald, says that he recently spoke with the president, who told him that if the United States got a clear shot at Saddam Hussein, the president says that he would consider rescinding the ban on assassinating foreign leaders.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer today saying the president has absolutely no recollection of that conversation and that executive order still stands -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Suzanne, I assume the president in the coming days is going to be engaged personally in trying to win support for that U.N. Security Council resolution with those undecided members. I guess he's going to be doing a lot of phone diplomacy. Is that right?
MALVEAUX: Absolutely. We are told that he is going to be on the phone making calls to those members, that also Vice President Dick Cheney as well as Secretary Powell and many of the other aides -- top aides are going to be making those calls.
The president also going to be meeting with leaders personally in the next couple of weeks to really push to try to get those nine votes to pass that resolution in the U.N. Security Council.
BLITZER: And the clock is ticking. Suzanne Malveaux, thanks very much for that report.
While the president says Saddam Hussein will try to fool the world and pretend to disarm, the British prime minister, Tony Blair, thinks the Iraqi leader will give in, at least when it comes to those Al-Samoud II missiles that the U.N. wants destroyed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: At present he's saying he will not destroy the Al-Samoud missiles the inspectors have found were in breach of 1441, but he will, under pressure, claiming that this proves his cooperation.
But does anyone think that he would be making any such concessions, that indeed the inspectors would be within a thousand miles of Baghdad were it not for the U.S. and the U.K. troops massed on his doorstep?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: The chief U.N. weapons inspector, Hans Blix, wants Iraq to begin destroying those Al-Samoud II missiles, of course, by Saturday. Senior officials in Baghdad say Iraq is studying Blix' call, but CBS News says that in an exclusive interview with Dan Rather, Saddam Hussein indicated Iraq will resist that demand. Blix was asked about that today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Hussein stated that he would not destroy the Al- Samoud. Do you have a reaction to that? And if that's true, what happens next?
HANS BLIX, U.N. CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR: This is not an official response to us. We're still awaiting the official response.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Hans Blix also cited what he called the positive developments, saying Iraq has informed the U.N. it has found an R400 aerial bomb containing liquid at a site where Iraq had disposed of biological weapons after the 1991 Gulf War.
With more on the missile dispute and other developments in Iraq, let's go to our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, joining us from the Iraqi capitol.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Two senior Iraqi officials here saying that Iraq continues to study Hans Blix, the U.N. weapons chief's letter, telling them that they must begin destroying the Al- Samoud II missiles by Saturday.
That was both Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and President Saddam Hussein's top scientific adviser, General Amir Al-Sadir, both saying Iraq continues to study this letter.
U.N. officials here reporting some progress on another issue. They say Iraqi officials have informed them about a site where Iraq unilaterally disposed of some of its biological warfare munitions in 1991.
Now, the U.N. spokesman here said that Iraq had begun to dig up this particular site about six days ago. He said that U.N. weapons inspectors have been to the site twice now and he said that they've been shown by Iraqi officials fragments of munitions at that site.
However, the U.N. has not been able to make a determination yet on what was disposed of at that site, whether or not it contained biological agents.
According to U.N. spokesmen, more U.N. officials expected to arrive here this weekend. They will aid in that particular work. They are specialists in that area apparently.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Here's your chance to weigh in on this story. Our Web question of the day is this: "Should the U.S. attack Iraq if it fails to destroy its Al-Samoud II missiles by Saturday?"
We'll have the results later in this broadcast. Vote at CNN.com/Wolf.
While you're there I'd like 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 take a look at other developments in the showdown with Iraq happening right now.
Turkey's parliament has taken up a proposal to allow American troops to deploy for a possible war with Iraq. The cabinet approved the deployment yesterday, but an all-night meeting between U.S. and Turkish officials failed to resolve questions about a multi-billion dollar U.S. aid package to Turkey.
The parliamentary vote is now expected later this week.
Denver, Colorado, is the latest American city to speak out officially against the possible war with Iraq. Following a sometimes emotional debate, a divided city council passed a resolution stating that President Bush should go to war only as a last resort.
