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Peterson Family Feud Aired May 30, 2003 - 17:00 ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Just ahead this hour, threat level dropped to yellow. And Peterson family feud, find out why police were called out to Lacis former home. President Bush in Europe - can he mend fences with the French, the Germans, the Russians? Ahead of historic Middle East summits, an urgent warning to Americans. But Led Zeppelin is back with eight hours of previously unreleased live material. ANNOUNCER: CNN live this hour, WOLF BLITZER REPORTS, live from the nations capital, with correspondents from around the world. The Laci Peterson murder case is taking another strange twist with people now entering the couples home and removing items even in the midst of a continuing investigation. The president of the United States is now in Europe beginning his most challenging overseas journey since taking office. This important trip will bring the president face to face with those European leaders who tried to block his campaign for military action in Iraq. Later, meetings with Middle Eastern leaders as the president promotes his road map toward peace. But already, a new warning has been issued for Americans in the region. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the first stop on this trip, this high stakes trip for the president, is friendly territory. Poland, of course, stood with the United States in the war with Iraq, even sending a modest number of troops in to support the United States and other coalition forces. President Bush says he is here to say thank you and he says the United States will remember its friends. At the same time the president is saying hes not holding any grudges, that he is not here in Europe for a confrontation. But he will, as you noted, in the days ahead come face to face with the president of Russia, the president of France, the chancellor of Germany, the three leaders who most fiercely opposed the United States when it came to waging war in Iraq. But you hear in some European capitals rumblings that there have been no major finds of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, some saying this is proving that George Bushs war was illegitimate. The president, in an interview with polish television, forcefully disputes that. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Weve found the weapons of mass destruction. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world and he said Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. Theyre against the United Nations resolutions and weve so far discovered two. But for those who say we havent found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, theyre wrong. END VIDEO CLIP KING: On Air Force One on the way across the Atlantic, Secretary of State Powell acknowledging there is still bad blood in some of the relationships with traditional European allies. But Secretary Powell says he and the president both very much want to move on. That will be put to the test in the days ahead and, of course, Wolf, the president ends this trip about a week from now, traveling to the Middle East to key meetings with Arab leaders, that dramatic three way summit with Prime Minister Sharon of Israel, Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority. The White House take is that there has been some fragile momentum built in the past 72 hours, maybe the past week or so. The president wants to try to build on that momentum by implementing the early steps in the Security Council road map for peace. And when President Bush leaves the Middle East, he will leave behind a team of United States diplomats to be left in the region 24-7 to monitor both the Israelis and the Palestinians as they promise to take those early steps on the road map - Wolf. BLITZER: And, John, I think its interesting he begins the trip tomorrow officially with a visit to Auschwitz and Burkinau, the former Nazi death camps in Poland. KING: Well, it is symbolic for both parts of this diplomacy, if you will. The president obviously wants to send a signal to Israel, as he urges Prime Minister Sharon to take some very difficult steps, that the United States will never do anything to undermine Israels security and will always stand by Israel. BLITZER: John King will be covering this trip for us every step of the way. And while the president may not be quite ready to forgive and forget the stance taken by France, Germany and Russia, how do the Europeans feel about this American leader? A short while ago, I asked CNNs Christiane Amanpour to assess the mood. BEGIN VIDEOTAPE BLITZER: Christiane, I assume that the president is going to try to patch things up with the leadership in Europe. CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There have, and, you know, a phrase has been resonating around Europe, the much repeated attributed to Condoleezza Rice phrase, which went something like this, were going to forgive the Russians, ignore the Germans and punish the French. And certainly thats what people are sort of thinking about, wondering about. All eyes are going to be on the initial meetings President Bush and his summit colleagues at the G8 in Evian. But certainly a lot of people are looking to that and we already know that according to the schedule, there is no one-on-one scheduled with Schroeder in Evian. But thats the sort of mood that people are looking at and that is being speculated in the press here right now. BLITZER: I assume, though, that the leadership, theres so many common interests, theyll pass things up as best as they can. Are they still angry at the Bush administration, at the president or the speedy United States wind in Iraq, has that changed, turned around attitudes? AMANPOUR: Well, I think its turned around attitudes to an extent, both in the leadership and when it comes to the people. Certainly leaders are now going out of their way to say we have got to figure out a world in which we can go forward as an international community, not as a divided, disparate group of nations doing their own thing. And they simply are waiting with bated breath in many parts of the world to see whats next, where does this world go next and what is the next target, if you like, if the United States chooses to set one in its sights? BLITZER: Christiane, as you know, Tony Blair strongly encouraged President Bush to roll up his sleeves, get involved in the Israeli- Palestinian peace process to try to get it off the ground. Is there a sense there where you are in London that President Bush is really doing this because he wants to do it or only doing it because its a sort of pay back, a reward for Tony Blair, whos been pushing him to do it? It was definitely the Blairs, if you like, quid pro quo, and weve been told that by senior British officials, also, the Arab countries who supported the war in Iraq. END VIDEOTAPE BLITZER: And after the summit meetings in Europe, the president will directly turn his attention to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Thats where CNNs Kelly Wallace is standing by - whats the president likely to find when he gets there, Kelly? KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, hell find some cautious, cautious optimism. The two sides also facing some pressure to show some progress before they huddle with President Bush in Jordan next week and the two sides touting some progress after their meeting last night. Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, in fact, in an interview this evening with an Israeli television station predicted that he could achieve a comprehensive cease-fire with all the radical Palestinian groups in about three weeks time frame. That would mean convincing all these groups to stop their attacks against Israelis. Abbas knows that the Israelis and the Americans are expecting more than a cease-fire. They say they want to see a full dismantling of all these radical Palestinian groups. Now, as for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in that meeting last night he told Mr. Abbas he would take a number of confidence building measures to improve life for the Palestinian people, including today lifting the ban on Palestinian access into Israel from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The Israelis say ...
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