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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Countdown to a Meltdown at Mt. St. Helens; Bush, Kerry Look Ahead to Friday's Debate

Aired October 04, 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, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now: countdown to a meltdown? The fear today, Mount St. Helens will have a bigger eruption. And now tourists aren't the only ones being warned away.
Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Blowing its top. What's behind all that smoke, and why scientists are worried today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a symptom that magma is moving around at depth and it's coming up to shallow levels.

BLITZER: Caught in the crossfire. From car bombs to airstrikes, Iraqi civilians pay a heavy price. Has a key ally had enough?

Dead heat. Their foreign policy debate closed the gap. Now it's a domestic dispute.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've noticed he changes positions quite frequently, but not on taxes.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's stubborn. He's out of touch. He's unwilling to change.

BLITZER: Space race.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've never been part of anything like it, and I'll tell you, it's a thrill of a lifetime.

BLITZER: A private rocket flies for the prize.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Monday, October 4, 2004.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The fears are real and justified, Mount St. Helens spewed steam and ash thousands of feet above the volcano's crater earlier today, and officials are now warning a much larger eruption could happen literally at any moment. CNN's Ted Rowlands is there live for us. He's joining us with the latest -- Ted.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Mount St. Helens appears to be calm at this hour. Earlier today, as you mentioned, there was a major release of steam and some volcanic ash, which billowed into the air as high as 10,000 feet and higher.

During that emission air traffic in the area was restricted. The FAA was alerted immediately because of concerns that volcanic ash could interrupt flights and be dangerous.

That situation has dissipated. The steam has moved off. And scientists are now analyzing what happened and trying to predict what will happen next. Basically, what they say transpired was hot magma worked its way up the volcanic shaft and came into contact with glacier material, snow and ice. That created the steam release. Now they believe more is coming. They say that that steam release was part of a leadup process of a possible major eruption.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM PIERSON, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY: These are preludes to any sort of magmatic activity that may or may not occur. We know magma is close. We know it's deforming the crater floor in a drastic way at the moment. We're detecting gases that give away the presence of that magma. But we don't know exactly what's going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: Geologists do believe there will be a volcanic eruption here. They don't know the intensity. There is a level 3 still in effect here, meaning that an eruption is imminent. And an eight-mile radius around Mount St. Helens, Wolf, has been cleared out just as a precaution -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Ted Rowlands on the scene for us. Ted, thanks very much. Joining us now on the phone with more on the volcano's activity, the University of Washington seismologist, Bill Steele.

Bill, thanks very much for joining us. Realistically speaking, I assume the best case scenario is nothing happens. Realistically, what's the worst case scenario?

BILL STEELE, SEISMOLOGIST: Oh, boy. Well, I think the worst case scenario, with the evidence that we have here, is an eruption of a kind of a level 2, level 3. But we can't rule out more violent eruptions, particularly if we begin to see clear evidence of fresh magma moving up into the shallow system from deeper in the volcano.

We're not seeing that at this time. But something is driving this train, and I think there is a growing consensus that at least some fresh gases have reached older magma that is shallow in the volcano, activating it.

BLITZER: So on a realistic level -- not something too far fetched, on a realistic level how concerned should people along that border between Oregon and Washington State be?

STEELE: Well, again, I think that the largest risk is a large ash emission, once you get away from the volcano's flanks and the pumice field that lays out below where the big explosion went in 1980. These areas obviously are not populated, and access is constricted. But the ash plume can travel, and the hazard to aviation is real.

For individuals it's more of an annoyance. Could be an extreme annoyance if a lot of ash comes out.

BLITZER: Any danger that it could be a repetition of what happened in 1980 when, what, 57 people were killed and hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions of dollars of damage developed?

STEELE: I think at this point that probability is so close to zero with what we have right now that that's really not being considered much. It would require a lot of fresh material. The other difference is we don't have those thousands of feet of the volcano sitting on top of the system that was there in 1980, nor do we have a large bulge forming on the north flank of the volcano that could cause that deep-seated landslide that allowed the pressure cooker to blow due north and level those hundreds of square miles of forest.

BLITZER: Bill Steele from the University of Washington, thanks, Bill, very much.

The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens was an example of nature's extraordinary destructive power. CNN's Adaora Udoji has this look back.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Last time Mount St. Helens erupted with cataclysmic force it was 1980. The ash violently ejected, spread so far and so wide it covered most of the northwest and spread as far as the East Coast. Fifty-seven people died. Dozens of bridges were obliterated and hundreds of homes demolished.

Avalanches of cinder and pumice gas saturated the air, 500 million tons of volcanic dust blew for hundreds of miles. Two hundred fifty miles away, Spokane, Washington, was plunged into darkness. Everything in between, from trees to wreckage, was covered with fine and not so fine layers of dust.

It left sophisticated cities looking like the moon's landscape. The eruption so powerful it changed the shape of Mount St. Helens. Once 9600 feet high, it survived at 8300 feet. The volcano showed it was a force of nature never to be reckoned with.

Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: New violence in Iraq today and a new letdown for the U.S.-led coalition. With no letup in sight, a key U.S. ally today is talking about pulling out from Iraq. Poland says it may reduce its forces there 40 percent in January and have all its troops out by the end of next year. Poland now has 2500 troops committed to the Iraq operation.

In today's violence a pair of bombings claimed 21 lives in the capital. Our senior international correspondent Brent Sadler reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two powerful car bomb attacks in central districts of Baghdad. The first targeting an army recruitment center, killing around 15 and wounding at least 75 others according to Iraq's health ministry. The explosion happened near a U.S. military checkpoint outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the U.S. and British embassies.

A white sports-utility vehicle burst into flames amid scenes of bloodshed and panic. The attack plan was similar to scores of other strikes on Iraq's security forces aimed at making Iraqis afraid of recruitment into the ranks of the police and army as well as sapping morale among those already serving.

In a second blast, Iraqi reports say bombers targeted two armored vehicles of the type used by Western security personnel and contractors in a busy commercial district.

From the top of our hotel we could see a large plume of black smoke. Then a brief gun battle, shots echoing across the city as Iraqi police reportedly exchanged fire with suspected insurgents.

(on camera): Even as U.S.-backed Iraqi forces claimed success overwhelming a rebel stronghold north of Baghdad, insurgents can still strike terror in the heart of the capital.

(voice-over): West of Baghdad, U.S. warplanes have again attacked suspected insurgent operations in Fallujah, destroying what the U.S. military claims are the movements of weapons, training, and the planning of terror attacks, the kind of attacks that shook the capital on this day.

Brent Sadler, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And we're getting this bulletin in from the Reuters News Agency in Baghdad. Right now U.S. troops, according to Reuters, engaged in what are being described as heavy clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City with Shiite rebels. According to this report, U.S. aircraft, AC- 130 aircraft specifically, attacked rebel positions in Baghdad's Sadr City. That would be the slum area, heavily populated by Shiites, perhaps a million of them there in Sadr City. A heavy clash under way right now, according to Reuters. We'll watch this story for you, get some more information on what's going on.

There's other news we're following, including numbers. Closing the gap, specifically, new poll numbers revealing an extremely tight presidential race under way just ahead of the first and only vice presidential debate. We're on the trail.

Also ahead...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you pull the sheet over yourself at night just to give yourself some sense of boundary, the prison guards are allowed, they say we must see flesh, ladies, when they do their midnight count.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Martha Stewart enjoying her last days of freedom. New details on the prison where she will spend the next five months beginning later this week. Why it won't be a walk on the beach.

Eyes on the prize. A $10 million prize. SpaceShipOne attempts a second trip to space and back.

Late night laughs and the march to November. Can the comedy spin impact the election?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The battle for the Oval Office draws to a close only 29 days from now. Tomorrow night voters get to see Vice President Dick Cheney and Senator John Edwards face off in their only debate. Edwards is spending the night in Cleveland, Ohio. That's the site of the debate. And instead of campaigning, he's getting in some last- minute practice. Cheney, meanwhile, is in his home state of Wyoming, where he's also practicing for the debate.

