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Connect the World
Willem-Alexander Sworn In As New Netherlands Monarch; Anna Coren Takes Ride In South Korea's Newest Supersonic Jet; Gunman Occupy Justice Ministry in Tripoli
Aired April 30, 2013 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BECKY ANDERSON, HOST: Just weeks after the Boston bombings, the trial of these would-be bombers in the UK once again highlights the risks of radicalization.
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN London, this is Connect the World with Becky Anderson.
ANDERSON: Tonight, why trust and cooperation between authorities and communities are key in the fight against terror.
Also ahead, as power is passed from mother to son, The Netherlands welcomes its first king in more than a century.
And with the clock ticking down on what is a crucial showdown in Madrid, can Real fight back for a place in the Champion's League finals.
All right, good evening. First tonight to the U.S. where President Barack Obama is defending the FBI's handling of the Boston bombing investigation. Take a listen to what he had just a little earlier on today in Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Based on what I've seen so far, the FBI performed its duties, Department of Homeland Security did what it was supposed to be doing. But this is hard stuff.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, despite that show of support, President Obama is backing a review ordered by the director of national intelligence James Clapper, that's to see whether agencies took appropriate steps before the attack.
Well, from the U.S. to Dagestan and now Canada, U.S. federal agents are looking into possible links between Dzhokhar's brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev and a Canadian boxer turned jihadist who was killed by Russian troops in 2012.
Nick Paton Walsh is in Moscow for you this evening. And Nick, I want to pick this latest thread in the Tamerlan Tsarnaev trail for us, if you will. What are the details?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's so much that overlaps in the lives of the man you just mentioned, the Canadian boxer William Plotnikov, age 23, and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the now deceased alleged elder Boston bomber. They were both in North American for much of their childhood and their teen years, both born in the former Soviet Union, both keen boxers, and both in Dagestan, it seems, for the first six months of last year at least.
Mr. Plotnikov was killed by a raid by Russian special forces, an ambush, in the sort of area slightly south to the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala in mid-July, but two days after that, perhaps by coincidence, Tamerlan Tsarnaev left Russia and went back to the United States.
Now that's kind of the level of coincidence there that have caused investigators to try and work out if these men are somehow connected by anything other than their enormously parallel lives they seem to have been leading.
Plotnikov, according to much reporting there, came into contact, perhaps with an early stage, with Russian authorities, was released. I think went back to his contacts with militants, reports from his father, talking about that connection there. And then of course caught up with by security services in this ambush.
But Becky, this feels part of a broader theme we've been hearing over the past week, tangential links to militants across this area, none of which actually specify a meeting between Tamerlan Tsarnaev and any particular militant group, but just an awful lot of coincidences that appear to span the time in which he was in Dagestan, Becky.
ANDERSON: All right, Nick. With the very latest out of Moscow as authorities of course try and join these dots.
Meanwhile in the UK, six men have pleaded guilty to plotting to bomb a rally, a plan that failed only because they got there too late.
CNN's senior international correspondent Matthew Chance is in our London news room. And this was a plot I understand, Matt, with some similarities to the Boston attack, a plot that also raises questions about UK intelligence or the lack thereof.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right, Becky. There are lots of parallels being drawn between what happened in Boston and what could have happened with these would-be bombers that were arrested about a year ago and they confessed to their plot earlier today in the courts in England.
First of all, there are a number of individuals, radical Islamists, who are not more or less known to the authorities. They weren't particularly being under surveillance, although one of them was said to have been watched. They also planned to attack a mass public gathering, not a marathon in this case, but a political rally, actually a rally of the English Defense League, which is an anti-Islamic group. And they planned to do that with explosive devices they've constructed themselves in their homes from plans that they downloaded from the internet.
In fact, it was only because of incompetence on the part of the bombers that there weren't more similarities with the Boston attackers. They got to the rally too late and the crowd had dispersed when they got there. But take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He came out and says, "you're an Islamophobe. Yes, I am."
CHANCE: This was the crowded rally of a British anti-Islamic group, the English Defense League, that the six would-be bombers had been planning to attack. Police say there were as many as 750 people there as well as dozens of officers and passersby who could have been killed or wounded if the plan had been carried out.
But the men, who have now pleaded guilty to the plot, arrived too late and the crowd had dispersed.
MARCUS BEALE, WEST MIDLANDS POLICE: There's no question that if these IEDs had gone off they would have maimed the people who have been close by. There's a really strong possibility that they would have been killed.
CHANCE: It was only by chance the plot was discovered at all. Driving home after their abandoned mission, two of the men were pulled over by this routine traffic patrol. Their car was found to have no insurance and impounded.
