President Bush Speaks To West Virginia Crowd On Independence Day
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR, CNN LIVE SUNDAY: A look at latest developments at this hour. The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee insists the U.S. does not need to reinstate the military draft. The question surfaced last week after the Pentagon recalled thousand of discharged soldiers into active duty. Senator John Warner says that recall does not mean a draft is necessary, he says an all-volunteer force works. One of Saddam Hussein's lawyers says his client can't get a fair trial and calls Iraq's new laws illegitimate. He complained Saddam has been denied the right to meet with an attorney in private. On Thursday a judge told Saddam he'd be allowed to see his attorney. An emotional 4th of July in New York as the city lays the cornerstone of the soon to be built Freedom Tower. It's being built where the World Trade Center towers once stood. The 20-ton granite cornerstone is dedicated to the victims of the September 11th attack victims. They may look laid back, but gorillas at the Columbus Ohio Zoo caused a little chaos this weekend. Friday night, seven gorillas walked through and unlocked door and wandered free in the ape house. They had a good time playing with fire extinguishers and other supplies before being coaxed back into their enclosure. Apparently all the excitement tuckered out the apes, they spent all day yesterday sleeping. The race for the White House is certainly full of fireworks this weekend, Vice President Dick Cheney is campaigning in Pennsylvania this 4th of July after attending church services in Pittsburgh, and Cheney visited supporters at the Soldiers and Sailors National Military Museum and Memorial. Tonight he heads to Altoona where he is expected to join others celebrating America's favorite past time by tossing out the first pitch at a minor league baseball game. President Bush is on the campaign trail as well today after a bit of a delay due to engine trouble on Air Force One. He campaigned in one of the battleground states in this year's election, West Virginia. Our Elaine Quijano traveled with the president in Charleston, West Virginia.</s>ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Bush spent part of his 4th of July here in Charleston, West Virginia. After a brief delay on the ground leaving Washington, a mechanical problem with Air Force One meant the president was not able to make a planned visit to a church here in Charleston. Instead, the president moved onto an afternoon appearance speaking to a crowd of 8,000 people outside the State Capitol building here in Charleston. The president took the opportunity to thank veterans and those currently serving in the military. He reminded the crowd of their sacrifices made in order they may enjoy the freedom celebrated on this Independence Day. The president also reiterated his commitment to defending the homeland and repeated his justification for removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, and he, again, pledged to take the fight to terrorists overseas, because he believes that will make America safer.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE U.S: You can't talk sense to them. You can't negotiate with them. You cannot hope for the best with these people. We must be relentless and determined and do our duty.</s>QUIJANO: The president also warned that terrorist threats still exist, and he stressed the need to work on their root causes.</s>BUSH: We must work to remove the conditions that give rise to terror in parts of the world like the Middle East. The poverty, the hopelessness and the resentments that the terrorists exploit.</s>QUIJANO: West Virginia a key battleground state one that the president carried back in 2000 by six percentage points over Al Gore, this was the president's ninth visit to West Virginia since taking office. Elaine Quijano, CNN, Charleston, West Virginia.</s>WHITFIELD: Presumed Democratic nominee John Kerry is campaigning in Iowa today. Governor Tom Vilsack is sharing some of the political spotlight with Kerry as he tours the state. The duo could be presenting a preview of what the Democratic ticket might look like. Many consider Vilsack a top contender to be Kerry's running mate. Ralph Nader is accusing Kerry of ducking his phone calls and he is accusing the Democrats overall of playing dirty tricks. The independent candidate says Democrats tried to pack an auditorium in Oregon with people presumably in support of Nader, but the crowd wouldn't sign the petition to get his name on the ballot. Nader accuses the Democrats of other similar tactics in other states. He's warning Kerry to disavow the strategy or face a big squabble with him. While America celebrates it's own Democratic institutions this Fourth of July it is also trying to export them to Iraq. CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider has been thinking about what Iraq in 2004 does and doesn't have in common with America back in 1776.</s>BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST (voice over): How much distance is there really between this scene and this scene? The Declaration of Independence describes a long train of abuses of usurpations that reduced American colonists to absolute despotism. Well talk about abuses and usurpations.</s>BUSH: Iraq was a country in which millions of people lived in fear, and many thousands disappeared into mass graves.</s>SCHNEIDER: The Declaration says governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. The new president of Iraq says.</s>SHEIKH GHAZI AL-YAWAK, IRAQI INTERIM PRESIDENT: We're not going to tell the people how to think or what party to follow.</s>SCHNEIDER: President Bush raised some eyebrows when he said this --</s>BUSH: We fully understand freedom is not America's gift to the world. Freedom is the almighty God's gift to every man and woman in this world.</s>SCHNEIDER: But doesn't the Declaration of Independence say that all people are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. The Americans declared their own independence, claiming the right of the people to alter or to abolish an abusive government and institute a new one. The new government of Iraq was instituted by a foreign occupying power.</s>KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: This new Iraqi government comes in with a few strikes against it. U.S. has tried to set up other governments, they didn't work. They're coming in now at the tail end.</s>SCHNEIDER: The U.S. claims it's doing it in the name of the Iraqi people who couldn't do it for themselves. But isn't the U.S. acting out of self-interest? Of course it is.</s>BUSH: The world has a clear interest in the spread of Democratic values because stable and free nations do not breathe the ideologies of murder.</s>SCHNEIDER (on camera): When the Declaration of Independence talked about abolishing abusive government and dissolving the political bands that connect one person with another, they were one and the same: The British Crown. For Iraq, the first challenge was to abolish the abusive government of Saddam Hussein. The next is dissolving ties of dependency to the United States. Bill Schneider, CNN, Los Angeles.</s>WHITFIELD: Time for news around the world now. In Baurain (ph), another U.S. State Department travel warning. All U.S. Embassy non- emergency employees and their families are being asked to leave the Persian Gulf state. Americans are also warned against traveling there. The reason? Extremists may be planning terrorist attacks in the kingdom. More violence in the Middle East and the West Bank. Palestinian militants ambushed an Israeli couple outside a Jewish settlement killing the husband. Elsewhere, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in separate disputed incidents. And in Northern Ireland, a contentious protestant parade ends peacefully. The seventh consecutive year that the Orange Order has been blocked from marching through a Catholic area of Portadown, previous disputed over this parade triggered riots back in 1996, '97 and '98. Looking forward to the fireworks tonight? What if they were smokeless? And why would that matter? The latest in firework technology straight ahead. And when was the last time you were able to cook a chicken in your car? What, you don't want to cook a chicken in your car? You'll need to listen to our next guest. Protecting your car during the summer heat.