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Americans Increasingly Concerned About Economy; Critics Attack Huckabee's Record; 'Make It Right' Project

Aired December 03, 2007 - 12:00   ET

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

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: War or the economy? U.S. presidential candidates ponder which issue means more to voters today as primary season draws near.
JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Narrow defeat. Venezuela's voters reject their president's effort to reform the constitution that would expand his presidential powers.

GORANI: Sweeping mandate, a very different result in Russia, where President Putin consolidates power.

CLANCY: And fixing a mortgage mess, an innovative idea that may save millions of Americans from losing their homes.

Right now it's 12:00 noon in Washington, 8:00 in the evening in Moscow.

Hello and welcome, everyone, to our report seen around the globe.

I'm Jim Clancy.

GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani.

From Washington to Warsaw, Moscow to Madrid, wherever you're watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

CLANCY: It is fair to say that this weekend there were two presidents on opposite sides of the world wanting a mandate to tighten their grip on power.

GORANI: Today one is humbled by his first-ever electoral defeat while the other celebrates an overwhelming but controversial win.

CLANCY: That's right. And we're going to take a look, a close look at the important election results both in Venezuela and Russia and see how they respectively affect the leaderships of Hugo Chavez and Vladimir Putin.

GORANI: Both, of course, are critics of U.S. policy and influence. So we'll also see how Washington is reacting to the news.

CLANCY: All right. But first, we want to take a look at an issue certain to influence the upcoming elections in the United States -- the war in Iraq.

Congress begins a short holiday session today. And President George W. Bush trying to push the lawmakers on Capitol Hill to approve a long-stalled war funding bill, and do it without attaching conditions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Beginning in February, I submitted detailed funding requests to Congress to fund these operations in the war on terror. Yet some in Congress are withholding this funding because they want to substitute their judgment for that of our military commanders. Instead of listening to the judgment of General Petraeus, they are threatening to withhold money he needs unless they can mandate an arbitrary date of withdrawal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: All right. Some other news on the Iraqi front.

More than two million Iraqis have fled their homeland. Their absence considered by many to be the crucial test of whether and when the situation in Iraq really is getting better.

That's why the return of busloads of these refugees is stirring so much interest. It's been going on for a couple of weeks. One man who returned last week says he does see security in his country improving. The number of civilians killed as decreased. What remains to be seen is progress among Iraqi politicians to share power and resources. On that front, everybody is still waiting for the reconciliation bus to arrive.

GORANI: Well, while there's no doubt that the Iraq war is casting a big shadow over next year's presidential election in the United States, it may no longer overshadow other concerns.

As Bill Schneider reports, Americans are becoming increasingly worried perhaps not as much about the war as about their wallets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice over): We keep hearing that the United States is making military progress in Iraq.

JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... continue this surge which is succeeding, and we are winning the war in Iraq.

SCHNEIDER: But public opposition to the war has not diminished. Still, something has changed.

Back in June, Iraq dominated the agenda. Now the economy has become an equally big issue. Who does that help in each party?

We asked New Hampshire Democrats which candidate would do the best job handling Iraq. They give Hillary Clinton a slight edge over Barack Obama. But Iraq is not Clinton's best issue.

The New York senator has a much bigger lead on the economy. Why? Possibly because of her husband.

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When my husband became president, he inherited a lot of economic problems. As someone said the other day, there seems to be a pattern here. It takes a Clinton to clean up after a Bush.

SCHNEIDER: On the Republican side, the advantage on Iraq goes to John McCain. But Iraq is not a top issue to Republicans.

Which Republican leads on the economy? Romney, the business executive.

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've spent 25 years in the business world running a small business that became a large one.

SCHNEIDER: Suppose Romney and Clinton win their party's nominations. We've heard the argument Romney will make against Clinton.

ROMNEY: She hasn't run a corner store. She hasn't run a state. She hasn't run a city. She has never run anything.

SCHNEIDER: While Clinton will argue it's all about what's happened in this country under President Bush.

CLINTON: The average family has lost $1,000 in income in the last six years.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: After getting burned so badly in 2006, some Republicans may welcome the fact that the war in Iraq no longer no monopolizes the political agenda. But if the agenda shifts to domestic issues, there's not a lot of good news there either for the party in power -- Hala.

GORANI: So who would that benefit?

