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Length: 3:38
MILES O'BRIEN: Every day
we see and hear so much about what goes on in Iraq --
kidnapping, insurgent violence -- but what's it like
to be right in the middle of it all?
CNN's Michael Ware has spent four years covering the
war in Iraq. He's here with us this morning.
Good to see you in person, safe and sound, Michael.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Back on a little leave, well-deserved leave,
we might add.
Yesterday in the Pipeline segment I do, an
interesting question came from a viewer. Greg offered
this e-mail question. He said this, "Why do the
insurgents in Iraq seem to have no supply problems
for their bomb material? After all, the U.S.
government is constantly worried about how to
resupply our troops." Explain how they fund the
insurgent campaign
WARE: Well, there's a number of ways, Miles. I mean,
don't forget, for a start, Iraq is all but one large
ammunition dump. And don't forget, both sides, the
Sunni and the Shia across the sectarian divide,
continually get resupplied across Iraq's borders, the
Shia from Iran and the Sunni primarily through Syria.
Now there's lots of money pumping in across those
borders as well.
Plus, the insurgents generate money inside Iraq. For
example, in the western city of Ramadi that President
Bush pointed to as the heartland of al Qaeda, U.S.
Marines intelligence says al Qaeda penetrated the
Ministry of Oil and was tapping away between $400,000
and $600,000 per month.
M. O'BRIEN: So that's a pretty sophisticated way of
funding operations. It gives you a level of
sophistication.
Another way that they generate revenue are these
kidnappings. Does that seem to be on the rise?
WARE: Listen, the kidnappings have been a phenomenon
almost since the statue of Saddam fell. And we've
seen it reach epic proportions now. And certainly
that is one of the contributing factors, one of the
financing areas that the insurgents have been tapping
into. But what we're now seeing are these mass
kidnappings, primarily on a sectarian basis. I mean,
this is to kill people for their faith.
M. O'BRIEN: So these are not about revenue. This is a
new dimension to these kidnappings.
WARE: By and large, these large-scale ones, where you
see 60, 70, 150 people taken, normally by men in
police or government uniforms, this is about death
squad activity.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, well, in that context, it's a
horribly dangerous place to work, and you've done it
for four years now. And I know we can't tip our full
hand because that would undermine our own security,
but can you give us a sense of how you as a
correspondent do your job and try to get the real
story and yet stay safe.
WARE: Well, obviously it's extremely difficult. I
mean, if you're not embedded with the U.S. military
-- which by and large, we don't do quite so often,
because that only gives you one little aspect of the
story; I mean, the story is much broader --
journalists live in heavily fortified compounds.
Basically, you need to be ready to defend yourself,
from car bombs, from attack and from mortar and
missile fire. Traveling around the city is extremely
difficult. And we've got to be very careful about
what we say and don't say to give too much away.
M. O'BRIEN: It must be very frustrating as a
reporter, though, not to be able to just grab your
notebook, go out and talk to people. You can't do
that, can you?
WARE: Extremely so. I mean, you can do it in very
limited circumstances. But essentially you need to
get the permission of whichever militia or
organization is in control of a particular area, or
we're sending out Iraqis, Iraqi journalists who work
for us.
But honestly, they're being killed in the droves.
They're really on the journalistic front line. The
number of Iraqi journalists who have died in the past
year is staggering, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Michael Ware, who covers the war from
Baghdad. You've been there four years. You're going
to take a little break and head right back.
WARE: Yes, that's it.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much. Be safe,
please -- Soledad.