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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Defense Department Briefing; Security Concerns Discussed; John Bolton Nomination Update; Zarqawi Status Discussed

Aired May 26, 2005 - 17:00   ET

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

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


WOLF BLITZER, HOST "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS": Happening now, we're standing by for a live briefing over at the Pentagon amidst allegations of Koran abuse at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. We'll go there, live, once it starts.
Also happening, right now, after weeks of passionate debate the United States Senate finally getting ready to decide the fate of John Bolton. Will he be confirmed to become the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations?

Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(voice-over): Abu Musab al Zarqawi's fate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not quite sure if he is still alive or dead.

BLITZER: How much does it matter?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That will not cause al Qaeda in Iraq to cease to function.

BLITZER: Are 40,000 troops enough to protect the capital?

Detainee documents: newly released papers list their complaints.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There were serious credible allegations of a number of types of defilement of the Koran.

BLITZER: The Pentagon fires back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The detainee himself, within the last two weeks, said that didn't happen.

BLITZER: Price tag for peace. President Bush promises the Palestinians money, but it comes with certain expectations.

PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH, UNITED STATES: Combat corruption, reform the Palestinian security services, and your justice system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Thursday, May 26th, 2005. BLITZER: Thanks very much for joining us.

Is Iraq's most-wanted man wounded? Is he perhaps even dead? If he is out of action, who's calling the shots for al Qaeda's operations in Iraq? U.S. officials are carefully considering all the possibilities, including a power struggle among the insurgents. We begin our coverage with our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, SR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: While some Iraqi officials say they're convinced Abu Musab al Zarqawi was wounded five days ago in a fire fight, Pentagon officials insist there is still no hard evidence to back up the claims.

BRIG. GEN CARTER HAM, U.S. ARMY: I think the best way to categorize it, is that we look at those with great interest.

MCINTYRE: With a $25 million price on his head, there is no one the U.S. wants to capture or kill more than Zarqawi, who's believed to be able to inspire his followers to carry out deadly suicide attacks. But while Zarqawi's death or capture would clearly deal a blow to his al Qaeda network, the Pentagon says it would probably not shut it down.

HAM: We ought not expect that when that happens, that the organization will crumble and will cease to exist. The organization has proven to be somewhat resilient.

MCINTYRE: A chart released by the U.S. military this month claims Zarqawi's network is shrinking, with the roll up of more than 20 trusted lieutenants in recent months. But it remains, in the words of the Pentagon, lethal and dangerous.

In a speech to U.S. soldiers at Ft. Bragg, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Zarqawi is now acting much like Adolf Hitler did during his final days when defeat was clear.

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Reminiscent of Hitler in his bunker, this violent extremist, failing to achieve his military and political objectives, now appears committed to trying to destroy everything and everyone around him. History teaches us that this kind of evil, over time, fails.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: That report from CNN's Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon.

We're standing by for that Pentagon briefing as well, and we'll have more on Abu Musab al Zarqawi ahead this hour, including what his death could mean to the insurgency. I'll speak with the former deputy director of the CIA, John McLaughlin.

President Bush used to give Yasser Arafat the cold shoulder, but he's giving the current Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas a pledge of strong support and what amounts to a checking account. Let's go live to the White House. Our Dana Bash, standing by. Dana?

DANA BASH, CORRESPONDENT, WHITE HOUSE: Well, Wolf, the tone was intentionally upbeat in the Rose Garden today. President Bush, trying to give a boost to the Palestinian leader, so any real pressure for the leader to dismantle Palestinian terrorist groups was saved for private.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): After more than four years in office, President Bush, for the first time, greeted a Palestinian president at the White House and offered $50 million in direct aid to his government.

BUSH: These funds will be used to improve the quality of life of the Palestinians living in Gaza, where poverty and unemployment are very high.

BASH: Direct aid to the Palestinian authority, not channeled through third parties, is a signal of trust Mr. Bush did not have for Yasser Arafat, whom he called corrupt and supportive of terrorism.

Showcasing Mahmoud Abbas is part of a White House effort to boost his stature back home, where his Fatah movement faces increasing political competition from Hamas.

AARON MILLER, FMR. PEACE NEGOTIATOR: It's got to be Abbas and not Hamas that are -- that is essentially delivering goods and services to the Palestinian people.

BASH: Mr. Bush deliberately played down, in public anyway, concerns Abbas is not doing enough to disarm Hamas and other known Palestinian terrorist groups.

BUSH: All who engage in terror are the enemies of a Palestinian state, and must be held to account.

BASH: Bush aides say the leaders spent most of their time discussing Israel's planned August withdrawal from the Gaza strip. Abbas promised to work for a peaceful transition, but wants Mr. Bush's help making clear Israel should yield more territory, especially in the West Bank. Until then, the Palestinian leader says, the key ingredient is missing.

PRES. MAHMOUD ABBAS, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): But democracy is like a coin. It has two sides. On one side, it's democracy. On the other side of the coin is freedom.

BASH: The president reiterated his warning Israel should stop building West Bank settlements and not use a security wall to redraw political lines. But some experts say Mr. Bush still has yet to prove Mid East peace is really a top priority.

MILLER: The administration will have to choose as to whether or not they want to invest in the next year and a half in, not only managing this conflict, but actively trying to resolve it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: The president did announce the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be traveling to Jerusalem and Ramallah ahead of the Gaza pullout in August, and, Wolf, all sides say that is really the priority right now, on the big question of final-status talks, thorny issues, like Jerusalem. Senior administration officials said neither side is prepared for that, and if it happened too early, it could be dangerous.

BLITZER: Dana, we heard the president's public message to Mahmoud Abbas, but what about behind the scenes, in private? What are you hearing from your sources?

BASH: Well, Wolf, senior administration officials said, specifically on the question of whether or not the president was tough on Mahmoud Abbas in terms of encouraging him to work harder to dismantle those terrorist groups -- what a senior official said is that the president is always tougher in private than in public, and pointed out that Abbas did not only meet with President Bush, he also met with the secretary of state and the vice president, where he heard the same message over and over, how key that is to any lasting peace and moving forward.

But, the other open question is whether or not he can do that at this time, and, of course, as you know, Wolf, a general ward is in the region trying very hard to help Abbas prop up his security, and that really is the goal right now.

BLITZER: All right, Dana Bash at the White House. Thanks very much.

There is a swirling storm of allegations and denials about the treatment of U.S. detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval base. That's in Cuba. The latest round involves newly released documents that once again centers around alleged desecration of the Muslim holy book, the Koran. Let's get more on this story. CNN's Brian Todd has been checking into it. Brian?

BRIAN TODD, CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Korans were first handed out at Guantanamo in January of 2002. Since then, it's been at the center of allegations over the treatment of detainees, and once again, we've got both sides presenting completely opposite accounts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): From the cells at Guantanamo, allegations of abuse that simply will not go away and continue to put the U.S. military on the defensive.

NADINE STROSSEN, PRES., ACLU: In the summer of 2002, there were serious credible allegations of a number of types of defilement of the Koran.

TODD: FBI documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union as part of an ongoing lawsuit contained previous undisclosed interviews with Muslim detainees at Guantanamo. Among their charges, from August 2002, quote, "the guards beat the detainees. They flushed the Koran in the toilet."

Since a report in "Newsweek" magazine earlier this month of a Koran being flushed down the toilet, a story that's since been retracted, Pentagon officials have since said they found no corroborating evidence of that charge. On Thursday, they went a step further.

LAWRENCE DI RITA, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: We've gone back to the detainee who allegedly made the allegation, and he has said that's not what -- it didn't happen.

TODD: But there were other complaints about the Koran. From April of 2002, a prisoner says, guards were, quote, "pushing them around and throwing their waste bucket to them in the cell, sometimes with the waste still in the bucket and kicking the Koran." Detainees also say the Koran was withheld as punishment and thrown on the floor.

It boils down to credibility. CNN recently interviewed an attorney for several Kuwaiti prisoners at Guantanamo.

KRISTINE HUSKEY, ATTORNEY FOR DETAINEES: What my clients told me, what they had witnessed, was that the Koran was mishandled and mistreated, and I am not shocked nor surprised.

TODD: Pentagon Spokesman Larry Di Rita says detainees at Guantanamo are organized, communicate well with each other, and know they can stir up trouble with charges of Koran abuse.

Another Pentagon official, familiar with investigations at Guantanamo, tells CNN they've documented incidents where detainees have ripped pages out of the Koran to agitate other prisoners, and one incident where a detainee dropped a Koran on the ground and blamed a guard.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: But U.S. officials are quick to point out much of this is still being investigated, including the possibility that guards may have unintentionally mishandled the Koran. And a charge that Defense Department officials presented themselves as State Department or FBI employees while questioning detainees at Guantanamo -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Brian Todd, thanks very much.

Once again to our viewers, we're standing by for a news conference over at the Pentagon on this specific issue. You're looking live over at the Pentagon. Reporters already gathered in the briefing room. Once the generals emerge to talk about what's happening at Guantanamo Bay, we'll go there live.

Facing deportation, one Afghan woman's fight to stay with her family here in the United States.

