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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports
U.S. Senators, Tenet Meet Behind Closed Doors; A Look at Morale on the Front Lines; Digging for Clues in Jimmy Hoffa Disappearance
Aired July 16, 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, CNN ANCHOR: It's happening right now. The director of the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. senators who want answers. They're meeting behind closed doors on Capitol Hill. We're standing by for the fallout of the State of the Union blunder.
And, a major development in a department store molesting case. The cameras gave police a glimpse of the suspect. Now you can learn what has happened, all that, that's coming up on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): He took the fall for a false report, now the CIA chief gets a grilling. I'll speak with two key members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
They're under fire and now they're getting ready for the long haul.
GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: It's very, very important to all of us to make sure that our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines know when they're coming home.
BLITZER: Morale at the front.
And, on the home front...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All he keeps saying is get me home. Get me home.
BLITZER: The ex-Marine and the minor. It began on the Internet. It ends in an arrest.
Twenty-eight years later they're digging for new clues in the disappearance of Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa.
Two stolen cars, a two-hour high speed chase, and two terrified toddlers in the back seat.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: CNN live this hour, WOLF BLITZER REPORTS, live from the nation's capital with correspondents from around the world. WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts now.
BLITZER: It's Wednesday, July 16, 2003. Hello from Washington, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting.
It's a milestone they hope never to reach but with the latest attack today the combat death toll in Iraq has now reached the same number as that of the first Gulf War a dozen years ago.
Troops and their families are also fighting lagging morale as they learn they may not leave Iraq as soon as some of them had thought, while officials back here in Washington are taking heat for the intelligence reports which helped bring U.S. forces into Iraq.
We'll go live to Baghdad, the Pentagon, and Fort Stewart, Georgia, but we begin in the Iraqi capital where U.S. forces were under attack once again today. Our Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson is live in Baghdad. He's joining us now -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the most significant attack today coming at 9:00 a.m. in the morning as a convoy of 20 U.S. trucks were driving west on a highway out of Baghdad, a major highway.
An explosive device went off right beside one of those trucks. One soldier thrown from the truck and killed, three others injured, and we also understand from U.S. officials today that a U.S. transport aircraft, a C-130 flying into Baghdad International Airport was targeted by a surface-to-air missile. That missile missed the aircraft. The aircraft landed safely -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Nic, what about the airport? It used to be called Saddam International, Baghdad International Airport now. It was supposed to be open for commercial traffic I think right around now, wasn't it?
ROBERTSON: Wolf, just about two weeks ago coalition officials were putting out tender to commercial airlines, the tender for flying into Baghdad International Airport.
Paul Bremer, the top U.S. administrator here just a couple of days ago when asked when will the airport open said that -- he indicated that it was more likely that the airports in Basra in the south and Mosul to the north would be opened sooner than Baghdad International Airport.
And, we have just learned from U.S. officials that there are currently no plans to open Baghdad International Airport, that attack on the C-130 today just one of three surface-to-air missile attacks on aircraft flying into Baghdad International Airport in the last couple of weeks, also a number of automatic weapons fire rounds fired at aircraft flying into the airport. It is now deemed too unsafe for commercial aircraft to fly into Baghdad International Airport -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, we'll have to wait for that. Nic Robertson in Baghdad, thanks Nic very much.
Here in Washington, the new chief of the U.S. military Central Command today told the troops and all of us indeed just what they're up against in Iraq. He told them they'll be there at least for some time to come.
Let's go to our Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre -- Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, this was underscored by another grim scene in Baghdad today, U.S. troops covering the body of one of their comrades by the side of the road, a dead U.S. soldier on a day when that C-130 plane was fired at by a surface-to-air missile and in western Iraq, a pro-American mayor was gunned down along with one of his sons. The Pentagon is no longer splitting hairs about whether it's in a guerrilla war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABIZAID: I would describe it as a classical guerrilla-type campaign against us. It's low intensity conflict in our doctrinal terms but it's war however you describe it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE: The U.S. is digging in for the long haul, working out a rotation plan to maintain a force of about 160,000 U.S. and coalition troops and considering one year tours of duty for American forces.
As for the war weary 3rd Infantry Division it now has a new promise that it will be on its way home by September, a year after it first deployed. And, while the top commander expressed some displeasure today with some of the griping by the soldiers, especially remarks and complaints about their civilian bosses, which is against the Army's code, not much will really happen to them.
General Abizaid conceded that they're doing dirty, dangerous work and admits that the U.S. owes all the troops in Iraq a better idea of when they're coming home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABIZAID: I know this personally. My son was stationed in Korea. He was told he was coming home in 12 months. Two days before he got on the plane he was told he was going to stay another three months. My wife immediately cried.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE: Now, General Abizaid said that there are some al Qaeda elements and Islamic terrorists involved in the attacks against U.S. forces but he said the main enemy remains mid-level Ba'athist supporters of Saddam Hussein -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre with that, Jamie thanks very much.
And some of the U.S. troops we talked to say morale indeed is low. At the same time, their commanders are trying to keep them focused. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SGT. ERIC WRIGHT, U.S. ARMY: Some of them hope that they will get wounded so that they can go home (unintelligible), shoot me. I want to go home.
MAJ. GEN. BUFORD BLOUNT, 3RD INFANTRY COMMANDER: We're trying to get them out of here, redeploy, but they got to stay focused on the mission.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Some family members of the soldiers in the 3rd Infantry Division are sharply critical of the slow return of their loved ones from Iraq.
CNN's Jennifer Coggiola is in Hinesville, Georgia. That's the site of the division's home base at Fort Stewart. Jennifer, what are you hearing, what are you seeing?
JENNIFER COGGIOLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Definitely critical is a good word for it, Wolf, also disappointment as you can see from the sign behind me here. The families of the 3rd Infantry here in Hinesville are ready for their men to come home.
I'm actually standing in an empty parking lot of a Wal-Mart where a lot of the wives have been meeting daily to give each other support and talk about their frustration and we met with them yesterday, a few of them, who said that although they knew what they were getting into when their husbands went over to Iraq they still are disappointed by the news that they've been getting this week.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was obviously mistaken, is this something to say whenever my husband is deployed in the future that I can't believe what the Army tells me? It's a major, major trust issue now. If they hadn't given a date and they hadn't released it then if he was deployed until January then I would have been able to handle it better because I wouldn't have been expressing those hopes to my kids saying that, oh goody, your dad is coming home, you know, by September 1st.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't believe anything anyone tells me anymore until he's on Fort Stewart I'm not going to believe it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think if there was a plane that they could get on they'd get on it and tell the Army find me, you know. Who cares anymore? Guys are wanting to be discharged, wanting dishonorable discharge if that's what it takes. They would rather ruin their career than lose their lives.
COGGIOLA: Is he going to reenlist?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, no, no, no. He's getting out the day he gets to Fort Stewart.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COGGIOLA: Now, Wolf, I think it's important to add here that these women emphasize that they were supportive of their husbands going over to Iraq to fight this war but when President Bush this spring declared it over they wanted them home. They were told they'd be home in July and then August and then with this delay understandably there's a lot of feelings of false hope here -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Jennifer Coggiola at Fort Stewart, Georgia, in Hinesville, Georgia, thanks Jennifer very much.
On the eve of his meeting with President Bush here in Washington, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair ridiculed parliament members who don't buy the uranium charges.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: It's not as if this link between Niger and Iraq was some invention of the CIA or Britain. We know in the 1980s that Iraq purchased from Niger over 270 tons of uranium and, therefore, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility. Let's at least put it like this that they went back to Niger again and that is why I stand by entirely the statement that was made in the September dossier.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: One of Tony Blair's harshest critics, the Conservative Party member Ian Duncan Smith today accused the prime minister of creating a culture of deceit over the intelligence controversy.
The man taking the heat for President Bush's now discredited claim that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa got a grilling today and continues to get a grilling right now. The CIA Director George Tenet has been testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee behind closed doors.
Joining me now live from Capitol Hill are two Senators, two members of that committee, Democrat Evan Bayh of Indiana, Republican Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. They both serve on that committee. Thanks, Senators, very much.
I take it, Senator Chambliss, the hearing is still going on?
SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R-GA), INTELLIGENCE CMTE.: Right, it's still going on, Wolf.
BLITZER: And what's happening inside? Obviously, we don't want you to violate national security but give our viewers, Senator Chambliss, a little flavor of what's happening.
CHAMBLISS: Well, George Tenet is a very professional intelligence officer. He's been the director of the CIA now for going on six years and he's a veteran testifying on Capitol Hill and he, once again, is doing a very professional job of that. He doesn't back off from tough questions and he's feeling every question that's submitted to him in the professional manner that you would expect the director of the CIA to do.
BLITZER: Senator Chambliss, have you heard something today that simply knocked your socks off?
CHAMBLISS: No.
BLITZER: Nothing, so basically is it fair to say that you've been disappointed? Senator Bayh, let me ask you have you heard something that's really surprised you?
SEN. EVAN BAYH (D-IN), INTELLIGENCE CMTE.: Wolf, my socks are still on but the hearing is still ongoing and so we're not going to know until we get to the end of this process exactly what happened and why so that most importantly we can guarantee to the American people and to world opinion that this kind of thing doesn't happen again.
BLITZER: Senator Bayh, is it your sense that at least the Democrats who have been most critical of the president over this entire flap are laying out their anger, if you will, their disappointment at George Tenet?
BAYH: Well, not so far in the hearing. It's been a professional hearing. He basically said, look, mistakes were made and I take responsibility for those mistakes.
