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WOLF BLITZER: Car bombs,
mortars and rockets are adding to the carnage in
Baghdad today. Dozens of fresh casualties are
reported there and police say they found dozens more
bullet-riddled bodies on the streets of the capital.
Should the U.S. be talking with insurgents right now?
CNN's Michael Ware is joining us once again from
Baghdad -- Michael, thanks very much.
You had a fascinating report on these insurgents now
suggesting that they would like to enter into direct
talks with the Bush administration.
Listen to the White House press secretary, Tony Snow.
He responded to that earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There are two
things insurgent leaders don't want. They don't want
you to know who they are and they don't want you to
know where they live.
Under such circumstances, it's very difficult to have
regular meetings with them. So what you really have
here is a situation in which the Iraqis have their
own way of communicating, sometimes through third
parties. But let's reiterate, reconciliation is a key
part of what the prime minister is trying to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: He's referring to the Iraqi prime minister,
Nouri al-Maliki.
What do you make of that White House reaction to your
exclusive reports?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, I mean
it's a stated fact, as we've heard from the U.S.
ambassador himself, Zalman Khalilzad, that the United
States has had dialogues, contact, communication,
back channel flows with the Sunni insurgency.
What they've been targeting from the beginning,
certainly since the end of the Bremer administration
and the arrival of Ambassador John Negroponte as the
U.S. representative here in Baghdad, is to reach out
primarily to the old Baath apparatus that Bremer's
administration so rapidly dismantled after the war.
That conversation continues. However, the Baathists
and the insurgents out there are disillusioned with
what they see as a less than genuine U.S. response --
Wolf.
BLITZER: What about Maliki, the prime minister? Is he
feeling any heat from the U.S. government, the Bush
administration, members of Congress to start dealing
with these death squads, these militias? Or is he
resisting that pressure?
WARE: Well, Wolf, obviously, all of this is conducted
behind closed doors and on secure phone
communications.
However, I think it's very clear from what little
there has that's fallen from the table publicly, the
crumbs that we can piece together, that, yes, there
clearly is pressure.
Look at Secretary Rice's language when she visited
most recently in Baghdad. It was very much tougher
talk than we've seen on her previous visit back in
April.
The U.S. needs to see change and they need to see it
now. They need to see the Baghdad security plan
working. And, quite frankly, it's stalled. They need
to see Nouri al-Maliki, the last possible hope they
might have for the democratic model here, the man
they've invested so much in, succeed.
Yet what is he doing?
He's refused to dismantle the militias and according
to an interview with one U.S. paper, he's preventing
U.S. forces from going into the heart of the capital,
where the largest militia comes from -- Wolf.
BLITZER: And that would be Sadr City.
Michael Ware reporting for us.
Thanks very much.