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Florida Plane Crash; President Bush to Talk About Iraq Strategy; War Having Impact on Military Recruiting; Pakistani Forces Storm Red Mosque, Kill The Radical Cleric Leading The Rebellion; China Executes Drug Inspection Official Convicted Of Bribery.

Aired July 10, 2007 - 12:00   ET

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

JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Army troops storm Pakistan's Red Mosque. A top cleric is killed in a fierce gun battle.
Ultimate punishment. China's former food and drug boss put to death for approving untested medicine.

Empty store shelves. What's left costs weeks of pay. Is time running out for Zimbabwe's deteriorating economy?

And was it something she said? A major figure in the U.S. media takes a swipe at making news herself.

It's 9:00 p.m. in Islamabad, midnight right now in Beijing.

Hello and welcome to our broadcast around the globe.

I'm Jim Clancy.

From London to Sydney, Beijing to Harari (ph), wherever you're watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

A deadly moment in a week-long standoff in Islamabad could trigger a new round of problems for top U.S. ally President Pervez Musharraf. Pakistani security forces storming the Red Mosque compound in the early morning hours after repeatedly warning militants inside, surrender unconditionally or face possible death. Many of them did.

The final exchange of gunfire killed Abdul Rashid Ghazi, a radical Islamic cleric at the center of the siege. Ghazi predicted an Islamic uprising if the mosque was taken. Some fear his supporters may be planning just that.

Jane Dodge has more on what prompted the violent end.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE DODGE, REPORTER, ITV NEWS (voice over): Wailing sirens as ambulance....

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... they were able to do a small, quick search on one of the structures before they had to back out.

They had three victims who were transported to -- or three injured who were transported to ORMC with burns. There was an off- duty firefighter who was on the scene ahead -- before we arrived who assisted with those rescue attempts. He was later overcome and transported to CFR, but he's doing fine.

We do have confirmed five victims across the debris site, and we're still in the process...

QUESTION: Excuse me. We can't hear you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we have five confirmed victims over the debris site, and we're still in the process of stabilizing the site and continuing our search and rescue. And we'll be slowly transitioning this to an FAA-law enforcement scene.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Three injured and five confirmed fatalities.

QUESTION: Who are those five people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're still in the process of identification and notification. And that's going to -- we're having some trouble contacting some of the next of kin.

QUESTION: You said across -- where is the location?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over the two houses. Just over the two houses is the field.

QUESTION: Does that include the pilot?

QUESTION: The passenger?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's total. That's total, five.

QUESTION: Total.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But we don't have those confirmed.

QUESTION: Did one of those people look like a smaller child?

QUESTION: For a while now, we have had this 4-year-old child who has been missing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes, one of them is -- one of the confirmed is a child.

QUESTION: How many of those people were on the airplane?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't -- I can't -- I'll have to FAA confirm that with you. But I can't confirm that information.

And also, I would like to introduce Chief Leeanna Raw. She's also been helping me with the unified command here on this thing.

CHIEF LEEANNA RAW, SEMINOLE COUNTY FIRE DEPT.: Just to reiterate what Chief Ransem (ph) has already said, we have gone back and checked our official times, and we had a four-minute response time to here on the scene. Obviously, the structures were heavily involved upon the arrival. Let's add -- I think this is notable to all of you, that this is a tragedy in itself, and it's also a tragedy for this neighborhood.

We will be establishing team advocacy groups to come in and assist the neighborhood. We have teams on site right now as we speak here.

Again, as Chief Ransem (ph) has said, we're still in some preliminary stages as far as the investigation. We are trying to shore up the structures, make them secure enough to where we can actually go into the facilities, take a look at them and what's there, and once that's over, this turns into an FAA and law enforcement investigation. And they will take it from there.

So, at this point, that's really all we can tell you.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE), and then you have three people from one of the houses, correct?

RAW: I cannot tell you that confirmation. I cannot tell you names of these victims. I cannot tell you how many people were on the plane. Again, that falls into the role of FAA.

QUESTION: Were there fatalities in both houses?

RAW: Yes.

QUESTION: Do you think you are have all the fatalities, all the people accounted for? Is it possible your you'll find more victims in the debris field?

RAW: Is it possible? I would say, yes, it's likely. We don't know at this point.

Again -- and it's only because it's still very preliminary in what we're looking at. So, to tell you no would give me concern in that if I said that, we could be wrong.

