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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Former president Bill Clinton has successful heart bypass surgery; Presidential candidate John Kerry adds new staff to his campaign; Florida starts to clean up from Hurricane Frances

Aired September 06, 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.


MILES O'BRIEN, GUEST HOST: Happening now. The doctors have just spoken. New details of President Clinton's recovery from a major heart operation.
Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

Out of surgery. What's former president Clinton's prognosis? We'll ask our Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

New polls conducted after the GOP convention. Just how big is the Bush bounce?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: They're moving in the wrong direction. We need to turn America around and move in the right direction!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: What can John Kerry do to stop the momentum?

Cleaning up after Hurricane Frances. What it's still way to early to sound the all clear.

Tears of anguish in Russia. Will last week's school massacre loosen President Putin's grip on power?

Hello. I'm Miles O'Brien at the CNN Center in Atlanta. Wolf has this Labor Day off.

Bill Clinton is out of surgery, doing well but not out of the woods just yet, the former president said to be resting comfortably in intensive care -- that's standard -- after apparently successful heart bypass surgery.

We're all over this story. We have Dr. Sanjay Gupta on it, as well as CNN's Adaora Udoji, who joins us -- both of them -- from New York. Let's begin with Adaora.

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles. Indeed, we've just listened to a briefing by the two doctors who led the team of 15 who operated on Bill Clinton, a four-hour surgery, they said. They said that it was a quadruple bypass surgery. They found significant blockage when they conducted that operation today. They said it all went well, and at this rate, they are predicting a four to five- hospital-day stay and two to three-month recovery. They say the prognosis is good. They expect he will live out a, quote, "entirely normal and active life."

They also told us that Senator Hillary Clinton, his wife, and their daughter, Chelsea, have been with Bill Clinton nearly constantly in the last couple of days. They were with him in the waiting room before the surgery. They were there afterwards. And indeed, they actually read a statement from both of them, the statement, in which they thanked God and the hospital for the surgery going so well today. Why don't we take a quick listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. HERBERT PARDES, CARDIOTHORACIC SURGEON: "These past few days have been quite an emotional roller-coaster for us. As so many families know, open heart surgery, though increasingly common, is a very serious procedure. That is why we are so grateful to the people of this hospital and so many others around the country and the world who have been giving us their prayers and support.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UDOJI: Those are the words of Senator Hillary Clinton and Chelsea, thanking the hospital and the public for the tremendous support they say they have gotten as the former president has gone through this bypass surgery. They said they believe that his faith and optimism will carry him through the days and weeks and months ahead -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Adaora Udoji. Thank you very much.

Over the weekend, there were questions about why doctors were waiting until today to operate on the former president. At today's news conference, they indicated Mr. Clinton had been given blood thinners, had been on them, and they wanted to give the medication time to wear off, to prevent excessive bleeding during the surgery.

Now that the former president's surgery is over, the recovery period, of course, begins. Joining us with more on that is CNN's senior medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay what's the biggest obstacle that lies ahead for patients who have undergone this surgery?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, the first 24 hours are still always very critical in these situations. Operation's certainly considered a success, but the president is still in the intensive care unit. His heart's going to need to be monitored, his blood pressure, his pulse, all those sorts of things. To be clear, the patient is awake, but he's still on the breathing tube, according to the doctors, as well.

Miles, you bring up a good point about waiting for the operation. There was some speculation as to whether the president needed the operation at all. This is what one of the doctors had to say about that. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ALLAN SCHWARTZ, CHIEF OF CARDIOLOGY: Because of the syndrome he had, with progressive symptoms culminating in rest pain, there was a substantial likelihood that he would have had a substantial heart attack in the near future. And that was the reason for the time urgency of what was done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: Really, preventing a heart attack is the key here, Miles, getting this operation done, getting it done quickly, but not right away, within a few days, seemed to work just fine in the president's case, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Now, as I understand it, Sanjay, there are two ways to do this. You can either leave the heart beating, or you can put a patient on a heart-lung machine, actually stopping their heart. To those of us who are not doctors, that sounds pretty scary. What happened in this case, and what are the implications on that decision?

GUPTA: Very good question, an important question. The operation was done in a traditional, conventional way. That is to say the following. There was an incision that was made, opening his sternum. The chest was opened. There were some arteries that were taken from inside the chest wall, some vein that was taken from the leg, and bypassed the diseased vessels. The heart was stopped to do the operation at the beginning, and then it was restarted at the end of the operation. -That's the conventional way. That's the way about a thousand procedures are done every day in America.

Now, the other way to do it is something some people refer to as the keyhole operation. You actually slow the heart down, but you never stop it completely. And that's the type of procedure that they actually specialize in here at this particular hospital, New York Presbyterian. There are pluses and minuses to both ways. Obviously, the tried-and-true method was the -- was something that's been tested. The more minimally invasive one keeps the patient off of the cardiac bypass pump, which some doctors believe may be beneficial in the long run.

In either case, though, the doctors said that the president just wasn't a candidate for the keyhole or minimally invasive way today.

O'BRIEN: And quickly on the recuperation. How long will the former president be in the hospital? How soon before he tries to pick up his pace running again?

GUPTA: I think people are going to be surprised at how quickly he moves along here, Miles. He'll probably be in the intensive care unit overnight. He's probably be on the general care floor for a few days. We may be saying good-bye to him from this hospital in just a few days, maybe even by the end of the week. Longer-term recovery, probably at least several weeks. Both the body and the mind need time to recuperate after something like this, Miles. O'BRIEN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta in New York at the hospital. Thank you very much. CNN's Larry King will have an exclusive interview with former president Clinton's surgeons. That's at 9:00 PM Eastern right here on "LARRY KING LIVE" tonight.

Our first post-RNC poll is out today, and it shows President Bush with a small but significant post-convention bounce. The CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup survey shows Bush getting 52 percent of the likely voters, compared to 45 percent for Democrat John Kerry. Bush is up 2 points from before the convention, Kerry down 2. CNN's Elaine Quijano joining us from the White House with more -- Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Miles. Well, this Labor Day, President Bush will be highlighting his domestic agenda at a stop in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. Now, Missouri is a state that the president actually carried in back in 2000 by 3 percentage points. Mr. Bush is right now in the middle of a post- convention campaign swing that will take him through six states, a tour that the campaign dubbed "the opportunity tour." In less hand an hour, President Bush is scheduled to speak at a rally in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and campaign officials say the president will focus on helping small businesses in order stimulate job growth.

Now, tomorrow the president will also embark on a bus tour. That will take him to the western part of Missouri. He will be making three stops in Missouri. The first stop will be in Lee's Summit, a rally there. Then he will move on to an "Ask President Bush" event in Sedalia. And finally, he'll wrap up with a rally in Columbia, Missouri. Now, the campaign says that Mr. Bush will talk about the importance of spreading prosperity to all corners of America.

Earlier today, Vice President Dick Cheney was also out on the stump. He appeared at a town hall meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There the president (SIC) talked about the economy and specifically defended the administration, saying that the Bush administration had inherited a recession, in part trying to explain what some have said is a sluggish economy under President Bush's watch.

Now, the vice president also poked fun, using a phrase that has been put forth by Senator John Kerry's running made, John Edwards, this populist idea, this theme of "two Americas" that Senator Edwards has used to describe the haves and have nots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This notion of two Americas that Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards sometimes talk about is interesting, and to some extent, it's mutual because sometimes America sees two John Kerrys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, meantime, again, as for President Bush, he is scheduled to make that appearance in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, in less than an hour, a rally scheduled there, followed by the bus tour tomorrow -- Miles. O'BRIEN: CNN's Elaine Quijano at the White House. Thanks much.

The Bush bounce has left the Kerry campaign scrambling for a new strategy, and so the candidate reached out to the Democrats' political maven emeritus, Bill Clinton. Just before the former president went under the knife, he and John Kerry had a long campaign bull session. And today on the stump, it appears an old Clinton mantra was in play, "It's the economy, stupid." Here's CNN's Ed Henry.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was back to basics for John Kerry, who zeroed in on domestic issues, especially jobs, on a Labor Day swing through three battleground states.

KERRY: If you want four more years of your wages falling, if you want four more years of Social Security trust funds being raided in order to give tax cuts to the wealthiest people in America, then you should go vote for George Bush.

