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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

New Audiotape Could Be Ayman al-Zawahiri; Interview with Joe Lieberman; Interview with Marc Racicot

Aired March 25, 2004 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Happening now. Ayman al-Zawahiri is Osama bin Laden's top deputy. Al Jazeera says it has just received a new audiotape from him with a direct threat to a close U.S. ally in the war on terror.

Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

Out of hiding? A new audiotape said to be from al Qaeda's number 2 man while new pictures show how he might have escaped.

9/11 probe. Will it rock the presidential race? I'll ask Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot and former Democratic candidate Senator Joe Lieberman.

Who sent him? Israelis and Palestinians alike want to know who would turn a boy into a human bomb.

Rough rescue. A ride to freedom turns into a nightmare journey.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Thursday, March 25, 2004.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Just last week they thought they had him cornered, but did that so-called high-value target take the low road to flee his Pakistani pursuers? New video shows what may be the tunnel used as an escape route, and a new audio tape purportedly from Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, calls on Pakistanis to revolt. Showing that Ayman al- Zawahiri may be feeling the heat. We'll go to CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson joining us in Islamabad but we begin with our national security correspondent David Ensor on the new terror tape -- David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the CIA is subjecting the tape to technical analysis and comparing it with others that are known to be the voice of Zawahiri. Officials say they expect to be able to say within the next couple of days whether they think it really is him or not. In the past the CIA usually has authenticated the tapes, but not every time. Officials say there has been at least one fake. The audience for the tape clearly is the Muslim world, and particularly Pakistan. The speaker calls for the overthrow of the government of president Musharraf.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Musharaff, after he played his deceiving role in killing thousands of Muslims in Afghanistan, got a new role from the Americans. One important duty is to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in Pakistan and he has planned to do this in various deceiving ways.

ENSOR: On the tape the speaker appears to refer to the conflict in Waziriztan, near the Afghan border where the Pakistani army forces have been sweeping through for weeks now searching for foreign fighters. There's no reference to the siege of one small area in which some Pakistani officials earlier had suggested they might have surrounded Zawahiri himself. But, of course, the tape could have been recorded earlier. It's not clear, Wolf, what the impact, if any, will be on Pakistan.

BLITZER: We'll be watching. I'm sure it will be widely played, though, throughout the Muslim world. David, thank you very much.

While the fighting continues in a rugged tribal area of the Afghan border, Pakistan's military is showing off tunnels that may have been used by a top terrorist to slip through its net. Let's go live to our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson in Islamabad. Nic, tell us what's happening.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the operation in Waziristan is still on going. It's not so much artillery and helicopter gunfire as much as slow tedious tribal negotiations. Pakistani military officials were keen to put on the record and show journalists these tunnels they believe some of the key figures could have escaped through.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR (voice-over): Through these tunnels Pakistani military officials speculate they could have lost the man they were calling a high-value target. Although they now admit al Qaeda's No. 2 was never likely holed up here. The rudimentary escape routes question Pakistan's ability to round up suspect terrorists.

FAISAL SALAH HAYAT, PAKISTAN INTERIOR MINISTER: Once this operation culminates, only then we shall be able to say with a great deal of surety and finality as to who exactly had been there.

ROBERTSON: Elsewhere in the remote border region, Pakistani troops put on display communications equipment they said they captured. According to military officials, radio intercepts in the first few days of battle confirm the presence of Chechens, Uzbeks and some Arabs. The battle now, though, has switched gears. Helicopters still patrol but military officials say they are holding off on air assaults and artillery barrages to give negotiations a chance. A key government demand.

HAYAT: ...those people, those officials and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of military forces and the political administration who had been kidnapped. ROBERTSON: However, talks between local tribal leaders to meet the demand they turn over captured officials and troops and facilitate the surrender of foreign fighters have been deadlocked for more than four days, with little indication of a speedy resolution.

As the standoff drags on anti-government protests, particularly in the intensely independent tribal regions, near the Afghan border, have been picking up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: Only two days ago rockets were fired at government buildings in the frontier town of Pishawa (ph). The interior minister said that that was a tribal backlash against those ongoing military operations. This is something lightly to cause concern for U.S. troops just across the border inside Afghanistan. They rely on those Pakistani troops to clear out al Qaeda elements from within Pakistan's borders -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Nic, any reaction from the Pakistani government or President Musharraf yet to this latest purported audio tape from Ayman al-Zawahiri?

ROBERTSON: We've talked to two ministers this evening, Wolf. Neither wants to go on the record and say anything they want to analyze closely exactly what is contained within this message. I have talked with a tribal leader from very close to the Waziristan area. He said it's likely to strike a chord with some of those tribal members, this idea that they should resist the government of President Musharaff but he said he thought it was unlikely that it would really erode President Musharaff's support for the war on terrorism -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Nic Robertson in Islamabad on top of this story as he always is. Thanks very much.

What can we learn from this alleged al Qaeda tape? It does refer to the Pakistani offensive which began within the past month. But there is no mention of last week's fighting when Pakistan is said to have had a high-value target surrounded. There has been been some unusually high number of casualties, but there has been a lag of a couple of weeks in the past between the time when such tapes are made and the time they're aired. So if this does turn out to be the voice of al-Zawahiri it does not serve as proof that he was alive after the recent fighting.

As U.S. forces in Afghanistan gear up for a so-called spring offensive, the Pentagon is adding some muscle. 2,000 United States marines will be deployed in the next few weeks and officials say they may bring their own combat jets. An equal number of marines already in Afghanistan will eventually leave. For now the deployment will boost U.S. troops strength to 13,000.

A deadly day in Iraq for U.S. military personnel with two service members killed since the morning. Military sources say one marine died and two were injured in an attack by insurgents near Fallujah. And coalition officials say a roadside bomb killed one soldier, injured two others near Baquba (ph). A third soldier was killed yesterday north of Baghdad.

A U.S. army investigation into suicides by U.S. troops in Iraq has found the rate was higher than usual last year. But does this represent a trend? We get more now from our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The death of 20-year-old army private first class Cory Small (ph) in Baghdad, July 3, began a statistical spike in reported suicides that alarmed army leaders and prompted the dispatch of a 12-member mental health team to Iraq. An average of two U.S. soldiers a month commit suicide in Iraq. But in July of last year that number jumped to five in a single month.

The army team has concluded while the suicide rate for 2003 was higher than recent historical rates, the high incidence during July did not signify an escalating rate of suicide. In 2003, 63 U.S. soldiers committed suicide, 23 while deployed in Iraq or Kuwait, seven more after they returned home. But just over half the total number, 33, was among other troops who weren't in the war zone. And after the spike in July, the suicide rate dropped back down to normal, so the Pentagon does not believe there is an epidemic but remains concerned.

For civilian men between the ages of 20 and 34, the rate is 21.5 per 100,000 people. The five deaths in July were enough to push the rate for troops serving in Iraq or Kuwait to 17.3 per 100,000 troops. Higher than the army average of about 12 per 100,000 over the previous eight years.

So what did push the suicide rate up in July? The army doesn't know for sure but possible stress factors include it was blazing hot in Iraq, the mission was turning more deadly and dangerous, tours of duty were extended and unlike when they're in the U.S., soldiers had ready access to firearms. Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: We have this information just coming into CNN right now. The defense in the Tyco trial has asked for a mistrial. CNN's Allan Chernoff is standing by outside the courthouse in New York. Allan, update our viewers, what's happening?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, not only the defense asking for a mistrial here but two notes from the jury coming out indicating a very important split within the jury. The first note saying that the atmosphere in the jury room has turned, quote, poisonous and the jurors alleging that one of their members has stopped deliberating in good faith and arguing that this may have compromised the fairness of the entire process here. Keep in mind Dennis Kozlowski, the former CEO, and Mark Schwartz, former chief financial officer of Tyco on trial here in New York charged with grand larceny, falsifying business records, conspiracy and also securities fraud. Now, the memo does say, from the jury, that the majority of us believe we could reach a fair conclusion without the presence of this one juror. The one juror wrote his own note saying that he believes that if other jurors refused to recognize the right that he believes that the prosecution has not proven its case. So it appears from these notes that most of the jurors believe that Kozlowski and Schwartz are guilty on at least some of the charges, and, Wolf, there are many charges here. Each is facing 24 counts.

