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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Are U.S. Troops Losing Ground in Iraq?; Al-Sadr in Coalition Crosshairs

Aired April 12, 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)
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Losing ground in Iraq? More convoys attacked, more Americans missing. But new hopes for the hostages.

Cleric in the crosshairs.

LT. GEN. RICARDO SANCHEZ, COMMANDER, COMBINED JOINT TASK FORCE 7: The mission of the U.S. forces is to kill or capture Muqtada al-Sadr.

KAGAN: Taking aim at a dangerous foe.

One family's pain. A Wisconsin woman is killed in Iraq. Should her two sisters return to the battlefield?

9/11 warning?

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There was nothing in there that said, you know, there's an imminent attack.

KAGAN: The president goes public on that private memo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Hello, I'm Daryn Kagan. Wolf is off today.

It is a day of fast-moving developments in Iraq where kidnappings have taken the place of fighting, at least for now, as the favored method of anti-Western violence. Just a short time ago, a Russian energy company tells Al-Jazeera that 11 of its workers had been abducted in Baghdad. That is on top of at least one American, three Japanese and two Arabs who also are still being held hostage in Iraq.

Hours earlier, China said that seven of its citizens had been released. This video is just in to CNN from the Arab language Al- Jazeera network. In addition to the kidnappings, attacks on Western convoys are also increasing. Our Jim Clancy begins our coverage. He is live this hour in Baghdad -- Jim.

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, as you put it some go free but others are taken. The very latest 11 Russians working in an electrical power plant here in Baghdad taken from their office on Friday. Two Iraqi guards who were with them were wounded as they tried to resist the kidnappers. Also today, this videotape just released. Seven Chinese immigrant workers who were snatched less than 24 hours ago as they were trying to come into Iraq. They have now been free to a clerical body here in Baghdad.

Meantime, as this hostage crisis deepens many wonder who is behind it all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY (voice-over): This is the face of Iraq's new insurgency. As fuel tankers burn ferociously behind him, a masked gunman vows to fight the Americans. Later he will tell CNN he sees hostages from the convoy to help in that fight.

The Friday ambush west of Baghdad is where insurgents are believed to have kidnapped nine people, including two U.S. soldiers.

BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. ARMY: It is not business as usual. We must acknowledge that. There are people out there who are taking hostages. There are people out there who are kidnapping people.

CLANCY: A deadline has come and gone with no word on the fate of the American truck driver Thomas Hamill. Two Japanese aide workers and an 18-year-old journalist are still in captivity. In all, some 30 people are now believed held hostage.

Foreigners jammed a Baghdad travel office trying to book air transport out of Iraq. His South Korean passport stacked along with others, this man said he was held for three days by Shi'a Muslim militiamen near Nasiriyah. Whatever officials are saying about the situation improving he and a lot of others are leaving Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Well the U.S. military faces another conflict here in Iraq. The civilian death toll in Nasiriyah, counts from inside the besieged city, say that as many as -- that hundreds of civilians, including women and children, may have been killed in U.S. air strikes. That is something coalition spokesmen angrily deny. With no way of verifying this independently it's impossible to sort out where is the truth -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Jim Clancy live in Baghdad.

Let's take a look at the situation which is somewhat calmer in at least two trouble spots. Fallujah. That's a site of last week's fierce and deadly battles between U.S. Marines and insurgents. And Najaf the center of an uprising by followers of an anti-American Shi'ite cleric.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN (voice-over): Iraqi police are returning to their post in Najaf, a Shi'ite holy city. It's among the latest hot spots. A spokesman for radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said that he's ordered his banned militia to withdraw from some of Najaf's police stations and other key buildings that they occupied for more than a week on the condition that U.S. troops leave the area. Sadr is still believed to be in that area and wanted on an Iraqi warrant for last year's killing of a pro-American cleric.

U.S. military commanders are clear they intend to get Sadr, one way or another.

SANCHEZ: The mission of the U.S. forces is to kill or capture Muqtada al-Sadr. That's our mission.

KAGAN: U.S. officials say the new Iraqi police and armed forces got their first real test fighting along side U.S. forces last week in Fallujah and Najaf.

Coalition spokesmen described another hot spot, Fallujah, as calmer than it has been. But it's still tense. U.S. Marines are sticking with their unilateral cease-fire after last week's deadly fighting with insurgents who have hold up in the town of 200,000 people.

But the situation remains unstable.

SANCHEZ: We have over the course of the last two days have continued to take some attacks in there. But we have responded appropriately. Today it seems a little bit better.

KAGAN: Meanwhile just south of Baghdad a military convoy carrying armored personnel carriers was seized and burned. No word yet on casualties.

Trouble, too, in Ba'Qubah, north of Baghdad where a U.S. convoy and an Iraqi police car were hit by a roadside bomb.

Regaining control of supply routes is a high priority for coalition forces as convoys come under increasing attack.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Looking at this. Up against the calendar, the transfer of power in Iraq is scheduled for a little more than two months from now. U.S. commanders are increasingly troubled by the performance of Iraq's new security forces. Let's go live to our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre for more on that -- Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, with a failure of one new Iraqi battalion to report for battle last week, it is raising questions about whether the U.S. is losing the support of ordinary Iraqis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE (voice-over): When the new Iraqi army 2nd Battalion finished its training in January, it was hailed by U.S. commanders as having proud and dedicated soldiers.

But last week that same Iraqi unit, having just taken casualties after an attack from fellow Iraqis, balked at being sent to join Marines fighting in Fallujah. frustrated U.S. commanders blame it on a failure of Iraqi command.

SANCHEZ: Clearly what we face here in the last week to ten days is a challenge that we've got to confront directly.

MCINTYRE: The breakdown follows another failure of Iraqi police to resist when militia loyal to the anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized control of police stations in the Sadr city section of Baghdad.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, COMBATANT COMMANDER, CENTRAL COMMAND: A number of units both in police force and also in the ICDC did not stand up to the intimidators'. The forces of Sadr's militia and that was a great disappointment to us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: Military officials say the reluctance of some Iraqis to fight may be based on some plain old fear. But the U.S. plans to stiffen their resolve by adding more American Special Forces to their ranks and replacing weak Iraqi commanders -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Let's talk about general numbers of troops. This was a time the number of troops are supposed to be scaled back but it doesn't look like it's heading in that direction.

MCINTYRE: U.S. Central Commander General John Abizaid today confirmed that he's asking for roughly 10,000 troops to remain in Iraq past the time when the would be coming home. And as CNN reported last week that means elements of the 1st Armored Division will likely be stuck in Iraq for three more months.

KAGAN: Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon.

A note for you here about the casualties, April has now become the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq since U.S. troops stormed into the country over a year ago. It's your turn to weigh in on the important story. Our "Web Question of the Day" is this: are the U.S. and coalition causality figures in Iraq higher than you expected? You can vote right now at cnn.Com/wolf. We'll have the results later in this broadcast.

Our live coverage of the conflict in Iraq continues ahead. I'll have a chance to speak with former Defense Secretary William Cohen. You see him live there. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in just a moment.

The Bush administration tries to reassure U.S. partners in Iraq just how willing is the coalition.

And...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They attacked our convoy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: An American taken hostage. And a Mississippi town is in shock.

Plus...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For the sake of our family, we have appealed to the Army National Guard to grant whatever exceptions necessary to make sure Rachel and Charity are not returned to Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Three sisters were serving in Iraq, now there are just two. All those stories coming up right here on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Now on to Vice President Dick Cheney's trip to Asia. It had taken on an unexpected sense of urgency amid the recent surge in fighting in Iraq and the killing and kidnappings of coalition members. Cheney is trying to persuade allies to continue supporting the Bush administration's mission. CNN's Jonathan Mann has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A planned trip through Asia overshadowed by the violence in Iraq.

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Japan is the best place for me to begin my first official visit to Asia.

MANN: Vice President Cheney stood by Prime Minister Koizumi who has promised to stay in Iraq despite the unknown fate of three Japanese citizens kidnapped last week. In China and South Korea which also suffered hostage takings, Cheney will be faced with the same task of assuring nervous allies their support in Iraq should remain firm. Italy and Poland have promised to stay the course but the recent escalation in violence is testing the resolve of the coalition. Spain's incoming prime minister has promised to bring Spanish troops home after the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30 without a U.N. mandate.