SCHNEIDER: Well, according to our polling, it's interesting. The candidate who's rated top on the economy is Clinton in the Democratic Party, and Romney in the Republican Party because of his business and management experience.

That's interesting, because both Clinton and Romney seem to be slipping in Iowa, in the polls in the Iowa caucus. But the economy, if that becomes the top issue, that could help bring them back into contention.

GORANI: Speaking of Mitt Romney, who's a Mormon, of course, the U.S. has never had a Mormon president. He's due to talk about his faith in a major speech in Texas.

What will that be about?

SCHNEIDER: Well, it's a way -- it's an echo of the speech that John Kennedy gave almost 50 years ago in Houston, which is near College Station in Texas also, essentially speaking to Protestant ministers -- that was who Kennedy spoke to. I'm not sure who the audience will be when Romney speaks, but it's a way of saying that his faith will not dictate his policies, and that Americans can feel comfortable with a Mormon president just as they became comfortable with the idea of a Catholic president.

In fact, since 1960, there have been several Catholic candidates, and there's no evidence that religion has become a major issue in any of those campaigns. Romney wants to accomplish the same thing that Kennedy did in 1960.

GORANI: All right. Bill Schneider, our senior political analyst.

Thank you very much, as always.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

CLANCY: You know, as Bill was just touching on there, Mitt Romany's campaign has watched Mike Huckabee pull ahead of the polls in Iowa.

GORANI: Well, the state holds the nation's first caucus next month, and Christian conservatives there have helped Huckabee erase Romney's lead in the state.

CLANCY: As our correspondent Dana Bash reports, Huckabee's rise has critics taking aim now at his record as governor of Arkansas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A standing-room-only party for Mike Huckabee.

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The first time I came, everybody that came could sit right here.

BASH: With these crowds and surging poll numbers, the Arkansas governor's record is under fresh criticism, from immigration...

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Governor Huckabee fought in favor of giving in-state tuition breaks to illegal aliens.

BASH: ... to taxes.

HUCKABEE: Others have suggested a surcharge on the income tax. That's acceptable.

BASH: This 2003 speech to the Arkansas legislature is being used in two ads against Huckabee.

HUCKABEE: Let me tell you some of the things that you're going to hear. One of the things is Huckabee was a tax and spender in Arkansas.

BASH: Huckabee is trying to preempt those strikes. So what is his record? On taxes, he says he signed...

HUCKABEE: The first-ever broad-based tax cuts and signed 94 different tax cuts.

BASH: That's true, but he also raised taxes 21 times, including 16 percent more in gas taxes and a 103 percent hike in cigarette taxes. In fact, he left office with an overall tax increase of $505 million.

Huckabee says the money went to Arkansas schools and roads and tells CNN he has no regrets.

HUCKABEE: There are times when that's necessary. Ronald Reagan raised Texas when he was governor of California. He raised taxes when he was president.

BASH: On immigration, Huckabee backed college tuition breaks for children of illegal immigrants. He also fought legislation to require proof of citizenship for state services.

Again, on both, no regrets.

HUCKABEE: If you want national security handled by people at an entry level of state government, that's what you get. But I don't think anybody thinks that's a good idea.

BASH: But Huckabee's biggest controversy as governor is the Wayne Dumond case, a convicted rapist sentenced to life in prison. A punishment Huckabee, among others, called too tough. Dumond was released on Huckabee's watch but then raped another woman and killed her.

HUCKABEE: It's horrible. And there's nothing any of us can ever do. None of us could have predicted what he would have done when he got out.

BASH (on camera): Huckabee says the process that led to Dumond's release started with his Democratic predecessors in Arkansas, including Bill Clinton. But Huckabee also concedes his part in this salacious case is likely to become a campaign issue. And he may be right. Rival campaigns are already privately talking about it as a potential line of attack.

Dana Bash, CNN, Des Moines, Iowa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: Well, there is still much to do to rebuild parts of New Orleans that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina two years ago, and Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt is pledging millions of his own money. He's speaking now live in New Orleans.

Let's listen to what he has to say.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS) BRAD PITT, ACTOR: I like that, too.

My thinking why it's pink is because it screams the loudest. It says people are coming back. And they're coming back with the Make It Right program. I want to back up here and tell you a little bit of how we got to this point.