Also coming up, the controversial nomination of John Bolton as the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N. The battle could reach a climax within the hour. Concern over the so-called bird flu. Now there are serious warnings from the nation's top health officials of a possible global pandemic. Are we prepared for that?

And high gas prices aren't the only hurdle vacationers will face this summer. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. The battle over President Bush's pick for United Nations ambassador could come to a climax within the hour. Right now the Senate is debating the controversial nomination of John Bolton. Our State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel is covering the story for us. She's joining us now live with the latest -- Andrea.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, since the Bolton nomination made it to the floor of the Senate yesterday, we haven't seen the same kind of drama in terms of the dramatic testimony that we saw earlier during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Nevertheless, it is about to become a nail biter again. And the man that you're looking at right there, Senator Joseph Biden, Democrat of Delaware, is one of the reasons why.

He and Democratic Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut are threatening to block the vote. And what that means is that within the hour Republicans are going to call for a vote to end debate. They need 60 votes to do that. Biden and Dodd are saying, look, the State Department needs to turn over documents on Syria. The NSA needs to turn over ten intercepts that Bolton had requested in recent years. And until we get that, we are not going to support a vote.

So we're going to find out within the hour, Wolf, probably sometime between 6:00 and 6:30, whether Republicans will have the 60 votes necessary to cut off debate on the floor of the Senate and move to a vote on the Bolton nomination, Wolf.

BLITZER: Is there any head counting that's reliable at this stage? Or are we simply, Andrea, going to have to wait and see?

KOPPEL: Well, we've been trying to do it ourselves, Wolf. Just picking up the phone the old fashioned way, calling around to Democrats known to be swing votes, and so far -- again, this is unscientific -- it doesn't look as if the 60 votes are there.

But quite frankly, no one, either Republicans or Democrats for that matter, in the leadership are saying whether or not they have the votes.

BLITZER: All right. Key test coming up for John Bolton. We'll, of course, bring that to our viewers as it happens. Andrea, thank you very much.

The Afghan president Hamid Karzai warned today that insurgents may try to disrupt his country's scheduled September elections by launching attacks and kidnapping people. His remarks were a reminder that Afghanistan is still a very dangerous place.

Despite that, U.S. immigration officials have been trying to send Afghan citizens in the United States back to their homeland. CNN's Deborah Feyerick is joining us now live from New York. She's following this story -- Deb.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf, for women being sent back, it's particularly hard to go home alone to a country where beatings, rapes and kidnappings remain a serious problem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK (voice-over): In Afghanistan, Samira Rahman's life was about fear. Fear the Taliban would knock on her door, fear they'd punish her for breaking Muslim rules by working outside her family home for the national airline.

Seven years ago, the Taliban did knock. Samira wasn't home. Her father and brother were.

(on camera): You never saw your father? You never saw your brother? And you never saw your home again?

(voice-over): Samira doesn't know if they're alive or dead. She fled to America, arriving in New York May 2001. Friends introduced her to an Afghan who had also fled the Taliban.

Abdul Rahman came to the U.S. with nothing. Now he owns a coffee cart and works near Wall Street, blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood.

They married. And months before their first son was born in spring 2002, Samira applied for political asylum. There was just one problem.

PAMELA FALK, SAMIRA RAHMAN'S LAWYER: The Department of Homeland Security thought that everything was all right in Afghanistan. And so she was caught in the middle of an interpretation that did not allow her to be considered an asylee.

FEYERICK: Immigration officials turned down her asylum request, told her she had to go home. The reason, the Taliban, the oppressive government she'd run from, was itself put on the run by the Northern Alliance. Officials said she had nothing to fear.

RUSS KNOCKE, BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION: We have deported, again, many Afghannee nationals over the last few years. And deportations continue to that country.

FEYERICK: Samira didn't leave, hoping in part that, once her husband's green card comes through, she'll be able to stay. She was scared, if she did leave...

SAMIRA RAHMAN, SEEKING ASYLUM (through translator): I have no place to go. I don't have anybody in Afghanistan. Where should I go?

FEYERICK: Then early this January, there was a knock at her Long Island home.

ABDUL RAHMAN, SAMIRA RAHMAN'S HUSBAND: It was Friday. A very sad day. And I was coming home around 2:00. And my kids were very upset, and they were crying too much.

FEYERICK: Agents brought her to a New Jersey detention center holding her with other women waiting to be deported.

S. RAHMAN (through translator): Afghanistan is not safe. My husband and children cannot come to Afghanistan. And my life is also going to be in danger if they send me to Afghanistan.

FEYERICK: Republicans and Democrats went to bat for Samira. Her case was recently reopened. Though immigration officials deny it was because of outside pressure.

Samira Rahman is getting another chance, another shot to make her case and stay with her family in the country where she hopes to spend the rest of her life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: Now her two sons are American citizens, but that doesn't help Samira or her legal standing. She'll head to court in the next two weeks. An immigration judge ready to reconsider whether Afghanistan is perhaps not as safe as U.S. officials originally though -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Deborah Feyerick, very important story for that woman and for a lot of other people. Thanks very much.

And let's head on over to the Pentagon now. That briefing on U.S. treatment of detainees at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba underway. The commander of Join Task Force: Guantanamo, Brigadier General Jay Hood.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

BRIG. GEN. JAY HOOD, COMMANDER, JOINT TASK FORCE, GUANTANAMO BAY: ...answer these questions.

We have reviewed approximately 31,000 documents, both electronic and hard copy.

And what I would like to do now is provide you an interim update to my inquiry in terms of our findings.

First off, I'd like you to know that we have found no credible evidence that a member of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Koran down a toilet.

We did identify 13 incidents of alleged mishandling of the Koran by Joint Task Force personnel. Ten of those were by a guard and three by interrogators.

We found that in only five of those 13 incidents, four by guards and one by an interrogator, there was what could be broadly defined as mishandling of a Koran.

None of these five incidents was a result of a failure to follow standard operating procedures in place at the time the incident occurred.

We have determined that in six additional incidents involving guards, that the guard either accidentally touched a Koran, touched it within the scope of his duties, or did not actually touch the Koran at all. We considered each of these incidents resolved.

In two additional incidents involving interrogators, we found that a Koran was either touched or stood over during an interrogation. The first incident does not appear to be mishandling as it involved placing two Korans on a television.

The Koran was not touched during the second incident, and the interrogator's action during the interrogation was accidental.

We've also identified 15 incidents where detainees mishandled or inappropriately treated the Koran, one of which was, of course, the specific example of a detainee who ripped pages out of their own Koran.

As part of this review, we determined that the guidance to the guard force for handling the Koran is adequate and has essentially remained unchanged since the early days of detention operations -- including the written Koran handling procedures from January, 2003.

We will continue to review the adequacy of our procedures and develop recommendations that will allow us to improve practices and processes outlined in our standard operating procedures -- just as we have from the early days of detention operations at Guantanamo.

We are currently screening other miscellaneous documents for allegations of Koran mishandling that may have credibility. That includes habeas pleadings or accounts filed by habeas litigators and newspaper accounts.

To gain a better appreciation for these incidents, I think it's important to understand a little bit about the population of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

This is not a benign group of people. These are enemy combatants that are detained because they represent a clear threat and danger to the United States and our allies.

These detainees have provided and continue to provide valuable intelligence in the war on terror. The information gathered from detainees at Guantanamo has undoubtedly saved the lives of U.S. and coalition forces abroad. And that information has also thwarted threats posed to innocent civilians at home and abroad.

In closing, I want to assure you that we are committed to respecting the cultural dignity of the Koran and the detainees' practice of faith. Every effort has been made to provide religious articles associated with the Islamic faith, accommodate prayers and religious periods, and provide culturally acceptable meals and practices.

That concludes my prepared remarks. I'll be happy to take any of your questions.

QUESTION: General, could you please describe the incidents of mishandling the Koran? What exactly was done by U.S. personnel to the Koran?

And also, can you say how many people you interviewed as part of the investigation?

HOOD: I'm not going to discuss each of those specific incidents until this investigation is closed, and then I'll provide it through my chain of command.

QUESTION: General Hood, what is your criteria of mishandling the Koran? Is this criteria based on a religious measure or a military measure?

HOOD: A little bit of both, sir. First off, mishandling is any time that one of the established procedures for handling the Koran is violated. But those procedures were developed and are based on religious sensitivities associated with the holy book.

QUESTION: OK. And what are the procedures that you are going to take against those guards and interrogators who mishandled the Koran?

HOOD: I'm not going to discuss each of those incidents or any actions that may have been taken or may be taken until we've completed the report.

QUESTION: You mentioned off the top that you found no credible evidence that anyone flushed a Koran down a toilet.

HOOD: Yes, sir.

QUESTION: I'm not sure whether there were any flushed toilets there in the beginning, but setting aside the word "flushed," were any incidents involving Korans that were placed in waste buckets or devices that were used for handling waste?

HOOD: Yes, sir. None of those that we found were.

Now, I think it's important to know that in a ACLU FOIA request, a summary of an investigation or a summary of an interrogation conducted by FBI personnel at Guantanamo Bay in July of 2002 indicated that a detainee had reported to the interrogating agent that the guards in the detention facility did not treat him well, that their behavior was bad, that about five months ago, this guard beat detainees, and that they flushed a Koran in the toilet.

