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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Hassoun Speaks Out; Did 9/11 Hijackers Get Help From Iran?; Chaos in Gaza

Aired July 19, 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.


WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Happening now, a U.S. marine finally speaks out. Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun says he did not desert his post, but while his harrowing ordeal may be over, his disappearance in Iraq is still shrouded in mystery.
Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Al Qaeda ally. Did the 9/11 hijackers have help?

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll continue to look and see if the Iranians were involved.

BLITZER: Bombing Baghdad. After a bloody suicide strike, Iraqis gather in praise of Saddam.

Chaos in Gaza. Yasser Arafat on the spot. Are Palestinians heading for civil war?

California burning. Wildfires force hundreds from their homes, the weather hot and dry.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Monday, July 19, 2004.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Was there an Iranian connection to the 9/11 terror attacks? That's just one of the issues expected to be addressed in the 9/11 commissions report that's due out this week. Our justice correspondent Kelli Arena has more details joining us now live.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The commissioners investigating the September 11 attacks have uncovered evidence of contacts between al Qaeda and Iran, but U.S. senior officials say none to support the notion that Iran knew about the 9/11 plot. Still, today, the president suggested it is not a closed issue.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA (voice-over): President Bush says the U.S. is digging through the facts to see if there's any connection between the September 11 attacks and Iran. This after revelation the 9/11 commission is expected to say at least eight hijackers passed through Iran before entering the United States.

BUSH: We'll continue to look and see if the Iranians were involved.

ARENA: U.S. officials say Iran was a frequent route for Jihadists moving in and out of Afghanistan and CIA acting director John McLaughlin says there's no evidence of any official connection between Iran and 9/11.

Iran says talk of a connection is election year rhetoric. But the report is also expected to outline how after the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, the Iranian government did approach al Qaeda about a partnership and was rejected. That just part of the massive 9/11 report to be rolled out on Thursday. It is expected to suggest a major overhaul of the U.S. intelligence apparatus. Chief among the recommendations, a call for a cabinet-level intelligence chief.

BUSH: We'll look at all their recommendations. And I will comment upon that having studied what they say.

ARENA: While the president skirted the issue, the acting director of the CIA did not, saying he was opposed to the idea. He quickly found some company.

FRANK GAFFNEY, FMR. PENTAGON OFFICIAL: This is a classic Washington response to a problem. Build more bureaucracy, add layers of wiring, diagram and boxes that may or may not actually address the underlying problem, which is the quality of intelligence.

ARENA: But there's also support for the idea of bringing the nation's 15 intelligence agencies under one head.

JAMES WOOLSEY, FMR. CIA DIRECTOR: I think some increased coordination, splitting the CIA job so one person is still the head of the CIA, but someone else who's in charge of overall intelligence coordination is probably a good idea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA: You can expect a lot more debate after Thursday's report. The 9/11 commissioners are gearing up for a lobbying campaign of sorts to keep the pressure on the White House and lawmakers who will decide on whether to act on those recommendations.

BLITZER: Kelli Arena, thanks for that report. More on the alleged Iranian connection. That will be coming up later this hour. We'll speak to the former defense secretary William Cohen.

Here's your chance to weigh in on the story. The web question of the day is this. "Do you think Iran was involved in the 9/11 attacks?" You can vote right now. Go to CNN.com/wolf.

Iraq's insurgents kept up the pressure today, this time a fuel tanker was rigged with explosives and driven by a suicide bomber into a Baghdad industrial neighborhood. The results? Devastating. CNN's Michael Holmes reports from the Iraqi capital. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was 8:20 in the morning, the target an Iraqi police station. With fewer and fewer coalition troops on the streets in recent weeks, the insurgents are more and more hitting what they can. Often poorly defended police stations manned by Iraqi security forces. Insurgents consider them collaborators in an occupation and justifiable targets.

Witnesses say the truck laden with explosives drove to the rear of the police station and detonated. The blast leaving a 2 meter hole in the ground. It's a busy street, crowded when the bomb went off. There were many dead and wounded.

After the explosion, a crowd of locals arrived and began chanting pro-Saddam slogans. With our blood, with our souls, we will sacrifice for Saddam. Iraqi soldiers ordered the crowd to disperse, eventually firing warning shots to make that happen.

Another favored tactic these days, assassinations of political and regional leaders. Two such attacks today, first a ministry of defense official gunned down outside his Baghdad home in a drive-by shooting. While further north in Mosul an official from the Turkman National Front, a political group gunned down in exactly the same manner.

The Iraqi prime minister, meanwhile, has allowed the reopening of a newspaper that supported the rebel Shi'a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The newspaper was closed in March by the then civil administrator Paul Bremer, who said the newspaper was inciting violence.

The prime minister stressing Monday freedom of the press and allowing all voices to, again, be heard.

Also Monday, the last of the Filipino soldiers in Iraq departing their base south of Baghdad after handing over their duties to Polish troops. The departure fulfilling a deal done with those holding the Filipino truck driver, Angelo de la Cruz, whose fate has been so closely watched in his homeland.

The hostage crisis continues for some, but has ended for one, an Egyptian man held by insurgents in Iraq has been freed. The truck driver reported captured on July 6 released Monday after his employer withdrew his business from Iraq as demanded by the hostage takers. Michael Holmes, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: He disappeared in Iraq and reappeared almost three weeks later in Lebanon. U.S. Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun is going public. Let's turn to our senior political correspondent Jamie McIntyre.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Marine Corps officials had told us all along that Corporal Hassoun claimed he was abducted, but today we heard it from his own lips. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE (voice-over): The Marines say that Corporal Hassoun is upset that some official statements and unofficial leaks portrayed him as a suspected deserter who may have staged his own kidnapping. Hassoun asked to make a public statement to put what he has told the Marines privately on the record.

CPL. WASSEF HASSOUN, U.S. MARINE CORPS.: I did not desert my post. I was captured and held against my will by anti-coalition forces for 19 days. This was a very difficult and challenging time for me.

MCINTYRE: The marines say Hassoun was joined by his brother and will soon be returned to his home base in North Carolina. While the investigation into his claimed abduction has been begun, criminal investigators have yet to question Hassoun directly, nor has he been charged with any wrongdoing or told he needs an attorney.

But sources say investigators want an explanation for why it appeared he left his base in Fallujah, Iraq, voluntarily. They're also concerned about what information he may have shared with his alleged captors because as an Arabic speaker he was used as an interpreter as the U.S. gathered intelligence from helpful Iraqis who could now be in danger.

LT. COL. DAVID LAPAN, U.S. MARINE CORPS.: We're not in the position at this point to make a judgment either way. We are still gathering facts and information and until that process is complete, at this point, we're supporting our young marine in bringing him back from a very harrowing ordeal and supporting his return to duty.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: While Corporal Hassoun is not technically a suspect there's little doubt that he could potentially face charges down the road. If he is charged, his defense attorneys are likely to argue that anything he says now can't be used against him because he didn't have the benefit of legal counsel -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Thanks, very much.

Investigating Iran. I'll speak live with the former U.S. defense secretary William Cohen about that country's possible link to 9/11.

Also ahead, rape apparently being used as a weapon of war in Sudan. Shocking new details released today by Amnesty International.

California burning. Firefighters battling several wildfires this hour in an effort to save hundreds of homes. Plus, this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He stopped and looked at me dead on like, who are you? How did you get in this room? Why are you taking my picture? (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Inside the green zone. Extraordinary, never-before- seen images of the former Iraqi leader.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: There's a truly significant development unfolding now in the Middle East. The Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is facing an extraordinary challenge in the streets and in the corridor of his own government. CNN's Alessio Vinci reports from Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meeting school children Yasser Arafat appeared unfazed by two days of unprecedented rebellion against his authority. His prime minister insists he will quit over chaos in Gaza. He urged the Palestinian leader to seriously consider demands for reforms. It is his strongest criticism ever of Arafat.

AHMED QOREI, PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER: I call on you and tell you that the time has come to reactivate all the security operators on a proper basis and the time has come to put the proper persons in the proper positions.

VINCI: Qorei spoke after hundreds of armed Palestinian militants went on a rampage this weekend in Gaza, burning a police station, attacking the headquarters of the Palestinian intelligence service. Militants violently rejected as meaningful reforms Arafat appointing his own nephew as the new security chief.

BASSEM EID, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST: By appointing Mr. Musa Arafat yesterday or the day before as the head of the Palestinian security, the national security in Gaza, I see that Arafat rules by such kind of an appointment that he's still interested in the corruption.

VINCI: The prime minister appealed for calm saying the Palestinian cabinet appointed a committee to address the current crisis.

QOREI: Who is corrupt and who isn't corrupt? These are the questions that are being raised. But this is not how corruption is solved.