This is an important issue, Wolf, for the credibility of our country, the credibility of our president. Even if the statement appeared there inadvertently, which I assume that it did, is damaged by this kind of thing.
So, most importantly, we need to get to the bottom of how did this happen to ensure that it doesn't happen again and, in so doing, restore our credibility.
BLITZER: Senator Chambliss, what exactly was the mistake that was made involving the entire uranium flap?
CHAMBLISS: I think the mistake that was made is whether or not the statement should have gone into the president's speech and I think Director Tenet has said publicly, he's reiterated again today, that it should not have been there. He takes the responsibility for it.
But you know the real problem that's highlighted here is the credibility of the intelligence community and the fact that we don't have in place the human assets that we need to gather our own intelligence. We're having to rely on liaison intelligence gathering officers and that's not the best way to gather intelligence.
We need to get it from our people. Intelligence statements are made based on judgment of the information that's been gathered. If our people gather it, it certainly has much more credibility than somebody who is not a direct employee of the CIA and that is a real problem and that's been highlighted once again in this process.
BLITZER: Have you had some second thoughts, Senator Chambliss, about the entire weapons of mass destruction, the stockpiles that we were repeatedly told existed about to be deployed going into the war?
CHAMBLISS: I don't -- I think without question the weapons of mass destruction were there, probably still are there buried, hidden, concealed somewhere within Iraq. Some of them may have been moved but there's no question that weapons of mass destruction were there, probably still are there.
BLITZER: Senator Bayh, you were a supporter of the president. You believed in this war. You voted in favor of the authorizing resolution in October. Any second thoughts based on what you know now?
BAYH: Wolf, I think it's a good thing the people of Iraq have been liberated from a brutal homicidal tyrant. They've discovered mass graves with up to 300,000 bodies of innocent Iraqis who were disposed of by Saddam Hussein.
So, I don't think we need to apologize for removing a tyrant like that and I do agree with Senator Chambliss. I still think that the case for chemical and biological weapons is strong and I assume that we'll eventually discover either those weapons or the capacity to produce them. It's just a question of time.
BLITZER: But as you know, Senator Bayh, there's a spillover, a potentially negative spillover going into a potential crisis with North Korea right now, a very, very dangerous situation, intelligence estimates being made public, if you will. How much of a credibility gap could there be going into a North Korea confrontation?
BAYH: Wolf, you've asked the most important question and this is why it's important we get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible to reassure the rest of the world that when we go to them and say, look, we need to do something about North Korea we don't get a response, well, why should we believe you? That's why this is important. Credibility is a precious national security asset. We squander it at our peril.
BLITZER: What about that? Let me let Senator Chambliss weigh in as well. North Korea, how close Senator Chambliss in your opinion is the United States, God forbid, to military action, a preemptive strike if you will against North Korea for developing nuclear bombs?
CHAMBLISS: I don't see that in our plans whatsoever at this point. I think Evan and I would agree that the nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can not take place. We're pursuing diplomatic means to make sure that doesn't happen.
But, Evan is also right that the credibility of the intelligence community is at stake here and we need to get to the bottom of this. We're doing it today as we take one step further to finding out exactly what happened, how it happened, so we can move on and make sure that there is no credibility gap there.
BLITZER: Senator Saxby Chambliss, thanks for coming out of that hearing for us, and Senator Evan Bayh thanks to you as well. I assume both of you are going back inside? CHAMBLISS: That's right.
BAYH: We're heading back.
BLITZER: All right, thanks very much to both of you. Good luck.
BAYH: Thank you, Wolf.
CHAMBLISS: Thank you.
BLITZER: We're going to go to some live pictures we're getting in right now from Santa Monica, California. I want our viewers to take a look at what's going on. It looks like a horrible car accident. There are people, we're being told, seriously injured obviously, maybe some dead as well. A car apparently struck several people in Santa Monica, a very heavily congested area.
We don't know exactly what happened but we're going to watch what's happening and we're going to get some specific information. It looks like it was what is being described as a vegetable and fruit market in Santa Monica. A car simply slammed into a whole bunch of people out there and it looks like it's pretty, pretty bad, pretty grim, the aftermath.
But we don't have specific details. We don't have specific information. We'll continue to update you on that. We'll go back there as soon as we get some more information. Our reporters and our producers and crews are on the scene for this developing story out in Santa Monica in California.
Getting back to our top story, Iraq. Our web question of the day is this. "Do you have confidence in the way President Bush is handling the situation in Iraq?" We'll have the results later in this broadcast.
You can vote, though, at cnn.com/wolf, and while you're there I'd love to hear directly 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 where you can read my daily online column, cnn.com/wolf.
Jimmy Hoffa mystery, police are digging for clues in the case, literally digging for clues. Is there a break after 28 long years?
Plus, store assault suspect arrested, is he responsible for the attacks in other states?
And, family carjacking, police go after a stolen SUV with two toddlers inside, find out how this high speed chase ended.
First, today's news quiz.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER (voice-over): Which president commuted Jimmy Hoffa's prison sentence for jury tampering and fraud, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, the answer coming up? (END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: As we just reported, it's happening now on the West Coast. Look at this. Ambulances are on the scene in Santa Monica, California where dozens of pedestrians apparently have been struck by a car. Reports indeed say up to 40 people were hit by the car and there is at least one fatality. The area is said to be at a farmer's market in Santa Monica.
We're showing you these live pictures courtesy of our affiliate KCBS in Los Angeles. We'll have more details as they become available. But, once again, as we show you the pictures what we're getting is that a speeding car, this according to the Associated Press, careened blocks, blocks through a crowded farmer's market in Santa Monica and at least one person was killed. Many others have been injured.
An incident commander reports some 40 people, indeed 40 people have been injured. Ten of them have been critically injured according to the Associated Press.
We're also being told now that the driver of this car that careened blocks through a crowded farmer's market apparently has fled from the scene. We're getting all of this information piece meal but we're watching this horrendous, horrendous scene in Santa Monica, California, a horrendous scene, at least one person confirmed dead.
You can see these pictures courtesy of our affiliates KCAL/KCBS our affiliates in Los Angeles. We'll continue to watch this horrible story and get some more information as it becomes available.
Another horrible story we've been following involves a sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl. A suspect now in that assault in a Target store in West Virginia is under arrest. The capture ended a manhunt that focused on a grainy surveillance videotape of the attack.
CNN's Mike Brooks is joining us. He's been following this horrible story and he's joining us now live. Tell us exactly, Mike, what you know right now.
MIKE BROOKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now what we know, Wolf, is that a white male by the name of Allen D. Coates of Irving, Kentucky is under arrest in Kentucky. He's being held there on charges of kidnapping and first degree sexual assault in this case at the Target store in South Charleston, West Virginia.
Now, police have also said that they also have linked the Wal- Mart assault of a nine-year-old girl on Friday also to this man. I spoke with Ashland Kentucky Police a short time ago. They said they plan on filing charges against him in that particular case sometime this evening.
Now, he will be held in Kentucky pending extradition back to West Virginia. The NASA images that were enhanced by their laboratory near Virginia Beach apparently also helped a great deal in this.
But they also said, Wolf, that the tip came from a person in Kentucky and had it not been for the news media coverage of this showing these videotapes that they most likely would not have made the identification. That's how she saw it. She saw the man on TV, called the police late last night and they jumped on that particular tip, went out, identified him, and arrested him in Louisville, Kentucky -- Wolf.
BLITZER: What do we know about this suspect? Does he have a criminal record as far as the checking you've been doing, Mike?
BROOKS: We've attempted to find that out, Wolf, and they said that right now they do not know if he does have a criminal record or not. I did check the sexual assault, the sex offenders Web site for the state of West Virginia and also the state of Kentucky.
They have a registry of all previous sex offenders, convicted sex offenders, and I did not find him on those two states' Web sites. So, hopefully we'll find out a little bit more about him as this case goes on as we see that he is now linked to two cases.
They're also looking at him for the case in a small town in Texas but that has yet to be determined if he's involved in that -- Wolf.
BLITZER: That presumably would be the third case, is that what you're saying?
BROOKS: That's what I'm saying exactly.
BLITZER: All right, Mike Brooks covering the story for us, thanks Mike. We'll be checking back with you.
Meanwhile, an international manhunt is now over. An American ex- Marine is under arrest and the young girl he allegedly ran away with is back home.
CNN's John (sic) Boulden is near Manchester, England with the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Relief for the parents of 12-year-old British schoolgirl Shevaun Pennington after being reunited with her daughter Wednesday at a Manchester Police Station.
JOANNA PENNINGTON, MOTHER: They phoned us up early in the morning and told us she was coming back and really from there we just made arrangements to get her back. That was it. Fantastic, yes, really.
BOULDEN: Shevaun had not been seen since she left home Saturday morning when she told her parents she was going to meet friends. Instead, police say she took her passport and some clothes to Manchester Airport where she met 31-year-old Toby Studabaker, a former U.S. Marine.
After a massive four day manhunt, Manchester Police confirmed that Shevaun had flown home on her own and that Studabaker had been arrested in Frankfurt, Germany following a joint operation between British Police, the FBI, and German Police.
SUPT. PETER MASON, GREATER MANCHESTER POLICE: He was arrested for abduction under the power of an international arrest warrant sworn out within the Greater Manchester Police area.
BOULDEN: Studabaker's family in the United States says he believed the girl he met over the Internet a year ago was a 19-year- old college student. They say he told them he had a signed letter from the girl clearing him of any wrongdoing.