More than 100 cities have passed similar anti-war measures.
Soaring oil prices pulled back today after a march by the Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. With all of the talk about the possibility of war with Iraq, oil futures have been at the highest levels since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.
But Abraham apparently taunting somewhat, saying that if necessary the administration will move quickly to release oil from the strategic oil reserves if -- if war breaks out.
As the U.S. military puts the final touches on its war plans, Baghdad also appears to be circling the wagons to brace for the expected assault. For that, let's go live to our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre -- Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the latest U.S. overhead imagery seems to indicate that a large number of 16-wheel flatbed transport trucks that were parked in various areas are now on the move.
What does it mean? Well, Pentagon officials believe that it shows Iraq is planning to reposition or redeploy some of its heavy armored tanks and armored vehicles to either defend Baghdad or perhaps other high value areas, such as the Kirkuk oilfields or perhaps even Tikret, the ancestral home of Saddam Hussein.
Pentagon planners also fear that one reason Saddam may be so reluctant to destroy his Al-Samoud II missiles is they could give him the best capability for delivering chemical and biological weapons against advancing U.S. troops. And today Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said he believes Iraq's chemical and biological capability is better than ever.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over) A U.S. military transport ship begins unloading equipment at a port in southern Turkey, as the Turkish parliament considers an agreement in principle that would allow 62,000 U.S. troops to be based there.
Deployment of troops to Turkey will essentially complete the U.S. military buildup and set the stage for war with Iraq any time after the U.N. either accepts or rejects the latest disarmament resolution.
DONALD RUMSFELD, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Clearly, you give up strategic surprise when you decide you want to flow forces over a prolonged period of months. You do not necessarily give up tactical surprise.
MCINTYRE: Meanwhile, Iraq continues to make defensive moves. Pentagon sources say U.S. Reconnaissance photos show that dozens of flatbed trucks are on the move north of Baghdad.
Pentagon officials suspect Iraq plans to use the heavy equipment transport vehicles to reposition tanks and armored vehicles to fortify the defense of Baghdad or perhaps other high value assets such as the Kirkuk oilfields or Saddam Hussein's ancestral home of Tikret.
Pentagon planners also fear one reason Saddam Hussein is so reluctant to destroy his Al-Samoud missiles is that with their 150 kilometer-plus range, they may be his best weapon to deliver chemical or biological weapons against advancing U.S. troops.
Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to use air strikes in the no-fly zones to prepare the battlefield. One of three strikes Tuesday was against an Astros (ph) multiple rocket launcher spotted near the town of Basra, close enough to hit U.S. troops massed across the border in Kuwait.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: So far no Al-Samoud missiles have been spotted in the no-fly zones. If they are, Pentagon officials say they would be taken out in a heartbeat -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jamie, but we remember that during the Gulf War, the first Gulf War, those Scud missiles on the mobile launchers were very hard to find.
Any indication those Al-Samoud II missiles might be mobile, which of course would make them much more difficult to find?
MCINTYRE: Yes, they are mobile, and they would be hard to find. And finding Scuds and other missiles would be one of the first priorities of the U.S. war plan. They understand they're a lot better at finding these things than they were last time. They have a lot more assets and they have a much better idea, having watched Iraq for more than a decade.
So they're hopeful they would be able to find and stop these missiles before they could do much damage.
BLITZER: Obviously, if they're destroyed earlier by the inspectors, that makes the life of the U.S. military a lot easier.
Jamie McIntyre, thanks very much for that report.
Much more coverage coming up on the showdown with Iraq, but we're also following other important news today.
Were the Rhode Island nightclub owners warned about fire dangers before the club burned to the ground? We'll have the latest in that investigation.
Plus the Pentagon's great escape. See what government workers are using in case of chemical attack and worst-case scenario.
And worst case scenario: our own Kyra Phillips takes you along for urban combat training.