VINCI: While Arafat clearly faces a growing challenge, some analysts predict the crisis may be resolved with new security officials but Arafat, they say, will survive.

MAHDI ABDEL HADI, PALESTINIAN ANALYST: Arafat has been and will continue to be a maestro of tactics and survival and this is one of the serious crisis he has been facing since '83, like Lebanon. It's not a mutiny, it's not a coup d'etat, it's a real crisis between the old guards and the young guards and he has to know that it's time for the old guards to leave the stage as soon as possible. VINCI: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants to withdraw his troops and settlers from Gaza by the end of next year. With the power vacuum that would follow this latest violence is yet another reminder that in Gaza there is more than one player ready and willing to take over. Allesio Vinci, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: An Israeli judge was shot dead today outside his home in a Tel Aviv suburb. The (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Martyrs Brigade that's tied to Yasser Arafat's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Movement reportedly claimed responsibility, but Israeli police have not ruled out a local criminal motive. It's the first killing of a judge in Israel's 56-year history.

Before Iraq, before Afghanistan, U.S. troops were deployed to the Balkans. Thousands are still there. Serbia's president joins me next.

And we're on the campaign trail with a live update from CNN's Election Express. Judy Woodruff will join me.

Plus a fiery wreck for a NASCAR legend. An update on Dale Earnhardt's condition.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. Amnesty International has released a new report on the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and accuses Arab militias of using rape as a weapon against black refugees in Sudan. CNN's Zain Verjee has been looking over this report. She joins us now live from the CNN Center in Atlanta. Zain, what did you find out?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this report is based on interviews with hundreds of refugees from Darfur who are now in neighboring Chad. The report says women in Darfur have been subjected to group punishment because members of their communities are fighting the Sudanese government for better treatment.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE (voice-over): They're as young as 8 and as old as 80 and according to Amnesty International, targets of mass rape by ruthless Arab militias known as the Janjaweed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Women and girls are being killed, raped, gang raped, raped in public, abducted, tortured and forced into sexual slavery.

VERJEE: A report by the right's group says systematic rape is used as a weapon of war against black women in Sudan's Darfur region. The militia group responsible is backed by the Sudanese government. Women are at great risk of HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases and rape is meant to shatter the social fabric of community.

Sudan expert Elizabeth Hodgkin contributed to the report.

ELIZABETH HODGKIN, SUDAN EXPERT: I think those who raped the women do very well, but the women that they were raping were going to be destroyed. The unmarried women might not be married, that the older women would be thrown out of their society, might be thrown out by their husbands and the women would be ostracized, stigmatized and so we say this was a weapon of war. Though it was designed to humiliate, punish, control and force people out of their villages.

VERJEE: The war in Darfur pits Arabs against blacks. Black Darfurians say they want more political rights. In more than a year of war, hundreds of villages have been burned down by Arab militias and up to 30,000 people are believed to have been slaughtered. Some of the testimony in the report -- "five to six men would rape us in rounds. One after the other during six days, every night. My husband could not forgive me after this. The Janjaweed broke the limbs of women and girls to prevent them from escaping."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have no doubt that what has happened is a war crime and because it happened systematically to hundreds of people it's a crime against humanity.

VERJEE: The Sudanese government says these conclusions are premature and such a serious judgment cannot be made without gathering facts first. It says it has cracked down, as promised on the Janjaweed militia and has convicted ten Janjaweed fighters of killing and looting. The government also says it's also conducting its own investigation into the raping of women, but experts say it's unlikely women will be willing to testify to Khartoum.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the people will be very afraid to give evidence because they've already been battered. They have already been traumatized and they won't have any trust in the Khartoum government.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE: Amnesty International is calling for an international commission of inquiry into the mass rape to bring to justice those responsible for sexual violence against women in Darfur. It also wants rights groups to have more access in Darfur and put human rights monitors on the ground -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Just when you think it can't get any more shocking in Sudan, it clearly does. Thanks very much.

First Afghanistan and then Iraq. The two latest American wars involving tens of thousands of U.S. and coalition forces. But there was another recent war that, for a time, dominated the news and involved Americans in combat in Europe for the first time since World War II.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Five years after a U.S.-led air war ended Serbia's brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, the province remains in a state of turmoil. The U.S. and its NATO allies did achieve victory by forcing Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic to pull his troops from Kosovo. Milosevic lost reelection by a landslide a year later and now is being tried on war crimes charges in The Hague, Netherlands.

But ethnic violence continues. The latest outbreak in March when the tables were turned and ethnic Albanians attacked minority Serbs. At least 19 people were killed and hundreds of homes and religious sites burned.

Some 18,000 NATO peacekeepers, including 2,500 American troops apparently are unable to cool tensions and stem the violence. A U.N.- backed group is just out with a report criticizing the U.N. mission in Kosovo for failing to make progress on human rights in the province, particularly the Serbian minority.

Complicating matters are two of the worlds most wanted war criminals. Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander General Ratko Mladic. Both are accused of numerous war crimes, the most horrendous being the 1995 slaughter of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys.

Serbian officials and western diplomats have told the Associated Press that both move in and out of Serbia relying on disguises and being helped by a network of supporters who tip them off whenever NATO patrols get close. NATO forces now in Bosnia, number some 7,500 troops, including 900 from the United States. Serbia's new pro- democracy government led by President Boris Tadic is under increasing western pressure to arrest him and some 15 other war crime fugitives hiding in the country. Mr. Tadic appeared to make clear his political direction in a campaign speech just before last month's election.

Despite hailing Mr. Tadic's victory, the Bush administration has minced no words in saying that any further political an financial support depends on the arrest and handover of Mladic to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The new Serbian president, Boris Tadic, is here in Washington for talks with the vice president, Dick Cheney, and other top Bush administration officials. President Tadic joins us now live.

Mr. President, thanks very much for joining us. Welcome to Washington. Good to have you here. What's so hard about finding these war criminals?

BORIS TADIC, SERBIAN PRESIDENT: We have a very important investigation about their positions, especially about the position of Ratko Mladic. From the beginning of my term as a former minister of defense, that was one year ago, I was trying to find him and to send him into the...

BLITZER: How much support does he have in the countryside among average Serbs? TADIC: This is not a problem. The problem is if he's not in Serbia. We really don't know where he is. But we want to cooperate with the Hague Tribunal, no question about that. And we have to do that. This is up to us. And right now, we'll do everything what is in our power to do that.

BLITZER: That's General Mladic?

TADIC: Yes.

BLITZER: And Karadzic, where is Mr. Karadzic?

TADIC: Mr. Karadzic is probably in Bosnia-Herzegovina. And nobody knows about his position right now in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

BLITZER: How big an issue, a thorn, an obstacle in the relationship between your government, Serbia and the Bush administration in the United States is this issue?

TADIC: This is the biggest problem for all of us. And this is a joint problem. We have to find a solution for that, because, I mean, the partnership between the United States and Serbia is a crucial thing in our future.

BLITZER: The suspicion, as you well know, is that you could be doing a better job, your military, your police, if you really wanted to find these war criminals, not just Mladic and Karadzic, but others, you could be doing it.

TADIC: No doubt about it. We'll do that.

BLITZER: You will find them. Is that what you're saying?

TADIC: We are trying to do everything that is in our power.

BLITZER: In the meantime, how much of a thorn in the relationship is it? Because the U.S. is clearly not doing the kinds of things you would like them to be doing and helping you as long as this issue is outstanding.

TADIC: I mean that in the past we had some problems. But I'm optimistic in terms of how our future relationship, in that sense, we have to cooperate, we have to find them together. We have to find ways (UNINTELLIGIBLE) together with the United States, with support of the United States. And in that sense, I'm really optimistic.

BLITZER: Slobodan Milosevic is still facing war crimes charges in The Hague. Give us your perspective in Iraq, for example, based on your experience. Saddam Hussein is going to facing a war crimes tribunal in Iraq. What advice do you have for the Iraqi people based on the Serb experience?

TADIC: This is a very interesting question. But, at the same time, I mean that Iraqi people have to cooperate with the international community about war criminals. This is very important for the nations. We have to be (UNINTELLIGIBLE), which happened in the past few years all together. And we have to take our responsibility for that. This is the precondition for our future.

BLITZER: Is there a backlash, though, in Serbia itself? Is there greater sympathy, at least some significant element of the population that supports Slobodan Milosevic in terms of this trial that he's going through?

TADIC: I defeated the radicalism and nationalism in Serbia. I mean, that is the past.

BLITZER: And the future is going to be what?

TADIC: Sure.

BLITZER: What's going to be the future of Serbia?

