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Length: 3:46
JIM CLANCY, CNN
INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: We must win it. We can win it.
The message from George W. Bush.
The U.S. president there in an impassioned plea at
Charleston Air Force Base.
I'm Jim Clancy.
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And I'm
Rosemary Church.
You join us as we listen to that speech from U.S.
President George W. Bush in South Carolina, in
Charleston.
He was making the link there. And I want to go to
Michael Ware now, actually, who's in Baghdad. Just
want to bring you up to speed here.
Michael, just want to look -- we were listening there
to the U.S. president saying that it's indisputable,
basically, this link, that the group, al Qaeda in
Iraq is a full member of the al Qaeda terrorist
network.
Is that indisputable?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, there's no
question about it. And there's never been a question
from the beginning.
I mean, I'm sorry, but perhaps I've been in Iraq too
long and I've lost track of the debate in the U.S.
and what people know and don't know. But everything
President Bush said is patently clear here on the
ground. He's made no new claims or produced any fresh
evidence.
This has been the way from the beginning. Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, who created al Qaeda in Iraq, made it
very clear from the beginning what his intentions
were. And they're precisely what the president has
spelled out.
What strikes me is why the president is making a
point of this now at this juncture. This is either
telling us something about the president's
administration, or about the knowledge of the
American people, or perhaps both. Because this
strikes me as spin, that they need to beat this drum
at this point right now.
That al Qaeda in Iraq is a part of the broader al
Qaeda network, that it has aspirations beyond Iraq's
borders, has never been a question. So I don't know
why the president is treating as if it has been.
CHURCH: All right. So pointing out the obvious, he
said himself, it's called "al Qaeda in Iraq," and
that's exactly what it is. And pointed out, too, that
it was established by foreigners not locals.
As you say, though, the big question is, what's this
about, then? What's behind this? What do you think
are the possibilities here and the timing of this?
WARE: Well, clearly, I think this plays much more
into U.S. domestic politics than anything else. I
mean, the fact that the original organization, Tawid
wa'al Jihad, which then became al Qaeda in Iraq, was
former by foreigners, is commanded by foreigners, and
whose suicide bombers are mainly foreigners, has long
been a matter of established fact.
I mean, I was meeting with some of these people, and
more importantly, I was meeting with the Iraqis as
they joined these people.
Now, what President Bush is highlighting all of a
sudden has long been a source of friction here in
Iraq. Many of the Iraqi members have long sought to
have more Iraqis in command.
So there's been a concerted effort by Osama bin Laden
and others to put more of an Iraqi face on this
organization. But that's not for the global
community. That's for an Iraqi domestic audience.
So it seems to me that President Bush is laboring a
point that has long since been won in the public
debate. Again, I'm struggling to understand, subject
to American domestic political concerns, why the
president is treating this as a revelation. It seems
like al Qaeda in Iraq 101. It's very rudimentary.
CHURCH: Interesting. All right.
Michael Ware reporting there from Baghdad.
Thanks so much for that -- Jim.