Bush Holds Wide-Ranging Press Conference; National Assembly Convenes in Baghdad; Homeland Security Releases List of Disaster Scenarios
KITTY PILGRIM, HOST: Tonight, President Bush stands firm on Iraq and so-called Social Security reform. The president strongly defends his policies. In the red: shocking new evidence tonight on the country's debts to foreign countries. This crisis affects every American. And illegal alien crisis. The terrible cost of our broken borders. Criminal illegal aliens on the loose committing serious crimes and evading our laws.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS for news, debate and opinion, tonight. Sitting in for Lou Dobbs, Kitty Pilgrim.</s>PILGRIM: Good evening. Also tonight, crossing the line. Mexico's outrageous statement. Does the Mexican government realize its authority ends at the U.S. border? "Assault on the Middle Class." New bankruptcy rules make it harder for Americans to erase their debts. And "America's Bright Future." Four astonishing young people. They are the winners of one of the country's most prestigious science competitions. President Bush today said the United States cannot withdraw from Iraq until the Iraqis can defend themselves. The president said he hopes our allies stay in Iraq. Italy will start pulling troops out in September. President Bush also said he has no intention of backing down from his plan for so-called Social Security reforms. White House correspondent Dana Bash reports.</s>DAN BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president came before reporters to urge lawmakers to start looking for permanent solutions to keep Social Security out of the red.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's important that we talk about a permanent fix, something that will last forever.</s>BASH: But Mr. Bush still refused to offer his own ideas to make the system solvent, even as he concedes the crux of his plan doesn't do the trick.</s>BUSH: Personal accounts do not solve the issue. Personal accounts will make sure that individual workers get a better deal with whatever emerges as a Social Security solution.</s>BASH: Bush aides admit it's a crucial time for his top domestic goal. Members of Congress will be home meeting with constituents and facing a well-organized opposition, already buoyed by polls showing the president's plan in trouble. Mr. Bush wants reforming Social Security for his legacy. The Iraq war still defines his presidency. He said he spoke to Italy's prime minister and tried to downplay his ally's decision to start withdrawing troops from Iraq in September.</s>BUSH: Any withdrawals would be done in consultation with allies and would be done depending upon the ability of the Iraqis to defend themselves.</s>BASH: The president hailed the first meeting of the Iraqi National Assembly as a bright moment for the region and again pressed for free elections in Lebanon. But walked a fine, even precarious line on the possibility of Hezbollah, which he again called a terrorist group, winning power at the polls.</s>BUSH: Maybe someone will run for office saying, "Vote for me. I look forward to blowing up America." I don't know. I don't know if that will be their platform or not. But I don't think so. I think people generally run for office and say, "Vote for me. I'm looking forward to fixing your potholes."</s>BASH: And in the wide-ranging 48-minute press conference, the president also defended a controversial post-9/11 policy to allow suspected terrorists in the U.S. to be picked up and sent back to their country of origin. But he said they only do that as long as they get a promise here that they're not going to be tortured -- Kitty.</s>PILGRIM: All right, Dana. Another point: the White House has nominated Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who's a prominent neoconservative, to be the head -- next head of the World Bank. Why did the White House choose Wolfowitz for this high-profile job?</s>BASH: Kitty, that's probably a question being asked in many a European capital as we speak because, of course, Paul Wolfowitz is essentially a lightning rod, somebody who many people think perhaps personifies some of the misguided, from some people's perspective, points of view and misconceptions about Iraq before the war. But what senior officials here say is that, much like the United Nations, they think that the World Bank is a fine institution that needs reform and that Paul Wolfowitz is somebody with the record in and strong interest in development issues and that the World Bank, they think, is a good place for him to pursue those issues and also pursue promoting democracy. They understand that some people see this as an in your face appointment, but they say here that he has a strong resume and a keen interest in the issues that he's going to be able to take on at the World Bank if he is, of course, appointed.</s>PILGRIM: Thanks very much, Dana Bash.</s>BASH: Thank you.</s>PILGRIM: Well, a major step forward for democracy in Iraq today. Iraq's first freely elected parliament in half a century met in Baghdad. Insurgents tried and failed to disrupt the meeting by firing mortars at the convention center. Aneesh Raman reports from Baghdad.