About a year ago, myself and Bill McDonough of Bill McDonough Architects, Bill McDonough and Partners, Tom Darden (ph), of Cherokee (ph), (INAUDIBLE) of Graft (ph) architecture, sat down with this idea of sparking a rebuilding effort down here. We've since met with the community, the community leaders who have been instrumental in shaping this thing and giving us the direction we needed to make this happen.

You have some great leadership around here. I am constantly impressed. And they have given day after day on this project. And I thank them greatly.

So we first started with contacting architects. We contacted architects from around the world. We started with the local level, the national level, and the international level, as far away as South Africa, who all agreed to come in here, 13 architects, to apply their minds to address the challenges of rebuilding here in the Lower Ninth. Dealing with safety, first and foremost, dealing with sustainability, dealing with affordability, and dealing with aesthetics, something that was true to the culture of New Orleans.

There are some wonderful, incredible ideas here, and these ideas will be available for the community to choose from to shape their neighborhood. I'm very excited by them.

These architects came in here. They've endured boxed lunches. They've endured crowded bus rides, coach plane flights, and given up their time to address this issue. And I cannot thank them enough.

There's also -- there's me standing up here, but there's about 200 people behind me who have also given up their time to make this -- make this possible. And I can't list them all here, but I'm telling you, it's really exciting to see, and I thank them as well.

So the plan here is to start with 150 homes, 150 homes that follow the criteria that I mentioned before. To build those 150 homes, I need the help of the American people, we need the help of the American people.

We need to all join together to do this. But the point is, it is possible. And we can make this happen.

In fact, we can get families in homes by next summer. We can move this quickly. It's ready to go. I just need that -- that help.

So 150 homes is our goal to begin with, but there's no reason why we can't do 1,000 homes, why we can't do 10,000 homes, why we can't do 100,000 homes. It is -- this thing will go as far as the support that is given. We're standing here at this location in the Lower Ninth. We chose to start here because of the devastation and the -- because of the immense hurdles for the homeowners, for the residents to come back here. But this is emblematic of parishes all over New Orleans. This is emblematic of the Gulf Coast.

And we begin here, but my hope is that we can get next door to Jefferson Parish, that we can get into Central City, that we can keep growing this thing. And again, there's no reason we can't.

(APPLAUSE)

GORANI: All right. Hollywood star Brad Pitt there talking about how the Lower Ninth Ward, one of those neighborhoods of New Orleans that was so tragically devastated by Hurricane Katrina, would benefit from contributions made by Make It Right. That's an organization and the public art project you see behind them, a pink theme there, an effort to rebuild environmentally sound homes in that part of New Orleans.

If you'd like to learn more -- of course Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, his partner, own a home in New Orleans, so they feel invested in that project for that reason, as well as others. Brad Pitt, we understand, donating $5 million to Make It Right.

MakeItRightNOLA.org is where you can learn more about this project.

CLANCY: It will be interesting to see how far it goes. He's putting a lot of star power behind it.

GORANI: We've got to take a short break, but coming up, tales of two leaders. Each with his own supporters, each with his own critics.

CLANCY: Voters in Venezuela finally say no to Hugo Chavez after almost a decade and his efforts to change the law that would prevent him for running for another term as president.

GORANI: Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin's days as president may be numbered, but his party's success at the polls ensures he'll remain a potent force in Russian politics for many years to come. .

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: One of the major questions in international affairs today, is Iran trying to develop nuclear weapons? We have some late- breaking information on this story coming to us out of Washington.

Let's go to the Pentagon live and our own Barbara Starr -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, a stunning development. The national intelligence community is releasing some key information today, part of a classified assessment being sent to Congress about Iran. And here's an eye-grabbing headline. They are saying now that they believe Iran largely halted its nuclear weapons development program back in the fall of 2003.

That is not something that anybody in Washington, until day, had really been talking about or had even hinted at. So much of the rhetoric and the discussion on Capitol Hill and from the Bush administration, of course, has been that the concern has been that Iran is proceeding very rapidly with a nuclear weapons development program. But now this new report going to Congress today says that the intelligence community believes Iran largely halted its weapons development program back in the fall of 2003.

The intelligence community says it believes that Iran was perhaps more susceptible to international pressure to stop its nuclear weapons program than anyone had actually suspected, and that that is what happened back in 2003. They don't believe Iran really, at this point, has the capability to even produce the nuclear fissile material anytime soon.