HENRY: That's music to the ears of senior Democrats, who are grumbling that Kerry has spent too much time on national security, which enabled President Bush to surge ahead in the polls. But as he spoke from a front porch in Pennsylvania, Kerry was repeatedly heckled by Bush supporters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Flip-flop! Flip-flop!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flip-flop! Flip-flop!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Flip-flop! Flip-flop!

HENRY: Kerry stayed on message, even as one protester mocked the wealthy senator's claim that he will fight for average Americans.

KERRY: He's right, I'm privileged. My tax burden went down, and I don't think that's right. I think your tax burden ought to go down.

HENRY: The domestic Bush is push is being made on the heels of a Saturday night phone call between Kerry and Bill Clinton. Sources tell CNN that from his hospital bed, the former president counseled Kerry on shifting the talk from Vietnam to bread-and-butter issues. Add to that a slew of Clinton veterans, like Joe Lockhart, who have joined the campaign at a time of continued restructuring. But Kerry aides are downplaying the significance of the Clinton phone call and say he's not swooping in to save the day.

KERRY: This is most overblown thing. I've talked to President Clinton many times over the last months, and people are frankly creating fiction out of something that doesn't exist. Our campaign, I think, is very much on track.

HENRY: Before heading to Ohio, Kerry continued beating the drum on the domestic front at a rally with coal miners in West Virginia.

KERRY: Health care costs are going through the roof for every family in America! The surplus that he was left has been completely wiped away! Our alliances around the world with our countries that we rely on to help us have been shredded and left in tatters around the globe!

HENRY (on camera): Despite the new poll numbers, Kerry is feeling confident. He's privately telling his staff that this feels like 1996 all over again. That's when Kerry fell behind Republican Bill Weld in a titanic Senate reelection battle. With his back against the wall, Kerry cranked it up a notch and pulled out a victory.

Ed Henry, CNN, Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Well, Here's your turn to weigh in on this story. Our "Web Question of the Day" is this: Which candidate has helped more -- was helped more by his party's convention, President Bush or Senator Kerry? You can vote at cnn.com/wolf right now. We'll have the results a little later in the broadcast.

Florida cleans up after Hurricane Frances. We'll give you a bird's-eye view of the storm's destructive path.

Also ahead: new American casualties in Iraq. We'll tell you how seven Marines died.

And funerals in Russia. A grieving nation tries to cope with a growing terror threat.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: It's the storm that seemed to swallow the Sunshine State. Today Tropical Storm Frances moved across the Panhandle, losing strength while moving northwest. Over the weekend, then Hurricane Frances inflicted its wrath on almost every corner of the peninsula. Trees are down, homes flooded, boats sunk, and power is out still for millions. Here's a bird's-eye view of the damage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): Hurricanes always clear the air. And when Frances left, it was clear Florida residents have got a huge mess to clean up. It's a familiar scene, a landscape left battered and beaten. In parts of Palm Beach County, entire neighborhoods are destroyed, some houses left with only a front porch or living room wall still standing. Still others even worse. Some hotels with hardly a single window intact, mattresses dangling from high above. The powerful winds left marinas in Fort Pierce littered with mangled boats and overturned vessels. Million-dollar yachts smashed into docks.

The winds weren't the worst of it, though. Heavy rains left several areas of the state under water, some cars nearly covered, parts of Tampa now passable only by boat or canoe. Up and down the Atlantic coast, the storm ripped roofs off stores and flattened gas station canopies, many of those tanks tapped out before the storm, now themselves destroyed. Massive trees were toppled, perhaps just as many power lines down. In Melbourne, a lamppost still dangled from one that remained.

Early estimates put the cost of the slow-moving storm at anywhere from $2 billion to $5 billion. But combined with Charley, and now Ivan on the horizon, the cost of Mother Nature is proving to as massive as the hurricanes themselves.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Now, Frances, of course, was a storm for the history books, and while it naturally dominated our coverage over the weekend, we're only beginning to take a toll and to tell the tale. There are literally millions of stories in the wake of the largest evacuation in U.S. history. Here are just a few of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was long. It was the longest one I've ever gone through, and I've gone through quite a few.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The winds sounded like a 100 18-wheelers racing around the house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just got back after five months in Baghdad, Iraq, and I thought that was a problem, getting shot at. And today I wished I was back in Baghdad, I tell you. The nightmare's only about to begin for everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Huge trees, trees that you never think would -- probably sitting there for 50 years, were just flying away like nothing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As I was walking back I saw the tree actually come out of the ground, like a cork out of the bottle, mate, and it started to tilt. It pulled a power line down. That snapped. And then the power line got into the water. And by the grace of God, I just missed that electrified water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am devastated. It is a total loss. It's a shame. And I feel really bad for our neighbors. There were a fair amount of live-aboards here, and from what I understand, some of them simple had the minimal liability coverage. And basically, they're out of a place to live right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I grabbed my pictures. And I had this sign right by the door at the gym, when you come in my gym, it's called Ocean Fitness, about we put "Hutchinson Island, a little piece of paradise."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said this probably one of the last things you have of your gym, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP) O'BRIEN: Weathering the storm and bracing for a new one now. Will Ivan be terrible? We'll find out a little bit more just ahead.

And Russia and terrorism. Who was behind last week's bloody school siege?

And there's this. Iran jitters. What happens if Teheran gets a nuclear weapon? We'll help sort out a very complicated scenario for you a little later.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: From the peninsula to the Panhandle, Tropical Storm Frances made landfall for the second time in Florida at about 2:00 this afternoon. Our Tom Foreman joins us live now from the Panhandle town of Carrabelle. Tom, what do you know?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, I know that a lot of people here are breathing a sigh of relief. There was so much fear just a few hours ago, really, that this storm would come crashing into this area exactly the way it did the rest of Florida. It has not done that, much the relief of many, many people here because they've seen a lot of hurricanes and they know how much damage it can do.

Following closely on the heels of that sentiment, however, is the feeling of so many people who ran away from the storm who now already want to come back. And the State of Florida are telling them -- officials are saying, Please, do not do it yet. The resources are not in place. There's not enough electricity for people, not enough food, no enough water, not enough places to stay, all of these problems. So officials in that state are asking people to please stay out of the state if they went away. That's a lot of people being told that, who were in shelters and who have gone to Georgia and to Alabama and even further up into the Carolinas. Those people, I know from my experience in the past few days, very much want to get back, but they are being asked to hold on, let the storm totally go away, and then see what happens -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: That could be testing folks' patience quite a bit, couldn't it, Tom.

FOREMAN: Oh, there's no question about it. There are people here who very, very reluctantly leave their homes to begin with because of this very problem. They want to take care of their own things. They do worry about things like looting. And whether or not it's that, they worry about things like, you have part of the roof torn off, and if you are not there, does more rain pour in, does more wind come through? Is more damage done that you could prevent if you were there? These are the things people are worried about. That, plus the simple curiosity and fear, about wondering what happened to their homes.

I've been at places like this. I know you have, too. When you see people coming back, the degree of anxiety and concern they have is enormous. And that can only be satisfied by seeing and being in their own home. O'BRIEN: And to throw another curveball at them, as if they need it, there is this other storm out there that could cause major problems for them, especially if you don't have your roof on, if Ivan comes barreling in. And that would, of course, make people really want to get back home and check things out.

FOREMAN: Well, people here have been hit with an odd combination of storms already. When you think about Charley just a few weeks ago -- the damage done in Punta Gorda when I was down there was extraordinary. But it hit other areas, too. They were hit by that storm, they've been hit by this story. This area was hit by Tropical Storm Bonnie a few weeks ago. Didn't really do much damage, but nonetheless, it puts people on edge.

And you're absolutely right. People here all day long have been saying, We don't even want to talk about another hurricane right now because there's too much clean-up to do, there's too much to be worried about. And frankly, they're all sort of taking the "let's worry about that tomorrow" attitude because there is just too much to do right now.

O'BRIEN: All right. Boy, on that sobering note, we'll watch Ivan, of course, very closely. And Tom Foreman, thank you very much, from Carrabelle, Florida, in the Panhandle.

Well, it's been a day filled with anguish in Russia. Coming up, we'll share with you some pictures of just deep, deep grief after last week's bloody hostage crisis. Russia's president is under fire in the aftermath of that siege. Who does Vladimir Putin say was behind all that terror? And why are people so mad at him right now?