Back to you, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Thanks very much, Allan. We'll get back to you once we get more information. Important development in New York. There's another important development we're following this New York at the United Nations Security Council, a resolution that would condemn Israel, the U.S. has just vetoed that resolution. We'll have a live report. That's coming up from New York as well.

On the job of showing a united front, though, as far as the Democratic Party is concerned, other important developments happening today. The Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry receive as key endorsement that proves times have, indeed, changed.

And a dangerous road to freedom. Cubans braving rough seas and terrible conditions to call America their home.

Plus this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This boy is an expression of despair of the way children have been abused.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Boy bomber, a teenager sent on a suicide mission. Hear from the young boy himself, and his family.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Earlier this week the Israelis assassinated the founder, leader of Hamas, Sheikh Yassin. The United Nation's Security Council has been considering a resolution that would have condemned Israel for this.

U.N. correspondent Richard Roth is standing by at the U.N. where the 15 members of the council have just voted -- Richard.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf.

The United States has just vetoed a resolution that would have condemned Israel over the killing of Sheikh Yassin. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte the only ambassador to put his hand in the air. U.S. A permanent veto in the council, their right to use it. He said it was an unbalanced resolution while the U.S. is, quote, Equally troubled by the killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Israel has exalted tensions in the region. But because others in the past submitted by the Palestinians did not specifically condemn terrorist acts by Hamas, the U.S. felt it had to veto this resolution. You're looking at scenes from earlier in the week, I believe in Geneva, at the Union Human Rights Commission. A different body, which also has condemned Israel. But there's no vetoes on that panel. Al (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the Arab proponent on the Security Council for the Palestinians, Wolf, just said this resolution by being vetoed sends the wrong message to Israel. Back to you.

BLITZER: Richard Roth reporting. Eleven members of the security council voted in favor. The U.S vetoed. Three abstentions Britain, Germany and Romania. Richard Roth reporting from the U.N.

Five weeks after dropping out of the Democratic presidential race, Howard Dean today endorsed John Kerry.

We have live reports on the presidential campaign from CNN's Sean Callebs, he's here in Washington and Dana Bash, she's over at the White House.

Let's start with Sean, though, on the Kerry campaign.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, remember the height of the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination back several weeks ago, did Howard Dean have a harsher critic than John Kerry and wasn't it Dean who repeatedly targeted Kerry as the ultimate Washington insider?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS (voice-over): Well, now times change. Sleeves rolled up, unbridled enthusiasm and a feel of a pep rally. This time Howard Dean was there to urge the Deaniacs to go to the polls and support his former opponent, a man he labeled an Washington insider.

HOWARD DEAN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know who I trust, I trust John Kerry and that's who I'm voting for, and that's who I'm working for.

CALLEBS: Campaign scrapes behind him, Dean professing he and the presumptive nominee share common themes and goals.

DEAN: In the end, it is generation Dean voting for John Kerry for president of the United States, that's going to send George Bush back to Crawford, Texas, where he belongs.

CALLEBS: Dean's opposition to the war in Iraq and effective use of the Internet to reach out to supporters and donors made him the early front-runner in the polls. But the strategy didn't translate into enough votes. Kerry echoing a theme of the Dean campaign used the occasion to renew his critique of the president.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I as president will tell you the truth and never take this nation to war on false information, false pretenses, false faces.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: But Democratic party love fest will continue in a matter of hours. Senator Kerry is scheduled to join former presidents, Carter and Clinton, at a Democrat dinner later this evening -- Wolf.

BLITZER: That's going to be a huge dinner. Thanks, Sean Callebs, for that report.

President Bush was on the road promoting his economic policies, but the 9/11 hearings of the week were clearly still very much on his mind.

Our White House correspondent Dana Bash is joining us now live with more -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, now the 9/11 commission hearings are over, the Bush campaign had hoped to turn the attention of the president and the message back on the offense. Their message of the week was to be the economy and what that is what the president went to New Hampshire to talk about, specifically to help laid off worker there's. He ended up starting the event playing defense, responding to Richard Clarke's charge that the president did not perhaps listen to warnings leading up to September 11, that an attack could have been imminent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Had I known that the enemy was going to use airports to strike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of this government to protect the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of this government to protect the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, the latest Pew Research poll show an extraordinary amount, 89 percent of Americans, have at least heard a little bit about the Clarke criticism of President Bush and the White House. And that may be a good indication of why the president himself felt the need to fire back on what is essentially day five of the Bush-White House counter offensive against their former counterterrorism aide.

Particularly, it's interesting where the president did it. He was in New Hampshire to talk about the economy, but this is a state that the Bush campaign really wants to win. He won just by 7,000 votes and this is where they're spending also some of the resources on ads -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Dana Bash reporting from the White House. Thanks, Dana, very much.

Just ahead this hour, I'll speak with the chairman of the president's re-election campaign Marc Racicot.

We'll also have this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (D-CT) FRM. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Obviously, I was disappointed by his decision to endorse Howard Dean and by the failure to let me know before I heard about it in the media.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: It could be quite an awkward political moment. The former presidential candidate Joe Lieberman on his first face-to-face meeting with his former vice president Al Gore difference Al Gore chose to endorse Howard Dean. That's coming up. I'll speak with Joe Lieberman.

Rescued in Mexico, British explorers are being pulled out of a flooded cave. But controversy is growing over what they were doing there in the first place.

And a day after her testimony, Kobe Bryant's accuser makes a plea to the court.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Senator Joe Lieberman was the Democratic vice presidential nominee four years ago and an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination this year. I spoke with him just a little while ago about this year's presidential race and about this week's 9/11 hearings.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Senator Lieberman thanks very much for joining us.

You and Senator McCain was instrumental in getting this 9/11 commission off the ground. You watched what happened over the past couple days. Were you impressed by allegations that Richard Clarke made or is he credible, in your opinion?

LIEBERMAN: Well, John McCain and I about a month after September 11 thought we needed an independent nonpartisan commission to investigate how did September 11 happen. So we can do everything possible to make sure nothing like it ever happens in America again. This commission, I think, has performed very well.

I thought the commissioners for the most part, were not partisan. They asked tough questions. They've got the make the evaluation.

Unfortunately their hearings are occurring in a political year, so naturally people are getting into a blame game instead of what we hoped it would do, which is to come up with a report that will help us strengthen our defenses against future 9/11s.

BLITZER: Based on what you know right now, could 9/11 have been averted? LIEBERMAN: You know, hindsight is always a lot clearer so you look back and you say, yes, if we had gotten our defenses together, if we had a terrorism coordinated watch list so these two people at the FBI knew they were in America, but apparently very few others knew, we might well have been able to stop it. And, of course, that's heart breaking, infuriating, and it leads us to do everything possible to make sure it doesn't happen again.

The good news is, that we've already done a lot. We've got a Department of Homeland Security. We've got a homeland defense command at the Pentagon now. People are...

BLITZER: So the defenses are much better today than they were before 9/11?

LIEBERMAN: Yes, they are. I'm not satisfied. I don't think anybody in government is satisfied, but we're safer today than we were before 9/11.

BLITZER: Richard Clarke who's at the center of these allegations apparently said one thing in closed door briefings to members of Congress while he worked for President Bush, saying something very radically different now. Let me get back to the original question. Do you believe him?

LIEBERMAN: Well, I think it's ultimately up to the commission. I think he makes some points that people in the Bush administration, at least some of them, don't disagree with. That while the new administration took the counterterrorism fight as important, they didn't have the sense of urgency that they might have had.

You know, I think as we look back at this, this is why I wish this wasn't happening in an election year when everybody wants to blame one side or the other, I think we came out of the last couple of days of hearings before the commission, there's a lot of fault to go around.

BLITZER: Plenty of blame in the Clinton administration, too.

LIEBERMAN: There is. And, look, I thought that Richard Clarke raised up his own credibility when he started with an apology. And it was personal, that he didn't do enough in his position to stop and prevent September 11. And that's what this ought to be about. Never again.

BLITZER: You worked with Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser. He seems to be suggesting that he was asleep at the wheel in trying to help the president understand this danger. Do you have confidence in her?

LIEBERMAN: You know, I was not there in those meetings that Richard Clarke talks about with Condoleezza Rice. I can't comment on that. Do I generally have confidence in Condi Rice? Yes, I do. She's very able, she works extremely hard and she has the president's confidence. So, yes, I have confidence in her.

BLITZER: How politically charged will this year be? It seems to be getting a very, very tough right now.