That FBI report from the first of August, 2002, came to my investigating team's attention within 24 to 48 hours of me initiating the investigation.

And they brought that to me, and because we considered this a very sensitive report, we brought this detainee in and spoke with him.

This detainee was very cooperative with us, and we discussed with him broadly his treatment in his early days at Guantanamo Bay. And we asked him, was he beaten or abused, explaining that we were interested in making sure that we are doing things right.

We had a very good conversation with him where he said, no, that he wasn't beaten or abused, but that he had heard rumors that other detainees were. We then proceeded to ask him about any incidents where he had seen the Koran defiled, desecrated or mishandled, and he allowed as how he hadn't but he heard that guards at some other point and time had done this.

He went on to describe to his interrogator that, that was the problem that was only in the old camp -- I believe he meant referring to Camp X-Ray -- that the guards and the detainees well understand the procedures that are used for us to look at a Koran today.

QUESTION: So he is saying he wasn't an eyewitness to any incident like that where a Koran had been mishandled?

HOOD: That is correct.

QUESTION: He heard that it happened to other people.

Did you ask him whether he had stated that in that particular interview, the first interview to the FBI?

HOOD: No, sir, we didn't.

QUESTION: Why not?

HOOD: We did not go back to speak to a detainee who is going to return to this population about a specific incident or interview with law enforcement officials.

QUESTION: What did you mean when you said that was a problem in the old camp?

HOOD: The detainee was explaining to us that his problems with the Koran that he was familiar with came from Camp X-Ray. In other words, he had arrived to Guantanamo in late January, very early February of 2002, in one of the first few lifts of detainees to Guantanamo.

So his initial three or four months had to have been spent in Camp X-Ray.

LAWRENCE DI RITA, DEFENSE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: But he made no specific allegations and he was, again, repeating, as I understood it, hearsay, which we've not been able to corroborate.

HOOD: That's correct. QUESTION: Was that the only allegation involving a toilet?

HOOD: Sir, that is the only incident in which any reference to a toilet has been made so far.

QUESTION: General, I'm curious, even if you won't discuss the specific cases of mishandling of the Koran, can you tell us broadly whether any of them were part of a process to intimidate, rattle or work the detainee to make him softer for an interrogation?

HOOD: No, sir. No, sir, I can tell you they were not.

QUESTION: Sir, you said that in the five cases, the four guards and the one interrogator that could broadly be defined as mishandling, it was -- none of them were the result of the failure to follow standard operating procedures.

If they're following standard operating procedures, how could a mishandling occur?

HOOD: What you'll see is that there was a significant period of time at the very beginning of operations at Guantanamo in which there were not written guidelines and SOPs laid out for the specific procedures to handle a Koran.

QUESTION: So each of those occurred before that January '03 document came out?

HOOD: Not all of them. One of them occurred since then and did not violate the policy with regards to the handling of the Koran, but did violate another policy.

QUESTION: As Department of Defense, are you going to present your apologies to the Arab world?

DI RITA: For what?

QUESTION: For the cases.

DI RITA: We're going to -- we've talked about this.

What the general is talking about primarily -- and when we've got something to announce, we will.

But we're talking about, for the most part, inadvertent mishandling. It's very important to understand that. I think...

QUESTION: This mishandling, in the Arab world, is a big story.

DI RITA: We've tried to be very careful, understanding the procedures, and I think that we feel very good about the way in which the policies were established down there to be extremely careful with the handling of the Koran, and we've published those policies. We've made them available to the press.

And when inadvertent mishandling has occurred, steps were taken to ensure that the policies remained appropriate.

And that's the state that we're in right now. So we feel that -- I think it's safe to say that the policies and procedures done there are extraordinarily careful, and they're, as I said, policies that we've released, and people can judge for themselves.

But I think people will see that the atmosphere down there is one of great respect for the practice of faith by detainees.

QUESTION: General, if I could ask, even though you don't want to talk about the specific incidents, I wonder if you could characterize broadly for us the kinds of things we're talking about and whether any of them repeated themselves?

In other words, was there something that happened several times that would suggest a pattern?

HOOD: No, sir. I do not believe so.

In the incidents that I described in which the guard force was properly conducting their duties, there were several of the incidents that were similar.

In those incidents, a touching of the Koran may have been accidental or they may have been performing their duties appropriately. And several of those were similar.

The five in which I indicated there may have been some concern over handling of the Koran -- each of those, I think, was fairly distinctly different.

QUESTION: Were those deliberate mishandlings, in other words -- the five?

HOOD: I want to make -- in three of the cases, very likely.

QUESTION: Can you give us any example just so that we have some idea what...

HOOD: In two of the cases, very likely accidental.

Yes, sir?

QUESTION: Sorry. Can you give us any example, though, of something that might have happened so we can understand a little better what constitutes mishandling?

HOOD: I think it's really fair if we go ahead and complete the investigation first and then we offer that to you. I've gone through these in great detail with a lot of folks. And I think that's probably the best way to handle this.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) the Red Cross last week, when you read the Red Cross records from 2002, we learned last week that they had made a complaint to General Miller. They didn't say what it was. What is it that they had complained about that your investigation found? HOOD: You know those ICRC communications with the United States government are privileged communications. But the ICRC broadly has helped us by bringing to our attention information on how we can run this camp and facility more humanely.

I know that the ICRC, and the ICRC has said this, brought to our attention concerns over handling of the Koran. And when they did, General Miller issued orders and instructions to see that those concerns were addressed. And, frankly, from about January, 2003, to today, when you see the scope of the incidents and the timing of them, you'll see that's largely occurred.

DI RITA: And, again, we've not characterized it, but I think that the ICRC has said multiple -- it's our understanding it's probably two or three instances where the ICRC has raised an issue. And we've gone back to try and make sure we understand it as well as we could. But it's a number on that magnitude.

QUESTION: General, do you feel like there's been irreparable damage now done...

BLITZER: And so there it is. There's Larry Di Rita, the Pentagon's spokesman, and Brigadier General -- U.S. Army Brigadier General Jay Hood, commanding general, Joint Task Force, Guantanamo Bay.

There are several hundred detainees there. Amid allegations that perhaps U.S. authorities flushed a Koran down the toilet there, the general was, categorically -- said there's no credible evidence that any Koran was ever flushed down any toilet. He did say a thorough investigation, continuing, but already parts of it complete. Thirteen incidents of alleged mishandling of the Koran, five of those broadly mishandling of the Koran, the general refusing to describe what he means by "mishandling," saying further investigation is under way.

Once they have all the details, they'll explain, through the chain of command up, from a brigadier general all the way up, up, up to the secretary of defense, what that mishandling of the Koran at the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba entailed.

We'll continue to monitor this briefing, but assurances from the general there and the Pentagon spokesman that, if there were some mishandling of the Koran, it isn't going to happen again. And new instructions have been sent through all the interrogators, all the U.S. military personnel, on the scene.

We'll watch this story, get more information as it becomes available.

We'll take a quick break. When we come back, dire warning: why health experts believe time is running out to prepare for a possible worldwide flu pandemic.

Plus -- is the most wanted man in Iraq dead or alive, and does it really matter? The former acting CIA director John McLaughlin weighs in. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Back now to our top story -- the fate of Iraq's most wanted man Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Is he alive? Is he dead? Has he been put out of action? What's going on?

A little while earlier, I spoke with CNN national security adviser John McLaughlin. He spent 3 decades inside the CIA, including a stint last year as the acting director.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: John McLaughlin, thanks very much for joining us. First of all, what do you know, if anything special, about the fate of Abu Musab al Zarqawi?

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, my reading of things at this point is that no one is absolutely sure that something's happened to him. But there's a sense that something may have because of all of the activity on the Web sites. But I don't think anyone is absolutely sure at this point.

BLITZER: How unusual is this Web site activity?

MCLAUGHLIN: It's somewhat unusual in the sense that, for example, some of the Web sites have called for prayer for Abu Musab al Zarqawi. And prayer is not something that Islamists call for lightly. It's not a typical propaganda tool they use. So that's noteworthy.

It's also interesting to me that by doing the Web site activity, in a way, they win either way. Let's assume he's been wounded. If he survives, then they can point to him as a sort of indefatigable leader. And if he dies, they're setting up the basis for martyrdom, in order to use his death as an inspiration to other extremists.

BLITZER: What would be the practical impact of his death? Or if he's out of commission, if he's seriously injured, as far as the insurgency is concerned?

MCLAUGHLIN: Well, even though it wouldn't end the insurgency -- and we might want to talk about that -- it would certainly be a big event, an important event. Taking Zarqawi out of play would have both short term and long term implications.

Short term, he has been responsible for many of the most severe bombings and, particularly, we think, the suicide bombings in Iraq. Now someone would step in and take his place, but their bench is probably not very deep now considering the number of people who have come out of his organization. But someone would take his place.

The long term implication with someone like Zarqawi is he is unique among these extremist leaders in having a kind of strategic vision that transcends Iraq. He sees a movement throughout the Middle East and sees Iraq connected to it. So it's rare in that movement to find someone with that kind of long range vision. So there's short term and long term implications here.