QUESTION: Can you tell us where these fatalities were?

RAW: Again, some of that gets into the investigative issues and questions. And I would prefer to leave that question for later on when you're talking to the ones that will beheading that up.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

QUESTION: How many are kids of the five fatalities?

RAW: We can confirm -- we can confirm that we do have three adult fatalities. QUESTION: And two children?

RAW: That is what we're looking at right now.

QUESTION: At the last press conference, they confirmed that the pilot and the passenger had both died. Can you give confirmation of this?

RAW: Can you repeat that, please?

QUESTION: During the last press conference, they confirmed for us that the pilot and the passenger did die. Are you taking that back?

RAW: I won't take that back, but I will not confirm it. Again, we do not have identification on the deceased.

QUESTION: But we do have three adults that have died and two children (INAUDIBLE)?

RAW: And a fourth injured at the hospital who was a firefighter that was transported, who, by the way, was on scene prior to the units getting here and worked very hard to get these...

QUESTION: Do you have his name?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

RAW: That's my understanding.

QUESTION: So both houses were occupied at the time?

RAW: That's my understanding.

QUESTION: Can you give us the firefighter's name?

RAW: I'll research it for you and get back to you.

QUESTION: None of the survivors was on the plane, right?

RAW: Pardon me?

QUESTION: None of the survivors...

RAW: Of the people that we transported, no.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

RAW: No, only on the firefighter, and we understand that he is doing well.

QUESTION: Are you releasing names at this time, any names of the fatalities?

RAW: No. No.

QUESTION: What can you tell us about the plane itself?

RAW: I can't tell you who owned it. I can tell you some of the stuff that you already know, in that it was registered, affiliated with NASCAR.

As far as other agencies on the scene, we have got multiple law enforcement agencies, multiple fire departments, emergency management, as well as the FAA. The FAA has just arrived. And again, we need to work this with them as far as the investigation.

QUESTION: Chief, have you heard anything on when the NTSB is getting here?

RAW: No, I have not.

QUESTION: A helicopter was up circling the scene. They got video of a man frantically running towards the house, trying to get in. Law enforcement stopped him from going in. Any idea who that person is?

RAW: No.

QUESTION: What about the debris field? We heard there was a long debris field. Can you tell us about any of the other sites that might be involved in this?

RAW: It's been limited to this neighborhood and the two homes.

QUESTION: Do you guy know what happened yet? We heard that there was smoke in the cockpit before it went down. It was...

RAW: No. No.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

RAW: No. That won't come from the fire department. That will come from the investigative agency, which will be the -- most likely the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

RAW: We had a total of 17 units. And when I say units, I'm referring to engines and rescues that were on scene. So that, accompanied by multiple, multiple command units. So, given those numbers, you know, we're well over 60.

QUESTION: Have you guys ever dealt with something like this?

RAW: I can only speak for myself and tell you, no, that I have not. I have worked on plane crashes before, but not one with these -- not one with these similarities. And I'll defer that to Chief Ransem (ph).

QUESTION: How do you deal with these firefighters who are looking through the debris and (INAUDIBLE) victims? Is there any counseling for them or... RAW: Absolutely. Like I said, we have team advocates -- a team of advocates on the scene for the residents, and we will also provide those same types of services to our firefighters.

QUESTION: Do you have one adult and one children in that other house besides the pilot and the passenger?

RAW: I can't answer any more questions for you as far as anybody who might have lived in the homes or who was on the plane. Again, it's going to have to wait until there's more information available and that it's clear.

QUESTION: Are both houses leveled at this point?

RAW: They are not inhabitable. Neither home is inhabitable.

STEVE OLSON, LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL: Folks, I sense that you have some concern about the information changing and such. And as this investigation goes along, it's pretty -- it's pretty fluid. And so things are changing on us.

And so if it sounds like we're pulling back on some of the stuff that we released earlier, yes, that's what we're doing. But we need to get things in a row, get things organized, so that it's cogent and makes sense and it's accurate.

So that's what we're doing right now.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

OLSON: We'll be releasing additional information later in the day. And hopefully -- and we need to clear this through the command post. We hope to get something before the 5:00 news. I know that some of you have 4:00 newscasts, but we'll try to shoot for before the 5:00.

Also, we have a standby -- we have a church on standby in case we need any sheltering. We've got the Red Cross here working with people. And again, we've got victim advocates out here at the scene.

QUESTION: Some of us are on every hour, too.