After searching both her computers, police investigators believe Toby Studabaker knew all along she was a 12-year-old. But, for the moment, the Pennington family has been whisked off by police for their first night together in five days.
(on camera): German authorities now have to decide what's next for Studabaker. Police here want him extradited immediately to Manchester to answer accusations of abduction.
Jim Boulden, CNN, Leigh, England.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And, my apologies to Jim. Of course I meant Jim, not John.
Let's go back to Santa Monica, California. This is the scene. This is what we know. A car slammed through several blocks in the so- called farmer's market in Santa Monica. At least one person, a pedestrian, has been killed but dozens of others have been injured, some of them critically injured.
We're told that the car plowed through several blocks and went into this crowded market. We're also told apparently that the driver has fled the scene. We're double checking on that to make sure that is accurate. At least 25 people are said to have been injured but perhaps that number will go up. One person now confirmed dead.
We're going to continue to watch this horrible story, this ramming of this car through a crowded farmer's market in Santa Monica and get some more people, get some more information for you as we get some more information ourselves.
We have other news coming up, including this. Digging for clues, literally, in a huge Michigan mystery. Find out what evidence police are looking for right now in the Jimmy Hoffa case.
And, trail of victims, the unearthing of mass graves in Iraq.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): Earlier we asked "Which president commuted Jimmy Hoffa's prison sentence for jury tampering and fraud?" The answer: Richard Nixon. Hoffa was let go in 1971, then vanished just four years later.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Yet another strange twist in the disappearance of former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. Police in Michigan dug under a swimming pool in a residential neighborhood, not far from Detroit, in search of evidence in the case. According to the Associated Press, they came up dry after a six-hour search.
Bill Gallagher of our affiliate WJBK is covering these developments.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL GALLAGHER, WJBK CORRESPONDENT: A tip from a convicted murder led police to begin digging here, looking for evidence that may be linked to the disappearance and murder of Jimmy Hoffa. A contractor dug under a swimming pool in the backyard of this home in Bay County, Michigan. The Oakland County prosecutor got a search warrant following a tip.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The informant sent me a letter indicating he had information related to the disappearance of Mr. Hoffa. We contacted the FBI about the information. They decided not to pursue it as far as we have come to these lengths today. And going back to the earlier question, this is an individual whom we had information was involved in the mob, convicted of murder, may have been a hit man for the mob.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): Convicted murderer Richard Powell once lived here. He told police he buried evidence linked to the Hoffa case in the backyard. Based on the warrant, the police were looking for a syringe with fingerprints and DNA, a deck of cards, $200 cash, and film containing handwritten notes from people who may have been involved in Hoffa's murder. Nothing was found, but police say they were doing their job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Believe me, there isn't anybody more than the family or the investigators here who were more hopeful in trying to find something here. We had thought that the information was pretty good and that's the reason we went to all this effort. We're frankly disappointed that we didn't find something.
GALLAGHER (on camera): Veteran investigators involved in the Hoffa case say there are some fundamental problems. Those with knowledge or involvement in his disappearance are either dead or not talking.
In Bay County, Michigan, Bill Gallagher, Fox 2 News.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: Jimmy Hoffa was one of the most influential and powerful people in the American labor movement. He was also well known to have had some ties to organized crime. Hoffa organized for the Teamsters during the Depression and became president of the Teamsters in the late 1950s. He retained the post, even after he went to jail for jury tampering and fraud in the 1960s. President Nixon commuted Hoffa's sentence in 1971. Four years later, he disappeared from suburban Detroit, allegedly on his way to meet a mob boss. The FBI declared him dead in 1983, although his body was never found.
There was a new lead in 2001, when a strand of hair found in the back seat of a car matched a hair from Hoffa's brush. A long-time friend had been driving the car that day, but said Hoffa had not been in it. No one has ever been charged in Jimmy Hoffa's death.
Saddam Hussein's trail of blood, tears and thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of missing people. Mass graves tell of unspeakable crimes. A human rights watch investigation. That's coming up.
Plus, carjacked toddlers. Find out the ending to this high-speed police chase.
And bed covers that are supposed to chase away the bed bugs. But do these expensive remedies really work? The latest medical news. All that -- that's coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: You're looking at live pictures from Santa Monica, California, just in Los Angeles, in the area. The aftermath of a horrible, horrible scene. A car rammed through several city blocks in a farmer's market area, a heavily congested area, killing at least one person and injuring at least 25, maybe 40 others, some of them critically injured. The car speeding through this area simply mowing down individuals in its way.
We are also told by local reporters on the scene that the driver of this car has apparently fled the scene. We don't know if he's been picked up, but we see rescue workers, ambulance workers and others on the scene dealing with the aftermath of this situation in Los Angeles in the Santa Monica area. The farmers market area, if you are familiar with that area, a car simply ripping through several city blocks in the crowded area and causing all this kind of devastation.
We'll continue to watch it for you, go back there once we get some more information. But you can see first responders removing individuals from the scene.
We'll have more on that, but let's take a quick check at some other headlines at this hour.
(NEWSBREAK)
BLITZER: There's a new development regarding that false intelligence report about whether Iraq was shopping for nuclear materials in Africa, a report which managed to get into the president's State of the Union address.
For that, let's turn to our justice correspondent, Kelli Arena -- Kelli.
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the FBI is conducting a preliminary inquiry into the forged documents, alleging that Iraq was looking to buy uranium from Niger. Now FBI officials say that their primary objective is to find out who forged the documents and why, and whether anyone tried to influence U.S. foreign policy. The Bureau is not looking into possible wrongdoing, though, by the Bush administration.
Now Senator Jay Rockefeller told CNN yesterday about the investigation. Further details of the probe are now being reported by "NewsWeek."
Now at this early stage, sources tell CNN that FBI agents from the counterintelligence unit are interviewing officials from both the CIA and the State Department and there are plans to dispatch agents overseas, although no one has left yet. The inquiry starts with the paper trail.
Here's what we know. The documents, which were subsequently obtained by "La Republica" and provided to CNN, were first given to Italian intelligence in late 2001 according to officials. The information from them was passed on to the CIA, but the U.S. didn't gain actual possession of the documents until nearly a year later, in October of 2002, when a journalist turned them over to the U.S. embassy in Rome.
Now, sources say that the embassy passed them on to the CIA station chief in Rome and the State Department. Sources at the State Department say the documents were offered to all relevant U.S. agencies at the time, but government officials say that the documents did not get to CIA headquarters until four months later, in February of 2003, after the president's State of the Union address. And by the time the documents got to the CIA, sources say the information in them had been discredited. Wolf, back to you.
BLITZER: Very interesting. Thanks, Kelli Arena, for that information.
And while questions, of course, continue about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, there is no question that thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed by Saddam Hussein's regime. Humans Rights Watch has been investigating recently uncovered mass graves in Iraq, and Peter Bouckaert of that group is joining us now live from New York to talk about it.
Peter, first of all, give us some perspective. How many people have been discovered? How many bodies in these mass graves?
PETER BOUCKAERT, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Well, Human Rights Watch, together with an American forensic group, Physicians for Human Rights, has been going around Iraq looking at mass graves. We've discovered some 20 mass graves during our search. Some of those mass graves are really very large. They may contain up to 10,000 people. But that's only a small percentage of the mass graves that we believe exist in Iraq. According to U.S. intelligence sources, as many as 90 graves have been identified so far, and we believe that up to 300,000 people may be buried in mass graves around Iraq.
BLITZER: Three hundred thousand people. That goes back, clearly, not just over a year or two, but that goes back over several years. Were most of these people, based on what you know, Iraqis, or were they Iranians during the war with Iran in the 1980s?
BOUCKAERT: Almost all of the mass graves that we've found contained the bodies of Iraqis, Kurds from the north and Shias from the south. But we have also received information of graves containing the remains of Iranian prisoners of war, as well as Kuwaitis who were detained during the first Gulf War and later killed.
BLITZER: Is the U.S. military, the government, Jerry Bremer, Paul Bremer, the officials on the scene, are they doing enough to deal with this issue? Obviously they've got a lot of other matters on their hands right now as well.
BOUCKAERT: Well, we see little action by the coalition on the ground to help assist the Iraqi people with this tremendous job. What we find at most of these mass grave sites is that untrained Iraqis, many relatives from the victims themselves, are trying to exhume these graves in a very unprofessional way. What happens time and time again is that crucial evidence of crimes against humanity is being destroyed, and at the end of the day, the families end up with a huge pile of bones that they simply can't identify, and that's a great tragedy. If there was professional forensic assistance, as happened in Kosovo, many, many more people would be identified from these mass graves.
BLITZER: Does the U.S. government, together with the United Nations and other coalition partners in Europe, the Middle East, elsewhere, do they have the wherewithal to do what Human Rights Watch would like them to do?
BOUCKAERT: Well, we certainly feel that the international community has the capacity to assist with the exhumation of these mass graves. The U.S. government was able to send a forensic team to Saudi Arabia within 24 hours after the latest bombing there, and they have done this kind of job in Kosovo before.
One of the problems that we are facing is that the U.S. has not said what it's going to do with the criminals in Iraq, with the people who committed these horrendous crimes, and European countries who have tremendous forensic capacity are not willing to commit to participating in the gathering of evidence until they know what kind of trial guarantees are going to be put in place when these people are put on trial.
BLITZER: Peter Bouckaert, this is shocking, shocking information, but I think it's important that all of our viewers know about it. Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of bodies found in these mass graves. Thanks to you for helping us. BOUCKAERT: Thank you for having me on.
BLITZER: We have much more news coming up, including this -- shot down over Iraq. A harrowing tale of flight, fear and survival. We'll bring you that.