Not until two days after that was the car finally searched. Inside, police found an arsenal of improvised weaponry, including knives and sawn- off shotguns, and a homemade bomb packed with nails and ball bearings. There were also components for three further devices made from plumbing parts the police say appear to have been based on designs featured in an English language al Qaeda magazine called Inspire.
Inspire is also the publication that U.S. law enforcement officials believe may have provided the Boston bombers with instructions to make their explosive devices. Analysts say its bomb recipes are easily downloaded from the internet, giving potential radicals anywhere a simple blueprint to carry out violent action.
And this is the man behind Inspire, American born jihadist Anwar al- Awlawki. Police say the British plotters had CDs of his radical preaching in the back of their car. Despite the fact he was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011, analysts say his message is still being heard.
ALEXANDER HITCHENS, TERRORISM ANALYST, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: He's incredibly influential. His death has only really taken away his ability, and that of al Qaeda's to respond to events as they happen. All of his most important ideological work, which provides the justification for violence and terrorism, has already been done. And it's already widely available online.
CHANCE: And on both sides of the Atlantic, it's still apparently inspiring radicals to commit violence.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHANCE: Well, there's been some questions, Becky, about why the British security forces didn't know more about this plot. They say they simply didn't have the intelligence to put these individuals under closer surveillance ahead of this plot being carried out, Becky.
ANDERSON: All right. Matt, thank you for that.
We know, then, that the UK, the U.S. and governments around the world are constantly evaluating their counterterrorism strategies. They struggle at times, quite frankly. Tackling terrorism is without question complex. But how much is the fight on a community and local level?
Joining me now is a guest we've had a number of times in the past couple of weeks, an excellent expert on this subject, Usama Hasan is a part-time Muslim cleric, a senior researcher with the Quilliam Foundation, a counterterrroism think tank here in London.
You wear many hats. As a youngster, of course, a jihadist fighter as well in Afghanistan.
It goes without saying, Usama, that communities have to be the authorities' best asset as they wage this war against radical thought, but how effective is that cooperation at this point?
USAMA HASAN, QUILLIAM FOUNDATION: Well, this is really worrying escalation. The English Defense League was set up after a group of Muslim extremists protested against homecoming British soldiers some years ago. And there we have extreme on both sides. You have the EDL who hate the Muslims, you know, spout a lot of hate against them, and you have Muslims extremists of course spouting hatred and trying to kill nonbelievers in their view.
Now the community involvement -- I mean, the police and the counterterrorism agencies have had a lot of success over the last decade in foiling terrorist plots. What they need to get more of is get communities on their side...
ANDERSON: How do they do that?
HASAN: Whether it's Muslim communities or others.
Well, at least to reassure people that this is not a war on Islam, for example. Al Qaeda and their sympathizers have consistently said from the beginning that the war on terror is a war on Islam, that myth needs to be effectively shuttered. And slowly there have been some gains.
So, for example, there have been a couple of plots in this country which were foiled by members of the Muslim community tipping off the police. The same thing happened in Canada last week. Those bombers there, they were Canadian Muslims who tipped off the police.
So we're slowly seeing improvements there. But more needs to be done and probably quickly.
Also need to get people to mediate between extremists, make them realize there are grievances on both sides are probably mythical. Both think that the other is trying to take over.
ANDERSON: You're often talking about young, impressionable men. I know at one stage you had death threats against yourself from members of your own community when you talked about it. I know you wrote back on this, but talk about how Darwinism and Islam were compatible. Death threats against yourself. These are young, impressionable men, as you said.
You're in a position to mediate. Can you do it? Do people listen to you? Do the youngsters listen to you at this point. You were radicalized yourself.
HASAN: It's an uphill struggle, actually. It is tough. Many people do listen, especially if you tell them that you were radical beforehand, you have been where they are, went to fight in Afghanistan years ago against the Soviets, you know. I had friends who fought in the Bosnian War, et cetera.
ANDERSON: Al Qaeda tried to recruit you, right?
HASAN: Exactly. After 9/11 al Qaeda tried to recruit me. Thankfully, I said no.
So people do listen. We need more people involved with the mediation.
I mean, a lot of British society, a lot of people think, oh god, a plague on both their houses, but that was said by a major campaigning group today about the EDL extremists and the Muslim extremists, a plague on both your houses. That's a very understandable reaction, but we actually need to go beyond that. We need people to talk seriously about forgiveness, reconciliation, addressing the grievances on both sides and...
ANDERSON: Let me ask you a very, very brief question, because I want to take a very short break at this point. But if you were sat in front of the top terror chiefs around the world tonight, what would you say to them that would help them out. What are they getting wrong and what are they getting right at this point?