OLSON: Yes. All right.

Well, thank you again for your time and your patience. We appreciate it.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

OLSON: Don't know. We haven't really established that.

QUESTION: OK.

OLSON: Thanks.

QUESTION: When might the next update be? I mean, I know... OLSON: Let's try to shoot for maybe sometime after 4:00 (INAUDIBLE).

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

OLSON: Pardon? I haven't been answering my phone, but you could try...

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We have been listening in to the very latest information coming our way from Sanford, Florida, a suburb of Orlando.

Just most recently we heard from Steve Olson. He's a local government official there.

A lot of information. And as he very clearly pointed out, in a breaking news situation like this, details are always fluid and could change.

But earlier, we heard from the Seminole County Fire Department, two representatives from there, and the chief, Chief Lancy (ph). Here is what we have noted.

Five fatalities now -- three adults, two children. We also understand three people taken to the hospital. One -- another person, a fourth, is a firefighter. Also have heard from the fire department that he is apparently doing well. But the other three, we believe, last press conference, they were said to be in critical condition.

So, once again, the big change here, three adults, two children have been killed in this plane crash in Sanford, Florida. As you can see, the aftermath of where that plane went into this residential district, and two homes completely demolished.

We heard from the fire department they are a total loss, as you can see here. Again, the Seminole County Fire Department also mentioned that there were fatalities in both buildings, but haven't heard much more confirmation on that.

Earlier, at the last press conference, we did hear that the pilot and the passenger in that Cessna 310 are deceased. Now kind of hearing that they're not willing to confirm that a second time in this most recent press conference.

So we continue to watch this story. I believe there will be another news conference in a couple of hours. And as they stated, the FAA and law enforcement officials will now take over the investigation, and they will take it from here.

Again, CNN will continue to follow this story coming our way from Sanford, Florida.

For now, though, CNN's YOUR WORLD TODAY begins right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone.

To our viewers around the world and in the United States this hour, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

Thank you for joining me, Hala Gorani, in Baghdad, and Jim Clancy at the CNN Center.

Now, in about an hour and a half, U.S. President George Bush is expected to deliver a speech in Cleveland, Ohio, detailing strategy with regards to the Iraq war. But at the same time, he is dealing with some high-level defections within his own party, with some politicians saying it is perhaps time to now consider withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

Elaine Quijano is at the site of the speech in Cleveland and she joins me now live.

With more, Elaine, on what we're expecting the president to say in about an hour.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good afternoon to you, Hala.

President Bush is expected to reiterate essentially his staunch defense of his Iraq policy. In fact, just a short time ago, while on a tour of a factory where the president was talk about his energy agenda, the president previewed just a bit the Iraq remarks that he'll be making later today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I'm going to remind the people in the audience today that troop levels will be decided by our commanders on the ground, not by political figures in Washington, D.C. And that we have got a plan to lead to victory.

And I fully understand that this is a difficult war, and it's hard on the American people. But I will once again explain the consequences of failure to the American people. And I'll explain the consequences of success as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, that is all something certainly that we have heard before. But what is so different now, the political atmosphere, those politicians who are calling for a change in strategy in Iraq, now also include members of the president's own party. An increasing number of Republicans who are coming forward and publicly voicing their discontent with President Bush's Iraq strategy, including the Republican senator of this stay, Senator George Voinovich.

He is not here accompanying President Bush in his home state. The senator's office saying Senator Voinovich wanted to make sure he didn't miss any votes in Washington, as the Senate considers the defense bill, but certainly underscoring the difficulties the White House is facing. As for President Bush's remarks, expect him, Hala, to echo some familiar themes today -- Hala.

GORANI: Is there a lot of concern, Elaine, at the White House that we will see more high-level Republican dissent with regards to the Bush strategy in Iraq?

QUIJANO: You know, there certainly is a great deal of concern at the White House about that. Just yesterday, in fact, the White House summoned a Republican loyalist, essentially, Senator Jon Kyl, to the White House for meetings with Bush aides on Iraq.

Now, administration officials certainly understand. They say that the voices of discontent are out there, that they include Republican voices as well. But they say their concern is that they will lose their ability to manage the war.

So you will hear President Bush in his remarks today push back against some of these criticisms. But also, Hala, essentially appealing for patience from lawmakers to give the troop increase plan some time to work -- Hala.

GORANI: All right.