BLITZER: Some have suggested that it could be a bonanza for the insurgents, that this man would then become a martyr, and he would be used, his death or his injury, as a tool to whip up even more opposition to the U.S. and its coalition partners.

MCLAUGHLIN: Well, there's no question they would try to do that. And it might be effective. At the same time, taking him out would remove -- leadership matters in these organizations -- and taking him out would deal a blow.

I don't think it would end the insurgency. And no one should contemplate it in those terms, because the insurgency has a number of elements. This is one of them, the foreign jihadists who stream into the country and see a future for Iraq as a theocratic state.

But there's also the former Baathists, the regime elements and so forth who ally as convenient with Zarqawi and bring their skills into the mix. And there are then the Iraqi nationalists who may be the strongest element of this insurgency. In a sense, it's internally driven.

BLITZER: I've heard some analysts suggest that from the U.S. perspective, capturing or killing Osama bin Laden would come second to Abu Musab al Zarqawi in the importance. Who's a more important target right now for the United States? Osama bin Laden or Abu Musab al Zarqawi?

MCLAUGHLIN: In symbolic terms -- in symbolic terms, Osama bin Laden would be most important. In day to day practical terms, this guy is kind of the Patton of their world. So he's the field commander in a place they regard as one of the most important battlefields.

BLITZER: If you were still the acting CIA director, who would be a more practical target for you right now?

MCLAUGHLIN: I would probably focus on Zarqawi and people like that, because they're the ones who are out there in the front lines killing Americans.

BLITZER: John McLaughlin, thanks for spending a few moments with us.

MCLAUGHLIN: You bet. Thank you, Wolf.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: A dire warning from the nation's top health officials on Capitol Hill today. They say time is running out to prepare for a global flu pandemic which potentially could kill millions of people. The possible trigger, so-called bird flu now circulating in Asia. CNN medical correspondent Christie Feig is here with us with more -- Christy.

CHRISTY FEIG, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Wolf. You know, we all remember the global flu pandemic in 1918 that killed between 20 million and 40 million people worldwide. Health experts warn things are falling in place for another one. Perhaps not quite so extreme, but by all calculations, very dangerous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MICHAEL FERGUSON, (R) NEW JERSEY: Mr. Chairman, we're staring down the barrel of a loaded gun, and the gun is ready to fire.

FEIG (voice-over): And health officials at the congressional hearing agreed, because they believe the next flu pandemic is inevitable. And it will likely come from the bird flu that is currently spreading in Asia.

That flu is dangerous, because it is a strain that most humans have never been exposed to. So we have no natural immunity, and there is no vaccine.

But now it's showing signs of moving into people. The virus first spread from bird to bird, then some of the people who work with the birds became infected, 53 have died. So far, it has only spread from person to person twice. But if that becomes more frequent, experts say a pandemic could be imminent.

The health officials laid out for a congressional committee what they're doing to prepare treatments and a vaccine. The news wasn't good. A vaccine is in development, but since it has to be matched to the exact strain once it's spreading in the human population, it would take six months after the first cases to complete it.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATL. INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: It isn't as if overnight we're going to be able to get a vaccine for everyone who would need a vaccine.

FEIG: And treatment isn't easy either. There is one drug available now that works against this type of flu, but it needs to be given within 48 hours.

DR. JULIE GERBERDING, CDC: You know, when you start getting the flu, it's hard to distinguish it from any other upper respiratory infection, so most people don't realize they have the flu until it's past the 48 hour window.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEIG: Now, the key to containing a pandemic will be early detection. And that will take cooperation from health officials in countries that might be hit hard economically if they report having cases -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Christy Feig reporting for us. This is very worrisome. Thanks very much for that report.

When we come back, paying for it at the pump: A new poll just into CNN shows how you may be changing your travel plans due to gas prices.

Also, aviation outlook: With passenger levels back up to pre-9/11 numbers, the FAA issuing a gloomy outlook for air travel this summer. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: As millions of Americans prepare to hit the road this holiday weekend, a majority say they're being hit in the wallet by high gas prices. A CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll just released this hour finds 59 percent of those asked say, they're suffering financial hardship because of high prices at the pump. Only 46 percent of those asked say they'll change their summer vacation plans because of higher gas prices; 53 percent say they will not.

The news isn't much better over at the airport. Not because of prices, which are still fairly reasonable, but because of delays. They're back at record levels. CNN's Kathleen Koch is over at Reagan National Airport here in Washington. She has more. Kathleen?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the airline industry knew this day was coming with passenger numbers back at pre-9/11 levels. Well, the delays were bound to come back as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH (voice-over): It's no surprise to veteran air travelers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's frustrating, makes the trip a lot longer. Makes for a long day when you're traveling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of the times when our flight is delayed or canceled, the airlines don't tell you what to do or give you any opportunities on where to go, and so basically you're fending for yourself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it makes you think they don't really care about you as much because everybody's flying for a reason and everybody has somewhere to go. Like in my case, I missed several business meetings.

KOCH: Flight delays across the country are at record levels in some cities, even worse than the summer of 2000 when nationwide delays shattered all previous records.

MARION BLAKEY, FAA ADMINISTRATOR: We're going to have a greater likelihood that delays will get worse before they get better.

KOCH: The Transportation Department reports that delays in the first quarter of 2005 are up 17 percent over last year, affecting more than a quarter of all flights. The length of delays is up as well, to more than 52 minutes. Driving the delays, soaring demand because of declining airfares and more crowded skies because of the expansion of low-cost carriers and a tripling in the use of regional jets.

KEN MEAD, TRANSPORTATION DEPT.: Regional jets, of course, hold fewer people. Back in 2000, 10 percent of your flights were regional jet-based. Now they're 32 percent.

KOCH: Mead predicts a summer jam-packed with delays, saying the most vulnerable airports are Philadelphia, La Guardia, Newark, Washington Dulles, Atlanta, and Ft. Lauderdale. Experts say there's little passengers can do.

DAVID STEMPLER, AIR TRAVELER'S ASSOCIATION: Passengers can try to book on a nonstop flight where you don't risk changing planes someplace, or at least on a flight that, even though it makes a stop, you stay on the same plane. But, other than that, there's not much else you can do.

KOCH: The FAA insists it's doing what it can, improving technology to better use the nation's air space, and spending $4.75 billion over the next three years to build new runways.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH: And two thing, though, that the FAA cannot control, and that is airline policy and the weather, and with a forecast -- a summer forecast for very rough weather, and airlines vowing they will not cancel flights, it's shaping up to be a summer full of headaches and delays for the flying public, Wolf.

BLITZER: Kathleen Koch reporting for us from Reagan National Airport. Kathleen, thanks very much.

The Senate floor, voting has now started whether to end debate on the nomination of John Bolton to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. If they get 60 votes to end debate, there will be a vote. If they don't get 60 votes, then the debate will continue. Democratic senators hoping they won't get 60 votes. Republican senators hoping they will. Once the final tally is in, we'll bring you the vote on this procedural effort to try to cut off debate. We'll let you know what's going on as soon as we know.

We'll take a quick break, though.

First, when we come back, a papal tradition revived at the Vatican. First, though, a look at "This Week in History."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: "This Week in History," the Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrians on May 27th, 1937. Cars started crossing the next day. Four years earlier, against public scrutiny, and environmental dangers, builder Joseph Strauss began its construction. It remains an engineering marvel to this day.

And on May 25th, 1979, it was a dark day when American Airlines flight 191 crashed, killing all 270 on board and two people on the ground. Destined for L.A. from Chicago's O'Hare International, engine problems caused the aircraft to nose dive. It is the most deadly airline crash in U.S. history.

And that is "This Week in History." (END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Let's get a quick look at other news making headlines "Around the World."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Egyptian voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing multiple-candidate presidential elections. President Hosni Mubarak has run unopposed in previous elections. Mubarak's critics remain skeptical, noting the ruling party will retain the right to decide which candidates get on the ballot.

Papal procession, thousands turned out to cheer Pope Benedict XVI during a procession that followed the mass outside St. John's Basilica. The event revived a tradition started by Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, but abandoned in recent years because of John Paul's ill health.

Clinton in India, former President Bill Clinton used a visit to New Delhi to spotlight the growing threat of AIDS in India. The former president's Clinton Foundation has promised to help the Indian government train doctors.

Over the sea, after nearly three years on the job, Chinese construction workers have joined two sides of a new 20-mile-long bridge in the East China Sea. The six-lane bridge connects the coast of Shanghai to a new deep water port on an offshore island.

And that's our look "Around the World."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And this important programming note -- this Sunday, a special "LATE EDITION: Behind the Lines." On this Memorial Day weekend, I'll take you with me to Iraq and the Persian Gulf, to see how U.S. troops are battling the insurgents. During my recent visit to the region, we had unique access to U.S. military commanders. That's a special "LATE EDITION: Behind the Lines." It airs Sunday, 1:00 p.m. Eastern. During the noon hour of "LATE EDITION," I'll speak with Senator John McCain.