A new CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll shows the race is back to a dead heat. Among likely voters it's a tie. Among registered voters Bush leads Kerry by two percentage points, well within the margin of error. For the latest, though, from the campaign trail we begin with the president, who was back in the battleground state of Iowa today. For that let's go to our White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux -- Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, President Bush used his 17th visit to Iowa to tout his fourth tax cut package. This is one in four years, this is one that the president of course is arguing is going to be good for the American people. Ninety-four million Americans expected to be affected by this. Really a big victory for the Bush administration that the president is hoping to capitalize off in these election weeks to come.

Of course it is a $146 billion tax cut package approved by Congress just last month. It would extend the tax child credit $1,000 for five years. It would also allow more taxpayers' income to be taxed at the 10 percent, the lowest rate, for some six years, and protect couples against the so-called marriage penalty tax. Now, this is all a part of the president's economic plan. It is a policy that the president argues of course that is helping turn the economy around.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This legislation will have good effects throughout the economy. The tax relief we passed since 2001 has helped our economy overcome a lot of challenges -- a stock market decline, a recession, terrorist attacks, and war. By extending key portions of that tax relief, we will leave close to $50 billion next year in the hands of the people who earned it. And that money will help keep the economy moving forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Now the Kerry campaign criticizes today saying that this would increase the federal deficit. Kerry is proposing to roll back the tax cut for those who make more than $200,000 to help pay for education as well as health care plans. The president says of course that he believes Kerry's promises, that he can't fulfill them, that it's going to cost trillions of dollars. Of course both of them competing for the American vote over the best economic plan. Both of them putting out that aggressively this week -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Suzanne Malveaux reporting. Thanks, Suzanne.

Energized by his debate performance Thursday night, Senator Kerry once again on the attack today. And he's focusing in on some hot- button domestic issues, including stem cell research. Here's CNN national correspondent Frank Buckley in Hampton, New Hampshire.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Senator John Kerry was here in New Hampshire to talk about one of the hottest social issues of this election season -- stem cell research. Polling suggests that a majority of Americans support stem cell research. But in 2001 President Bush limited federal funding to just those existing stem cell lines. That caused critics of President Bush to use it as a rallying cry against him but also supporters of President Bush like Nancy Reagan have also issued public appeals to the president to try to expand such research.

Meanwhile, today Senator John Kerry appeared here at a town hall setting to say that he would expand the stem cell research that advocates say could provide medical breakthroughs in a number of areas. He appeared with actor Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's Disease. Both men were critical of President Bush.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL J. FOX, ACTOR: Today there are tens of millions of Americans suffering from incurable diseases like diabetes and Parkinson's, A.L.S. Alzheimer's, conditions like spinal cord injury. And stem cell research offers hope, hope of a cure. Unfortunately, George Bush has made the wrong decisions when it's come to stem cell research.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Right now some of the most pioneering treatments that could transform lives are at our fingertips but they're being withheld from people and they remain beyond our reach. I think that's the wrong choice for America's families and I think it's the wrong choice for America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: Senator Kerry says in addition to expanding stem cell research he would increase funding. Bush campaign officials say it's dishonest to suggest that President Bush somehow banned stem cell research or limited federal funding when in fact there were no previous federal funds available for such research and it was President Bush who approved the first federal funds for stem cell research. They also say the president has clearly stated his ethical considerations that came along with his decision, saying that federal funds shouldn't be used to destroy human embryos. They say Senator Kerry hasn't been as clear with his ethical considerations. Frank Buckley, CNN, Hampton, New Hampshire.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And don't miss the only vice presidential debate. That will be live from Cleveland tomorrow night. You can see it right here on CNN. CNN's prime-time coverage begins 7:00 p.m. Eastern. I'll be in Cleveland along with my colleagues, Anderson Cooper, Paula Zahn, the entire CNN election team tomorrow night.

Later -- how late night stars are getting laughs out of this presidential debate.

First, will the first Monday in October look different in the next administration, either a second term for Bush or a new term for Kerry? Why the U.S. Supreme Court could be a huge prize in this election.

After the attack. The U.S. claims a victory, but is it a defeat for residents of an Iraqi city?

And what the surveillance shows. Is that a rocket or a stretcher going into an ambulance in Gaza? The United Nations is now investigating. We'll report live from the U.N.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Days after the presidential debate on Iraq, the ripples are still spreading. Did President Bush rush to war without enough U.S. allies? And does Senator Kerry want to give too much to other nations to decide whether or not the United States should ever have to go to war.

Joining us now from Phoenix, our world affairs analyst, the former defense secretary, William Cohen. Mr. Secretary, thanks for joining us. A lot of controversy over whether there's a new so-called Kerry doctrine, as the Republicans are charging, one that gives other nations a veto power over U.S. military action. Listen to what the senator said last Thursday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KERRY: The president always has the right and always has had the right for preemptive strike. That was a great doctrine throughout the Cold War. And it was always one of the things we argued about with respect to arms control. No president through all of American history has ever ceded and nor would I the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America. But if and when you do it, Jim, you've got to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test, where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: What's your understanding, Mr. Secretary, of what Kerry means?

WILLIAM COHEN, FMR. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, as I understand it, the rule has always been under international law that any country has the right to take action preemptively if it has good intelligence that an attack is being prepared and that attack is imminent.

So the question becomes do you have the right to attack under those circumstances? The answer is yes. With respect to our policy during the Cold War, there were great discussions about whether the United States would ever consider a launch on warning on the part of the former Soviet Union or launch under attack while we were being attacked or attack after we had been attacked.

So the difference is the question of one of right, do we have the right to launch preemptively? The answer is historically yes, and the answer is still today. The question then becomes one of policy. What should be the United States policy? In the past we have said as a policy we should try to act multilaterally whenever we can, unilaterally whenever we must. And I would go on to point out that President Bush's father, when it came time to throwing Saddam Hussein and evicting him out of Kuwait, the first place he went to was the United Nations to seek U.N. support for the effort to go to war with Saddam Hussein and secondly came to the United States Congress after that.

So I think the rule is quite clear. You want to seek multilateral support whenever you can. If you have to act unilaterally and you must do so, you have the right to do so. That's the rule.

BLITZER: I want to play another exchange that occurred at the debate Thursday night. Listen to this one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KERRY: When we went in, there were three countries -- Great Britain, Australia, and the United States. That's not a grand coalition. We can do better.

LEHRER: Thirty seconds.

BUSH: Well, actually, you forgot Poland. And now there's 30 nations involved, standing side by side with our American troops. And I honor their sacrifices and I don't appreciate it when a candidate for president denigrates the contributions of these brave soldiers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: As you know, Mr. Secretary, Poland announcing today they want to cut dramatically their troops in Iraq and get rid of all of them by the end of next year. What's your understanding of this -- the significance of this?

COHEN: Well, first of all, they failed to mention Australia also has been part of the contribution from the very beginning. But secondly, with respect to Poland, I'm not sure the decision is irreversible. My understanding is that the defense minister made that statement publicly but had not cleared it with the Polish prime minister. So we'll have to wait and see what the outcome is. But ultimately, a reduction of some 2,500 troops, 45 percent of which will come in January, followed by the complete elimination by the end of next year, is not good news. Militarily, will it change the balance of forces on the ground? No. But symbolically, that is not a very positive sign for the United States. Hopefully, the Polish government will at least think it through in terms of what signal is going to be sent to other countries.

BLITZER: President Aleksander Kwasniewski has been under enormous pressure domestically to bring those troops home to Poland given political considerations inside Poland right now. Mr. Secretary, thanks for joining us.

COHEN: Pleasure.

BLITZER: It was a city under siege and under intense fire from U.S. forces. But did the offensive in Samarra go too far? Up next, an Iraqi town that went from chaos to carnage. We'll have a report.

Plus, a supersonic success. SpaceShipOne breaks through the space barrier. Our own Miles O'Brien was there to see it all happen. I'll speak with him. That's coming up.