Elaine Quijano, our White House correspondent, in Cleveland, Ohio, where we're expecting President Bush to deliver a speech at 1:45 p.m. Eastern.

We will be carrying that address on CNN and CNN International.

Now, the Pentagon is cautioning not to expect too much from an interim progress report on the Iraq war on July 15th. Now, as Jamie McIntyre reports now, there is one development in the war in Iraq that has U.S. military commanders particularly worried.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Defense Secretary Robert Gates went ahead with a planned appearance in Tampa at the headquarters of the special operations command to install a new commander, but then rushed back to Washington, canceling long- scheduled travel to South America. A terse Pentagon statement said Gates was needed for policy meetings on Iraq in advance of the July 15th benchmark report, even as his own aides downplayed the report's significance.

"It will be a snapshot at the front end of the surge," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. "And I don't think anyone expects all the benchmarks to be met at the front end."

The Pentagon is acknowledging there's little to show for the effort so far. While there are a lot of technical successes, insurgents killed, arms caches found, small towns secured, the big goals, bringing down the level of violence and fostering political reconciliation, remain illusive. BOBBY GHOSH, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Prime Minister Maliki, he's too weak. He is surrounded by politicians who have other agendas. And they're never going to be able to meet the targets.

MCINTYRE: The bad news from the front is affecting recruiting. In June, the Army missed its enlistment goal by more than 1,300 soldiers after falling short by 400 in May. The big problem, long tours coupled with parents who are dead set against their kids signing up.

SEN. JIM WEBB (D), VIRGINIA: This deck of cards is coming crashing down and it's landing heavily on the heads of the soldiers and the Marines who have been deployed again and again, while the rest of the country sits back and debates Iraq as an intellectual or emotional exercise.

MCINTYRE (on camera): The Pentagon has enough troops to maintain higher force levels until at least April of next year. And that's when the pressure will be the greatest to begin significant withdrawals.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: Still ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY, it's not quite the slap that people thought they heard around the world, but it was close. CBS News anchor Katie Couric is getting a lot of unwanted publicity over her reaction to a word that appeared on her teleprompter. We'll tell you what made her stuttering mad when we return.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Welcome back to our viewers joining us from more than 200 countries and territories all over the globe, including the United States. This is YOUR WORLD TODAY. For Hala Gorani in Baghdad, I'm Jim Clancy. These are some of the stories that are making headlines.

A tense standoff at Islamabad's Red Mosque takes a violent step closer to its end, after Pakistani forces storm the compound, killing Abdul Rasheed Gauzy (ph), the radical cleric at the center of the week-long siege. Gauzy had predicted an Islamic uprising if the mosque was taken.

U.S. President George W. Bush in Cleveland, Ohio, delivering a speech on U.S. efforts to bring stability to Iraq. Meanwhile, the White House is trying to downplay expectations for the first congressionally mandated interim report on Iraq, that is due out in just the next few days.

China has executed the former food and drug chief in the country's tainted products scandal. He was put to death for taking bribes to approve substandard medicines. Dozens of deaths in Panama last year are blamed on tainted medicine from China. Beijing acknowledges it had been slow in tackling product safety.

So, can China clean up its act when it comes to product safety? Will the swift execution of a single government official help the world trust Chinese goods again? Joining us now to discuss all of this, Gordon Chang, author of "The Coming Collapse Of China."

Gordon, thanks so much for being with us.

GORDON CHANG, AUTHOR, "COMING COLLAPSE OF CHINA": Thank you.

CLANCY: This isn't the problem of one individual. You look -- this is a systemic problem, isn't it?

CHANG: It certainly is systemic. They can execute a dozen people, but they have got to change the system. Random executions are not going to work. There's a problem with the Chinese society, and it's from the bottom up. That's why, despite what Beijing does, there's going to be no quick solutions.

CLANCY: Some say it's not from the bottom up, it's from the top down. That is that the ruling Communist Party has a system in place that begs people to take bribes, favoritism. That one individual can control medicines, for instance, going directly to store shelves, says something.

CHANG: Well, certainly. It is a top-down system. And this is an issue of corruption, ultimately. You know, the Chinese Communist Party has been fighting corruption since 1951, which was two years after the founding of the People's Republic. And the corruption has gotten worse overtime.

Today, China has been corrupt -- and is more corrupt than it's ever been in 5,000 years of history. So, what we're seeing with food safety, with product safety, is really just a manifestation of the corruption in the system.