Until then, thanks very much for joining us. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right. Kitty Pilgrim, standing by, to fill in for Lou. Kitty?

END

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 May 26, 2005 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS": Happening now, we're standing by for a live briefing over at the Pentagon amidst allegations of Koran abuse at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. We'll go there, live, once it starts.
Also happening, right now, after weeks of passionate debate the United States Senate finally getting ready to decide the fate of John Bolton. Will he be confirmed to become the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations?

Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(voice-over): Abu Musab al Zarqawi's fate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not quite sure if he is still alive or dead.

BLITZER: How much does it matter?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That will not cause al Qaeda in Iraq to cease to function.

BLITZER: Are 40,000 troops enough to protect the capital?

Detainee documents: newly released papers list their complaints.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There were serious credible allegations of a number of types of defilement of the Koran.

BLITZER: The Pentagon fires back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The detainee himself, within the last two weeks, said that didn't happen.

BLITZER: Price tag for peace. President Bush promises the Palestinians money, but it comes with certain expectations.

PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH, UNITED STATES: Combat corruption, reform the Palestinian security services, and your justice system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Thursday, May 26th, 2005. BLITZER: Thanks very much for joining us.

Is Iraq's most-wanted man wounded? Is he perhaps even dead? If he is out of action, who's calling the shots for al Qaeda's operations in Iraq? U.S. officials are carefully considering all the possibilities, including a power struggle among the insurgents. We begin our coverage with our senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, SR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: While some Iraqi officials say they're convinced Abu Musab al Zarqawi was wounded five days ago in a fire fight, Pentagon officials insist there is still no hard evidence to back up the claims.

BRIG. GEN CARTER HAM, U.S. ARMY: I think the best way to categorize it, is that we look at those with great interest.

MCINTYRE: With a $25 million price on his head, there is no one the U.S. wants to capture or kill more than Zarqawi, who's believed to be able to inspire his followers to carry out deadly suicide attacks. But while Zarqawi's death or capture would clearly deal a blow to his al Qaeda network, the Pentagon says it would probably not shut it down.

HAM: We ought not expect that when that happens, that the organization will crumble and will cease to exist. The organization has proven to be somewhat resilient.

MCINTYRE: A chart released by the U.S. military this month claims Zarqawi's network is shrinking, with the roll up of more than 20 trusted lieutenants in recent months. But it remains, in the words of the Pentagon, lethal and dangerous.

In a speech to U.S. soldiers at Ft. Bragg, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Zarqawi is now acting much like Adolf Hitler did during his final days when defeat was clear.

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Reminiscent of Hitler in his bunker, this violent extremist, failing to achieve his military and political objectives, now appears committed to trying to destroy everything and everyone around him. History teaches us that this kind of evil, over time, fails.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: That report from CNN's Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon.

We're standing by for that Pentagon briefing as well, and we'll have more on Abu Musab al Zarqawi ahead this hour, including what his death could mean to the insurgency. I'll speak with the former deputy director of the CIA, John McLaughlin.

President Bush used to give Yasser Arafat the cold shoulder, but he's giving the current Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas a pledge of strong support and what amounts to a checking account. Let's go live to the White House. Our Dana Bash, standing by. Dana?

DANA BASH, CORRESPONDENT, WHITE HOUSE: Well, Wolf, the tone was intentionally upbeat in the Rose Garden today. President Bush, trying to give a boost to the Palestinian leader, so any real pressure for the leader to dismantle Palestinian terrorist groups was saved for private.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): After more than four years in office, President Bush, for the first time, greeted a Palestinian president at the White House and offered $50 million in direct aid to his government.

BUSH: These funds will be used to improve the quality of life of the Palestinians living in Gaza, where poverty and unemployment are very high.

BASH: Direct aid to the Palestinian authority, not channeled through third parties, is a signal of trust Mr. Bush did not have for Yasser Arafat, whom he called corrupt and supportive of terrorism.

Showcasing Mahmoud Abbas is part of a White House effort to boost his stature back home, where his Fatah movement faces increasing political competition from Hamas.

AARON MILLER, FMR. PEACE NEGOTIATOR: It's got to be Abbas and not Hamas that are -- that is essentially delivering goods and services to the Palestinian people.

BASH: Mr. Bush deliberately played down, in public anyway, concerns Abbas is not doing enough to disarm Hamas and other known Palestinian terrorist groups.

BUSH: All who engage in terror are the enemies of a Palestinian state, and must be held to account.

BASH: Bush aides say the leaders spent most of their time discussing Israel's planned August withdrawal from the Gaza strip. Abbas promised to work for a peaceful transition, but wants Mr. Bush's help making clear Israel should yield more territory, especially in the West Bank. Until then, the Palestinian leader says, the key ingredient is missing.

PRES. MAHMOUD ABBAS, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): But democracy is like a coin. It has two sides. On one side, it's democracy. On the other side of the coin is freedom.

BASH: The president reiterated his warning Israel should stop building West Bank settlements and not use a security wall to redraw political lines. But some experts say Mr. Bush still has yet to prove Mid East peace is really a top priority.

MILLER: The administration will have to choose as to whether or not they want to invest in the next year and a half in, not only managing this conflict, but actively trying to resolve it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: The president did announce the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be traveling to Jerusalem and Ramallah ahead of the Gaza pullout in August, and, Wolf, all sides say that is really the priority right now, on the big question of final-status talks, thorny issues, like Jerusalem. Senior administration officials said neither side is prepared for that, and if it happened too early, it could be dangerous.

BLITZER: Dana, we heard the president's public message to Mahmoud Abbas, but what about behind the scenes, in private? What are you hearing from your sources?

BASH: Well, Wolf, senior administration officials said, specifically on the question of whether or not the president was tough on Mahmoud Abbas in terms of encouraging him to work harder to dismantle those terrorist groups -- what a senior official said is that the president is always tougher in private than in public, and pointed out that Abbas did not only meet with President Bush, he also met with the secretary of state and the vice president, where he heard the same message over and over, how key that is to any lasting peace and moving forward.

But, the other open question is whether or not he can do that at this time, and, of course, as you know, Wolf, a general ward is in the region trying very hard to help Abbas prop up his security, and that really is the goal right now.

BLITZER: All right, Dana Bash at the White House. Thanks very much.

There is a swirling storm of allegations and denials about the treatment of U.S. detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval base. That's in Cuba. The latest round involves newly released documents that once again centers around alleged desecration of the Muslim holy book, the Koran. Let's get more on this story. CNN's Brian Todd has been checking into it. Brian?

BRIAN TODD, CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Korans were first handed out at Guantanamo in January of 2002. Since then, it's been at the center of allegations over the treatment of detainees, and once again, we've got both sides presenting completely opposite accounts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): From the cells at Guantanamo, allegations of abuse that simply will not go away and continue to put the U.S. military on the defensive.

NADINE STROSSEN, PRES., ACLU: In the summer of 2002, there were serious credible allegations of a number of types of defilement of the Koran.

TODD: FBI documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union as part of an ongoing lawsuit contained previous undisclosed interviews with Muslim detainees at Guantanamo. Among their charges, from August 2002, quote, "the guards beat the detainees. They flushed the Koran in the toilet."

Since a report in "Newsweek" magazine earlier this month of a Koran being flushed down the toilet, a story that's since been retracted, Pentagon officials have since said they found no corroborating evidence of that charge. On Thursday, they went a step further.

LAWRENCE DI RITA, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: We've gone back to the detainee who allegedly made the allegation, and he has said that's not what -- it didn't happen.

TODD: But there were other complaints about the Koran. From April of 2002, a prisoner says, guards were, quote, "pushing them around and throwing their waste bucket to them in the cell, sometimes with the waste still in the bucket and kicking the Koran." Detainees also say the Koran was withheld as punishment and thrown on the floor.

It boils down to credibility. CNN recently interviewed an attorney for several Kuwaiti prisoners at Guantanamo.

KRISTINE HUSKEY, ATTORNEY FOR DETAINEES: What my clients told me, what they had witnessed, was that the Koran was mishandled and mistreated, and I am not shocked nor surprised.

TODD: Pentagon Spokesman Larry Di Rita says detainees at Guantanamo are organized, communicate well with each other, and know they can stir up trouble with charges of Koran abuse.

Another Pentagon official, familiar with investigations at Guantanamo, tells CNN they've documented incidents where detainees have ripped pages out of the Koran to agitate other prisoners, and one incident where a detainee dropped a Koran on the ground and blamed a guard.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: But U.S. officials are quick to point out much of this is still being investigated, including the possibility that guards may have unintentionally mishandled the Koran. And a charge that Defense Department officials presented themselves as State Department or FBI employees while questioning detainees at Guantanamo -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Brian Todd, thanks very much.

Once again to our viewers, we're standing by for a news conference over at the Pentagon on this specific issue. You're looking live over at the Pentagon. Reporters already gathered in the briefing room. Once the generals emerge to talk about what's happening at Guantanamo Bay, we'll go there live.

Facing deportation, one Afghan woman's fight to stay with her family here in the United States.

Also coming up, the controversial nomination of John Bolton as the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N. The battle could reach a climax within the hour. Concern over the so-called bird flu. Now there are serious warnings from the nation's top health officials of a possible global pandemic. Are we prepared for that?