You know, there's been a lot of discussion about Iran's announcements that they have 3,000 centrifuges. The intelligence community says in this report today they believe those centrifuges are having significant technical problems and they don't believe Iran can even produce the fissile material, at least until 2009 or so, they say. Still watching it very carefully, saying there may be still, of course, remnants of efforts to work towards a nuclear weapons program. But the key effort has pretty much been stopped -- Jim.

CLANCY: That raises a tremendous question that's certain to come up, up on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. And that is, if they weren't developing nuclear weapons, why didn't they come clean about the nuclear program itself? This was, you know, divulged by anti- government sources, Iranian sources there, not by the government. They never -- one of the complaints has been they've never come clean about what they were up to.

STARR: Well, you know, I hate to say it, but doesn't it sound like Iraq and Saddam Hussein before the war? These countries that are working on programs for weapons of mass destruction typically do not, as you say, come clean about what they have.

A lot of it, the intelligence community has found over the years, largely as a result of the situation in Iraq, turns out to be posturing by governments to some extent. But for the intelligence community in the United States, that's always the key problem -- what part of these statements are political rhetoric and posturing, what part of them are actually true and lead towards a technical program?

What we are seeing today is an apparent revelation by the intelligence community that really backpedals what the U.S. publicly thought about Iran's program. Now, what has transpired in the last several months inside Iran, whether they have made progress in the last couple of months in 2007, that still remains to be seen. That's still, of course, very classified.

But this really is a very peculiar development. It is really very much against the grain of what the Bush administration had been saying -- Jim. CLANCY: And it certainly is news. Iran gave up its nuclear program four years ago.

Barbara Starr, as always, thank you for bringing us late developing news -- Hala.

GORANI: For the first time since he became president nearly a decade ago, Venezuelan voters have finally said no to Hugo Chavez. By the narrowest of margins, they've defeated a referendum that would have allowed Mr. Chavez to stand for office indefinitely.

Harris Whitbeck has more on the reaction in Caracas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Monday morning, and happy opposition students were still out on a Caracas street corner waving flags and greeting passing motorists. They had much to celebrate.

The "no" vote in Sunday's referendum to lift limits on how long Hugo Chavez could serve as president was one they say they did not expect. When Venezuela's electoral authorities announced the "no" vote won Sunday's referendum on the proposed changes to the constitution, the opposition students who had spent weeks battling police as they protested on the streets erupted in cheers.

The night had been spent in agony as hours went by without results. After their razor-thin victory was announced, opposition leaders said this now has to be a time of national unity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not a moment only for students. This is a moment for the whole country. It's time for us to start walking the same path, walking together. And I think this day could be the start of a new republic, of a new Venezuela.

WHITBECK: President Chavez also spoke of unity but warned the opposition he would not abandon his plan to further consolidate socialism in the country.

HUGO CHAVEZ, VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT (through translator): None of this (INAUDIBLE) will be withdrawn. I will continue proposing this to the Venezuelan people. The proposal is alive. It is not dead.

WHITBECK: The leaders of the political opposition said they now face new challenges.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We now have to build a country that has a space for us all, new alternatives where we're all equal under that law, where this is equality and opportunities, where we can tackle the problems that address society as a whole.

WHITBECK (on camera): The opposition now sees a chance to regain some of the political terrain it lost when Chavez came to power nine years ago. And Chavez will now have to rethink some of his strategies. He himself had said he considered this referendum the most crucial one his government had ever faced.

Harris Whitbeck, CNN, Caracas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Going to take a short break here. There's more to come.

GORANI: When we come back, more on the journey home for the "teddy bear" teacher from Sudan.

We'll have that and more ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Hala Gorani. Here are your headlines.

U.S. President George Bush is urging Congress to get down to business as it begins a short holiday session. He wants lawmakers to pass a long-stalled funding bill for the Iraq War without attaching a date for troop withdrawal.

Voters in Venezuela have said no to President Hugo Chavez. They narrowly rejected constitutional changes that would have let him run for re-election indefinitely. Now Mr. Chavez says he is no dictator and respects the will of the people.

Senior U.S. intelligence officials say Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program back in 2003, but they add that the country continues to enrich uranium. The findings are a change from two years ago when American intelligence believed Iran was actively pursuing nuclear weapons.

JIM CLANCY, CNN ANCHOR: Now he wanted a mandate and he did get one. Russian President Vladimir Putin's party winning 64 percent of the vote in Sunday's poll.