And this -- toddlers carjack. Police chase down a stolen SUV, and the kids are in the back seat. You'll want to see this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: You are looking at live pictures from Santa Monica, California. A helicopter evacuating those injured, injured in a horrible, horrible scene. A car had plowed through several city blocks through what's described as a crowded farmer's market in Santa Monica, killing at least one person, injuring dozens of others. Firefighters, ambulance workers, others are on the scene. They are dealing with the injured in this huge area.
We're told anywhere from 25, perhaps as many as 40 people have been injured, some critically injured. They are being removed. They are being taken to local hospitals. Witnesses say the driver simply speeding through the area, slamming into people as he was plowing along. Some local reports suggest the driver then fled from the scene. We'll continue to watch this for you, bring you some more information, as we get it.
But let's move on now to another extraordinary story. This one of a Michigan Air and National Guard pilot who was shot down over Baghdad. He told his story to CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There was bad weather over Baghdad on April 8, when Major James Wald flew in low in his A-10, providing air cover for the 3rd Infantry Division below. He knew instantly he had been hit by an Iraqi surface-to-air missile.
MAJ. JAMES WALD, MICHIGAN AIR AND NATIONAL GUARD: It kind of felt like the hand of God just took and moved the airplane. And I could see a bright flash off the instrument panel from the fireball behind, and at that point, you know, I just thought to myself, I got hit. And then the next thought was, I'm not hurt.
STARR: Wald ejected and came down in a farmer's field, immediately on the run and hiding in a ditch.
WALD: I started to hear a lot of gunfire, and I had -- what it really was is the 30 mm rounds in the A-10, which were just starting to ignite and explode.
STARR: But then, more trouble? Vehicles were approaching.
WALD: I was well hidden. I had pulled out my 9 mm. But I was -- my real plan was to run. Then I could hear one voice in English and then -- which made me feel good, but English is an international language, so I was fearful it could just be somebody who could speak English. And then I heard someone yell out, "hey, pilot there, come on out, we're Americans," and he said that, you know, in a very American accent and in the vernacular. So I holstered my weapon back in there, and I gave myself up to my friends.
STARR: It was U.S. soldiers that had seen Wald bail out and came to his rescue. Minutes after fearing he would become a prisoner of war, Wald was in the back of an Army truck riding around in Iraq still with his sense of humor and grateful to his rescuers.
WALD: I gave them my raft. They are using it as a bathtub right now in the desert. I let them keep that, so they were grateful, too.
STARR: Wald was finally returned to a military hospital, and two days later flew again over Iraq.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Now let's go back out to Santa Monica. This horrible, horrible scene that we've been showing you for the past 45 minutes or so. A car slamming through a crowded pedestrian farmers market in Santa Monica. Joe Chrisman is on the scene. He was an eyewitness. Joe, tell us what you saw and what you heard.
JOE CHRISMAN, EYEWITNESS: Well, I was sitting inside my building, and I heard a bunch of screaming from outside. And I saw a car barreling down the street, which is where they have the farmers market every Wednesday. And upon seeing that, I ran outside, and saw a flurry and bodies sort of all over the street and people had been barreled down and there was a man on top of the car and the driver was pulled out of the vehicle, and he was, you know, a 80-year-old man or older. He looked very, very confused. There was someone underneath his car, and one of the people who were -- had pulled the driver out of the car coordinated a group of 10 of us to lift up the vehicle and move it off this woman.
And after we did that and found that she was there and breathing and her eyes wide open, you know, you just thank your lucky stars that that's the case. And after that, I took a run down the street, making sure that the people from my work, who our building is right at the corner of Ocean and Arizona, where the car ended its tear through the farmers market area.
Once -- once I got out of there, I ran down the street and saw the other bodies and tried to just help out where I could, and you know, all of the bystanders were sort of there. And, you know, the sense of community, strong people helping. But, you know, so much carnage, and --
BLITZER: Joe, let me interrupt for a second because you are giving us some important information. What looked like an old man who may have just simply lost control of the car as it slammed through this farmers market? Is that the impression you have?
CHRISMAN: I think he was just mentally out of touch. You know, I don't -- who is to say, really. He seemed very confused when he stepped out of the car. He definitely should not have been behind the wheel. I don't know if he had a health issue, a stroke or something. But he was definitely not quite with it. And he was -- I mean, he was very, very confused, you could tell, when he got out of the car. But the police took him right away. So --
BLITZER: So clearly the initial reports that we have been getting from some local reporters that the driver fled the scene, that apparently, based on what you saw and heard, is not true.
CHRISMAN: That's absolutely not true. The driver was apprehended by a bicycle cop and he was an 80-year-old man. He wasn't going anywhere.
BLITZER: How many blocks -- how many blocks did the car seem to be speeding through just knocking people down?
CHRISMAN: I mean, a good, 3 -- 2 1/2, 3 blocks. And, you know, up and down the street it was just a complete mess and it's a 75- degree day out here and so many tourists are out. I mean, it couldn't have been a worse nightmare.
BLITZER: How long did it take, based on what you saw, since you saw this car speeding for the emergency personnel, the ambulance workers, the others, the firefighters, to get to the scene?
CHRISMAN: It was, you know, relatively quick, and once they were there, they had things sectioned off and they had targeted the people who needed help the most. And, you know, as I was running around and really trying -- there were so many people that work in my building who I know and they were there helping others, and I was trying to make sure that I could, you know, see what was going on. It was like two seconds and there were people there, ambulances and firemen were there first and they were sectioning things off and getting things coordinated and, I mean, what an outstanding, you know, rally on their part and coordination. It was very -- they were really on top of everything.
BLITZER: It does underscore just how dangerous a vehicle, a car can be when it's out of control. Presumably, at least the impression we are getting is this driver may simply have lost control for whatever reason, and going through a crowded area like this farmers market in Santa Monica. For our viewers who aren't familiar with Santa Monica or the farmers market, tell us a little bit about it, Joe.
CHRISMAN: Well, Santa Monica is a little beach community and the promenade area is a section where a street is sectioned off and there are shops on both sides of the street and it's sort of, you know, just your, sort of, contemporary open-air mall. And, you know, on a day like today, where, you know, it's 75 out and sunny, you have thousands of tourists walking around, as well as your locals who frequent the market for the great produce or whatever. BLITZER: This is an unusually popular area, the Santa Monica area, not just because of the farmers market, but because of where it is and all the people who live and work there?
CHRISMAN: Absolutely. I mean, it's a great place to live and grow up in and grow old.
BLITZER: It looks, if you could judge from the live pictures we're seeing, thanks to our affiliate KABC in Los Angeles, it looks like the emergency personnel are still on the scene and they are doing an incredible amount of work still. What time, approximately, did the incident begin?
CHRISMAN: I apologize. I can't tell you. I completely loss track of time.
BLITZER: Was it an hour ago or so approximately?
CHRISMAN: Probably about that much.
BLITZER: And the Los Angeles County and local personnel have gotten to the scene. They are working feverishly, obviously, to deal with injured, with wounded, those dozens who have been injured in this incident.
And for our viewers who are just tuning in, a car simply ran through the crowded area. Several city blocks, so-called farmers market in Santa Monica, California. At least one fatality, at least one person has been killed, but dozens of others have been injured, and they are dealing with this issue right now. Based on what we're hearing from Joe Chrisman, he's on the phone with us. He was an eyewitness. It looked like an elderly man was at the wheel. May have lost control for whatever reason. But he was removed from the car in a daze, if you will.
I think I'm accurately reporting what you've been telling us, Joe, and taken into custody by law enforcement, local law enforcement. Is that right, Joe?
CHRISMAN: That's absolutely correct.
BLITZER: And we don't know the name of the individual. We don't know what happened. Whether the individual suffered some sort of illness, a stroke or whatever, but he looked as if he was in pretty bad shape, right, Joe?
CHRISMAN: Correct. I mean he didn't appear to really know, you know, where he was and what was going on. So --
BLITZER: Joe, where are you right now?
CHRISMAN: I am at, sort of, right where the car stopped. I'm inside of the building directly adjacent to the street in front of sort of where the car was stopped.
BLITZER: And you obviously checked to see if you knew anyone, any of your friends from work or anyone you knew...
CHRISMAN: Yes, I mean, we made a...
BLITZER: ...was involved.
CHRISMAN: Well, I ran up the street and was looking at, unfortunately I had to see all of these people who went down, because I wanted to see if there was anyone that I could help or be was from my firm, or people that I knew. Actually, the reason I took off running was because my sister just got a job up the street and I was worried she had come to the market. So I was sprinting through looking for her. And that's when I kind of had to see everything.
BLITZER: The Associated Press is now reporting, Joe, and I'll read it to you, and I'll read it to all of our viewers, that the driver of the car was apparently a man in his 70s and, according to the AP, it looked like he might be having a heart attack.
One eyewitness said this, and I'll quote the eyewitness, "His arm was straight on the wheel and his body was stiff. You just have to pray because I saw this little girl get CPR and I saw this older woman, who I think was dead". We're getting some more information now, that it looks like -- let me just make sure I get this right. How many more additional fatalities? Six fatalities now. That number increasing. The Associated Press reporting six dead in this horrendous, horrendous incident in Santa Monica, California. Dozens of people injured. Apparently, an elderly man. And we're reporting now what we've heard from Joe Chrisman and the Associated Press, losing control as the car went through this farmer's market.
Thanks Joe, we'll have much more of this throughout the night here on CNN. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" begins right now.
