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Length: 4:30
RICK SANCHEZ: Out in the open right now: a claim that
the American people aren't getting the full picture
of what U.S. troops are accomplishing in Iraq. Is the
news media hiding something? Or is it just
presidential politics?
Senator John McCain, who, of course, is running for
the presidency, paid a surprise visit to the Baghdad
market over the weekend. He wore body armor, but no
helmet. Now, even though the market has been the
target of repeated bomb attacks, the unannounced and
heavily guarded shopping trip went fine, according to
reports.
Now, later, McCain accused the news media of not
reporting on the improvements in Baghdad under the
current troop surge. That prompted some skepticism
and even some pushback among the reporters who were
there when he made the declarations.
CNN's Kyra Phillips and Michael Ware are in Baghdad.
They have been watching this. In fact, they saw the
whole thing.
Michael, let's begin with you. So, while Senator
McCain is far from calling this a mission
accomplished -- to be fair, he didn't say that --
what is going on in Iraq, he did say that he sees
some progress. He talked about being able to drive
from the airport and go out in the city for the first
time.
Most of us stateside listen to this and say, hey,
that's great news. That would mean that things are
finally turning around.
Question to you: Is it true?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, no, quite
simply put, it's not.
I mean, for Senator McCain, this might be the first
time that he's managed to be able to drive from the
airport, under heavy guard, and it's the first time
that he may have been able to venture out into the
city streets.
But I can tell you, for the years that I have been
here throughout this war, many American generals have
walked those streets, enveloped by heavy security.
SANCHEZ: Is it even possible to go there in just a
couple of days and assess the situation, the way that
McCain and others have tried to do?
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: No way. That's absolutely
impossible.
And, just to give you an example, I mean, I spent the
day with General David Petraeus, just like Senator
John McCain spent a day with Petraeus. And Petraeus
and I went into the Dora district. I mean, this is a
place that is haunted by a death squad. Al Qaeda
cells still operate in that area. And he had inner-,
outer-perimeter security. He had helicopters. He had
guards everywhere.
And then McCain goes to a -- quote, unquote -- "safer
district" -- I mean, I can't even say that anything
is really safe around here. He had the same amount of
security.
Bottom line, you're with the head of U.S. forces in
Iraq, you're going to have an entourage.
SANCHEZ: Makes sense.
Now, yesterday, at the news conference, McCain did
face some tough questions. We talked about that a
little while ago. It was kind of like a
back-and-forth between members of the media,
something we see all the time like at the White
House, for example.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: In comments that you made on CNN, you said
that General Petraeus wandered around here in an
unarmored Humvee, and I would like to bring it back
to...
MCCAIN: General Petraeus -- General Petraeus...
(CROSSTALK)
MCCAIN: General Petraeus goes to -- goes downtown
almost every day. And, of course, he has protection.
And we had protection today.
Things are getting better in Iraq. And I am pleased
at the progress that has been made. And I will
continue to be pleased with the progress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: While we're watching that news conference,
Michael, let me ask you flat out, because you know
that there's a report out there that says that,
during this news conference, you heckled Senator
McCain. What's your response to that?
WARE: No, absolutely not. I did not heckle the
senator.
Indeed, I never even made a comment throughout the
entire press conference. Indeed, when I finally did
raise my hand, the press conference ended abruptly.
And, essentially, the senator disagrees with our
assessment of the state of the war.
SANCHEZ: We have got some numbers. You know, a lot of
people smarter than us have said that numbers don't
lie. So, we are going to share some brand-new numbers
with you that we have just received, numbers that
seem to say that, since this surge, it looks like
this as far as civilian deaths. These are Iraqi
civilian deaths that we're talking about.
They have risen, from 1,552 in February, 2007, to
1,939 in March. Now, that's a 25 percent increase.
All this is going on during the surge.
Now, it seems to me that that's a problem.
Guys, go ahead.
WARE: Well, this was always anticipated. The surge
was never meant to be the answer to all problems.
Even the commanders of all of the U.S. forces, the
leader of this war, General Petraeus, said, let's be
cautious about our expectations here.
What's happened is what's happened every time there's
been an offensive in the capital.
SANCHEZ: Michael Ware, Kyra Phillips, thanks so much
for the lively exchange. I really enjoyed it. Good
job out there.