GORANI: The results give United Russia, that's the party of Vladimir Putin, control of 70 percent of the Duma seats and they are a major boost to Mr. Putin's hopes to wield power after his term ends next year.

However, opposition parties and election monitors, we should add, accusing the Kremlin now of heavily influencing that vote. What do they mean? CNN's Matthew Chance has perspective.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): With a landslide victory for his party, young supporters of Vladimir Putin are celebrating a resounding win. The election has been condemned by observers as unfair. But the Putin's youth, Russia's president, can do no wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He (INAUDIBLE) a lot of things for our country. He's a real leader.

CHANCE: President Putin himself says the vote was a strong sign of public trust in him and it even strengthened Russian democracy.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT, (through translator): If the previous parliament had enjoyed the support of 70 percent of voters, this legislature is supported by 90 percent of voters. Only 10 percent of citizens have voted for parties that didn't win any seats. This is a high degree of legitimacy of our Duma.

CHANCE: Legitimacy, too, say Putin supporters, for him to stay in power after his second and final presidential term ends next year. He suggested becoming prime minister when he leaves the Kremlin, though there are (INAUDIBLE).

MICHAEL MCFAUL, RUSSIA ANALYST: He's responsible for the economy. He's responsible for all the mistakes that a government makes. And if you look at opinion polls over the last 15 years in this country, you see that the president is always much, much higher rated than the prime minister. So there's only one place to go from being president to prime minister and that's down.

CHANCE: Powerful party leader may be another, better option. Able to control parliament with his huge majority, Putin could also nominate a new president from party ranks. Truth is, outside the presidency, there's no obvious position that perfectly fits the father of the nation role that Putin wants.

And that's why Russia may be entering a new and politically unstable period, with Putin bolstered by his election win, carving out a position that could potentially challenge the authority of his successor in the Kremlin. Tensions and rivalry are almost certain to emerge.

Analysts say a new president, asserting his own power, could seek to distance himself from his predecessor. It's been done before.

MCFAUL: Yeltsin did it to Gorbachev. Putin did it to Yeltsin. I don't see any reason why the next president won't try to do exactly the same thing.

CHANCE: And while President Putin's supporters enjoyed this election landslide, Russia is set on an unpredictable course.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Despite the allegations of Kremlin influence, the results confirm President Putin's popularity, especially among the young. He's credited by many Russians with rebuilding the country after the poverty and chaos of the Yeltsin years, the 1990s. Yegor Gaidar is a former Russian prime minister. He is the founder of the Institute for the Economy in Transition. He joins us now from Washington.

Thank you so much, Mr. Gaidar, for being with us.

What do you see in this? Where will Vladimir Putin take Russia, do you predict?

YEGOR GAIDAR, FORMER RUSSIAN PRIME MINISTER: I think that financial and monetary policy will be still stable. Here he has a very good record. I think that Russia is not now functioning democracy and maybe he thinks that we need some time to build the functioning democracy.

But up till now, we are moving out of being a functioning democracy. And on a foreign policy side, a lot too depends on both sides, ourselves and the United States. Both of us are in the election periods and there is rather dangerous periods because a lot of important foreign policy issues could be used in internal politics, which is bad.

CLANCY: All right. But when we look at democracy in Russia today, is this a phase or a permanent turn? We hear the critics coming from other political parties that say that President Putin doesn't allow freedom to the access of media. So opposition candidates are almost unheard of. They don't get any air time. This and other ways that he consolidates his political power. But does it have to be permanent? Do you see that he even wants to make it permanent?

GAIDAR: You see, it's very sad for me to tell that some important events in the life of my country I cannot understand. But it is exactly this event because President Putin is really popular and it's difficult not to be popular having nine years of the stable economic growth, high rate, real wages each year increasing 10 percent, financial stability. Of course, improved position of the country on the world arena. And he could easily win far and free elections with all of the necessary preconditions of the access of anybody to the electoral process. Why it was decided that we do not have to have a free and fair elections, for me, it is a question which I cannot answer.

CLANCY: Yegor Gaidar, former prime minister of Russia. I want to thank you very much for being with us here on YOUR WORLD TODAY. That is the unanswered question, why? And how will it develop? Yegor Gaidar there, you know, making the point.

We're going to have to take a short break here. When we come back . . .