LIEBERMAN: It's going to be a very politically charged year. I mean, the fact is that it's a critically important election. That America faces challenges to our security, from terrorism particularly, and challenges to our prosperity, from a changing world economy that's taking jobs from us, that really are unlike anything we have faced before. And the people get this. People are worried. And so they're focused on this election.

The other thing happening is that the politicking, the advertising, the attack, counter attack, has started very early. And I just hope it happens in a way that it's positive and constructive so people don't get turned off and decided it doesn't matter if they come out to vote.

The other thing to remember in the midst of all this, yes, we're Democrats, yes, we're Republicans, but ultimately we're all Americans and we're in this together. We've got to work together to make our country both more secure and more prosperous.

BLITZER: I know you and Senator McCain have taken the lead to deal the consensus issues in a politically charged year. A lot of the polls in many of the battle ground states show a very close race between John Kerry and President bush but Ralph Nader seemingly registering two, three, 4 percent, 6 percent in some of the national polls, he could take a lot of votes away from John Kerry.

LIEBERMAN: Yes. Well, as Yogi used to say, it's deja vu all over again. I was there in 2000. And at different times in the campaign, Ralph Nader was up to 10 percent in some states. We ultimately got him down to 2.4 percent.

BLITZER: Nationally.

LIEBERMAN: Nationally. But look, his vote would have made the difference in Florida, New Hampshire, or maybe Ohio, a lot of other states. I argued then that a vote for Ralph Nader was really a vote for George Bush.

And that's what the voters have to decide.

BLITZER: I do in the sense that clearly more of the Nader voters would have voted Democrat last time and I think would again this time. That's what people have to ask themselves. Frankly, Ralph has to ask himself that. Does he want to reelect George Bush, as he helped to elect him in 2000?

BLITZER: You're going to be at this big rally tonight, this unity rally, with the former Presidents Clinton and Carter.

LIEBERMAN: Yes.

BLITZER: Al Gore will be there as well.

LIEBERMAN: Right.

BLITZER: Is this the first time you're going to be together with Al Gore since he endorsed Howard Dean?

LIEBERMAN: It is.

BLITZER: Give us what's going through your mind. What will you say to him when you see him?

LIEBERMAN: Look, I'm going to say hello and wish him well. I mean, obviously I was disappointed by his decision to endorse Howard Dean and by the failure to let me know before I heard about it in the media.

But I will be forever grateful for the historic opportunity that Al Gore personally gave me when he asked me to be his vice president candidate in 2000. And life goes on.

BLITZER: Senator Lieberman, life does go on. Thanks very much for joining us.

LIEBERMAN: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: And to our viewers, here's your chance to weigh in on this important story. Our "Web Question of the Day" is this, does Howard Dean's endorsement help John Kerry? You can vote right now. Go to CNN.com/Wolf. We'll have the results for you later in this broadcast.

Here's a check of what's happening at this hour. The woman who accuses Kobe Bryant of rape is asking that a trial date be set immediately so that she can get on with her life. Today, friends and former boyfriends of the 19-year-old woman testified about her past. Yesterday the woman faced more than three hours of intimate questioning about her sexual history.

The search is intensifying in Santa Cruz, California, for a missing to toddler. Aiden Burke vanished while playing in his backyard last night. Temperatures can dip into the 30s in the overnight hours. Authorities do not suspect foul play.

Five down, one to go. British Navy drivers have rescued five explorers trapped in a flooded cave in eastern Mexico. All of the explorers are said to be in good shape and in good spirits. Mexican officials are questioning what the men, some of whom are members of the British military, were doing there to begin with.

It was a political bombshell. Now comes a possible fallout. Up next, a closer look at Richard Clarke, the man whose allegations could shake up the presidential race this year.

Set for suicide. Just a young teen, he was prepared to become a so-called martyr. Are children now becoming the newest tool for terror?

And a stab at freedom turns into a struggle for life, a dramatic rescue off Florida, all of it, all of it caught on tape. And we'll bring it to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

More now on the 9/11 hearings and the man who stole the spotlight for much of those hearings. Richard Clarke was relatively unknown outside Washington until this week, when he accused President Bush of being asleep at the wheel when it came to the war on terror.

CNN's Jennifer Coggiola is here with more.

JENNIFER COGGIOLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf.

Well, Richard Clarke's career has spanned 30 years in government service, working under four successive presidents as a top terrorism expert. Yet most Americans have probably never heard of him until now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are affirmed to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

COGGIOLA (voice-over): A career that spanned more than three decades, the last few years devoted almost exclusively to the fight against al Qaeda.

RICHARD CLARKE, FORMER COUNTERTERRORISM ADVISER: Our goal was to do that, to eliminate it as a threat to the United States.

COGGIOLA: Raised in Pennsylvania, his father a chocolate factory worker, Richard Clarke is a 52-year-old graduate of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania.

A career federal civil servant, he served for 19 years in the intelligence community, State Department and Pentagon, before spending the next 11 at the White House under four administrations with six different titles. As President Reagan's deputy assistant secretary of state for intelligence, Clarke was credited for his psychological warfare efforts against Libya leader Colonel Moammar Gadhafi, according to "The New York Times."

Next, under the first President George Bush, assistant secretary of state for political military affairs, one of the few to accurately predict Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Clarke was President Clinton's counterterrorism chief, coordinating efforts of the CIA, Justice Department and the FBI. One of the first to push for military action against al Qaeda, Clarke argued for missile strikes against a suspected terrorism target which critics later claimed was simply a medicine factory.

Lastly, under President George Bush in 2001, Clarke continued to work as a counterterrorism expert on the National Security Council, though his responsibilities and title were diminished. One of the few White House officials allowed to carry a pistol for his protection, Clarke has received mixed reviews from former colleagues, who have labeled him everything from a bulldog of a bureaucrat to the go-to guy.

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NEW MEXICO: He's very credible. I remember Clarke as being literally a zealot when it came to counterterrorism.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: He has a different view of how to fight the war on terrorism. It is a narrow view, that it has to do with killing bin Laden and dealing with Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COGGIOLA: Clarke officially resigned January 31st, 2000, and recently told one newspaper he already doesn't miss Washington and indicated that he probably would seek a job in the private sector -- Wolf.

BLITZER: CNN's Jennifer Coggiola reporting, thanks, Jennifer very much.

Marc Racicot is chairman of President Bush's reelection campaign. He's joining us now to discuss the campaign, as well as the fallout, the political fallout from this 9/11 investigation.

What's your bottom line as far as the political damage, if you believe there is any, from the Richard Clarke accusations?

MARC RACICOT, BUSH-CHENEY CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: Well, I don't think Richard Clarke is believable. He's inherently unbelievable.

Take a look at his in record. In 2000, he told Congress that you couldn't perform a threat assessment because there were just simply too many threats against the United States. He also told them he couldn't put together a comprehensive strategy. In fact, what he said was is, it was silly. He's contradicted himself on a number of different occasions and then I think exploited it for personal gain.

But I do think this inquiry is very important to the American people and exploiting it obviously is us something that does not serve a very useful purpose. I do think it also points out the difference between the approaches. I mean, obviously, the president believing that we can no longer just simply sit back, cower in fear and hold our finger in the wind and hope that somehow by dispatching a missile in the middle of the night, that we'll terrorism.

He's taken this fight to those who actually breed the terrorism around the planet.

BLITZER: If this commission, this investigation, is so important, why didn't the president let his national security adviser, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, testify in open session, publicly before the panel, given the precedence where other national former adviser, Samuel Berger, in the Clinton administration, Zbigniew Brzezinski in the Carter administration, did testify before congress?

RACICOT: There are instances both directions, Wolf. And, as you know, this president believes that the erosion of executive privilege is something that has to be prevented. You've got to be able to receive unvarnished advice and counsel from those who work.

So it really runs presumptively against tradition that people in positions like that...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Politically, it could be embarrassing, though, to the president. She's a very effective spokeswoman for the president. She knows what's going on. She could have made a strong case not only to the commissioners, but to the American public.

RACICOT: There will be a strong case made. The facts will come out. That's the one nice thing about this deliberate inquiry, is that we're very confident in the facts.

And bottom line is, the president is a man of principle. He's going to respect the institution of the presidency.

BLITZER: There was a very dramatic moment yesterday at the beginning of Richard Clarke's testimony when he apologized to the American people and the survivors of the victims, those who suffered the most.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLARKE: To them who are here in the room, to those who are watching on television, your government failed you. Those entrusted with protecting you failed you. And I failed you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: A dramatic moment, you must admit.