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Morale on the Front Lines; Digging for Clues in Jimmy Hoffa Disappearance>
Aired July 16, 2003 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: It's happening right now. The director of the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. senators who want answers. They're meeting behind closed doors on Capitol Hill. We're standing by for the fallout of the State of the Union blunder.
And, a major development in a department store molesting case. The cameras gave police a glimpse of the suspect. Now you can learn what has happened, all that, that's coming up on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): He took the fall for a false report, now the CIA chief gets a grilling. I'll speak with two key members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
They're under fire and now they're getting ready for the long haul.
GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: It's very, very important to all of us to make sure that our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines know when they're coming home.
BLITZER: Morale at the front.
And, on the home front...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All he keeps saying is get me home. Get me home.
BLITZER: The ex-Marine and the minor. It began on the Internet. It ends in an arrest.
Twenty-eight years later they're digging for new clues in the disappearance of Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa.
Two stolen cars, a two-hour high speed chase, and two terrified toddlers in the back seat.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: CNN live this hour, WOLF BLITZER REPORTS, live from the nation's capital with correspondents from around the world. WOLF BLITZER REPORTS starts now.
BLITZER: It's Wednesday, July 16, 2003. Hello from Washington, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting.
It's a milestone they hope never to reach but with the latest attack today the combat death toll in Iraq has now reached the same number as that of the first Gulf War a dozen years ago.
Troops and their families are also fighting lagging morale as they learn they may not leave Iraq as soon as some of them had thought, while officials back here in Washington are taking heat for the intelligence reports which helped bring U.S. forces into Iraq.
We'll go live to Baghdad, the Pentagon, and Fort Stewart, Georgia, but we begin in the Iraqi capital where U.S. forces were under attack once again today. Our Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson is live in Baghdad. He's joining us now -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the most significant attack today coming at 9:00 a.m. in the morning as a convoy of 20 U.S. trucks were driving west on a highway out of Baghdad, a major highway.
An explosive device went off right beside one of those trucks. One soldier thrown from the truck and killed, three others injured, and we also understand from U.S. officials today that a U.S. transport aircraft, a C-130 flying into Baghdad International Airport was targeted by a surface-to-air missile. That missile missed the aircraft. The aircraft landed safely -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Nic, what about the airport? It used to be called Saddam International, Baghdad International Airport now. It was supposed to be open for commercial traffic I think right around now, wasn't it?
ROBERTSON: Wolf, just about two weeks ago coalition officials were putting out tender to commercial airlines, the tender for flying into Baghdad International Airport.
Paul Bremer, the top U.S. administrator here just a couple of days ago when asked when will the airport open said that -- he indicated that it was more likely that the airports in Basra in the south and Mosul to the north would be opened sooner than Baghdad International Airport.
And, we have just learned from U.S. officials that there are currently no plans to open Baghdad International Airport, that attack on the C-130 today just one of three surface-to-air missile attacks on aircraft flying into Baghdad International Airport in the last couple of weeks, also a number of automatic weapons fire rounds fired at aircraft flying into the airport. It is now deemed too unsafe for commercial aircraft to fly into Baghdad International Airport -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, we'll have to wait for that. Nic Robertson in Baghdad, thanks Nic very much.
Here in Washington, the new chief of the U.S. military Central Command today told the troops and all of us indeed just what they're up against in Iraq. He told them they'll be there at least for some time to come.
Let's go to our Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre -- Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, this was underscored by another grim scene in Baghdad today, U.S. troops covering the body of one of their comrades by the side of the road, a dead U.S. soldier on a day when that C-130 plane was fired at by a surface-to-air missile and in western Iraq, a pro-American mayor was gunned down along with one of his sons. The Pentagon is no longer splitting hairs about whether it's in a guerrilla war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABIZAID: I would describe it as a classical guerrilla-type campaign against us. It's low intensity conflict in our doctrinal terms but it's war however you describe it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE: The U.S. is digging in for the long haul, working out a rotation plan to maintain a force of about 160,000 U.S. and coalition troops and considering one year tours of duty for American forces.
As for the war weary 3rd Infantry Division it now has a new promise that it will be on its way home by September, a year after it first deployed. And, while the top commander expressed some displeasure today with some of the griping by the soldiers, especially remarks and complaints about their civilian bosses, which is against the Army's code, not much will really happen to them.
General Abizaid conceded that they're doing dirty, dangerous work and admits that the U.S. owes all the troops in Iraq a better idea of when they're coming home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABIZAID: I know this personally. My son was stationed in Korea. He was told he was coming home in 12 months. Two days before he got on the plane he was told he was going to stay another three months. My wife immediately cried.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE: Now, General Abizaid said that there are some al Qaeda elements and Islamic terrorists involved in the attacks against U.S. forces but he said the main enemy remains mid-level Ba'athist supporters of Saddam Hussein -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre with that, Jamie thanks very much.
And some of the U.S. troops we talked to say morale indeed is low. At the same time, their commanders are trying to keep them focused. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SGT. ERIC WRIGHT, U.S. ARMY: Some of them hope that they will get wounded so that they can go home (unintelligible), shoot me. I want to go home.
MAJ. GEN. BUFORD BLOUNT, 3RD INFANTRY COMMANDER: We're trying to get them out of here, redeploy, but they got to stay focused on the mission.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Some family members of the soldiers in the 3rd Infantry Division are sharply critical of the slow return of their loved ones from Iraq.
CNN's Jennifer Coggiola is in Hinesville, Georgia. That's the site of the division's home base at Fort Stewart. Jennifer, what are you hearing, what are you seeing?
JENNIFER COGGIOLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Definitely critical is a good word for it, Wolf, also disappointment as you can see from the sign behind me here. The families of the 3rd Infantry here in Hinesville are ready for their men to come home.
I'm actually standing in an empty parking lot of a Wal-Mart where a lot of the wives have been meeting daily to give each other support and talk about their frustration and we met with them yesterday, a few of them, who said that although they knew what they were getting into when their husbands went over to Iraq they still are disappointed by the news that they've been getting this week.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was obviously mistaken, is this something to say whenever my husband is deployed in the future that I can't believe what the Army tells me? It's a major, major trust issue now. If they hadn't given a date and they hadn't released it then if he was deployed until January then I would have been able to handle it better because I wouldn't have been expressing those hopes to my kids saying that, oh goody, your dad is coming home, you know, by September 1st.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't believe anything anyone tells me anymore until he's on Fort Stewart I'm not going to believe it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think if there was a plane that they could get on they'd get on it and tell the Army find me, you know. Who cares anymore? Guys are wanting to be discharged, wanting dishonorable discharge if that's what it takes. They would rather ruin their career than lose their lives.
COGGIOLA: Is he going to reenlist?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, no, no, no. He's getting out the day he gets to Fort Stewart.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COGGIOLA: Now, Wolf, I think it's important to add here that these women emphasize that they were supportive of their husbands going over to Iraq to fight this war but when President Bush this spring declared it over they wanted them home. They were told they'd be home in July and then August and then with this delay understandably there's a lot of feelings of false hope here -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Jennifer Coggiola at Fort Stewart, Georgia, in Hinesville, Georgia, thanks Jennifer very much.
On the eve of his meeting with President Bush here in Washington, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair ridiculed parliament members who don't buy the uranium charges.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: It's not as if this link between Niger and Iraq was some invention of the CIA or Britain. We know in the 1980s that Iraq purchased from Niger over 270 tons of uranium and, therefore, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility. Let's at least put it like this that they went back to Niger again and that is why I stand by entirely the statement that was made in the September dossier.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: One of Tony Blair's harshest critics, the Conservative Party member Ian Duncan Smith today accused the prime minister of creating a culture of deceit over the intelligence controversy.
The man taking the heat for President Bush's now discredited claim that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa got a grilling today and continues to get a grilling right now. The CIA Director George Tenet has been testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee behind closed doors.
Joining me now live from Capitol Hill are two Senators, two members of that committee, Democrat Evan Bayh of Indiana, Republican Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. They both serve on that committee. Thanks, Senators, very much.
I take it, Senator Chambliss, the hearing is still going on?
SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R-GA), INTELLIGENCE CMTE.: Right, it's still going on, Wolf.
BLITZER: And what's happening inside? Obviously, we don't want you to violate national security but give our viewers, Senator Chambliss, a little flavor of what's happening.
CHAMBLISS: Well, George Tenet is a very professional intelligence officer. He's been the director of the CIA now for going on six years and he's a veteran testifying on Capitol Hill and he, once again, is doing a very professional job of that. He doesn't back off from tough questions and he's feeling every question that's submitted to him in the professional manner that you would expect the director of the CIA to do.
BLITZER: Senator Chambliss, have you heard something today that simply knocked your socks off?
CHAMBLISS: No.
BLITZER: Nothing, so basically is it fair to say that you've been disappointed? Senator Bayh, let me ask you have you heard something that's really surprised you?
SEN. EVAN BAYH (D-IN), INTELLIGENCE CMTE.: Wolf, my socks are still on but the hearing is still ongoing and so we're not going to know until we get to the end of this process exactly what happened and why so that most importantly we can guarantee to the American people and to world opinion that this kind of thing doesn't happen again.
BLITZER: Senator Bayh, is it your sense that at least the Democrats who have been most critical of the president over this entire flap are laying out their anger, if you will, their disappointment at George Tenet?
BAYH: Well, not so far in the hearing. It's been a professional hearing. He basically said, look, mistakes were made and I take responsibility for those mistakes.
This is an important issue, Wolf, for the credibility of our country, the credibility of our president. Even if the statement appeared there inadvertently, which I assume that it did, is damaged by this kind of thing.