And in Iraq, it's been the worst day for Americans in many months. We'll have more on the killings of seven Marines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back. Russia's agony after a horrifying end to a school siege. A nation mourns while one town begins to bury the dead.

But first a quick check of stories now in the news.

Former president Bill Clinton resting comfortably after open heart surgery in New York. Doctors say the coronary artery bypass surgery was successful. Clinton is expected to spend the night in the intensive care unit.

A new CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll suggests a modest bounce for President Bush coming out of the Republican national convention. The percentage of likely voters saying Mr. Bush is their choice for president rose to 52 percent -- that's 2 points higher that just before the convention -- 45 percent said they'd vote for John Kerry.

A new hurricane threatening the island of -- islands of the southern Caribbean. Ivan is packing sustained winds of 105 miles an hour. A hurricane warning in effect from Barbados to Grenada. Some computer models show a possible course heading toward Florida for Ivan.

NASA managers are concerned their massive vehicle assembly building could be vulnerable to severe weather after sustaining damage over the weekend; 1,000 aluminum panels, 4-by-10-feet in size, were blown off the massive vehicle assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center.

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

Across Russia today, mourning for the victims of a tragic school siege. At least 338 people, many of them children, died in the chaotic end to that standoff. And with many more still missing, the death toll is expected to rise. From around the world, expressions of sympathy and solidarity, but for those who lost loved ones, there is very little to blunt the pain.

Bill Neely has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL NEELY, ITV REPORTER (voice-over): After the slaughter, the mass burial in a field of agony. The cries of thousands rising up from the pit of Beslan's despair. It was a scene of unimaginable horror.

Beneath driving rain, the open coffin of an 11-year-old boy. Skyav Artivek (ph) was shot repeatedly as he tried to run from the siege. His grandmother's grief scratched on her face. Children and their teachers buried side by side, the anguish uncontrollable. And how could it be after deaths like these?

This was their school. And here they are on the opening day two years ago with balloons and chocolates for their teacher, dressed in their best, just as they were last Wednesday. Dozens of these children are now dead. In the pouring rain, dozens of the victims still lie unidentified. Relatives searching in the stench for their missing children or parents.

(on camera): But many of the injuries, especially the burns, are just horrific. People cannot be identified and in many cases whole families were murdered in the school. There is simply no one left here to identify them.

(voice-over): This woman has just found her daughter. Nearby, others peer beneath the plastic, looking for rings, jewelry, any kind of clue. Asa (ph) is looking for a 12-year-old Medina (ph). What happen in this school and in its gym was horrifying. But this was horrifying, too, his wife and little girl shot in the back, their anguish beyond words.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Russia's government is facing heavy criticism in the aftermath of the crisis. Many say the military and law enforcement response was clumsy at best. And Russian President Vladimir Putin is also under fire for trying to pin the massacre on foreign terrorists. There is little doubt a homegrown problem lies at the root of the terror, the desire of ethnic Chechens to break away from Russia and form an Islamic state.

Joining now is CNN's Brian Todd with more on that -- Brian Todd.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Miles. Having evolved from a bloody civil war now into a terrorism conflict over the past few years, it is clear that the equation has changed in Chechnya.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): Once, they were a band of rebels who fought with passion and precision, who took on a fight for independence against a clumsy giant, inflicted severe military casualties, and fought their way to the negotiating table.

But since then, a hard-liner won the presidency on promises to get tough with Chechen rebels. Marginalized politically, the rebels evolved into a radical Islamist movement, grew more audacious, some say desperate, moving from rebels in war to terrorists on the attack, taking hostages in a theater, downing two commercial planes. Now we're left with scenes of dead children, wailing mothers, a hunkered- down leader accused of misleading his people.

SVANTE CORNELL, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: It's a loss for President Putin. He has for two years been saying that the war in Chechnya is over and that the Russian people are safer with him.

TODD: And questions. Where does it go from here and does anyone have a strategy for ending this that doesn't involve wiping the other side out? The militants who took the school in southern Russia are Chechens, fighters from neighboring regions, possibly some Arabs. Some experts believe this was an attempt to force Russia back to negotiations. Others say it's unclear what they want. And whatever it is, is this the way to get it?

But if destabilization or a simple war of attrition is now the aim, this is a proven tactic.

KEN ROBINSON, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Because they get to choose the time and the place and because they're able to use terrorists and insurgent tactics, they can continually wear you down politically.

TODD: What is Vladimir Putin's strategy. Svante Cornell studies ethnic conflicts in wars. He says Mr. Putin and the Russian government have spent considerable time trying to eliminate Chechen moderates from the political dialogue.

CORNELL: Whereas he has spent less time trying to actually get rid or eliminate the Islamist extremists because they enable him to show Chechnya as being a part of the war on terror.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: In the immediate, President Putin has promised to beef up borders and increase security. But as the country moves forward, one thing experts say is certain is this will never return to conventional warfare -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Brian Todd in Washington, thank you very much.

We have reports just coming in to CNN of more bloodshed in the Middle East, specifically in Gaza, possible retribution for those bus bombings a week ago in Israel. We'll have a report for you very shortly.

Also, it was a day of death and destruction in Iraq, seven U.S. Marines killed. The deadliest single attack on U.S. troops in Iraq in four months. We'll tell you how to happened.

Plus, could Iran be next? Fears over nuclear capabilities put the Pentagon on alert.

And she won a silver medal in Athens. Now an Olympic wrestler is charged in the death of her boyfriend.

First, a look at some other stories making headlines around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Several days of heavy rain brought floods and landslides to southwest China. Dozens are dead, hundreds trapped by mud and caved in-roads.

Twin punch. Japan is coping with the aftermath of a typhoon and earthquakes. Typhoons blamed for landslides, floods and dozens of deaths in southern Japan. Meanwhile, western Japan is racked by aftershocks following a pair of weekend earthquakes.

Slick idea. It's late winter in Australia, where a hailstorm hit Sydney. While the icy weather was blamed for traffic accidents and airport delays, snowboarders were shredding.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right, well, as we told you just before the break, there are reports of violence in Gaza City, four Palestinians gravely wounded, perhaps killed, according to some of the wire services. We're still working on that. At least 30 others were injured, this as Israeli helicopters were hovering nearby, has the appearances of Israelis' targeted assassinations of the leaders of the group Hamas, this in the wake of those bus bombings we saw about a week ago in Israel.

Joining us on the line right now from Gaza City is Talal Aburahman, a producer for us there.

Talal, what can you tell us?

TALAL ABURAHMAN, CNN PRODUCER: OK.

Just about 20 minutes ago, the Apache fired four rockets from an area in Gaza City and caused many injury. And according to the information we got, this targeting -- it was targeting a group that were resisting -- a Palestinian resisting group in Gaza, some of them from Izzedine al Qassam, the military wing of Hamas, and some of them for al Aqsa Brigade, the military wing of Fatah.

Up to now, ambulances in the streets, too many injury rushed to the hospital. Up to now, hospital confirm at least 30 people arrived injured rushed to the hospital. And according to the hospital medical sources, at least (INAUDIBLE) we got killed from this attack. Here a lot of ambulances running in the street. People, they are running there to the hospital. People, they are panicked. People, they are screaming.

Shifa Hospital, this is the main hospital in Gaza City, it's full up with people. This area, it's been hit by four rockets, one after one in the same minute, four rockets hitting this group of Hamas people and the al Aqsa Brigade group. Before a few hours, we received, about 10:00, a leaflet from (INAUDIBLE) claiming responsibility, hitting three rockets at

(CROSSTALK)

ABURAHMAN: That's is in Gaza City.

O'BRIEN: Talal, can you tell me -- you say these were targeted. These were members of Hamas and Al Aqsa Brigades. Do you know, were they members of the leadership? Do you have any way of knowing at this point? And where were they? Were they in vehicles or had they gathered at some other location?

ABURAHMAN: No. They were in an area. According to some information, this is a training area for the military group.

But our sources from -- from the IDF, he said that they are targeting from area, the Palestinian, this thing -- group, they are firing much from that area.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Talal Aburahman, our producer in Gaza City. Obviously, that story is unfolding. And we will keep you posted as it unfolds. We'll give details as they become available.

Bloody day for U.S. troops in Iraq, meanwhile. A dusty stretch of no-man's land in the troubled Fallujah region became the latest scene of a deadly attack. And now the casualty count is nearing a macabre milestone.