Did the president fail the American public after nine months in office, not foreseeing this potential threat out there, and should he apologize to the American public?

RACICOT: Absolutely not.

For God's sake, Wolf, I wouldn't argue with Mr. Clarke's admission, because quite frankly just what he told Congress in the summer of 2000 reflects the fact that he didn't think this was an inquiry worthy of making and that, even in the best of circumstances you couldn't make it. This president, instantly upon being sworn into office, set about, as was mentioned by Condoleezza Rice, to no longer pursue a policy where we swatted at flies or guessed about the possibilities, but that we moved forward with a very aggressive strategy to address terrorism and the Taliban and al Qaeda.

That is a matter of record. It's been testified to by all of the principles who are involved, Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary Powell, Dr. Rice. I mean, at the end of the day, who are you going to believe, somebody that's trying to sell a book and who has contradicted himself on numerous occasions or the people who are charged with this responsibility and have spoken in unequivocal terms?

BLITZER: So you discount completely 30 years as a career civil servant?

RACICOT: No, I don't discount that. But at the end of 28 years, it appear to me that somebody got incredibly tired and incredibly sloppy and not very-well motivated.

BLITZER: On the political front, in the battle against John Kerry, how big of an issue do you anticipate this is going to be?

Well, we welcome the inquiry. I mean, the fact of the matter is, the president set about to participate in this inquiry to make certain that we're prepared for the future. And that's precisely what the focus is from his perspective.

He has been very -- as Senator Lieberman mentioned earlier in your program, he's been very aggressive and so many things have happened, from the creation of the Department of Homeland Security to taking this particular battle to the places where it actually begins. And that is in Baghdad, rather than in Boston.

BLITZER: All right, we'll continue this conversation on another occasion.

Governor, thanks very much for joining us.

RACICOT: Thank you, Wolf, very much.

BLITZER: Israelis foil a young suicide bomber, but it only fuels a new fear, children, yes, children, being used as tools for terror.

They wanted freedom. What they got was fright, a group of Cubans caught in the rough seas off Florida The dramatic pictures, we'll show them to you. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: In a conflict filled with horrifying images, this one truly stands out, a Palestinian boy strapped with explosives and sent on a suicide mission, telling Israeli soldiers -- and I'm quoting now -- "I don't want to die."

CNN's Chris Burns is joining us now live from Jerusalem with more on this horrible story -- Chris.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The day after Israeli troops caught 16-year-old Hussam Abdo at a West Bank checkpoint and blew up the suicide belt they forced him to take off, Israelis fear militants could be adopting a new terror delivery vehicle, kids.

DORE GOLD, ADVISER TO ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: There's a new and disturbing trend which we witnessed yesterday. BURNS: Hussam's parents say they didn't know anything about it.

MUHAMMED ABDO, FATHER (through translator): We still look at him as a child. He doesn't know what he is doing.

BURNS: Hussam's mother says he wasn't old enough to be a militant.

TAMAM ABDO, MOTHER (through translator): If he was older, I might have encouraged him, but this is really incredible, what they did to him.

BURNS: The Israeli army allowed an Israeli journalist to interview Hussam before an army camera. Hussam's account pointed to a simple suicide. He was short for his age and his mother said he was bullied in school.

QUESTION (through translator): Why did you think of committing such an act?

HUSSAM ABDO, ATTEMPTED SUICIDE BOMBING (through translator): Because of the people.

QUESTION (through translator): Because of the fire?

H. ABDO (through translator): The people, they don't love me.

QUESTION (through translator): What were you going to do in heaven?

H. ABDO (through translator): Sit.

QUESTION (through translator): And do what?

H. ABDO (through translator): Be happy.

BURNS: Israeli newspapers headlined the boy's account. "I Wanted Virgin in Paradise," read one newspaper. "I Wanted to Become a Man," said another, all fueling the fears of a country bracing for revenge attacks for Israel's killing of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin, fears that the militant could be expanding their ranks of suicide bombers to include the impressionable young.

Chris Burns, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Chris, thanks very much.

A risky journey in the name of freedom, Cubans braving treacherous surf conditions. Find out what happens to them now.

Plus, this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In addition to campaign calls, I also spend a lot of time on the phone listening to our European allies.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Comic relief courtesy of President Bush. We'll get to that.

First, though, a quick look at some other news making headlines around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): British Prime Minister Tony Blair says Libya can be a strong partner in the war on terror. Mr. Blair's meeting in Tripoli with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is seen as major step in Libya's return to the international community after years of being considered a rogue state.

Threat delayed. One day after railway workers found an unexploded bomb beneath the tracks, a shadowy group says it is suspending its attempts to attack French trains. The group says it needs more time to perfect its bombs. It warns, the attacks will resume in the future if France fails to pay a multimillion dollar ransom.

Taking on terror. Meeting for the first time since the deadly train bombings in Spain, leaders of the European Union are working to step up security. They appointed an antiterrorism czar to coordinate efforts among member countries.

Jolt of java. This they say is the largest cup of cappuccino ever made in Russia, 26 gallons. That includes eight gallons of espresso, and that thought alone could keep you up all night.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We have an update on a story that we brought you just a few minutes ago. This, we're just getting in. A toddler missing since yesterday in Santa Cruz, California has now been found.

Aiden Burke disappeared while playing with siblings in his backyard. Search crews combed the nearby mountains all day with concern about freezing overnight temperatures and mountain lions. But, again, the child has been found alive. He's being taken to a hospital so doctors can check him out. Good news.

An attempt at freedom ends with a daring rescue off Florida. The Coast Guard and beachgoers help rescue Cubans found floating off Fort Lauderdale-by-the-Sea earlier today.

Our national correspondent Susan Candiotti is joining us now live from Miami.

Pretty dramatic stuff, Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was, Wolf.

And authorities say tonight that it was just over a week ago that seven men and one woman left Cuba just east of Havana on a makeshift raft heading for the United States. But, tonight, so far, only three are left to tell their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): In seas up to eight feet and dangerous rip currents, two of the three Cuban migrants struggle to stay afloat. You will see one of them disappear under the pounding surf for eight seconds before resurfacing.

Trying to make land in order to qualify for asylum under a unique U.S. policy for Cubans, the migrants were just a few hundreds yards offshore, north of a landmark fishing peer in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. Coast Guard and news media helicopters hovered overhead. Not far away, a makeshift raft of four inner tubes tied together. Still inside, a woman barely waving to a second Coast Guard helicopter. Meantime, a bystander on shore dove in and dragged a man to safety in between crashing waves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was very beat up, blistered really bad, feet were pruned incredibly bad, and skin was peeling off.

CANDIOTTI: Two more rescuers waded into the water and helped drag another male to shore. Treatment began immediately, one man carried by volunteers and police to a waiting ambulance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a translator there (INAUDIBLE) asked him how many more. And they didn't know what was going on until he yelled out Cuba.

CANDIOTTI: Another man comforted by a rescue worker who poured fresh water over the migrant. A Coast Guard diver was lowered to the drifting raft. In two strokes, he reached the woman and within minutes she was lifted to safety in a basket.

Helicopters and boats were search for others believed missing. Conditions have been dangerous for days off Miami's coastline, with rough seas and a strong undertow. The Coast Guard says that makes a risky journey even more like a recipe for disaster.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: Under the wet-foot/dry-foot policy, all are likely to be able to stay, even the woman who was rescued technically at sea. Tonight, all three are being treated at a local hospital and rescue efforts are continuing for the five others who remain missing -- Wolf. BLITZER: Susan Candiotti reporting from Miami -- thanks, Susan, very much.

The results of our hot "Web Question of the Day," that comes up when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in our "Web Question of the Day." Take a look at this. Remember, this is not a scientific poll.

One night a year, official Washington takes itself a little less seriously. That night was last night at the annual Radio-TV Correspondents Dinner. President Bush was among the participants. Here's a sample of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere.

(LAUGHTER)

BUSH: Nope, no weapons over there.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Thanks very much for watching. By the way, tomorrow, my interview with the entertainer Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: You're going to call me Wolf. I'm going to call you Sean.

SEAN P. DIDDY COMBS, ENTERTAINER: Yes, sir.

BLITZER: Is that OK?

COMBS: Yes, sir, that's great.

BLITZER: But no sir, just Wolf.