So, most importantly, we need to get to the bottom of how did this happen to ensure that it doesn't happen again and, in so doing, restore our credibility.
BLITZER: Senator Chambliss, what exactly was the mistake that was made involving the entire uranium flap?
CHAMBLISS: I think the mistake that was made is whether or not the statement should have gone into the president's speech and I think Director Tenet has said publicly, he's reiterated again today, that it should not have been there. He takes the responsibility for it.
But you know the real problem that's highlighted here is the credibility of the intelligence community and the fact that we don't have in place the human assets that we need to gather our own intelligence. We're having to rely on liaison intelligence gathering officers and that's not the best way to gather intelligence.
We need to get it from our people. Intelligence statements are made based on judgment of the information that's been gathered. If our people gather it, it certainly has much more credibility than somebody who is not a direct employee of the CIA and that is a real problem and that's been highlighted once again in this process.
BLITZER: Have you had some second thoughts, Senator Chambliss, about the entire weapons of mass destruction, the stockpiles that we were repeatedly told existed about to be deployed going into the war?
CHAMBLISS: I don't -- I think without question the weapons of mass destruction were there, probably still are there buried, hidden, concealed somewhere within Iraq. Some of them may have been moved but there's no question that weapons of mass destruction were there, probably still are there.
BLITZER: Senator Bayh, you were a supporter of the president. You believed in this war. You voted in favor of the authorizing resolution in October. Any second thoughts based on what you know now?
BAYH: Wolf, I think it's a good thing the people of Iraq have been liberated from a brutal homicidal tyrant. They've discovered mass graves with up to 300,000 bodies of innocent Iraqis who were disposed of by Saddam Hussein.
So, I don't think we need to apologize for removing a tyrant like that and I do agree with Senator Chambliss. I still think that the case for chemical and biological weapons is strong and I assume that we'll eventually discover either those weapons or the capacity to produce them. It's just a question of time.
BLITZER: But as you know, Senator Bayh, there's a spillover, a potentially negative spillover going into a potential crisis with North Korea right now, a very, very dangerous situation, intelligence estimates being made public, if you will. How much of a credibility gap could there be going into a North Korea confrontation?
BAYH: Wolf, you've asked the most important question and this is why it's important we get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible to reassure the rest of the world that when we go to them and say, look, we need to do something about North Korea we don't get a response, well, why should we believe you? That's why this is important. Credibility is a precious national security asset. We squander it at our peril.
BLITZER: What about that? Let me let Senator Chambliss weigh in as well. North Korea, how close Senator Chambliss in your opinion is the United States, God forbid, to military action, a preemptive strike if you will against North Korea for developing nuclear bombs?
CHAMBLISS: I don't see that in our plans whatsoever at this point. I think Evan and I would agree that the nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can not take place. We're pursuing diplomatic means to make sure that doesn't happen.
But, Evan is also right that the credibility of the intelligence community is at stake here and we need to get to the bottom of this. We're doing it today as we take one step further to finding out exactly what happened, how it happened, so we can move on and make sure that there is no credibility gap there.
BLITZER: Senator Saxby Chambliss, thanks for coming out of that hearing for us, and Senator Evan Bayh thanks to you as well. I assume both of you are going back inside? CHAMBLISS: That's right.
BAYH: We're heading back.
BLITZER: All right, thanks very much to both of you. Good luck.
BAYH: Thank you, Wolf.
CHAMBLISS: Thank you.
BLITZER: We're going to go to some live pictures we're getting in right now from Santa Monica, California. I want our viewers to take a look at what's going on. It looks like a horrible car accident. There are people, we're being told, seriously injured obviously, maybe some dead as well. A car apparently struck several people in Santa Monica, a very heavily congested area.
We don't know exactly what happened but we're going to watch what's happening and we're going to get some specific information. It looks like it was what is being described as a vegetable and fruit market in Santa Monica. A car simply slammed into a whole bunch of people out there and it looks like it's pretty, pretty bad, pretty grim, the aftermath.
But we don't have specific details. We don't have specific information. We'll continue to update you on that. We'll go back there as soon as we get some more information. Our reporters and our producers and crews are on the scene for this developing story out in Santa Monica in California.
Getting back to our top story, Iraq. Our web question of the day is this. "Do you have confidence in the way President Bush is handling the situation in Iraq?" We'll have the results later in this broadcast.
You can vote, though, at cnn.com/wolf, and while you're there I'd love to hear directly 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 where you can read my daily online column, cnn.com/wolf.
Jimmy Hoffa mystery, police are digging for clues in the case, literally digging for clues. Is there a break after 28 long years?
Plus, store assault suspect arrested, is he responsible for the attacks in other states?
And, family carjacking, police go after a stolen SUV with two toddlers inside, find out how this high speed chase ended.
First, today's news quiz.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER (voice-over): Which president commuted Jimmy Hoffa's prison sentence for jury tampering and fraud, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, the answer coming up? (END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: As we just reported, it's happening now on the West Coast. Look at this. Ambulances are on the scene in Santa Monica, California where dozens of pedestrians apparently have been struck by a car. Reports indeed say up to 40 people were hit by the car and there is at least one fatality. The area is said to be at a farmer's market in Santa Monica.
We're showing you these live pictures courtesy of our affiliate KCBS in Los Angeles. We'll have more details as they become available. But, once again, as we show you the pictures what we're getting is that a speeding car, this according to the Associated Press, careened blocks, blocks through a crowded farmer's market in Santa Monica and at least one person was killed. Many others have been injured.
An incident commander reports some 40 people, indeed 40 people have been injured. Ten of them have been critically injured according to the Associated Press.
We're also being told now that the driver of this car that careened blocks through a crowded farmer's market apparently has fled from the scene. We're getting all of this information piece meal but we're watching this horrendous, horrendous scene in Santa Monica, California, a horrendous scene, at least one person confirmed dead.
You can see these pictures courtesy of our affiliates KCAL/KCBS our affiliates in Los Angeles. We'll continue to watch this horrible story and get some more information as it becomes available.
Another horrible story we've been following involves a sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl. A suspect now in that assault in a Target store in West Virginia is under arrest. The capture ended a manhunt that focused on a grainy surveillance videotape of the attack.
CNN's Mike Brooks is joining us. He's been following this horrible story and he's joining us now live. Tell us exactly, Mike, what you know right now.
MIKE BROOKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now what we know, Wolf, is that a white male by the name of Allen D. Coates of Irving, Kentucky is under arrest in Kentucky. He's being held there on charges of kidnapping and first degree sexual assault in this case at the Target store in South Charleston, West Virginia.
Now, police have also said that they also have linked the Wal- Mart assault of a nine-year-old girl on Friday also to this man. I spoke with Ashland Kentucky Police a short time ago. They said they plan on filing charges against him in that particular case sometime this evening.
Now, he will be held in Kentucky pending extradition back to West Virginia. The NASA images that were enhanced by their laboratory near Virginia Beach apparently also helped a great deal in this.
But they also said, Wolf, that the tip came from a person in Kentucky and had it not been for the news media coverage of this showing these videotapes that they most likely would not have made the identification. That's how she saw it. She saw the man on TV, called the police late last night and they jumped on that particular tip, went out, identified him, and arrested him in Louisville, Kentucky -- Wolf.
BLITZER: What do we know about this suspect? Does he have a criminal record as far as the checking you've been doing, Mike?
BROOKS: We've attempted to find that out, Wolf, and they said that right now they do not know if he does have a criminal record or not. I did check the sexual assault, the sex offenders Web site for the state of West Virginia and also the state of Kentucky.
They have a registry of all previous sex offenders, convicted sex offenders, and I did not find him on those two states' Web sites. So, hopefully we'll find out a little bit more about him as this case goes on as we see that he is now linked to two cases.
They're also looking at him for the case in a small town in Texas but that has yet to be determined if he's involved in that -- Wolf.
BLITZER: That presumably would be the third case, is that what you're saying?
BROOKS: That's what I'm saying exactly.
BLITZER: All right, Mike Brooks covering the story for us, thanks Mike. We'll be checking back with you.
Meanwhile, an international manhunt is now over. An American ex- Marine is under arrest and the young girl he allegedly ran away with is back home.
CNN's John (sic) Boulden is near Manchester, England with the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Relief for the parents of 12-year-old British schoolgirl Shevaun Pennington after being reunited with her daughter Wednesday at a Manchester Police Station.
JOANNA PENNINGTON, MOTHER: They phoned us up early in the morning and told us she was coming back and really from there we just made arrangements to get her back. That was it. Fantastic, yes, really.
BOULDEN: Shevaun had not been seen since she left home Saturday morning when she told her parents she was going to meet friends. Instead, police say she took her passport and some clothes to Manchester Airport where she met 31-year-old Toby Studabaker, a former U.S. Marine.
After a massive four day manhunt, Manchester Police confirmed that Shevaun had flown home on her own and that Studabaker had been arrested in Frankfurt, Germany following a joint operation between British Police, the FBI, and German Police.
SUPT. PETER MASON, GREATER MANCHESTER POLICE: He was arrested for abduction under the power of an international arrest warrant sworn out within the Greater Manchester Police area.
BOULDEN: Studabaker's family in the United States says he believed the girl he met over the Internet a year ago was a 19-year- old college student. They say he told them he had a signed letter from the girl clearing him of any wrongdoing.
After searching both her computers, police investigators believe Toby Studabaker knew all along she was a 12-year-old. But, for the moment, the Pennington family has been whisked off by police for their first night together in five days.