All that, but first, today's news quiz: "Who was the last U.S. president to have engaged in combat during a war? John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Dwight Eisenhower, George Herbert Walker Bush?" The answer, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Were there warnings given before the deadly fire at the Rhode Island nightclub? The stage manage is now speaking out. All of that, that's coming up on WOLF BLITZER REPORT. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: There are reports a Rhode Island grand jury will be convened tomorrow to investigate last week's deadly nightclub fire and there are also new claims the club owners were warned about pyrotechnics months ago.
Our Brian Cabell now has the latest on what's going on in this investigation from Warwick, Rhode Island -- Brian.
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Wolf. The governor held a press conference just about an hour ago. He said the number of dead still remains at 97. They have now identified 93 of them. Four still unidentified.
And he said there is one missing persons account that has still not been satisfied. They're not certain about it at this point, so they are out there today with a piece of equipment. You can see behind me right now, checking through the rubble, going through the rubble to see if possibly there are human remains.
They've also had canine teams out here for the last several hours as well, checking to see if possibly there is one missing person still there. Again, there is just one person they have not accounted for yet to their satisfaction.
As for the overall investigation, as you indicated, a grand jury is being convened here in Rhode Island in the next couple of days, we are told. The band in California is being subpoenaed. They will be appearing back here in Rhode Island.
We are told they are still being very cooperative, but the attorney general reiterated again today that the owners of this club have not been especially cooperative.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK LYNCH, RHODE ISLAND ATTORNEY GENERAL: Days now have passed. Our investigation has not slowed down and I credit the incredible men and women in uniform for that progress, but I reiterate to all of you again, we're all looking for answers. I believe that the Dederians could offer some that would help all of us, but specifically me as the chief law enforcement officer, to make a determination of whether or not this was criminal.
CABELL (voice-over): The question is still out there. Did the band Great White have permission last Thursday night to use pyrotechnics?
They have said repeatedly and their attorney has said repeatedly they did have explicit permission. The club owners have said on TV they did not have permission. That is a question that has yet to be resolved.
The stage manager for the club did come forward here in the last day, and he has said that he talk to one of the club owners about three months ago and warned them about the danger of pyrotechnics.
PAUL VANNER, STAGE MANAGER: I just said -- I have serious issues with these pyro guys and guaranteed safety. You want guaranteed safety, Mike? None. There's no gray area, Mike, black and white, none. That's the guarantee that I can give you. Certainly, he was -- certainly like, you know, seemed to take it to heart.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What he may have said to them, though, you don't know.
VANNER: No. I have no idea.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What led you...
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CABELL; Other questions that are still out there, Wolf, is what kind of insulation was used in this building? Was it flammable? Was it substandard? Was it cheap? That is being looked at by investigators today.
And as you can see behind me right now, the investigation goes on. Back to you.
BLITZER: Frank Cabell, thanks very much in West Warwick, Rhode Island.
After the Rhode Island nightclub fire and the stampede at a Chicago nightclub only four days earlier, many of us are now thinking twice before we enter a crowded room. How can anyone blame us?
How can we protect ourselves, though?
CNN's Maria Hinojosa has been looking into that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the last minutes of their lives in Chicago's E club, it was human against human, the antithesis of the old adage that there is safety in numbers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You just felt people just pushing from behind and started pushing from behind going out the door.
HINOJOSA: But people still like crowds like this hip New York dance club, Loaded, packed even on a Monday night.
ANDREW RASIEJ, NY NITECLUBS: If you're going out at night and having a good time you need to take some responsibility for your own safety.
HINOJOSA: Andrew Rasiej, head of the New York Nightlife Association, estimates that 30 million a year will hit New York City clubs.
So he checks to see that any club where he goes dancing has emergency exits with panic bars.
RASIEJ: A way that you can test every one. If you can press a button, it will go on.
HINOJOSA: That the emergency lights work, that he can reach the fire extinguishers and see the sprinklers on the ceiling. And he makes sure the exit signs are clearly marked.
Rasiej wants emergency evacuation information to become a part of our lives.