CNN senior international correspondent Walter Rodgers reports from Baghdad. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: With this latest tragedy, the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq is now nudging right up around 1,000 since the war began, seven U.S. Marines killed, three Iraqi National Guardsmen at least killed traveling on a highway just north of Fallujah. Fallujah, in the Sunni Triangle, is a volcano of hatred toward the United States.

Suddenly, a driver pulled up along as if to pass the military vehicles. He detonated a huge explosion, again, killing the seven Marines. That's the largest single number of Americans killed in a single incident since last May 2.

It, again, underlines the fact that the guerrillas and the insurgents in Iraq are operating rather freely in a target-rich environment. Still, the commander of the theater operations here, General John Abizaid, denies that the American losing the fight in Iraq.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, CMDR., U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: The truth of the matter is that we have been fighting in this part of the world now for nearly three years and we haven't lost a single military engagement at the platoon level and above anywhere, ever. And so, it's difficult for me to give any credence to the notion that we're losing militarily, because we're not, and we can't be defeated militarily.

RODGERS: The difficulty of course for the Americans is that a single incident like this can create the perception that the Americans are stumbling in Iraq, seven Marines killed, a reporter kidnapped, contract workers having their throats slit, others being held hostages. It is the perception here which shapes reality as much as the facts on the ground.

Walter Rodgers, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: It's in President Bush's axis of evil. Ahead, what could happen if Iran went after nuclear weapons? And how might the Pentagon respond?

Later, a final look at what was Hurricane Frances in our picture of the day.

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Authorities charging a member of the U.S. Olympic team with careless driving after a road accident that killed her boyfriend. Olympic wrestler Sara McMann won a silver medal in Athens. Police say McCann was at the wheel of a jeep that rolled off the shoulder of Interstate 76 in northeastern Colorado, killing her 28-year-old boyfriend. California wildfire. Firefighters continue to battle a major blaze in the northern part of the state. It's burned more than 10,000 acres in a rugged area of Sonoma and Lake counties.

Airport scare, four terminals at Los Angeles International Airport evacuated after a pair of unrelated suspicious incidents. A passenger bypassed security and some flashlight batteries exploded. Investigators found no evidence of terrorism and the terminals were reopened after three about hours.

And that's our weekend snapshot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Even as the U.S. remains mired in its occupation of Iraq, there's growing unease over Iran and its nuclear ambitions. Does Iran really want what it says, a steady, cheap supply of power, or is it after a nuclear bomb? And if that is the case, how might the Pentagon respond?

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Iran test-fired a Shahab-3 ballistic missile last month, claiming it could reach Israel, a shudder ran through neighboring capitals. What if an Iranian missile carried a nuclear warhead? On a recent trip, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld found the whole region nervous about Iran.

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: They are on the terrorist list. They are active with Hezbollah and funneling terrorist activities down through Damascus into Lebanon and into Israel.

STARR (on camera): Behind the scenes, senior Pentagon officials say, there are no realistic options for attacking what the U.S. and Israel claim is Iran's nuclear weapons program.

(voice-over): Rumsfeld advisers say negotiating with Iran's President Khatami is not realistic, that the conservative ayatollahs are firmly in charge. So if Iran had the capability to attack Israel, would the U.S. turn a blind eye if Israel attacked Iran first? It is not at all clear Israel would launch a preemptive strike, as it did in 1981 against an Iraqi nuclear facility.

SHIREEN HUNTER, CSIS ISLAM PROGRAM DIRECTOR: My feeling is that they, the Israelis, probably will prefer that even if there is going to be a military action, that this should be done probably by others.

STARR: Rumsfeld believes the best long-term hope for Iran, the people themselves.

RUMSFELD: They can't help but see that they are being by their government denied the full benefits of interaction with the rest of the world.

STARR: The U.S. still has a commitment to defend Israel. But the Pentagon view is that removing the conservative ayatollahs from the government in Tehran may be the most practical solution.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: The International Atomic Energy Agency is trying to police the Iranian nuclear program. And while the Iranians insist they want only to generate power, that contention is generating plenty of skepticism in Washington and elsewhere.

With me now is our world affairs analyst, former Defense Secretary William Cohen.

Mr. Cohen, good to have you with us.

WILLIAM COHEN, CNN WORLD AFFAIRS ANALYST: It's great to be here. Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Is there any doubt in your mind that Iran is hell-bent to get a bomb?

COHEN: No, there's no doubt in my mind.

And you can judge their current situation by the fact that they have engaged in a program of great deception and concealment for some years now. And only when it was discovered that they were on the fast track to developing a nuclear program did they fess up, so to speak, and say, well, let's have the International Atomic Energy Agency come in and conduct some inspections, but those would be limited in nature.

And so their claim that it is only for peaceful purposes must be greeted with a great deal of skepticism, based on the past conduct.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: So allowing those U.S. inspectors in is just merely an opportunity or an attempt to play for some time here, right?

COHEN: I think they're playing for some time and they are putting some restrictions. They're not allowing full inspections, as would be required. Secondly, there could be a program whereby fuel could be supplied to the reactors that are being developed that would prevent them from developing either weapons-grade plutonium or enriched uranium that could be used for bomb making purposes.

But, earlier, you showed the havoc and catastrophe that was visited upon the Russian people by the attack most recently, killing hundreds of individuals. Imagine if that were a small nuclear weapon that were used by the terrorists groups. This is the problem, not so much that Iran would think of launching a nuclear weapon aboard a Shahab-3 or Shahab-4, when it's developed, but, rather nuclear materials being used by terrorist groups to be smuggled into, be it Israel or the United States or any other country, and then exploded. That's the danger that we face with Iran getting a nuclear weapon.

O'BRIEN: Is there any scenario which would allow Iran to have nuclear reactors for generating power strictly? Can a program like that be bottled up in such a way that it only has peaceful purposes?

COHEN: They can be structured in a way, again, by using fuel supplied by the international community as such that would provide fuel, that could not be reused to make bomb material. That can be done.

But that, of course, is being resisted by the Iranians. So at this particular point, I think it's not a U.S. or Israel vs. Iran. This should be the international community raising high the roof beam that we are now watching the lowering of the threshold of nuclear proliferation. We've seen it with Iran now. We've seen it in Korea, North Korea. We've some incipient programs even in South Korea, perhaps South Africa.

We have got as a world community to come down hard on any nation that is seeking to develop nuclear weapons just by reason of the fact that it could fall into the hands of groups that have no respect, no reverence for human life. And we've seen that most recently in Russia.

O'BRIEN: Mr. Cohen, you mentioned North Korea. Is it possible that some of the administration policies have taught Iran a lesson about the value of having a bomb and inasmuch as there's no attempt to go after North Korea militarily?

COHEN: Well, the military option with North Korea certainly would be a last option, and that we need to reinvigorate the process of trying to bring China in particular to exercise whatever influence it can to prevent North Korea from developing more nuclear weapons than they currently have.

But, surely, an inability to resolve the issue with North Korea in this last several years has given I think an incentive to other countries to move as quickly ahead as they can and then declare that they're a nuclear power. And what will we do about it at that point, other than accept it?

Now is the time for the international community to take action. It's not in Russia's interests or anyone else's interests to see Russian technology going to Iran to allow them to develop nuclear weapons. So this is an international and world problem. And it's something that the international community, not just the United States, must consider taking diplomatic initiatives, but surely economic sanctions, if necessary.

O'BRIEN: William Cohen, thanks for your time. Appreciate it.

COHEN: A pleasure.

O'BRIEN: When we come back, sometimes, a little dogged perseverance can be a good thing, like when you find a human to rescue you. And our Web question of the day is this: Which candidate was helped more by his party's convention, President Bush or Senator Kerry? We invite you to vote right now. CNN.com/Wolf is the place. The results for you when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Here's how you're weighing in on our Web question of the day. Once again, it is, which candidate was helped more by his party's convention, President Bush or Senator Kerry? Seventy-one percent of you say Bush; 29 percent of you say Kerry. This, of course, is not a scientific poll.

With parts of Florida still under water, it's not a fit day for man, nor beast, which is why these beasts are traveling by boat. There was no dog-paddling for these dogs. They were towed down a flooded street in Saint Petersburg. If they don't look especially enthusiastic, don't look -- very worried either. They look like beagles. And beagles can't stand the water. They're safe from the storm. And they are our picture of the day. Those dogs will hunt, but they won't swim.