CLANCY: The trust, the Chinese, it's a huge producer of manufactured goods all around the world. Most of them competing on the basis of price. What is it going to take to restore its credibility? What should it take?

CHANG: I think what is going to happen will be nothing in China itself will really solve the problem. It's going to be consumers in the United States, and around the world that are going to demand a higher standard of product. What we're going to see in the export products will get better. The real issue for many Chinese people, though, is that many products are not exported. They're made in separate factories and those aren't going to get better for very long time, if ever.

CLANCY: Well, some people say, -- all right, you look at the product safety problem. It only mirrors environmental problems, it only mirrors workplace safety problems and other things. You have written a book about the imminent collapse of the system in China. What is going on? CHANG: Well, I think the problem is that Chinese people have a very low standard of expectation because they have been handed bad products for so long, and they know they can't do anything about it. In the United States, 100 years ago, we may have had the same problems, but at least we had a representative government that was eventually able to respond to people's complaints.

The problem in China is that the political system is closed. So it takes a very, very long time for people to have any effect on the decisions of the government.

CLANCY: Gordon Chang, author of "The Coming Collapse of China." I want to thank you very much for taking the time to talk about not only the ideas in the book, but this execution of the head of the food and drug administration, that equivalent, in China, today.

Let's crossover to what some say is the disaster zone of Africa today, Zimbabwe. An economy in free fall. Run away inflation, prompting government mandated price cuts. They seem to be fueling problems, though, rather than calming them down.

One of the country's leading dissidents is asking for international help to end the crisis in his country. He lays responsibility squarely at the feet of the President Robert Mugabe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIUS NCUBE, ARCHBISHOP OF BULAWAYO: In June alone, the prices doubled -- I mean, prices went up 10 times. But Mugabe then went for, as usual, he goes for cosmetic reform, forcing down the price to 50 percent. So, now, on the shelves of Zimbabwe, we find 90, 95 percent of shelves are empty.

The problem here is that Mugabe is not truthful. He is a big liar. And he keeps saying that we're suffering because of the sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe. There no general sanctions in Zimbabwe, there are only targeted sanctions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Now, let's dig a lit bit deeper into the story of Zimbabwe. What is going on there? Why is Zimbabwe's economy in a freefall? For that, we're joined by own Isha Sesay. She comes to us now, live, from Johannesburg.

Isha, how do we explain this? How do you explain this to the world, how a country could go so far, fall so far from what was a former British colony and was really doing quite well?

ISHA SESAY, CNN INT'L. CORRESPONDENT, Well, Jim, you know, that's the question of many people asking themselves, as they look at a country that used to be referred to as the breadbasket of Africa. They used to be so wealthy, and so together economically.

To see it now in tatters, most people would point to the seizure of farmlands from white farmers back in 2000. Most people would have of course, point to that as the starting point of this long, slow decline.

But the position we're at today is the country now is on the brink, as has been said, with inflation running away, with people starving. We're hearing tales of people in the countryside, you know, grandmothers, grandparents, looking after their grandchildren with nothing to feed them, with people walking miles to work, with people being paid in kind because basically the currency is worthless today in Zimbabwe.

I mean, this situation that we have now, following the June 26 directive from Robert Mugabe to slash prices -- I mean, not only has he ordered prices to be slashed, he actually -- according to reports -- has youth militia going around the various stores to make sure that this directive is being followed. And people who aren't following the orders are being arrested.

Jim, the situation is dire, it's deteriorating, and the atmosphere is extremely tense.

CLANCY: Let me share a couple of numbers with our viewers about what is there: 95 percent of the people in Zimbabwe living below the poverty line; 80 percent unemployment. The government printing more and more Zimbabwean dollars with nothing to back it up in the Treasury. This is what is fuelling the inflation.

And all the time, the rest of the African leaders standing by, saying almost nothing. I'm wondering whether black, African leaders are giving President Mugabe a free pass?

SESAY: Well, I don't know whether we can say they're giving him a free pass. Certainly, you can say there's a sense amongst African leaders, they don't want to be seen berating another African leader, so to speak, because they don't want to be seen to be breaking out of the club. They worry about how that might be perceived by Western governments.

I think there is certainly that element, but they are engaged on the issue of Zimbabwe. But essentially, they're looking at South Africa, Jim. They're looking at South Africa, Zimbabwe's big brother, as it were, to take the lead on the situation.

