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ANDERSON COOPER: That skeptical tone will carry over
next week, as the Senate debates a resolution
condemning the president's troop buildup. A vote is
set for Monday. So, with all the tough talk on Iraq
and Iran, where is the proof? What evidence does the
Bush administration really have about Iranian
involvement in Iraq?
And, for that, we turn to CNN's chief international
correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, in Tehran; in
Baghdad, Michael Ware; and Suzanne Malveaux in
Washington.
Suzanne, let's start with you.
COOPER: We will be watching tomorrow. Suzanne,
thanks.
If lawmakers needed any more evidence that Iraq will
be a tough place to fix -- if possible at all -- they
got plenty more today. Two bombings in Hillah, south
of Baghdad, killed at least five dozen people. 30
more bodies in Baghdad, gunmen targeting college
students elsewhere. And in Iran, reports that the
government has refused to let U.N. inspectors set up
cameras at an underground nuclear plant.
As we said, Michael Ware is in Baghdad for us
tonight. And Christiane Amanpour is in Tehran.
Christiane, the number-two U.S. military commander in
Iraq, General Raymond Odierno, said that Iranians are
supplying Iraqi militias with a variety of powerful
weapons, including Katyusha rockets.
How are Iranian officials, at this point, responding
to the accusations?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL
CORRESPONDENT: Well, directly, not. The government
has not responded directly. There have been many days
of holiday over the mourning period.
But, unofficially, I have been talking with sources
with very close connection to the government. And
they say: You have got to show us the proof. They
say: We would be really surprised to hear that we are
supplying our own allies, Shiites, to kill the very
people who liberated them, the Americans.
This is what their -- what their position apparently
is. They say that they want a democratic and freely
elected government in Iraq, which they say exists
right now, and that, yes, their position is that they
want the U.S. -- quote -- "occupying forces" out, but
only after they have laid the groundwork for the
possibility to get out, and not to get out
precipitously, which would leave -- quote -- "Iraq in
a bigger mess than it is in already."
COOPER: Well, it will be interesting to see if the
Bush administration releases what they say is this
evidence.
Michael, you spoke to Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki
earlier this week. Does he see Iran as much of a
threat in Iraq as the United States does?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, no, not at
all, Anderson.
I mean, he sees Iran in a much different way. I mean,
the problem for the Iraqi prime minister is that he's
caught between a rock and a hard place. He has the
U.S. administration and the military here essentially
underwriting his so-called democratic government.
Nonetheless, Iran remains a partner. I mean, there's
a shared land border. There's a lot of, you know,
population that shares ties across that porous land
border.
And, don't forget, the prime minister comes from a
Shia political alliance of parties, most of whom
received shelter from Saddam by Iran or continue to
have support from Iran to this day. Indeed, the prime
minister's party, when it fled Saddam, went to --
partly to Syria, and mostly to Iran.
COOPER: Christiane, an interesting moment in front of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: former
National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft once again
urging the U.S. to pursue diplomacy with Iran, the
suggestion, obviously, the Bush administration has
rejected, at least on this issue.
What is your sense from talking to Iranian officials?
How open would they be to talks?
AMANPOUR: Well, I think they do want to. And they
have made that representation in the past.
Certainly, officially, it's really difficult to get a
straight answer on this. But, unofficially, those
people who I have been talking to say: "Look, we
were" -- and they use the word "partners with the
United States over the war in Afghanistan, when the
Taliban was kicked out, and we helped the United
States, in a very constructive way, usher in the new
democratic government of Hamid Karzai."
And even the U.S. admits that. So, these very same
people are saying that: "We should be having the same
kind of cooperation in Iraq. We know -- who knows
Iraq better than us?" they say. "We were at war with
Iraq for eight years. We have this long border," as
Michael pointed out. So many of the leadership and,
by the way, the Badr Brigades, the militias, the
people in Iraq now who are in the armed camps, were
inside Iran. "We know a lot, and we can help a lot.
And we can help the Americans a lot."
So, on this side, many of the officials are wondering
why they can't get to talks to -- with America about
this issue.
COOPER: And it's interesting, Michael. What can the
Iraqi government really do? This spokesman for the
Iraqi government said they won't allow any attacks
from Iran against American forces or British forces
in Iraq. But they also stress they want to maintain
good relations with Iran.
And you talked about the prime minister being between
a rock and a hard place. How does the government
balance the two? Can they move against these Iranian
agents?
WARE: Absolutely not. I mean, this government has no
power whatsoever to move against the Iranian agents
or the massive Iranian networks that work within this
country. I mean, remember, the Iranians helped
harness a lot of these Iraqi exiles during Saddam's
regime. They put thousands of them into the Iranian
armed forces, turned hundreds and thousands of them
into covert networks, which are still operating
today.
I mean, as the Iranian ambassador here in Baghdad
once said to me, when I challenged him that Western
intelligence says there's covert ops running out of
your embassy, he goes: "Well, this is an embassy. And
the CIA is here, and MI6 is here."
And what we see, for example, within the Iraqi
government, how they balance it, there's competing
intelligence agencies that operate within this
government. One is backed by the CIA and the U.S.
government. The other one has been backed by the
Iranians. So, they're just trying -- they have to
live with this situation.
COOPER: A difficult situation, indeed.
Michael Ware, thanks. Christiane Amanpour, thanks --
covering the story from both Tehran and Baghdad
tonight.
Michael actually returns in our next hour. He and I
sat down recently for an in-depth look at the war,
what he calls, actually, four wars unfolding at once.
That's coming up at the top of the hour -- his
thoughts on his near-death experience at the hands of
al Qaeda gunmen. We're calling it "Iraq: The Hidden
Wars." Again, that's at the top of the hour.
We got hundreds of e-mails about this broadcast,
people saying it clarified things for them in Iraq,
what's happening on the ground, what's really
happening on the ground. I urge you to watch
it.