And later -- the domestic diva under deadline. Martha Stewart enjoys her final days of freedom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: from our studios in Washington, once again, Wolf Blitzer.

BLITZER: Welcome back. The aftermath of fierce fighting in Samarra as Iraqi families venture out to claim their dead. A rare glimpse into their lives and the battles that have been waged from the ground and the air. We'll get to that.

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

U.S. authorities today charged a British terror suspect with plotting along with the shoe bomber, Richard Reid. Saajid Badat was charged with attempted murder, trying to destroy an aircraft, and other charges related to the alleged conspiracy with Reid.

Reid, an admitted member of al Qaeda, was sentenced to life in prison last year.

For the sixth straight day Israel launched military strikes into Gaza in a bid to stop rocket attacks on the Jewish nation. Palestinians say several people were killed, including a 14-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy. The offensive began last week after a Palestinian rocket attack killed two Israeli children.

In the same area, the United Nations has now launched a formal investigation into allegations Palestinian militants may be using ambulances to transport rockets.

Our senior U.N. correspondent, Richard Roth, standing by with details -- Richard.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tonight Israel's U.N. ambassador says there is a worrisome pattern of U.N. involvement in terrorist activities against Israel.

Ambassador Gillerman saying that Israeli army video, which was shot from a drone, indeed, he says shows that a rocket was put into the back of a United Nations ambulance after being used against Israeli forces.

The United Nations says, in effect, it's just a stretcher.

Nevertheless, the U.N. secretary-general, after meeting with the Israeli ambassador, he's dispatching a four-person team to investigate this issue.

There has been a bitter dispute for years between the United Nations and Israel, specifically the U.N. Relief Works Agency, which helps thousands of Palestinians in the refugee camps.

Israel says that agency is being used for terrorist attacks, something the U.N. denies.

BLITZER: Richard Roth reporting from the U.N. for us. Thanks, Richard, for that story. We'll continue to monitor it.

The smoke has now cleared in Samarra, the city north of Baghdad, where thousands of U.S. and Iraqi forces carried out a major offensive to try to clear out insurgents.

But residents have paid a very heavy price, as CNN's Jane Arraf reports from the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The white flag of surrender turned to an emblem of sorrow.

Iraqi families braved the streets of Samarra, still filled with U.S. troops, to claim their dead. After two days of fighting, it was the first time they'd been able to venture out to the hospital.

The U.S. military says it killed more than 130 insurgents. The interior minister insisted there were no civilian casualties and called the operation a success.

But the people at Samarra's main hospital saw it differently. This Kurdish woman lost her brother, Salam Mahmoud Hassan (ph).

"He was 18 years old, a young man," his father said. He said his son was unarmed, going to a neighbor's house 100 meters away when he was shot in the head.

U.S. soldiers searched the families before they entered the hospital.

There are rows of body bags. Salam (ph) is the first one.

There were more than 50 bodies here. Hospital workers don't believe they were insurgents at all.

(on camera) It's hard to find any Iraqis here who believe that these dead men were fighters. To them they were fathers, sons, brothers, ordinary citizens of Samarra.

(voice-over) American officials say the vast majority were military age and some were foreigners.

LT. COL. ERIC SHALICHT, U.S. ARMY: The best I know, there's somewhere between 50 and 60 that -- remains that are here. Most of them are military age men. There were some collateral casualties. But generally, it was military age men.

ARRAF: Among the civilian casualties, hospital records show, Dala Abasal Avar (ph) and her six children, the sister-in-law of these two men.

They say their 18-year-old nephew, his widowed mother, and five sisters were fleeing when their car was fired on by U.S. forces. The 2-year-old girl, thrown to safety by her brother, was burned but survived.

While relatives and hospital workers load the bodies on a truck, American soldiers find a collection of weapons at the hospital, including rocket-propelled grenades and guns.

At the cemetery Apache helicopters flew overhead as the families buried their loved ones. U.S. soldiers waited outside. Inside Iraqi National Guard, whose forces helped in the offensive, stood watch.

"Insurgents, innocents. It was chaos," said this man. "No one could tell who was a terrorist and who wasn't. What happened happened."

Jane Arraf, CNN, Samarra, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: It's a tough war indeed.

Tilting the balance. The spotlight's on the U.S. Supreme Court this election year, as key retirements could mean big changes.

And she'll start her sentence in just a matter of days, but Martha Stewart's making the most of her final days of freedom before prison. Up next, what she can expect behind bars in West Virginia.

And later, the race to space. It punched Earth's atmosphere. Now Spaceship One wins a big payoff.

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Health officials in Thailand say a 9-year- old girl has died of bird flu, raising the death toll from the virus to at least 31 in southeast Asia. The victim is believed to have caught the disease from infected chickens.

Anti-North Korea rally. Tens of thousands of protesters burn North Korean flags and clash with riot police in the South Korean capital, Seoul. Demonstrators called for an end to the communist North Korean government and its suspected nuclear weapons program.

Nobel winners. Two American scientists have won this year's Nobel Prize for medicine. Scientists Richard Axel and Linda Buck were honored for their work on the sense of smell. They'll also share the prize's monetary award of $1.3 million.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Martha Stewart has until Friday -- that would be this Friday, to report to prison. The lifestyle maven will serve her five- month term for lying to investigators. She'll serve that time in Alderson, West Virginia.

CNN's Allan Chernoff reports on what she can expect.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Martha Stewart on the beach this past weekend in the Bahamas for the wedding of her friend and publicity adviser Susan Magrino.

Stewart was at the exclusive Ocean Club, where beachfront suites cost $1,450 a night, including tax.

By Friday Martha Stewart will be sharing a cubicle like this at the federal prison in Alderson, West Virginia. Ms. Stewart can expect nighttime visits from prison guards.

Clair Hanrahan is a former inmate.

CLAIR HANRAHAN, FORMER PRISONER: If you pull the sheet over yourself at night just to give yourself some sense of boundary, the prison guards are allowed, they say, "We must see flesh, ladies," when they do their midnight count.

So you can expect -- and several times I was awakened in the night with a guard pulling the sheet off of me.

CHERNOFF: A tough transition from a bathing suit to prison khakis and working for 12 cents an hour.

Martha Stewart is to serve a five-month term at Alderson for having lied to federal investigators about her sale of stock in a biotech company. Ms. Stewart decided to serve her sentence even as her lawyers appeal her conviction.

MARTHA STEWART, FOUNDER, MARTHA STEWART LIVING OMNIMEDIA: And I'll be back. I will be back. Whatever I have to do in the next few months, I hope the months go by quickly. I'm used to all kinds of hard work.

CHERNOFF (on camera): Martha Stewart will have a final opportunity to enjoy high living before giving up her freedom. Her friend Susan Magrino is renting out the Four Seasons restaurant Thursday night to celebrate her marriage. Cocktails are at 7.

That would still give Martha Stewart enough time to meet her court-ordered deadline to report to prison by 2 o'clock the next day.

Allan Chernoff, CNN Financial News, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: There's a winner in the unusual race to space for a $10 million prize.

CNN's space correspondent, Miles O'Brien, was on hand for the start and the finish.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Two down, $10 million to come to the newly anointed winners of the Ansari X Prize.

Spaceship One, piloted by 51-year-old Brian Binnie, streaked straight and true as a flaming arrow, passing into space and then some.

BRIAN BINNIE, SPACESHIPONE PILOT: It is literally a rush. You light that motor off, and the world wakes up around you. It's the analogy of getting in the arena with a bull and they open the gate, and off you go. O'BRIEN: Off he went to 367,442 feet, a 40,000-foot slam dunk beyond the official boundary of space, where everything floats, the sky is dark, and the horizon is curved.

X Prize founder Peter Diamandis couldn't have asked for a prettier picture.

PETER DIAMANDIS, X PRIZE: It has been eight years of hoping that this is going to happen.

O'BRIEN: They earned it by becoming the first civilian team to fly to space in a three-seat vehicle twice within two weeks. They did it in less than a week, first reaching space on a wild ride last Wednesday. With pilot Mike Melvill at the stick, the craft rolled 29 times as it reached its apogee.

