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Your World Today

Israeli Prime Minister to Resign Over Handling of War; Turkish Prime Minister Calls for Early Elections; Arizona Woman Brings Nightly Saga on Border to Film World

Aired May 02, 2007 - 12:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TZIPI LIVNI, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Resignation was the right thing as far as he is concerned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Leadership crisis in Israel. The foreign minister joins the chorus of calls asking Prime Minister Olmert to step down.

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A nation at a crossroads. A standoff between the Islamist-rooted government and the secular brings hundreds of thousands out on the streets, while the military waits, poised to act to preserve the country's secular roots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just making a record of life and death on the border.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: A filmmaker capturing the raw truth about illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexican border.

CHURCH: And a sting operation on television. A beauty queen helps net Internet child predators, but why is she in hot water?

It's 7:00 p.m. in Jerusalem, 7:00 p.m. in Ankara, Turkey, as well.

Hello and welcome to our report broadcast all around the globe.

I'm Rosemary Church.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy.

From Phoenix, Arizona, to New York, wherever you are watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

Well, the clock is ticking for Ehud Olmert.

CLANCY: And you can tell the pressure is mounting for his resignation, and there's already a lot of speculation, some obvious moves by people posturing to be his replacement.

CHURCH: That's right. Mr. Olmert convened his cabinet in emergency session amid calls for him to step down. Public opinion of him is near or at zero, and his foreign minister met to discuss his status. She promptly joined the chorus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIVNI (through translator): In my meeting with the prime minister, I expressed my opinion that resignation was the right thing as far as he is concerned. I know that there have been rumors that I have been or am working, taking place to out the prime minister. That is not at all true. I haven't and I'm not taking steps to oust the prime minister.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Now, watching all of this develop is our own Atika Shubert. She's live with us from Jerusalem with more on the gathering political storm.

And while Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister, is pointing a finger at Ehud Olmert, it seems, if I remember correctly, that she was standing alongside him, supporting everything in the Lebanon war, which is why he is in hot water.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. She was supporting him, although, she did, as she pointed out in a press statement earlier, have some differences of opinion with him as the war went on. She felt that certain goals were not able to be achieved.

And it's interesting to note that in this report, she is one of the few officials that has come out unscathed. In fact, most of the blame has been put primarily on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Now, in that statement that she made, she said that she wants him to resign, but that she does intend to remain a part of his government, and this is not any effort to oust him. But at the same time, it is important to note that Tzipi Livni is one of the top contenders to replace Olmert as prime minister if he does resign. So there's a lot of political intrigue going on there.

CLANCY: Well, you know, she said, flat out, "I'm not trying to oust him," but she called a press conference and said he should resign. I mean, obviously, a lot of people are looking at all the politicians in that cabinet and wondering just how many of them should stay.

SHUBERT: Well, that's the big question. And one of the top names for -- that people want to see resign is defense minister Amir Peretz. He was very harshly criticized in the report.

But again, Tzipi Livni remains one of the most popular politicians, particularly in Olmert's Kadima Party. And it does seem from her statement that even though she says this is not a power grab, she is clearly positioning herself to become a possible candidate to become the next prime minister.

CLANCY: You know, a final question, and that is, what it really means for the rest of the world. Now, Israel changes governments quite afternoon. And it's not anything new. The people there know that they've got plenty of politicians that can come in from the wings.

At the same time, the peace process for the Palestinians, once again going to be a victim here?

SHUBERT: It certainly will be a victim. The fact is, that without a government in place, a strong government in place in Israel, it's very hard to see how the peace process could move forward.

Both Israel and the Palestinian side need to have their houses in order to go ahead and push ahead with those peace negotiations. This has been one of the stumbling blocks why the peace process has stalled so far. So it will be interesting to see over the next few months whether or not Olmert does resign, who will be there to replace him, and whether or not they will be strong enough to push the peace process forward.

CLANCY: Atika Shubert reporting live from Jerusalem.