The U.S. now needs the U.N. to take a major role in Iraq once Iraqis take power. U.N. Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is in Iraq trying to chart a course forward. A job complicated by the recent bloodshed. To convince the United Nations to return to Iraq the U.S. is proposing the establishment of a special force especially to protect U.N. staff drawing on the troops of about a dozen other countries. France, India and Pakistan among them. Though you may recall they were reluctant to support the U.S. led war in the first place. Jonathan Mann, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: You have the violence raging. Can the U.S. put the lid back on in Iraq and can it count on its allies in Iraq's new security forces. Joining me now from Washington former defense secretary William Cohen. Mr. Secretary, thanks for being with us on this Monday afternoon.

First let's talk about this ever changing hostage situation. Some released, some taken. Does the U.S. military have to ignore what is taking place with all these different nationals being taken hostage?

WILLIAM COHEN, FMR. DEFENSE SECRETARY: It can't afford to ignore it but it can't respond to the individual cases of hostage taking. It's clear what the groups are trying to do and that is to undermine the building of the infrastructure or the rebuilding of the infrastructure. That's one of the key components to making Iraq a successful operation as such. So by attacking the infrastructure then attacking political leadership, engaging in kidnapping and then discouraging people from investing in that country, you can see what the future holds for the Iraqi people. And I think you can take and seize upon these kidnappings as an example to the majority of the Iraqi people of what is going to lie in store for them unless they rally behind the support for the United States and the coalition forces.

We can't succeed without the support of the Iraqi people. But we can't get the support of the Iraqi people unless we show them we're going to succeed and that means long-term commitment on the part of the United States militarily but not in a way they are seeing as an occupation force. That means going to the United Nations, asking for their help, bringing a U.N. major role in order to take away the perception that this is going to be largely a military occupation by the United States. So it's a big task ahead but one that has to be done.

KAGAN: Would you say example of local support would be what we saw happen last week in al-Kut where you saw the local leaders say there -- say to Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, get out of town, you're not going to take over here in this city.

COHEN: I think that's exactly what we have to contend with now. We need to have also Iraqi leaders, not only al-Sistani, Ayatollah al- Sistani, but other Iraqi leaders, those in the governing council to come out visibly, vocally and support of what the U.S. and the coalition forces are trying to achieve. If they sit on the sidelines and allow the dynamic to unfold where you have the possible combination of both the Sunni and the Shia in opposition to United States and the coalition forces, we have a major problem on our hands and one that will not be bright for us or the Iraqi people.

So now is the time to summon up the courage on the part of the Iraqi people to look to the United States, to look to the U.N., to say we want a better future. Because if we allow the radical elements to really destroy any hope for that future, then we face a very bleak and bloody future for all of us. KAGAN: I'm sorry, Mr. Secretary. Turning to another development from earlier today. General John Abizaid head of U.S. central command held a very candid news conference from Baghdad for reporters back in the Pentagon. Did you have a chance to see that or some of his comments from there?

COHEN: I didn't see his press conference. I have just seen a replay of some of the comments.

KAGAN: OK, let me tell you the specific point that I'm interested in getting a response to. He was asked specifically how did he think that the Iraqi forces were doing up to this point. He had great candor where he said some are doing really well and some are not doing that well. Specifically talked about the lack of the chain of command within the Iraqi military at this point. How do you develop that in a short amount of time that is needed at this point?

COHEN: Well, it takes leadership. It takes courage on the part of the leaders and it also takes the perception you are going to be successful. Many of those who are being trained by us are not going to be willing to put their lives next to marines and soldiers if they feel we are not going to be able to be successful and to sustain our commitment. So it's a combination of lack of leadership but also a combination of fear on their part that they will be siding with a losing cause. That's something they don't want to face. We have to show we're going to be successful and show we're going to be successful we need the support of the Iraqi people and international community. The two are inseparable.

KAGAN: And finally in the last minute we have here. This is a very emotional story we're going to get to in the program. The Witmer family out of Wisconsin. Three daughters serving in Iraq. One was killed late last week. Now the family is saying when our other two daughters come back, after the funeral is over we don't want them to go back to Iraq. They are appealing to the U.S. army so they won't have to do that. Any comment on what should happen to the two other Witmer sisters?

COHEN: I think the secretary of the army and the commanding officers will take every humanitarian issue they can into account in dealing with it. A sensitive issue, such as this. I'm sure they will look at it very closely and weigh the factors involved. It's very tough for the family and there may be some equity where they can find flexibility in the rules that would require the sisters to go back. Obviously they will have to make that judgment. It's one of those tough ones they have to make.

KAGAN: A huge sacrifice for that family in Wisconsin.

COHEN: Very tough for the family.

KAGAN: Mr. Secretary, thank you for your time today. I appreciate it. Former defense secretary William Cohen joining us from Washington D.C.

Covering the conflict in Iraq. New intense criticism of one network's coverage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have not been truthful in their reporting and they haven't been accurate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Now the network al-Jazeera fires back. You are going to hear from the editor-in-chief. That's coming up just ahead.

U.S. law enforcement sets to testify before the 9/11 Commission. A former FBI insider tells us what was known about the threat.

Ultimate high-stakes gambling. What happens when one man puts everything he owns on the line in Las Vegas? We'll tell you how it came out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: One of America's closest Middle East allies paid a visit to President Bush today at his Crawford, Texas, ranch. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak came to discuss the Arab/Israeli conflict but the violence in Iraq loomed large over their discussion. Let's go live now to Elaine Quijano, she's at the White House. Elaine, hello.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak said that he conveyed to President Bush serious concerns about the current state of affairs in Iraq. The president saying that he was particularly concerned about the areas of security and humanitarian efforts. Egypt's leader also stressed to President Bush the importance of restoring Iraq's sovereignty as soon as possible. And the Egyptian leader said that recent efforts to increase the role of the United Nations are an important step that should be encouraged.

For his part President Bush said the U.S.-led coalition is working with the U.N. to transfer political power to the Iraqi people. That deadline is still set for June 30. But the president has maintained even after the hand-over U.S. and coalition forces will remain in Iraq to help with security while the new government helps to take root.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A civil society, a peaceful society can't grow with people who are willing to kill in order to stop progress and our job is to provide security for the Iraqi people so that a transition can take place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, also today, President Bush announced that he will hold a formal news conference tomorrow night at 8:30 local time. That news conference just his 12th formal news conference since he took office. President Bush again making that announcement from his ranch in Crawford, Texas. That news conference will take place tomorrow evening -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Elaine Quijano at a soggy White House this afternoon.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is on the road and back on the attack. Kerry is out with what he calls a middle-class misery index showing among other things the soaring costs of going to college amid lagging income. The unveiling came during a visit to the University of New Hampshire. It's a bid to attract younger voters. A Kerry campaign study says that tuition costs at public colleges and universities have soared by 13 percent in the last three years. The Bush campaign spokesman calls the misery index a political stunt.

They've become the newest casualty of war, hostages captured by the Iraqi insurgents. Up next, the story of one of those held, an American whose fate at this hour is unknown and his family is nervously awaiting word in Mississippi.

One more -- two very different versions. Are Arabs seeing fabricated casualties? Are Americans seeing a sanitized war. I'll speak with the editor-in-chief of one Arab television network, al- Jazeera.

And three sisters, three soldiers. Why family members say that they have sacrificed enough in Iraq and now they want out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Welcome back to CNN. I'm Daryn Kagan in Atlanta. I'm in for Wolf today. Yellow ribbons and heavy hearts in one small Mississippi town as the fate of this kidnapped U.S. civilian in Iraq remains unknown. More on American Thomas Hamill but first a quick check of the latest headlines.

The police chief in Najaf, Iraq, says the radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is pulling back his militia which has controlled the holy city since last week but a coalition source tells CNN the Mehdi army is only giving up three of the police stations that it seized and a Sadr spokesman says the militia will only let police return if U.S. forces leave the area.

Justice officials in Spain announce three more arrests today in connection with last month's train bombing. They include a 28-year- old student arrested twice before in the case but released both times. 18 people are now charged in the terror attacks, 14 of them are Moroccans.

A hearing today to determine the future of Jayson Williams' manslaughter trial. It's on hold while the judge decides whether prosecutors intentionally withheld evidence in the case against the former NBA star. Williams is accused of shooting his chauffeur then trying to make it look like a suicide.

And a spokesman for the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas says that landmark property won't reopen until tomorrow morning at the earliest. The 3,000-room hotel lost power early yesterday morning forcing thousands guests to relocate. Let's turn back now to Iraq. More than a dozen people are being held hostage by insurgents. 11 Russians were kidnapped today while 7 Chinese grabbed in Iraq were set free.

An American, Thomas Hamill was working in Iraq to earn money after problems hit his Mississippi farm. He was taken hostage on Friday when his convoy was attacked.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN (voice-over): This fuzzy image from Iraq came into sharp focus thousands of miles away in a small town in Eastern Mississippi.