Thanks for joining us. Wolf will be back tomorrow.

"LOU DOBBS" 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 September 6, 2004 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, GUEST HOST: Happening now. The doctors have just spoken. New details of President Clinton's recovery from a major heart operation.
Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

Out of surgery. What's former president Clinton's prognosis? We'll ask our Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

New polls conducted after the GOP convention. Just how big is the Bush bounce?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: They're moving in the wrong direction. We need to turn America around and move in the right direction!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: What can John Kerry do to stop the momentum?

Cleaning up after Hurricane Frances. What it's still way to early to sound the all clear.

Tears of anguish in Russia. Will last week's school massacre loosen President Putin's grip on power?

Hello. I'm Miles O'Brien at the CNN Center in Atlanta. Wolf has this Labor Day off.

Bill Clinton is out of surgery, doing well but not out of the woods just yet, the former president said to be resting comfortably in intensive care -- that's standard -- after apparently successful heart bypass surgery.

We're all over this story. We have Dr. Sanjay Gupta on it, as well as CNN's Adaora Udoji, who joins us -- both of them -- from New York. Let's begin with Adaora.

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles. Indeed, we've just listened to a briefing by the two doctors who led the team of 15 who operated on Bill Clinton, a four-hour surgery, they said. They said that it was a quadruple bypass surgery. They found significant blockage when they conducted that operation today. They said it all went well, and at this rate, they are predicting a four to five- hospital-day stay and two to three-month recovery. They say the prognosis is good. They expect he will live out a, quote, "entirely normal and active life."

They also told us that Senator Hillary Clinton, his wife, and their daughter, Chelsea, have been with Bill Clinton nearly constantly in the last couple of days. They were with him in the waiting room before the surgery. They were there afterwards. And indeed, they actually read a statement from both of them, the statement, in which they thanked God and the hospital for the surgery going so well today. Why don't we take a quick listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. HERBERT PARDES, CARDIOTHORACIC SURGEON: "These past few days have been quite an emotional roller-coaster for us. As so many families know, open heart surgery, though increasingly common, is a very serious procedure. That is why we are so grateful to the people of this hospital and so many others around the country and the world who have been giving us their prayers and support.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UDOJI: Those are the words of Senator Hillary Clinton and Chelsea, thanking the hospital and the public for the tremendous support they say they have gotten as the former president has gone through this bypass surgery. They said they believe that his faith and optimism will carry him through the days and weeks and months ahead -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Adaora Udoji. Thank you very much.

Over the weekend, there were questions about why doctors were waiting until today to operate on the former president. At today's news conference, they indicated Mr. Clinton had been given blood thinners, had been on them, and they wanted to give the medication time to wear off, to prevent excessive bleeding during the surgery.

Now that the former president's surgery is over, the recovery period, of course, begins. Joining us with more on that is CNN's senior medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay what's the biggest obstacle that lies ahead for patients who have undergone this surgery?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, the first 24 hours are still always very critical in these situations. Operation's certainly considered a success, but the president is still in the intensive care unit. His heart's going to need to be monitored, his blood pressure, his pulse, all those sorts of things. To be clear, the patient is awake, but he's still on the breathing tube, according to the doctors, as well.

Miles, you bring up a good point about waiting for the operation. There was some speculation as to whether the president needed the operation at all. This is what one of the doctors had to say about that. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ALLAN SCHWARTZ, CHIEF OF CARDIOLOGY: Because of the syndrome he had, with progressive symptoms culminating in rest pain, there was a substantial likelihood that he would have had a substantial heart attack in the near future. And that was the reason for the time urgency of what was done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: Really, preventing a heart attack is the key here, Miles, getting this operation done, getting it done quickly, but not right away, within a few days, seemed to work just fine in the president's case, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Now, as I understand it, Sanjay, there are two ways to do this. You can either leave the heart beating, or you can put a patient on a heart-lung machine, actually stopping their heart. To those of us who are not doctors, that sounds pretty scary. What happened in this case, and what are the implications on that decision?

GUPTA: Very good question, an important question. The operation was done in a traditional, conventional way. That is to say the following. There was an incision that was made, opening his sternum. The chest was opened. There were some arteries that were taken from inside the chest wall, some vein that was taken from the leg, and bypassed the diseased vessels. The heart was stopped to do the operation at the beginning, and then it was restarted at the end of the operation. -That's the conventional way. That's the way about a thousand procedures are done every day in America.

Now, the other way to do it is something some people refer to as the keyhole operation. You actually slow the heart down, but you never stop it completely. And that's the type of procedure that they actually specialize in here at this particular hospital, New York Presbyterian. There are pluses and minuses to both ways. Obviously, the tried-and-true method was the -- was something that's been tested. The more minimally invasive one keeps the patient off of the cardiac bypass pump, which some doctors believe may be beneficial in the long run.

In either case, though, the doctors said that the president just wasn't a candidate for the keyhole or minimally invasive way today.

O'BRIEN: And quickly on the recuperation. How long will the former president be in the hospital? How soon before he tries to pick up his pace running again?

GUPTA: I think people are going to be surprised at how quickly he moves along here, Miles. He'll probably be in the intensive care unit overnight. He's probably be on the general care floor for a few days. We may be saying good-bye to him from this hospital in just a few days, maybe even by the end of the week. Longer-term recovery, probably at least several weeks. Both the body and the mind need time to recuperate after something like this, Miles. O'BRIEN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta in New York at the hospital. Thank you very much. CNN's Larry King will have an exclusive interview with former president Clinton's surgeons. That's at 9:00 PM Eastern right here on "LARRY KING LIVE" tonight.

Our first post-RNC poll is out today, and it shows President Bush with a small but significant post-convention bounce. The CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup survey shows Bush getting 52 percent of the likely voters, compared to 45 percent for Democrat John Kerry. Bush is up 2 points from before the convention, Kerry down 2. CNN's Elaine Quijano joining us from the White House with more -- Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Miles. Well, this Labor Day, President Bush will be highlighting his domestic agenda at a stop in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. Now, Missouri is a state that the president actually carried in back in 2000 by 3 percentage points. Mr. Bush is right now in the middle of a post- convention campaign swing that will take him through six states, a tour that the campaign dubbed "the opportunity tour." In less hand an hour, President Bush is scheduled to speak at a rally in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and campaign officials say the president will focus on helping small businesses in order stimulate job growth.

Now, tomorrow the president will also embark on a bus tour. That will take him to the western part of Missouri. He will be making three stops in Missouri. The first stop will be in Lee's Summit, a rally there. Then he will move on to an "Ask President Bush" event in Sedalia. And finally, he'll wrap up with a rally in Columbia, Missouri. Now, the campaign says that Mr. Bush will talk about the importance of spreading prosperity to all corners of America.

Earlier today, Vice President Dick Cheney was also out on the stump. He appeared at a town hall meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There the president (SIC) talked about the economy and specifically defended the administration, saying that the Bush administration had inherited a recession, in part trying to explain what some have said is a sluggish economy under President Bush's watch.

Now, the vice president also poked fun, using a phrase that has been put forth by Senator John Kerry's running made, John Edwards, this populist idea, this theme of "two Americas" that Senator Edwards has used to describe the haves and have nots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This notion of two Americas that Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards sometimes talk about is interesting, and to some extent, it's mutual because sometimes America sees two John Kerrys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, meantime, again, as for President Bush, he is scheduled to make that appearance in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, in less than an hour, a rally scheduled there, followed by the bus tour tomorrow -- Miles. O'BRIEN: CNN's Elaine Quijano at the White House. Thanks much.

The Bush bounce has left the Kerry campaign scrambling for a new strategy, and so the candidate reached out to the Democrats' political maven emeritus, Bill Clinton. Just before the former president went under the knife, he and John Kerry had a long campaign bull session. And today on the stump, it appears an old Clinton mantra was in play, "It's the economy, stupid." Here's CNN's Ed Henry.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was back to basics for John Kerry, who zeroed in on domestic issues, especially jobs, on a Labor Day swing through three battleground states.

KERRY: If you want four more years of your wages falling, if you want four more years of Social Security trust funds being raided in order to give tax cuts to the wealthiest people in America, then you should go vote for George Bush.

