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Length: 3:35
WOLF BLITZER: More now on
our top story. A super-secret report that says the
war in Iraq is making America less safe. The White
House say there's more to the story. But what are the
conditions on the ground?
And joining us now from Baghdad, our correspondent,
Michael Ware. Michael, you're very familiar now with
all these reports of this new U.S. National
Intelligence Estimate report suggesting that the
fighting in Iraq over the past three-plus years has
made the worldwide terrorism situation against the
United States even worse. You've covered al Qaeda
extensively over these three years, mostly in Iraq.
Give us your perspective.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in terms of
the content of the report, Wolf, it is absolutely
right. The facts outlined in that document have been
self-evident on the ground here at least since 2004.
We saw Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the late terrorist
leader, arrive in Iraq in the summer of 2003 with the
bombings of the Jordanian embassy and the U.N.
headquarters.
He followed that the next summer by release of a
suicide video. It was his grand declaration of
arrival and at that time, it was becoming evident
that this local fight was being hijacked and
internationalized and coincidentally, Wolf, though
the document not released until April to the
committee, they first started writing it back then in
2004. Wolf?
BLITZER: Is the al Qaeda and related threats from
other associated terrorist groups in Iraq today
greater against the United States than it was two,
three years ago?
WARE: There is absolutely no question about that.
They are bigger. They are more sophisticated. They
are more adept at countering the U.S. military.
They're so proficient at replacing and replenishing
any materiel or personnel that they lose either
through arrest or kidnap or seizure. These guys are
spreading and growing. They have hundreds, if not
thousands, of new Iraqi recruits they certainly did
not have two years ago and they did not have when
Saddam ruled this country. And we're see a
proliferation of these groups, like-minded ones
springing up and joining the cause. Wolf?
BLITZER: Are U.S. troops and U.S. officials, U.S.
diplomats, government workers, contractors, are they
safer in Iraq today than they were a year ago?
WARE: Oh, absolutely not. I mean, not that anyone was
safe a year ago anyway. I mean, we look back on the
days of the summer of 2003 when there was still
relative freedom of movement like it was some halcyon
time.
I mean since then, this situation in this country has
done nothing, Wolf, but deteriorate. The threat has
become greater on all sides, from a variety of
directions: al Qaeda, the local insurgency, the
militias, the death squads buried within this
government, to Iranian influence. All of it has just
spiralled deeper and deeper out of control, adding to
the risk to every single American here. And
indirectly, ultimately, leading to a greater threat
against Americans across the world, Wolf.
BLITZER: Michael Ware, our correspondent in Baghdad.
Good luck over there, be careful.
WARE: Thank you, Wolf.