Terrorist Attacks Rock Afghanistan, Pakistan
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm going to see this film. Kareen Wynter, thanks very much for that. Happening now: the best political team on television on these stories, a brazen attack by the Taliban in Afghanistan. U.N. workers are dead, and President Obama is under more pressure to send in reinforcements. This hour, Senator John McCain demands, it's time to act, a direct quote from him. Plus, President Obama promised to change the ways of Washington, but there's new evidence he's giving some big perks to donors, just like his predecessors did. Is the Lincoln Bedroom flap all over again? What's going on? And Republicans called on the carpet for voting against funding for swine flu vaccine, and Democrats accused of being too slow to respond to the outbreak. Are both parties playing politics right now with the pandemic? I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Smoke rising and bullets flying -- it was a two-hour siege in the Afghan capital of Kabul today. Taliban stormed a guesthouse used by United Nations workers. Eight people were killed, including five U.N. workers, one of them an American. Three attackers also are dead. President Hamid Karzai is calling it an inhumane act. It comes only 10 days before the presidential runoff elections in Afghanistan and as President Obama considers whether to send in thousands of additional troops. His former presidential rival, Republican Senator John McCain, is adding to the pressure. Our White House correspondent, Dan Lothian, is standing by with more on what's going on. What is going on, Dan?</s>DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, you know, the president has always made it clear that it's more important to get the Afghanistan war policy right, not fast. But there's mounting criticism that too much time is being spent reviewing options over and over again and that now is the time for action.</s>LOTHIAN (voice-over): October has been the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the war there began, violence that adds to the pressure on President Obama to make his strategy decision soon. In an interview with CBS' "The Early Show," Senator John McCain said, it's time to act.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: We watch this situation continue to deteriorate while this long, protracted process of decision-making goes on. We're not operating in a vacuum.</s>LOTHIAN: Senator McCain, who says he supported the president's initial counterinsurgency strategy and General Stanley McChrystal's assessment to send in more resources to Afghanistan, says U.S. allies are nervous and military commanders are becoming frustrated. In a commentary written for CNN.com, Senator McCain ads: "Americans are already serving in harm's way in Afghanistan. And the sooner we can provide the reinforcements and resources they need, the safer and more successful they will be." White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, who still says a decision on Afghanistan could come in a matter of weeks, was quick to dismiss Senator McCain's criticism.</s>ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I certainly wouldn't agree with Senator McCain on that. I don't think the American people agree with Senator McCain on that. I think it's important to hear and get -- to get this right.</s>LOTHIAN: To -- quote -- "get it right" President Obama has met more than a half-dozen times with his war council in the White House Situation Room. Gibbs stopped short of saying that the growing casualty figures would influence the president's decision, but admitted it's a burden.</s>GIBBS: The hardest task that he has on any given day is signing the condolence letter of a loved one who's lost a son or a daughter or a husband, a wife in Iraq or Afghanistan or serving our country overseas.</s>LOTHIAN: President Obama has another high-level meeting set for Friday. That's when he sits down with his Joint Chiefs as part of the ongoing assessment in Afghanistan in Pakistan. White House aides say they don't know if this will be the final meeting, but they point out that the president is nearing the end of his decision process -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: So it could be within the next week or two or before he leaves on that trip to Asia in mid-November, almost for sure, right?</s>LOTHIAN: Well, it could be before. It could be after. All they're saying right now, they continue with that line in a number of weeks -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: And he said earlier in the week he was going to make sure he wouldn't rush into something that could affect the life and death of so many U.S. troops.</s>LOTHIAN: That's right.</s>BLITZER: This very much for that, Dan Lothian. Let's get some more now on that attack in the Afghan capital today. This is the worst in a series of attacks designed to destabilize Afghanistan before the presidential runoff election on November 7. Our Pentagon correspondent, Chris Lawrence, was in Kabul when the shooting broke out earlier in the morning. He has the latest now from the Afghan capital.