TADIC: The future of Serbia will be to join in the European Union. There will be a partnership in the program of Euro-Atlantic organizations. We'll be part of the Euro-Atlantic structure. At the same time, you have to provide everything for direct investments in our economy -- the economy and jobs, this is what we need.

BLITZER: The vice president's on your schedule, the secretary of state, other top officials, why not the president of the United States? You're the president of Serbia. You're here in Washington.

TADIC: Maybe he has to be in the campaign, I understand his position right now. I was in campaign only 13 days ago.

BLITZER: So you're understanding of his position.

TADIC: Yes.

BLITZER: He wants to get re-elected, I assume. Some day you will want to get re-elected as well.

Mr. President, thanks very much for joining us.

TADIC: Thank you so much.

BLITZER: Welcome to the United States.

Mounting tension and turbulence in Iraq. Up next, I'll be joined by the former U.S. defense secretary William Cohen.

Also ahead, inside the interrogations. A behind-the-scenes look of interrogations of Taliban and al Qaeda members inside an Afghan prison. I'll speak live with the author of an important new book.

Plus, the fires rage on tens of thousands of acres scorched in southern California. Now a desperate rush to save homes and lives.

And, later, the two No. 2's on the trail and in the spotlight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. Firefighters battling several wildfires in Southern California, they're working to save hundreds of homes right now. We're live from the front lines. We'll get there.

First, though, a quick check of stories now in the news.

A new development today in the Kobe Bryant rape case. The Colorado Supreme Court has upheld a prior restraint order. The court ruled that members of the news media cannot take advantage of a court clerk's mistake to publish information that was intended to remain confidential. Bryant, an NBA all-star, goes on trial late next month.

An Egyptian truck driver held hostage in Iraq is now free. The man was released today and taken to the Egyptian Embassy in Baghdad. He was taken hostage two weeks ago while delivering petroleum products in Iraq. His captors had threatened to behead him unless the Saudi company he works for agreed to pull its workers out of Iraq.

Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.

One week from today, Democrats open their national convention in Boston and this week before the curtain goes up on the big event, the campaigning goes on for both the Bush and Kerry campaigns.

CNN's Judy Woodruff covering the story from the CNN Election Express today in Concord, New Hampshire -- Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, Wolf.

That's right. We're in New Hampshire, the battleground state in the capital of Concord. You're right. The Election Express is here. We're just a little over an hour away, making our way to Boston, where the Democratic Convention gets under way one week from today.

But, you know, it is three and a half months until the election. That sounds like a long time. But at this stage of the game, every day counts for these candidates and every stop is part of a carefully thought out strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF (voice-over): After dismissing rumors of his political demise, Vice President Cheney is out hitting the trail hard today.

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The president's policy works. Those tax cuts are working. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

WOODRUFF: With stops in Ohio and Missouri, he's talking health care, assuring voters his own health is just fine. Addressing rising medical costs, Mr. Cheney also spoke of the need to limit jury awards for malpractice suits, a not-so-subtle shot at trial lawyers, the former occupation of a familiar face.

After a five-day solo tour, John Edwards returns home today to North Carolina. He's raising money in Durham and engaging in a bit of front-porch campaigning.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What Senator Kerry and I want to focus on, which is why we're having this conversation, is what we can do to actually make people's lives better.

WOODRUFF: Their running mates aside, a new national poll shows the race is still extremely close between George W. Bush and John Kerry, who, for the most part, are laying low today, the president meeting with world leaders in Washington, Senator Kerry in Massachusetts, resting before a final pre-convention tour.

That tour, dubbed America's Freedom Trail, starts Friday, when the two Democratic candidates, flanked by their families, meet in Kerry's birthplace of Aurora, Colorado. From there, Kerry makes five stops, first in Iowa, then to Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Pennsylvania, before landing in Boston for the convention.

Campaign officials say the stops represent optimistic moments in the nation's history and emphasize Kerry-Edwards campaign themes. Many also happen to be in battleground states.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: So, Wolf, there is nothing accidental about these stops. And the Kerry campaign says right now it believes that many voters are at the point where they're ready to consider voting George W. Bush out of office, but they haven't yet been persuaded that John Kerry is the right alternative. That's what these two weeks are all about -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Interesting two weeks for all of us. Judy Woodruff, reporting for us from the CNN Election Express -- thanks, Judy, very much.

This important programming note to our viewers. I will be joining Judy and our entire political team. I'll be reporting from the CNN Election Express bus Wednesday and Thursday up in Boston and then on Friday, starting on Friday, we'll be live from Boston's FleetCenter. That's the site of the Democratic National Convention.

As we've noted, there's a startling new twist in the 9/11 investigation as the United States looks into whether the hijackers had help from Iran. President Bush says no direct connection has been established, yet, he had some strong words today for the government in Tehran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have made it clear that if the Iranians would like to have better relations with the United States, there's some things they must do. For example, they're harboring al Qaeda leadership there and we have asked that they be turned over to their respected countries. Second, they've got a nuclear weapons program that they need to dismantle. We're working with other countries to encourage them to do so. Thirdly, they have got to stop funding terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah that create great dangers in parts of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Joining us now from New York, our world affairs analyst, the former Defense Secretary William Cohen.

Mr. Secretary, thanks for joining us. What do you make of this new alleged connection that's still murky out there, very murky, to say the least, between Iran and these al Qaeda hijackers?

WILLIAM COHEN, CNN WORLD AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, it shouldn't come as a surprise.

I think that the Iranians have, for some years, been interested in exporting levels of terrorism into the region. And the notion that they would provide either safe haven or safe passage or other extremist groups shouldn't come as a stunning surprise. The question becomes whether the 9/11 Commission is going to indicate whether there's anything more substantive in the way of participating in the 9/11 plan and attack. And I haven't heard anything to that effect, but it's always possible.

BLITZER: The suggestion in the report, at least according to several reports out there, in the 9/11 report, which will be released Thursday, is that, for some reason, eight or 10 of these so-called muscle hijackers, the ones with the box cutters who slit the throats of the people on those planes, when they went through Iran on their way to the United States, they didn't have their passports stamp with an Iranian stamp.

For some reason, that could have aroused suspicion in the United States. How significant of a fact do you think that could be?

COHEN: Well, I think it's significant in the sense that it would appear that the Iranians wanted to leave no fingerprints or footprints, as such, by putting a stamp on the passports, which would then indicate that they knowingly allowed these individuals to pass through their territory.

So that may be all that can be read into it at this point, rather than say they had a deliberate and knowledgeable participation in the plan of attack by the al Qaeda individual. So, I think it's too early to speculate right now. But, clearly, Iran has for years been engaged in the support of terrorist activities in the Middle East. Whether or not they had a role to play in this attack, I think, remains questionable. But we at least ought to await the 9/11 Commission's report before we make any preliminary judgments.

BLITZER: I remember interviewing several times the former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Bob Graham of Florida, while he was the chairman going into the war suggesting that a much bigger threat to the U.S. was Iran, rather than Iraq.

COHEN: Well, I have always believed that Iran poses a longer- term threat to stability in the region by virtue of their determination to acquire and perhaps already having acquired biological and chemical weapons. And it's clear that, over the years, they have been covertly trying to assemble a nuclear capability.

They have been discovered. They have made some kind of amends to say they want to have some kind of international agency inspections. But clearly they have been covertly and deceptively trying to put together a nuclear plan in terms of having a nuclear capability, not nuclear power, solely, but a nuclear weapons capability, in my judgment.

BLITZER: Another recommendation from the 9/11 panel, that there be this super intelligence czar out there, the Cabinet level, used to be the defense secretary. A lot of people in the Pentagon won't be happy about that. What do you think of this proposal?

COHEN: I think the first thing you have to do is to see what the other recommendations are going to be. To simply say we are going to create a czar without looking at the fundamental restructuring that has to be done I think would be a mistake.

Secondly, as I've indicated before on this program, I believe that we really need to think about having a greater independence for the intelligence community, something along the lines of a Federal Reserve, so that you would have a fixed term, the head of that intelligence department, as such, not serving at the pleasure of the president, but under a fixed term that would hopefully transcend any one term of a given president.

I think the perception of independence is going to be a very important factor as we continue to try to wage an effective war against terrorism.

BLITZER: William Cohen, as usual, thanks very much for joining us.

COHEN: Please to be with you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Let's go to Southern California now, where an all-out effort continues to contain a wildfire that has forced hundreds of people to evacuate.

CNN's Miguel Marquez is near the fire line in Santa Clarita Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, typically, wind, Wolf, drives a fire and is no friend to firefighters. Today, it seems to be helping. This very stiff breeze that has just blown up is actually helping firefighters in the sense that it is taking that fire and blowing it back on areas that it's already burned through.