RISIEJ: When they tell you to turn off your cell phones and your beepers and they make their announcement at the beginning of the event, they tell you this building has eight exits, there's three in the front, three in the back.
HINOJOSA: And if you're caught in a crowd, this Chicago expert says...
PAUL WERTHEIMER, CROWD SAFETY EXPERT: Look for other options than the direction everybody else is going in, if they're available. Stay calm, don't yell. Don't use up your energy in a crowd crush or crowd surge, because you need all the energy you can.
HINOJOSA: Sadly, though, there comes a point where no study and no science might be able to help you.
WERTHEIMER: It doesn't matter how strong you are. It doesn't matter how big you are. It doesn't matter how smart you are and it doesn't even matter if you're a crowd safety expert. At some point, if you're caught in a crowd, you're helpless.
HINOJOSA: Like the hundreds of helpless people in Chicago and in Warwick, Rhode Island.
Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Hit by a plane on September 11, the Pentagon gets ready for another attack. We'll have a hands-on look at the escape route now being handed out to the 25,000-plus workers at the Pentagon. But is it enough to keep them protected?
Also, a deadly shooting rampage in Alabama.
And Michael Jackson is battling back. The pop star goes on court to protect his image.
All that and more. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: It's a nightmare scenario. The nerve center of the U.S. military is attacked with a weapon of mass destruction. Is there any chance for those inside to survive?
Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, looks at one device that may be a lifesaver.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where could you store it? When should you carry it? When should it be at your desk and how could it be used?
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is just a training session, but it's a chilling lesson being taught.
If the Pentagon comes under nuclear chemical, or biological attack, 20,000 military and civilian personnel will rush to put on escape hoods like these. Sixty minutes of filtered air to breathe, enough time to get to safety.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This bag is the actual mask, it's not opened unless you're planning to use it.
STARR: All employees will be given an emergency escape hood to keep at their desk. Extra hoods will be in cabinets around the building for visitors or people who may be away from their office when an attack comes.
SPEC. PHILIP MCCABE, U.S. ARMY: I'm feeling a lot more confident, you know, with this piece of equipment than if I didn't have anything at all. On 9/11 when we were attacked all we could do was just run out of the building.
STARR: Instructors show how to put it on. A snorkel mouthpiece draws in the filtered air. The hood is pulled over the face. A clip shuts off inadvertent breathing through the nose, providing critical protection much like on the battlefield.
JAMES NOE, TRAINING INSTRUCTOR: It's a wide range of chemical and biological agents, anything that the U.S. military mask would protect you again, this will also protect you against.
STARR (on camera): Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, enlisted soldiers, cafeteria workers and even the Pentagon press corps will receive escape hoods, a shield against what would have been unthinkable before this building was attacked on 9/11.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: I wonder if they will be distributed more broadly around the country, as well. We'll try to find that out in the coming days.
Is the U.S. military ready to occupy and rebuild Baghdad after a possible war? We'll take a closer look at what critics insist is a quagmire that lies ahead.
And Robert Blake speaks out. Hear what he has to say in an interview. His lawyers didn't want you to see.
But first let's take a look at other news making headlines around the world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over) Korea diplomacy: Secretary of State Colin Powell was among the guests as South Korea's new president, Roh Moo-hyun, was inaugurated.
Powell used the visit to announce the United States will send more food to fight starvation in North Korea, despite the ongoing dispute over North Korea's nuclear program.
Caracas bombs: Two bombs exploded in Venezuela outside the Spanish embassy and the Colombia consulate. Several people were hurt including a 4-year-old girl.
The explosions came two days after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accused Spain, Colombia and the United States of meddling in Venezuela's affairs. Rattling reminders: Aftershocks continue to hit western China one day after an earthquake killed at least 265 people and injured thousands more. Tens of thousands are homeless.
Sand and snow: A rare snowstorm hit the Middle East, leaving more than a foot of accumulation in Jerusalem. Roads, schools and businesses were closed.