Atika, as always, thank you.

CHURCH: All right. Moving now to a country deeply divided over the role of Islam in government, where the stakes are high in a standoff that could lead to a leadership reshuffle.

CLANCY: Turkey's prime minister now calling for early parliamentary elections, taking a gamble that could strengthen his Islamic-rooted party or could strengthen his secular opponents.

CHURCH: It could. Tayyip Erdogan says the move is necessary after the nation's highest court "fired a bullet at democracy". It threw out parliament's vote for president, siding with opposition parties who said there was not a quorum. The only candidate on the ballot was a close ally of Mr. Erdogan, foreign minister Abdullah Gul.

CLANCY: Prime Minister Erdogan appealing now for unity amid this crisis. He says this: "To interpret Turkey as if it is divided into two camps is murder. Even if our views and lifestyles are different, we are one nation and one Turkey."

It may be one Turkey, but the prospect of Gul as president led to massive street protests, sent the stock market tumbling, even fueled threats of intervention by the military.

Paula Hancocks is in Ankara right now to help explain why so many people are opposed to his candidacy and what would happen next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just one day after the ruling AK Party was trying to push through its presidential candidate in elections, they are now talking about parliamentary elections, showing just how quickly things can change in Turkish politics. Opposition parties and the military blocked Abdullah Gul, the presidential candidate for the Islamist-rooted party, and now people will decide.

This is what the prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, is saying. He wants general elections as early as the 24th of June, less than two months away. And in the parliament this Wednesday morning, there was talk saying there were no legal wrangles to be had, and so it looks like that will be the date. And so, at this point, it looks as though the parliamentary campaigning is unofficially on.

Now, the problem was, hundreds of thousands of protesters were taking to the streets of Istanbul and Ankara, saying they did not want an Islamist-rooted president, they did not want the Islamist roots to have control of the presidency, the government, and the parliament. The secularists want to make sure that this Turkish state does remain secular.

Now, Prime Minister Erdogan has really done the only thing he could have done, calling these early elections. He says from now on he wants the people to pick the president, in the hope that many people will side with him and vote for him in those elections.

Now, he's also had a few words to say for the European Union. Turkey is in negotiations with the EU to join as a member, and obviously the EU is very worried to see that still in Turkey, the military has significant power over the political situation.

Last Friday, the military said that if this presidential election went ahead, then they would have to intervene to keep the state secular. And also, Erdogan is hoping that the markets that have been very jittery over the past few days will start to stabilize when they realize it will now be the people of Turkey that decide on the future of Turkey, rather than the AKP Party itself.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Ankara, Turkey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Now, right now, the debate in Turkey is about its political leaders and its institutions, but no one in Turkey ever ignores the army, and for good reason.

Jonathan Mann joins us now with some "Insight" -- Jon.

JONATHAN MANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: the Turkish army is the largest armed force in Europe, and more than a million men. It's second in NATO only to the United States. But the thing is, Turkey's army likes to take charge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OMER TASPINAR, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: The military is the most trusted institution one may say, unfortunately, by the Turkish people. It is not corrupt. It has a reputation for honesty, and their intervention to Turkish politics have been always short-term interventions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: Right now, it's a tug-of-war in Turkey. Pulling one way, Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister. His party and his government are the most powerful Islamist institutions in the country. Pulling the other way, Yasar Buyukanit, army chief of staff.

The army is the most powerful and passionately secular force in the country. And Turks know that when push comes to shove, the army does the pushing, and the governments get the shove.

The military mounted four coups in four decades.

In 1960, to start with, civilian political tensions threatened to erupt into large-scale violence. The military toppled the government and put its leaders on trial. The prime minister, the foreign minister and the finance minister were actually hanged.

In 1971, when civilians governed the country into another period of political violence and economic chaos, the generals pushed out the prime minister, not this time with a classic armed coup, but with a simple statement demanding just that the government go.

