Colombian Marxist Rebels Allegedly Plotted To Assasinate President Bush
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: It's 2:00 p.m. on the East Coast, 11:00 a.m. in the west. Welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY. I'm Andrea Koppel in Washington. Ahead this hour, new information about an alleged assassination plot against President Bush. Also, terrorism and security at one of the biggest entry points into the U.S., why trucks are not inspected until after arriving in America. Also, a big oil spill near Philadelphia. Live with the latest on what's being done to contain and clean up the damage. Those stories in a moment, but first, here's stories now in the news.</s>KOPPEL: We begin in a political hot spot in Eastern Europe, Ukraine. The country's political crisis sparked by last weekends disputed presidential runoff election drags on this weekend. But some new developments offer hope that the crisis can soon be resolved. CNN's Jill Dougherty is with us now from Ukraine's capital of Kiev. So Jill, I guess we're into the sixth evening of demonstrations there?</s>JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are. But you can still hear the sounds. There is still demonstrating going on. A big rally continuing -- yes, I can. If you can hear me, I hope. Can you hear me, Atlanta?</s>KOPPEL: Go ahead, Jill, we can hear you.</s>DOUGHERTY: Looks like we may -- we have some problems there. Yes, the demonstrations are continuing. In fact, OK, Andrea -- downtown Kiev still the center of all of these demonstrations, still thousands of people on the streets. But the most important thing that happened today was a political development, and that took place inside the parliament. The parliament taking two votes crucial ones that were very symbolically helpful to the opposition. One was they voted to annul the results of that runoff election last week saying it did not represent the wishes of the Ukrainian people. Then also they voted to dissolve The Central Commission that ratified and said that the government-backed candidate had won that election. Now, there's no legal</s>VOLODYMYE LYTVYN, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER: The most logical political decision taking into account the mutual claims of massive violations is to pronounce the elections invalid in the sense of trying to determine the real will of the people.</s>DOUGHERTY: So these demonstrators, as we've been saying, we are here in Kiev, which is a real center of the opposition. They support Victor Yushchenko, who is the opposition canidate. But there are other people who support the government backed candidate and that's Viktor Yanukovych. And today there were demonstrations in another part of the country, Dunyesk (ph) in the east of Ukraine, where a mining area, a heavily industrialized mining area. They definitely feel that the candidate who was officially announced the president should be the president, that there was an election and that the opposition should accept it. So they have been rallying, too. But at this point, we have to say that politically, the movement seems to be toward the opposition with no final guarantee that they will be able to get what they want, which is another vote.</s>KOPPEL: Jill Dougherty, reporting for us there in Kiev, Ukraine, where it looks like it's more of a rock concert than a demonstration. But so far things are peaceful. President Bush's stop over in Colombia was brief, but a senior Colombian official now says that the president's life was in danger. The official says Marxist rebels had targeted Mr. Bush for assassination during his brief visit this week to Cartagena. No incidents happened and the U.S. Secret Service is declining to comment. The president stopped their Monday on his return trip from the APEC summit in Chile. Toby Muse is a journalist in Colombia and joins me now by phone with more about this surprising revelation. So Tony, who was it that broke the news about this plot and what can you tell us about it?</s>TOBY MUSE, JOURNALIST: Good afternoon. This was the Colombian defense minister Jorge Alberto Uribe. And details remain very sketchy. But he says that Colombian authorities were warned by informants that the FARC supreme command had ordered their unit to assassination President Bush. It should be noted that there was a huge security system when Bush was in Cartagena for about four with some 15,000 Colombia troops patrolling the city, aerial overflights. And the city essentially locked down, all to prevent anything from occurring. I think, the plots -- the plots against the president's life don't seem to have advanced very far given that there has been no arrests and, as you said, there were no incidents.</s>KOPPEL: We should let our viewers, who may not be as familiar with the Colombian civil war, know that the FARC or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. And they've been fighting a 30-year civil war against the government. Toby, can you explain to our viewers perhaps why the FARC would want to target President Bush.