HASAN: They're doing a good job at intelligence and security, but it's not all about just security and policing just as the war in terror cannot be won with purely military means, you have to get the soft issue, you have to get communities, the ideas, leaders involved to actually talk to each other to have the difficult conversations about Muslims Islam, religion white and black nationalism and supremacism. There are all these hateful ideologies out there. We need to get people to sit and talk. And there are plenty of ex-members of these groups who are able to mediate in that. We need to do more of that on a community and on a national and international level.
ANDERSON: Always a pleasure. Thank you, sir.
Still to come, just a day after Syria's prime minister narrowly escapes assassination, another bomb explodes in the heart of Damascus. We are live in the Syrian capital for you tonight.
Then from Queen to King, mother to son, The Netherlands has a new monarch. We're live with our royal correspondent in Amsterdam this hour.
And strap yourself in, we are going on a ride -- well, it's a ride of your life really in a South Korean fighter jet. All that and much more when Connect the World continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: You're watching CNN. And this is Connect the World with me, Becky Anderson. Welcome back. Quarter past 9:00 in London.
No let up in the recent surge of violence in Iraq. A series of bomb blasts and a shootout killing at least four people today in Baghdad. Ahead in the show, we're going to look at why violence is spiking now more than a year after the withdrawal of U.S. troops there.
Well, a deadly bombing has rocked the Syrian capital for a second straight day, the government blaming cowardly terrorists for Tuesday's blast that killed at least 13 people. This report from Frederik Pleitgen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRED PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The wounded were still being evacuated when we arrived at the scene just minutes after a car bomb ripped through this area in front of a government building. Mohammed Agha was close by when the attack happened.
MOHAMMED AGHA, EYEWITNESS: So, several let's say bags full of parts of human beings here are carrying them. And (inaudible).
PLEITGEN: A crater marks the spot where the bomb was detonated, apparently hidden in a minibus.
(on camera): Security forces here are very nervous, obviously, after the blast. If you look at the building you can see just how bad the damage is. The windows are all blown out. The security fence has been blown away. And there is a lot of carnage here right in front of the old interior ministry building.
(voice-over): It's the second major bombing in just two days in Damascus as the civil war in Syria drags on and President Bashar al-Assad clings to power, many in Syria's capital believe Iraq style terror attacks will become more frequent.
Some blame Islamist extremist groups and the U.S. for supporting the opposition.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are killing our people. Even Washington knows, even the west knows that they are terrorists. Why they are providing them with weapons?
PLEITGEN: The U.S. says it provides only non-lethal aid to the opposition. And aside from political talk, others like this woman are simply shocked at what is happening to their country.
"They are all our children," she says, "and it is sad. We are all Syrians killing each other.
If anything, the increased bombings appear to be strengthening the resolve of Bashar al-Assad's supporters.
"God, Syria, Bashar and nothing else," these men chant at the blast site, while the emergency workers are still busy picking up the remains of those who were killed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: In Damascus for you today.
Well, U.S. President Barack Obama says it's no surprise to him that problems are arising at Guantanamo Bay. Today, he repeated a longstanding pledge to shut down the U.S. military prison in Cuba.
Many inmates there are on hunger strikes protesting their indefinite detention. Well, Mr. Obama says he'll push congress again to close the prison and prosecute those terror suspects in U.S. civilian courts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I think it is critical for us to understand that Guantanamo is not necessary to keep America safe. It is expensive. It is inefficient. It hurts us in terms of our international standing. It lessens cooperation with our allies on counterterrorism efforts. It is a recruitment tool for extremists. It needs to be closed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Right.
Well, armed trucks -- sorry, armed men in trucks are surrounding Libya's Justice Ministry in Tripoli forcing staff there to leave. Officials say they have anti-aircraft guns mounted to their vehicles. Now the militants want a law passed banning Gadhafi era loyalists from holding government posts. This latest standoff comes as the foreign ministry remains under siege for a third straight day.
Ukraine says ruling by Europe's highest court on human rights does not mean Yulia Tymoshenko will be freed from prison any time soon. The opposition leader and former prime minister is serving seven years for abuse of office in connection to a gas deal with Russia. The European court ruled that authorities illegally detained Tymoshenko before her trial in 2011. She is currently awaiting trial on charges of tax evasion and embezzlement and is being investigated as part of a murder case. She denies all charges against her.
Well, it could have happened to anybody, those are the words of Amanda Knox in her first TV interview describing her trial for the 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Italy. Knox and her then boyfriend Rafaele Sollecito and a third man were convicted of the killing. But in 2011 Knox and Sollecito were acquitted and she returned to the U.S.
Then, in a dramatic twist just last month Italy's highest court overturned that decision. Faced with the threat of another trial, Knox has been speaking to the U.S. network ABC as her memoirs are published.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: What was your reaction when you heard the Supreme Court decision?