MIKE MELVILL, PILOT, SPACESHIPONE: You've got to have some luck to get this thing done.

O'BRIEN: And a pretty good pile of money, as well. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen bankrolled the $25 million project.

The credit goes to aviation designer and legend Burt Rutan. In 1986 a plane he designed, flown by his brother, Dick, circumnavigated the globe on a single tank of gas.

BURT RUTAN, SCALED COMPOSITES: We had a milestone, and we had nowhere to go with it. The difference in this program, thanks to Sir Richard Branson, is that we have the milestone, and our challenge is in front of us, and we've only begun.

O'BRIEN: The goal is to make it possible for regular people to buy a ride on a rocket. Virgin Airlines CEO Richard Branson has commissioned Rutan to build a five-passenger space liner. He hopes to be flying passengers in two years at $200,000 a pop.

RICHARD BRANSON, CEO, VIRGIN AIRLINES: Initially it's not going to be that cheap to go into space. But Virgin has pledged that any money that we make from space travel we will reinvest in more space travel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: But Branson is not alone. There are at least a half dozen other similar projects in the works, and there may soon be a $50 million prize for the first civilian team to fly a piloted spacecraft into orbit, Wolf.

And not coincidentally, all this happens on this day, the 47th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1. The dawn of another space race yields to yet a new one.

BLITZER: A nice, historic touch, indeed. Miles O'Brien, reporting for us. Miles, thanks very much.

To our viewers, here's your chance to weigh in on this story. Our web question of the day is this: "Is space travel safe enough for the public yet?" You can vote. Go to CNN.com/Wolf. We'll have the results a little bit later in this broadcast.

The election's impact on the U.S. Supreme Court. Some big changes, potentially, could happen, depending on which candidate wins next month. We'll explain.

Plus, the late night spin. Big laughs -- big laughs had, that is, at the expense of both Bush and Kerry.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The nine justices of the United States Supreme Court opened their new term today in typical fashion. But this year could turn out to be anything but typical.

CNN's Brian Todd has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At a time of emotional political debate and divide, the U.S. Supreme Court finds itself a central issue in this election.

We're not talking recount so much as retirement. Court observers say in the next four years it's possible that three Supreme Court justices could retire.

PROF. PAUL ROTHSTEIN, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY LAW CENTER: It could change the way this country operates for the next 40 years, well beyond the time that the president is in power.

TODD: On the cusp, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the lead conservative on the bench. The longest-serving justice on the court, Rehnquist just turned 80 and had leg surgery two years ago.

John Paul Stevens, at 84, the oldest justice. Nominated by Republican President Gerald Ford, Stevens became one of the most consistent liberal voices on the court.

And Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman justice, battled and beat breast cancer a few years ago, but is now 74 years old. O'Connor's future is crucial. Considered a moderate, she's often the so-called swing vote.

ROTHSTEIN: She has caused -- created the majority in many, many cases of very important social issues, these 5-4 votes.

TODD: So the president's nominees over the next four years could tilt the balance on several key court decisions.

Liberal groups fear the future of Roe versus Wade if President Bush is re-elected.

ELLIOT MINCBERG, PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY: The issue of reproductive rights is one among a number of civil rights and civil liberties that are threatened if we see one or two more Scalia/Thomas justices on the Supreme Court.

TODD: But a prominent conservative attorney who helped Ronald Reagan make judicial nominations disagrees.

BRUCE FEIN, FORMER ASSOCIATE DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: They would not, in my judgment, vote to reverse a precedent of such long-standing status where there are settled expectations, laws that have grown up around the Roe versus Wade precedent.

TODD: Most court watchers agree the entire concept of affirmative action is on its last legs and could be dealt a death blow in a second Bush term.

They believe a Kerry-influenced court might uphold the decision in the University of Michigan case, allowing affirmative action under some circumstances.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I Keith.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take you, James.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take you, James.

TODD: Basic privacy issues for gays could be in the balance. Liberals say they'd be threatened in a second Bush term.

But one conservative legal observer points to last year's decision upholding gay privacy and doesn't believe that would be overturned, even with new conservative justices.

On the federal death penalty, predictions are reversed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Kerry's elected, I think the death penalty is on its last legs.

MINCBERG: That's a bit of an exaggeration. If you look at the last Democratic president we had, President Clinton was personally in favor of the death penalty under some circumstances.

TODD (on camera): But one veteran court observer cautions these kinds of prediction have been made for decades, and once behind the bench justices often move far afield of their nominating president's politics.

Brian Todd, CNN, at the Supreme Court.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Ever since the first presidential debate ended Thursday night, newspaper columnists have been writing about it, and television analysts have been talking about it.

But just as important, some would say, in terms of public perception, TV comedians have been joking about it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER (voice-over): An estimated 62 1/2 million viewers watched Thursday night's first presidential debate. But when the debate ended, many viewers changed the channel before the traditional post-debate analysis by sober-sounding journalists and political spinsters.

Many of them waited a half hour...

ANNOUNCER: The squabble in Coral Gables.

BLITZER: ... and got their post-debate analysis elsewhere.

KERRY: Before I answer further, let me thank you for moderating. I want to thank the University of Miami for hosting us.

JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": Smoke 'em if you got 'em. It's going to be a long night!

BLITZER: Industry reports say Jon Stewart's post-debate show on Comedy Central earned Stewart his highest rating ever, nearly 2 1/2 million viewers.

BUSH: We're facing a -- a group of folks who have such hatred in their heart.

STEWART: Group of folks? We're facing a group of folks? A group of folks is what you run into at the Olive Garden.

BLITZER: It wasn't just the cable comedians getting in their licks. If you didn't hear Dan Rather discuss the debate on CBS, you might hear David Letterman discuss the debate on CBS.

DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": At the debate, Bush appeared confident. He appeared relaxed. He appeared calm. That's right. He's drinking again.

BLITZER: NBC's "Saturday Night Live" offered its own take on the debate and enjoyed its highest season premiere overnight rating in three years.

CHRIS PARNELL, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" ACTOR: When you say crush the terrorists, how exactly do you plan to do that?

WILL FORTE, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" ACTOR: By working hard.

MEYERS: The fact of the matter is I have consistently supported the war in front of pro-war audiences and condemned it when speaking to groups that oppose it.

That is not flip-flopping. That is pandering. And Americans deserve a president who knows the difference. Thank you.

BLITZER: While most of the entertainers who do political comedy on television deny having any partisan agenda, they do have an audience, especially among younger adults. A recent survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center showed adults between the ages of 18 and 29 are less likely to watch television news than the general audience and more likely to watch late night comedy.

And in a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, 21 percent of younger adults said they are learning about the presidential campaign from satirical sources.

JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": And Kerry's people are having problems preparing him for the debate. You know, they keep trying to tell him he doesn't talk like the regular average Joe, and Kerry said, "Oh, au contraire."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: We'll have the results of our Web question of the day. That's coming up next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

QUAN TRAN, PH.D. STUDENT, GEORGIA TECH: I like to cook, but I get interrupted, and I forgot what I last did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does this sound familiar? Quan Tran from Georgia Tech's Aware Home is doing research about a memory aid that helps people remember where they left off in a task. The preliminary work is set in the kitchen. It's called the Cook's Collage.

TRAN: So we're using cameras that look at the activity area in which you are performing a task. It will focus on your hands to track what you're doing. And the cameras are fed into a computer, and images to show on the display.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her future work involves extending the study to elderly cooks.

TRAN: The elderly have taken an interest it, as well because preparing a meal holds value as they age.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tran is also looking to discover where else interruptions are problematic in the home and examining how deja vu displays can compensate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in on our Web question of the day: "Is space travel safe enough for the public yet?" Eighteen percent of you say yes; 82 percent say no.

Remember, this is not a scientific poll.

Tomorrow we'll be live from Cleveland for special coverage of the first and only vice presidential debate. I'll be there at noon, 5 and later in the night.