In 1980, responding to more political and economic upheaval, they did it old school. A general sent tanks into the streets, made himself president, and imposed martial law.

In 1997 -- and this might be the most important example of all -- the army forced out the country's first Islamist prime minister. Once again, not a coup in the classic sense. The military didn't take over. It just made a public set of recommendations that led to the government's fall.

Could it happen again? Well, Friday, the armed forces, as we've been reporting, posted a statement on its home page that referred vaguely to the controversy over the presidency, and then made a threat that wasn't vague at all.

Here is what they said. "The Turkish armed forces are a side in this debate" -- they're not staying neutral -- "and are staunch defenders of secularism."

The military statement continued on to say, "The Turkish armed forces will display its position and attitudes when it becomes necessary."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TASPINAR: This one has to be taken seriously, and a lot of people already are talking about the fifth military intervention in Turkish political history. The difference of this one is that it was on their Web site. We didn't have generals on TV screens, on TV channels making the declaration. Yet, it was a very clear warning to the government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: Turks would be stunned to see the army in the streets this time. It has pulled back from politics in recent years, in part under international pressure, especially from the EU. And domestically, too, the politics are against it. The Islamist government has enormous support, and the army wouldn't be welcomed by its voters.

Does that mean it couldn't happen? Well, we'll have to wait and see.

Back to you.

CLANCY: All right. Jonathan Mann, thank you very much for that.

Well, coming up, we're going to take a short break here on YOUR WORLD TODAY. And coming up, the question, is he alive or dead? The world awaiting word on al Qaeda's number one man in Iraq, Abu al- Masri.

And even if he has been killed, will it end the al Qaeda violence in the country? We'll have a report from Iraq coming up later.

Also, border issues. A U.S. filmmaker asks the question on the minds of many Americans: Why hasn't more been done to resolve the problem of illegal immigration?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Welcome back.

Immigration in the spotlight again in the United States. Tuesday, cities across the country saw tens of thousands rally in favor of immigration reform. Turnout was lighter than at last year's marches. Organizers say fear about raids and frustration that the marches have had no impact on Congress may have prompted many people to stay at home.

CHURCH: Well, illegal immigration is the major concern for most Americans, especially those living near the Mexican border.

CLANCY: That's right. The illegal border crossings and the government's efforts to stop them are causing some major disruptions for many communities.

CHURCH: They are. One Arizona woman at first was shocked by the nightly mayhem. But now she has found a way to show the turmoil and the tragedy to the rest of the world.

CLANCY: Ted Rowlands has her story for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Three years ago, 64-year-old retired schoolteacher Mercedes Maharis moved to Cochise County, Arizona, with her husband.

MERCEDES MAHARIS, LIVES NEAR U.S.-MEXICAN BORDER: We came here to spend the last years of our lives, hopefully in peace.

ROWLANDS: Mercedes says this is her dream home. It's quiet, safe and peaceful here. At least that's what she thought, until one night, shortly after they moved in.

MAHARIS: I actually thought I was going to have a heart attack that night.

This terrible, giant helicopter was just coming right up our drive, hovered right here, and was flashing lights around.

ROWLANDS: This is home video from that night.

MAHARIS: I ran back in, got my camera, came out, and I was in my nightgown. And I just started shooting.

ROWLANDS: Mercedes says about a dozen people were rounded up by the Border Patrol, and she got it all on tape.

MAHARIS: I didn't think anybody would believe it unless they could see it.

ROWLANDS (on camera): This trail is how the people that Mercedes filmed that night got across the border. The border is just over this mountainside about two miles away.

Mercedes, that night, thought she was filming something special, but she would later find out that what she saw that night was actually an almost everyday occurrence.

(voice over): Mercedes decided to use her video camera to document was what happening not only to her, but to other residents in Cochise County. So she started interviewing people.

MAHARIS: I talked to ranchers, activists, pacifists, Border Patrol.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would say it's about as close as about 98 percent that are Mexican nationals.