They've appointed Charles Umbecki (ph) to be the mediator in talks between Bazana Pierre (ph) Ruling Party, and the Opposition MDC. And he's doing this, But Umbecki (ph) is taking a softly, softly approach, because he doesn't want Zimbabwe's problems to become South Africa's -- Jim.

CLANCY: Isha Sesay, reporting to us live from Johannesburg. As always, Isha, thank you very much.

GORANI: Well, Jim, back to the Iraq question now. As we have been reporting, President Bush is expected to make a speech addressing the Iraq war, in Cleveland, Ohio, in about an hour's time. He's going to try to shore up support for a continued military commitment in this country, but major opinion leaders have been thinking of alternatives, one that has come back and forth over the years, involving the partitioning of this country. Jonathan Mann joins us now with some insight on this.

Jonathan, hello.

JONATHAN MANN, CNN INT'L. CORRESPONDENT: Something has to change in Iraq. For a handful of American academics, and even a political leader or two, the answer may be dividing Iraq itself. Dividing Iraq, in the hope that partition would bring peace. It's just about the last thing, though, that the governments in Washington and Baghdad want to see.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Success in Iraq requires a united Iraq. Where democracy is preserved, the ruler of law prevails, and minority rights are respected. The prime minister made clear that splitting his country into parts, as some have suggested, is not what the Iraqi people want. And that any partition of Iraq would only lead to an increase in sectarian violence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: The current map of Iraq was drawn up by Winston Churchill. And it includes Kurds, in the north, Sunnis in the center, and Shia in the south. Soft partition being proposed by scholars at Washington's Brookings Institution and by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, would give each of the three groups their own semi-autonomous region of the country, under weak central government.

There's so many potential problems with the plan, it's hard to know where to start, but let's start in Kirkuk. Kirkuk is an ethnically mixed oil-rich region, that Iraqi Kurds and Arabs would probably fight over. That could be a whole new war. Or Baghdad, the capital, it's ethnically mixed and ethnically explosive city. Partition doesn't suggest any easy solution there either.

Even so, Iraqis seem to be getting used to the idea of partition. Back in 2004, pollsters found that 79 percent of Iraqis wanted their country to stay whole. But by March of this year, that was down to 58 percent. More revealing, perhaps, 57 percent almost the same number, 57 percent also say that regardless of what they want, Iraq will be divided, either into regions or entirely separate states. Even so, partition alone wouldn't solve all of Iraq's problems.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLOS PASQUAL, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: You also need to have an agreement, for example, on oil revenues. If the Sunnis don't have an assurance they're going to have resources from oil, there's no way they'll agree to a partition. If you don't deal with the demobilization of militias, for example, you will still have these standing armies that will go to war with one another, if they that their interests are being threatened. If you don't deal with minority rights, you're still going to have 2 to 5 million people who are of sectarian groups that not in the areas that they're supposed to be in, who could come under threat. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: And that's the number worth repeating. 2 million to 5 million Iraqis who are in places where they're now in the minority; 2 to 5 million people who could end up moving to get into their own ethnic region of the country. Right now, thousands of Iraqis are already on the move, into different neighborhoods, different regions of the country, and out of the country all together. And that's every month. So the thing to keep in mind, is that some of the worst aspects of partition are already under way.

Back to you.

GORANI: All right, Jonathan Mann there with some insight. Thank you very much for that.

Well, George Bush, of course, as we have been mentioning, will be giving a speech. We saw there in Jonathan Mann's segment, just the many challenges facing not only the Americans but the politicians and the political class in this country. George W. Bush is going to try to shore up some of the support for continued involvement, military involvement, just as popular support for the Iraq war, and popular support for his presidency is at historic lows. Our international viewers will be able to watch it as well as our domestic USA viewers, live here, on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Hello, everyone. Welcome back. You're watching YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International, seen live in more than 200 countries and territories all around the globe.

Michael Moore, a man who has been making headlines and, well, raising eyebrows with his new movie on the American health care system. It's called, after all, "Sicko." Well, now he's raised a couple of eyebrows, in particular, during an appearance on CNN. He sat down with our own Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room" After we take a closer look at his movie, here's is how it went.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL MOORE, FILM DIRECTOR: So, that report was so biased. I can't imagine what pharmaceutical company's ads are coming up after our break here.