In a lighter counterpoint to the region's frequent violence, some Israelis and Palestinians were seen having a snowball fight.
Jackson action: entertainer Michael Jackson has started legal proceedings against Britain's Grenada Television. Jackson is seeking ownership of unaired footage from Grenada's recent documentary, "Living with Michael Jackson."
He says the documentary's producers betrayed him.
Masks and merriment: it's carnival time in Venice. The pre- Lenten festival features parades, costumes and masked balls.
And that's our look around the world.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Welcome back to CNN. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Coming up, nation building in Iraq. Is the United States prepared for the human fallout of a potential war?
(NEWSBREAK)
BLITZER: As they plan for the possibility of war, officials at the Pentagon are looking ahead to humanitarian needs in Iraq if war does, in fact, break out. One key official says beyond a shadow of a doubt, a civilian will be in charge of day-to-day reconstruction in Iraq. For more on that, let's turn now to our CNN military analyst, General Wesley Clark.
I remember, as you well do, the six-day war in 1967 between the Israelis and the Arabs. It lasted only six days, a brilliant military victory. Years later, decades later, they're still fighting that. Is the U.S. facing that kind of prospect, two-week war you once predicted on this program, but decades in Iraq afterwards?
RET. GEN. WELSEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think a lot of it depends in part of how we go in and then, what are our actions when we first arrive. We don't have any desire for territory in Iraq. We don't want to stay there. We've got to persuade the people in the region that that's the case and that means we've got to quickly transition from military actions to civilian reconstruction. We've got to bring international efforts in and then we got to get troops out, but we've got to leave behind a stable government.
BLITZER: Well, how do you do that? You have experience from your Balkan experience, and in Kosovo -- war rebuilding Kosovo, for example. Iraq is a much larger area, a much more complicated political environment.
CLARK: It is and the first rule of thumb is it's going to take three times longer than anybody's sort of worst estimate. It's very hard.
Now, one thing about Iraq that wasn't true in Kosovo or in Bosnia, there's a lot of money in Iraq and it belongs to Saddam Hussein. So one of the first things that has to be done is not only provide humanitarian assistance for the people that need food, but to seize control with international elements of the Iraqi treasury so that the money that's come in can be used for the Iraqi people and so that money doesn't go out to pay for illicit weapons and other things...
BLITZER: And the Iraqis have a lot of oil, though, that will generate billions in revenue. The -- is the U.S. military prepared for the kind of reconstruction efforts, the occupation, if you will, of a huge country, what 25 million people in this territory with Kurds in the north, Shi'as in the south, Sunnis in the middle and a lot of political bickering?
CLARK: Well, the answer is yes and no. I meant the troops are the finest troops you can find anywhere, but the specific conditions, they remain to be determined on the ground. We talked earlier today about the agreement with Turkey that's going to be realized. Of course, we don't know what's in that agreement, actually and neither do the troops and that will have to be worked through and that'll be just the first of many contingencies that have to be dealt with as they arrive during the course of the occupation.
BLITZER: The great fear -- I know you have this and a lot of experts have it -- is that, yes, most of the Iraqis might be happy to lose Saddam Hussein, but there will be plenty of others who see the U.S. as the great Satan, if you will, and there's a fertile ground for al Qaeda and other terrorist elements to recruit them.
CLARK: I think that's exactly right. Two dangers here -- no. 1, the Sunni population itself in Baghdad and Tekrit and the other areas that were loyal to Saddam Hussein will feel threatened by the Kurds in the north and the Shi'a in the south and there will be fighting amongst these elements. And so, they will not look kindly on the United States. And then in the aftermath, we can be sure that the Islamic charities will come in and some number of these Islamic charities -- and we can't predict how many -- are actually recruiting fronts for extremist elements. They provide food. They provide assistance and then they screen the people who come to the mosques or who accept the charities and they forward the names and the people on for training and radicalization elsewhere.