GORANI: The U.S. intelligence community has released a report today saying Iran may have halted its pursuit of a nuclear weapons program in 2003. Reaction from the White House and how does this change things, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: The National Intelligence Estimate Report says that Iran halted the pursuit of a nuclear weapon four years ago. How does that change things? Ed Henry is at the White House with more.

Ed, this is very interesting.

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Hala. This certainly, you can tell, White House officials are bracing for the fact that this can really undermine the case -- potentially could undermine the case President Bush has been making to the international community that Iran is a major, nuclear threat. It's a mixed bag on the face of it, on the surface, this new Intelligence Estimate by Bush administration officials.

On one hand it says that Tehran halted any efforts to get nuclear weapons in the fall of 2003. But on the other hand, it still says that it's possible Iran could develop nuclear weapons by the end of 2010.

So one senior official here at the White House telling me that, very bluntly, that the White House feels Iran is still trying to develop nuclear weapons. A second one noting that enrichment of uranium is still something Tehran, a key priority for them. And enrichment, obviously, is a key step, in the words of this official, "to getting the ability to have a nuclear weapons program." And, in fact, when you look inside this new National Intelligence Estimate, it says that intelligence officials here in the U.S. have a "moderate to high confidence that Tehran, at minimum, is keeping the door open to developing nuclear weapons."

Now all eyes will now be on, just after 3:00 Eastern Time here at the White House, the National Security Adviser Steven Hadley, it's now been updated to the schedule, will be briefing reporters on camera about what this report means. We have a flavor of that in a written statement, Mr. Hadley saying, "it tells us that we have made progress in trying to ensure that this does not happen in terms of Iran developing nuclear weapons, but the intelligence also tells us that the risk of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon remains a very serious problem. The estimate offers grounds for hope that the problem can be solved diplomatically without the use of force." That, obviously, is the key question. How will this affect any potential case, and I stress potential case, the White House may make for war with Iran. Clearly on the face of this, it will make it difficult for the White House to lead a case for war if they were to choose that down the road because of what this intelligence assessment is saying.

Hala.

GORANI: All right, Ed Henry at the White House. And we'll be following there that statement by Stephen Hadley, the National Security advisor, at 3:00 p.m. Eastern.

Thanks so much.

Jim.

CLANCY: We want to follow up now on a story that we told you about earlier. When last we left you on this story, there were crowds in the streets of Khartoum calling for execution. Today a British teacher, who had been working in Sudan, is on her way home. Let's go live to Liverpool and Paula Hancocks to get the latest.

Paula.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Jim.

Well, the British foreign office has just confirmed to CNN that, in fact, Gillian Gibbons is on her way. She has left Sudan. Now this was after she received that presidential pardon after she had been found guilty of insulting religion. Now this, of course, all started back in September when she allowed her six and seven-year-old students in her school where she was teaching in Khartoum to name the class teddy bear Muhammad.

Now we have been hearing from Gillian Gibbons today. She gave a statement in which she said, "I have encountered nothing but kindness and generosity from the Sudanese people. I have great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone. And I am very sorry if I caused any distress."

Now you can manage the reaction here in her hometown of Liverpool in England. Throughout the day we've heard from her son in the house behind me, John Gibbons. He said that he is delighted. That the whole family is not going to be 100 percent happy until they know that she is on that plane -- and certainly you'd expect they would know that now -- and when she's back on British soil.

Jim.

CLANCY: All right. Paula Hancocks reporting to us there live from Liverpool.

Well, coming up right here on YOUR WORLD TODAY, job available, British spy.

GORANI: The U.K. is pushing a big recruitment campaign for its intelligence services.

CLANCY: It has a big PR obstacle to overcome, though, Hala. Best summed up by the numbers 007.

GORANI: The story when we return. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUENTIN TARANTINO, DIRECTOR: To me, actually part of the joy of -- and I truly mean this -- joy of being a filmmaker is just the fact that before I was a filmmaker, I barely left Los Angeles county. I was very broke and I could never travel. And that's all I ever wanted to do. So one of the true joys of my life of being a filmmaker is the fact that it's allowed me to become a citizen of the world. You know, forget about even making movies in other countries. The fact that like on "Reservoir Dogs" I went for a whole year on the film festival circuit. I remember a friend of mine saying, this movie will be your passport to the planet Earth. And that's exactly what it's been. (END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Passionate. What was that in his ears? I think that was a translating device. Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino there sums up his love, his passion for his job. Over the past year, CNN's "The Screening Room" has interviewed more than 30 of the world's best filmmakers.

