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Length: 4:09
WOLF BLITZER: Today there are more examples of Iraq's
chaos. Police found 35 bodies, some with gunshots to
their head. And two sports figures, including the man
who coached a disabled volleyball team, were
kidnapped. All the violence is being closely and
carefully watched.
And joining us now from Baghdad, our correspondent
Michael Ware -- Michael, thanks very much.
"The New York Times" published a chart today it says
it got from the U.S. military's Central Command,
which oversees the entire region, including Iraq, and
it's very ominous because it shows the current level
of violence in Iraq right now getting ominously close
to chaos as opposed to the other side, which is
peace.
Does this square with what you're actually seeing on
the ground?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the
short answer is absolutely. I mean, where this graph,
you know, illuminates the situation -- as we see the
pointer teetering further and further away from the
green of peace and closer into the spectrum's end of
red in chaos -- is arguably the most accurate
reflection we've seen of the situation here on the
ground to come out of either the U.S. military or the
administration.
I mean, despite the tonnage of words that comes from
politicians and generals and commanders trying to put
things within a certain political reference, here it
is. And you see it for yourself in this graph. Iraq
is within a fraction of all-out chaos. I mean, the
best that you could say right now, if such a term
exists, is that it's contained chaos. All that it
needs now is for it to break out and to be unleashed.
I mean, when you walk on an Iraqi street today, when
you go down any avenue here in Baghdad, the most
dominant feeling, the most gripping emotion among
ordinary people is fear. And that fear is legitimate.
BLITZER: And this comes only six days before the US
elections here, elections which are clearly being
dominated by what's happening on the ground in Iraq.
You've been doing a lot of reporting on the rift, on
the strain in the relationship between the prime
minister of Iraq, Nuri al-Maliki, his government, and
the Bush administration. And it's now surfacing to a
certain degree in terms of the U.S. abandoning some
checkpoints around Sadr City, where their suspicion
is this American soldier could be held.
What's the latest on that front?
WARE: Well, what we saw yesterday is that following a
demand by the rebel anti-American cleric and the
leader of the Jaish al-Mahdi Militia, Muqtada
al-Sadr, for a general strike, civil disobedience in
Sadr City until the checkpoints and the lockdown was
removed, is that, you know, by lunchtime, we had the
Iraqi prime minister, in his words, according to his
statement, ordering that these checkpoints be opened.
And within hours, the permanent checkpoints that
existed before the lockdown and still exist now,
which were closed, suddenly opened. Other temporary
checkpoints in another part of the city, which were
designed primarily to serve the hunt for the U.S.
soldier, were completely removed.
Now, a senior U.S. diplomatic official conducted a
teleconference with journalists last night to try and
explain that this was not a sign of the rift and the
Iraqi government was not countering the U.S.
military.
But I have to say, Wolf, it was less than convincing.
BLITZER: Michael, thanks very much.
Michael Ware reporting for us from Baghdad.
WARE: Thank you, Wolf.
BLITZER: And he does a fabulous job for us -- Jack
Cafferty, I think you will agree.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: He's a...
BLITZER: Michael Ware...
CAFFERTY: He's as good as it gets.
BLITZER: Yes.
CAFFERTY: He's terrific.
BLITZER: A brilliant, courageous reporter.
CAFFERTY: He could have your job.
BLITZER: You've said that before.
CAFFERTY: I'm just kidding.
Then we wouldn't have that great coverage coming out
of Iraq.
I skated on that pretty good.