All day long, we've seen a very heavy chopper attack in this area of the fire, about 25 miles north of Los Angeles, big Sikorsky helicopters, these sky cranes, are coming in as well, dropping retardant several times a day, about 1,200 gallons or so a pop. They can carry up to 2,500 gallons of fuel. Firefighters saying they now have a cause of this fire. A red-tailed hawk apparently hit two power lines at the same time, burst into flames and started the foothills fire -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Miguel Marquez reporting on this story for us -- Miguel, thanks very much. Our best luck to all the people out there.

In Iraq and Afghanistan and in Cuba, the U.S. interrogators are grilling terror suspects. How hard can they push? How far is too far? We'll ask an expert. That's coming up.

And you've heard about Baghdad's Green Zone. That's the safe area, supposedly. Now, for the first time, dramatic new photos help us better understand what's going on inside.

And three years after the death of Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a in a fiery wreck. We'll show you what happened and what's next.

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Turkey's prime minister is visiting France. He's hoping to win support for his country's bid to join the European Union.

Justice delayed. The U.S. ambassador to Japan says Washington will not seek the immediate extradition of Charles Jenkins, an American soldier accused of desertion. Jenkins, who has lived in North Korea 39 years, entered Japan yesterday with his Japanese wife and is being treated for aftereffects from recent abdominal surgery.

Olympic track event. With the Athens Olympics less than a month away, the Greek capital's first street cars have started running. They'll carry spectators from the city center to seaside sports venues. Then, after the Games are over, they'll carry commuters. What a way to go.

We all have to go some time, but organizers of an exhibition in Berlin suggest, when your number is up, at least it can be a stylish number. The exhibition features designer coffins that resemble a car, an onion and even a fish. But make sure you're ready to spend eternity with your choice.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The U.S. Army's prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq revealed to the world what can happen when interrogators get out of control. Now the new book "The Interrogators" goes inside an Afghan prison and tells the story of five Americans trained in the art of gaining possibly life-saving information from captured Taliban and al Qaeda members. The co-author of "The Interrogators" is "The Los Angeles Times" correspondent Greg Miller, joining us live.

Congratulations on this excellent new book, Greg.

When you heard what was going on at Abu Ghraib, knowing what you had seen personally in Afghanistan, what went through your mind?

GREG MILLER, AUTHOR, "THE INTERROGATORS": Well, obviously, it was just a very disconcerting thing to see.

As you know, seven military police have been charged in that case in Abu Ghraib. And we still don't know the extent to which military intelligence played a role in that scandal. This book can't answer that question, but we do give you a good deal of insight into what happens inside a prison like that run by U.S. interrogators.

BLITZER: All right, let's talk about the so-called ticking bomb scenario. You capture a Taliban or al Qaeda terrorist. You know they have information about some plot out there to kill Americans or friends. How far can you go in trying to get that information if you're one of the U.S. military interrogators?

MILLER: Well, as we have seen with Abu Ghraib and with the story that we tell in this book, that answer has changed over time. The answer was one thing when this group of interrogators that I helped write about arrived in Afghanistan.

They didn't engage in things like sleep depravation or use of stress president. But by the end of their time there, they were using some of those methods because they had been so frustrated with their inability to get intelligence early in the war.

BLITZER: Based on what you learned -- and you spent a lot of time studying this -- do those methods work, something, not necessarily torture, but something close to torture, to you get the information that is really reliable?

MILLER: Well, if you talk to interrogators, many of them will tell you that you get bad information from the use of torture, that prisoners will say anything to relieve the pain

I'm not quite sure I completely believe that. I think that in many cases this, what we write, the stories we tell in this book show that the harsher the methods, the better the intelligence got. And I think that the reasons that the United States shouldn't engage in torture are reasons other than that it is ineffective.

BLITZER: Because torture can be effective in certain cases. Is that what you're saying?

MILLER: Sure.

BLITZER: What did you see? How far did they go to get information, the toughest examples of interrogation by U.S. military personnel?

MILLER: Well, in the stories that we tell in the book that we have written, we talk about some use of stress positions in certain situations.

BLITZER: You say stress positions. Be specific.

MILLER: That means making prisoners kneel, putting them in uncomfortable positions for some period of time.

BLITZER: Give us an example.

(CROSSTALK)

MILLER: Holding your arms straight out in front of you for a lengthy period of time, over your head, holding something up.

BLITZER: And so, if you don't do it, if you're a prisoner and you don't hold your arms up for a lengthy period of time, if you don't hold your hands up, what are they going to do to you?

MILLER: Well, that's a good question. That's something that the interrogators were thankful never came up, because if the prisoners refused to comply with these orders to do these stress positions, there was no fallback position. There was nothing they could do to make them do so.

The other things we talk about in the book are, as I said, the reliance on sleep deprivation. They found that the longer an interrogation went on, the better the information got.

BLITZER: The book is called "The Interrogators." Greg Miller is the co-author. Good book. Thanks for joining us.

MILLER: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: I learned a lot from it and I'm sure our viewers will as well.

MILLER: Thank you.

BLITZER: A rare glimpse at life inside the Green Zone, extraordinary pictures from one of Iraq's most guarded areas. We'll get to that. You'll want to see it.

But, first, though, take a look at some stories you may have missed this past weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): New security lapses are under investigation at the birthplace of the atomic bomb. Over the weekend, work at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico was suspended after the disappearance of two electronic storage devices.

A passenger balloon that flew over Baltimore is grounded indefinitely after a malfunction left more than 12 people stuck in the air. During Saturday's incident, the balloon bumped into the Baltimore Police Department building before it was reeled in. Some minor injuries were reported. Race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. plans to get back behind the wheel next weekend, despite his fiery wreck yesterday during a practice run at a California track. Earnhardt suffered second-degree burns to his legs and face.

An American rookie, Todd Hamilton, has added the British Open title to his resume. Hamilton won the tournament yesterday in Scotland.

And that's our weekend snapshot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: History is being made on a daily basis inside Baghdad's so-called Green Zone, the so-called safe area of the Iraqi capital. And among those there to witness it was a photographer who found herself face to face with Saddam Hussein.

CNN's Brian Todd is here to share this amazing story -- Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the photographer's name is Karen Ballard. And herself is a story of incredible access during a very incredible time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): Inside a dangerous, violent metropolis, a government must function. Amid mortar rounds, car bombs, gunfire, a nation must be built. In Baghdad, this mission, first of the coalition provisional authority and now of the international Iraqi government, is carried out in an extraordinary place, a place where photographer Karen Ballard spends more than a month on assignment for "TIME" magazine.

KAREN BALLARD, PHOTOGRAPHER, "TIME": There's tons and tons and tons of security there. A lot of it is hidden. A lot of it, you can't see it. There's high walls.

TODD: Ballard lives in the Green Zone during the days leading up to and immediately after the June 28 handover. She brings back images of bravery, dedication, sacrifice, soldiers, administrators from so many nations working inside what often seems to be a fortified trailer park.

One unforgettable day, she's there as the world's most famous prisoner is led to one of his former palaces to face justice, appearing, she says, disheveled confused.

BALLARD: He probably had no idea what was getting ready to happen to him. And so he was just checking it out minute by minute. What's next? Who's this? Where are they taking me?

TODD: One top U.S. commander later tells CNN, Saddam Hussein first thought he was being brought there to be shot. Apparently realizing he won't, he smiles and exchanges words with his escorts. And in a haunting moment for Ballard, the man who sometimes needed just a look to inflict unspeakable harm stares her down.

BALLARD: Definitely just stopped and looked at me dead on, like, who are you and how did you get in this room and why are you taking my picture? I definitely felt a really serious vibe from him at that point.

TODD: She captures Saddam's courtroom theatrics, clicks away as he's escorted out, then turns her lens towards some other very fearsome men, Saddam's former aides as they line up for a perp walk.

Winning access of a more sublime nature, Karen Ballard also is side by side with former U.S. administrator Paul Bremer during his final week in Iraq. Typically for Bremer, he's constantly on the move, meeting with Iraqis of various alliances, including a feast with the cousin of renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

She describes a man who's focused, better liked by Iraqis than public impression might indicate, with one characteristic that stays in Ballard's mind.

BALLARD: His ability to not be afraid, to take risks, to go out into Baghdad. He did it every day, unless he was on the road.

TODD: Handover day, events moving unexpectedly fast. Bremer and his team gather. With what appears to be lightening speed, Iraq becomes sovereign. Bremer gestures, it's yours now, as he's shuttled out in an armada security, one last reflective look at what he's leaving behind.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Karen Ballard's photographs have been published in "TIME" magazine. And they've been on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art here in Washington, Wolf.

BLITZER: She's an excellent photographer. I know her quite well. Thanks very much, Brian, for that.

TODD: Sure.

BLITZER: The results of our Web question when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here are the results of our Web question. That's all the time we have. This is not a scientific poll.