But, you know, why don't you tell the truth to the American people? I mean, I wish CNN, and the other mainstream media, would just for once tell the truth about what is going on in this country. Whether it's with health care -- I don't care what it is. You guys have such a poor track record. And for me to come on here and have to listen to that kind of crap. I mean, seriously, I haven't been on your show in three years. The last time I was on, you ran a similar piece about "Fahrenheit 9/11", saying, oh this can't be true, what he's saying about the war. How it's going to be a quagmire, the weapons of mass destruction.

Why don't you start off, actually, with my first appearance back here on your show in three years, and maybe apologize to me for saying that three years ago, because it turned out everything I said in "Fahrenheit" was true. Everything has come to happen. Everything I said, I mean, I was -- I took you, in that film to Walter Reed hospital. It took three years before you or any of the rest of the mainstream media would go to Walter Reed Hospital and see what was happening to our troops.

So, for me to have to sit here and listen again, to more crap about socialized medicines, or how the Canadians have it, you know, worse than us and all this. All of the statistics show we have a far worse health care than these other industrialized countries. We're the only ones that don't have it free and universal. And you know, there's a -- there's -- you said that Germany was the only one that was better than us in terms of wait times. The Commonwealth Fund, last year, showed of the top six countries, we were second to last, next to Canada.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Look, I saw the film, and it's a powerful, powerful --

MOORE: I saw Doctor Sanjay Gupta over the, embedded with the troops at the beginning of the war. He and the others of you, in the mainstream media, refuse to ask our leaders the hard questions and demand the honest answers. And that's why we're in this war; we're in the fifth year of this war. Because you and CNN, and Doctor Gupta, you didn't do your jobs back then, and now here we are in this mess.

What if you had actually done the job on that? That's why anybody who hears anything of what you say now about universal health care should question what you're saying, what you're putting out there. You didn't do the job for us with the war. You're not doing it with this issue. I just wonder when the American people are going to turn off the TV sets and quite listening to this stuff.

BLITZER: Sanjay Gupta did an excellent job covering that war. He was with the Navy's medical doctors and he went in and risked his life. And he actually started to perform some neurosurgery on the scene.

MOORE: You have to ask some questions!

BLITZER: Look --

MOORE: Why are we here? That is the question, why are we here in this war? Where's the weapons of mass destruction? Why did it take you so long, Wolf, to finally take on Vice President Cheney? It took you until 2007 before you made the man mad at you.

BLITZER: Those are fair questions.

(CROSS TALK)

MOORE: I mean, four years!

BLITZER: Look, let's talk --

MOORE: Where were you?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Well, Wolf was right there. And it all brought a response from our correspondent who prepared that fact-checking report looking into "Sicko". Doctor Sanjay Gupta acknowledged he got one thing wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No doubt there is huge buzz around Michael Moore's film, as well. Yesterday there was a lot of stuff said by Michael. Quite frankly, lots of numbers thrown around. It can get admittedly somewhat confusing.

Now, we spent a lot of time on a fact-check piece on "Sicko" and we're comfortable with what we presented, except for one number, where I made a mistake.

I misquoted Michael with regards to the per capita spending on health care in Cuba. He said they spent $251 per person. I misquoted him as saying $25. That was an error of transcribing the number down incorrectly.

And I wanted to do this because as a journalist and a doctor the facts are extremely important to me. I wanted to correct that for you now.

Interestingly, Michael, on his own website states that Cuba spends $229 per person, on health care, which is the exact same number we stated as fact. I don't know why he just didn't put that number into his movie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: All right. A case of the correspondent being part of the story, not a comfortable role for any journalist, certainly. But to talk about it, that's always good. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: The control room still talking about what Michael Moore had to say. If you want to hear more of what he has to say, tune in Larry King tonight. For viewers in the U.S., that will be a 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join Larry King talking about Michael Moore. And here's two guys that don't always see eye-to-eye, but Michael Moore raising a lot of important issues on health care in the U.S., and elsewhere in the world.

We're going to leave you with a story from the Middle East. A story about nature in conflict. If lions could talk, this one -- well, what a story he'd have to tell. Sabrina has been reunited with her brother at the Gaza zoo. The lioness, stolen two years ago at gunpoint. She was just a cub then.

Hamas militiamen stumbled upon Sabrina then they were raiding the hideout of a notorious drug ring on Monday. Zookeepers say Sabrina now, missing four of her teeth, her claws, part of her tail. She had been sold. She had been used to pose for photographs with other people for money.

That's our report for this hour. I'm Jim Clancy. And this is CNN.

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