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This is a remarkable prepared piece that has not yet aired on Domestic, although it was in "heavy rotation" on International and also posted at CNN.com -- a reality check about the war that P-E Obama is inheriting from the Bush administration, one that will involve less combat action but far more clandestine fighting between the US and Iran over ultimate control of Iraq.
This is such an important piece that I did a transcript of it myself. (Although hopefully Domestic will start airing it soon!)
MICHAEL
WARE (voice-over): After too many years of this...
America's president-elect has vowed to make it stop.
BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT (video clip): As
president, I will end this war.
WARE (voice-over): But how much of a war is there
left for the president-elect to end? Under the Bush
administration's new deal with Baghdad, much of
America's ability to wage war in Iraq has already
been surrendered.
LT. GEN. LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. ARMY: We won't -- we
don't plan on conducting unilateral operations in the
future.
WARE (voice-over): For America's second-highest
commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Lloyd Austin,
it's clear that when SOFA -- the Status of Forces
Agreement -- activates on New Year's Day, America
will no longer be leading the fight.
AUSTIN: It is their country, and they have the
ultimate call on how operations -- the direction that
we'll take in proceeding.
WARE (voice-over): A direction that will ultimately
look like this... This is a state-sponsored Iraqi ad.
A young boy bewildered as an American column
disappears into the desert, leaving Iraq for good.
And until that departure, says the chairman of Iraq's
equal to the Armed Services Committee, U.S. troops
will take a backseat. "It is normal that Iraq is in
the driver's seat, and with Iraq taking over internal
security," he says, "America must play a supporting
role."
But beyond the combat, there may be another war yet
the Obama administration is forced to fight, one that
Iraq's Sunni vice-president says is already underway.
TAREQ AL-HASHEMI, IRAQI VICE-PRESIDENT: Yes, I think
so. I think it's already a spy war, in fact.
WARE (voice-over): He and U.S. intelligence officers
say that war is being contested between American and
Iranian agents. It's waged in Baghdad between two
rival intelligence agencies -- one in this
fortress-like building, funded and trained by the
CIA; the other, according to U.S. and Iraqi
intelligence sources, funded and trained by Iran.
(on camera) And their war is a hot one, according to
intelligence sources, with agents -- all technically
working for the Iraqi government -- dying on both
sides.
(voice-over) And there's nothing in Washington's new
deal to address that, prompting concern among Western
diplomats over the fate of Iraq's official
intelligence service, the one run by the CIA. Already
Iraq's Sunni vice-president has called for the
Iranian-trained agency -- called the Ministry of
State for National Security -- to be completely
disbanded.
But that's unlikely to happen. Iraq's Armed Services
Committee Chairman, a Shia, believes both agencies
will be under Baghdad's control, with much less of a
CIA role. "I believe the relationship with the CIA
will be gradually decreasing," he says, "though that
doesn't mean there won't be a relationship at all."
With U.S. forces soon to be restricted, the spy game
appears to be rising. Diplomatic and intelligence
sources confirm U.S. soldiers recently arrested
dozens of officers from the Iranian-trained agency.
With no comment from American or Iraqi officials, the
U.S. military's charges against the men are unknown,
though Vice President Hashemi suspects it's part of a
wider U.S. operation.
AL-HASHEMI: I know that the Americans are very much
keen to clean up all our Ministries from any sort of
direct connection to Iran.
WARE (voice-over): And with allegations Iraq's Shia
prime minister is building new illegal militias, like
this one, for his own -- a claim he vehemently denies
-- the potential for more conflict persists.
So despite the Bush administration that started this
war signing the deal to end it, the questions remain:
what was the point, and is the conflict being left
behind for President-elect Obama still to fight?
Michael Ware, CNN, Baghdad.