"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 July 19, 2004 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Happening now, a U.S. marine finally speaks out. Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun says he did not desert his post, but while his harrowing ordeal may be over, his disappearance in Iraq is still shrouded in mystery.
Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Al Qaeda ally. Did the 9/11 hijackers have help?

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll continue to look and see if the Iranians were involved.

BLITZER: Bombing Baghdad. After a bloody suicide strike, Iraqis gather in praise of Saddam.

Chaos in Gaza. Yasser Arafat on the spot. Are Palestinians heading for civil war?

California burning. Wildfires force hundreds from their homes, the weather hot and dry.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Monday, July 19, 2004.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Was there an Iranian connection to the 9/11 terror attacks? That's just one of the issues expected to be addressed in the 9/11 commissions report that's due out this week. Our justice correspondent Kelli Arena has more details joining us now live.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The commissioners investigating the September 11 attacks have uncovered evidence of contacts between al Qaeda and Iran, but U.S. senior officials say none to support the notion that Iran knew about the 9/11 plot. Still, today, the president suggested it is not a closed issue.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA (voice-over): President Bush says the U.S. is digging through the facts to see if there's any connection between the September 11 attacks and Iran. This after revelation the 9/11 commission is expected to say at least eight hijackers passed through Iran before entering the United States.

BUSH: We'll continue to look and see if the Iranians were involved.

ARENA: U.S. officials say Iran was a frequent route for Jihadists moving in and out of Afghanistan and CIA acting director John McLaughlin says there's no evidence of any official connection between Iran and 9/11.

Iran says talk of a connection is election year rhetoric. But the report is also expected to outline how after the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, the Iranian government did approach al Qaeda about a partnership and was rejected. That just part of the massive 9/11 report to be rolled out on Thursday. It is expected to suggest a major overhaul of the U.S. intelligence apparatus. Chief among the recommendations, a call for a cabinet-level intelligence chief.

BUSH: We'll look at all their recommendations. And I will comment upon that having studied what they say.

ARENA: While the president skirted the issue, the acting director of the CIA did not, saying he was opposed to the idea. He quickly found some company.

FRANK GAFFNEY, FMR. PENTAGON OFFICIAL: This is a classic Washington response to a problem. Build more bureaucracy, add layers of wiring, diagram and boxes that may or may not actually address the underlying problem, which is the quality of intelligence.

ARENA: But there's also support for the idea of bringing the nation's 15 intelligence agencies under one head.

JAMES WOOLSEY, FMR. CIA DIRECTOR: I think some increased coordination, splitting the CIA job so one person is still the head of the CIA, but someone else who's in charge of overall intelligence coordination is probably a good idea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ARENA: You can expect a lot more debate after Thursday's report. The 9/11 commissioners are gearing up for a lobbying campaign of sorts to keep the pressure on the White House and lawmakers who will decide on whether to act on those recommendations.

BLITZER: Kelli Arena, thanks for that report. More on the alleged Iranian connection. That will be coming up later this hour. We'll speak to the former defense secretary William Cohen.

Here's your chance to weigh in on the story. The web question of the day is this. "Do you think Iran was involved in the 9/11 attacks?" You can vote right now. Go to CNN.com/wolf.

Iraq's insurgents kept up the pressure today, this time a fuel tanker was rigged with explosives and driven by a suicide bomber into a Baghdad industrial neighborhood. The results? Devastating. CNN's Michael Holmes reports from the Iraqi capital. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was 8:20 in the morning, the target an Iraqi police station. With fewer and fewer coalition troops on the streets in recent weeks, the insurgents are more and more hitting what they can. Often poorly defended police stations manned by Iraqi security forces. Insurgents consider them collaborators in an occupation and justifiable targets.

Witnesses say the truck laden with explosives drove to the rear of the police station and detonated. The blast leaving a 2 meter hole in the ground. It's a busy street, crowded when the bomb went off. There were many dead and wounded.

After the explosion, a crowd of locals arrived and began chanting pro-Saddam slogans. With our blood, with our souls, we will sacrifice for Saddam. Iraqi soldiers ordered the crowd to disperse, eventually firing warning shots to make that happen.

Another favored tactic these days, assassinations of political and regional leaders. Two such attacks today, first a ministry of defense official gunned down outside his Baghdad home in a drive-by shooting. While further north in Mosul an official from the Turkman National Front, a political group gunned down in exactly the same manner.

The Iraqi prime minister, meanwhile, has allowed the reopening of a newspaper that supported the rebel Shi'a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The newspaper was closed in March by the then civil administrator Paul Bremer, who said the newspaper was inciting violence.

The prime minister stressing Monday freedom of the press and allowing all voices to, again, be heard.

Also Monday, the last of the Filipino soldiers in Iraq departing their base south of Baghdad after handing over their duties to Polish troops. The departure fulfilling a deal done with those holding the Filipino truck driver, Angelo de la Cruz, whose fate has been so closely watched in his homeland.

The hostage crisis continues for some, but has ended for one, an Egyptian man held by insurgents in Iraq has been freed. The truck driver reported captured on July 6 released Monday after his employer withdrew his business from Iraq as demanded by the hostage takers. Michael Holmes, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: He disappeared in Iraq and reappeared almost three weeks later in Lebanon. U.S. Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun is going public. Let's turn to our senior political correspondent Jamie McIntyre.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Marine Corps officials had told us all along that Corporal Hassoun claimed he was abducted, but today we heard it from his own lips. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE (voice-over): The Marines say that Corporal Hassoun is upset that some official statements and unofficial leaks portrayed him as a suspected deserter who may have staged his own kidnapping. Hassoun asked to make a public statement to put what he has told the Marines privately on the record.

CPL. WASSEF HASSOUN, U.S. MARINE CORPS.: I did not desert my post. I was captured and held against my will by anti-coalition forces for 19 days. This was a very difficult and challenging time for me.

MCINTYRE: The marines say Hassoun was joined by his brother and will soon be returned to his home base in North Carolina. While the investigation into his claimed abduction has been begun, criminal investigators have yet to question Hassoun directly, nor has he been charged with any wrongdoing or told he needs an attorney.

But sources say investigators want an explanation for why it appeared he left his base in Fallujah, Iraq, voluntarily. They're also concerned about what information he may have shared with his alleged captors because as an Arabic speaker he was used as an interpreter as the U.S. gathered intelligence from helpful Iraqis who could now be in danger.

LT. COL. DAVID LAPAN, U.S. MARINE CORPS.: We're not in the position at this point to make a judgment either way. We are still gathering facts and information and until that process is complete, at this point, we're supporting our young marine in bringing him back from a very harrowing ordeal and supporting his return to duty.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: While Corporal Hassoun is not technically a suspect there's little doubt that he could potentially face charges down the road. If he is charged, his defense attorneys are likely to argue that anything he says now can't be used against him because he didn't have the benefit of legal counsel -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Thanks, very much.

Investigating Iran. I'll speak live with the former U.S. defense secretary William Cohen about that country's possible link to 9/11.

Also ahead, rape apparently being used as a weapon of war in Sudan. Shocking new details released today by Amnesty International.

California burning. Firefighters battling several wildfires this hour in an effort to save hundreds of homes. Plus, this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He stopped and looked at me dead on like, who are you? How did you get in this room? Why are you taking my picture? (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Inside the green zone. Extraordinary, never-before- seen images of the former Iraqi leader.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: There's a truly significant development unfolding now in the Middle East. The Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is facing an extraordinary challenge in the streets and in the corridor of his own government. CNN's Alessio Vinci reports from Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meeting school children Yasser Arafat appeared unfazed by two days of unprecedented rebellion against his authority. His prime minister insists he will quit over chaos in Gaza. He urged the Palestinian leader to seriously consider demands for reforms. It is his strongest criticism ever of Arafat.

AHMED QOREI, PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER: I call on you and tell you that the time has come to reactivate all the security operators on a proper basis and the time has come to put the proper persons in the proper positions.

VINCI: Qorei spoke after hundreds of armed Palestinian militants went on a rampage this weekend in Gaza, burning a police station, attacking the headquarters of the Palestinian intelligence service. Militants violently rejected as meaningful reforms Arafat appointing his own nephew as the new security chief.

BASSEM EID, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST: By appointing Mr. Musa Arafat yesterday or the day before as the head of the Palestinian security, the national security in Gaza, I see that Arafat rules by such kind of an appointment that he's still interested in the corruption.

VINCI: The prime minister appealed for calm saying the Palestinian cabinet appointed a committee to address the current crisis.

QOREI: Who is corrupt and who isn't corrupt? These are the questions that are being raised. But this is not how corruption is solved.