COMBS: OK, yes, Wolf, whatever you say, sir.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

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


Aired March 25, 2004 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Happening now. Ayman al-Zawahiri is Osama bin Laden's top deputy. Al Jazeera says it has just received a new audiotape from him with a direct threat to a close U.S. ally in the war on terror.

Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

Out of hiding? A new audiotape said to be from al Qaeda's number 2 man while new pictures show how he might have escaped.

9/11 probe. Will it rock the presidential race? I'll ask Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot and former Democratic candidate Senator Joe Lieberman.

Who sent him? Israelis and Palestinians alike want to know who would turn a boy into a human bomb.

Rough rescue. A ride to freedom turns into a nightmare journey.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Thursday, March 25, 2004.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Just last week they thought they had him cornered, but did that so-called high-value target take the low road to flee his Pakistani pursuers? New video shows what may be the tunnel used as an escape route, and a new audio tape purportedly from Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, calls on Pakistanis to revolt. Showing that Ayman al- Zawahiri may be feeling the heat. We'll go to CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson joining us in Islamabad but we begin with our national security correspondent David Ensor on the new terror tape -- David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the CIA is subjecting the tape to technical analysis and comparing it with others that are known to be the voice of Zawahiri. Officials say they expect to be able to say within the next couple of days whether they think it really is him or not. In the past the CIA usually has authenticated the tapes, but not every time. Officials say there has been at least one fake. The audience for the tape clearly is the Muslim world, and particularly Pakistan. The speaker calls for the overthrow of the government of president Musharraf.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Musharaff, after he played his deceiving role in killing thousands of Muslims in Afghanistan, got a new role from the Americans. One important duty is to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in Pakistan and he has planned to do this in various deceiving ways.

ENSOR: On the tape the speaker appears to refer to the conflict in Waziriztan, near the Afghan border where the Pakistani army forces have been sweeping through for weeks now searching for foreign fighters. There's no reference to the siege of one small area in which some Pakistani officials earlier had suggested they might have surrounded Zawahiri himself. But, of course, the tape could have been recorded earlier. It's not clear, Wolf, what the impact, if any, will be on Pakistan.

BLITZER: We'll be watching. I'm sure it will be widely played, though, throughout the Muslim world. David, thank you very much.

While the fighting continues in a rugged tribal area of the Afghan border, Pakistan's military is showing off tunnels that may have been used by a top terrorist to slip through its net. Let's go live to our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson in Islamabad. Nic, tell us what's happening.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the operation in Waziristan is still on going. It's not so much artillery and helicopter gunfire as much as slow tedious tribal negotiations. Pakistani military officials were keen to put on the record and show journalists these tunnels they believe some of the key figures could have escaped through.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ENSOR (voice-over): Through these tunnels Pakistani military officials speculate they could have lost the man they were calling a high-value target. Although they now admit al Qaeda's No. 2 was never likely holed up here. The rudimentary escape routes question Pakistan's ability to round up suspect terrorists.

FAISAL SALAH HAYAT, PAKISTAN INTERIOR MINISTER: Once this operation culminates, only then we shall be able to say with a great deal of surety and finality as to who exactly had been there.

ROBERTSON: Elsewhere in the remote border region, Pakistani troops put on display communications equipment they said they captured. According to military officials, radio intercepts in the first few days of battle confirm the presence of Chechens, Uzbeks and some Arabs. The battle now, though, has switched gears. Helicopters still patrol but military officials say they are holding off on air assaults and artillery barrages to give negotiations a chance. A key government demand.

HAYAT: ...those people, those officials and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of military forces and the political administration who had been kidnapped. ROBERTSON: However, talks between local tribal leaders to meet the demand they turn over captured officials and troops and facilitate the surrender of foreign fighters have been deadlocked for more than four days, with little indication of a speedy resolution.

As the standoff drags on anti-government protests, particularly in the intensely independent tribal regions, near the Afghan border, have been picking up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: Only two days ago rockets were fired at government buildings in the frontier town of Pishawa (ph). The interior minister said that that was a tribal backlash against those ongoing military operations. This is something lightly to cause concern for U.S. troops just across the border inside Afghanistan. They rely on those Pakistani troops to clear out al Qaeda elements from within Pakistan's borders -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Nic, any reaction from the Pakistani government or President Musharraf yet to this latest purported audio tape from Ayman al-Zawahiri?

ROBERTSON: We've talked to two ministers this evening, Wolf. Neither wants to go on the record and say anything they want to analyze closely exactly what is contained within this message. I have talked with a tribal leader from very close to the Waziristan area. He said it's likely to strike a chord with some of those tribal members, this idea that they should resist the government of President Musharaff but he said he thought it was unlikely that it would really erode President Musharaff's support for the war on terrorism -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Nic Robertson in Islamabad on top of this story as he always is. Thanks very much.

What can we learn from this alleged al Qaeda tape? It does refer to the Pakistani offensive which began within the past month. But there is no mention of last week's fighting when Pakistan is said to have had a high-value target surrounded. There has been been some unusually high number of casualties, but there has been a lag of a couple of weeks in the past between the time when such tapes are made and the time they're aired. So if this does turn out to be the voice of al-Zawahiri it does not serve as proof that he was alive after the recent fighting.

As U.S. forces in Afghanistan gear up for a so-called spring offensive, the Pentagon is adding some muscle. 2,000 United States marines will be deployed in the next few weeks and officials say they may bring their own combat jets. An equal number of marines already in Afghanistan will eventually leave. For now the deployment will boost U.S. troops strength to 13,000.

A deadly day in Iraq for U.S. military personnel with two service members killed since the morning. Military sources say one marine died and two were injured in an attack by insurgents near Fallujah. And coalition officials say a roadside bomb killed one soldier, injured two others near Baquba (ph). A third soldier was killed yesterday north of Baghdad.

A U.S. army investigation into suicides by U.S. troops in Iraq has found the rate was higher than usual last year. But does this represent a trend? We get more now from our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The death of 20-year-old army private first class Cory Small (ph) in Baghdad, July 3, began a statistical spike in reported suicides that alarmed army leaders and prompted the dispatch of a 12-member mental health team to Iraq. An average of two U.S. soldiers a month commit suicide in Iraq. But in July of last year that number jumped to five in a single month.

The army team has concluded while the suicide rate for 2003 was higher than recent historical rates, the high incidence during July did not signify an escalating rate of suicide. In 2003, 63 U.S. soldiers committed suicide, 23 while deployed in Iraq or Kuwait, seven more after they returned home. But just over half the total number, 33, was among other troops who weren't in the war zone. And after the spike in July, the suicide rate dropped back down to normal, so the Pentagon does not believe there is an epidemic but remains concerned.

For civilian men between the ages of 20 and 34, the rate is 21.5 per 100,000 people. The five deaths in July were enough to push the rate for troops serving in Iraq or Kuwait to 17.3 per 100,000 troops. Higher than the army average of about 12 per 100,000 over the previous eight years.

So what did push the suicide rate up in July? The army doesn't know for sure but possible stress factors include it was blazing hot in Iraq, the mission was turning more deadly and dangerous, tours of duty were extended and unlike when they're in the U.S., soldiers had ready access to firearms. Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: We have this information just coming into CNN right now. The defense in the Tyco trial has asked for a mistrial. CNN's Allan Chernoff is standing by outside the courthouse in New York. Allan, update our viewers, what's happening?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, not only the defense asking for a mistrial here but two notes from the jury coming out indicating a very important split within the jury. The first note saying that the atmosphere in the jury room has turned, quote, poisonous and the jurors alleging that one of their members has stopped deliberating in good faith and arguing that this may have compromised the fairness of the entire process here. Keep in mind Dennis Kozlowski, the former CEO, and Mark Schwartz, former chief financial officer of Tyco on trial here in New York charged with grand larceny, falsifying business records, conspiracy and also securities fraud. Now, the memo does say, from the jury, that the majority of us believe we could reach a fair conclusion without the presence of this one juror. The one juror wrote his own note saying that he believes that if other jurors refused to recognize the right that he believes that the prosecution has not proven its case. So it appears from these notes that most of the jurors believe that Kozlowski and Schwartz are guilty on at least some of the charges, and, Wolf, there are many charges here. Each is facing 24 counts.

Back to you, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Thanks very much, Allan. We'll get back to you once we get more information. Important development in New York. There's another important development we're following this New York at the United Nations Security Council, a resolution that would condemn Israel, the U.S. has just vetoed that resolution. We'll have a live report. That's coming up from New York as well.

