CNN - Lou Dobbs Tonight - 2006-11-28 - 1 of 2

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Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Here tonight, President Bush declaring

[0:01] he will not withdraw our troops from

[0:03] Iraq until their mission is completed.

[0:06] We'll have a special report on President

[0:08] Bush's refusal to change strategy in

[0:10] Iraq and rising outrage over US

[0:13] corporations investing in countries such

[0:15] as Syria and Iran that sponsor

[0:17] terrorism. Are some US corporations

[0:20] bankrolling radical Islamist terrorism?

[0:22] We'll have that special report, all of

[0:24] the day's news straight ahead here

[0:26] tonight.

[0:31] >> [music]

[0:32] >> This is Lou Dobbs Tonight, news, debate,

[0:35] and opinion for Tuesday, November 28th,

[0:37] live in New York, Lou Dobbs.

[0:40] >> Good evening, everybody. President Bush

[0:42] today insisted he will not give in to

[0:44] pressure to withdraw American troops

[0:46] from Iraq. President Bush declared Iraq

[0:49] is not in civil war and he blamed the

[0:51] rising violence on Al-Qaeda. Meanwhile,

[0:54] the Iraqi president today met with

[0:56] Iran's supreme leader in Tehran.

[0:58] Their meeting comes despite rising

[1:00] evidence that Iran is providing

[1:02] insurgents in Iraq with weapons,

[1:04] training, and money. Suzanne Malveaux

[1:07] reports from Riga, Latvia on President

[1:09] Bush's determination to win victory in

[1:11] Iraq. Michael Ware reports from Baghdad

[1:14] on Iran's increasing role in Iraq. And

[1:17] from the Pentagon, Jamie McIntyre

[1:19] reports on the search for a missing US

[1:21] fighter pilot in Iraq. We turn first to

[1:24] Suzanne Malveaux. Suzanne?

[1:28] >> Well, Lou, the focus of the NATO summit

[1:30] is how to promote democracy in

[1:31] Afghanistan. This is NATO's largest

[1:34] military undertaking, but it is the Iraq

[1:36] war that is overshadowing their agenda.

[1:45] >> Despite the deteriorating conditions on

[1:47] the ground in Iraq, President Bush

[1:49] refused to call the growing chaos and

[1:51] carnage between warring factions there

[1:54] civil war.

[1:55] >> There's all kinds of speculation

[1:57] about what may be or not happening. What

[1:59] is what you're seeing on TV has started

[2:02] last February.

[2:04] It was an attempt by people to foment

[2:06] sectarian violence and no no no question

[2:08] it's dangerous there and violent.

[2:10] >> Mr. Bush called the bombings in Iraq

[2:12] part of a 9-month pattern of violence

[2:14] fomented by Al-Qaeda. At his press

[2:17] conference in Estonia, Mr. Bush also

[2:19] continued to rule out direct talks with

[2:21] Iran about the situation in Iraq until

[2:24] it abandons its nuclear ambitions. But

[2:26] Iraq has already reached out to its

[2:28] neighbor. Monday its president visited

[2:30] Iran's leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

[2:33] >> I hope their talks yield results.

[2:36] >> It's unclear what kind of results

[2:38] upcoming talks will yield between Mr.

[2:40] Bush and Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri

[2:42] al-Maliki hosted by Jordan's King

[2:44] Abdullah. Pressure is growing on

[2:46] President Bush to come up with a working

[2:47] strategy of his own. At the opening of

[2:50] the NATO summit in Latvia, Mr. Bush drew

[2:52] his line in the sand.

[2:54] >> There's one thing I'm not going to do.

[2:56] I'm not going to pull our troops off the

[2:58] battlefield before the mission is

[2:59] complete.

[3:00] >> Mr. Bush argued that mission goes beyond

[3:03] Iraq. It is global. That the war on

[3:05] terrorism is an epic struggle involving

[3:08] numerous nations and spanning decades.

