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JOHN ROBERTS: British
troops overnight completed their pullback in Basra.
Five hundred and fifty soldiers are handing over
control to the Iraqis and moving to the last British
base near the Basra Airport. The British plan is to
turn over all of southern Iraq to the Iraqis in the
next few months time. CNN's Michael Ware is live in
Baghdad.
And, Michael, does this signify a move that gives
Basra effectively back to the Iraqis?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, in many
senses, the Brits never had Basra. Indeed, the five
provinces in southern Iraq, the oil-rich region of
the country that the Brits were supposed to control,
really for years now, have actually been under the
domination of what U.S. military intelligence calls
Iranian-backed Shia militias, political parties and
religious movements. So, in essence, while the
Iraqi/Shia militias have been attacking the Brits,
the Brits have been too busy trying to keep
themselves alive to worry about the fact that what
the Americans call Iranian proxies have been running
the show.
So, John, welcome to a post-American Iraq. This is a
vision of what it will be like when U.S. troops draw
down.
ROBERTS: Yes, you know, immediately the concern is,
what will happen when the British influence is
removed from that area. We have seen, in many parts
of the country we see Sunni against Shiite. Down
there in Basra, we've seen Shiite against Shiite. Is
the violence expected to increase as they start to
work out a power struggle in the wake of the British
pulling out?
WARE: Well, the Brits have had no influence, John.
There's already a power struggle. There's already
violence in the streets. The police are controlled by
one Shia militia faction. The government, controlled
by another.
I mean what we're looking at, according to the
International Crisis Group, is the British
ignominious defeat. And we've seen them, many years
ago, surrender real power to these militia factions
indeed.
Indeed, they are so strong that the prime minister of
Iraq tried to sack the governor of Basra and the
governor refused to go. So the prime minister,
according to our U.S. sources, ordered his army to
remove the governor of Basra. And his army divisional
commander down there, said, "sir, I'd like to do
that, but I can only rely on about 100 soldiers."
So the Brits haven't had control. It's Iran who has
control, according to western diplomats.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, we'll see how that goes in
the future.
Our Michael Ware for us live in Baghdad.
Michael, as always, thanks for joining us this
morning.
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JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR:
Let's go to our Michael Ware now. He's in Baghdad.
Michael, this is the president's third trip to
Baghdad. Any idea where he is, what he'll see on this
visit?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT:
Absolutely no clue, John. This is very much a
cloak-and-dagger-style visit as we've seen in the
past from the president, again on holidays. This is
obviously Labor Day back home. So, he's come in here
-- there's a multitude of reasons that you could
fathom.
Clearly, this is on the eve of the all-important
reports to flow into Congress and the testimony next
week from Ambassador Ryan Crocker here and from the
American commander of the war in Iraq, General David
Petraeus. It might also be to give the Iraqi
government a bit of a nudge, much needed, to try and
see if there's any last hope for them to deliver on
any of the benchmarks or anything that America wants.
And obviously he'll be keen to sing the praises of
the American success in the west with the Sunni, with
the tribal program as the military calls it, but, in
fact, it's American Sunni militia-building. So, all
we know from the U.S. military is that yes, indeed,
the president has arrived in Iraq for a surprise
Labor Day visit -- John.
ROBERTS: Do you know, Mike, how he arrived? I expect
that he would have switched planes and landed on a
military transport. Air Force One is not typically
the thing you'd want to bring in at Baghdad
International.
WARE: To be honest, John, we wouldn't have a clue.
And I think that's the way that the military would
prefer it. And I dare say that those who do know the
mechanisms of the president's visits, including pool
reporters, would be restricted from detailing that.
So, honestly, we had no idea that he was coming. We
had no idea how he was obviously going to get here.
And right now, we have no idea what he's doing or
where he's going to go. We'll just have to wait for
the military to release it in due course -- John.
ROBERTS: Right.
In terms of what Petraeus is expected to report,
Michael, from your reporting on the ground -- and
you've been there for four years, if not a little bit
longer than that, what would you expect he's going to
say in terms of how long U.S. forces need to stay?
WARE: Oh, U.S. forces are going to have to stay for a
considerable time, I'm sure the general is going to
say. I mean, if the military could, I'm sure it would
want to maintain the current troop level of 160,000
in Iraq for some considerable period of time.
Indeed, I would in fact speculate that in a dream
world, they would want even more troops, because they
still don't have enough boots on the ground here in
Iraq to enforce U.S. policy or to protect U.S.
interests.
So, indeed, what I would anticipate to hear from the
ambassador and the general next week is that whilst
there has been some military successes, some pluses
and minuses from the so-called surge -- particularly
they'll be hailing the triumphant success of what
they call the Sunni tribal program, which is,
according to the Iraqi government, a militia-building
program by the Americans to counter Iranian-Shia
militia influence -- they'll say that, despite these
successes and putting al Qaeda on the back foot, that
politically, this place is still a disaster, and
right now there's very little on the horizon to
suggest that the political front is going to change
at all.
So, this, indeed, I would imagine, is something that
they'll say is the time for America to actually act
decisively to try and secure what remains of American
influence here. But, only time will tell, and we'll
find out soon enough next week -- John.
ROBERTS: Michael, the other big story there in Iraq
besides the president's impromptu and unannounced
visit today is the fact that the British have pulled
back out of Basra to the Basra airport. Is that
expected to make any difference on the ground at all?
And can the Iraqi forces who are now in charge of
security there maintain whatever semblance of peace
there was? And not that there was a whole lot of it.
WARE: Yeah, well, the short answer to that is, no,
there'll be no change, and yes, the Iraqi authorities
will be able to maintain what little control there is
down there because, to be honest, the Brits have been
all but irrelevant in the south for years, possibly,
now. The people who own the south are the Shia
militias, short and simple.
Forget the rest. It's not the Brits, it's not
American influence, it's the militias. The very
militias that U.S. military intelligence say are
dominated, backed, and militarily supported by Iran.
Now, indeed, what we see is, the south essentially
operates as an autonomous region defiant of the
so-called Iraqi government that the Americans have
built here in Baghdad. Remember, the governor of
Basra, the oil-rich city, the province with the most
oil in this country, was sacked by the prime minister
but refused to go. The prime minister can't even sack
his own governor, who is more powerful down there
than the prime minister himself is.
Indeed, according to U.S. sources, when the prime
minister ordered his general down there to remove the
governor, the general responded that he simply
couldn't do it because he couldn't rely on the
loyalty of more than 100 soldiers or so. So,
Iranian-backed militias own the south, have done for
a long time, the Brits have been a bit player, and
this just consolidates the militia influence that we
see both in the south and here in the capital,
Baghdad -- John.
ROBERTS: All right.
Michael Ware for us live this morning from Baghdad on
the situation in Basra and the president's secret
trip -- not so secret -- now to Baghdad.
Kiran.