DOROTHY BAKER HINES, MAYOR OF MACON: Something like this happens and it makes us all stop and think. And I think this whole community is stopping and thinking that it's right here at home.

KAGAN: The man in the picture has been identified as 43-year-old Thomas Hamill. But in tiny Macon, Mississippi, they know better. He's a friend and neighbor that everybody calls Tommy.

Hamill and his wife, Kelly (ph), live in this home with their two children about five miles outside of Macon. And they have known hardship. Kelly works as a 911 operator, but she eventually had open heart surgery. Tommy was a dairy farmer until he ran into financial problems. For a while, he drove a truck to support his family but eventually he found a higher paying alternative.

SCOTT BOYD, "MACON BEACON": Tommy tried to stick it out in the dairy business, but didn't. He sold his farm and didn't quite earn enough from that sale to satisfy the debt, so he saw an opportunity to go to Iraq for a high-paying job, a lot better than the job that he could get over here.

KAGAN: Hamill was taken hostage while guarding a fuel convoy. He spoke briefly to an Australian reporter before his captors took him away.

QUESTION: What's happened?

THOMAS HAMILL, HOSTAGE: They attacked our convoy. That's all I'm going to say.

KAGAN: The people of Macon gathered at a vigil last night to offer public prayer for Hamill's safe release. They put up yellow ribbons and American flags.

HINES: We are all just praying for him. And that's about all we can do right now. But we're going to show him our support.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Well, ever since the Iraq war began, U.S. officials have criticized the Middle East-based Al-Jazeera cable television channel, saying that its reporting is biased against America. Lately, that criticism has intensified. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN SENOR, COALITION PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY: We encourage all Iraqis, all Iraqi journalists, to take some of the reporting that is conveyed on those channels with a grain of salt.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, CMDR., U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: It is always interesting to me how Al-Jazeera manages to be at the scene of the crime whenever a hostage shows up or some other problem happens to be there. So they have not been truthful in their reporting. They haven't been accurate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Earlier, I had the chance to discuss those comments with Al-Jazeera's editor in chief, Ahmed Al-Sheik.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

Ahmed Al-Sheik from Al-Jazeera, thank you so much for joining us.

Some very serious comments made about your network by American authorities over the last couple of days. In fact, is your network misrepresenting the facts as you see them on the ground in Iraq?

AHMED AL SHEIK, EDITOR IN CHIEF, AL-JAZEERA: I don't think so. I think we are being very accurate.

KAGAN: We hear from American officials and Dan Senor yesterday saying the pictures and the reporting that Al-Jazeera put on the air only adds to the sense of frustration and anger and adds to the problems in Iraq, rather than helping to solve them.

AL SHEIK: What we have been showing represents what takes place on the ground. We have been showing bodies of people who were killed, bodies and the graveyards where people are burying them down. We have been showing those who were injured in hospital in their beds, where their hands and legged were cuffed.

That's what we've been showing. And we never said before that the Americans killed those people intentionally. What we showed are pictures of U.S. helicopter gunships and F-16 fighter jets bombing Fallujah.

Isn't the story, though, bigger than just the simple numbers, with all due respect to the Iraqi civilians who have lost their lives -- the story bigger than just the numbers of people who were killed or the fact that they might have been killed by the U.S. military, that the insurgents, the people trying to cause problems within Fallujah, are mixing in among the civilians, making it actually possibly that even more civilians would be killed, that the story is what the Iraqi insurgents are doing, in addition to what is the response from the U.S. military?

AL SHEIK: Well, you call them Iraqi insurgents. We call them here resistance fighters. Those people are trying to defend their city. So if someone comes to a plant, that tries to occupy a plant, now, would you sit silent there without showing any resistance to him? What do we expect the Iraqi young people to do, to sit idle there, not to carry a gun and to fight? They believe that the Americans are occupying their country.

KAGAN: I want to get to another point that we heard General Abizaid -- because there was another news conference today with two other generals, General Abizaid and also General Sanchez from Baghdad today that was seen here in the U.S.

And he made some interesting comments where he said -- he said, to him: "It's interesting how Al-Jazeera always manages to be at the scene of the crime or when a hostage shows up. They have not been truthful in their reporting and they have not been accurate."

How is it that Al-Jazeera does get the videotape of these hostages?

AL SHEIK: In our bureau in Baghdad, we have 85 people working there. We have correspondents and pictures in almost in every Iraqi city, south and north, west and east. We are well equipped there and we have very good contacts there.

KAGAN: Finally, let me just ask you this, Mr. Al Sheik. When you hear comments like this from these American generals, from the Coalition Provisional Authority, specifically talking about your network and criticizing it, does it make you angry or does it raise the stature within the Arab world to have American officials say those things?

AL SHEIK: Well, it's not a matter of being angry. It never makes us angry, because this is expected. We expect this to happen because we can never satisfy all people. We know that we will never satisfy the Americans or the British or even the ex-Iraqi government. Saddam's regime also used to criticize us.

Everybody seems to criticize us when we do not please them.

KAGAN: But you stand by your reporting.

AL SHEIK: Yes.

KAGAN: Ahmed Al Sheik, editor in chief of Al-Jazeera, thank you for joining us by phone today.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: The presidential daily briefing that has Washington abuzz, it's likely the focus in tomorrow's 9/11 hearing. The question now, what law enforcement know just weeks before September 11. A preview is just ahead.

And then there is this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOAN APT, WITMER FAMILY SPOKESWOMAN: We have already sacrificed enough and our that our family must not be asked to bear such an impossible burden.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: A family's grief. They were sisters in blood and soldiers on the battlefield. Now one is dead and the family wants the others to come home and stay home. That's later.

But, first, a look at some other news making headlines around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN (voice-over): Russian officials say they don't expect to find any more survivors from a weekend mine explosion that killed at least 40 miners in Western Siberia. Officials say a small earthquake or shifting pole plates may have caused the explosion.

Mexican gas explosion. Officials say a gas explosion leveled two buildings in the Texas border town of Nuevo Progresso. Saturday's blast killed at least six people and injured more than a dozen others.

Indian stampede. At least 21 people were killed in the stampede for free clothing during a politician's birthday celebrations. Officials say in Northern India say it happened when thousands of people jammed in a small park rushed to collect free saris, a traditional dress.

Dutch hostage freed. A Dutch member of Doctors Without Borders is now a free man after being kidnapped near the Russian republic of Chechnya almost two years. He was rescued yesterday in an operation conducted by police. The kidnappers haven't been identified, but one official described them as bandits. And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Attorney General John Ashcroft is one of the key figures scheduled to appear before the 9/11 Commission when testimony resumes tomorrow. Aides say that Ashcroft vows an aggressive response to criminal that he showed little interest in counterterrorism before the attacks.

Our national correspondent David Ensor is in Washington with more on what to expect from the commission hearings tomorrow -- David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, as you say, the nation's top law enforcement officials and their predecessors in the Clinton administration can expect some blunt questions about failing to connect the dots before 9/11. And there will be questions especially for the FBI. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIMOTHY ROEMER, PRESIDENT, CENTER FOR NATIONAL POLICY: It is crescendo type activity that is causing the CIA director to have, so to speak, his hair on fire. Why aren't we seeing a commensurate reaction out of FBI and Justice to try to meet this threat?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENSOR: The commissioners want to know more about the 70 FBI al Qaeda-related investigations under way in the summer of 2001, according to the now famous presidential daily brief from the CIA, the one from August 6, 2001, a portion of which was made public over the weekend.

Commission sources are saying also to expect criticism of Attorney General Ashcroft from Tom Pickard, the acting FBI director in that time period, who has said that Ashcroft wasn't willing to focus much more on counterterrorism before 9/11. Ashcroft aides strongly reject the charge. And he'll be testifying for himself after Pickard tomorrow.

There may be growing focus, too, on failures by the Clinton administration. Commission officials say they are asking the White House to declassify another PDB or presidential daily brief, this time one that was given to President Clinton back in December of 1998. It covers the subject of al Qaeda's interest in hijacking planes -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, David, let's talk more about the PDB that came out of the White House over the weekend, as you were referring to. The president getting even more questions about that with the presidential daily briefing released. Has this set a precedent and opened up a Pandora's box with the release of this document?

ENSOR: Well, it certainly is a remarkable precedent, that's right. This is an administration that has prided itself on maintaining strongly executive privilege and keeping documents secret and only in the hands they absolutely had to get to.

And now you find that same administration releasing a presidential daily brief, the holy of holies of intelligence documents. People at the CIA are not happy about it. And now, as I said earlier, there's some talk of releasing yet another one.

KAGAN: All right, we'll be looking forward to that. David Ensor in Washington.