ROWLANDS: Mercedes also gathered photos and video from the sheriff and Border Patrol.

MAHARIS: I wasn't going to make a huge production of it. I was just making a record of life and death on the border.

ROWLANDS: Now she's using her video to make documentaries. Her first, called "Cochise County USA," sold more than 20,000 copies in its first month, according to the publicist.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are here illegally, and something's got to be done.

ROWLANDS: The documentary is a compilation of interviews, video and photos she's collected. Mercedes even helped write the original music. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (SINGING): We're under siege in Cochise County. There's an invasion. So keep your promise, Uncle Sam

ROWLANDS: And Mercedes set out to document the negative effects illegal immigration is having on her and her neighbors.

MAHARIS: Where are you from?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Acapulco, Guerrero.

ROWLANDS: But she's also been touched by those people she's met who risked their lives to get here.

MAHARIS: OK. And you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, our motive for being here is the objective for finding work.

MAHARIS: To me, it's very dehumanizing, you know, to have to go to the bathroom in the desert, and to not have enough water, you know. And ultimately, to give your life because you have the hope that you might send some money back home.

ROWLANDS: She ends her documentary singing a song in Spanish with some very graphic photos showing people who died trying to cross the border.

MAHARIS: I just have a really difficult time understanding how it's gotten to this point.

ROWLANDS: Mercedes says she doesn't have an answer to the problem, but thinks it's something that can and should be fixed.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Cochise County, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: And there is a firsthand look at how people in the United States are getting so involved in immigration, immigration issues. It is a hot topic, because people like her, you know, it effects them deeply. And they understand both sides of the story.

CHURCH: She can pool all the many faces of it. And it's good that she's got both sides in that.

CLANCY: All right. We're going to move along here and take a short break. When we come back, wondering if the winning streak continues for U.S. stocks. Business new ahead.

CHURCH: Also coming up, the White House and Congress are expected to hammer out a compromise bill on war funding. But what if they can't?

CLANCY: Also, she's a U.S. folk singer, she's known all around the world for her anti-war views. Why was Joan Baez taken off a list of performers for wounded Iraqi war veterans? (NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back to our viewers joining us from more than 200 countries and territories all around the globe, including the United States.

CLANCY: This is YOUR WORLD TODAY, on CNN International. I'm Jim Clancy.

CHURCH: And I'm Rosemary Church.

Here are some of the top stories we've been following. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is trying to stave off an onslaught of calls for his resignation for the failed war with Hezbollah. Foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, is the latest to call for Mr. Olmert to step down. She's seen as a possible replacement.

CLANCY: The Turkish prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan says a court's decision to annul a disputed presidential vote in parliament is in his words, "a bullet fired at democracy." He's now calling for early parliamentary elections to resolve a standoff between his party and the secular opposition. Secularists fear the ruling party is trying to move Turkey in the direction of Islamic rule.

CHURCH: French voters will have one opportunity to see the two presidential candidates face to face before Sunday's second round of voting. Conservative frontrunner Nicolas Sarkozy and Social Segolene Royal are set to debate each other on national television in less than three hours from now. Sarkozy came out ahead in the first round of voting.

CLANCY: All right, we want to return now to the leadership crisis in Israel. We've asked David Horovitz, who's Editor in Chief of the "Jerusalem Post," to join us.

It was kind of surprising, you know, when we looked on our TV screens and we saw the foreign minister standing up and saying this, about her prime minister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TZIPI LIVNI, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): I know that there have been rumors that I have been, or am working, taking steps to oust the prime minister. That is not at all true. I haven't, and am not taking steps to oust the prime minister. This is a decision he has to take.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CLANCY: David, you know, when you see her on television, making a comment like that, I mean, what is she trying to do, if not getting him to step down?

DAVID HOROVITZ, EDITOR IN CHIEF, JERUSALEM POST: Well, it's ironic isn't it, you'd think that if the foreign minister tells the country that she's told the prime minister he ought to step down, that would weaken him. Actually, it's probably having the reverse effect.