On the job of showing a united front, though, as far as the Democratic Party is concerned, other important developments happening today. The Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry receive as key endorsement that proves times have, indeed, changed.

And a dangerous road to freedom. Cubans braving rough seas and terrible conditions to call America their home.

Plus this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This boy is an expression of despair of the way children have been abused.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Boy bomber, a teenager sent on a suicide mission. Hear from the young boy himself, and his family.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Earlier this week the Israelis assassinated the founder, leader of Hamas, Sheikh Yassin. The United Nation's Security Council has been considering a resolution that would have condemned Israel for this.

U.N. correspondent Richard Roth is standing by at the U.N. where the 15 members of the council have just voted -- Richard.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf.

The United States has just vetoed a resolution that would have condemned Israel over the killing of Sheikh Yassin. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte the only ambassador to put his hand in the air. U.S. A permanent veto in the council, their right to use it. He said it was an unbalanced resolution while the U.S. is, quote, Equally troubled by the killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Israel has exalted tensions in the region. But because others in the past submitted by the Palestinians did not specifically condemn terrorist acts by Hamas, the U.S. felt it had to veto this resolution. You're looking at scenes from earlier in the week, I believe in Geneva, at the Union Human Rights Commission. A different body, which also has condemned Israel. But there's no vetoes on that panel. Al (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the Arab proponent on the Security Council for the Palestinians, Wolf, just said this resolution by being vetoed sends the wrong message to Israel. Back to you.

BLITZER: Richard Roth reporting. Eleven members of the security council voted in favor. The U.S vetoed. Three abstentions Britain, Germany and Romania. Richard Roth reporting from the U.N.

Five weeks after dropping out of the Democratic presidential race, Howard Dean today endorsed John Kerry.

We have live reports on the presidential campaign from CNN's Sean Callebs, he's here in Washington and Dana Bash, she's over at the White House.

Let's start with Sean, though, on the Kerry campaign.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, remember the height of the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination back several weeks ago, did Howard Dean have a harsher critic than John Kerry and wasn't it Dean who repeatedly targeted Kerry as the ultimate Washington insider?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS (voice-over): Well, now times change. Sleeves rolled up, unbridled enthusiasm and a feel of a pep rally. This time Howard Dean was there to urge the Deaniacs to go to the polls and support his former opponent, a man he labeled an Washington insider.

HOWARD DEAN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know who I trust, I trust John Kerry and that's who I'm voting for, and that's who I'm working for.

CALLEBS: Campaign scrapes behind him, Dean professing he and the presumptive nominee share common themes and goals.

DEAN: In the end, it is generation Dean voting for John Kerry for president of the United States, that's going to send George Bush back to Crawford, Texas, where he belongs.

CALLEBS: Dean's opposition to the war in Iraq and effective use of the Internet to reach out to supporters and donors made him the early front-runner in the polls. But the strategy didn't translate into enough votes. Kerry echoing a theme of the Dean campaign used the occasion to renew his critique of the president.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I as president will tell you the truth and never take this nation to war on false information, false pretenses, false faces.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: But Democratic party love fest will continue in a matter of hours. Senator Kerry is scheduled to join former presidents, Carter and Clinton, at a Democrat dinner later this evening -- Wolf.

BLITZER: That's going to be a huge dinner. Thanks, Sean Callebs, for that report.

President Bush was on the road promoting his economic policies, but the 9/11 hearings of the week were clearly still very much on his mind.

Our White House correspondent Dana Bash is joining us now live with more -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, now the 9/11 commission hearings are over, the Bush campaign had hoped to turn the attention of the president and the message back on the offense. Their message of the week was to be the economy and what that is what the president went to New Hampshire to talk about, specifically to help laid off worker there's. He ended up starting the event playing defense, responding to Richard Clarke's charge that the president did not perhaps listen to warnings leading up to September 11, that an attack could have been imminent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Had I known that the enemy was going to use airports to strike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of this government to protect the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of this government to protect the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, the latest Pew Research poll show an extraordinary amount, 89 percent of Americans, have at least heard a little bit about the Clarke criticism of President Bush and the White House. And that may be a good indication of why the president himself felt the need to fire back on what is essentially day five of the Bush-White House counter offensive against their former counterterrorism aide.

Particularly, it's interesting where the president did it. He was in New Hampshire to talk about the economy, but this is a state that the Bush campaign really wants to win. He won just by 7,000 votes and this is where they're spending also some of the resources on ads -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Dana Bash reporting from the White House. Thanks, Dana, very much.

Just ahead this hour, I'll speak with the chairman of the president's re-election campaign Marc Racicot.

We'll also have this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (D-CT) FRM. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Obviously, I was disappointed by his decision to endorse Howard Dean and by the failure to let me know before I heard about it in the media.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: It could be quite an awkward political moment. The former presidential candidate Joe Lieberman on his first face-to-face meeting with his former vice president Al Gore difference Al Gore chose to endorse Howard Dean. That's coming up. I'll speak with Joe Lieberman.

Rescued in Mexico, British explorers are being pulled out of a flooded cave. But controversy is growing over what they were doing there in the first place.

And a day after her testimony, Kobe Bryant's accuser makes a plea to the court.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Senator Joe Lieberman was the Democratic vice presidential nominee four years ago and an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination this year. I spoke with him just a little while ago about this year's presidential race and about this week's 9/11 hearings.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Senator Lieberman thanks very much for joining us.

You and Senator McCain was instrumental in getting this 9/11 commission off the ground. You watched what happened over the past couple days. Were you impressed by allegations that Richard Clarke made or is he credible, in your opinion?

LIEBERMAN: Well, John McCain and I about a month after September 11 thought we needed an independent nonpartisan commission to investigate how did September 11 happen. So we can do everything possible to make sure nothing like it ever happens in America again. This commission, I think, has performed very well.

I thought the commissioners for the most part, were not partisan. They asked tough questions. They've got the make the evaluation.

Unfortunately their hearings are occurring in a political year, so naturally people are getting into a blame game instead of what we hoped it would do, which is to come up with a report that will help us strengthen our defenses against future 9/11s.

BLITZER: Based on what you know right now, could 9/11 have been averted? LIEBERMAN: You know, hindsight is always a lot clearer so you look back and you say, yes, if we had gotten our defenses together, if we had a terrorism coordinated watch list so these two people at the FBI knew they were in America, but apparently very few others knew, we might well have been able to stop it. And, of course, that's heart breaking, infuriating, and it leads us to do everything possible to make sure it doesn't happen again.

The good news is, that we've already done a lot. We've got a Department of Homeland Security. We've got a homeland defense command at the Pentagon now. People are...

BLITZER: So the defenses are much better today than they were before 9/11?

LIEBERMAN: Yes, they are. I'm not satisfied. I don't think anybody in government is satisfied, but we're safer today than we were before 9/11.

BLITZER: Richard Clarke who's at the center of these allegations apparently said one thing in closed door briefings to members of Congress while he worked for President Bush, saying something very radically different now. Let me get back to the original question. Do you believe him?

LIEBERMAN: Well, I think it's ultimately up to the commission. I think he makes some points that people in the Bush administration, at least some of them, don't disagree with. That while the new administration took the counterterrorism fight as important, they didn't have the sense of urgency that they might have had.

You know, I think as we look back at this, this is why I wish this wasn't happening in an election year when everybody wants to blame one side or the other, I think we came out of the last couple of days of hearings before the commission, there's a lot of fault to go around.

BLITZER: Plenty of blame in the Clinton administration, too.

LIEBERMAN: There is. And, look, I thought that Richard Clarke raised up his own credibility when he started with an apology. And it was personal, that he didn't do enough in his position to stop and prevent September 11. And that's what this ought to be about. Never again.

BLITZER: You worked with Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser. He seems to be suggesting that he was asleep at the wheel in trying to help the president understand this danger. Do you have confidence in her?

LIEBERMAN: You know, I was not there in those meetings that Richard Clarke talks about with Condoleezza Rice. I can't comment on that. Do I generally have confidence in Condi Rice? Yes, I do. She's very able, she works extremely hard and she has the president's confidence. So, yes, I have confidence in her.

BLITZER: How politically charged will this year be? It seems to be getting a very, very tough right now.