Joining us now on his take on tomorrow's 9/11 hearings, former FBI Agent Buck Revell in our Dallas bureau.

Buck, good afternoon. Thanks for being with us.

BUCK REVELL, FORMER FBI AGENT: Glad to be with you.

KAGAN: Let's skip the partisan politics. Let's skip the finger- pointing. Tomorrow's hearings, people want to know what the FBI did or didn't do in the summer of 2001 trying to prevent these attacks.

REVELL: Well, the president's daily bullet, or daily report, showed that they had 70 ongoing investigations. That's a lot of investigations on a nationwide basis.

What they didn't have was information on the hijackers except for two individuals who the CIA reported a month before had apparently come into the United States. And there were ongoing efforts by the bureau at that time to locate those two, although they didn't have arrest warrants, but they certainly would have at least put them under surveillance. So there was a lot going on.

This goes back all the way to 1993, with the first World Trade Center bombing, which ultimately was determined to be al Qaeda. We have known, even when I was still in the bureau, that al Qaeda intended to attack the United States, had already attacked the United States and was attacking it overseas. Bin Laden himself said that the United States was the ultimate enemy and any Muslim was blessed to go forward and attack Americans and American institutions.

KAGAN: There's a lot that wasn't -- because our time is so limited, I just want to be able to make the most use of it because certain key people on the hot seat tomorrow. John Ashcroft, there's no doubt he will be asked by that -- about the denial on September 10, 2001, the $58 million in extra counterterrorism funds that he denied, certainly that is going to come up tomorrow.

REVELL: Oh, absolutely, also that terrorism was not on the top of his agenda, his list of departmental objectives.

I think until 9/11 he probably wasn't really as well informed as he should have been. You know, whether that was his fault or some of his subordinates or FBI officials, we'll have to find out.

KAGAN: His predecessor, Janet Reno, there's a thing called the Reno law back in 1995, a directive that she signed pretty much telling FBI agents, do not share your intelligence with CIA agents.

REVELL: Well, there in fact were several laws that were only repealed with the Patriot Act that prohibited the FBI from sharing intelligence, even within the agency, unless the person was cleared in by a court order.

So one of the things that the commission hasn't done is focused on the impediments, the legal and structural impediments. And rather than playing the blame game, I would much rather see a more constructive approach.

KAGAN: Well, and constructive would be looking toward the future. And that is changing the culture, not just between agencies, FBI and CIA, but within the FBI. Do you think, from the contacts that you still have within the agency, that that is happening and that that is evolving?

REVELL: Well, I think that is a total misnomer. The culture of the FBI during my 30 years and since then has been to prevent every act of terrorism possible. There's never been a single circumstance where that was not the preeminent intent and responsibility. There were limitations on what could be shared and that's now coming out. And certainly, those limitations should be examined and they should be put aside, where they are not essential constitutional guarantees.

KAGAN: And not to take away from the intent and from the good hard work of the good men and women working in the FBI all these years. There are some who suggest the FBI has just too much on the plate, that, really, this agency needs to be split, that have you law enforcement working on one part of it and that you have domestic intelligence, kind of like the British system is set up. What do you think about that idea?

REVELL: I think it would be terrible.

Let me tell you why. First place, terrorists utilize a number of criminal type activities, drug trafficking, money laundering, credit card fraud, visa fraud. The more information you have from the criminal investigative process, the better able you are to filter that into the counterterrorist activities.

In addition, there are over 18,000 police agencies in the United States. And you would have to go back and replicate all of the contacts and connections the FBI has for any intelligence or security service to be able to function anywhere close as capably as the bureau can.

KAGAN: Buck Revell in Dallas, no doubt you'll be watching these hearings very closely tomorrow?

REVELL: I will indeed.

KAGAN: You can see them live right here on CNN. Buck, thank you.

REVELL: Thank you.

KAGAN: Coming up next, we're going to focus on one family's grief. Two women bring their fallen family home from Iraq. Their family now pleading to keep them from having to make a return trip.

First, though, a look at some stories you might have missed this past weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN (voice-over): Thousands of people took to the streets of Philadelphia Saturday calling for an end to violence that has claimed the lives of 24 students since September. Planners put together the March to Save the Children after a 10-year-old was shot and killed outside his elementary school.

Tens of thousands jammed St. Peter's Square yesterday, as Pope John Paul II gave his Easter message. The faithful had to go through tight security to hear the pontiff call on the world to reject the logic of death and to see terror.

Sinking a dramatic putt on the final hole after a masterful back nine, golfer Phil Mickelson won the Masters golf tournament yesterday. It was Mickelson's first major win in 43 tries as a professional. Often called the best golfer without a major, the left-handed golfer finally got the jacket by beating Ernie Els by one stroke.

And Englishman Ashley Revell was down to the clothes on his back. He bet every cent he had on red yesterday in Las Vegas, pinning his hopes on the turn of the roulette wheel. Revell sold everything he owned to raise $135,000 to the big bet, which he won, doubling his money. The wager was part of a British reality television show called "Double Or Nothing."

And that's our weekend snapshot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: A family's pride for three sisters all serving in Iraq is now with mixed with grief and fear after one of the daughters was killed in Baghdad. Their surviving daughters returned home today for their sister's funeral and, as CNN's Brian Todd explains, another family dilemma.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): December 2003, a brief visit home for all three Witmer sisters, Rachel, Michelle and Michelle's twin, Charity, all three serving in the Wisconsin National Guard on active duty in Iraq. Two of them, Rachel and Michelle, in the same unit, the 32nd Military Police Company.

Michelle Witmer talks about the day they were home and Saddam Hussein was captured.

PVT. MICHELLE WITMER, U.S. ARMY: Rachel came running into my bedroom, jumped on my bed on top of me and started shaking me and I thought the house was on fire. I had no idea what was going on. And she's like, they got him, they got him, they got him.

TODD: Just days ago, April 1, the family's Web site posts hopeful news, a possible return date for Michelle and Rachel not far away. "Keep praying. They are almost home." Today's posting, the worst possible news. Michelle Witmer, 20 years old, killed in an ambush in Baghdad last Friday.

Michelle's sisters are back home in New Berlin, Wisconsin, for the funeral on Wednesday, scheduled to return to Iraq right after that. But their heart-stricken family is appealing to the National Guard, members of Congress and the Pentagon to keep their surviving daughters home.

APT: "Our family must not be asked to bear such an impossible burden."

TODD: The Army says a serving relative of a soldier who dies in combat can request to be transferred out of a hostile area. The request must come from the soldier and permission is not automatic. The family admits Rachel and Charity are conflicted.

JOHN WITMER, FATHER: They are so concerned that we not violate the chain of command. They are so concerned that they -- that we understand that they have a commitment to all those people they have been serving with. And so it's a real dilemma, because we need them home.

TODD: The parents say they want both daughters to serve out their commitments stateside, an issue that has to be resolved first within the family, a family that is now grieving and remembering a daughter who seemed to have uncanny perspective for her age.

M. WITMER: I have seen some amazing things. And I feel like I have lived a lot of life for being only 19.

TODD: Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Our "Web Question of the Day" is this: Are the U.S. and coalition casualty figures in Iraq higher than you would have expected? You can vote right now. CNN.com/Wolf is the place. The results for you when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Here's how you're weighing in on our "Web Question of the Day": Are the U.S. and coalition casualty figures in Iraq higher than you expected; 52 percent say yes; 48 percent say no.

Keep in mind, this is not a scientific poll.

And now to your e-mail.

M.J. writes: "The president's statement that the August 6 memo had no actionable intelligence is nothing more than an excuse for inefficiency and negligence. The attacks of 9/11 took place because the administration ignored the al Qaeda threat and focused instead on its preoccupation with Iraq."

But Douglass counters with this -- quote -- "Bill Clinton had opportunities to take bin Laden and didn't. Clinton also had information regarding terrorists planning a spectacular attack on the U.S. If Clinton and the Democrats had acted while they were in office, maybe 9/11 never would have happened. It appears Clinton was to involved with the Monica Lewinsky scandal to protect our country from bin Laden."

And, finally, our picture of the day. Peter Cottontail has hopped on down the bunny trail for another year, but today there was just one more piece of unfinished business, the annual White House Easter egg roll. It did rain. Still, hundreds of children showed up to roll their eggs on the White House lawn using spoons to push them along. The Easter egg roll has been a White House traditional since the Rutherford Hayes administration. And we decided to make it our picture of the day.

Here's hoping you had a great holiday. As always, you can WOLF BLITZER REPORTS weekdays at this time, 5:00 Eastern. Wolf is right back here tomorrow. I'll see you 10:00 a.m. Eastern.