AMANDA KNOX, ACCUSED OF MURDERING ROOMMATE: It was incredibly painful. I felt like after crawling through a field of barbed-wire and finally reaching what I thought was the end, it just turned out that it was the horizon and I had another field of barbed-wire that I had ahead of me to crawl through.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Live from London, this is Connect the World.
Coming up, there is a new king in The Nehterlands and the former queen doesn't mind a bit. We'll explain all up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: A sunset cruise through Amsterdam's iconic canals, that is how the new king of The Netherlands spent his first evening as monarch.
Willem-Alexander was sworn in as the first Dutch king in more than 120 years. Earlier today he takes over from his mother Queen Beatrix who abdicated after 33 years on the throne.
This is Connect the World live from London. I'm Becky Anderson.
Now Beatrix will now be known as princess, a step down on what is a national holiday in The Netherlands. And CNN's royal correspondent Max Foster is in Amsterdam helping celebrate the day -- Max.
MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, the sound of dance music is echoing around Amsterdam tonight, Becky. Really spectacular day ending with a water pageant and really a day to remember for the Dutch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: The bells tolling at the royal palace here in Amsterdam signifying the fact that inside the queen has just signed a piece of paper, the instrument of abdication, which turns her into a princess and her son into a king.
What we're waiting for next is for King Willem-Alexander to appear on that balcony behind me for the very first time.
(on camera): Well, this is it, King Willem-Alexander appearing for the first time on the balcony of the royal palace here in Amsterdam.
(voice-over): The first Dutch king in more than a century made his way steadily into Amsterdam's De Nieuwe Kerk, The New Church, for his investiture in a specially convened joint session of parliament. At his side, his queen Maxima, an Argentinean-born former banker. Her controversial family left uninvited. Her father was associated with the dictatorship. But most of the world's royal heirs were here.
CROWD: Long live the king.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a time and a celebration of a new king. It's a moment that in Holland many people, yeah, look forward to it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I like Maxima, because she's a very warm person and she's changed the king. She's a very good mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our king and queen are really perfect. We're very proud, proud on them. We're very proud.
FOSTER: Well, it has been a seamlessly organized day of events culminating of this at the water pageant. This king does have a lot to live up to. All three of his predecessors were very popular. They all abdicated before old age. And they were all women.
He has got off to a good start, though, he does seem to have full public support.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Lots of people asking the question will other monarchs follow in the footsteps of The Dutch. Actually it's a tradition here, it isn't a tradition in other countries. But perhaps the likes of Queen Elizabeth or Queen Margrethe of Denmark, Becky, can hand over more responsibility to their heirs than they would have done in the past. That's an option for them now, probably.
ANDERSON: I was just wondering whether Prince Charles was sort of humming, "anything you can do I can do better." I don't know. Anyway, you've got an orange tie on. Is that what they usually called Queens Day, right? It's always been called queens day this day. And it's always a big clubbing day for the youngsters out in Amsterdam.
If you're going out, I suggest you take off that tie. It's very -- it's lovely, it's nice. It's orange to go with -- but if you're going out.
FOSTER: This is my token gesture, really. The option was a wig, an orange wig or, you know -- you know Paul our camera man, he has a whole shebang on. You can't see him.
But I stuck to the tie. I thought it was a good compromise. But, yeah, clubbing maybe...
ANDERSON: It's not going to work.
Lovely. Thank you for that. Great day in Amsterdam for the royal family there and for our Max Foster, your royal correspondent.
The latest world news headlines, of course, are up after this.
Plus, what's behind the latest surge in violence in Iraq. We're going to get some perspective from a UN special envoy.
And we think she is one of the world's Leading Women and we are about to find out why -- find out who and what inspired Beyonce.
And one club is minutes away from clinching its spot in the Champion's League final. Let me tell you, this is an exciting game. We are live in Madrid with the latest, with the result. Dortmund-Real, that coming up later in the show.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: This is CNN and CONNECT THE WORLD, the top stories this hour. Syria's government is blaming, and I quote, "cowardly terrorists" for a bombing that killed at least 13 people in Damascus. The blast went off near the former Interior Ministry building. Opposition activists say members of the Syrian armed forces are among the wounded.
In the UK, six men have pleaded guilty to planning a terror group against a right-wing group's rally last year. Police said the plot failed because the would-be attackers arrived too late. The men had weapons, including explosives packed with nails and ball bearings.
In Bangladesh, angry protest over reports the government spurned help from the United Nations and Britain to find survivors of a building collapse. The death toll stands at nearly 400. No new survivors have been found over the past two days.
And the Netherlands is celebrating the inauguration of its new king. Willem-Alexander became the monarch after his mother, Queen Beatrix, abdicated. She announced her decision in January, saying it was time for a new generation to lead the nation. The king's wife, a former banker, becomes queen.