HENRY: That's music to the ears of senior Democrats, who are grumbling that Kerry has spent too much time on national security, which enabled President Bush to surge ahead in the polls. But as he spoke from a front porch in Pennsylvania, Kerry was repeatedly heckled by Bush supporters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Flip-flop! Flip-flop!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flip-flop! Flip-flop!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Flip-flop! Flip-flop!

HENRY: Kerry stayed on message, even as one protester mocked the wealthy senator's claim that he will fight for average Americans.

KERRY: He's right, I'm privileged. My tax burden went down, and I don't think that's right. I think your tax burden ought to go down.

HENRY: The domestic Bush is push is being made on the heels of a Saturday night phone call between Kerry and Bill Clinton. Sources tell CNN that from his hospital bed, the former president counseled Kerry on shifting the talk from Vietnam to bread-and-butter issues. Add to that a slew of Clinton veterans, like Joe Lockhart, who have joined the campaign at a time of continued restructuring. But Kerry aides are downplaying the significance of the Clinton phone call and say he's not swooping in to save the day.

KERRY: This is most overblown thing. I've talked to President Clinton many times over the last months, and people are frankly creating fiction out of something that doesn't exist. Our campaign, I think, is very much on track.

HENRY: Before heading to Ohio, Kerry continued beating the drum on the domestic front at a rally with coal miners in West Virginia.

KERRY: Health care costs are going through the roof for every family in America! The surplus that he was left has been completely wiped away! Our alliances around the world with our countries that we rely on to help us have been shredded and left in tatters around the globe!

HENRY (on camera): Despite the new poll numbers, Kerry is feeling confident. He's privately telling his staff that this feels like 1996 all over again. That's when Kerry fell behind Republican Bill Weld in a titanic Senate reelection battle. With his back against the wall, Kerry cranked it up a notch and pulled out a victory.

Ed Henry, CNN, Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Well, Here's your turn to weigh in on this story. Our "Web Question of the Day" is this: Which candidate has helped more -- was helped more by his party's convention, President Bush or Senator Kerry? You can vote at cnn.com/wolf right now. We'll have the results a little later in the broadcast.

Florida cleans up after Hurricane Frances. We'll give you a bird's-eye view of the storm's destructive path.

Also ahead: new American casualties in Iraq. We'll tell you how seven Marines died.

And funerals in Russia. A grieving nation tries to cope with a growing terror threat.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: It's the storm that seemed to swallow the Sunshine State. Today Tropical Storm Frances moved across the Panhandle, losing strength while moving northwest. Over the weekend, then Hurricane Frances inflicted its wrath on almost every corner of the peninsula. Trees are down, homes flooded, boats sunk, and power is out still for millions. Here's a bird's-eye view of the damage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): Hurricanes always clear the air. And when Frances left, it was clear Florida residents have got a huge mess to clean up. It's a familiar scene, a landscape left battered and beaten. In parts of Palm Beach County, entire neighborhoods are destroyed, some houses left with only a front porch or living room wall still standing. Still others even worse. Some hotels with hardly a single window intact, mattresses dangling from high above. The powerful winds left marinas in Fort Pierce littered with mangled boats and overturned vessels. Million-dollar yachts smashed into docks.

The winds weren't the worst of it, though. Heavy rains left several areas of the state under water, some cars nearly covered, parts of Tampa now passable only by boat or canoe. Up and down the Atlantic coast, the storm ripped roofs off stores and flattened gas station canopies, many of those tanks tapped out before the storm, now themselves destroyed. Massive trees were toppled, perhaps just as many power lines down. In Melbourne, a lamppost still dangled from one that remained.

Early estimates put the cost of the slow-moving storm at anywhere from $2 billion to $5 billion. But combined with Charley, and now Ivan on the horizon, the cost of Mother Nature is proving to as massive as the hurricanes themselves.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Now, Frances, of course, was a storm for the history books, and while it naturally dominated our coverage over the weekend, we're only beginning to take a toll and to tell the tale. There are literally millions of stories in the wake of the largest evacuation in U.S. history. Here are just a few of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was long. It was the longest one I've ever gone through, and I've gone through quite a few.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The winds sounded like a 100 18-wheelers racing around the house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just got back after five months in Baghdad, Iraq, and I thought that was a problem, getting shot at. And today I wished I was back in Baghdad, I tell you. The nightmare's only about to begin for everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Huge trees, trees that you never think would -- probably sitting there for 50 years, were just flying away like nothing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As I was walking back I saw the tree actually come out of the ground, like a cork out of the bottle, mate, and it started to tilt. It pulled a power line down. That snapped. And then the power line got into the water. And by the grace of God, I just missed that electrified water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am devastated. It is a total loss. It's a shame. And I feel really bad for our neighbors. There were a fair amount of live-aboards here, and from what I understand, some of them simple had the minimal liability coverage. And basically, they're out of a place to live right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I grabbed my pictures. And I had this sign right by the door at the gym, when you come in my gym, it's called Ocean Fitness, about we put "Hutchinson Island, a little piece of paradise."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said this probably one of the last things you have of your gym, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP) O'BRIEN: Weathering the storm and bracing for a new one now. Will Ivan be terrible? We'll find out a little bit more just ahead.

And Russia and terrorism. Who was behind last week's bloody school siege?

And there's this. Iran jitters. What happens if Teheran gets a nuclear weapon? We'll help sort out a very complicated scenario for you a little later.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: From the peninsula to the Panhandle, Tropical Storm Frances made landfall for the second time in Florida at about 2:00 this afternoon. Our Tom Foreman joins us live now from the Panhandle town of Carrabelle. Tom, what do you know?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, I know that a lot of people here are breathing a sigh of relief. There was so much fear just a few hours ago, really, that this storm would come crashing into this area exactly the way it did the rest of Florida. It has not done that, much the relief of many, many people here because they've seen a lot of hurricanes and they know how much damage it can do.

Following closely on the heels of that sentiment, however, is the feeling of so many people who ran away from the storm who now already want to come back. And the State of Florida are telling them -- officials are saying, Please, do not do it yet. The resources are not in place. There's not enough electricity for people, not enough food, no enough water, not enough places to stay, all of these problems. So officials in that state are asking people to please stay out of the state if they went away. That's a lot of people being told that, who were in shelters and who have gone to Georgia and to Alabama and even further up into the Carolinas. Those people, I know from my experience in the past few days, very much want to get back, but they are being asked to hold on, let the storm totally go away, and then see what happens -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: That could be testing folks' patience quite a bit, couldn't it, Tom.

FOREMAN: Oh, there's no question about it. There are people here who very, very reluctantly leave their homes to begin with because of this very problem. They want to take care of their own things. They do worry about things like looting. And whether or not it's that, they worry about things like, you have part of the roof torn off, and if you are not there, does more rain pour in, does more wind come through? Is more damage done that you could prevent if you were there? These are the things people are worried about. That, plus the simple curiosity and fear, about wondering what happened to their homes.

I've been at places like this. I know you have, too. When you see people coming back, the degree of anxiety and concern they have is enormous. And that can only be satisfied by seeing and being in their own home. O'BRIEN: And to throw another curveball at them, as if they need it, there is this other storm out there that could cause major problems for them, especially if you don't have your roof on, if Ivan comes barreling in. And that would, of course, make people really want to get back home and check things out.

FOREMAN: Well, people here have been hit with an odd combination of storms already. When you think about Charley just a few weeks ago -- the damage done in Punta Gorda when I was down there was extraordinary. But it hit other areas, too. They were hit by that storm, they've been hit by this story. This area was hit by Tropical Storm Bonnie a few weeks ago. Didn't really do much damage, but nonetheless, it puts people on edge.

And you're absolutely right. People here all day long have been saying, We don't even want to talk about another hurricane right now because there's too much clean-up to do, there's too much to be worried about. And frankly, they're all sort of taking the "let's worry about that tomorrow" attitude because there is just too much to do right now.

O'BRIEN: All right. Boy, on that sobering note, we'll watch Ivan, of course, very closely. And Tom Foreman, thank you very much, from Carrabelle, Florida, in the Panhandle.

Well, it's been a day filled with anguish in Russia. Coming up, we'll share with you some pictures of just deep, deep grief after last week's bloody hostage crisis. Russia's president is under fire in the aftermath of that siege. Who does Vladimir Putin say was behind all that terror? And why are people so mad at him right now?

And in Iraq, it's been the worst day for Americans in many months. We'll have more on the killings of seven Marines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back. Russia's agony after a horrifying end to a school siege. A nation mourns while one town begins to bury the dead.

