[Blitzer:] Welcome back. Polio is on the brink of eradication worldwide, but biomedical researchers in New York have created the deadly virus in a laboratory, virtually from scratch. Can terrorists duplicate that feat? Joining me now, CNN medical correspondent Rea Blakey. What's the answer?
[Rea Blakey, Cnn Medical Correspondent:] Well let's put it this way, this is considered proof of principle, if you will, Wolf. a lot of virologists we've spoken to said this was always a matter of time, certainly a doable prospect, now they have proof and scientists no longer obviously need the real thing to make more polio virus, so the answer potentially is yes they could. The question is how was it done? Well, basically you get the written genetic code for polio virus, you build a strand of DNA, you convert that to RNA, you use chemicals and enzymes, you let the thing replicate itself. What's so troubling about all this is all the crucial elements, the 7,700 letter genetic code for Polio virus, the DNA strands, the other chemicals and enzymes all available on the Internet or by mail order. In fact, that's standard operating procedure for many labs. The lead researcher, Dr. Eckard Wimmer, says there should be laws to track and reduce distribution of these materials since they can be put together in such this way. Now how dangerous is this new science, which is really what we want to know. Well for many reasons polio is not a good bioterrorism weapon, but can molecular scientists create a more lethal human pathogen? Possible. The president of the American Society for Virology fears that that's closer to being possible now that this synthetic polio virus has been made, as you say, from scratch. Now the science does need to point out the need for a stockpile, if you will, of polio vaccine even though the natural wild virus is almost extinct in this world. Worldwide only 480 cases reported last year and the World Health Organization has plans to stop vaccinating against it by 2005. Now, however, those plans may need to be reconsidered. Polio is not as deadly or infectious a pathogen as smallpox or Ebola, but according to WHO, polio virus causes paralysis in one out of every 200 to 1,000 people infected. Only a fraction of those people who were paralyzed actually died from the virus, Wolf. So it's not really an effective way to go about causing terrorism, but very much like a dirty bomb. The potential panic factor could cause a problem and be very disruptive in public health terms.
[Blitzer:] And panic could even be worse if somebody could replicate smallpox, the smallpox virus.
[Blakey:] Which at this point we cannot say is impossible. What the big difference here is, is that for polio, in particular, takes 7700 elements or units, if you will. Polio I'm sorry, smallpox is a much bigger virus, takes somewhere around 200,000 units, so it would take a much longer amount of time and much more scientific effort. However, with technology advancing the way it does, we can not say that it's impossible.
[Blitzer:] Well, let's hope it is. Rea Blakey, thank you very much. The alleged shoe bomber, Richard Reid, has lost a legal bid to have the words "al Qaeda" removed from the indictment against him. Reid's lawyers argue that the government's references to al Qaeda would create prejudice against Reid, who's due to go on trial in November. The government alleges that Reid was trained by the terror network before he tried to light explosives in his shoes on an American Airlines flight last year. A federal appeals court is again barring a suspected American Taliban fighter from meeting with a lawyer. The panel ruled that a lower court judge, who approved such a meeting, did not adequately consider the government's position that the prisoner is a quote "enemy combatant." Yasser Esam Hamdi was captured in Afghanistan. He was held at Guantanomo Bay, Cuba, the U.S. naval base there, until it was discovered that he was born in Louisiana. He's been in a navy brig in Virginia since April. Hamdi has not been charged. John Walker Lindh, the American who allegedly fought on the side of the Taliban, wants a freelance CNN contributor to testify at his trial. Walker Lindh was interviewed by Robert Pelton right after his capture in Afghanistan. His defense team wants a federal judge to decide if Pelton can be subpoenaed as a material witness. Pelton was freelancing for this network at the time of the interview. CNN is among the media organizations trying to squash quash that subpoena. Journalist Robert Pelton, by the way, will be Aaron Brown's guests among Aaron's guests tonight on "NEWSNIGHT." That, of course, begins at 10 p.m. Eastern here only on CNN. The Justice Department is asking a federal judge to let it screen pretrial information in all September 11 injury and death lawsuits against airlines. It's the latest in a series of government efforts to restrict information connected to terror cases. Let's go live to CNN'S Deborah Feyerick. She's outside the federal court in New York City. Deborah, tell us all about this.
[Deborah Feyerick, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, Wolf, the agency in charge of airlines say they basically wanted the judge to give them the green light, to give thumbs up or down to all evidence requested by the families' victims. This way they would have been able to monitor exactly what they would have given them but, a judge effectively said no.
[Ellen Mariani:] It is not a vengeance. My God, it's my husband. I loved him dearly. It is for the truth and it's to find out how it happened, why it happened.
[Feyerick:] The Justice Department has stepped in fighting to protect what it calls airline's sensitive security information, SSI for short. Prosecutors saying unauthorized release of SSI creates an unacceptable risk to the traveling public and to the national security. Prosecutors want the Transportation Security Administration, which oversees air safety, to be able to stop the use of any evidence they feel could be a safety threat. Lawyers for the victims families call it outrageous.
[Unidentified Female:] Well, they want to stop the discovery. There is something they do not want to come out, and so they have said that by any discovery it's possible that sensitive security information could be revealed. That's also very troubling because we're not talking national security or top secret documents.
[Feyerick:] So what are the families lawyers talking about?
[Unidentified Female:] We're talking about security violations. We're talking about training that security people had. We're talking about the travel of the terrorists on the planes. We're talking about even the passenger name records.
[Feyerick:] So what the judge basically decided is that the government will have to file a protective order against each and every piece of evidence that they deem to be a safety risk. So, for example, if the family wants that passenger list, the government is going to have to say why they think it's a matter of national security that it not be released. That means a lot more work for the government as opposed to sort of a blanket right to give thumbs up or thumbs down. Also what the judge said is that discovery will not be able to start immediately, but it can start in September within the year, which is when families have the right to file Wolf.
[Blitzer:] Deborah Feyerick in New York. Thank you, Deborah, very much. And "Sesame Street" goes out on a limb to teach South African youth about AIDS. When we return, a look at the newest muppet, who happens to be HIV-positive. Plus, how are America's children doing? Better than you might think. And the church clears the way for Charles and Camilla. Is a royal wedding on the horizon? We'll talk to a man who has the royals' ears. Stay with us.