VINCI: While Arafat clearly faces a growing challenge, some analysts predict the crisis may be resolved with new security officials but Arafat, they say, will survive.

MAHDI ABDEL HADI, PALESTINIAN ANALYST: Arafat has been and will continue to be a maestro of tactics and survival and this is one of the serious crisis he has been facing since '83, like Lebanon. It's not a mutiny, it's not a coup d'etat, it's a real crisis between the old guards and the young guards and he has to know that it's time for the old guards to leave the stage as soon as possible. VINCI: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants to withdraw his troops and settlers from Gaza by the end of next year. With the power vacuum that would follow this latest violence is yet another reminder that in Gaza there is more than one player ready and willing to take over. Allesio Vinci, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: An Israeli judge was shot dead today outside his home in a Tel Aviv suburb. The (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Martyrs Brigade that's tied to Yasser Arafat's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Movement reportedly claimed responsibility, but Israeli police have not ruled out a local criminal motive. It's the first killing of a judge in Israel's 56-year history.

Before Iraq, before Afghanistan, U.S. troops were deployed to the Balkans. Thousands are still there. Serbia's president joins me next.

And we're on the campaign trail with a live update from CNN's Election Express. Judy Woodruff will join me.

Plus a fiery wreck for a NASCAR legend. An update on Dale Earnhardt's condition.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. Amnesty International has released a new report on the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and accuses Arab militias of using rape as a weapon against black refugees in Sudan. CNN's Zain Verjee has been looking over this report. She joins us now live from the CNN Center in Atlanta. Zain, what did you find out?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this report is based on interviews with hundreds of refugees from Darfur who are now in neighboring Chad. The report says women in Darfur have been subjected to group punishment because members of their communities are fighting the Sudanese government for better treatment.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE (voice-over): They're as young as 8 and as old as 80 and according to Amnesty International, targets of mass rape by ruthless Arab militias known as the Janjaweed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Women and girls are being killed, raped, gang raped, raped in public, abducted, tortured and forced into sexual slavery.

VERJEE: A report by the right's group says systematic rape is used as a weapon of war against black women in Sudan's Darfur region. The militia group responsible is backed by the Sudanese government. Women are at great risk of HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases and rape is meant to shatter the social fabric of community.

Sudan expert Elizabeth Hodgkin contributed to the report.

ELIZABETH HODGKIN, SUDAN EXPERT: I think those who raped the women do very well, but the women that they were raping were going to be destroyed. The unmarried women might not be married, that the older women would be thrown out of their society, might be thrown out by their husbands and the women would be ostracized, stigmatized and so we say this was a weapon of war. Though it was designed to humiliate, punish, control and force people out of their villages.

VERJEE: The war in Darfur pits Arabs against blacks. Black Darfurians say they want more political rights. In more than a year of war, hundreds of villages have been burned down by Arab militias and up to 30,000 people are believed to have been slaughtered. Some of the testimony in the report -- "five to six men would rape us in rounds. One after the other during six days, every night. My husband could not forgive me after this. The Janjaweed broke the limbs of women and girls to prevent them from escaping."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have no doubt that what has happened is a war crime and because it happened systematically to hundreds of people it's a crime against humanity.

VERJEE: The Sudanese government says these conclusions are premature and such a serious judgment cannot be made without gathering facts first. It says it has cracked down, as promised on the Janjaweed militia and has convicted ten Janjaweed fighters of killing and looting. The government also says it's also conducting its own investigation into the raping of women, but experts say it's unlikely women will be willing to testify to Khartoum.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the people will be very afraid to give evidence because they've already been battered. They have already been traumatized and they won't have any trust in the Khartoum government.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE: Amnesty International is calling for an international commission of inquiry into the mass rape to bring to justice those responsible for sexual violence against women in Darfur. It also wants rights groups to have more access in Darfur and put human rights monitors on the ground -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Just when you think it can't get any more shocking in Sudan, it clearly does. Thanks very much.

First Afghanistan and then Iraq. The two latest American wars involving tens of thousands of U.S. and coalition forces. But there was another recent war that, for a time, dominated the news and involved Americans in combat in Europe for the first time since World War II.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Five years after a U.S.-led air war ended Serbia's brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, the province remains in a state of turmoil. The U.S. and its NATO allies did achieve victory by forcing Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic to pull his troops from Kosovo. Milosevic lost reelection by a landslide a year later and now is being tried on war crimes charges in The Hague, Netherlands.

But ethnic violence continues. The latest outbreak in March when the tables were turned and ethnic Albanians attacked minority Serbs. At least 19 people were killed and hundreds of homes and religious sites burned.

Some 18,000 NATO peacekeepers, including 2,500 American troops apparently are unable to cool tensions and stem the violence. A U.N.- backed group is just out with a report criticizing the U.N. mission in Kosovo for failing to make progress on human rights in the province, particularly the Serbian minority.

Complicating matters are two of the worlds most wanted war criminals. Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander General Ratko Mladic. Both are accused of numerous war crimes, the most horrendous being the 1995 slaughter of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys.

Serbian officials and western diplomats have told the Associated Press that both move in and out of Serbia relying on disguises and being helped by a network of supporters who tip them off whenever NATO patrols get close. NATO forces now in Bosnia, number some 7,500 troops, including 900 from the United States. Serbia's new pro- democracy government led by President Boris Tadic is under increasing western pressure to arrest him and some 15 other war crime fugitives hiding in the country. Mr. Tadic appeared to make clear his political direction in a campaign speech just before last month's election.

Despite hailing Mr. Tadic's victory, the Bush administration has minced no words in saying that any further political an financial support depends on the arrest and handover of Mladic to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The new Serbian president, Boris Tadic, is here in Washington for talks with the vice president, Dick Cheney, and other top Bush administration officials. President Tadic joins us now live.

Mr. President, thanks very much for joining us. Welcome to Washington. Good to have you here. What's so hard about finding these war criminals?

BORIS TADIC, SERBIAN PRESIDENT: We have a very important investigation about their positions, especially about the position of Ratko Mladic. From the beginning of my term as a former minister of defense, that was one year ago, I was trying to find him and to send him into the...

BLITZER: How much support does he have in the countryside among average Serbs? TADIC: This is not a problem. The problem is if he's not in Serbia. We really don't know where he is. But we want to cooperate with the Hague Tribunal, no question about that. And we have to do that. This is up to us. And right now, we'll do everything what is in our power to do that.

BLITZER: That's General Mladic?

TADIC: Yes.

BLITZER: And Karadzic, where is Mr. Karadzic?

TADIC: Mr. Karadzic is probably in Bosnia-Herzegovina. And nobody knows about his position right now in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

BLITZER: How big an issue, a thorn, an obstacle in the relationship between your government, Serbia and the Bush administration in the United States is this issue?

TADIC: This is the biggest problem for all of us. And this is a joint problem. We have to find a solution for that, because, I mean, the partnership between the United States and Serbia is a crucial thing in our future.

BLITZER: The suspicion, as you well know, is that you could be doing a better job, your military, your police, if you really wanted to find these war criminals, not just Mladic and Karadzic, but others, you could be doing it.

TADIC: No doubt about it. We'll do that.

BLITZER: You will find them. Is that what you're saying?

TADIC: We are trying to do everything that is in our power.

BLITZER: In the meantime, how much of a thorn in the relationship is it? Because the U.S. is clearly not doing the kinds of things you would like them to be doing and helping you as long as this issue is outstanding.

TADIC: I mean that in the past we had some problems. But I'm optimistic in terms of how our future relationship, in that sense, we have to cooperate, we have to find them together. We have to find ways (UNINTELLIGIBLE) together with the United States, with support of the United States. And in that sense, I'm really optimistic.

BLITZER: Slobodan Milosevic is still facing war crimes charges in The Hague. Give us your perspective in Iraq, for example, based on your experience. Saddam Hussein is going to facing a war crimes tribunal in Iraq. What advice do you have for the Iraqi people based on the Serb experience?

TADIC: This is a very interesting question. But, at the same time, I mean that Iraqi people have to cooperate with the international community about war criminals. This is very important for the nations. We have to be (UNINTELLIGIBLE), which happened in the past few years all together. And we have to take our responsibility for that. This is the precondition for our future.

BLITZER: Is there a backlash, though, in Serbia itself? Is there greater sympathy, at least some significant element of the population that supports Slobodan Milosevic in terms of this trial that he's going through?

TADIC: I defeated the radicalism and nationalism in Serbia. I mean, that is the past.

BLITZER: And the future is going to be what?

TADIC: Sure.

BLITZER: What's going to be the future of Serbia?

TADIC: The future of Serbia will be to join in the European Union. There will be a partnership in the program of Euro-Atlantic organizations. We'll be part of the Euro-Atlantic structure. At the same time, you have to provide everything for direct investments in our economy -- the economy and jobs, this is what we need.