"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 October 4, 2004 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now: countdown to a meltdown? The fear today, Mount St. Helens will have a bigger eruption. And now tourists aren't the only ones being warned away.
Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Blowing its top. What's behind all that smoke, and why scientists are worried today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a symptom that magma is moving around at depth and it's coming up to shallow levels.

BLITZER: Caught in the crossfire. From car bombs to airstrikes, Iraqi civilians pay a heavy price. Has a key ally had enough?

Dead heat. Their foreign policy debate closed the gap. Now it's a domestic dispute.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've noticed he changes positions quite frequently, but not on taxes.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's stubborn. He's out of touch. He's unwilling to change.

BLITZER: Space race.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've never been part of anything like it, and I'll tell you, it's a thrill of a lifetime.

BLITZER: A private rocket flies for the prize.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Monday, October 4, 2004.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The fears are real and justified, Mount St. Helens spewed steam and ash thousands of feet above the volcano's crater earlier today, and officials are now warning a much larger eruption could happen literally at any moment. CNN's Ted Rowlands is there live for us. He's joining us with the latest -- Ted.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Mount St. Helens appears to be calm at this hour. Earlier today, as you mentioned, there was a major release of steam and some volcanic ash, which billowed into the air as high as 10,000 feet and higher.

During that emission air traffic in the area was restricted. The FAA was alerted immediately because of concerns that volcanic ash could interrupt flights and be dangerous.

That situation has dissipated. The steam has moved off. And scientists are now analyzing what happened and trying to predict what will happen next. Basically, what they say transpired was hot magma worked its way up the volcanic shaft and came into contact with glacier material, snow and ice. That created the steam release. Now they believe more is coming. They say that that steam release was part of a leadup process of a possible major eruption.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM PIERSON, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY: These are preludes to any sort of magmatic activity that may or may not occur. We know magma is close. We know it's deforming the crater floor in a drastic way at the moment. We're detecting gases that give away the presence of that magma. But we don't know exactly what's going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: Geologists do believe there will be a volcanic eruption here. They don't know the intensity. There is a level 3 still in effect here, meaning that an eruption is imminent. And an eight-mile radius around Mount St. Helens, Wolf, has been cleared out just as a precaution -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Ted Rowlands on the scene for us. Ted, thanks very much. Joining us now on the phone with more on the volcano's activity, the University of Washington seismologist, Bill Steele.

Bill, thanks very much for joining us. Realistically speaking, I assume the best case scenario is nothing happens. Realistically, what's the worst case scenario?

BILL STEELE, SEISMOLOGIST: Oh, boy. Well, I think the worst case scenario, with the evidence that we have here, is an eruption of a kind of a level 2, level 3. But we can't rule out more violent eruptions, particularly if we begin to see clear evidence of fresh magma moving up into the shallow system from deeper in the volcano.

We're not seeing that at this time. But something is driving this train, and I think there is a growing consensus that at least some fresh gases have reached older magma that is shallow in the volcano, activating it.

BLITZER: So on a realistic level -- not something too far fetched, on a realistic level how concerned should people along that border between Oregon and Washington State be?

STEELE: Well, again, I think that the largest risk is a large ash emission, once you get away from the volcano's flanks and the pumice field that lays out below where the big explosion went in 1980. These areas obviously are not populated, and access is constricted. But the ash plume can travel, and the hazard to aviation is real.

For individuals it's more of an annoyance. Could be an extreme annoyance if a lot of ash comes out.

BLITZER: Any danger that it could be a repetition of what happened in 1980 when, what, 57 people were killed and hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions of dollars of damage developed?

STEELE: I think at this point that probability is so close to zero with what we have right now that that's really not being considered much. It would require a lot of fresh material. The other difference is we don't have those thousands of feet of the volcano sitting on top of the system that was there in 1980, nor do we have a large bulge forming on the north flank of the volcano that could cause that deep-seated landslide that allowed the pressure cooker to blow due north and level those hundreds of square miles of forest.

BLITZER: Bill Steele from the University of Washington, thanks, Bill, very much.

The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens was an example of nature's extraordinary destructive power. CNN's Adaora Udoji has this look back.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Last time Mount St. Helens erupted with cataclysmic force it was 1980. The ash violently ejected, spread so far and so wide it covered most of the northwest and spread as far as the East Coast. Fifty-seven people died. Dozens of bridges were obliterated and hundreds of homes demolished.

Avalanches of cinder and pumice gas saturated the air, 500 million tons of volcanic dust blew for hundreds of miles. Two hundred fifty miles away, Spokane, Washington, was plunged into darkness. Everything in between, from trees to wreckage, was covered with fine and not so fine layers of dust.

It left sophisticated cities looking like the moon's landscape. The eruption so powerful it changed the shape of Mount St. Helens. Once 9600 feet high, it survived at 8300 feet. The volcano showed it was a force of nature never to be reckoned with.

Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: New violence in Iraq today and a new letdown for the U.S.-led coalition. With no letup in sight, a key U.S. ally today is talking about pulling out from Iraq. Poland says it may reduce its forces there 40 percent in January and have all its troops out by the end of next year. Poland now has 2500 troops committed to the Iraq operation.

In today's violence a pair of bombings claimed 21 lives in the capital. Our senior international correspondent Brent Sadler reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two powerful car bomb attacks in central districts of Baghdad. The first targeting an army recruitment center, killing around 15 and wounding at least 75 others according to Iraq's health ministry. The explosion happened near a U.S. military checkpoint outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the U.S. and British embassies.

A white sports-utility vehicle burst into flames amid scenes of bloodshed and panic. The attack plan was similar to scores of other strikes on Iraq's security forces aimed at making Iraqis afraid of recruitment into the ranks of the police and army as well as sapping morale among those already serving.

In a second blast, Iraqi reports say bombers targeted two armored vehicles of the type used by Western security personnel and contractors in a busy commercial district.

From the top of our hotel we could see a large plume of black smoke. Then a brief gun battle, shots echoing across the city as Iraqi police reportedly exchanged fire with suspected insurgents.

(on camera): Even as U.S.-backed Iraqi forces claimed success overwhelming a rebel stronghold north of Baghdad, insurgents can still strike terror in the heart of the capital.

(voice-over): West of Baghdad, U.S. warplanes have again attacked suspected insurgent operations in Fallujah, destroying what the U.S. military claims are the movements of weapons, training, and the planning of terror attacks, the kind of attacks that shook the capital on this day.

Brent Sadler, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And we're getting this bulletin in from the Reuters News Agency in Baghdad. Right now U.S. troops, according to Reuters, engaged in what are being described as heavy clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City with Shiite rebels. According to this report, U.S. aircraft, AC- 130 aircraft specifically, attacked rebel positions in Baghdad's Sadr City. That would be the slum area, heavily populated by Shiites, perhaps a million of them there in Sadr City. A heavy clash under way right now, according to Reuters. We'll watch this story for you, get some more information on what's going on.

There's other news we're following, including numbers. Closing the gap, specifically, new poll numbers revealing an extremely tight presidential race under way just ahead of the first and only vice presidential debate. We're on the trail.

Also ahead...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you pull the sheet over yourself at night just to give yourself some sense of boundary, the prison guards are allowed, they say we must see flesh, ladies, when they do their midnight count.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Martha Stewart enjoying her last days of freedom. New details on the prison where she will spend the next five months beginning later this week. Why it won't be a walk on the beach.

Eyes on the prize. A $10 million prize. SpaceShipOne attempts a second trip to space and back.

Late night laughs and the march to November. Can the comedy spin impact the election?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The battle for the Oval Office draws to a close only 29 days from now. Tomorrow night voters get to see Vice President Dick Cheney and Senator John Edwards face off in their only debate. Edwards is spending the night in Cleveland, Ohio. That's the site of the debate. And instead of campaigning, he's getting in some last- minute practice. Cheney, meanwhile, is in his home state of Wyoming, where he's also practicing for the debate.

