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Length: 3:13
WOLF BLITZER: Iraq's insurgents were closely watching
the U.S. election results and today they responded
with insults and some chilling new vows of violence.
Could they extend their reach to America and perhaps
even all the way to the White House?
And joining us now, our correspondent in Baghdad,
Michael Ware -- Michael, thanks very much.
Let's get right to this threat from the al Qaeda
leader in Iraq, threatening the United States,
taunting President Bush, ridiculing Donald Rumsfeld
-- what's going on here?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we're
seeing, Wolf, is what we all anticipated. We're
seeing the insurgency leap upon the propaganda
opportunity that the political upheaval of the
mid-term elections and, of course, Secretary
Rumsfeld's shocking resignation presented to them.
There's a rising tide of triumphalism here by the
insurgent groups operating in the country, the
powerful militias and now al Qaeda in Iraq.
First, we saw a politician backed by the
anti-American rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr come out
and describe all of this as a defeat for American
policy.
We then saw the Islamic Army of Iraq come out and
describe it as a victory for the insurgency.
Well, today in an audiotape released on the Internet,
al Qaeda in Iraq's leader struck the latest
rhetorical blow. He called President Bush a lame duck
and then charged Secretary Rumsfeld with being a
coward, saying al Qaeda has not yet had enough of
your blood, and dared him to return to the
battlefield. He coupled this taunt with an
announcement that he has 12,000 fighters in Iraq that
he is now giving to the recently formed Islamic State
of Iraq, an al Qaeda-driven body which the
organization hopes will be the basis of its
international caliphate.
BLITZER: So when they threaten in this new tape to
blow up the White House, is that a serious threat?
Are these guys capable of really exporting terrorism
beyond Iraq?
WARE: Well, we're certainly already seeing the signs
of this and we have been for some time. What is
happening here, Wolf, and as the National
Intelligence Directorate and other agencies are
beginning to accept, and are accepting, is that here
in the boiling pot of Iraq, the next generation of al
Qaeda is being born. Iraq is now serving much as
Afghanistan did in the 1980s under the Soviet
occupation. It's where the Jihadists went to blood
themselves in battle, to form their organizations,
and then the veterans went home and spread Jihad.
We're seeing that now in Iraq. So threats that they
want to make about Europe or America -- particularly
in the wake of September 11, the work of the
Afghanistan generation -- has to be taken seriously.
BLITZER: Michael Ware, thanks very much for coming
in.
WARE: My pleasure, Wolf.