Because she has said yes, I told him to step down, but he's not going to, and I'm going to carry on working in his government, she has essentially defanged the rebellion against him, within their Cadina (ph) party. Because she's, you know, she's put herself in a very disconnected reality. She said, I don't think he should be there, but I'm going to carry on working with him anyway.

And that's really enabled him to stave off today's crisis. How much longer he can stave off, well, his departure is another question.

CLANCY: Well, you know, he says that he wants to stay, he wants to, you know, fix what is broken in the government. I think he had a meeting with the members of the Cadina (ph) party, in which he said that he was willing to take responsibility, he wouldn't shirk that responsibility, and he'll fix the mistakes -- I mean, the mistake seems to be that he's leading the country, a lot of people want him just to stop doing that.

HOROVITZ: Look, this is a very complicated reality. The bottom line is that the people of Israel believe that the war last summer was vital. They believe that Hezbollah was a strategic threat to Israel and they felt that Israel needed to deal with that threat. And they are horrified that after more than a month of fighting, that didn't happen.

A process of reform is already under way in the army, because the chief of staff of last summer resigned a couple of months ago. There's a new chief of staff, and they are preparing the army theoretically, more effectively for further rounds of conflict.

The Israeli public thinks that this political leadership, especially the prime minister and the defense minister, should take a similar course of action, should step down to enable the process of leadership reform to begin, and you have this strange situation, where the prime minister is insisting that he will implement the reforms that a committee of inquiry has really said he is incapable of implementing, because he's kind of at the root of the problem.

CLANCY: David, do many Israelis doubt that they lost that conflict? I mean, the two soldiers have not been recovered. They are still held hostage. Lebanon lays in ruins. Certainly, the credibility of the Israeli military has been drawn in to question. And Hezbollah has apparently emerged much stronger.

HOROVITZ: Well, I think Israelis feel that the damage done to Lebanon is damage that Hezbollah is to blame for, not Israel, that Hezbollah had taken over southern Lebanon and Israel was trying to defend itself. I think Israelis feel that they had to and have to defend themselves against really, the front line of the Iranian- inspired extremist revolution.

They don't think they won the war, they know they damaged Hezbollah. But it's a question of perspective. I mean, Hezbollah was badly hurt. But for Israelis, they needed to prevail decisively in this conflict in order to avoid future conflicts, and they fear I think, that their inability to prevail decisively paves the way for further confrontation for which they had better be better prepared.

CLANCY: Is there a risk that in trying to, "fix the problems," is there a risk that another conflict looms in the near future?

HOROVITZ: I don't think in trying to fix the problem, Israel will provoke further conflict. I think there's an urgency, because there's a sense in Israel that Hezbollah is emboldened, that Iran is increasingly emboldened also by what's happening in Iraq. There's concern about what the Syrians are up to, they are acquiring new weapon systems, and the Israeli army is at the moment, in an extremely intensive period of training because of the concern that Israel is going to have to defend itself.

And like I said, the sense that it didn't do as well as it needed to last summer only kind of intensifies the sens in Israel that the army had better be prepared.

CLANCY: One final question. Not everybody was really convinced that this government was going to move forward with the peace talks, serious peace talks with the Palestinians to a final solution, but does this current crisis just eliminate all possibility of that?

HOROVITZ: No, I don't think the current crisis in Israel is relevant here. I think what's relevant on the Israeli-Palestinian front is that the Palestinian leadership is now Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organization committed to the destruction of Israel. And although I think there's a mantra about, you don't make peace with your friends, you make peace with your enemies, you can't very well make peace with enemies who are overtly and determinedly committed to your absolute destruction.

CLANCY: So David, that's a no?

HOROVITZ: No, it's a don't blame the Israeli government, it's blame the Palestinian leadership.

CLANCY: All right, David Horovitz, as always, David, good to have you with us.