[3:10] He used that claim to implore European

[3:12] allies to increase their support for

[3:15] another battle front, the war in

[3:17] Afghanistan.

[3:19] >> The success of both the wars in

[3:21] Afghanistan and Iraq will largely

[3:23] determine Mr. Bush's legacy. Right now,

[3:26] both are in trouble. Lou.

[3:29] >> NATO troops in Afghanistan are fighting

[3:31] the alliance's first ground war in more

[3:33] than a half century, but only a few NATO

[3:35] nations are actually taking part in the

[3:37] fighting. The United States is leading

[3:40] that fight against radical Islamist

[3:41] terrorists. About 20,000 of our troops

[3:44] are there. Britain and Canada also

[3:46] heavily engaged in combat. They're

[3:48] supported by Dutch and Danish troops,

[3:51] but other NATO nations such as Germany

[3:53] and France have refused to send their

[3:55] troops to the south of the country where

[3:57] the fighting, the principal amount of

[3:59] fighting, is taking place. French

[4:01] President Jacques Chirac is now even

[4:03] suggesting that Iran should play a role

[4:06] in helping Afghanistan fight the

[4:08] insurgency.

[4:10] Iran is also challenging US policy in

[4:12] Iraq. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah

[4:15] Khamenei, today met with the Iraqi

[4:17] president in Tehran. Ayatollah Khamenei

[4:20] asserted that the United States is the

[4:21] main cause of the escalating violence in

[4:24] Iraq. Michael Ware joins us now from

[4:27] Baghdad. Michael, how large a role is

[4:29] Iran playing in Iraq to the degree we

[4:31] can determine that, and to what extent

[4:33] is Iran driving the insurgency?

[4:37] >> Well, certainly the insurgency has many

[4:40] different faces, Lou, and what we're

[4:41] talking about here is the Shia

[4:44] insurgency. Essentially, the Shia

[4:46] militias and paramilitary forces, an

[4:49] alignment of which essentially make up

[4:51] the government. Now, according to US and

[4:54] British military intelligence, most of

[4:57] these groups, political factions and

[5:00] military factions, receive financial

[5:02] aid, military aid, weapons, training,

[5:05] and liaison from Iran.

[5:08] As particularly from Iran's Iranian

[5:10] Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, so it's

[5:13] equivalent to the Green Berets. Now,

[5:15] we've heard about them supplying the key

[5:17] components for the most devastating

[5:19] roadside bombs here in Iraq. I've spoken

[5:22] to British troops in the south who say

[5:24] their bases have been mortared by bombs

[5:27] that carry Iranian markings. We have the

[5:30] chief of US military intelligence

[5:32] talking about C4 explosive that can be

[5:35] traced back to Iranian batches. And now

[5:38] we have what US intelligence says is

[5:41] Iranian backing of Shia death squads.

[5:44] Here, for example, Lou, is the tail fin

[5:47] of an 81 mm mortar round. This landed

[5:50] just days ago in a Sunni neighborhood

[5:53] here in Baghdad. It was fired from a

[5:55] Shia area. What's most interesting about

[5:58] this is that we don't know exactly where

[6:01] it came from, but what we can tell you

[6:03] is that it's date stamped this year,

[6:06] 2006.

[6:07] It clearly, in from its condition, has

[6:10] not been buried in the desert. So, at

[6:12] some point, this has crossed Iraq's

[6:15] border. They're not making them here.

[6:17] So, it's crossed the border and come

[6:19] into the hands of a Shia militia, Lou.

[6:22] >> Let me ask you, Michael, among the field

[6:24] commanders there with whom you've

[6:25] talked, how much frustration is there

[6:28] that the United States has not been able

[6:30] to

[6:31] first successfully interdict those kinds

[6:34] of shipments of material in support of

[6:36] the insurgency, as well as the personnel

[6:40] who are also being used, according to

[6:43] many reports,

[6:44] and to what degree is the fact that the

[6:47] militias remain armed, is that within

[6:50] the control of the forces should the

[6:52] Iraqi government and the United States

[6:54] decide to disarm

[6:55] the militias?

