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BETTY NGUYEN: Well, it is a hotbed of al-Qaeda
activity and home to the man who replaced Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi. Next to Baghdad, Ramadi may be Iraq's
most dangerous city.
CNN's Michael Ware was embedded with U.S. troops
there, and today he's back in Baghdad with more on
the mission.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: While President Bush
has highlighted Iraq as the centerpiece of the global
war on terror, the realities here on the ground have
revealed a gaping black hole in the president's
worldwide campaign.
President Bush referred specifically to the western
Iraqi province of al-Anbar and its capital, Ramadi,
where he says recent al-Qaeda documents and the
statements of Osama bin Laden himself show al-Qaeda's
plan to use that part of Iraq to form the toehold
from which to build their broader international
Islamic caliphate state. However, we see that in
Ramadi the battle with al-Qaeda, the true front line
here in Iraq, continues as much as it ever has.
In fact, U.S. military intelligence and American
commanders on the ground can point to al-Qaeda in
Iraq's key headquarters, transiting areas, logistics
and staging bases, and planning centers, yet they do
not have the troops to go in and disrupt that
al-Qaeda base.
So what we are seeing here in Iraq is that whilst it
remains at the heart of the battle against al-Qaeda,
American forces here are simply ill equipped to
strike at the heart of the organization led by Osama
bin Laden.
This is Michael Ware, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: And Ramadi is part of what's been called
Iraq's wild west, Anbar Province. It's one of the
war's fiercest and deadliest fronts, and it's only
getting worse.