To Iraq for you now and the recent surge of sectarian violence that has much of the region on edge. According to figures from the rights group Iraq Body Count, nearly 1500 Iraqis have been killed so far this year, much of the violence blamed on clashes between Sunni and Shia Muslims.
And Iraq remains deeply divided between Sunnis, who feel politically marginalized since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Shiites, who represent a majority of Iraqis, and ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq. Now, this sectarian divide has left Iraq's Shia-led government and Prime Minster Nouri al-Maliki mired in crisis. Just today, a series of bomb blasts and a gunfight left four people dead in Baghdad.
So, why the violence escalating now almost a year and a half after the last US troops left Iraq? Let's bring in our senior international correspondent Arwa Damon for some perspective. She's spent years covering the conflict in Iraq, and she's now back in Baghdad. What have you found?
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's an incredibly tense situation, Becky. People naturally are absolutely terrified of the direction that they see the country going in right now. Although, it has to be said, that the violence that we're seeing right now has really just been slowly increasing ever since that US troop withdrawal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAMON (voice-over): In a nation where sectarian tensions were hardly resolved, the recent tit-for-tat attacks targeting both the Sunni and Shia population don't come as a surprise. Iraq has been through this before. In fact, it never really ended.
Iraq's Sunni population, alienated by Baghdad and outraged over the treatment of Sunnis, has been demonstrating against the Shia-led government for months, further incensed following a raid on Sunni protesters, which led to clashes in the northern town of Hawijah last week, leaving more than 50 people dead.
Two Sunni ministers resigned. Five Iraqi security forces were brutally executed in al Anbar province, Iraq's Sunni heartland. And violence across the country left innocent civilians once again the victims of brutal attacks, as tensions escalated to their highest point in the last few years.
Iraq's prime minister blamed the sectarian strife on another place in the region and warned of the country returning to yet another sectarian civil war.
And while, yes, Syria most certainly does impact its volatile neighbor, what we're seeing in Iraq today is a direct product of the Iraqi government's own failings and the sectarian nature that continues to define it.
KIR SOWELL, POLITICAL RISK ANALYST: These protests in Iraq are organized and driven by specific Sunni organizations. They have specific grievances, they have specific agendas.
Some have an agenda based on achieving political demand within the process. Others from the very beginning were simply trying to restart another civil war. So, Syria has an impact, but it's not the fundamental driver.
DAMON: Not a fundamental driver, perhaps, but it stokes an already raging fire. In a recent report, the International Crisis Group warned, "the emergence of an arc of instability and conflict linking Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, fueled by sectarianism and involving porous borders as well as cross-border alliances represents a huge risk."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DAMON: And Becky, the predominant conversation amongst many Iraqis is about those fears that the country is moving on a path that would see it going towards those devastating days when the violence here was at its worst.
And right now, there really is a lot that is in the hands of the Iraqi government. It needs to take a good, hard look at itself and decide to reform itself before so many people's fears actually become a reality.
ANDERSON: Yes, Arwa Damon in Baghdad for you this evening. Arwa, thank you for that. The UN's special envoy to Iraq says the country is, and I quote, "at a crossroads." I talked with Martin Kobler earlier today about the troubling spike in violence.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN KOBLER, UN SPECIAL ENVOY TO IRAQ (via telephone): There have been underlying tensions for quite some time, and this is due to the political stalemate. Since the last elections, there was no real political progress, and the Sunni component here in the country, they feel sidelined, they feel marginalized, and they entered into demonstrations in the Sunni areas way back in December.
And now, this erupted in violence in Hawijah, tensions in Ramadi, but also in other areas, in particular in the disputed internal boundaries. And we try together with the government, but also with the demonstrators, to contain it.
ANDERSON: Do you blame the government, to a certain extent, for this?
KOBLER: No, I do not. We are the United Nations, we do not blame anybody here --
ANDERSON: But you must have an idea.
KOBLER: -- this day is --
ANDERSON: You must have a thought. You must have a sense.
KOBLER: Well, we take the side -- we take no sides on the political demands of the demonstrators, but we take sides when it comes to the respect of human rights. We advocate the respect of human rights, the torture in prisons, confession under duress, this is unacceptable. And this we tell the government, this has to stop.
But we also tell the demonstrators, stay peaceful in your demonstrations. So, we appeal to both sides when it comes to respect of human rights, when it comes to the question of non-violence, and to the use of sectarian language, because we see with great concern that sectarian language is more and more used, and this is a way back to the past and not to the future.
ANDERSON: The Iraqi prime minister has blamed, and I quote, "sectarian conflict that has returned to Iraq because it began in another place in this region," an apparent reference to Syria. Your thoughts?
KOBLER: Of course. Iraq is the fault line between the Shia and the Sunni world, and the events in Syria, they shed their light also on the events here in Iraq. But let me very clearly say the problems of Iraq, they are originated in Iraq.