(on camera): German authorities now have to decide what's next for Studabaker. Police here want him extradited immediately to Manchester to answer accusations of abduction.
Jim Boulden, CNN, Leigh, England.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And, my apologies to Jim. Of course I meant Jim, not John.
Let's go back to Santa Monica, California. This is the scene. This is what we know. A car slammed through several blocks in the so- called farmer's market in Santa Monica. At least one person, a pedestrian, has been killed but dozens of others have been injured, some of them critically injured.
We're told that the car plowed through several blocks and went into this crowded market. We're also told apparently that the driver has fled the scene. We're double checking on that to make sure that is accurate. At least 25 people are said to have been injured but perhaps that number will go up. One person now confirmed dead.
We're going to continue to watch this horrible story, this ramming of this car through a crowded farmer's market in Santa Monica and get some more people, get some more information for you as we get some more information ourselves.
We have other news coming up, including this. Digging for clues, literally, in a huge Michigan mystery. Find out what evidence police are looking for right now in the Jimmy Hoffa case.
And, trail of victims, the unearthing of mass graves in Iraq.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): Earlier we asked "Which president commuted Jimmy Hoffa's prison sentence for jury tampering and fraud?" The answer: Richard Nixon. Hoffa was let go in 1971, then vanished just four years later.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Yet another strange twist in the disappearance of former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. Police in Michigan dug under a swimming pool in a residential neighborhood, not far from Detroit, in search of evidence in the case. According to the Associated Press, they came up dry after a six-hour search.
Bill Gallagher of our affiliate WJBK is covering these developments.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL GALLAGHER, WJBK CORRESPONDENT: A tip from a convicted murder led police to begin digging here, looking for evidence that may be linked to the disappearance and murder of Jimmy Hoffa. A contractor dug under a swimming pool in the backyard of this home in Bay County, Michigan. The Oakland County prosecutor got a search warrant following a tip.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The informant sent me a letter indicating he had information related to the disappearance of Mr. Hoffa. We contacted the FBI about the information. They decided not to pursue it as far as we have come to these lengths today. And going back to the earlier question, this is an individual whom we had information was involved in the mob, convicted of murder, may have been a hit man for the mob.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): Convicted murderer Richard Powell once lived here. He told police he buried evidence linked to the Hoffa case in the backyard. Based on the warrant, the police were looking for a syringe with fingerprints and DNA, a deck of cards, $200 cash, and film containing handwritten notes from people who may have been involved in Hoffa's murder. Nothing was found, but police say they were doing their job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Believe me, there isn't anybody more than the family or the investigators here who were more hopeful in trying to find something here. We had thought that the information was pretty good and that's the reason we went to all this effort. We're frankly disappointed that we didn't find something.
GALLAGHER (on camera): Veteran investigators involved in the Hoffa case say there are some fundamental problems. Those with knowledge or involvement in his disappearance are either dead or not talking.
In Bay County, Michigan, Bill Gallagher, Fox 2 News.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: Jimmy Hoffa was one of the most influential and powerful people in the American labor movement. He was also well known to have had some ties to organized crime. Hoffa organized for the Teamsters during the Depression and became president of the Teamsters in the late 1950s. He retained the post, even after he went to jail for jury tampering and fraud in the 1960s. President Nixon commuted Hoffa's sentence in 1971. Four years later, he disappeared from suburban Detroit, allegedly on his way to meet a mob boss. The FBI declared him dead in 1983, although his body was never found.
There was a new lead in 2001, when a strand of hair found in the back seat of a car matched a hair from Hoffa's brush. A long-time friend had been driving the car that day, but said Hoffa had not been in it. No one has ever been charged in Jimmy Hoffa's death.
Saddam Hussein's trail of blood, tears and thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of missing people. Mass graves tell of unspeakable crimes. A human rights watch investigation. That's coming up.
Plus, carjacked toddlers. Find out the ending to this high-speed police chase.
And bed covers that are supposed to chase away the bed bugs. But do these expensive remedies really work? The latest medical news. All that -- that's coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: You're looking at live pictures from Santa Monica, California, just in Los Angeles, in the area. The aftermath of a horrible, horrible scene. A car rammed through several city blocks in a farmer's market area, a heavily congested area, killing at least one person and injuring at least 25, maybe 40 others, some of them critically injured. The car speeding through this area simply mowing down individuals in its way.
We are also told by local reporters on the scene that the driver of this car has apparently fled the scene. We don't know if he's been picked up, but we see rescue workers, ambulance workers and others on the scene dealing with the aftermath of this situation in Los Angeles in the Santa Monica area. The farmers market area, if you are familiar with that area, a car simply ripping through several city blocks in the crowded area and causing all this kind of devastation.
We'll continue to watch it for you, go back there once we get some more information. But you can see first responders removing individuals from the scene.
We'll have more on that, but let's take a quick check at some other headlines at this hour.
(NEWSBREAK)
BLITZER: There's a new development regarding that false intelligence report about whether Iraq was shopping for nuclear materials in Africa, a report which managed to get into the president's State of the Union address.
For that, let's turn to our justice correspondent, Kelli Arena -- Kelli.
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the FBI is conducting a preliminary inquiry into the forged documents, alleging that Iraq was looking to buy uranium from Niger. Now FBI officials say that their primary objective is to find out who forged the documents and why, and whether anyone tried to influence U.S. foreign policy. The Bureau is not looking into possible wrongdoing, though, by the Bush administration.
Now Senator Jay Rockefeller told CNN yesterday about the investigation. Further details of the probe are now being reported by "NewsWeek."
Now at this early stage, sources tell CNN that FBI agents from the counterintelligence unit are interviewing officials from both the CIA and the State Department and there are plans to dispatch agents overseas, although no one has left yet. The inquiry starts with the paper trail.
Here's what we know. The documents, which were subsequently obtained by "La Republica" and provided to CNN, were first given to Italian intelligence in late 2001 according to officials. The information from them was passed on to the CIA, but the U.S. didn't gain actual possession of the documents until nearly a year later, in October of 2002, when a journalist turned them over to the U.S. embassy in Rome.
Now, sources say that the embassy passed them on to the CIA station chief in Rome and the State Department. Sources at the State Department say the documents were offered to all relevant U.S. agencies at the time, but government officials say that the documents did not get to CIA headquarters until four months later, in February of 2003, after the president's State of the Union address. And by the time the documents got to the CIA, sources say the information in them had been discredited. Wolf, back to you.
BLITZER: Very interesting. Thanks, Kelli Arena, for that information.
And while questions, of course, continue about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, there is no question that thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed by Saddam Hussein's regime. Humans Rights Watch has been investigating recently uncovered mass graves in Iraq, and Peter Bouckaert of that group is joining us now live from New York to talk about it.
Peter, first of all, give us some perspective. How many people have been discovered? How many bodies in these mass graves?
PETER BOUCKAERT, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Well, Human Rights Watch, together with an American forensic group, Physicians for Human Rights, has been going around Iraq looking at mass graves. We've discovered some 20 mass graves during our search. Some of those mass graves are really very large. They may contain up to 10,000 people. But that's only a small percentage of the mass graves that we believe exist in Iraq. According to U.S. intelligence sources, as many as 90 graves have been identified so far, and we believe that up to 300,000 people may be buried in mass graves around Iraq.
BLITZER: Three hundred thousand people. That goes back, clearly, not just over a year or two, but that goes back over several years. Were most of these people, based on what you know, Iraqis, or were they Iranians during the war with Iran in the 1980s?
BOUCKAERT: Almost all of the mass graves that we've found contained the bodies of Iraqis, Kurds from the north and Shias from the south. But we have also received information of graves containing the remains of Iranian prisoners of war, as well as Kuwaitis who were detained during the first Gulf War and later killed.
BLITZER: Is the U.S. military, the government, Jerry Bremer, Paul Bremer, the officials on the scene, are they doing enough to deal with this issue? Obviously they've got a lot of other matters on their hands right now as well.
BOUCKAERT: Well, we see little action by the coalition on the ground to help assist the Iraqi people with this tremendous job. What we find at most of these mass grave sites is that untrained Iraqis, many relatives from the victims themselves, are trying to exhume these graves in a very unprofessional way. What happens time and time again is that crucial evidence of crimes against humanity is being destroyed, and at the end of the day, the families end up with a huge pile of bones that they simply can't identify, and that's a great tragedy. If there was professional forensic assistance, as happened in Kosovo, many, many more people would be identified from these mass graves.
BLITZER: Does the U.S. government, together with the United Nations and other coalition partners in Europe, the Middle East, elsewhere, do they have the wherewithal to do what Human Rights Watch would like them to do?
BOUCKAERT: Well, we certainly feel that the international community has the capacity to assist with the exhumation of these mass graves. The U.S. government was able to send a forensic team to Saudi Arabia within 24 hours after the latest bombing there, and they have done this kind of job in Kosovo before.
One of the problems that we are facing is that the U.S. has not said what it's going to do with the criminals in Iraq, with the people who committed these horrendous crimes, and European countries who have tremendous forensic capacity are not willing to commit to participating in the gathering of evidence until they know what kind of trial guarantees are going to be put in place when these people are put on trial.
BLITZER: Peter Bouckaert, this is shocking, shocking information, but I think it's important that all of our viewers know about it. Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of bodies found in these mass graves. Thanks to you for helping us. BOUCKAERT: Thank you for having me on.
BLITZER: We have much more news coming up, including this -- shot down over Iraq. A harrowing tale of flight, fear and survival. We'll bring you that.