And "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" begins 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 April 12, 2004 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Losing ground in Iraq? More convoys attacked, more Americans missing. But new hopes for the hostages.

Cleric in the crosshairs.

LT. GEN. RICARDO SANCHEZ, COMMANDER, COMBINED JOINT TASK FORCE 7: The mission of the U.S. forces is to kill or capture Muqtada al-Sadr.

KAGAN: Taking aim at a dangerous foe.

One family's pain. A Wisconsin woman is killed in Iraq. Should her two sisters return to the battlefield?

9/11 warning?

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There was nothing in there that said, you know, there's an imminent attack.

KAGAN: The president goes public on that private memo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Hello, I'm Daryn Kagan. Wolf is off today.

It is a day of fast-moving developments in Iraq where kidnappings have taken the place of fighting, at least for now, as the favored method of anti-Western violence. Just a short time ago, a Russian energy company tells Al-Jazeera that 11 of its workers had been abducted in Baghdad. That is on top of at least one American, three Japanese and two Arabs who also are still being held hostage in Iraq.

Hours earlier, China said that seven of its citizens had been released. This video is just in to CNN from the Arab language Al- Jazeera network. In addition to the kidnappings, attacks on Western convoys are also increasing. Our Jim Clancy begins our coverage. He is live this hour in Baghdad -- Jim.

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, as you put it some go free but others are taken. The very latest 11 Russians working in an electrical power plant here in Baghdad taken from their office on Friday. Two Iraqi guards who were with them were wounded as they tried to resist the kidnappers. Also today, this videotape just released. Seven Chinese immigrant workers who were snatched less than 24 hours ago as they were trying to come into Iraq. They have now been free to a clerical body here in Baghdad.

Meantime, as this hostage crisis deepens many wonder who is behind it all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY (voice-over): This is the face of Iraq's new insurgency. As fuel tankers burn ferociously behind him, a masked gunman vows to fight the Americans. Later he will tell CNN he sees hostages from the convoy to help in that fight.

The Friday ambush west of Baghdad is where insurgents are believed to have kidnapped nine people, including two U.S. soldiers.

BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. ARMY: It is not business as usual. We must acknowledge that. There are people out there who are taking hostages. There are people out there who are kidnapping people.

CLANCY: A deadline has come and gone with no word on the fate of the American truck driver Thomas Hamill. Two Japanese aide workers and an 18-year-old journalist are still in captivity. In all, some 30 people are now believed held hostage.

Foreigners jammed a Baghdad travel office trying to book air transport out of Iraq. His South Korean passport stacked along with others, this man said he was held for three days by Shi'a Muslim militiamen near Nasiriyah. Whatever officials are saying about the situation improving he and a lot of others are leaving Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Well the U.S. military faces another conflict here in Iraq. The civilian death toll in Nasiriyah, counts from inside the besieged city, say that as many as -- that hundreds of civilians, including women and children, may have been killed in U.S. air strikes. That is something coalition spokesmen angrily deny. With no way of verifying this independently it's impossible to sort out where is the truth -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Jim Clancy live in Baghdad.

Let's take a look at the situation which is somewhat calmer in at least two trouble spots. Fallujah. That's a site of last week's fierce and deadly battles between U.S. Marines and insurgents. And Najaf the center of an uprising by followers of an anti-American Shi'ite cleric.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN (voice-over): Iraqi police are returning to their post in Najaf, a Shi'ite holy city. It's among the latest hot spots. A spokesman for radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said that he's ordered his banned militia to withdraw from some of Najaf's police stations and other key buildings that they occupied for more than a week on the condition that U.S. troops leave the area. Sadr is still believed to be in that area and wanted on an Iraqi warrant for last year's killing of a pro-American cleric.

U.S. military commanders are clear they intend to get Sadr, one way or another.

SANCHEZ: The mission of the U.S. forces is to kill or capture Muqtada al-Sadr. That's our mission.

KAGAN: U.S. officials say the new Iraqi police and armed forces got their first real test fighting along side U.S. forces last week in Fallujah and Najaf.

Coalition spokesmen described another hot spot, Fallujah, as calmer than it has been. But it's still tense. U.S. Marines are sticking with their unilateral cease-fire after last week's deadly fighting with insurgents who have hold up in the town of 200,000 people.

But the situation remains unstable.

SANCHEZ: We have over the course of the last two days have continued to take some attacks in there. But we have responded appropriately. Today it seems a little bit better.

KAGAN: Meanwhile just south of Baghdad a military convoy carrying armored personnel carriers was seized and burned. No word yet on casualties.

Trouble, too, in Ba'Qubah, north of Baghdad where a U.S. convoy and an Iraqi police car were hit by a roadside bomb.

Regaining control of supply routes is a high priority for coalition forces as convoys come under increasing attack.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Looking at this. Up against the calendar, the transfer of power in Iraq is scheduled for a little more than two months from now. U.S. commanders are increasingly troubled by the performance of Iraq's new security forces. Let's go live to our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre for more on that -- Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, with a failure of one new Iraqi battalion to report for battle last week, it is raising questions about whether the U.S. is losing the support of ordinary Iraqis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE (voice-over): When the new Iraqi army 2nd Battalion finished its training in January, it was hailed by U.S. commanders as having proud and dedicated soldiers.

But last week that same Iraqi unit, having just taken casualties after an attack from fellow Iraqis, balked at being sent to join Marines fighting in Fallujah. frustrated U.S. commanders blame it on a failure of Iraqi command.

SANCHEZ: Clearly what we face here in the last week to ten days is a challenge that we've got to confront directly.

MCINTYRE: The breakdown follows another failure of Iraqi police to resist when militia loyal to the anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized control of police stations in the Sadr city section of Baghdad.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, COMBATANT COMMANDER, CENTRAL COMMAND: A number of units both in police force and also in the ICDC did not stand up to the intimidators'. The forces of Sadr's militia and that was a great disappointment to us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: Military officials say the reluctance of some Iraqis to fight may be based on some plain old fear. But the U.S. plans to stiffen their resolve by adding more American Special Forces to their ranks and replacing weak Iraqi commanders -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Let's talk about general numbers of troops. This was a time the number of troops are supposed to be scaled back but it doesn't look like it's heading in that direction.

MCINTYRE: U.S. Central Commander General John Abizaid today confirmed that he's asking for roughly 10,000 troops to remain in Iraq past the time when the would be coming home. And as CNN reported last week that means elements of the 1st Armored Division will likely be stuck in Iraq for three more months.

KAGAN: Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon.

A note for you here about the casualties, April has now become the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq since U.S. troops stormed into the country over a year ago. It's your turn to weigh in on the important story. Our "Web Question of the Day" is this: are the U.S. and coalition causality figures in Iraq higher than you expected? You can vote right now at cnn.Com/wolf. We'll have the results later in this broadcast.

Our live coverage of the conflict in Iraq continues ahead. I'll have a chance to speak with former Defense Secretary William Cohen. You see him live there. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in just a moment.

The Bush administration tries to reassure U.S. partners in Iraq just how willing is the coalition.

And...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They attacked our convoy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: An American taken hostage. And a Mississippi town is in shock.

Plus...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For the sake of our family, we have appealed to the Army National Guard to grant whatever exceptions necessary to make sure Rachel and Charity are not returned to Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Three sisters were serving in Iraq, now there are just two. All those stories coming up right here on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Now on to Vice President Dick Cheney's trip to Asia. It had taken on an unexpected sense of urgency amid the recent surge in fighting in Iraq and the killing and kidnappings of coalition members. Cheney is trying to persuade allies to continue supporting the Bush administration's mission. CNN's Jonathan Mann has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A planned trip through Asia overshadowed by the violence in Iraq.

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Japan is the best place for me to begin my first official visit to Asia.

MANN: Vice President Cheney stood by Prime Minister Koizumi who has promised to stay in Iraq despite the unknown fate of three Japanese citizens kidnapped last week. In China and South Korea which also suffered hostage takings, Cheney will be faced with the same task of assuring nervous allies their support in Iraq should remain firm. Italy and Poland have promised to stay the course but the recent escalation in violence is testing the resolve of the coalition. Spain's incoming prime minister has promised to bring Spanish troops home after the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30 without a U.N. mandate.

The U.S. now needs the U.N. to take a major role in Iraq once Iraqis take power. U.N. Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is in Iraq trying to chart a course forward. A job complicated by the recent bloodshed. To convince the United Nations to return to Iraq the U.S. is proposing the establishment of a special force especially to protect U.N. staff drawing on the troops of about a dozen other countries. France, India and Pakistan among them. Though you may recall they were reluctant to support the U.S. led war in the first place. Jonathan Mann, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: You have the violence raging. Can the U.S. put the lid back on in Iraq and can it count on its allies in Iraq's new security forces. Joining me now from Washington former defense secretary William Cohen. Mr. Secretary, thanks for being with us on this Monday afternoon.