It might be exacerbated by events in the region, but the problems here, they are homemade, and the politicians have the duty and the responsibility to tackle these problems and to solve them peacefully through dialogue and negotiation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: That's UN special representative to Iraq speaking to me just before the show this evening. Live from London, you're watching CONNECT THE WORLD here on CNN.
The ties that bind Beyonce. We're going to speak to the singer about her fame, fortune, and family up next in what is our special series on Leading Women. That after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: This week on Leading Women, a 17-time Grammy winner whose super-charged career extends beyond music. Kristie Lu Stout finds out who and what pushes Beyonce Knowles to succeed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From a young age, Beyonce Knowles wanted to be a performer. Before she was even out of her teens, she was a star.
BEYONCE, SINGER: I didn't at all know that I was going to be a star, but I did know that I felt very comfortable when I was on the stage.
STOUT: She attributes much of her success to her own family, including her father, Matthew, who in the early years was both her manager and mentor.
CORI MURRAY, ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR, "ESSENCE" MAGAZINE: She always acknowledges that he taught her so much, that's not only that you have to be polite and good, but you have to be strategic, you have to be stern, you have to be firm. And she learned that.
And now, I think she knows that what it takes to be a successful businesswoman is all those years under that training that her father -- it's almost like he helped push her in the world to be on her own.
STOUT: From her mother came other lessons.
BEYONCE: Beauty fades and who you are from within is forever. And definitely be a woman of your word and hard work.
STOUT: And it did take hard work to get Beyonce where she is today.
(MUSIC - "NO NO NO" BY DESTINY'S CHILD)
STOUT: Even though she scored her first number one single at 17 while with Destiny's child --
(MUSIC - "CRAZY IN LOVE" BY BEYONCE)
STOUT: -- and became a global superstar in her 20s, success did not always come easily.
MURRAY: It wasn't like she -- the minute she opened her mouth, all that platinum albums and Grammys came rushing towards her. She really, really had to work towards it. And I think it just shows you that if you work hard enough and if you believe in yourself enough and you know that you have that talent, then if you just keep working, all your successes will come to you, and she's definitely proof of that.
STOUT: With a new album in the works and a world tour underway, Beyonce is focused on her music for now, but she also has business interests and a family of her own, and that's helped inspire her to take on new challenges, like directing a documentary about her own life.
BEYONCE: Power's not given to you. You have to take it. It's been a dream of mine to direct for years, and I've directed some of my concert films and videos, and finally, after I laid eyes on my daughter, I felt like I know who I am and I'm ready to tell my story. It gave me a lot of bravery.
STOUT: Those who know Beyonce best predict many more successes to come.
MATTHEW KNOWLES, BEYONCE'S FATHER: Most people that are successful have fought every day. Most people that are successful, people didn't believe. Most people that are successful have failed. Most people that are successful have passion. All of that would be Beyonce.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: You can read more about other women at the peak of the professions on the website, among them, the first to climb the world's tallest mountain. You'll find it all at cnn.com/leadingwomen. Next week, tune in for the chair and CEO of the US conglomerate DuPont.
Well, coming up after this short break on CONNECT THE WORLD, one German team has booked its place in the Champions League final. It wasn't, though, all plain sailing. Up next, live to Madrid for the details on what was, believe me, a nail-biting semifinal. And --
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ANNA CORREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If I look like I'm in pain, it's because I am. There is so much pressure on your body.
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ANDERSON: The fighter jet that left our correspondent in a spin. CNN's exclusive trip with the South Korean air force.
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ANDERSON: We know that at least one German club will be playing in the Champions League come the 25th of May. "World Sport's" Alex Thomas joining us now from Spain, where Real Madrid saw no miracle comeback from a first leg defeat. But Alex, boy what a game. Talk us through it.
ALEX THOMAS, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes, it's Borussia Dortmund that are through to the 2013 UEFA Champions League final, Becky, the first time they got there since 1997, when they were crowned champions, the only time they've won the biggest club competition in European if not world football.
But they had to really ride their luck towards the end. Real Madrid trailing 4-1 from the first leg in Germany last week, seemed to be dead and buried as the game in the second leg here at the Bernabeu Stadium, was heading for a nil-nil draw.
And then suddenly, two goals in just the space of a few minutes from Karim Benzema and Sergio Ramos, suddenly had Real just one goal away from victory on the away goals rule.
The 90,000 strong packed stadium here were absolutely crazy, but that third and final goal couldn't happen, Real Madrid are out, Jose Mourinho's dream of becoming the first coach ever to win this tournament with three different clubs is over, Becky.
ANDERSON: Is that the end of not just Real in this competition, but the end of Jose Mourinho, the special one, at the club, do you think?