And high gas prices aren't the only hurdle vacationers will face this summer. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. The battle over President Bush's pick for United Nations ambassador could come to a climax within the hour. Right now the Senate is debating the controversial nomination of John Bolton. Our State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel is covering the story for us. She's joining us now live with the latest -- Andrea.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, since the Bolton nomination made it to the floor of the Senate yesterday, we haven't seen the same kind of drama in terms of the dramatic testimony that we saw earlier during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Nevertheless, it is about to become a nail biter again. And the man that you're looking at right there, Senator Joseph Biden, Democrat of Delaware, is one of the reasons why.

He and Democratic Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut are threatening to block the vote. And what that means is that within the hour Republicans are going to call for a vote to end debate. They need 60 votes to do that. Biden and Dodd are saying, look, the State Department needs to turn over documents on Syria. The NSA needs to turn over ten intercepts that Bolton had requested in recent years. And until we get that, we are not going to support a vote.

So we're going to find out within the hour, Wolf, probably sometime between 6:00 and 6:30, whether Republicans will have the 60 votes necessary to cut off debate on the floor of the Senate and move to a vote on the Bolton nomination, Wolf.

BLITZER: Is there any head counting that's reliable at this stage? Or are we simply, Andrea, going to have to wait and see?

KOPPEL: Well, we've been trying to do it ourselves, Wolf. Just picking up the phone the old fashioned way, calling around to Democrats known to be swing votes, and so far -- again, this is unscientific -- it doesn't look as if the 60 votes are there.

But quite frankly, no one, either Republicans or Democrats for that matter, in the leadership are saying whether or not they have the votes.

BLITZER: All right. Key test coming up for John Bolton. We'll, of course, bring that to our viewers as it happens. Andrea, thank you very much.

The Afghan president Hamid Karzai warned today that insurgents may try to disrupt his country's scheduled September elections by launching attacks and kidnapping people. His remarks were a reminder that Afghanistan is still a very dangerous place.

Despite that, U.S. immigration officials have been trying to send Afghan citizens in the United States back to their homeland. CNN's Deborah Feyerick is joining us now live from New York. She's following this story -- Deb.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf, for women being sent back, it's particularly hard to go home alone to a country where beatings, rapes and kidnappings remain a serious problem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK (voice-over): In Afghanistan, Samira Rahman's life was about fear. Fear the Taliban would knock on her door, fear they'd punish her for breaking Muslim rules by working outside her family home for the national airline.

Seven years ago, the Taliban did knock. Samira wasn't home. Her father and brother were.

(on camera): You never saw your father? You never saw your brother? And you never saw your home again?

(voice-over): Samira doesn't know if they're alive or dead. She fled to America, arriving in New York May 2001. Friends introduced her to an Afghan who had also fled the Taliban.

Abdul Rahman came to the U.S. with nothing. Now he owns a coffee cart and works near Wall Street, blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood.

They married. And months before their first son was born in spring 2002, Samira applied for political asylum. There was just one problem.

PAMELA FALK, SAMIRA RAHMAN'S LAWYER: The Department of Homeland Security thought that everything was all right in Afghanistan. And so she was caught in the middle of an interpretation that did not allow her to be considered an asylee.

FEYERICK: Immigration officials turned down her asylum request, told her she had to go home. The reason, the Taliban, the oppressive government she'd run from, was itself put on the run by the Northern Alliance. Officials said she had nothing to fear.

RUSS KNOCKE, BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION: We have deported, again, many Afghannee nationals over the last few years. And deportations continue to that country.

FEYERICK: Samira didn't leave, hoping in part that, once her husband's green card comes through, she'll be able to stay. She was scared, if she did leave...

SAMIRA RAHMAN, SEEKING ASYLUM (through translator): I have no place to go. I don't have anybody in Afghanistan. Where should I go?

FEYERICK: Then early this January, there was a knock at her Long Island home.

ABDUL RAHMAN, SAMIRA RAHMAN'S HUSBAND: It was Friday. A very sad day. And I was coming home around 2:00. And my kids were very upset, and they were crying too much.

FEYERICK: Agents brought her to a New Jersey detention center holding her with other women waiting to be deported.

S. RAHMAN (through translator): Afghanistan is not safe. My husband and children cannot come to Afghanistan. And my life is also going to be in danger if they send me to Afghanistan.

FEYERICK: Republicans and Democrats went to bat for Samira. Her case was recently reopened. Though immigration officials deny it was because of outside pressure.

Samira Rahman is getting another chance, another shot to make her case and stay with her family in the country where she hopes to spend the rest of her life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: Now her two sons are American citizens, but that doesn't help Samira or her legal standing. She'll head to court in the next two weeks. An immigration judge ready to reconsider whether Afghanistan is perhaps not as safe as U.S. officials originally though -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Deborah Feyerick, very important story for that woman and for a lot of other people. Thanks very much.

And let's head on over to the Pentagon now. That briefing on U.S. treatment of detainees at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba underway. The commander of Join Task Force: Guantanamo, Brigadier General Jay Hood.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

BRIG. GEN. JAY HOOD, COMMANDER, JOINT TASK FORCE, GUANTANAMO BAY: ...answer these questions.

We have reviewed approximately 31,000 documents, both electronic and hard copy.

And what I would like to do now is provide you an interim update to my inquiry in terms of our findings.

First off, I'd like you to know that we have found no credible evidence that a member of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Koran down a toilet.

We did identify 13 incidents of alleged mishandling of the Koran by Joint Task Force personnel. Ten of those were by a guard and three by interrogators.

We found that in only five of those 13 incidents, four by guards and one by an interrogator, there was what could be broadly defined as mishandling of a Koran.

None of these five incidents was a result of a failure to follow standard operating procedures in place at the time the incident occurred.

We have determined that in six additional incidents involving guards, that the guard either accidentally touched a Koran, touched it within the scope of his duties, or did not actually touch the Koran at all. We considered each of these incidents resolved.

In two additional incidents involving interrogators, we found that a Koran was either touched or stood over during an interrogation. The first incident does not appear to be mishandling as it involved placing two Korans on a television.

The Koran was not touched during the second incident, and the interrogator's action during the interrogation was accidental.

We've also identified 15 incidents where detainees mishandled or inappropriately treated the Koran, one of which was, of course, the specific example of a detainee who ripped pages out of their own Koran.

As part of this review, we determined that the guidance to the guard force for handling the Koran is adequate and has essentially remained unchanged since the early days of detention operations -- including the written Koran handling procedures from January, 2003.

We will continue to review the adequacy of our procedures and develop recommendations that will allow us to improve practices and processes outlined in our standard operating procedures -- just as we have from the early days of detention operations at Guantanamo.

We are currently screening other miscellaneous documents for allegations of Koran mishandling that may have credibility. That includes habeas pleadings or accounts filed by habeas litigators and newspaper accounts.

To gain a better appreciation for these incidents, I think it's important to understand a little bit about the population of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

This is not a benign group of people. These are enemy combatants that are detained because they represent a clear threat and danger to the United States and our allies.

These detainees have provided and continue to provide valuable intelligence in the war on terror. The information gathered from detainees at Guantanamo has undoubtedly saved the lives of U.S. and coalition forces abroad. And that information has also thwarted threats posed to innocent civilians at home and abroad.

In closing, I want to assure you that we are committed to respecting the cultural dignity of the Koran and the detainees' practice of faith. Every effort has been made to provide religious articles associated with the Islamic faith, accommodate prayers and religious periods, and provide culturally acceptable meals and practices.

That concludes my prepared remarks. I'll be happy to take any of your questions.

QUESTION: General, could you please describe the incidents of mishandling the Koran? What exactly was done by U.S. personnel to the Koran?

And also, can you say how many people you interviewed as part of the investigation?

HOOD: I'm not going to discuss each of those specific incidents until this investigation is closed, and then I'll provide it through my chain of command.

QUESTION: General Hood, what is your criteria of mishandling the Koran? Is this criteria based on a religious measure or a military measure?

HOOD: A little bit of both, sir. First off, mishandling is any time that one of the established procedures for handling the Koran is violated. But those procedures were developed and are based on religious sensitivities associated with the holy book.

QUESTION: OK. And what are the procedures that you are going to take against those guards and interrogators who mishandled the Koran?

HOOD: I'm not going to discuss each of those incidents or any actions that may have been taken or may be taken until we've completed the report.

QUESTION: You mentioned off the top that you found no credible evidence that anyone flushed a Koran down a toilet.

HOOD: Yes, sir.

QUESTION: I'm not sure whether there were any flushed toilets there in the beginning, but setting aside the word "flushed," were any incidents involving Korans that were placed in waste buckets or devices that were used for handling waste?

HOOD: Yes, sir. None of those that we found were.

Now, I think it's important to know that in a ACLU FOIA request, a summary of an investigation or a summary of an interrogation conducted by FBI personnel at Guantanamo Bay in July of 2002 indicated that a detainee had reported to the interrogating agent that the guards in the detention facility did not treat him well, that their behavior was bad, that about five months ago, this guard beat detainees, and that they flushed a Koran in the toilet.