But first a quick check of stories now in the news.

Former president Bill Clinton resting comfortably after open heart surgery in New York. Doctors say the coronary artery bypass surgery was successful. Clinton is expected to spend the night in the intensive care unit.

A new CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll suggests a modest bounce for President Bush coming out of the Republican national convention. The percentage of likely voters saying Mr. Bush is their choice for president rose to 52 percent -- that's 2 points higher that just before the convention -- 45 percent said they'd vote for John Kerry.

A new hurricane threatening the island of -- islands of the southern Caribbean. Ivan is packing sustained winds of 105 miles an hour. A hurricane warning in effect from Barbados to Grenada. Some computer models show a possible course heading toward Florida for Ivan.

NASA managers are concerned their massive vehicle assembly building could be vulnerable to severe weather after sustaining damage over the weekend; 1,000 aluminum panels, 4-by-10-feet in size, were blown off the massive vehicle assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center.

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

Across Russia today, mourning for the victims of a tragic school siege. At least 338 people, many of them children, died in the chaotic end to that standoff. And with many more still missing, the death toll is expected to rise. From around the world, expressions of sympathy and solidarity, but for those who lost loved ones, there is very little to blunt the pain.

Bill Neely has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL NEELY, ITV REPORTER (voice-over): After the slaughter, the mass burial in a field of agony. The cries of thousands rising up from the pit of Beslan's despair. It was a scene of unimaginable horror.

Beneath driving rain, the open coffin of an 11-year-old boy. Skyav Artivek (ph) was shot repeatedly as he tried to run from the siege. His grandmother's grief scratched on her face. Children and their teachers buried side by side, the anguish uncontrollable. And how could it be after deaths like these?

This was their school. And here they are on the opening day two years ago with balloons and chocolates for their teacher, dressed in their best, just as they were last Wednesday. Dozens of these children are now dead. In the pouring rain, dozens of the victims still lie unidentified. Relatives searching in the stench for their missing children or parents.

(on camera): But many of the injuries, especially the burns, are just horrific. People cannot be identified and in many cases whole families were murdered in the school. There is simply no one left here to identify them.

(voice-over): This woman has just found her daughter. Nearby, others peer beneath the plastic, looking for rings, jewelry, any kind of clue. Asa (ph) is looking for a 12-year-old Medina (ph). What happen in this school and in its gym was horrifying. But this was horrifying, too, his wife and little girl shot in the back, their anguish beyond words.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Russia's government is facing heavy criticism in the aftermath of the crisis. Many say the military and law enforcement response was clumsy at best. And Russian President Vladimir Putin is also under fire for trying to pin the massacre on foreign terrorists. There is little doubt a homegrown problem lies at the root of the terror, the desire of ethnic Chechens to break away from Russia and form an Islamic state.

Joining now is CNN's Brian Todd with more on that -- Brian Todd.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Miles. Having evolved from a bloody civil war now into a terrorism conflict over the past few years, it is clear that the equation has changed in Chechnya.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): Once, they were a band of rebels who fought with passion and precision, who took on a fight for independence against a clumsy giant, inflicted severe military casualties, and fought their way to the negotiating table.

But since then, a hard-liner won the presidency on promises to get tough with Chechen rebels. Marginalized politically, the rebels evolved into a radical Islamist movement, grew more audacious, some say desperate, moving from rebels in war to terrorists on the attack, taking hostages in a theater, downing two commercial planes. Now we're left with scenes of dead children, wailing mothers, a hunkered- down leader accused of misleading his people.

SVANTE CORNELL, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: It's a loss for President Putin. He has for two years been saying that the war in Chechnya is over and that the Russian people are safer with him.

TODD: And questions. Where does it go from here and does anyone have a strategy for ending this that doesn't involve wiping the other side out? The militants who took the school in southern Russia are Chechens, fighters from neighboring regions, possibly some Arabs. Some experts believe this was an attempt to force Russia back to negotiations. Others say it's unclear what they want. And whatever it is, is this the way to get it?

But if destabilization or a simple war of attrition is now the aim, this is a proven tactic.

KEN ROBINSON, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Because they get to choose the time and the place and because they're able to use terrorists and insurgent tactics, they can continually wear you down politically.

TODD: What is Vladimir Putin's strategy. Svante Cornell studies ethnic conflicts in wars. He says Mr. Putin and the Russian government have spent considerable time trying to eliminate Chechen moderates from the political dialogue.

CORNELL: Whereas he has spent less time trying to actually get rid or eliminate the Islamist extremists because they enable him to show Chechnya as being a part of the war on terror.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: In the immediate, President Putin has promised to beef up borders and increase security. But as the country moves forward, one thing experts say is certain is this will never return to conventional warfare -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Brian Todd in Washington, thank you very much.

We have reports just coming in to CNN of more bloodshed in the Middle East, specifically in Gaza, possible retribution for those bus bombings a week ago in Israel. We'll have a report for you very shortly.

Also, it was a day of death and destruction in Iraq, seven U.S. Marines killed. The deadliest single attack on U.S. troops in Iraq in four months. We'll tell you how to happened.

Plus, could Iran be next? Fears over nuclear capabilities put the Pentagon on alert.

And she won a silver medal in Athens. Now an Olympic wrestler is charged in the death of her boyfriend.

First, a look at some other stories making headlines around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Several days of heavy rain brought floods and landslides to southwest China. Dozens are dead, hundreds trapped by mud and caved in-roads.

Twin punch. Japan is coping with the aftermath of a typhoon and earthquakes. Typhoons blamed for landslides, floods and dozens of deaths in southern Japan. Meanwhile, western Japan is racked by aftershocks following a pair of weekend earthquakes.

Slick idea. It's late winter in Australia, where a hailstorm hit Sydney. While the icy weather was blamed for traffic accidents and airport delays, snowboarders were shredding.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right, well, as we told you just before the break, there are reports of violence in Gaza City, four Palestinians gravely wounded, perhaps killed, according to some of the wire services. We're still working on that. At least 30 others were injured, this as Israeli helicopters were hovering nearby, has the appearances of Israelis' targeted assassinations of the leaders of the group Hamas, this in the wake of those bus bombings we saw about a week ago in Israel.

Joining us on the line right now from Gaza City is Talal Aburahman, a producer for us there.

Talal, what can you tell us?

TALAL ABURAHMAN, CNN PRODUCER: OK.

Just about 20 minutes ago, the Apache fired four rockets from an area in Gaza City and caused many injury. And according to the information we got, this targeting -- it was targeting a group that were resisting -- a Palestinian resisting group in Gaza, some of them from Izzedine al Qassam, the military wing of Hamas, and some of them for al Aqsa Brigade, the military wing of Fatah.

Up to now, ambulances in the streets, too many injury rushed to the hospital. Up to now, hospital confirm at least 30 people arrived injured rushed to the hospital. And according to the hospital medical sources, at least (INAUDIBLE) we got killed from this attack. Here a lot of ambulances running in the street. People, they are running there to the hospital. People, they are panicked. People, they are screaming.

Shifa Hospital, this is the main hospital in Gaza City, it's full up with people. This area, it's been hit by four rockets, one after one in the same minute, four rockets hitting this group of Hamas people and the al Aqsa Brigade group. Before a few hours, we received, about 10:00, a leaflet from (INAUDIBLE) claiming responsibility, hitting three rockets at

(CROSSTALK)

ABURAHMAN: That's is in Gaza City.

O'BRIEN: Talal, can you tell me -- you say these were targeted. These were members of Hamas and Al Aqsa Brigades. Do you know, were they members of the leadership? Do you have any way of knowing at this point? And where were they? Were they in vehicles or had they gathered at some other location?

ABURAHMAN: No. They were in an area. According to some information, this is a training area for the military group.

But our sources from -- from the IDF, he said that they are targeting from area, the Palestinian, this thing -- group, they are firing much from that area.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Talal Aburahman, our producer in Gaza City. Obviously, that story is unfolding. And we will keep you posted as it unfolds. We'll give details as they become available.

Bloody day for U.S. troops in Iraq, meanwhile. A dusty stretch of no-man's land in the troubled Fallujah region became the latest scene of a deadly attack. And now the casualty count is nearing a macabre milestone.