CLANCY: That's right. But here's where we get to have some fun. We're giving you a chance to sit in the director's chair. We're asking you this. Who should make the cut for our end of the year special on movie making and the film industry? Go to cnn.com/screeningroom. Cast your vote right now. And vote early.

GORANI: And often. And while you're there, you can scout out the competition and see their clips. Then watch "The Screening Room" at the end of December to see if your director made the cut.

CLANCY: Sounds like fun.

Now what could be more glamorous than actually living the life of that guy we saw on films, suave British super spy James Bond? I've always wanted (ph) . . .

GORANI: Daniel Craig -- you've always -- well, lots of things apparently are more glamorous in the real world. It seems her majesty's secret service is beating the bushes for the next generation of intelligence operatives.

CLANCY: The problem isn't that there aren't enough colorful characters out there, it's that most of the applicants are just a little to colorful for the job.

GORANI: Phil Black has a license to tell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Sometime James Bond's job doesn't seem that appealing.

SEAN CONNERY, ACTOR, "GOLDFINGER": Do you expect me to talk?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, ACTOR, "GOLDFINGER": No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, ACTOR: Oh, no, you don't.

BLACK: Sometimes it does. Bond is the iconic image of a British spy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, ACTOR: A martini. Shaken, not stirred.

BLACK: So is vodka martini your preferred drink?

HARRY FERGUSON, FORMER MI6 OFFICER: Well, if somebody else is picking up the tab, I'll drink anything I can get. BLACK: Harry Ferguson was a real spy. A former MI6 officer. In the age of global terrorism, the British government needs lots of people who are like Harry and many who are not.

FERGUSON: We want tall, short, fat, old, young -- preferably young because you get more mileage out of them when you train them. So there shouldn't be a typical intelligence officer.

BLACK: So great is the demand for new talent in Britain's intelligence services, they are recruiting more openly and more creatively than ever before. The government's communications headquarters, or GCHQ, is Britain's high-tech listening post. And now to find computer savvy new blood, it is posting job ads inside online video games.

ALAN THOMPSON, GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS HEADQUARTERS: People who need to react in very quick time scales to deliver the needs for our services.

BLACK: MI5, Britain's domestic security service, has its own recruitment website. So does MI6, the foreign spy agency, where hopefuls can take an online test to see if they've got what it takes. And for the first time MI6 officers, and his chief recruiter, have given a radio interview, shooting down the Bond myth.

MARK, MI6 HEAD OF RECRUITMENT: It does tend to turn out quite a lot of film thrill seekers and fantasists and we're really not interested in them.

BLACK: MI6 is based in this building on the River Thames. We know this because it was in a James Bond movie.

So working over there has nothing to do with fast cars, beautiful women or being licensed to kill. Those who have done the job say, in general terms, it's about getting other people around the world to reveal their secrets, often while risking their lives. They say it's hard work, never glamorous. But it does have rare moments that almost live up to the hype.

FERGUSON: Because you're dealing with other country security, because you're dealing with terrorists, there are moments when it's the best job in the world.

BLACK: Gone are the days when spy recruits were tapped on the shoulders by university professors doubling as talent scouts. Britain now wants non-British looking spies who speak obscure languages. Suave, trigger happy womanizers or man-eaters (ph) need not apply.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, ACTOR: Who are you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, ACTOR: Bond, James Bond.

BLACK: Phil Black, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: That is my favorite 007, Sean Connery. Although Daniel Craig kind of surprised me. I like him.

CLANCY: Yes. Well, you know, in the real world, the spies appear to have done it, certainly making the headlines this hour as the National Intelligence Estimate came out. We're finding out that they're saying Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons program four years ago. That's going to create some controversy.

GORANI: But still continues to enrich uranium and may potentially be able to develop a weapon in a few years. We're going to have a lot more. And the National Security adviser, Stephen Hadley, will be addressing reporters in a live news conference at 3:15 Eastern. We'll be carrying that both on CNN International and CNN USA.

CLANCY: All right. That has to be it for this hour. YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Jim Clancy.

COLLINS: I'm Hala Gorani. A lot more ahead on CNN. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So what's the opposite of a smoking gun. Possibly a

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