BLITZER: Is there a scenario -- and I've heard this from some military experts -- that it might be more dangerous for those U.S. troops after a war than during a war in this notion. Recalling what happened in Beirut that the U.S. Marines at that barracks when that truck came in at more than 200 Marines in 1983 were killed after the U.S. helped them -- and supposedly that cease-fire between the various factions in Lebanon? CLARK: Right. I think that's true. I think there's sort of two polls of risk. The first is getting started. While we're in Kuwait, while Saddam has his weapons of mass destruction, he'll have an incentive to strike first. We've got to start moving quickly and get out from under that threat and take away his capability to threaten us. And then, once we take Saddam out and we've gotten rid of the Iraqi armed forces, there will be a period when, I think, we're going to be welcomed very warmly by all of the Iraqi people. And we're going to look very fresh and very new. But as we stay there, as we get involved in the issues, as we take sides as we inevitably will, we'll become a target and that's when the risks goes up.
BLITZER: So what you're saying is get the U.S. military out of there as quickly as possible, get an international U.N. presence, if you will, including Muslim nations, Arab nations involved in the reconstruction of Iraq?
CLARK: Absolutely.
BLITZER: Is that doable?
CLARK: Well, it's personal partially doable. But there's no risk-free solution to this. The more we turn over the hard work of reconstruction and maintaining security to others, the less control we have over it and that means that it expands the opportunities for al Qaeda recruiting networks to spring up. And so, we're going to want to maintain a presence.
And we haven't talked about one other thing, Wolf, and that's the weapons of mass destruction. Now, we're probably not going to get those out during the combat. That's post-combat activity. We're going to have teams that rush around that country investigating every lead, looking for a bag of anthrax here, a bomb containing a liquid there and it may take six months. And during that period the military has to remain in charge and that has to take priority.
BLITZER: It's a frightening scenario not just for -- if it's a short war, two weeks as you predicted but the months and years that follow, a frightening scenario for those U.S. troops who may be engaged.
CLARK: A lot of uncertainties.
BLITZER: General Clark, thanks for that information.
We have much more news coming up, including this. Urban combat in Baghdad.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDNET: What you're going to see here live, exclusive access, Wolf, inside Special Forces training. The U.S. Army getting ready to go to Baghdad if indeed the president says they have to go. That's coming up straight ahead.
BLITZER: Thanks, Kyra. We'll look forward to that. We'll get to that and more, but first a look at some other news making headlines around the world. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Earlier we asked -- who was the last U.S. president to have engaged in combat during a war? The answer, George Herbert Walker Bush. He flew 58 combat missions as a Navy fighter pilot during World War II.
The U.S. Army Special Forces will play a key role in the battlefield if the United States goes on war against Iraq. These troops are being put through a tough realistic training exercise right now at the U.S. Army Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Our own Kyra Phillips has been right in the middle of this all day -- is joining us now live.
Kyra tell us what's going on right now.
PHILLIPS: You bet, Wolf. What you're looking at right now is sort of a mock city, let's say, example of that Baghdad. Special Forces are getting ready to roll in hot, clear these buildings. Enemy forces hiding. Innocent civilians will pop out of certain areas. And basically, what's happening in this training is to see how prepared the Special Forces soldiers are.
Lieutenant Colonel Sean Mulholland, he's in charge of the advanced training out here, the urban combat training, also, the military freefall training. Let's start with urban combat and talk with what is so important about this training. First of all, talk about the daytime training that we observed today as we watched some video of what took place.
LT. COL. SEAN MULHOLLAND, U.S. SPECIAL FORCES TRAINING: Well, with the urban combat training, it's important to first let them go through the crawl and walk around the place. And that's why we go through the daytime phase, so they learn from their mistakes during the daytime. And afterwards, the after action review is conducted and they review their mistakes and then they go forward and go through a different scenario. That's why we move the sites. We want them to be familiar with all different scenarios, so basically they're panic proof.
Eventually, the end state is later on you'll see the -- when we go to night phase, when the soldiers and our -- or the operators are using NBGs, night vision goggles, where we would prefer to attack urban centers at night.