BLITZER: The vice president's on your schedule, the secretary of state, other top officials, why not the president of the United States? You're the president of Serbia. You're here in Washington.

TADIC: Maybe he has to be in the campaign, I understand his position right now. I was in campaign only 13 days ago.

BLITZER: So you're understanding of his position.

TADIC: Yes.

BLITZER: He wants to get re-elected, I assume. Some day you will want to get re-elected as well.

Mr. President, thanks very much for joining us.

TADIC: Thank you so much.

BLITZER: Welcome to the United States.

Mounting tension and turbulence in Iraq. Up next, I'll be joined by the former U.S. defense secretary William Cohen.

Also ahead, inside the interrogations. A behind-the-scenes look of interrogations of Taliban and al Qaeda members inside an Afghan prison. I'll speak live with the author of an important new book.

Plus, the fires rage on tens of thousands of acres scorched in southern California. Now a desperate rush to save homes and lives.

And, later, the two No. 2's on the trail and in the spotlight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. Firefighters battling several wildfires in Southern California, they're working to save hundreds of homes right now. We're live from the front lines. We'll get there.

First, though, a quick check of stories now in the news.

A new development today in the Kobe Bryant rape case. The Colorado Supreme Court has upheld a prior restraint order. The court ruled that members of the news media cannot take advantage of a court clerk's mistake to publish information that was intended to remain confidential. Bryant, an NBA all-star, goes on trial late next month.

An Egyptian truck driver held hostage in Iraq is now free. The man was released today and taken to the Egyptian Embassy in Baghdad. He was taken hostage two weeks ago while delivering petroleum products in Iraq. His captors had threatened to behead him unless the Saudi company he works for agreed to pull its workers out of Iraq.

Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.

One week from today, Democrats open their national convention in Boston and this week before the curtain goes up on the big event, the campaigning goes on for both the Bush and Kerry campaigns.

CNN's Judy Woodruff covering the story from the CNN Election Express today in Concord, New Hampshire -- Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, Wolf.

That's right. We're in New Hampshire, the battleground state in the capital of Concord. You're right. The Election Express is here. We're just a little over an hour away, making our way to Boston, where the Democratic Convention gets under way one week from today.

But, you know, it is three and a half months until the election. That sounds like a long time. But at this stage of the game, every day counts for these candidates and every stop is part of a carefully thought out strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF (voice-over): After dismissing rumors of his political demise, Vice President Cheney is out hitting the trail hard today.

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The president's policy works. Those tax cuts are working. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

WOODRUFF: With stops in Ohio and Missouri, he's talking health care, assuring voters his own health is just fine. Addressing rising medical costs, Mr. Cheney also spoke of the need to limit jury awards for malpractice suits, a not-so-subtle shot at trial lawyers, the former occupation of a familiar face.

After a five-day solo tour, John Edwards returns home today to North Carolina. He's raising money in Durham and engaging in a bit of front-porch campaigning.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What Senator Kerry and I want to focus on, which is why we're having this conversation, is what we can do to actually make people's lives better.

WOODRUFF: Their running mates aside, a new national poll shows the race is still extremely close between George W. Bush and John Kerry, who, for the most part, are laying low today, the president meeting with world leaders in Washington, Senator Kerry in Massachusetts, resting before a final pre-convention tour.

That tour, dubbed America's Freedom Trail, starts Friday, when the two Democratic candidates, flanked by their families, meet in Kerry's birthplace of Aurora, Colorado. From there, Kerry makes five stops, first in Iowa, then to Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Pennsylvania, before landing in Boston for the convention.

Campaign officials say the stops represent optimistic moments in the nation's history and emphasize Kerry-Edwards campaign themes. Many also happen to be in battleground states.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: So, Wolf, there is nothing accidental about these stops. And the Kerry campaign says right now it believes that many voters are at the point where they're ready to consider voting George W. Bush out of office, but they haven't yet been persuaded that John Kerry is the right alternative. That's what these two weeks are all about -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Interesting two weeks for all of us. Judy Woodruff, reporting for us from the CNN Election Express -- thanks, Judy, very much.

This important programming note to our viewers. I will be joining Judy and our entire political team. I'll be reporting from the CNN Election Express bus Wednesday and Thursday up in Boston and then on Friday, starting on Friday, we'll be live from Boston's FleetCenter. That's the site of the Democratic National Convention.

As we've noted, there's a startling new twist in the 9/11 investigation as the United States looks into whether the hijackers had help from Iran. President Bush says no direct connection has been established, yet, he had some strong words today for the government in Tehran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have made it clear that if the Iranians would like to have better relations with the United States, there's some things they must do. For example, they're harboring al Qaeda leadership there and we have asked that they be turned over to their respected countries. Second, they've got a nuclear weapons program that they need to dismantle. We're working with other countries to encourage them to do so. Thirdly, they have got to stop funding terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah that create great dangers in parts of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Joining us now from New York, our world affairs analyst, the former Defense Secretary William Cohen.

Mr. Secretary, thanks for joining us. What do you make of this new alleged connection that's still murky out there, very murky, to say the least, between Iran and these al Qaeda hijackers?

WILLIAM COHEN, CNN WORLD AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, it shouldn't come as a surprise.

I think that the Iranians have, for some years, been interested in exporting levels of terrorism into the region. And the notion that they would provide either safe haven or safe passage or other extremist groups shouldn't come as a stunning surprise. The question becomes whether the 9/11 Commission is going to indicate whether there's anything more substantive in the way of participating in the 9/11 plan and attack. And I haven't heard anything to that effect, but it's always possible.

BLITZER: The suggestion in the report, at least according to several reports out there, in the 9/11 report, which will be released Thursday, is that, for some reason, eight or 10 of these so-called muscle hijackers, the ones with the box cutters who slit the throats of the people on those planes, when they went through Iran on their way to the United States, they didn't have their passports stamp with an Iranian stamp.

For some reason, that could have aroused suspicion in the United States. How significant of a fact do you think that could be?

COHEN: Well, I think it's significant in the sense that it would appear that the Iranians wanted to leave no fingerprints or footprints, as such, by putting a stamp on the passports, which would then indicate that they knowingly allowed these individuals to pass through their territory.

So that may be all that can be read into it at this point, rather than say they had a deliberate and knowledgeable participation in the plan of attack by the al Qaeda individual. So, I think it's too early to speculate right now. But, clearly, Iran has for years been engaged in the support of terrorist activities in the Middle East. Whether or not they had a role to play in this attack, I think, remains questionable. But we at least ought to await the 9/11 Commission's report before we make any preliminary judgments.

BLITZER: I remember interviewing several times the former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Bob Graham of Florida, while he was the chairman going into the war suggesting that a much bigger threat to the U.S. was Iran, rather than Iraq.

COHEN: Well, I have always believed that Iran poses a longer- term threat to stability in the region by virtue of their determination to acquire and perhaps already having acquired biological and chemical weapons. And it's clear that, over the years, they have been covertly trying to assemble a nuclear capability.

They have been discovered. They have made some kind of amends to say they want to have some kind of international agency inspections. But clearly they have been covertly and deceptively trying to put together a nuclear plan in terms of having a nuclear capability, not nuclear power, solely, but a nuclear weapons capability, in my judgment.

BLITZER: Another recommendation from the 9/11 panel, that there be this super intelligence czar out there, the Cabinet level, used to be the defense secretary. A lot of people in the Pentagon won't be happy about that. What do you think of this proposal?

COHEN: I think the first thing you have to do is to see what the other recommendations are going to be. To simply say we are going to create a czar without looking at the fundamental restructuring that has to be done I think would be a mistake.

Secondly, as I've indicated before on this program, I believe that we really need to think about having a greater independence for the intelligence community, something along the lines of a Federal Reserve, so that you would have a fixed term, the head of that intelligence department, as such, not serving at the pleasure of the president, but under a fixed term that would hopefully transcend any one term of a given president.

I think the perception of independence is going to be a very important factor as we continue to try to wage an effective war against terrorism.

BLITZER: William Cohen, as usual, thanks very much for joining us.

COHEN: Please to be with you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Let's go to Southern California now, where an all-out effort continues to contain a wildfire that has forced hundreds of people to evacuate.

CNN's Miguel Marquez is near the fire line in Santa Clarita Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, typically, wind, Wolf, drives a fire and is no friend to firefighters. Today, it seems to be helping. This very stiff breeze that has just blown up is actually helping firefighters in the sense that it is taking that fire and blowing it back on areas that it's already burned through.