</s>ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than six weeks after Iraq's election, members of the national assembly are sworn in, set to soon draft the country's constitution and take over day-to-day affairs, including security, an urgent need highlighted this day by mortar attacks in Baghdad and a car bombing in Baqubah. But absent from the gathering, any nomination of transitional leaders. Negotiations still ongoing.</s>ADEL ABDUL MAHDI, IRAQI FINANCE MINISTER: We are ready to start deliberations on the formation of the government. I think by the current of next week we'll have a government in Iraq.</s>RAMAN: One reason for the delay: the majority parties are seeking a unity government with as many groups as possible, ranging from the Sunnis, who chose to boycott the election, to Ayad Allawi's secular Iraqi list. That means resolution on critical issues must be addressed now, such as how significant a role Islam will play as a source of law for the new government. And is why the likely next prime minister, Shia Ibrahim al-Jaafari, is speaking with moderation.</s>IBRAHIM AL-JAAFARI, IRAQI DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Respect for human rights. The role of women and everything related to the freedom is relevant (ph).</s>RAMAN: Emotions are high during this critical stage. Shouts came as a Kurd legislator demanded the oath be read not only in Arabic but in Kurdish, as well. The irony of the day, not lost on anyone, especially the Kurds. This is a 17th anniversary of the gassing in Halabja, when thousands of Kurds were killed by Saddam. (on camera) But perhaps the most important aspect of today was reminding the Iraqi people, who voted this assembly in at the end of January, that the government is moving forward and that democracy is taking root. Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.</s>PILGRIM: There was also progress today in the search for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli troops today pulled out of the West Bank city of Jericho. The soldiers lowered the Israeli flag as they dismantled checkpoints in and around the city. Jericho is the first city to be returned to Palestinian control under an agreement reached last month. Elsewhere in the Middle East, Syria today made another move to comply with demands for a complete withdrawal from Lebanon. Syrian intelligence agents closed their offices in Beirut and other Lebanese cities. That's after 18 years. Syria has promised to withdraw all its troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon, but it has not given a firm date. The threat of a new terrorist attack against this country has prompted the federal government to develop a range of disaster scenarios, and those scenarios include the detonation of a nuclear device and a major poison gas attack. Homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve reports.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bomb is in play.</s>JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hollywood has been cooking up disaster scenarios for years. The "Sum of All Fears" involved a nuclear explosion at a Super Bowl. Now the federal government has put down on paper 15 horrific hypothetical disaster scenarios of its own. In one, terrorists hide a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb in a van and set it off in the middle of a major city, costing an unknown number of lives and billions of dollars in economic losses. In another, terrorists detonate a storage tank full of chlorine gas. More than 17,000 are killed, 10,000 injured, 100,000 hospitalized. The secretary of homeland security says the scenarios will be used to help federal, state and local governments prepare for real disasters.</s>MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: It gives us categories of things to be focused on in terms of prevention, in terms of protection and response, which then can guide people in equipment purchases and training and other kinds of decisions.</s>MESERVE: The scenarios will also help determine how federal homeland security dollars are directed. The scenarios are considered plausible, but are not based on real intelligence. Officials say there is no indication that the suggested attacks are being planned or that terrorists are in possession of the agents and devices involved.</s>CHERTOFF: We have deliberately generalized the threats. In fact, we don't even identify a particular terrorist group. We just have a universal terrorist group, because we want people to plan not only for the expected, but for the unexpected.</s>MESERVE: Some state and local officials characterize the planning scenarios as a good start, but one characterized them as overly catastrophic and not necessarily useful in preparing for real and present dangers -- Kitty.</s>PILGRIM: Thanks very much, Jeanne Meserve. Still to come, one thing President Bush did not talk about today was an issue we've been reporting on extensively here: an escalating overseas threat to the prosperity of middle class Americans. And shocking new details tonight on how criminal illegal aliens can evade the law in this country and stay out of jail, even when they commit serious crimes.