And this -- toddlers carjack. Police chase down a stolen SUV, and the kids are in the back seat. You'll want to see this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: You are looking at live pictures from Santa Monica, California. A helicopter evacuating those injured, injured in a horrible, horrible scene. A car had plowed through several city blocks through what's described as a crowded farmer's market in Santa Monica, killing at least one person, injuring dozens of others. Firefighters, ambulance workers, others are on the scene. They are dealing with the injured in this huge area.
We're told anywhere from 25, perhaps as many as 40 people have been injured, some critically injured. They are being removed. They are being taken to local hospitals. Witnesses say the driver simply speeding through the area, slamming into people as he was plowing along. Some local reports suggest the driver then fled from the scene. We'll continue to watch this for you, bring you some more information, as we get it.
But let's move on now to another extraordinary story. This one of a Michigan Air and National Guard pilot who was shot down over Baghdad. He told his story to CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There was bad weather over Baghdad on April 8, when Major James Wald flew in low in his A-10, providing air cover for the 3rd Infantry Division below. He knew instantly he had been hit by an Iraqi surface-to-air missile.
MAJ. JAMES WALD, MICHIGAN AIR AND NATIONAL GUARD: It kind of felt like the hand of God just took and moved the airplane. And I could see a bright flash off the instrument panel from the fireball behind, and at that point, you know, I just thought to myself, I got hit. And then the next thought was, I'm not hurt.
STARR: Wald ejected and came down in a farmer's field, immediately on the run and hiding in a ditch.
WALD: I started to hear a lot of gunfire, and I had -- what it really was is the 30 mm rounds in the A-10, which were just starting to ignite and explode.
STARR: But then, more trouble? Vehicles were approaching.
WALD: I was well hidden. I had pulled out my 9 mm. But I was -- my real plan was to run. Then I could hear one voice in English and then -- which made me feel good, but English is an international language, so I was fearful it could just be somebody who could speak English. And then I heard someone yell out, "hey, pilot there, come on out, we're Americans," and he said that, you know, in a very American accent and in the vernacular. So I holstered my weapon back in there, and I gave myself up to my friends.
STARR: It was U.S. soldiers that had seen Wald bail out and came to his rescue. Minutes after fearing he would become a prisoner of war, Wald was in the back of an Army truck riding around in Iraq still with his sense of humor and grateful to his rescuers.
WALD: I gave them my raft. They are using it as a bathtub right now in the desert. I let them keep that, so they were grateful, too.
STARR: Wald was finally returned to a military hospital, and two days later flew again over Iraq.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Now let's go back out to Santa Monica. This horrible, horrible scene that we've been showing you for the past 45 minutes or so. A car slamming through a crowded pedestrian farmers market in Santa Monica. Joe Chrisman is on the scene. He was an eyewitness. Joe, tell us what you saw and what you heard.
JOE CHRISMAN, EYEWITNESS: Well, I was sitting inside my building, and I heard a bunch of screaming from outside. And I saw a car barreling down the street, which is where they have the farmers market every Wednesday. And upon seeing that, I ran outside, and saw a flurry and bodies sort of all over the street and people had been barreled down and there was a man on top of the car and the driver was pulled out of the vehicle, and he was, you know, a 80-year-old man or older. He looked very, very confused. There was someone underneath his car, and one of the people who were -- had pulled the driver out of the car coordinated a group of 10 of us to lift up the vehicle and move it off this woman.
And after we did that and found that she was there and breathing and her eyes wide open, you know, you just thank your lucky stars that that's the case. And after that, I took a run down the street, making sure that the people from my work, who our building is right at the corner of Ocean and Arizona, where the car ended its tear through the farmers market area.
Once -- once I got out of there, I ran down the street and saw the other bodies and tried to just help out where I could, and you know, all of the bystanders were sort of there. And, you know, the sense of community, strong people helping. But, you know, so much carnage, and --
BLITZER: Joe, let me interrupt for a second because you are giving us some important information. What looked like an old man who may have just simply lost control of the car as it slammed through this farmers market? Is that the impression you have?
CHRISMAN: I think he was just mentally out of touch. You know, I don't -- who is to say, really. He seemed very confused when he stepped out of the car. He definitely should not have been behind the wheel. I don't know if he had a health issue, a stroke or something. But he was definitely not quite with it. And he was -- I mean, he was very, very confused, you could tell, when he got out of the car. But the police took him right away. So --
BLITZER: So clearly the initial reports that we have been getting from some local reporters that the driver fled the scene, that apparently, based on what you saw and heard, is not true.
CHRISMAN: That's absolutely not true. The driver was apprehended by a bicycle cop and he was an 80-year-old man. He wasn't going anywhere.
BLITZER: How many blocks -- how many blocks did the car seem to be speeding through just knocking people down?
CHRISMAN: I mean, a good, 3 -- 2 1/2, 3 blocks. And, you know, up and down the street it was just a complete mess and it's a 75- degree day out here and so many tourists are out. I mean, it couldn't have been a worse nightmare.
BLITZER: How long did it take, based on what you saw, since you saw this car speeding for the emergency personnel, the ambulance workers, the others, the firefighters, to get to the scene?
CHRISMAN: It was, you know, relatively quick, and once they were there, they had things sectioned off and they had targeted the people who needed help the most. And, you know, as I was running around and really trying -- there were so many people that work in my building who I know and they were there helping others, and I was trying to make sure that I could, you know, see what was going on. It was like two seconds and there were people there, ambulances and firemen were there first and they were sectioning things off and getting things coordinated and, I mean, what an outstanding, you know, rally on their part and coordination. It was very -- they were really on top of everything.
BLITZER: It does underscore just how dangerous a vehicle, a car can be when it's out of control. Presumably, at least the impression we are getting is this driver may simply have lost control for whatever reason, and going through a crowded area like this farmers market in Santa Monica. For our viewers who aren't familiar with Santa Monica or the farmers market, tell us a little bit about it, Joe.
CHRISMAN: Well, Santa Monica is a little beach community and the promenade area is a section where a street is sectioned off and there are shops on both sides of the street and it's sort of, you know, just your, sort of, contemporary open-air mall. And, you know, on a day like today, where, you know, it's 75 out and sunny, you have thousands of tourists walking around, as well as your locals who frequent the market for the great produce or whatever. BLITZER: This is an unusually popular area, the Santa Monica area, not just because of the farmers market, but because of where it is and all the people who live and work there?
CHRISMAN: Absolutely. I mean, it's a great place to live and grow up in and grow old.
BLITZER: It looks, if you could judge from the live pictures we're seeing, thanks to our affiliate KABC in Los Angeles, it looks like the emergency personnel are still on the scene and they are doing an incredible amount of work still. What time, approximately, did the incident begin?
CHRISMAN: I apologize. I can't tell you. I completely loss track of time.
BLITZER: Was it an hour ago or so approximately?
CHRISMAN: Probably about that much.
BLITZER: And the Los Angeles County and local personnel have gotten to the scene. They are working feverishly, obviously, to deal with injured, with wounded, those dozens who have been injured in this incident.
And for our viewers who are just tuning in, a car simply ran through the crowded area. Several city blocks, so-called farmers market in Santa Monica, California. At least one fatality, at least one person has been killed, but dozens of others have been injured, and they are dealing with this issue right now. Based on what we're hearing from Joe Chrisman, he's on the phone with us. He was an eyewitness. It looked like an elderly man was at the wheel. May have lost control for whatever reason. But he was removed from the car in a daze, if you will.
I think I'm accurately reporting what you've been telling us, Joe, and taken into custody by law enforcement, local law enforcement. Is that right, Joe?
CHRISMAN: That's absolutely correct.
BLITZER: And we don't know the name of the individual. We don't know what happened. Whether the individual suffered some sort of illness, a stroke or whatever, but he looked as if he was in pretty bad shape, right, Joe?
CHRISMAN: Correct. I mean he didn't appear to really know, you know, where he was and what was going on. So --
BLITZER: Joe, where are you right now?
CHRISMAN: I am at, sort of, right where the car stopped. I'm inside of the building directly adjacent to the street in front of sort of where the car was stopped.
BLITZER: And you obviously checked to see if you knew anyone, any of your friends from work or anyone you knew...
CHRISMAN: Yes, I mean, we made a...
BLITZER: ...was involved.
CHRISMAN: Well, I ran up the street and was looking at, unfortunately I had to see all of these people who went down, because I wanted to see if there was anyone that I could help or be was from my firm, or people that I knew. Actually, the reason I took off running was because my sister just got a job up the street and I was worried she had come to the market. So I was sprinting through looking for her. And that's when I kind of had to see everything.
BLITZER: The Associated Press is now reporting, Joe, and I'll read it to you, and I'll read it to all of our viewers, that the driver of the car was apparently a man in his 70s and, according to the AP, it looked like he might be having a heart attack.
One eyewitness said this, and I'll quote the eyewitness, "His arm was straight on the wheel and his body was stiff. You just have to pray because I saw this little girl get CPR and I saw this older woman, who I think was dead". We're getting some more information now, that it looks like -- let me just make sure I get this right. How many more additional fatalities? Six fatalities now. That number increasing. The Associated Press reporting six dead in this horrendous, horrendous incident in Santa Monica, California. Dozens of people injured. Apparently, an elderly man. And we're reporting now what we've heard from Joe Chrisman and the Associated Press, losing control as the car went through this farmer's market.
Thanks Joe, we'll have much more of this throughout the night here on CNN. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" begins right now.
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Morale on the Front Lines; Digging for Clues in Jimmy Hoffa Disappearance>