</s>CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this wasn't just a single suicide car bomber. This was a coordinated guerrilla style attack in the heart of Afghanistan's capital city. And it was clearly designed to disrupt that upcoming election. (voice-over): Militants, Afghan security forces and at least five United Nations workers are all dead after militants stormed a guesthouse where United Nations workers were staying. It was an early-morning raid. The Afghan security forces say they came in armed with machine guns and a suicide vest. The fight lasted well over an hour, the Afghan police returning fire, trying to secure that compound. This was clearly designed to disrupt the upcoming election. The Taliban have now claimed responsibility for the attack, fulfilling a promise made just a few days ago, when they called for a boycott of the election and threatened violence against anyone who would participate in it. (on camera): The U.N. is not only funding part of the election, but it also has hundreds of employees that are working to organize it. Even though its commitment as a whole has not wavered, practically, on the ground, things have changed, because now the U.N. is completely reviewing its entire security plan across the country for its personnel. And it also has to find safe places now to house those personnel. There's simply just not enough room at the U.N. compound for everyone that works for the organization, all in all, adding up to disruption before this runoff election -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right, Chris -- Chris Lawrence in Kabul for us. Next door to Afghanistan, yet more terror. This was the scene in Northwestern Pakistan when that car bomb ripped through a crowded market. At least 100 people were killed, mostly women and children. It happened soon after the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, landed in Pakistan. Our foreign affairs correspondent, Jill Dougherty, is traveling with Secretary Clinton -- Jill.</s>JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Secretary Clinton is here in Pakistan with a message: Convince Pakistanis their relationship with the United States goes a lot deeper than simply fighting terrorism, but today it was a real challenge to make that case. (voice-over): Hours after the secretary of state arrives in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, a massive car bomb explodes in a crowded market frequented by women in the northwest city of Peshawar, a two-hour drive away, the city near Pakistan's tribal areas where al Qaeda and other extremist groups are believed to be hiding. Condemning what she calls vicious attacks, Hillary Clinton says those who carry them out are cowards.</s>HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: They are not courageous. They are cowardly. If the people behind these attacks were so sure of their beliefs, let them join the political process. Let them come forth to the people of Pakistan and this democracy and make their case that they don't want girls to go to school, that they want women to be kept back.</s>SHAH MAHMOOD QURESHI, PAKISTANI FOREIGN MINISTER: A critical phase.</s>DOUGHERTY: An angry Pakistani foreign minister challenges extremists who he claims are on the run, defeated in major military operations carried out this spring in the Swat Valley, and, he promises, facing defeat in current operations in South Waziristan.</s>QURESHI: We will not buckle. We will -- we will fight you. We will fight you because we want stability and peace in Pakistan.</s>DOUGHERTY: But, on this trip, Secretary Clinton says she wants to turn the page on a U.S.-Pakistan relationship focused so far on fighting extremism, offering U.S. help on another threat to the well- being of Pakistanis, lack of electricity -- Clinton's mission, to clear up what she calls misperceptions that cooperating with the U.S. can jeopardize Pakistanis' own security.</s>CLINTON: We are going to reach out and make clear, as best as I can, what our intentions are and what our commitments are.</s>DOUGHERTY (on camera): And reach out, she is, Secretary Clinton here in Pakistan launching a media blitz, trying to pull back on track this relationship, which she says has a lot of scar tissue -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Jill Dougherty, traveling with the secretary in Pakistan, thank you. New moves by President Obama today on national security -- he appointed two former U.S. senators as co-chairmen of his Intelligence Advisory Board. They are the maverick Republican Senator -- former Senator, I should say, Chuck Hagel and former Democratic Senator David Boren. The board provides independent advice to the president about the effectiveness of the intelligence community. The president also signed a $680 billion defense bill. It kills some costly weapons projects and expands America's war efforts. It also includes a major civil rights change. It expands the law against federal hate crimes to include attacks on people based on their sexual orientation. You saw the live event a few moments ago over at the White House. An Oval Office birthday tour, bowling in the White House bowling alley, and golfing with the president, a newspaper report says those are among the perks President Obama handed out to top donors and fund- raisers. This report could potentially be problematic for the White House. We're investigating. Stick around. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.