THOMAS: Mourinho's definitely leaving Real Madrid, there's no doubt about that. It's just a question of where he goes, in all likelihood, he'll return to Chelsea in England's Premier League, where he feels he's a lot more loved than the Madrid press here, they're so fanatically loyal when things are going right, and can be so fanatically bitter when things are going wrong.
Experts I've spoken to here, Becky, say that all the Madrid papers would've prepared their scathing obituary for Mourinho for tomorrow's press now that they haven't quite managed to do it. And for a large part of this game, he was let down badly by his players, but finally, Los Blancos showed some fighting spirit near the end, and it was a thrilling climax.
ANDERSON: Yes, I just was reading your tweet about four or five minutes ago, it said, "I'm standing up, and it's not that I can't see." The atmosphere sounds as if it was absolutely electric, one of the best stadiums in the world and a terrific match in what is one of the best competitions in the world of football. Alex, thank you for that.
Big day in sport off the playing pitch. The honorary president of FIFA's governing body forced to resign. Don Riddell joining me from CNN Center with the details. And just when we're talking great things about sport, this is one of those stories that you just wish would go away. I guess it might go away now that he's out of a job. Am I right?
DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, I'm sure FIFA will be hoping that this is the end of the matter, of course. It was their own ethics committee that prepared this report. An awful lot of pressure was put on them, Becky, to conduct a thorough investigation of what's been going on at FIFA over the last 10, 20 or so years.
And their end finding was, in the end, that the 96-year-old president, Joao Havelange, who of course once was the president for more than two decades in charge of football's world governing body, he was guilty of taking bribes from a sports marketing agency. And so, in the end, the only path left to him was to resign.
Sepp Blatter was also mentioned in this report. He, of course, is the current president, but his involvement of any wrongdoing was described as "clumsy rather than criminal."
ANDERSON: Also on Tuesday, a high-profile doping trial coming to a close in Spain. We're back in Spain with a verdict that is -- well, it's got it to be said, some people scratching their heads, isn't it?
RIDDELL: It's kind of disappointing, really. If you're an anti- doping campaigner in the world of sport, a really rather disappointing climax to this trial. This was Operation Puerto, an investigation into this Spanish doctor, Eufemiano Fuentes.
He, in the end, was convicted of endangering public health by helping athletes to do blood transfusions, and he also helped them to dope. So, he's received a one-year suspended sentence and four-year ban from practicing medicine.
After seven years and all these investigations, I suppose we have some kind of outcome, but the fact is, he's not going to jail. And what people find really disappointing is that there were 200 bags of evidence, these blood bags, and it was mentioned during this investigation that other sports were involved, not just cycling. Cycling was the main focus, but tennis, soccer, boxing, track and field.
And because of Spain's privacy laws, the judge in the case has ordered that all that evidence be destroyed. So now, investigators will never know who else and which other sports were involved, and that's really, really frustrating.
ANDERSON: Yes, it is. All right, I'm going to get you back to the world of football. We've just seen a classic match. Perhaps not one of the classics, but a great match. Onto Barcelona tomorrow, playing Bayern Munich. Four-nil down in that first game, of course. What are your predictions?
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RIDDELL: I think it's going to be an all-German final at Wembley Stadium, which is going to be very difficult for a lot of English football fans to stomach for many reasons. Yes. It's -- Real very nearly pulled it off tonight, didn't they?
ANDERSON: Sure.
RIDDELL: Two late goals. One more and they would've done it on the away goals rule, but Barcelona have a much bigger mountain to climb. Four- nil down after the first leg against Bayern Munich. Can't see them doing it, I'm afraid. All German final.
ANDERSON: Yes. Fitness of Lionel Messi, of course, in doubt, as well.
RIDDELL: Yes.
ANDERSON: But who knows? Who knows? I think it's going to be three- nil to Barca tomorrow, it's not going to be enough. Good, thank you, sir.
RIDDELL: All right.
ANDERSON: On Monday, we showed you our correspondent Anna Coren training to fly in one of South Korea's most high-tech jets. Rather her than me.
She underwent special training and was under the close scrutiny of experienced South Korean air force trainers, air crews, and medics the whole time. She blacked out twice. She did, though, pass the test. And so, she got to go up in the air. Have a look at this.
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COREN (voice-over): This is South Korean military hardware at its finest.
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COREN: It's called the T-50, a training fighter jet that's creating the country's next generation of Top Guns. CNN was given rare access to the supersonic jet and I was allowed to be copilot. The only problem, I blacked out twice during the training as a result of extreme G forces, a physical force on the body from acceleration or gravity.
CHUN YEONG-HO, MAJOR, SOUTH KOREAN AIR FORCE PILOT: We have trained her how to oppress and we're ready for the flight now. Today, maybe you won't black out. Yes.