CNN senior international correspondent Walter Rodgers reports from Baghdad. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: With this latest tragedy, the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq is now nudging right up around 1,000 since the war began, seven U.S. Marines killed, three Iraqi National Guardsmen at least killed traveling on a highway just north of Fallujah. Fallujah, in the Sunni Triangle, is a volcano of hatred toward the United States.

Suddenly, a driver pulled up along as if to pass the military vehicles. He detonated a huge explosion, again, killing the seven Marines. That's the largest single number of Americans killed in a single incident since last May 2.

It, again, underlines the fact that the guerrillas and the insurgents in Iraq are operating rather freely in a target-rich environment. Still, the commander of the theater operations here, General John Abizaid, denies that the American losing the fight in Iraq.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, CMDR., U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: The truth of the matter is that we have been fighting in this part of the world now for nearly three years and we haven't lost a single military engagement at the platoon level and above anywhere, ever. And so, it's difficult for me to give any credence to the notion that we're losing militarily, because we're not, and we can't be defeated militarily.

RODGERS: The difficulty of course for the Americans is that a single incident like this can create the perception that the Americans are stumbling in Iraq, seven Marines killed, a reporter kidnapped, contract workers having their throats slit, others being held hostages. It is the perception here which shapes reality as much as the facts on the ground.

Walter Rodgers, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: It's in President Bush's axis of evil. Ahead, what could happen if Iran went after nuclear weapons? And how might the Pentagon respond?

Later, a final look at what was Hurricane Frances in our picture of the day.

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Authorities charging a member of the U.S. Olympic team with careless driving after a road accident that killed her boyfriend. Olympic wrestler Sara McMann won a silver medal in Athens. Police say McCann was at the wheel of a jeep that rolled off the shoulder of Interstate 76 in northeastern Colorado, killing her 28-year-old boyfriend. California wildfire. Firefighters continue to battle a major blaze in the northern part of the state. It's burned more than 10,000 acres in a rugged area of Sonoma and Lake counties.

Airport scare, four terminals at Los Angeles International Airport evacuated after a pair of unrelated suspicious incidents. A passenger bypassed security and some flashlight batteries exploded. Investigators found no evidence of terrorism and the terminals were reopened after three about hours.

And that's our weekend snapshot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Even as the U.S. remains mired in its occupation of Iraq, there's growing unease over Iran and its nuclear ambitions. Does Iran really want what it says, a steady, cheap supply of power, or is it after a nuclear bomb? And if that is the case, how might the Pentagon respond?

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Iran test-fired a Shahab-3 ballistic missile last month, claiming it could reach Israel, a shudder ran through neighboring capitals. What if an Iranian missile carried a nuclear warhead? On a recent trip, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld found the whole region nervous about Iran.

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: They are on the terrorist list. They are active with Hezbollah and funneling terrorist activities down through Damascus into Lebanon and into Israel.

STARR (on camera): Behind the scenes, senior Pentagon officials say, there are no realistic options for attacking what the U.S. and Israel claim is Iran's nuclear weapons program.

(voice-over): Rumsfeld advisers say negotiating with Iran's President Khatami is not realistic, that the conservative ayatollahs are firmly in charge. So if Iran had the capability to attack Israel, would the U.S. turn a blind eye if Israel attacked Iran first? It is not at all clear Israel would launch a preemptive strike, as it did in 1981 against an Iraqi nuclear facility.

SHIREEN HUNTER, CSIS ISLAM PROGRAM DIRECTOR: My feeling is that they, the Israelis, probably will prefer that even if there is going to be a military action, that this should be done probably by others.

STARR: Rumsfeld believes the best long-term hope for Iran, the people themselves.

RUMSFELD: They can't help but see that they are being by their government denied the full benefits of interaction with the rest of the world.

STARR: The U.S. still has a commitment to defend Israel. But the Pentagon view is that removing the conservative ayatollahs from the government in Tehran may be the most practical solution.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: The International Atomic Energy Agency is trying to police the Iranian nuclear program. And while the Iranians insist they want only to generate power, that contention is generating plenty of skepticism in Washington and elsewhere.

With me now is our world affairs analyst, former Defense Secretary William Cohen.

Mr. Cohen, good to have you with us.

WILLIAM COHEN, CNN WORLD AFFAIRS ANALYST: It's great to be here. Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Is there any doubt in your mind that Iran is hell-bent to get a bomb?

COHEN: No, there's no doubt in my mind.

And you can judge their current situation by the fact that they have engaged in a program of great deception and concealment for some years now. And only when it was discovered that they were on the fast track to developing a nuclear program did they fess up, so to speak, and say, well, let's have the International Atomic Energy Agency come in and conduct some inspections, but those would be limited in nature.

And so their claim that it is only for peaceful purposes must be greeted with a great deal of skepticism, based on the past conduct.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: So allowing those U.S. inspectors in is just merely an opportunity or an attempt to play for some time here, right?

COHEN: I think they're playing for some time and they are putting some restrictions. They're not allowing full inspections, as would be required. Secondly, there could be a program whereby fuel could be supplied to the reactors that are being developed that would prevent them from developing either weapons-grade plutonium or enriched uranium that could be used for bomb making purposes.

But, earlier, you showed the havoc and catastrophe that was visited upon the Russian people by the attack most recently, killing hundreds of individuals. Imagine if that were a small nuclear weapon that were used by the terrorists groups. This is the problem, not so much that Iran would think of launching a nuclear weapon aboard a Shahab-3 or Shahab-4, when it's developed, but, rather nuclear materials being used by terrorist groups to be smuggled into, be it Israel or the United States or any other country, and then exploded. That's the danger that we face with Iran getting a nuclear weapon.

O'BRIEN: Is there any scenario which would allow Iran to have nuclear reactors for generating power strictly? Can a program like that be bottled up in such a way that it only has peaceful purposes?

COHEN: They can be structured in a way, again, by using fuel supplied by the international community as such that would provide fuel, that could not be reused to make bomb material. That can be done.

But that, of course, is being resisted by the Iranians. So at this particular point, I think it's not a U.S. or Israel vs. Iran. This should be the international community raising high the roof beam that we are now watching the lowering of the threshold of nuclear proliferation. We've seen it with Iran now. We've seen it in Korea, North Korea. We've some incipient programs even in South Korea, perhaps South Africa.

We have got as a world community to come down hard on any nation that is seeking to develop nuclear weapons just by reason of the fact that it could fall into the hands of groups that have no respect, no reverence for human life. And we've seen that most recently in Russia.

O'BRIEN: Mr. Cohen, you mentioned North Korea. Is it possible that some of the administration policies have taught Iran a lesson about the value of having a bomb and inasmuch as there's no attempt to go after North Korea militarily?

COHEN: Well, the military option with North Korea certainly would be a last option, and that we need to reinvigorate the process of trying to bring China in particular to exercise whatever influence it can to prevent North Korea from developing more nuclear weapons than they currently have.

But, surely, an inability to resolve the issue with North Korea in this last several years has given I think an incentive to other countries to move as quickly ahead as they can and then declare that they're a nuclear power. And what will we do about it at that point, other than accept it?

Now is the time for the international community to take action. It's not in Russia's interests or anyone else's interests to see Russian technology going to Iran to allow them to develop nuclear weapons. So this is an international and world problem. And it's something that the international community, not just the United States, must consider taking diplomatic initiatives, but surely economic sanctions, if necessary.

O'BRIEN: William Cohen, thanks for your time. Appreciate it.

COHEN: A pleasure.

O'BRIEN: When we come back, sometimes, a little dogged perseverance can be a good thing, like when you find a human to rescue you. And our Web question of the day is this: Which candidate was helped more by his party's convention, President Bush or Senator Kerry? We invite you to vote right now. CNN.com/Wolf is the place. The results for you when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Here's how you're weighing in on our Web question of the day. Once again, it is, which candidate was helped more by his party's convention, President Bush or Senator Kerry? Seventy-one percent of you say Bush; 29 percent of you say Kerry. This, of course, is not a scientific poll.

With parts of Florida still under water, it's not a fit day for man, nor beast, which is why these beasts are traveling by boat. There was no dog-paddling for these dogs. They were towed down a flooded street in Saint Petersburg. If they don't look especially enthusiastic, don't look -- very worried either. They look like beagles. And beagles can't stand the water. They're safe from the storm. And they are our picture of the day. Those dogs will hunt, but they won't swim.

Thanks for joining us. Wolf will be back tomorrow.

"LOU DOBBS" starts right now.

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