All day long, we've seen a very heavy chopper attack in this area of the fire, about 25 miles north of Los Angeles, big Sikorsky helicopters, these sky cranes, are coming in as well, dropping retardant several times a day, about 1,200 gallons or so a pop. They can carry up to 2,500 gallons of fuel. Firefighters saying they now have a cause of this fire. A red-tailed hawk apparently hit two power lines at the same time, burst into flames and started the foothills fire -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Miguel Marquez reporting on this story for us -- Miguel, thanks very much. Our best luck to all the people out there.

In Iraq and Afghanistan and in Cuba, the U.S. interrogators are grilling terror suspects. How hard can they push? How far is too far? We'll ask an expert. That's coming up.

And you've heard about Baghdad's Green Zone. That's the safe area, supposedly. Now, for the first time, dramatic new photos help us better understand what's going on inside.

And three years after the death of Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a in a fiery wreck. We'll show you what happened and what's next.

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Turkey's prime minister is visiting France. He's hoping to win support for his country's bid to join the European Union.

Justice delayed. The U.S. ambassador to Japan says Washington will not seek the immediate extradition of Charles Jenkins, an American soldier accused of desertion. Jenkins, who has lived in North Korea 39 years, entered Japan yesterday with his Japanese wife and is being treated for aftereffects from recent abdominal surgery.

Olympic track event. With the Athens Olympics less than a month away, the Greek capital's first street cars have started running. They'll carry spectators from the city center to seaside sports venues. Then, after the Games are over, they'll carry commuters. What a way to go.

We all have to go some time, but organizers of an exhibition in Berlin suggest, when your number is up, at least it can be a stylish number. The exhibition features designer coffins that resemble a car, an onion and even a fish. But make sure you're ready to spend eternity with your choice.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The U.S. Army's prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq revealed to the world what can happen when interrogators get out of control. Now the new book "The Interrogators" goes inside an Afghan prison and tells the story of five Americans trained in the art of gaining possibly life-saving information from captured Taliban and al Qaeda members. The co-author of "The Interrogators" is "The Los Angeles Times" correspondent Greg Miller, joining us live.

Congratulations on this excellent new book, Greg.

When you heard what was going on at Abu Ghraib, knowing what you had seen personally in Afghanistan, what went through your mind?

GREG MILLER, AUTHOR, "THE INTERROGATORS": Well, obviously, it was just a very disconcerting thing to see.

As you know, seven military police have been charged in that case in Abu Ghraib. And we still don't know the extent to which military intelligence played a role in that scandal. This book can't answer that question, but we do give you a good deal of insight into what happens inside a prison like that run by U.S. interrogators.

BLITZER: All right, let's talk about the so-called ticking bomb scenario. You capture a Taliban or al Qaeda terrorist. You know they have information about some plot out there to kill Americans or friends. How far can you go in trying to get that information if you're one of the U.S. military interrogators?

MILLER: Well, as we have seen with Abu Ghraib and with the story that we tell in this book, that answer has changed over time. The answer was one thing when this group of interrogators that I helped write about arrived in Afghanistan.

They didn't engage in things like sleep depravation or use of stress president. But by the end of their time there, they were using some of those methods because they had been so frustrated with their inability to get intelligence early in the war.

BLITZER: Based on what you learned -- and you spent a lot of time studying this -- do those methods work, something, not necessarily torture, but something close to torture, to you get the information that is really reliable?

MILLER: Well, if you talk to interrogators, many of them will tell you that you get bad information from the use of torture, that prisoners will say anything to relieve the pain

I'm not quite sure I completely believe that. I think that in many cases this, what we write, the stories we tell in this book show that the harsher the methods, the better the intelligence got. And I think that the reasons that the United States shouldn't engage in torture are reasons other than that it is ineffective.

BLITZER: Because torture can be effective in certain cases. Is that what you're saying?

MILLER: Sure.

BLITZER: What did you see? How far did they go to get information, the toughest examples of interrogation by U.S. military personnel?

MILLER: Well, in the stories that we tell in the book that we have written, we talk about some use of stress positions in certain situations.

BLITZER: You say stress positions. Be specific.

MILLER: That means making prisoners kneel, putting them in uncomfortable positions for some period of time.

BLITZER: Give us an example.

(CROSSTALK)

MILLER: Holding your arms straight out in front of you for a lengthy period of time, over your head, holding something up.

BLITZER: And so, if you don't do it, if you're a prisoner and you don't hold your arms up for a lengthy period of time, if you don't hold your hands up, what are they going to do to you?

MILLER: Well, that's a good question. That's something that the interrogators were thankful never came up, because if the prisoners refused to comply with these orders to do these stress positions, there was no fallback position. There was nothing they could do to make them do so.

The other things we talk about in the book are, as I said, the reliance on sleep deprivation. They found that the longer an interrogation went on, the better the information got.

BLITZER: The book is called "The Interrogators." Greg Miller is the co-author. Good book. Thanks for joining us.

MILLER: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: I learned a lot from it and I'm sure our viewers will as well.

MILLER: Thank you.

BLITZER: A rare glimpse at life inside the Green Zone, extraordinary pictures from one of Iraq's most guarded areas. We'll get to that. You'll want to see it.

But, first, though, take a look at some stories you may have missed this past weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): New security lapses are under investigation at the birthplace of the atomic bomb. Over the weekend, work at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico was suspended after the disappearance of two electronic storage devices.

A passenger balloon that flew over Baltimore is grounded indefinitely after a malfunction left more than 12 people stuck in the air. During Saturday's incident, the balloon bumped into the Baltimore Police Department building before it was reeled in. Some minor injuries were reported. Race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. plans to get back behind the wheel next weekend, despite his fiery wreck yesterday during a practice run at a California track. Earnhardt suffered second-degree burns to his legs and face.

An American rookie, Todd Hamilton, has added the British Open title to his resume. Hamilton won the tournament yesterday in Scotland.

And that's our weekend snapshot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: History is being made on a daily basis inside Baghdad's so-called Green Zone, the so-called safe area of the Iraqi capital. And among those there to witness it was a photographer who found herself face to face with Saddam Hussein.

CNN's Brian Todd is here to share this amazing story -- Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the photographer's name is Karen Ballard. And herself is a story of incredible access during a very incredible time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): Inside a dangerous, violent metropolis, a government must function. Amid mortar rounds, car bombs, gunfire, a nation must be built. In Baghdad, this mission, first of the coalition provisional authority and now of the international Iraqi government, is carried out in an extraordinary place, a place where photographer Karen Ballard spends more than a month on assignment for "TIME" magazine.

KAREN BALLARD, PHOTOGRAPHER, "TIME": There's tons and tons and tons of security there. A lot of it is hidden. A lot of it, you can't see it. There's high walls.

TODD: Ballard lives in the Green Zone during the days leading up to and immediately after the June 28 handover. She brings back images of bravery, dedication, sacrifice, soldiers, administrators from so many nations working inside what often seems to be a fortified trailer park.

One unforgettable day, she's there as the world's most famous prisoner is led to one of his former palaces to face justice, appearing, she says, disheveled confused.

BALLARD: He probably had no idea what was getting ready to happen to him. And so he was just checking it out minute by minute. What's next? Who's this? Where are they taking me?

TODD: One top U.S. commander later tells CNN, Saddam Hussein first thought he was being brought there to be shot. Apparently realizing he won't, he smiles and exchanges words with his escorts. And in a haunting moment for Ballard, the man who sometimes needed just a look to inflict unspeakable harm stares her down.

BALLARD: Definitely just stopped and looked at me dead on, like, who are you and how did you get in this room and why are you taking my picture? I definitely felt a really serious vibe from him at that point.

TODD: She captures Saddam's courtroom theatrics, clicks away as he's escorted out, then turns her lens towards some other very fearsome men, Saddam's former aides as they line up for a perp walk.

Winning access of a more sublime nature, Karen Ballard also is side by side with former U.S. administrator Paul Bremer during his final week in Iraq. Typically for Bremer, he's constantly on the move, meeting with Iraqis of various alliances, including a feast with the cousin of renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

She describes a man who's focused, better liked by Iraqis than public impression might indicate, with one characteristic that stays in Ballard's mind.

BALLARD: His ability to not be afraid, to take risks, to go out into Baghdad. He did it every day, unless he was on the road.

TODD: Handover day, events moving unexpectedly fast. Bremer and his team gather. With what appears to be lightening speed, Iraq becomes sovereign. Bremer gestures, it's yours now, as he's shuttled out in an armada security, one last reflective look at what he's leaving behind.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Karen Ballard's photographs have been published in "TIME" magazine. And they've been on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art here in Washington, Wolf.

BLITZER: She's an excellent photographer. I know her quite well. Thanks very much, Brian, for that.

TODD: Sure.

BLITZER: The results of our Web question when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here are the results of our Web question. That's all the time we have. This is not a scientific poll.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

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