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WOLF BLITZER: Welcome back. Many voters here in the
United States are keeping a very close and wary eye
on the situation in Iraq. Right now, U.S. and Iraqi
officials no longer are stopping and checking cars
going into Sadr City and other parts of Baghdad. The
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordering
military check points to be lifted in that Shiite
militant stronghold. It's seen as another move by
al-Maliki to assert his authority with the United
States and to appeal to his Shiite support base.
Also in Baghdad today, at least 22 people were killed
in various attacks, 15 of a them victims of a car
bomb that exploded near a wedding party convoy. The
dead included women and children.
And the Pentagon is now reporting the deaths of two
more U.S. troops in Iraq. One hundred and three
Americans have been killed this month alone. And the
total death total since the war began now stands at
2,816.
The search for an American soldier missing in Iraq
continues. But now, just days before the U.S.
elections, there are these new and disturbing
developments in the search for the soldier.
And joining us now, our correspondent in Baghdad,
Michael Ware.
Michael, a week before the U.S. elections, Nouri
al-Maliki, the prime minister, says the U.S. can't
inspect, can't go through these security checkpoints
outside of Sadr City in Baghdad. What's going on?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, these
checkpoints, some of them are temporary, some of them
are permanent checkpoints, but all of them at the
moment are focused on trying to find the missing U.S.
soldier.
Now, that soldier went missing about eight days ago.
And we've seen a lot happen in that time. It's really
put a strain on the U.S. and Iraqi bilateral
relations. In the period of about an hour, hour and a
half, less than two hours, we saw a meeting take
place between the U.S. commander, General Casey, the
ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, and the Iraqi prime
minister.
The Iraqi prime minister then immediately issued a
press statement and these checkpoints were removed.
All the permanent ones were opened up. So this really
happened on the fly. And perhaps it does affect the
hunt for the U.S. soldier.
BLITZER: Well, it comes on the heels of Nouri
al-Maliki, the prime minister, complaining that the
U.S. isn't doing enough to strengthen Iraqi security,
complaining about all sorts of other issues. It looks
like there's a real serious problem right now between
Washington and this Iraqi government.
WARE: Well, U.S. officials here on the ground,
obviously, are trying to play that down, as we saw
last Friday with a read joint statement between U.S.
officials and Prime Minister al-Maliki. But the
reality is, Wolf, that there certainly is tension, if
not an increasing divide.
I mean, Maliki has to play to two audiences. One is a
domestic audience, a constituency, normal people, in
this case, who were tired of traffic logjams caused
by these checkpoints. But he also needs to play to
those who have put him in power. And in one way or
another, that's a very powerful militia of Muqtada
al-Sadr, the militia U.S. intelligence believes took
this soldier, almost in a copy-cat of Hezbollah's
tactics.
And there's a known connection between Jaish al-Mahdi
and Hezbollah. When they captured the two Israeli
Defense Force soldiers, they provoked the Lebanese
War.
BLITZER: Michael, as you know, the elections here in
the United States next Tuesday. On Sunday, there's
supposed to be a verdict in the first Saddam Hussein
trial. And some are suggesting that verdict, the
announcement of a verdict, presumably the death
penalty, is timed to coincide to help Republicans in
the elections back here in the States. What are you
hearing over there?
WARE: Well, again, officials here on the ground
dispute that notion. They say that this was a
preordained date chosen by the court itself, that
this was independent of any political consideration.
That may or may not be so. It's very, very hard to
tell. Nonetheless, the timing certainly is
coincidental.
BLITZER: Michael Ware is our correspondent in
Baghdad.
Michael, thanks very much.
WARE: Thank you, Wolf.