First let's talk about this ever changing hostage situation. Some released, some taken. Does the U.S. military have to ignore what is taking place with all these different nationals being taken hostage?

WILLIAM COHEN, FMR. DEFENSE SECRETARY: It can't afford to ignore it but it can't respond to the individual cases of hostage taking. It's clear what the groups are trying to do and that is to undermine the building of the infrastructure or the rebuilding of the infrastructure. That's one of the key components to making Iraq a successful operation as such. So by attacking the infrastructure then attacking political leadership, engaging in kidnapping and then discouraging people from investing in that country, you can see what the future holds for the Iraqi people. And I think you can take and seize upon these kidnappings as an example to the majority of the Iraqi people of what is going to lie in store for them unless they rally behind the support for the United States and the coalition forces.

We can't succeed without the support of the Iraqi people. But we can't get the support of the Iraqi people unless we show them we're going to succeed and that means long-term commitment on the part of the United States militarily but not in a way they are seeing as an occupation force. That means going to the United Nations, asking for their help, bringing a U.N. major role in order to take away the perception that this is going to be largely a military occupation by the United States. So it's a big task ahead but one that has to be done.

KAGAN: Would you say example of local support would be what we saw happen last week in al-Kut where you saw the local leaders say there -- say to Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, get out of town, you're not going to take over here in this city.

COHEN: I think that's exactly what we have to contend with now. We need to have also Iraqi leaders, not only al-Sistani, Ayatollah al- Sistani, but other Iraqi leaders, those in the governing council to come out visibly, vocally and support of what the U.S. and the coalition forces are trying to achieve. If they sit on the sidelines and allow the dynamic to unfold where you have the possible combination of both the Sunni and the Shia in opposition to United States and the coalition forces, we have a major problem on our hands and one that will not be bright for us or the Iraqi people.

So now is the time to summon up the courage on the part of the Iraqi people to look to the United States, to look to the U.N., to say we want a better future. Because if we allow the radical elements to really destroy any hope for that future, then we face a very bleak and bloody future for all of us. KAGAN: I'm sorry, Mr. Secretary. Turning to another development from earlier today. General John Abizaid head of U.S. central command held a very candid news conference from Baghdad for reporters back in the Pentagon. Did you have a chance to see that or some of his comments from there?

COHEN: I didn't see his press conference. I have just seen a replay of some of the comments.

KAGAN: OK, let me tell you the specific point that I'm interested in getting a response to. He was asked specifically how did he think that the Iraqi forces were doing up to this point. He had great candor where he said some are doing really well and some are not doing that well. Specifically talked about the lack of the chain of command within the Iraqi military at this point. How do you develop that in a short amount of time that is needed at this point?

COHEN: Well, it takes leadership. It takes courage on the part of the leaders and it also takes the perception you are going to be successful. Many of those who are being trained by us are not going to be willing to put their lives next to marines and soldiers if they feel we are not going to be able to be successful and to sustain our commitment. So it's a combination of lack of leadership but also a combination of fear on their part that they will be siding with a losing cause. That's something they don't want to face. We have to show we're going to be successful and show we're going to be successful we need the support of the Iraqi people and international community. The two are inseparable.

KAGAN: And finally in the last minute we have here. This is a very emotional story we're going to get to in the program. The Witmer family out of Wisconsin. Three daughters serving in Iraq. One was killed late last week. Now the family is saying when our other two daughters come back, after the funeral is over we don't want them to go back to Iraq. They are appealing to the U.S. army so they won't have to do that. Any comment on what should happen to the two other Witmer sisters?

COHEN: I think the secretary of the army and the commanding officers will take every humanitarian issue they can into account in dealing with it. A sensitive issue, such as this. I'm sure they will look at it very closely and weigh the factors involved. It's very tough for the family and there may be some equity where they can find flexibility in the rules that would require the sisters to go back. Obviously they will have to make that judgment. It's one of those tough ones they have to make.

KAGAN: A huge sacrifice for that family in Wisconsin.

COHEN: Very tough for the family.

KAGAN: Mr. Secretary, thank you for your time today. I appreciate it. Former defense secretary William Cohen joining us from Washington D.C.

Covering the conflict in Iraq. New intense criticism of one network's coverage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have not been truthful in their reporting and they haven't been accurate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Now the network al-Jazeera fires back. You are going to hear from the editor-in-chief. That's coming up just ahead.

U.S. law enforcement sets to testify before the 9/11 Commission. A former FBI insider tells us what was known about the threat.

Ultimate high-stakes gambling. What happens when one man puts everything he owns on the line in Las Vegas? We'll tell you how it came out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: One of America's closest Middle East allies paid a visit to President Bush today at his Crawford, Texas, ranch. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak came to discuss the Arab/Israeli conflict but the violence in Iraq loomed large over their discussion. Let's go live now to Elaine Quijano, she's at the White House. Elaine, hello.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak said that he conveyed to President Bush serious concerns about the current state of affairs in Iraq. The president saying that he was particularly concerned about the areas of security and humanitarian efforts. Egypt's leader also stressed to President Bush the importance of restoring Iraq's sovereignty as soon as possible. And the Egyptian leader said that recent efforts to increase the role of the United Nations are an important step that should be encouraged.

For his part President Bush said the U.S.-led coalition is working with the U.N. to transfer political power to the Iraqi people. That deadline is still set for June 30. But the president has maintained even after the hand-over U.S. and coalition forces will remain in Iraq to help with security while the new government helps to take root.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A civil society, a peaceful society can't grow with people who are willing to kill in order to stop progress and our job is to provide security for the Iraqi people so that a transition can take place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, also today, President Bush announced that he will hold a formal news conference tomorrow night at 8:30 local time. That news conference just his 12th formal news conference since he took office. President Bush again making that announcement from his ranch in Crawford, Texas. That news conference will take place tomorrow evening -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Elaine Quijano at a soggy White House this afternoon.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is on the road and back on the attack. Kerry is out with what he calls a middle-class misery index showing among other things the soaring costs of going to college amid lagging income. The unveiling came during a visit to the University of New Hampshire. It's a bid to attract younger voters. A Kerry campaign study says that tuition costs at public colleges and universities have soared by 13 percent in the last three years. The Bush campaign spokesman calls the misery index a political stunt.

They've become the newest casualty of war, hostages captured by the Iraqi insurgents. Up next, the story of one of those held, an American whose fate at this hour is unknown and his family is nervously awaiting word in Mississippi.

One more -- two very different versions. Are Arabs seeing fabricated casualties? Are Americans seeing a sanitized war. I'll speak with the editor-in-chief of one Arab television network, al- Jazeera.

And three sisters, three soldiers. Why family members say that they have sacrificed enough in Iraq and now they want out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Welcome back to CNN. I'm Daryn Kagan in Atlanta. I'm in for Wolf today. Yellow ribbons and heavy hearts in one small Mississippi town as the fate of this kidnapped U.S. civilian in Iraq remains unknown. More on American Thomas Hamill but first a quick check of the latest headlines.

The police chief in Najaf, Iraq, says the radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is pulling back his militia which has controlled the holy city since last week but a coalition source tells CNN the Mehdi army is only giving up three of the police stations that it seized and a Sadr spokesman says the militia will only let police return if U.S. forces leave the area.

Justice officials in Spain announce three more arrests today in connection with last month's train bombing. They include a 28-year- old student arrested twice before in the case but released both times. 18 people are now charged in the terror attacks, 14 of them are Moroccans.

A hearing today to determine the future of Jayson Williams' manslaughter trial. It's on hold while the judge decides whether prosecutors intentionally withheld evidence in the case against the former NBA star. Williams is accused of shooting his chauffeur then trying to make it look like a suicide.

And a spokesman for the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas says that landmark property won't reopen until tomorrow morning at the earliest. The 3,000-room hotel lost power early yesterday morning forcing thousands guests to relocate. Let's turn back now to Iraq. More than a dozen people are being held hostage by insurgents. 11 Russians were kidnapped today while 7 Chinese grabbed in Iraq were set free.

An American, Thomas Hamill was working in Iraq to earn money after problems hit his Mississippi farm. He was taken hostage on Friday when his convoy was attacked.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN (voice-over): This fuzzy image from Iraq came into sharp focus thousands of miles away in a small town in Eastern Mississippi.