A new CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll shows the race is back to a dead heat. Among likely voters it's a tie. Among registered voters Bush leads Kerry by two percentage points, well within the margin of error. For the latest, though, from the campaign trail we begin with the president, who was back in the battleground state of Iowa today. For that let's go to our White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux -- Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, President Bush used his 17th visit to Iowa to tout his fourth tax cut package. This is one in four years, this is one that the president of course is arguing is going to be good for the American people. Ninety-four million Americans expected to be affected by this. Really a big victory for the Bush administration that the president is hoping to capitalize off in these election weeks to come.

Of course it is a $146 billion tax cut package approved by Congress just last month. It would extend the tax child credit $1,000 for five years. It would also allow more taxpayers' income to be taxed at the 10 percent, the lowest rate, for some six years, and protect couples against the so-called marriage penalty tax. Now, this is all a part of the president's economic plan. It is a policy that the president argues of course that is helping turn the economy around.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This legislation will have good effects throughout the economy. The tax relief we passed since 2001 has helped our economy overcome a lot of challenges -- a stock market decline, a recession, terrorist attacks, and war. By extending key portions of that tax relief, we will leave close to $50 billion next year in the hands of the people who earned it. And that money will help keep the economy moving forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Now the Kerry campaign criticizes today saying that this would increase the federal deficit. Kerry is proposing to roll back the tax cut for those who make more than $200,000 to help pay for education as well as health care plans. The president says of course that he believes Kerry's promises, that he can't fulfill them, that it's going to cost trillions of dollars. Of course both of them competing for the American vote over the best economic plan. Both of them putting out that aggressively this week -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Suzanne Malveaux reporting. Thanks, Suzanne.

Energized by his debate performance Thursday night, Senator Kerry once again on the attack today. And he's focusing in on some hot- button domestic issues, including stem cell research. Here's CNN national correspondent Frank Buckley in Hampton, New Hampshire.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Senator John Kerry was here in New Hampshire to talk about one of the hottest social issues of this election season -- stem cell research. Polling suggests that a majority of Americans support stem cell research. But in 2001 President Bush limited federal funding to just those existing stem cell lines. That caused critics of President Bush to use it as a rallying cry against him but also supporters of President Bush like Nancy Reagan have also issued public appeals to the president to try to expand such research.

Meanwhile, today Senator John Kerry appeared here at a town hall setting to say that he would expand the stem cell research that advocates say could provide medical breakthroughs in a number of areas. He appeared with actor Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's Disease. Both men were critical of President Bush.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL J. FOX, ACTOR: Today there are tens of millions of Americans suffering from incurable diseases like diabetes and Parkinson's, A.L.S. Alzheimer's, conditions like spinal cord injury. And stem cell research offers hope, hope of a cure. Unfortunately, George Bush has made the wrong decisions when it's come to stem cell research.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Right now some of the most pioneering treatments that could transform lives are at our fingertips but they're being withheld from people and they remain beyond our reach. I think that's the wrong choice for America's families and I think it's the wrong choice for America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: Senator Kerry says in addition to expanding stem cell research he would increase funding. Bush campaign officials say it's dishonest to suggest that President Bush somehow banned stem cell research or limited federal funding when in fact there were no previous federal funds available for such research and it was President Bush who approved the first federal funds for stem cell research. They also say the president has clearly stated his ethical considerations that came along with his decision, saying that federal funds shouldn't be used to destroy human embryos. They say Senator Kerry hasn't been as clear with his ethical considerations. Frank Buckley, CNN, Hampton, New Hampshire.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And don't miss the only vice presidential debate. That will be live from Cleveland tomorrow night. You can see it right here on CNN. CNN's prime-time coverage begins 7:00 p.m. Eastern. I'll be in Cleveland along with my colleagues, Anderson Cooper, Paula Zahn, the entire CNN election team tomorrow night.

Later -- how late night stars are getting laughs out of this presidential debate.

First, will the first Monday in October look different in the next administration, either a second term for Bush or a new term for Kerry? Why the U.S. Supreme Court could be a huge prize in this election.

After the attack. The U.S. claims a victory, but is it a defeat for residents of an Iraqi city?

And what the surveillance shows. Is that a rocket or a stretcher going into an ambulance in Gaza? The United Nations is now investigating. We'll report live from the U.N.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Days after the presidential debate on Iraq, the ripples are still spreading. Did President Bush rush to war without enough U.S. allies? And does Senator Kerry want to give too much to other nations to decide whether or not the United States should ever have to go to war.

Joining us now from Phoenix, our world affairs analyst, the former defense secretary, William Cohen. Mr. Secretary, thanks for joining us. A lot of controversy over whether there's a new so-called Kerry doctrine, as the Republicans are charging, one that gives other nations a veto power over U.S. military action. Listen to what the senator said last Thursday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KERRY: The president always has the right and always has had the right for preemptive strike. That was a great doctrine throughout the Cold War. And it was always one of the things we argued about with respect to arms control. No president through all of American history has ever ceded and nor would I the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America. But if and when you do it, Jim, you've got to do it in a way that passes the test, that passes the global test, where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: What's your understanding, Mr. Secretary, of what Kerry means?

WILLIAM COHEN, FMR. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, as I understand it, the rule has always been under international law that any country has the right to take action preemptively if it has good intelligence that an attack is being prepared and that attack is imminent.

So the question becomes do you have the right to attack under those circumstances? The answer is yes. With respect to our policy during the Cold War, there were great discussions about whether the United States would ever consider a launch on warning on the part of the former Soviet Union or launch under attack while we were being attacked or attack after we had been attacked.

So the difference is the question of one of right, do we have the right to launch preemptively? The answer is historically yes, and the answer is still today. The question then becomes one of policy. What should be the United States policy? In the past we have said as a policy we should try to act multilaterally whenever we can, unilaterally whenever we must. And I would go on to point out that President Bush's father, when it came time to throwing Saddam Hussein and evicting him out of Kuwait, the first place he went to was the United Nations to seek U.N. support for the effort to go to war with Saddam Hussein and secondly came to the United States Congress after that.

So I think the rule is quite clear. You want to seek multilateral support whenever you can. If you have to act unilaterally and you must do so, you have the right to do so. That's the rule.

BLITZER: I want to play another exchange that occurred at the debate Thursday night. Listen to this one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KERRY: When we went in, there were three countries -- Great Britain, Australia, and the United States. That's not a grand coalition. We can do better.

LEHRER: Thirty seconds.

BUSH: Well, actually, you forgot Poland. And now there's 30 nations involved, standing side by side with our American troops. And I honor their sacrifices and I don't appreciate it when a candidate for president denigrates the contributions of these brave soldiers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: As you know, Mr. Secretary, Poland announcing today they want to cut dramatically their troops in Iraq and get rid of all of them by the end of next year. What's your understanding of this -- the significance of this?

COHEN: Well, first of all, they failed to mention Australia also has been part of the contribution from the very beginning. But secondly, with respect to Poland, I'm not sure the decision is irreversible. My understanding is that the defense minister made that statement publicly but had not cleared it with the Polish prime minister. So we'll have to wait and see what the outcome is. But ultimately, a reduction of some 2,500 troops, 45 percent of which will come in January, followed by the complete elimination by the end of next year, is not good news. Militarily, will it change the balance of forces on the ground? No. But symbolically, that is not a very positive sign for the United States. Hopefully, the Polish government will at least think it through in terms of what signal is going to be sent to other countries.

BLITZER: President Aleksander Kwasniewski has been under enormous pressure domestically to bring those troops home to Poland given political considerations inside Poland right now. Mr. Secretary, thanks for joining us.

COHEN: Pleasure.

BLITZER: It was a city under siege and under intense fire from U.S. forces. But did the offensive in Samarra go too far? Up next, an Iraqi town that went from chaos to carnage. We'll have a report.

Plus, a supersonic success. SpaceShipOne breaks through the space barrier. Our own Miles O'Brien was there to see it all happen. I'll speak with him. That's coming up.