That FBI report from the first of August, 2002, came to my investigating team's attention within 24 to 48 hours of me initiating the investigation.

And they brought that to me, and because we considered this a very sensitive report, we brought this detainee in and spoke with him.

This detainee was very cooperative with us, and we discussed with him broadly his treatment in his early days at Guantanamo Bay. And we asked him, was he beaten or abused, explaining that we were interested in making sure that we are doing things right.

We had a very good conversation with him where he said, no, that he wasn't beaten or abused, but that he had heard rumors that other detainees were. We then proceeded to ask him about any incidents where he had seen the Koran defiled, desecrated or mishandled, and he allowed as how he hadn't but he heard that guards at some other point and time had done this.

He went on to describe to his interrogator that, that was the problem that was only in the old camp -- I believe he meant referring to Camp X-Ray -- that the guards and the detainees well understand the procedures that are used for us to look at a Koran today.

QUESTION: So he is saying he wasn't an eyewitness to any incident like that where a Koran had been mishandled?

HOOD: That is correct.

QUESTION: He heard that it happened to other people.

Did you ask him whether he had stated that in that particular interview, the first interview to the FBI?

HOOD: No, sir, we didn't.

QUESTION: Why not?

HOOD: We did not go back to speak to a detainee who is going to return to this population about a specific incident or interview with law enforcement officials.

QUESTION: What did you mean when you said that was a problem in the old camp?

HOOD: The detainee was explaining to us that his problems with the Koran that he was familiar with came from Camp X-Ray. In other words, he had arrived to Guantanamo in late January, very early February of 2002, in one of the first few lifts of detainees to Guantanamo.

So his initial three or four months had to have been spent in Camp X-Ray.

LAWRENCE DI RITA, DEFENSE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: But he made no specific allegations and he was, again, repeating, as I understood it, hearsay, which we've not been able to corroborate.

HOOD: That's correct. QUESTION: Was that the only allegation involving a toilet?

HOOD: Sir, that is the only incident in which any reference to a toilet has been made so far.

QUESTION: General, I'm curious, even if you won't discuss the specific cases of mishandling of the Koran, can you tell us broadly whether any of them were part of a process to intimidate, rattle or work the detainee to make him softer for an interrogation?

HOOD: No, sir. No, sir, I can tell you they were not.

QUESTION: Sir, you said that in the five cases, the four guards and the one interrogator that could broadly be defined as mishandling, it was -- none of them were the result of the failure to follow standard operating procedures.

If they're following standard operating procedures, how could a mishandling occur?

HOOD: What you'll see is that there was a significant period of time at the very beginning of operations at Guantanamo in which there were not written guidelines and SOPs laid out for the specific procedures to handle a Koran.

QUESTION: So each of those occurred before that January '03 document came out?

HOOD: Not all of them. One of them occurred since then and did not violate the policy with regards to the handling of the Koran, but did violate another policy.

QUESTION: As Department of Defense, are you going to present your apologies to the Arab world?

DI RITA: For what?

QUESTION: For the cases.

DI RITA: We're going to -- we've talked about this.

What the general is talking about primarily -- and when we've got something to announce, we will.

But we're talking about, for the most part, inadvertent mishandling. It's very important to understand that. I think...

QUESTION: This mishandling, in the Arab world, is a big story.

DI RITA: We've tried to be very careful, understanding the procedures, and I think that we feel very good about the way in which the policies were established down there to be extremely careful with the handling of the Koran, and we've published those policies. We've made them available to the press.

And when inadvertent mishandling has occurred, steps were taken to ensure that the policies remained appropriate.

And that's the state that we're in right now. So we feel that -- I think it's safe to say that the policies and procedures done there are extraordinarily careful, and they're, as I said, policies that we've released, and people can judge for themselves.

But I think people will see that the atmosphere down there is one of great respect for the practice of faith by detainees.

QUESTION: General, if I could ask, even though you don't want to talk about the specific incidents, I wonder if you could characterize broadly for us the kinds of things we're talking about and whether any of them repeated themselves?

In other words, was there something that happened several times that would suggest a pattern?

HOOD: No, sir. I do not believe so.

In the incidents that I described in which the guard force was properly conducting their duties, there were several of the incidents that were similar.

In those incidents, a touching of the Koran may have been accidental or they may have been performing their duties appropriately. And several of those were similar.

The five in which I indicated there may have been some concern over handling of the Koran -- each of those, I think, was fairly distinctly different.

QUESTION: Were those deliberate mishandlings, in other words -- the five?

HOOD: I want to make -- in three of the cases, very likely.

QUESTION: Can you give us any example just so that we have some idea what...

HOOD: In two of the cases, very likely accidental.

Yes, sir?

QUESTION: Sorry. Can you give us any example, though, of something that might have happened so we can understand a little better what constitutes mishandling?

HOOD: I think it's really fair if we go ahead and complete the investigation first and then we offer that to you. I've gone through these in great detail with a lot of folks. And I think that's probably the best way to handle this.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) the Red Cross last week, when you read the Red Cross records from 2002, we learned last week that they had made a complaint to General Miller. They didn't say what it was. What is it that they had complained about that your investigation found? HOOD: You know those ICRC communications with the United States government are privileged communications. But the ICRC broadly has helped us by bringing to our attention information on how we can run this camp and facility more humanely.

I know that the ICRC, and the ICRC has said this, brought to our attention concerns over handling of the Koran. And when they did, General Miller issued orders and instructions to see that those concerns were addressed. And, frankly, from about January, 2003, to today, when you see the scope of the incidents and the timing of them, you'll see that's largely occurred.

DI RITA: And, again, we've not characterized it, but I think that the ICRC has said multiple -- it's our understanding it's probably two or three instances where the ICRC has raised an issue. And we've gone back to try and make sure we understand it as well as we could. But it's a number on that magnitude.

QUESTION: General, do you feel like there's been irreparable damage now done...

BLITZER: And so there it is. There's Larry Di Rita, the Pentagon's spokesman, and Brigadier General -- U.S. Army Brigadier General Jay Hood, commanding general, Joint Task Force, Guantanamo Bay.

There are several hundred detainees there. Amid allegations that perhaps U.S. authorities flushed a Koran down the toilet there, the general was, categorically -- said there's no credible evidence that any Koran was ever flushed down any toilet. He did say a thorough investigation, continuing, but already parts of it complete. Thirteen incidents of alleged mishandling of the Koran, five of those broadly mishandling of the Koran, the general refusing to describe what he means by "mishandling," saying further investigation is under way.

Once they have all the details, they'll explain, through the chain of command up, from a brigadier general all the way up, up, up to the secretary of defense, what that mishandling of the Koran at the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba entailed.

We'll continue to monitor this briefing, but assurances from the general there and the Pentagon spokesman that, if there were some mishandling of the Koran, it isn't going to happen again. And new instructions have been sent through all the interrogators, all the U.S. military personnel, on the scene.

We'll watch this story, get more information as it becomes available.

We'll take a quick break. When we come back, dire warning: why health experts believe time is running out to prepare for a possible worldwide flu pandemic.

Plus -- is the most wanted man in Iraq dead or alive, and does it really matter? The former acting CIA director John McLaughlin weighs in. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Back now to our top story -- the fate of Iraq's most wanted man Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Is he alive? Is he dead? Has he been put out of action? What's going on?

A little while earlier, I spoke with CNN national security adviser John McLaughlin. He spent 3 decades inside the CIA, including a stint last year as the acting director.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: John McLaughlin, thanks very much for joining us. First of all, what do you know, if anything special, about the fate of Abu Musab al Zarqawi?

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, my reading of things at this point is that no one is absolutely sure that something's happened to him. But there's a sense that something may have because of all of the activity on the Web sites. But I don't think anyone is absolutely sure at this point.

BLITZER: How unusual is this Web site activity?

MCLAUGHLIN: It's somewhat unusual in the sense that, for example, some of the Web sites have called for prayer for Abu Musab al Zarqawi. And prayer is not something that Islamists call for lightly. It's not a typical propaganda tool they use. So that's noteworthy.

It's also interesting to me that by doing the Web site activity, in a way, they win either way. Let's assume he's been wounded. If he survives, then they can point to him as a sort of indefatigable leader. And if he dies, they're setting up the basis for martyrdom, in order to use his death as an inspiration to other extremists.

BLITZER: What would be the practical impact of his death? Or if he's out of commission, if he's seriously injured, as far as the insurgency is concerned?

MCLAUGHLIN: Well, even though it wouldn't end the insurgency -- and we might want to talk about that -- it would certainly be a big event, an important event. Taking Zarqawi out of play would have both short term and long term implications.

Short term, he has been responsible for many of the most severe bombings and, particularly, we think, the suicide bombings in Iraq. Now someone would step in and take his place, but their bench is probably not very deep now considering the number of people who have come out of his organization. But someone would take his place.

The long term implication with someone like Zarqawi is he is unique among these extremist leaders in having a kind of strategic vision that transcends Iraq. He sees a movement throughout the Middle East and sees Iraq connected to it. So it's rare in that movement to find someone with that kind of long range vision. So there's short term and long term implications here.