DOROTHY BAKER HINES, MAYOR OF MACON: Something like this happens and it makes us all stop and think. And I think this whole community is stopping and thinking that it's right here at home.

KAGAN: The man in the picture has been identified as 43-year-old Thomas Hamill. But in tiny Macon, Mississippi, they know better. He's a friend and neighbor that everybody calls Tommy.

Hamill and his wife, Kelly (ph), live in this home with their two children about five miles outside of Macon. And they have known hardship. Kelly works as a 911 operator, but she eventually had open heart surgery. Tommy was a dairy farmer until he ran into financial problems. For a while, he drove a truck to support his family but eventually he found a higher paying alternative.

SCOTT BOYD, "MACON BEACON": Tommy tried to stick it out in the dairy business, but didn't. He sold his farm and didn't quite earn enough from that sale to satisfy the debt, so he saw an opportunity to go to Iraq for a high-paying job, a lot better than the job that he could get over here.

KAGAN: Hamill was taken hostage while guarding a fuel convoy. He spoke briefly to an Australian reporter before his captors took him away.

QUESTION: What's happened?

THOMAS HAMILL, HOSTAGE: They attacked our convoy. That's all I'm going to say.

KAGAN: The people of Macon gathered at a vigil last night to offer public prayer for Hamill's safe release. They put up yellow ribbons and American flags.

HINES: We are all just praying for him. And that's about all we can do right now. But we're going to show him our support.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Well, ever since the Iraq war began, U.S. officials have criticized the Middle East-based Al-Jazeera cable television channel, saying that its reporting is biased against America. Lately, that criticism has intensified. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN SENOR, COALITION PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY: We encourage all Iraqis, all Iraqi journalists, to take some of the reporting that is conveyed on those channels with a grain of salt.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, CMDR., U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: It is always interesting to me how Al-Jazeera manages to be at the scene of the crime whenever a hostage shows up or some other problem happens to be there. So they have not been truthful in their reporting. They haven't been accurate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Earlier, I had the chance to discuss those comments with Al-Jazeera's editor in chief, Ahmed Al-Sheik.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

Ahmed Al-Sheik from Al-Jazeera, thank you so much for joining us.

Some very serious comments made about your network by American authorities over the last couple of days. In fact, is your network misrepresenting the facts as you see them on the ground in Iraq?

AHMED AL SHEIK, EDITOR IN CHIEF, AL-JAZEERA: I don't think so. I think we are being very accurate.

KAGAN: We hear from American officials and Dan Senor yesterday saying the pictures and the reporting that Al-Jazeera put on the air only adds to the sense of frustration and anger and adds to the problems in Iraq, rather than helping to solve them.

AL SHEIK: What we have been showing represents what takes place on the ground. We have been showing bodies of people who were killed, bodies and the graveyards where people are burying them down. We have been showing those who were injured in hospital in their beds, where their hands and legged were cuffed.

That's what we've been showing. And we never said before that the Americans killed those people intentionally. What we showed are pictures of U.S. helicopter gunships and F-16 fighter jets bombing Fallujah.

Isn't the story, though, bigger than just the simple numbers, with all due respect to the Iraqi civilians who have lost their lives -- the story bigger than just the numbers of people who were killed or the fact that they might have been killed by the U.S. military, that the insurgents, the people trying to cause problems within Fallujah, are mixing in among the civilians, making it actually possibly that even more civilians would be killed, that the story is what the Iraqi insurgents are doing, in addition to what is the response from the U.S. military?

AL SHEIK: Well, you call them Iraqi insurgents. We call them here resistance fighters. Those people are trying to defend their city. So if someone comes to a plant, that tries to occupy a plant, now, would you sit silent there without showing any resistance to him? What do we expect the Iraqi young people to do, to sit idle there, not to carry a gun and to fight? They believe that the Americans are occupying their country.

KAGAN: I want to get to another point that we heard General Abizaid -- because there was another news conference today with two other generals, General Abizaid and also General Sanchez from Baghdad today that was seen here in the U.S.

And he made some interesting comments where he said -- he said, to him: "It's interesting how Al-Jazeera always manages to be at the scene of the crime or when a hostage shows up. They have not been truthful in their reporting and they have not been accurate."

How is it that Al-Jazeera does get the videotape of these hostages?

AL SHEIK: In our bureau in Baghdad, we have 85 people working there. We have correspondents and pictures in almost in every Iraqi city, south and north, west and east. We are well equipped there and we have very good contacts there.

KAGAN: Finally, let me just ask you this, Mr. Al Sheik. When you hear comments like this from these American generals, from the Coalition Provisional Authority, specifically talking about your network and criticizing it, does it make you angry or does it raise the stature within the Arab world to have American officials say those things?

AL SHEIK: Well, it's not a matter of being angry. It never makes us angry, because this is expected. We expect this to happen because we can never satisfy all people. We know that we will never satisfy the Americans or the British or even the ex-Iraqi government. Saddam's regime also used to criticize us.

Everybody seems to criticize us when we do not please them.

KAGAN: But you stand by your reporting.

AL SHEIK: Yes.

KAGAN: Ahmed Al Sheik, editor in chief of Al-Jazeera, thank you for joining us by phone today.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: The presidential daily briefing that has Washington abuzz, it's likely the focus in tomorrow's 9/11 hearing. The question now, what law enforcement know just weeks before September 11. A preview is just ahead.

And then there is this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOAN APT, WITMER FAMILY SPOKESWOMAN: We have already sacrificed enough and our that our family must not be asked to bear such an impossible burden.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: A family's grief. They were sisters in blood and soldiers on the battlefield. Now one is dead and the family wants the others to come home and stay home. That's later.

But, first, a look at some other news making headlines around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN (voice-over): Russian officials say they don't expect to find any more survivors from a weekend mine explosion that killed at least 40 miners in Western Siberia. Officials say a small earthquake or shifting pole plates may have caused the explosion.

Mexican gas explosion. Officials say a gas explosion leveled two buildings in the Texas border town of Nuevo Progresso. Saturday's blast killed at least six people and injured more than a dozen others.

Indian stampede. At least 21 people were killed in the stampede for free clothing during a politician's birthday celebrations. Officials say in Northern India say it happened when thousands of people jammed in a small park rushed to collect free saris, a traditional dress.

Dutch hostage freed. A Dutch member of Doctors Without Borders is now a free man after being kidnapped near the Russian republic of Chechnya almost two years. He was rescued yesterday in an operation conducted by police. The kidnappers haven't been identified, but one official described them as bandits. And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Attorney General John Ashcroft is one of the key figures scheduled to appear before the 9/11 Commission when testimony resumes tomorrow. Aides say that Ashcroft vows an aggressive response to criminal that he showed little interest in counterterrorism before the attacks.

Our national correspondent David Ensor is in Washington with more on what to expect from the commission hearings tomorrow -- David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, as you say, the nation's top law enforcement officials and their predecessors in the Clinton administration can expect some blunt questions about failing to connect the dots before 9/11. And there will be questions especially for the FBI. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIMOTHY ROEMER, PRESIDENT, CENTER FOR NATIONAL POLICY: It is crescendo type activity that is causing the CIA director to have, so to speak, his hair on fire. Why aren't we seeing a commensurate reaction out of FBI and Justice to try to meet this threat?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENSOR: The commissioners want to know more about the 70 FBI al Qaeda-related investigations under way in the summer of 2001, according to the now famous presidential daily brief from the CIA, the one from August 6, 2001, a portion of which was made public over the weekend.

Commission sources are saying also to expect criticism of Attorney General Ashcroft from Tom Pickard, the acting FBI director in that time period, who has said that Ashcroft wasn't willing to focus much more on counterterrorism before 9/11. Ashcroft aides strongly reject the charge. And he'll be testifying for himself after Pickard tomorrow.

There may be growing focus, too, on failures by the Clinton administration. Commission officials say they are asking the White House to declassify another PDB or presidential daily brief, this time one that was given to President Clinton back in December of 1998. It covers the subject of al Qaeda's interest in hijacking planes -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, David, let's talk more about the PDB that came out of the White House over the weekend, as you were referring to. The president getting even more questions about that with the presidential daily briefing released. Has this set a precedent and opened up a Pandora's box with the release of this document?

ENSOR: Well, it certainly is a remarkable precedent, that's right. This is an administration that has prided itself on maintaining strongly executive privilege and keeping documents secret and only in the hands they absolutely had to get to.

And now you find that same administration releasing a presidential daily brief, the holy of holies of intelligence documents. People at the CIA are not happy about it. And now, as I said earlier, there's some talk of releasing yet another one.

KAGAN: All right, we'll be looking forward to that. David Ensor in Washington.