And later -- the domestic diva under deadline. Martha Stewart enjoys her final days of freedom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: from our studios in Washington, once again, Wolf Blitzer.

BLITZER: Welcome back. The aftermath of fierce fighting in Samarra as Iraqi families venture out to claim their dead. A rare glimpse into their lives and the battles that have been waged from the ground and the air. We'll get to that.

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

U.S. authorities today charged a British terror suspect with plotting along with the shoe bomber, Richard Reid. Saajid Badat was charged with attempted murder, trying to destroy an aircraft, and other charges related to the alleged conspiracy with Reid.

Reid, an admitted member of al Qaeda, was sentenced to life in prison last year.

For the sixth straight day Israel launched military strikes into Gaza in a bid to stop rocket attacks on the Jewish nation. Palestinians say several people were killed, including a 14-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy. The offensive began last week after a Palestinian rocket attack killed two Israeli children.

In the same area, the United Nations has now launched a formal investigation into allegations Palestinian militants may be using ambulances to transport rockets.

Our senior U.N. correspondent, Richard Roth, standing by with details -- Richard.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tonight Israel's U.N. ambassador says there is a worrisome pattern of U.N. involvement in terrorist activities against Israel.

Ambassador Gillerman saying that Israeli army video, which was shot from a drone, indeed, he says shows that a rocket was put into the back of a United Nations ambulance after being used against Israeli forces.

The United Nations says, in effect, it's just a stretcher.

Nevertheless, the U.N. secretary-general, after meeting with the Israeli ambassador, he's dispatching a four-person team to investigate this issue.

There has been a bitter dispute for years between the United Nations and Israel, specifically the U.N. Relief Works Agency, which helps thousands of Palestinians in the refugee camps.

Israel says that agency is being used for terrorist attacks, something the U.N. denies.

BLITZER: Richard Roth reporting from the U.N. for us. Thanks, Richard, for that story. We'll continue to monitor it.

The smoke has now cleared in Samarra, the city north of Baghdad, where thousands of U.S. and Iraqi forces carried out a major offensive to try to clear out insurgents.

But residents have paid a very heavy price, as CNN's Jane Arraf reports from the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The white flag of surrender turned to an emblem of sorrow.

Iraqi families braved the streets of Samarra, still filled with U.S. troops, to claim their dead. After two days of fighting, it was the first time they'd been able to venture out to the hospital.

The U.S. military says it killed more than 130 insurgents. The interior minister insisted there were no civilian casualties and called the operation a success.

But the people at Samarra's main hospital saw it differently. This Kurdish woman lost her brother, Salam Mahmoud Hassan (ph).

"He was 18 years old, a young man," his father said. He said his son was unarmed, going to a neighbor's house 100 meters away when he was shot in the head.

U.S. soldiers searched the families before they entered the hospital.

There are rows of body bags. Salam (ph) is the first one.

There were more than 50 bodies here. Hospital workers don't believe they were insurgents at all.

(on camera) It's hard to find any Iraqis here who believe that these dead men were fighters. To them they were fathers, sons, brothers, ordinary citizens of Samarra.

(voice-over) American officials say the vast majority were military age and some were foreigners.

LT. COL. ERIC SHALICHT, U.S. ARMY: The best I know, there's somewhere between 50 and 60 that -- remains that are here. Most of them are military age men. There were some collateral casualties. But generally, it was military age men.

ARRAF: Among the civilian casualties, hospital records show, Dala Abasal Avar (ph) and her six children, the sister-in-law of these two men.

They say their 18-year-old nephew, his widowed mother, and five sisters were fleeing when their car was fired on by U.S. forces. The 2-year-old girl, thrown to safety by her brother, was burned but survived.

While relatives and hospital workers load the bodies on a truck, American soldiers find a collection of weapons at the hospital, including rocket-propelled grenades and guns.

At the cemetery Apache helicopters flew overhead as the families buried their loved ones. U.S. soldiers waited outside. Inside Iraqi National Guard, whose forces helped in the offensive, stood watch.

"Insurgents, innocents. It was chaos," said this man. "No one could tell who was a terrorist and who wasn't. What happened happened."

Jane Arraf, CNN, Samarra, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: It's a tough war indeed.

Tilting the balance. The spotlight's on the U.S. Supreme Court this election year, as key retirements could mean big changes.

And she'll start her sentence in just a matter of days, but Martha Stewart's making the most of her final days of freedom before prison. Up next, what she can expect behind bars in West Virginia.

And later, the race to space. It punched Earth's atmosphere. Now Spaceship One wins a big payoff.

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Health officials in Thailand say a 9-year- old girl has died of bird flu, raising the death toll from the virus to at least 31 in southeast Asia. The victim is believed to have caught the disease from infected chickens.

Anti-North Korea rally. Tens of thousands of protesters burn North Korean flags and clash with riot police in the South Korean capital, Seoul. Demonstrators called for an end to the communist North Korean government and its suspected nuclear weapons program.

Nobel winners. Two American scientists have won this year's Nobel Prize for medicine. Scientists Richard Axel and Linda Buck were honored for their work on the sense of smell. They'll also share the prize's monetary award of $1.3 million.

And that's our look around the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Martha Stewart has until Friday -- that would be this Friday, to report to prison. The lifestyle maven will serve her five- month term for lying to investigators. She'll serve that time in Alderson, West Virginia.

CNN's Allan Chernoff reports on what she can expect.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Martha Stewart on the beach this past weekend in the Bahamas for the wedding of her friend and publicity adviser Susan Magrino.

Stewart was at the exclusive Ocean Club, where beachfront suites cost $1,450 a night, including tax.

By Friday Martha Stewart will be sharing a cubicle like this at the federal prison in Alderson, West Virginia. Ms. Stewart can expect nighttime visits from prison guards.

Clair Hanrahan is a former inmate.

CLAIR HANRAHAN, FORMER PRISONER: If you pull the sheet over yourself at night just to give yourself some sense of boundary, the prison guards are allowed, they say, "We must see flesh, ladies," when they do their midnight count.

So you can expect -- and several times I was awakened in the night with a guard pulling the sheet off of me.

CHERNOFF: A tough transition from a bathing suit to prison khakis and working for 12 cents an hour.

Martha Stewart is to serve a five-month term at Alderson for having lied to federal investigators about her sale of stock in a biotech company. Ms. Stewart decided to serve her sentence even as her lawyers appeal her conviction.

MARTHA STEWART, FOUNDER, MARTHA STEWART LIVING OMNIMEDIA: And I'll be back. I will be back. Whatever I have to do in the next few months, I hope the months go by quickly. I'm used to all kinds of hard work.

CHERNOFF (on camera): Martha Stewart will have a final opportunity to enjoy high living before giving up her freedom. Her friend Susan Magrino is renting out the Four Seasons restaurant Thursday night to celebrate her marriage. Cocktails are at 7.

That would still give Martha Stewart enough time to meet her court-ordered deadline to report to prison by 2 o'clock the next day.

Allan Chernoff, CNN Financial News, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: There's a winner in the unusual race to space for a $10 million prize.

CNN's space correspondent, Miles O'Brien, was on hand for the start and the finish.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Two down, $10 million to come to the newly anointed winners of the Ansari X Prize.

Spaceship One, piloted by 51-year-old Brian Binnie, streaked straight and true as a flaming arrow, passing into space and then some.

BRIAN BINNIE, SPACESHIPONE PILOT: It is literally a rush. You light that motor off, and the world wakes up around you. It's the analogy of getting in the arena with a bull and they open the gate, and off you go. O'BRIEN: Off he went to 367,442 feet, a 40,000-foot slam dunk beyond the official boundary of space, where everything floats, the sky is dark, and the horizon is curved.

X Prize founder Peter Diamandis couldn't have asked for a prettier picture.

PETER DIAMANDIS, X PRIZE: It has been eight years of hoping that this is going to happen.

O'BRIEN: They earned it by becoming the first civilian team to fly to space in a three-seat vehicle twice within two weeks. They did it in less than a week, first reaching space on a wild ride last Wednesday. With pilot Mike Melvill at the stick, the craft rolled 29 times as it reached its apogee.