PHILLIPS: And we'll get into the night issues as we prepare -- or as you're preparing for us to observe coming up. But the urban combat training, as they clear the buildings, what exactly are they looking for with regard to. I mean obviously, they're focused on a certain target, but how do you prevent civilian casualties? How do you contain a scenario that can get like a Mogadishu, "Blackhawk Down" scenario? How do you prevent that kind of chaos?
MULHOLLAND: Whenever you go into an urban area, as Chief Smith covered earlier, you are concerned with security, external to the buildings outside and internal to the inside of the buildings. You want to do every room by room, clear them and whenever there's a person in the room, you identify what he has or she has in her hands. So that is the threat. So whatever they're holding in their hands is what could kill you or what could not kill you. So that is the threat. If they have nothing that threatens your life in their hands, that's when they're deemed a civilian and safeguarded.
PHILLIPS: Another important asset, military freefall, quickly as we look at video out of Yuma, all your Special Forces soldiers are trained to insert by land and by air.
MULHOLLAND: And also by sea. We -- I also -- we have the scuba school, Charlie Company, down in Key West. So it's either by scuba operations, maritime operations, over the horizon navigation, military freefall and insertion.
PHILLIPS: Why is that so important, freefall?
MULHOLLAND: Freefall and scuba are important because it gives the commanders options. It gives them capabilities that otherwise other conventional units could not give them.
PHILLIPS: Lieutenant Colonel Sean Mulholland, thank you so much.
Wolf, in the next hour -- thank you very much, you're going to see the live training, so stay tuned as they get ready for urban combat training night-side.
BLITZER: Kyra, we've been watching you all day. Thanks for all the good work. Kyra Phillips at Fort Bragg. I've been to the facility and it's a very impressive piece of work. Thanks very much to Kyra Phillips.
On their way to Iraq, Meet some other U.S. troops most likely to be engaged in battlefields conditions actually in Baghdad. It's the 101st Airborne Division. Travel along as they get ready for action. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: If war breaks out with Iraq, soldiers of the Army's 101st Airborne would be among the first troops to go into battle. Veterans of Afghanistan and many other past wars, the so-called Screaming Eagles are due to head out of the Persian Gulf very soon. CNN's Ryan Chilcote, who will travel with them, was on hand for an exercise to prepare these men and women for street-to-street fighting in Baghdad.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the soldiers of today's salute the veterans of the 187th Infantry Regimen, commemorating their 60 years of service, young 187 Infantrymen or the 101st Airborne Division, are touching up on their marksmen for the next fight.
(on camera): The 101st Airborne hasn't had the luxury of preparing for a possible war in Iraq in theater, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been practicing back here at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. (voice-over): The focus now is on urban warfare.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first platoon is going to have their gun teams in the church, suppressing the entire northern sector.
CHILCOTE: For the only unit in the Army to see combat in Afghanistan and be deployed to the Persian Gulf, this is still scary stuff. Casualties can easily reach 50 percent in urban environments. An enemy could be anywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, coming in!
CHILCOTE: Friendlies in between.
SPEC. ROBERT ATKINSON, U.S. ARMY: I mean, you know that right now that the Iraq, even -- all civilians could have weapons. So you could be going up against a force of three million. And to me, it's four against whatever I come into.
CHILCOTE: But the soldiers can find comfort in the numbers of infantrymen that have gone before them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first time, I think, we have ever seen combat was a year.
CHILCOTE: Now, billeted in an Econolodge, the veterans here share the weight of the wars they fought with the young soldiers and the battles they didn't finish.
RALPH DETZEL, U.S. ARMY VETERAN: We didn't get to finish it in Korea. They didn't get to finish in Vietnam. We'd like to see them start finishing a war once in a while instead of quitting at the -- in the middle of it. So, you know, it's good to see them going back and trying to finish it up.
CHILCOTE: The men of 187, the slogan here on the base goes, Have a Rendezvous With Destiny.