Joining us now on his take on tomorrow's 9/11 hearings, former FBI Agent Buck Revell in our Dallas bureau.

Buck, good afternoon. Thanks for being with us.

BUCK REVELL, FORMER FBI AGENT: Glad to be with you.

KAGAN: Let's skip the partisan politics. Let's skip the finger- pointing. Tomorrow's hearings, people want to know what the FBI did or didn't do in the summer of 2001 trying to prevent these attacks.

REVELL: Well, the president's daily bullet, or daily report, showed that they had 70 ongoing investigations. That's a lot of investigations on a nationwide basis.

What they didn't have was information on the hijackers except for two individuals who the CIA reported a month before had apparently come into the United States. And there were ongoing efforts by the bureau at that time to locate those two, although they didn't have arrest warrants, but they certainly would have at least put them under surveillance. So there was a lot going on.

This goes back all the way to 1993, with the first World Trade Center bombing, which ultimately was determined to be al Qaeda. We have known, even when I was still in the bureau, that al Qaeda intended to attack the United States, had already attacked the United States and was attacking it overseas. Bin Laden himself said that the United States was the ultimate enemy and any Muslim was blessed to go forward and attack Americans and American institutions.

KAGAN: There's a lot that wasn't -- because our time is so limited, I just want to be able to make the most use of it because certain key people on the hot seat tomorrow. John Ashcroft, there's no doubt he will be asked by that -- about the denial on September 10, 2001, the $58 million in extra counterterrorism funds that he denied, certainly that is going to come up tomorrow.

REVELL: Oh, absolutely, also that terrorism was not on the top of his agenda, his list of departmental objectives.

I think until 9/11 he probably wasn't really as well informed as he should have been. You know, whether that was his fault or some of his subordinates or FBI officials, we'll have to find out.

KAGAN: His predecessor, Janet Reno, there's a thing called the Reno law back in 1995, a directive that she signed pretty much telling FBI agents, do not share your intelligence with CIA agents.

REVELL: Well, there in fact were several laws that were only repealed with the Patriot Act that prohibited the FBI from sharing intelligence, even within the agency, unless the person was cleared in by a court order.

So one of the things that the commission hasn't done is focused on the impediments, the legal and structural impediments. And rather than playing the blame game, I would much rather see a more constructive approach.

KAGAN: Well, and constructive would be looking toward the future. And that is changing the culture, not just between agencies, FBI and CIA, but within the FBI. Do you think, from the contacts that you still have within the agency, that that is happening and that that is evolving?

REVELL: Well, I think that is a total misnomer. The culture of the FBI during my 30 years and since then has been to prevent every act of terrorism possible. There's never been a single circumstance where that was not the preeminent intent and responsibility. There were limitations on what could be shared and that's now coming out. And certainly, those limitations should be examined and they should be put aside, where they are not essential constitutional guarantees.

KAGAN: And not to take away from the intent and from the good hard work of the good men and women working in the FBI all these years. There are some who suggest the FBI has just too much on the plate, that, really, this agency needs to be split, that have you law enforcement working on one part of it and that you have domestic intelligence, kind of like the British system is set up. What do you think about that idea?

REVELL: I think it would be terrible.

Let me tell you why. First place, terrorists utilize a number of criminal type activities, drug trafficking, money laundering, credit card fraud, visa fraud. The more information you have from the criminal investigative process, the better able you are to filter that into the counterterrorist activities.

In addition, there are over 18,000 police agencies in the United States. And you would have to go back and replicate all of the contacts and connections the FBI has for any intelligence or security service to be able to function anywhere close as capably as the bureau can.

KAGAN: Buck Revell in Dallas, no doubt you'll be watching these hearings very closely tomorrow?

REVELL: I will indeed.

KAGAN: You can see them live right here on CNN. Buck, thank you.

REVELL: Thank you.

KAGAN: Coming up next, we're going to focus on one family's grief. Two women bring their fallen family home from Iraq. Their family now pleading to keep them from having to make a return trip.

First, though, a look at some stories you might have missed this past weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN (voice-over): Thousands of people took to the streets of Philadelphia Saturday calling for an end to violence that has claimed the lives of 24 students since September. Planners put together the March to Save the Children after a 10-year-old was shot and killed outside his elementary school.

Tens of thousands jammed St. Peter's Square yesterday, as Pope John Paul II gave his Easter message. The faithful had to go through tight security to hear the pontiff call on the world to reject the logic of death and to see terror.

Sinking a dramatic putt on the final hole after a masterful back nine, golfer Phil Mickelson won the Masters golf tournament yesterday. It was Mickelson's first major win in 43 tries as a professional. Often called the best golfer without a major, the left-handed golfer finally got the jacket by beating Ernie Els by one stroke.

And Englishman Ashley Revell was down to the clothes on his back. He bet every cent he had on red yesterday in Las Vegas, pinning his hopes on the turn of the roulette wheel. Revell sold everything he owned to raise $135,000 to the big bet, which he won, doubling his money. The wager was part of a British reality television show called "Double Or Nothing."

And that's our weekend snapshot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: A family's pride for three sisters all serving in Iraq is now with mixed with grief and fear after one of the daughters was killed in Baghdad. Their surviving daughters returned home today for their sister's funeral and, as CNN's Brian Todd explains, another family dilemma.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): December 2003, a brief visit home for all three Witmer sisters, Rachel, Michelle and Michelle's twin, Charity, all three serving in the Wisconsin National Guard on active duty in Iraq. Two of them, Rachel and Michelle, in the same unit, the 32nd Military Police Company.

Michelle Witmer talks about the day they were home and Saddam Hussein was captured.

PVT. MICHELLE WITMER, U.S. ARMY: Rachel came running into my bedroom, jumped on my bed on top of me and started shaking me and I thought the house was on fire. I had no idea what was going on. And she's like, they got him, they got him, they got him.

TODD: Just days ago, April 1, the family's Web site posts hopeful news, a possible return date for Michelle and Rachel not far away. "Keep praying. They are almost home." Today's posting, the worst possible news. Michelle Witmer, 20 years old, killed in an ambush in Baghdad last Friday.

Michelle's sisters are back home in New Berlin, Wisconsin, for the funeral on Wednesday, scheduled to return to Iraq right after that. But their heart-stricken family is appealing to the National Guard, members of Congress and the Pentagon to keep their surviving daughters home.

APT: "Our family must not be asked to bear such an impossible burden."

TODD: The Army says a serving relative of a soldier who dies in combat can request to be transferred out of a hostile area. The request must come from the soldier and permission is not automatic. The family admits Rachel and Charity are conflicted.

JOHN WITMER, FATHER: They are so concerned that we not violate the chain of command. They are so concerned that they -- that we understand that they have a commitment to all those people they have been serving with. And so it's a real dilemma, because we need them home.

TODD: The parents say they want both daughters to serve out their commitments stateside, an issue that has to be resolved first within the family, a family that is now grieving and remembering a daughter who seemed to have uncanny perspective for her age.

M. WITMER: I have seen some amazing things. And I feel like I have lived a lot of life for being only 19.

TODD: Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Our "Web Question of the Day" is this: Are the U.S. and coalition casualty figures in Iraq higher than you would have expected? You can vote right now. CNN.com/Wolf is the place. The results for you when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Here's how you're weighing in on our "Web Question of the Day": Are the U.S. and coalition casualty figures in Iraq higher than you expected; 52 percent say yes; 48 percent say no.

Keep in mind, this is not a scientific poll.

And now to your e-mail.

M.J. writes: "The president's statement that the August 6 memo had no actionable intelligence is nothing more than an excuse for inefficiency and negligence. The attacks of 9/11 took place because the administration ignored the al Qaeda threat and focused instead on its preoccupation with Iraq."

But Douglass counters with this -- quote -- "Bill Clinton had opportunities to take bin Laden and didn't. Clinton also had information regarding terrorists planning a spectacular attack on the U.S. If Clinton and the Democrats had acted while they were in office, maybe 9/11 never would have happened. It appears Clinton was to involved with the Monica Lewinsky scandal to protect our country from bin Laden."

And, finally, our picture of the day. Peter Cottontail has hopped on down the bunny trail for another year, but today there was just one more piece of unfinished business, the annual White House Easter egg roll. It did rain. Still, hundreds of children showed up to roll their eggs on the White House lawn using spoons to push them along. The Easter egg roll has been a White House traditional since the Rutherford Hayes administration. And we decided to make it our picture of the day.

Here's hoping you had a great holiday. As always, you can WOLF BLITZER REPORTS weekdays at this time, 5:00 Eastern. Wolf is right back here tomorrow. I'll see you 10:00 a.m. Eastern.

And "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" begins right now.

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