CHURCH: All right, to another story we're covering. A presidential veto hasn't ended the debate over the U.S. withdrawing from Iraq. Both sides are still talking about his rejection of the $124 billion spending bill that included a timetable for withdrawal, including the president himself.

At a speech before a group of contractors in Washington, Mr. Bush talked about the veto, and the current situation in Iraq. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I spent a lot of time thinking about this issue. You know, I wish I didn't have to spend time thinking about the issue. But I do, because there's still an enemy out there that would like to do America harm. And therefore, at this hour, we've got men and women in uniform engaging our enemies around the world.

Our strategy is we got to keep the pressure on them. We would rather fight them there so we don't have to face them here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Now, this was only the second time in Mr. Bush's presidency that he used his veto power. Opposition Democrats were quick to respond, saying the White House had misrepresented their position, and that the bill represents the will of the majority of the American people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY PELOSI, U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: The president wants a blank check. The Congress is not going to give it to him.

HARRY REID, U.S. SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: If the president thinks by vetoing this bill, he'll stop us from working to change the direction of the war in Iraq, he is mistaken.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Well, President Bush is scheduled to get together with congressional leaders at the White House, in order to hammer out a compromise bill to fund the war in Iraq. They are expected to come to terms pretty quickly, but what if they don't?

Tom Foreman takes a look at what could happen if the money runs out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Top military brass have been sounding off about what U.S. troops in Iraq could face if a war funding measure does not become law soon.

GEN. PETER PACE, CHMN., U.S. JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Potentially you would have troops who are currently serving overseas who would have to be extended, because we are committed to not sending troops over there until they are fully trained and equipped for the mission.

FOREMAN: Two weeks ago, the army told commanders to purchase fewer parts, delay repairs on training equipment, and postpone nonessential travel. This month, the army will also freeze any new hiring to fill civilian jobs, release temporary employees, and sign no new contracts. Army official says the disruptions will hurt military readiness. But why are belts tightening already? Non-partisan congressional research service tells Congress the military still has enough cash to last through June at least.

STEVE KOSIAK, CTR. FOR STRAT. & BUDGETARY ASSESS.: The problem is basically, they are not sure when they will get money. If they were confident they would get money in a month or six weeks, they probably wouldn't have to make any of these kinds of worst-case planning assumptions. But they don't know that for sure.

FOREMAN: If training is cut and troop rotations are delayed, soldiers in Iraq will feel the pinch.

LT. COL. ROBERT MAGINNIS, U.S. ARMY (RET.): If you don't sustain them with replacements and give them enough dwell time, in other words, down time in between operational deployments, then you wear them out, that's simple.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Well, the House majority leader says he hopes to have a new Iraqi spending bill passed within two weeks, with a final version sent to the president before the Memorial Day recess at the beginning of June.

CLANCY: The administration is never fond of comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam. Nevertheless, there was a sense of deja vu Wednesday, that's when protester Joan Baez revealed that she'd been barred from performing for wounded Iraqi war veterans. Baez says rocker John Mellencamp had asked her to appear with him at a concert at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. But just days before last Friday's concert, the Army notified Baez that she was not, in their words, "approved" to perform. No reason was given.

CHURCH: All right, as sex predators turn to the Internet to lure child victims, the media are turning the spotlight on the criminals.

CLANCY: Now the current miss America teamed one a television reality show to help catch some stalkers. Caught on videotape. You'd think the case against the alleged predators would be open and shut.

CHURCH: Just ahead, we'll find out why these TV stings are coming under fire.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Welcome back, everyone. You're watching YOUR WORLD TODAY, right here on CNN international.

CHURCH: Where we are seen live in more than 200 countries across the globe, including the United States.

CLANCY: Now, the Internet has become the tool of choice for those who prey on children. And the frequency of such incidents, well, it's outraging a growing number of people, including many celebrities.