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COREN (on camera): Let's hope so.
COREN (voice-over): With my pilot's reassuring words, I was sent to the equipment room.
COREN (on camera): This is the anti-G suit. So, hopefully it will stop the blood rushing from my head.
COREN (voice-over): Then, it was out to the hangar, where I was strapped into the back of a $25 million fighter jet.
COREN (on camera): I'm ready.
COREN (voice-over): With the control tower's permission, we were up and away.
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COREN: Korean aerospace industries had developed these fighter jets with American defense contractor Lockheed Martin. While their key purpose is to protect South Korea's security, they're also being produced for export. The Indonesian air force has already purchased 16 jets.
CHUN: This is good, very good. Fantastic.
COREN: And other countries, including the United States, are interested in buying them.
COREN (on camera): We're apparently flying at 13,000 feet, which puts us well above the clouds, but we are going to climb to 24,000 feet and reach speeds of up to 800 kilometers an hour. It truly is amazing.
COREN (voice-over): With the sightseeing out of the way, it was time for some maneuvers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand by.
CHUN: This time, we will 5 G forces.
COREN: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready.
(COREN DOING BREATHING EXERCISES)
CHUN: OK, how about that?
COREN: Yes.
CHUN: You feel good?
COREN: Feel great. Wow. That seemed fun.
COREN (voice-over): We did the B Roll, the Loop, the Cuban 8 -- followed by the famous Immelmann Turn.
CHUN: Can you feel it?
COREN (on camera): Yes.
(COREN DOES BREATHING EXERCISES)
COREN: Oh!
CHUN: OK.
COREN: Oh, my God!
CHUN: You OK?
COREN: Yes.
COREN (voice-over): Then, the Split S and Vertical Demo.
CHUN: Upside-down.
COREN (on camera): Upside-down. Whoo! I feel like someone is sucking the air out of you. It is so intense. If I look like I'm in pain, it's because I am. There is so much pressure on your body.
CHUN: Yes.
COREN: And you have to -- clench your body so tight.
CHUN: Yes.
COREN: So that you don't pass out.
COREN (voice-over): Maneuvers that these fighter pilots practice on a daily basis, preparing for combat.
COREN (on camera): After 60 years of tensions here on the Korean peninsula, the T-50 has helped pave the way to creating the ultimate deterrent against war. South Korea hopes that with this fighter jet, its hostile neighbor to the north will finally know its place.
COREN (voice-over): And with these pilots protecting the skies, this country is certainly in safe hands.
Anna Coren, CNN, Gwangju, South Korea.
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ANDERSON: Well, all last year, iReporters helped CNN cover some of the world's biggest stories by sending in their pictures and video. Now we are honoring those contributions in what is the third annual CNN iReports Awards, and we've chosen 36 nominations in 6 categories, and today I want to take a look at the hopefuls for what is known as the Commentary Prize.
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THOMA BRANT-DAVIS, RESPONSE TO TODD AKIN'S "LEGITIMATE RAPE" COMMENTS: The silence, the lies, and the ignorance must stop.
OMEKONGO DIBINGA, "JOE PATERNO: SAVED BY DEATH": Let us learn the lesson from this particular case with Penn State University. We're talking about the lives of children.
DAVID P. KRONMILLER, "IF?! MITT'S POOR PROBLEM": It's not a question if there are holes in our social safety net, it's a question of when are we going to fix them.
ELIZABETH LAUTEN, "'CLUELESS' SUPPORT FOR ROMNEY": Shocker! A Hollywood celebrity has said they're supporting somebody other than Barack Obama.
RICHARD HUFFMAN, "MY TRIBUTE TO THOSE LOST IN NEWTON": This is my NRA club card. That's it.
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ANDERSON: Over the coming week, we'll be showcasing the nominees for other categories, and we're looking for your help in nominations for the special Community Choice award. Get involved at cnnireportawards.com.
In tonight's Parting Shots, we're going to take you to Saturn's north pole where a hurricane is raging. NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured it in color for the first time.
The hurricane lies within this strange six-sided weather pattern known as the hexagon. At 2,000 kilometers wide, it's 20 times larger than most hurricanes here on Earth. Isn't that fantastic? And it's churning twice as fast.
It's also not going anywhere. The giant storm is stuck solidly above Saturn's polar north. The colors that you see in that image, they're not real. NASA added them to show altitude. The green clouds on the outside are higher up, the red ones are lower. You can see the clouds being sucked down into the gaseous planet the closer you get. Amazing stuff.
I'm Becky Anderson, Dortmund go through to the Champions League final tonight, the game between Barca and Bayern Munich tomorrow for the last place. That was CONNECT THE WORLD, thank you for watching.
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