BLITZER: Some have suggested that it could be a bonanza for the insurgents, that this man would then become a martyr, and he would be used, his death or his injury, as a tool to whip up even more opposition to the U.S. and its coalition partners.

MCLAUGHLIN: Well, there's no question they would try to do that. And it might be effective. At the same time, taking him out would remove -- leadership matters in these organizations -- and taking him out would deal a blow.

I don't think it would end the insurgency. And no one should contemplate it in those terms, because the insurgency has a number of elements. This is one of them, the foreign jihadists who stream into the country and see a future for Iraq as a theocratic state.

But there's also the former Baathists, the regime elements and so forth who ally as convenient with Zarqawi and bring their skills into the mix. And there are then the Iraqi nationalists who may be the strongest element of this insurgency. In a sense, it's internally driven.

BLITZER: I've heard some analysts suggest that from the U.S. perspective, capturing or killing Osama bin Laden would come second to Abu Musab al Zarqawi in the importance. Who's a more important target right now for the United States? Osama bin Laden or Abu Musab al Zarqawi?

MCLAUGHLIN: In symbolic terms -- in symbolic terms, Osama bin Laden would be most important. In day to day practical terms, this guy is kind of the Patton of their world. So he's the field commander in a place they regard as one of the most important battlefields.

BLITZER: If you were still the acting CIA director, who would be a more practical target for you right now?

MCLAUGHLIN: I would probably focus on Zarqawi and people like that, because they're the ones who are out there in the front lines killing Americans.

BLITZER: John McLaughlin, thanks for spending a few moments with us.

MCLAUGHLIN: You bet. Thank you, Wolf.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: A dire warning from the nation's top health officials on Capitol Hill today. They say time is running out to prepare for a global flu pandemic which potentially could kill millions of people. The possible trigger, so-called bird flu now circulating in Asia. CNN medical correspondent Christie Feig is here with us with more -- Christy.

CHRISTY FEIG, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Wolf. You know, we all remember the global flu pandemic in 1918 that killed between 20 million and 40 million people worldwide. Health experts warn things are falling in place for another one. Perhaps not quite so extreme, but by all calculations, very dangerous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MICHAEL FERGUSON, (R) NEW JERSEY: Mr. Chairman, we're staring down the barrel of a loaded gun, and the gun is ready to fire.

FEIG (voice-over): And health officials at the congressional hearing agreed, because they believe the next flu pandemic is inevitable. And it will likely come from the bird flu that is currently spreading in Asia.

That flu is dangerous, because it is a strain that most humans have never been exposed to. So we have no natural immunity, and there is no vaccine.

But now it's showing signs of moving into people. The virus first spread from bird to bird, then some of the people who work with the birds became infected, 53 have died. So far, it has only spread from person to person twice. But if that becomes more frequent, experts say a pandemic could be imminent.

The health officials laid out for a congressional committee what they're doing to prepare treatments and a vaccine. The news wasn't good. A vaccine is in development, but since it has to be matched to the exact strain once it's spreading in the human population, it would take six months after the first cases to complete it.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATL. INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: It isn't as if overnight we're going to be able to get a vaccine for everyone who would need a vaccine.

FEIG: And treatment isn't easy either. There is one drug available now that works against this type of flu, but it needs to be given within 48 hours.

DR. JULIE GERBERDING, CDC: You know, when you start getting the flu, it's hard to distinguish it from any other upper respiratory infection, so most people don't realize they have the flu until it's past the 48 hour window.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEIG: Now, the key to containing a pandemic will be early detection. And that will take cooperation from health officials in countries that might be hit hard economically if they report having cases -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Christy Feig reporting for us. This is very worrisome. Thanks very much for that report.

When we come back, paying for it at the pump: A new poll just into CNN shows how you may be changing your travel plans due to gas prices.

Also, aviation outlook: With passenger levels back up to pre-9/11 numbers, the FAA issuing a gloomy outlook for air travel this summer. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: As millions of Americans prepare to hit the road this holiday weekend, a majority say they're being hit in the wallet by high gas prices. A CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll just released this hour finds 59 percent of those asked say, they're suffering financial hardship because of high prices at the pump. Only 46 percent of those asked say they'll change their summer vacation plans because of higher gas prices; 53 percent say they will not.

The news isn't much better over at the airport. Not because of prices, which are still fairly reasonable, but because of delays. They're back at record levels. CNN's Kathleen Koch is over at Reagan National Airport here in Washington. She has more. Kathleen?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the airline industry knew this day was coming with passenger numbers back at pre-9/11 levels. Well, the delays were bound to come back as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH (voice-over): It's no surprise to veteran air travelers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's frustrating, makes the trip a lot longer. Makes for a long day when you're traveling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of the times when our flight is delayed or canceled, the airlines don't tell you what to do or give you any opportunities on where to go, and so basically you're fending for yourself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it makes you think they don't really care about you as much because everybody's flying for a reason and everybody has somewhere to go. Like in my case, I missed several business meetings.

KOCH: Flight delays across the country are at record levels in some cities, even worse than the summer of 2000 when nationwide delays shattered all previous records.

MARION BLAKEY, FAA ADMINISTRATOR: We're going to have a greater likelihood that delays will get worse before they get better.

KOCH: The Transportation Department reports that delays in the first quarter of 2005 are up 17 percent over last year, affecting more than a quarter of all flights. The length of delays is up as well, to more than 52 minutes. Driving the delays, soaring demand because of declining airfares and more crowded skies because of the expansion of low-cost carriers and a tripling in the use of regional jets.

KEN MEAD, TRANSPORTATION DEPT.: Regional jets, of course, hold fewer people. Back in 2000, 10 percent of your flights were regional jet-based. Now they're 32 percent.

KOCH: Mead predicts a summer jam-packed with delays, saying the most vulnerable airports are Philadelphia, La Guardia, Newark, Washington Dulles, Atlanta, and Ft. Lauderdale. Experts say there's little passengers can do.

DAVID STEMPLER, AIR TRAVELER'S ASSOCIATION: Passengers can try to book on a nonstop flight where you don't risk changing planes someplace, or at least on a flight that, even though it makes a stop, you stay on the same plane. But, other than that, there's not much else you can do.

KOCH: The FAA insists it's doing what it can, improving technology to better use the nation's air space, and spending $4.75 billion over the next three years to build new runways.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH: And two thing, though, that the FAA cannot control, and that is airline policy and the weather, and with a forecast -- a summer forecast for very rough weather, and airlines vowing they will not cancel flights, it's shaping up to be a summer full of headaches and delays for the flying public, Wolf.

BLITZER: Kathleen Koch reporting for us from Reagan National Airport. Kathleen, thanks very much.

The Senate floor, voting has now started whether to end debate on the nomination of John Bolton to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. If they get 60 votes to end debate, there will be a vote. If they don't get 60 votes, then the debate will continue. Democratic senators hoping they won't get 60 votes. Republican senators hoping they will. Once the final tally is in, we'll bring you the vote on this procedural effort to try to cut off debate. We'll let you know what's going on as soon as we know.

We'll take a quick break, though.

First, when we come back, a papal tradition revived at the Vatican. First, though, a look at "This Week in History."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: "This Week in History," the Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrians on May 27th, 1937. Cars started crossing the next day. Four years earlier, against public scrutiny, and environmental dangers, builder Joseph Strauss began its construction. It remains an engineering marvel to this day.

And on May 25th, 1979, it was a dark day when American Airlines flight 191 crashed, killing all 270 on board and two people on the ground. Destined for L.A. from Chicago's O'Hare International, engine problems caused the aircraft to nose dive. It is the most deadly airline crash in U.S. history.

And that is "This Week in History." (END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Let's get a quick look at other news making headlines "Around the World."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Egyptian voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing multiple-candidate presidential elections. President Hosni Mubarak has run unopposed in previous elections. Mubarak's critics remain skeptical, noting the ruling party will retain the right to decide which candidates get on the ballot.

Papal procession, thousands turned out to cheer Pope Benedict XVI during a procession that followed the mass outside St. John's Basilica. The event revived a tradition started by Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, but abandoned in recent years because of John Paul's ill health.

Clinton in India, former President Bill Clinton used a visit to New Delhi to spotlight the growing threat of AIDS in India. The former president's Clinton Foundation has promised to help the Indian government train doctors.

Over the sea, after nearly three years on the job, Chinese construction workers have joined two sides of a new 20-mile-long bridge in the East China Sea. The six-lane bridge connects the coast of Shanghai to a new deep water port on an offshore island.

And that's our look "Around the World."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And this important programming note -- this Sunday, a special "LATE EDITION: Behind the Lines." On this Memorial Day weekend, I'll take you with me to Iraq and the Persian Gulf, to see how U.S. troops are battling the insurgents. During my recent visit to the region, we had unique access to U.S. military commanders. That's a special "LATE EDITION: Behind the Lines." It airs Sunday, 1:00 p.m. Eastern. During the noon hour of "LATE EDITION," I'll speak with Senator John McCain.

Until then, thanks very much for joining us. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right. Kitty Pilgrim, standing by, to fill in for Lou. Kitty?

END

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