[6:58] >> Well, the United States and the Iraqi

[7:00] government, for what it is and beyond

[7:03] the Prime Minister's office and the

[7:04] office of the National Security Advisor,

[7:07] one wonders what there is of this

[7:09] government. Because beyond that, it's

[7:11] essentially this alliance of militias,

[7:14] as we said. Intelligence claiming that

[7:16] many of them are backed by Iran, anyway.

[7:19] The US and Prime Minister Nouri

[7:21] al-Maliki, as has been said many times

[7:24] in the past, have not only called upon

[7:26] the militias to disband and disarm, but

[7:29] are now insisting upon it. Yet, we see

[7:31] no movement. There is no incentive, Lou,

[7:34] for the militias to disarm, and there's

[7:36] nothing to force them, not even

[7:38] 140,000-plus

[7:40] American troops.

[7:42] >> And the frustration among the field

[7:44] commanders, has there been any expressed

[7:46] by those field commanders about the

[7:48] inability to control either the borders

[7:50] or to interdict those supplies?

[7:53] >> Absolutely. I mean, Iraq's borders on

[7:56] both the eastern and western fronts

[7:58] remain porous. Fighters and material

[8:00] keep pouring in from the west to support

[8:02] Al-Qaeda and the Sunni insurgents. The

[8:05] exact same can be said of the eastern

[8:07] border with Iran. I've spent a lot of

[8:09] time on both borders. With the troop

[8:12] numbers here in the country now, it's

[8:14] simply impossible to seal these borders

[8:18] off. I've had British intelligence

[8:20] officers tell me that when it comes to

[8:21] combating Iran, it's as though we are

[8:24] sleepwalking, one of them said. And

[8:27] essentially, the Sunnis claim that the

[8:29] Brits maintain an appearance of

[8:31] stability in the south by trading off,

[8:34] accommodating with these Iranian-backed

[8:37] militias so that attacks are few, yet

[8:40] the influence of Iran and its surrogates

[8:43] is great.

[8:45] >> Michael, thank you very much. Very

[8:46] revealing. As always, thank you, Michael

[8:48] Ware, from Baghdad.

[8:50] Insurgents in Iraq have killed another

[8:52] of our Marines. The Marine was killed in

[8:54] Al Anbar province, west of Baghdad.

[8:57] 62 of our troops have now been killed in

[8:59] Iraq this month. 2,882 of our troops

[9:02] since the war began. Another 21,921

[9:06] of our troops wounded. 9,847

[9:10] of them so seriously they could not

[9:11] return to duty.

[9:13] A US commander in Iraq today said he

[9:15] expects elevated levels of violence to

[9:17] continue after last week's bombings in

[9:19] Sadr City that killed nearly 200 people.

[9:22] The attacks provoked a wave of

[9:24] reprisals.

[9:26] And the United Nations Security Council

[9:27] today voted unanimously to extend the

[9:29] mandate of the US-led coalition in Iraq.

[9:32] That vote held at the request of the

[9:34] Iraqi government. The mandate of the

[9:36] multinational force has now been

[9:38] extended until the end of next year.

[9:41] US troops in Iraq tonight are searching

[9:43] for a missing Air Force fighter pilot.

[9:46] The pilot is unaccounted for after his

[9:48] F-16 jet crashed near Fallujah

[9:50] yesterday. Jamie McIntyre with a report

[9:52] from the Pentagon.

[9:55] >> By the time the US military got to the

[9:57] scene of farm field 20 miles northwest

[10:00] of Baghdad, all they found was the

[10:01] wreckage of the single seat F-16

[10:04] smoldering in the late afternoon sun.

[10:07] The markings for the plane's home base,

[10:08] Cannon Air Force base in New Mexico,

[10:11] could be seen on the tail fin. Nearby

[10:13] was the