</s>MUSE: The FARC, as you said, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia is Latin America's largest Marxist guerrilla group. It's thought to have 20,000 members in uniform and in urban militias. The FARC hates the government of President Alvaro Uribe. And he hate any government that backs it, which in this case is the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government has given, we're fast approaching, $4 billion in aid to the Colombian government over the past four years. This money has been used to go after Marxist rebels and to go after the country's drug trafficking industry. Colombia is responsible for the vast majority of cocaine and the vast majority of heroin on the streets of the U.S. So the FARC attacks anyone who attacks -- supports the Colombian government. So this would be the motivation for an assassination attempt against President George W. Bush.</s>KOPPEL: Believe, we're seeing pictures right now in Cartagena of the site where this alleged plot was supposed to have taken place. Toby, can you tell us, perhaps, how and why the Colombian government decided to go public about this?</s>MUSE: Well, the Colombian government is involved -- the Colombian government and the rebels are involved in a long running civil war and also a long running propaganda war. The Colombian government feels that while it's received absolute 100 percent from the U.S. government for its policies, it worries about some European politicians. Frequently criticizes European politicians are criticized for portraying the Marxist rebels as some latter-day Robin Hood. And the bringing to light of this plot against the president's life, it is one-third the step in this propaganda war that the two sides are fighting just as fiercely as the civil war is raging in the country here.</s>KOPPEL: Toby Muse, a journalist in Colombia, joining us there by phone. Thank you so much. Turning now to Iraq where the violence continues and talk of an election delay is building. In Baghdad, an improvised explosive device blew up this morning in the southern part of the city. Eyewitnesses say U.S. military convoy was passing by at the time, but no casualties are reported. Meantime, the U.S. Military says 17 bodies have been discovered in the northern city of Mosul. No information yet about identities. In the last eight days, 57 bodies have been found in that region. As the violence continues, talk of a delay in elections is also building. More than a dozen major parties want the January 30th elections pushed back for up to six months. The interim Iraqi government and the U.S. are adamant that elections must go forward in January. We get the latest from CNN's Karl Penhaul in Baghdad.</s>KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): My details are correct and I'm ready for the election, says the man in the TV ad telling Iraqis how to register for January 30th elections. Campaign posters are popping up around Baghdad. A reminder this will be the first free vote in more than 50 years. But not everybody has election fever. Adnan Pachachi, a former coalition ally and ex-president of the Iraqi Governing Council wants to postpone the ballot.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First of all, it's to insure a wider participation possible so that no part of Iraq, no area of Iraq, would be left out from the political process. And the second one is to give a chance for an improvement in the security situation.</s>PENHAUL (on camera): At a meeting Friday 15 major religious and secular political organizations backed his stance including the two main Kurdish parties. Any delay could prove tricky. The United Nations Security Council resolution set the deadline for a vote no later than January 31st. And leaders of Iraq's Shia Muslim majority has been pushing for elections at the earliest opportunity. At a weekend press conference officials seemed determined to proceed as planned.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want to get involved with this issue because it's not my field. But up until now there are discussions going on and the prime minister, he want to have the election at the same time. He doesn't want to postpone it.</s>PENHAUL (voice-over): Violence has spiked in parts of Iraq since the start of November. But the Independent Electoral Commission believes the January timetable is still realistic. "There are some areas in the country with security problems, " he says, "but there are 72 days left until the elections. And with the continuing effort to improve security, most of the country should be able to take part." Aside calls for a postponement, some Sunni Muslim parties and clerics are urging their supporters to boycott the poll, together, until coalition armies leave Iraq for good. Insurgent gunmen seem to be backing that demand with firepower. Karl Penhaul, CNN, Baghdad.</s>KOPPEL: So far the latest efforts to break a deadlock between Iran and its nuclear plans aren't meeting with much success. Iran's foreign minister says a new draft resolution put forward by Great Britain, France and Germany is still unacceptable despite some recent changes. Negotiators from the three European counties in Iran are meeting this weekend in Vienna. The United States and its European allies are concerned that Iran has the desire and the intention to develop nuclear weapons. 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