LIEBERMAN: It's going to be a very politically charged year. I mean, the fact is that it's a critically important election. That America faces challenges to our security, from terrorism particularly, and challenges to our prosperity, from a changing world economy that's taking jobs from us, that really are unlike anything we have faced before. And the people get this. People are worried. And so they're focused on this election.

The other thing happening is that the politicking, the advertising, the attack, counter attack, has started very early. And I just hope it happens in a way that it's positive and constructive so people don't get turned off and decided it doesn't matter if they come out to vote.

The other thing to remember in the midst of all this, yes, we're Democrats, yes, we're Republicans, but ultimately we're all Americans and we're in this together. We've got to work together to make our country both more secure and more prosperous.

BLITZER: I know you and Senator McCain have taken the lead to deal the consensus issues in a politically charged year. A lot of the polls in many of the battle ground states show a very close race between John Kerry and President bush but Ralph Nader seemingly registering two, three, 4 percent, 6 percent in some of the national polls, he could take a lot of votes away from John Kerry.

LIEBERMAN: Yes. Well, as Yogi used to say, it's deja vu all over again. I was there in 2000. And at different times in the campaign, Ralph Nader was up to 10 percent in some states. We ultimately got him down to 2.4 percent.

BLITZER: Nationally.

LIEBERMAN: Nationally. But look, his vote would have made the difference in Florida, New Hampshire, or maybe Ohio, a lot of other states. I argued then that a vote for Ralph Nader was really a vote for George Bush.

And that's what the voters have to decide.

BLITZER: I do in the sense that clearly more of the Nader voters would have voted Democrat last time and I think would again this time. That's what people have to ask themselves. Frankly, Ralph has to ask himself that. Does he want to reelect George Bush, as he helped to elect him in 2000?

BLITZER: You're going to be at this big rally tonight, this unity rally, with the former Presidents Clinton and Carter.

LIEBERMAN: Yes.

BLITZER: Al Gore will be there as well.

LIEBERMAN: Right.

BLITZER: Is this the first time you're going to be together with Al Gore since he endorsed Howard Dean?

LIEBERMAN: It is.

BLITZER: Give us what's going through your mind. What will you say to him when you see him?

LIEBERMAN: Look, I'm going to say hello and wish him well. I mean, obviously I was disappointed by his decision to endorse Howard Dean and by the failure to let me know before I heard about it in the media.

But I will be forever grateful for the historic opportunity that Al Gore personally gave me when he asked me to be his vice president candidate in 2000. And life goes on.

BLITZER: Senator Lieberman, life does go on. Thanks very much for joining us.

LIEBERMAN: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: And to our viewers, here's your chance to weigh in on this important story. Our "Web Question of the Day" is this, does Howard Dean's endorsement help John Kerry? You can vote right now. Go to CNN.com/Wolf. We'll have the results for you later in this broadcast.

Here's a check of what's happening at this hour. The woman who accuses Kobe Bryant of rape is asking that a trial date be set immediately so that she can get on with her life. Today, friends and former boyfriends of the 19-year-old woman testified about her past. Yesterday the woman faced more than three hours of intimate questioning about her sexual history.

The search is intensifying in Santa Cruz, California, for a missing to toddler. Aiden Burke vanished while playing in his backyard last night. Temperatures can dip into the 30s in the overnight hours. Authorities do not suspect foul play.

Five down, one to go. British Navy drivers have rescued five explorers trapped in a flooded cave in eastern Mexico. All of the explorers are said to be in good shape and in good spirits. Mexican officials are questioning what the men, some of whom are members of the British military, were doing there to begin with.

It was a political bombshell. Now comes a possible fallout. Up next, a closer look at Richard Clarke, the man whose allegations could shake up the presidential race this year.

Set for suicide. Just a young teen, he was prepared to become a so-called martyr. Are children now becoming the newest tool for terror?

And a stab at freedom turns into a struggle for life, a dramatic rescue off Florida, all of it, all of it caught on tape. And we'll bring it to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

More now on the 9/11 hearings and the man who stole the spotlight for much of those hearings. Richard Clarke was relatively unknown outside Washington until this week, when he accused President Bush of being asleep at the wheel when it came to the war on terror.

CNN's Jennifer Coggiola is here with more.

JENNIFER COGGIOLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf.

Well, Richard Clarke's career has spanned 30 years in government service, working under four successive presidents as a top terrorism expert. Yet most Americans have probably never heard of him until now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are affirmed to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

COGGIOLA (voice-over): A career that spanned more than three decades, the last few years devoted almost exclusively to the fight against al Qaeda.

RICHARD CLARKE, FORMER COUNTERTERRORISM ADVISER: Our goal was to do that, to eliminate it as a threat to the United States.

COGGIOLA: Raised in Pennsylvania, his father a chocolate factory worker, Richard Clarke is a 52-year-old graduate of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania.

A career federal civil servant, he served for 19 years in the intelligence community, State Department and Pentagon, before spending the next 11 at the White House under four administrations with six different titles. As President Reagan's deputy assistant secretary of state for intelligence, Clarke was credited for his psychological warfare efforts against Libya leader Colonel Moammar Gadhafi, according to "The New York Times."

Next, under the first President George Bush, assistant secretary of state for political military affairs, one of the few to accurately predict Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Clarke was President Clinton's counterterrorism chief, coordinating efforts of the CIA, Justice Department and the FBI. One of the first to push for military action against al Qaeda, Clarke argued for missile strikes against a suspected terrorism target which critics later claimed was simply a medicine factory.

Lastly, under President George Bush in 2001, Clarke continued to work as a counterterrorism expert on the National Security Council, though his responsibilities and title were diminished. One of the few White House officials allowed to carry a pistol for his protection, Clarke has received mixed reviews from former colleagues, who have labeled him everything from a bulldog of a bureaucrat to the go-to guy.

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NEW MEXICO: He's very credible. I remember Clarke as being literally a zealot when it came to counterterrorism.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: He has a different view of how to fight the war on terrorism. It is a narrow view, that it has to do with killing bin Laden and dealing with Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COGGIOLA: Clarke officially resigned January 31st, 2000, and recently told one newspaper he already doesn't miss Washington and indicated that he probably would seek a job in the private sector -- Wolf.

BLITZER: CNN's Jennifer Coggiola reporting, thanks, Jennifer very much.

Marc Racicot is chairman of President Bush's reelection campaign. He's joining us now to discuss the campaign, as well as the fallout, the political fallout from this 9/11 investigation.

What's your bottom line as far as the political damage, if you believe there is any, from the Richard Clarke accusations?

MARC RACICOT, BUSH-CHENEY CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: Well, I don't think Richard Clarke is believable. He's inherently unbelievable.

Take a look at his in record. In 2000, he told Congress that you couldn't perform a threat assessment because there were just simply too many threats against the United States. He also told them he couldn't put together a comprehensive strategy. In fact, what he said was is, it was silly. He's contradicted himself on a number of different occasions and then I think exploited it for personal gain.

But I do think this inquiry is very important to the American people and exploiting it obviously is us something that does not serve a very useful purpose. I do think it also points out the difference between the approaches. I mean, obviously, the president believing that we can no longer just simply sit back, cower in fear and hold our finger in the wind and hope that somehow by dispatching a missile in the middle of the night, that we'll terrorism.

He's taken this fight to those who actually breed the terrorism around the planet.

BLITZER: If this commission, this investigation, is so important, why didn't the president let his national security adviser, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, testify in open session, publicly before the panel, given the precedence where other national former adviser, Samuel Berger, in the Clinton administration, Zbigniew Brzezinski in the Carter administration, did testify before congress?

RACICOT: There are instances both directions, Wolf. And, as you know, this president believes that the erosion of executive privilege is something that has to be prevented. You've got to be able to receive unvarnished advice and counsel from those who work.

So it really runs presumptively against tradition that people in positions like that...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Politically, it could be embarrassing, though, to the president. She's a very effective spokeswoman for the president. She knows what's going on. She could have made a strong case not only to the commissioners, but to the American public.

RACICOT: There will be a strong case made. The facts will come out. That's the one nice thing about this deliberate inquiry, is that we're very confident in the facts.

And bottom line is, the president is a man of principle. He's going to respect the institution of the presidency.

BLITZER: There was a very dramatic moment yesterday at the beginning of Richard Clarke's testimony when he apologized to the American people and the survivors of the victims, those who suffered the most.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLARKE: To them who are here in the room, to those who are watching on television, your government failed you. Those entrusted with protecting you failed you. And I failed you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: A dramatic moment, you must admit.