CHURCH: That's right. One of them, the current Miss America, teamed up with the media to go after these predators. But as Brooke Anderson learned in this report for "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT," some of these TV stings could cause legal complications.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on in. My phone is ringing. I have to grab my phone.

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was riveting television. Miss America, Lauren Nelson, on "America's Most Wanted," posing as a 13-year-old girl to lure suspected Internet child predators for what they think is a sex encounter with a child they met online. But what they encounter is "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh, along with a camera crew and local police officers who arrest the suspects and cart them away.

JOHN WALSH, "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED": You're the father of three kids. What the hell are you doing here?

ANDERSON: Eleven alleged predators, in all, nabbed in what turned out to be a ratings bonanza for "America's Most Wanted."

WALSH: You just showed up to have sex with a 14-year-old girl.

ANDERSON: But following the sting, it's Miss America who's getting stung in the press. The local prosecutor is fuming that her participation may have endangered the case against the suspects she helped bust.

WALSH Here he comes.

ANDERSON: SHOWBIZ TONIGHT sorts it all out. And we ask the tough question. No matter how disgusting the crime of soliciting children online is, should luring and busting them be left to the cops instead of the stars?

It all went down in Suffolk County, New York.

LAUREN NELSON, MISS AMERICA: Hi, it's Jen.

ANDERSON: For the "America's Most Wanted" segment, Miss America, Lauren Nelson, posed as a teen and chatted with the suspects online and arranged meetings over the phone.

NELSON: OK, great. I'm really excited.

ANDERSON: Nelson, who herself, was once solicited online as a teen, told SHOWBIZ TONIGHT's A.J. Hammer how creepy it was to face it again for the show.

NELSON: It's so sexually explicit you can't even say it on TV. It surprised me how quickly the conversation turned to sex. ANDERSON: But the experience is getting even more difficult for Miss America. In a story in the Long Island paper "Newsday," entitled Mess America, Suffolk County D.A. Thomas Fota (ph) claims that Nelson is refusing to come back to testify against the people busted in the case. He blasted the sting as, quote, nothing more than a publicity stunt, saying that at least one of the cases may be compromised by her refusal to testify.

NELSON: Glad another one is behind bars.

ANDERSON: But SHOWBIZ TONIGHT can tell you that Miss America may do her part after all. We reached out to the Miss America organization, who told us, quote "Lauren plans to and has always planned to fully cooperate with the Suffolk County Police Department and will continue to champion here cause." In response to that, the Suffolk County D.A. tells SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, quote, "we have yet to hear from her. However, based on the Miss America statement, we are pleased that she will cooperate and make herself available as these cases move forward."

Of course, "America's Most Wanted" is not the first show to learn that busting child predators for the camera can be big ratings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You talk about having sex with her.

ANDERSON: "Dateline NBC's" To Catch a Predator series draws millions of viewers and claims to have nabbed 250 suspects. But as shows like "Dateline" and now "America's Most Wanted" get into the predator-busting business, some are wondering if law enforcement is a proper place for a TV star or beauty queen.

ROBERT ZELNICK, BOSTON UNIV. JOURNALISM PROFESSOR: You complicate what's already a very tricky business by going the celebrity route. And I think at sometimes to the detriment of effective law enforcement.

ANDERSON: Still, the shocking fact is that one out of every five children are said to be solicited online. As "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh tells SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, high profile TV shows like his can alert parents to the danger.

WALSH: I say to parents all the time, come on, saddle up. Keep that computer out of the bedroom. Talk to your kids about personal Web sites. Talk to them about information. Open those lines of communication.

ANDERSON: And child safety advocate Mark Klaas, who like Walsh, has lost a child to violence, tells SHOWBIZ TONIGHT --

MARK KLAAS, CHILD SAFETY ADVOCATE: I think the awareness that's been raised and the education that's been heaped upon the American public far outweighs any criticism whatsoever.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: All right, that was Brooke Anderson, reporting for "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT."

CHURCH: That's right. Well, no one is certain if the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq is dead or alive.

