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JOHN
ROBERTS: A secret U.S. program to kill terrorists.
Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward says
that is the reason violence in Iraq has dropped so
dramatically, not because of the so-called troop
surge. The claim is in Woodward's new book, "The War
Within." Here he is on "LARRY KING LIVE" last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB WOODWARD, AUTHOR, "THE WAR WITHIN": You can
somewhat compare it to the Manhattan Project in World
War II. If you look at the chart, it's a ski slope
right down in a matter of months cutting the violence
in half.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: CNN's Baghdad correspondent Michael Ware has
been living the past six years in the middle of that
war, and joins us now with his perspective. So what
do you think of what he's saying?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well,
John, I mean, let's say that these "fusion" teams as
they're called have come into effect. The first thing
to say is, well, about time.
I mean, on the ground you've seen the lack of
coordination, as the left hand of one agency has not
worked with the right hand of another agency within
the American effort. But by and large to suggest that
anything like this being done now has been the major
reason for the decline in violence is a bit rich.
I mean, the U.S. subcontracted out an assassination
program against al Qaeda way back in early 2006. And
this was conceded by the then chief of military
intelligence in Baghdad and by Ambassador Zalmay
Khalilzad himself. That's what broke the back of al
Qaeda.
Then, when America put 100,000-plus insurgents on the
U.S. government payroll, including members of al
Qaeda, that not only took them out of the field, but
it also let them run their own assassination programs
against the Iranian-backed militias.
ROBERTS: So it sounds like assassination was the real
part of the program here. But was that the only thing
that worked? What about the addition of these troops,
these neighborhood stations that were set up -- did
it all kind of work together?
WARE: Yeah, it does work together. But, I mean, the
key to the downturn in violence that we're seeing now
is not so much the surge of 30,000 troops in itself.
What it's been is the segregation of Baghdad into
these enclaves. It's been cutting a deal with Muqtada
al Sadr, the leader of the Iranian-back militias, and
primarily it's been putting your enemy on your
payroll: the Sunni insurgents and many members of al
Qaeda, that's what's brought down the violence. And
this is your American militia, the counterbalance to
the Iranian militias. So if there's new teams are out
there with new technology, great, but they're riding
the wave of previous success.
ROBERTS: Interesting. Michael Ware, thanks so much
for that. Appreciate the inside
perspective.