Did the president fail the American public after nine months in office, not foreseeing this potential threat out there, and should he apologize to the American public?

RACICOT: Absolutely not.

For God's sake, Wolf, I wouldn't argue with Mr. Clarke's admission, because quite frankly just what he told Congress in the summer of 2000 reflects the fact that he didn't think this was an inquiry worthy of making and that, even in the best of circumstances you couldn't make it. This president, instantly upon being sworn into office, set about, as was mentioned by Condoleezza Rice, to no longer pursue a policy where we swatted at flies or guessed about the possibilities, but that we moved forward with a very aggressive strategy to address terrorism and the Taliban and al Qaeda.

That is a matter of record. It's been testified to by all of the principles who are involved, Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary Powell, Dr. Rice. I mean, at the end of the day, who are you going to believe, somebody that's trying to sell a book and who has contradicted himself on numerous occasions or the people who are charged with this responsibility and have spoken in unequivocal terms?

BLITZER: So you discount completely 30 years as a career civil servant?

RACICOT: No, I don't discount that. But at the end of 28 years, it appear to me that somebody got incredibly tired and incredibly sloppy and not very-well motivated.

BLITZER: On the political front, in the battle against John Kerry, how big of an issue do you anticipate this is going to be?

Well, we welcome the inquiry. I mean, the fact of the matter is, the president set about to participate in this inquiry to make certain that we're prepared for the future. And that's precisely what the focus is from his perspective.

He has been very -- as Senator Lieberman mentioned earlier in your program, he's been very aggressive and so many things have happened, from the creation of the Department of Homeland Security to taking this particular battle to the places where it actually begins. And that is in Baghdad, rather than in Boston.

BLITZER: All right, we'll continue this conversation on another occasion.

Governor, thanks very much for joining us.

RACICOT: Thank you, Wolf, very much.

BLITZER: Israelis foil a young suicide bomber, but it only fuels a new fear, children, yes, children, being used as tools for terror.

They wanted freedom. What they got was fright, a group of Cubans caught in the rough seas off Florida The dramatic pictures, we'll show them to you. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: In a conflict filled with horrifying images, this one truly stands out, a Palestinian boy strapped with explosives and sent on a suicide mission, telling Israeli soldiers -- and I'm quoting now -- "I don't want to die."

CNN's Chris Burns is joining us now live from Jerusalem with more on this horrible story -- Chris.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The day after Israeli troops caught 16-year-old Hussam Abdo at a West Bank checkpoint and blew up the suicide belt they forced him to take off, Israelis fear militants could be adopting a new terror delivery vehicle, kids.

DORE GOLD, ADVISER TO ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: There's a new and disturbing trend which we witnessed yesterday. BURNS: Hussam's parents say they didn't know anything about it.

MUHAMMED ABDO, FATHER (through translator): We still look at him as a child. He doesn't know what he is doing.

BURNS: Hussam's mother says he wasn't old enough to be a militant.

TAMAM ABDO, MOTHER (through translator): If he was older, I might have encouraged him, but this is really incredible, what they did to him.

BURNS: The Israeli army allowed an Israeli journalist to interview Hussam before an army camera. Hussam's account pointed to a simple suicide. He was short for his age and his mother said he was bullied in school.

QUESTION (through translator): Why did you think of committing such an act?

HUSSAM ABDO, ATTEMPTED SUICIDE BOMBING (through translator): Because of the people.

QUESTION (through translator): Because of the fire?

H. ABDO (through translator): The people, they don't love me.

QUESTION (through translator): What were you going to do in heaven?

H. ABDO (through translator): Sit.

QUESTION (through translator): And do what?

H. ABDO (through translator): Be happy.

BURNS: Israeli newspapers headlined the boy's account. "I Wanted Virgin in Paradise," read one newspaper. "I Wanted to Become a Man," said another, all fueling the fears of a country bracing for revenge attacks for Israel's killing of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin, fears that the militant could be expanding their ranks of suicide bombers to include the impressionable young.

Chris Burns, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Chris, thanks very much.

A risky journey in the name of freedom, Cubans braving treacherous surf conditions. Find out what happens to them now.

Plus, this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In addition to campaign calls, I also spend a lot of time on the phone listening to our European allies.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Comic relief courtesy of President Bush. We'll get to that.

First, though, a quick look at some other news making headlines around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): British Prime Minister Tony Blair says Libya can be a strong partner in the war on terror. Mr. Blair's meeting in Tripoli with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is seen as major step in Libya's return to the international community after years of being considered a rogue state.

Threat delayed. One day after railway workers found an unexploded bomb beneath the tracks, a shadowy group says it is suspending its attempts to attack French trains. The group says it needs more time to perfect its bombs. It warns, the attacks will resume in the future if France fails to pay a multimillion dollar ransom.

Taking on terror. Meeting for the first time since the deadly train bombings in Spain, leaders of the European Union are working to step up security. They appointed an antiterrorism czar to coordinate efforts among member countries.

Jolt of java. This they say is the largest cup of cappuccino ever made in Russia, 26 gallons. That includes eight gallons of espresso, and that thought alone could keep you up all night.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We have an update on a story that we brought you just a few minutes ago. This, we're just getting in. A toddler missing since yesterday in Santa Cruz, California has now been found.

Aiden Burke disappeared while playing with siblings in his backyard. Search crews combed the nearby mountains all day with concern about freezing overnight temperatures and mountain lions. But, again, the child has been found alive. He's being taken to a hospital so doctors can check him out. Good news.

An attempt at freedom ends with a daring rescue off Florida. The Coast Guard and beachgoers help rescue Cubans found floating off Fort Lauderdale-by-the-Sea earlier today.

Our national correspondent Susan Candiotti is joining us now live from Miami.

Pretty dramatic stuff, Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was, Wolf.

And authorities say tonight that it was just over a week ago that seven men and one woman left Cuba just east of Havana on a makeshift raft heading for the United States. But, tonight, so far, only three are left to tell their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): In seas up to eight feet and dangerous rip currents, two of the three Cuban migrants struggle to stay afloat. You will see one of them disappear under the pounding surf for eight seconds before resurfacing.

Trying to make land in order to qualify for asylum under a unique U.S. policy for Cubans, the migrants were just a few hundreds yards offshore, north of a landmark fishing peer in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. Coast Guard and news media helicopters hovered overhead. Not far away, a makeshift raft of four inner tubes tied together. Still inside, a woman barely waving to a second Coast Guard helicopter. Meantime, a bystander on shore dove in and dragged a man to safety in between crashing waves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was very beat up, blistered really bad, feet were pruned incredibly bad, and skin was peeling off.

CANDIOTTI: Two more rescuers waded into the water and helped drag another male to shore. Treatment began immediately, one man carried by volunteers and police to a waiting ambulance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a translator there (INAUDIBLE) asked him how many more. And they didn't know what was going on until he yelled out Cuba.

CANDIOTTI: Another man comforted by a rescue worker who poured fresh water over the migrant. A Coast Guard diver was lowered to the drifting raft. In two strokes, he reached the woman and within minutes she was lifted to safety in a basket.

Helicopters and boats were search for others believed missing. Conditions have been dangerous for days off Miami's coastline, with rough seas and a strong undertow. The Coast Guard says that makes a risky journey even more like a recipe for disaster.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: Under the wet-foot/dry-foot policy, all are likely to be able to stay, even the woman who was rescued technically at sea. Tonight, all three are being treated at a local hospital and rescue efforts are continuing for the five others who remain missing -- Wolf. BLITZER: Susan Candiotti reporting from Miami -- thanks, Susan, very much.

The results of our hot "Web Question of the Day," that comes up when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in our "Web Question of the Day." Take a look at this. Remember, this is not a scientific poll.

One night a year, official Washington takes itself a little less seriously. That night was last night at the annual Radio-TV Correspondents Dinner. President Bush was among the participants. Here's a sample of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere.

(LAUGHTER)

BUSH: Nope, no weapons over there.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Thanks very much for watching. By the way, tomorrow, my interview with the entertainer Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: You're going to call me Wolf. I'm going to call you Sean.

SEAN P. DIDDY COMBS, ENTERTAINER: Yes, sir.

BLITZER: Is that OK?

COMBS: Yes, sir, that's great.

BLITZER: But no sir, just Wolf.

COMBS: OK, yes, Wolf, whatever you say, sir.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

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