CLANCY: Even more of a mystery, what would is loss of Abu Ayyub al-Masri really mean for the future of that terrorist organization?

Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: The future of Iraq is going to be the main topic when diplomats from all around the world attend a conference at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived there in Sharm el-Sheikh just a short time ago. She promptly met with the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Now, this conference is beginning on Thursday. It aims to find ways to end the sectarian violence, or at least share some solutions.

Delegates are also going to be talking about economic support for Iraq, and here there are some critical problems. Secretary Rice is finding the international community is unwilling to go along with a lot of the U.S. ideas, like pressing countries to forgive billions of dollars in Iraqi debt in order to help the Shia-led government.

CHURCH: Well, U.S. and Iraqi officials are trying to determine whether the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq is dead. Reports emerged Tuesday that Abu Ayyub al-Masri had been killed in a fight with Sunni militants. Iraqi authorities are looking for a body, but say the search is difficult, because of instability in the region, where he was allegedly killed.

CLANCY: Al-Masri became the organization's top man only last year after his predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike.

CHURCH: So what impact has al-Masri had on al Qaeda in Iraq during his short time as leader, and what would his death, if it's indeed confirmed, mean to the future of the terrorist organization?

CLANCY: Hugh Riminton gives us some answers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an ex-con from Jordan, who established al Qaeda in Iraq. His masterstroke was to take his exceptionally violent insurgent group in 2004 and seek and receive the blessing and the al Qaeda brand name from Osama bin Laden.

Zarqawi's death was announced several times before it actually happened in a U.S. airstrike in Diyala Province last June. Zarqawi's replacement was named within a week, an Egyptian, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, a master bomb maker and longtime follower of bin Laden's number two, Ayman Al-Zawahiri. Soon, with a $5 million bounty on his head, rumors of his demise were also circulating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): My message to the terrorist Abu Ayyub al-Masri, we are very close to you, closer than you think and imagine.

RIMINTON: Iraqi security analysts say al-Masri lacked Zarqawi's personal charisma. But that has not stopped the organization developing politically, while engineering a near constant barrage of atrocities.

(on camera): Late last year, under al-Masri, al Qaeda formed up the Islamic State of Iraq, naming its own cabinet. This was a political apparatus in pursuit of its long-term strategic goal, the establishment of an extreme Muslim state in Iraq. Al-Masri named himself minister of war.

(voice-over): It was his predecessor, Zarqawi, who had openly pushed sectarian war in Iraq, so that al Qaeda rapidly made Shias their enemy, as much as the U.S.-led occupation. Al-Masri has maintained that course.

But, under al-Masri, al Qaeda has also fought hard against new pressure brought by a changed U.S. tactical plan, devising more sophisticated roadside bombs to beat the new-generation American anti- bomb techniques.

Last month, al Qaeda also claimed responsibility for two suicide truck bombs used to kill nine U.S. soldiers and wound 20 more at a patrol base in Diyala Province. The U.S. was quick to acknowledge Tuesday that, even if al-Masri has been killed, as reported, that would not end al Qaeda violence.

Hugh Riminton, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: All right, to outer space now. The fifth planet from the sun is yielding some of its secrets to a celestial visitor passing through the vast neighborhood.

CLANCY: Celestial visitor, NASA's New Horizon spacecraft, sending back some new photos of Jupiter the that, well, they're literally out of this world. Of course Jupiter is the solar system's largest planet, makes a good subject.

CHURCH: Among other things, scientists say they show the gas giants moons were hurling dust and boulders into Jupiter's faint rings.

CLANCY: Now the spacecraft made the flyby on its way to an encounter in eight years. In eight years from now it's finally going to arrive at Pluto, which used to be a planet, got downgraded.

CLANCY: Well, that's YOUR WORLD TODAY, a little bit beyond your world today.

I'm Jim Clancy.

And I'm Rosemary Church. Do stay with us here on CNN.

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