Ryan Chilcote, CNN, Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And as the United States gears up for a possible war, hundreds of other American troops face the prospect of attacking fellow Arabs. CNN's Brian Cabell gives us a closer look at one Arab- American in uniform and his fierce loyalty to the U.S. military.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CABELL (voice-over): Gunnery sergeant, Jamal Baadani, is a man with a mission. His parents are Yemeni. He was born in Cairo, Egypt, but he is an American Marine.
GUN. SGT. JAMAL BAADANI, U.S. MARINE CORPS.: I will demonstrate.
CABELL: He was active duty for 10 years, then left in 1992 for the corporate world. But last March in the wake of 9/11 and what he felt was lingering anti-Arab sentiment in the U.S., he returned to active duty.
BAADANI: I wanted to prove and -- that Arab-Americans aren't the ones that did this atrocity. It was foreign nationals that came and attacked our homeland and this is my home.
CABELL: Now, as he trains his platoon, he, along with an estimated 3,500 Arab-Americans in the military, faces the prospect of attacking Iraq, an Arab nation. No problem, he insists. He's a Marine.
(on camera): Baadani says in the Marines he's never felt the sting of discrimination, not even since 9/11. He's never seen any suspicious stares. He's never heard any muttered insults. In the Marines, he says, his ethnic background simply hasn't mattered.
(voice-over): Back home in Dearborn, Michigan, where there's a heavy concentration of Arab-Americans, his family has faced an occasional insult. His uncle, Khalid, for example, says he got the silent treatment from some fellow employees after 9/11.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They didn't want to, you know, work with me.
CABELL: (on camera): Because you were Arab?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CABELL (voice-over): His solution, he hung a photo of his nephew, Gunnery Sergeant Baadani, in full uniform in his office. The silent treatment ended.
Baadani cherishes his time at home, the adoring family, the distinctive food, the good-natured talk, the sweet tea, but even in Dearborn, he remains above all a Marine, taking time to promote the Corps to skeptical Arab-American boys. They question the idea of fighting fellow Arabs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just imagine if you're fighting your own family.
CABELL: They criticize American policy in the Middle East.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's shown itself that America does basically support -- has too much support for the state of Israel.
CABELL: But Baadani reminds them that the United States allowed he and their families to come here to live. And he asks them, what do you like about this country? They respond with freedom, jobs, education. "Exactly," says Baadani.
BAADANI: OK, I'm fighting so you all can have everything that you told me about America, to keep it that way.
CABELL: Jamal Baadani is a man straddling two worlds and he's doing it gracefully, not hiding from his Arab heritage, but reveling in it. But he's a Marine now, ready to fight and die against Arabs if necessary.
BAADANI: I'm not going to be buried in Yemen. I'm not going to be buried in my birthland, which is Cairo, you know. But if something happens to me, you know, the highest honor for me would be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
CABELL: Gunnery Sergeant Baadani awaits his orders to ship out.
From Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, Brian Cabell, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And this footnote, the top commander, the top deputy commander of the Central Command, General Tommy Franks' no. 2 is also an Arab-American.
Time is running out for your turn to weigh in on our "Web Question of The Day." Should the U.S. attack Iraq if it fails to destroy its al-Samoud II missiles by Saturday? Log on to CNN.com/Wolf. That's where you can vote and we'll have the results immediately when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: This just in, police in Wellington, New Zealand, are investigating some threatening letters sent to the U.S., British and Australian embassies. Police say the letter sent to the British embassy contained a trace evidence of cyanide. The other letters were said to contain an innocuous white powder. We'll continue to follow that story.
Let's find out how you're weighing in on our "Web Question of The Day." We've been asking you if the U.S. -- should the U.S. attack Iraq if it fails to destroy its al-Samoud II missiles by Saturday? Forty-three percent of you say yes. Fifty-seven percent of you say no. Remember this, is not a scientific poll.
That's, unfortunately, all of the time we have today. I'll be back tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. "LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE" is coming up right now.
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