MIKE MELVILL, PILOT, SPACESHIPONE: You've got to have some luck to get this thing done.

O'BRIEN: And a pretty good pile of money, as well. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen bankrolled the $25 million project.

The credit goes to aviation designer and legend Burt Rutan. In 1986 a plane he designed, flown by his brother, Dick, circumnavigated the globe on a single tank of gas.

BURT RUTAN, SCALED COMPOSITES: We had a milestone, and we had nowhere to go with it. The difference in this program, thanks to Sir Richard Branson, is that we have the milestone, and our challenge is in front of us, and we've only begun.

O'BRIEN: The goal is to make it possible for regular people to buy a ride on a rocket. Virgin Airlines CEO Richard Branson has commissioned Rutan to build a five-passenger space liner. He hopes to be flying passengers in two years at $200,000 a pop.

RICHARD BRANSON, CEO, VIRGIN AIRLINES: Initially it's not going to be that cheap to go into space. But Virgin has pledged that any money that we make from space travel we will reinvest in more space travel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: But Branson is not alone. There are at least a half dozen other similar projects in the works, and there may soon be a $50 million prize for the first civilian team to fly a piloted spacecraft into orbit, Wolf.

And not coincidentally, all this happens on this day, the 47th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1. The dawn of another space race yields to yet a new one.

BLITZER: A nice, historic touch, indeed. Miles O'Brien, reporting for us. Miles, thanks very much.

To our viewers, here's your chance to weigh in on this story. Our web question of the day is this: "Is space travel safe enough for the public yet?" You can vote. Go to CNN.com/Wolf. We'll have the results a little bit later in this broadcast.

The election's impact on the U.S. Supreme Court. Some big changes, potentially, could happen, depending on which candidate wins next month. We'll explain.

Plus, the late night spin. Big laughs -- big laughs had, that is, at the expense of both Bush and Kerry.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The nine justices of the United States Supreme Court opened their new term today in typical fashion. But this year could turn out to be anything but typical.

CNN's Brian Todd has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At a time of emotional political debate and divide, the U.S. Supreme Court finds itself a central issue in this election.

We're not talking recount so much as retirement. Court observers say in the next four years it's possible that three Supreme Court justices could retire.

PROF. PAUL ROTHSTEIN, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY LAW CENTER: It could change the way this country operates for the next 40 years, well beyond the time that the president is in power.

TODD: On the cusp, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the lead conservative on the bench. The longest-serving justice on the court, Rehnquist just turned 80 and had leg surgery two years ago.

John Paul Stevens, at 84, the oldest justice. Nominated by Republican President Gerald Ford, Stevens became one of the most consistent liberal voices on the court.

And Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman justice, battled and beat breast cancer a few years ago, but is now 74 years old. O'Connor's future is crucial. Considered a moderate, she's often the so-called swing vote.

ROTHSTEIN: She has caused -- created the majority in many, many cases of very important social issues, these 5-4 votes.

TODD: So the president's nominees over the next four years could tilt the balance on several key court decisions.

Liberal groups fear the future of Roe versus Wade if President Bush is re-elected.

ELLIOT MINCBERG, PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY: The issue of reproductive rights is one among a number of civil rights and civil liberties that are threatened if we see one or two more Scalia/Thomas justices on the Supreme Court.

TODD: But a prominent conservative attorney who helped Ronald Reagan make judicial nominations disagrees.

BRUCE FEIN, FORMER ASSOCIATE DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: They would not, in my judgment, vote to reverse a precedent of such long-standing status where there are settled expectations, laws that have grown up around the Roe versus Wade precedent.

TODD: Most court watchers agree the entire concept of affirmative action is on its last legs and could be dealt a death blow in a second Bush term.

They believe a Kerry-influenced court might uphold the decision in the University of Michigan case, allowing affirmative action under some circumstances.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take you, James.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take you, James.

TODD: Basic privacy issues for gays could be in the balance. Liberals say they'd be threatened in a second Bush term.

But one conservative legal observer points to last year's decision upholding gay privacy and doesn't believe that would be overturned, even with new conservative justices.

On the federal death penalty, predictions are reversed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Kerry's elected, I think the death penalty is on its last legs.

MINCBERG: That's a bit of an exaggeration. If you look at the last Democratic president we had, President Clinton was personally in favor of the death penalty under some circumstances.

TODD (on camera): But one veteran court observer cautions these kinds of prediction have been made for decades, and once behind the bench justices often move far afield of their nominating president's politics.

Brian Todd, CNN, at the Supreme Court.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Ever since the first presidential debate ended Thursday night, newspaper columnists have been writing about it, and television analysts have been talking about it.

But just as important, some would say, in terms of public perception, TV comedians have been joking about it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER (voice-over): An estimated 62 1/2 million viewers watched Thursday night's first presidential debate. But when the debate ended, many viewers changed the channel before the traditional post-debate analysis by sober-sounding journalists and political spinsters.

Many of them waited a half hour...

ANNOUNCER: The squabble in Coral Gables.

BLITZER: ... and got their post-debate analysis elsewhere.

KERRY: Before I answer further, let me thank you for moderating. I want to thank the University of Miami for hosting us.

JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": Smoke 'em if you got 'em. It's going to be a long night!

BLITZER: Industry reports say Jon Stewart's post-debate show on Comedy Central earned Stewart his highest rating ever, nearly 2 1/2 million viewers.

BUSH: We're facing a -- a group of folks who have such hatred in their heart.

STEWART: Group of folks? We're facing a group of folks? A group of folks is what you run into at the Olive Garden.

BLITZER: It wasn't just the cable comedians getting in their licks. If you didn't hear Dan Rather discuss the debate on CBS, you might hear David Letterman discuss the debate on CBS.

DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": At the debate, Bush appeared confident. He appeared relaxed. He appeared calm. That's right. He's drinking again.

BLITZER: NBC's "Saturday Night Live" offered its own take on the debate and enjoyed its highest season premiere overnight rating in three years.

CHRIS PARNELL, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" ACTOR: When you say crush the terrorists, how exactly do you plan to do that?

WILL FORTE, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" ACTOR: By working hard.

MEYERS: The fact of the matter is I have consistently supported the war in front of pro-war audiences and condemned it when speaking to groups that oppose it.

That is not flip-flopping. That is pandering. And Americans deserve a president who knows the difference. Thank you.

BLITZER: While most of the entertainers who do political comedy on television deny having any partisan agenda, they do have an audience, especially among younger adults. A recent survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center showed adults between the ages of 18 and 29 are less likely to watch television news than the general audience and more likely to watch late night comedy.

And in a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, 21 percent of younger adults said they are learning about the presidential campaign from satirical sources.

JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": And Kerry's people are having problems preparing him for the debate. You know, they keep trying to tell him he doesn't talk like the regular average Joe, and Kerry said, "Oh, au contraire."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: We'll have the results of our Web question of the day. That's coming up next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

QUAN TRAN, PH.D. STUDENT, GEORGIA TECH: I like to cook, but I get interrupted, and I forgot what I last did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does this sound familiar? Quan Tran from Georgia Tech's Aware Home is doing research about a memory aid that helps people remember where they left off in a task. The preliminary work is set in the kitchen. It's called the Cook's Collage.

TRAN: So we're using cameras that look at the activity area in which you are performing a task. It will focus on your hands to track what you're doing. And the cameras are fed into a computer, and images to show on the display.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her future work involves extending the study to elderly cooks.

TRAN: The elderly have taken an interest it, as well because preparing a meal holds value as they age.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tran is also looking to discover where else interruptions are problematic in the home and examining how deja vu displays can compensate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here's how you're weighing in on our Web question of the day: "Is space travel safe enough for the public yet?" Eighteen percent of you say yes; 82 percent say no.

Remember, this is not a scientific poll.

Tomorrow we'll be live from Cleveland for special coverage of the first and only vice presidential debate. I'll be there at noon, 5 and later in the night.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

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