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Length: 4:40
WOLF BLITZER: Let's get
some more now on the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
For that, we're joined by CNN correspondent Michael
Ware. He's the former Baghdad bureau chief for "Time"
magazine. He was once almost killed by Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi's forces. Michael is joining us from
Brisbane in Australia. Michael, what does this mean
that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is now dead?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, this
just spins off in so many directions, it's difficult
to know where to begin. Let's look firstly at his
organization. What we're now going to see is a real
test for them. I've watched as his originally
foreign-dominated organization has been Iraqified. I
mean, we have seen Iraqis who have been drawn to his
flame, to his particular brand of Islam and
particular brand of terrorism. And they'd join the
ranks. We have now seen them rise up. And as foreign
leaders have been killed, more and more we have seen
Iraqis replace them. Now, this has had an impact on
his organization. It has changed their tone a little
bit, and we saw it reconfigure itself back in January
last year, at least for public consumption. The
question now is, do these Iraq leaders step up to the
plate? Where will they take his organization? Will
they continue on the hardcore path Zarqawi took them
down, or will they veer more towards the rest of the
insurgency, their Iraqi kin? The other thing is,
we're going to see the rest of the insurgency --
remember, the bulk of the insurgency, the vast
majority of these attacks that are killing American
boys in Iraq are not carried out by Zarqawi's people.
His attacks capture the headlines, but most of the
roadside bombs, the ambushes, the mortars on U.S.
bases, come from the Iraqi nationalists, the former
military types, the Ba'ath. These people will now try
to seize the momentum within the insurgency. And
oddly, though the Ba'ath may be the immediate
beneficiaries of this, that could also help the U.S.
mission.
BLITZER: There have been some who have suggested all
along that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was not actually the
big fish that a lot of people thought he was, that he
was being built up, if you will, by some in the U.S.
and Iraqi governments, because they needed a foreign
target to make it look like the insurgency was simply
a bunch of foreigners, not Iraqis. Do you think that
line of thought has any credence?
WARE: Well, look, I'm sure that there has been a
propaganda value for the administration in Zarqawi.
It's always good to put a face to the bogeyman.
Nonetheless, Zarqawi was never the leader of the
insurgency. And for people to think that is clearly
wrong. The insurgency is made up of so many different
parts, fighting for so many different reasons, and
their alliances are loose and fluid and freewheeling.
Yet within his organization, he very much controlled
it. Even when in January for publicity purposes he
created a council of consensus, it was still his hand
that was behind al-Qaeda in Iraq. Now, the other
important thing is whilst he controlled the grip in
his organization, his influence spread far beyond
that. He really helped redefine parts of the
insurgency, and he very much defined the terrorist
war being fought in Iraq, which is different to the
insurgent war and the civil war, which he also played
a big hand in.
BLITZER: And very briefly, because we only have a
little time left, tell our viewers how close he got
to actually killing you?
WARE: Well, back in 2004, his men pulled me --
intercepted my car in Baghdad, pulled me from the
vehicle with live grenades, the pins pulled, weapons
to my head. They then put me under one of Zarqawi's
banners, the same type of banner that we saw behind
poor Nicholas Berg during his execution, and they
were then preparing to shoot me, filming it with my
own video camera. Strangely, I was saved by local
homegrown Iraqi insurgents, who didn't agree with
this as a tactic. And that illustrates the broader
point about the conflict within the insurgency.
BLITZER: Michael Ware is our newest addition to CNN.
Thank God you made it through that ordeal. We welcome
you to CNN. Michael Ware is going to be doing an
excellent job for us as he did for our sister
publication, "Time" magazine.