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SOLEDAD
O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, breaking news is what
we start with.
The royal who went to war in Afghanistan is now
heading home as we speak. Just moments ago, we got
our first look courtesy of the U.K.'s Ministry of
Defense at Prince Harry getting ready to board an RAF
transport back to Britain.
And, as take in these new pictures, we're also
learning a little bit more about his mission and the
aborted plans to send him to Iraq and the reception
that he can expect when he's back in the U.K., both
warm and cold.
CNN's Nic Robertson is working the late details for
us. Michael Ware lends his combat perspective. We're
going to check in with both of them.
We begin, though, tonight with Harry's homecoming.
The warrior prince is no longer on the front lines,
no longer fighting the war in Afghanistan. Today, the
British government decided to evacuate him
immediately after word of his mission was leaked on
the Internet and then reported by news organizations,
including this one, CNN.
Meanwhile, the fallout over his deployment and the
decision to remove him continues to grow. It's a
story that is generating heated reaction here in the
U.S. and in the U.K. We will get to that and all the
latest developments in just a moment.
First, though, more on his once-secret mission,
including the new video of the prince in combat.
For that, we get right to CNN's Nic Robertson, who's
reporting.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT
(voice- over): Combat rations fit for a prince, but
hardly the royal treatment, warmed-up instant meals
in a bag, about as good as it got for Prince Harry.
PRINCE HARRY, GREAT BRITAIN: Rations is miserable.
Been on rations now for -- I can't even remember how
long.
ROBERTSON: Ten weeks at the front in combat with the
Taliban, a prince at war.
At his first base, Commander Mark Milford.
COMMANDER MARK MILFORD: At the moment, we can process
enough water to wash and shave every three days. And,
so, the washing area and shaving area is immediately
behind me, and just over to the side there, you have
the shower cubicles that have been knocked up with a
bit of plywood.
PRINCE HARRY: I haven't really had a shower for four
days. I haven't washed my clothes for a week, and
everything seems completely normal.
ROBERTSON: Normal for his unit. One of his buddies
woke up with a mouse in his mouth. Snakes were a
constant danger, too. But it was the rain and
freezing nights that seemed to get him down the most.
PRINCE HARRY: Typically British. Last week, we were
complaining it's too cold. And now there's people
already complaining it's too hot.
ROBERTSON: In the sun, he played ball to beat
boredom. He was just one of the guys talking about
war and tactics. Little doubt he will soon be
briefing a top British general; his father, Prince
Charles.
PRINCE HARRY: My father is very keen on me reporting
back as the mole.
ROBERTSON: Harry's brief will likely recommend more
calls home. Even the prince had to worry about his
phone minutes, only 30 a week. A call home this day a
tonic for a homesick soldier.
PRINCE HARRY: It's not a case of the longer you go
on, the worse it gets, because the longer you go on,
the closer you are to going home. And everyone here
is looking forward to going home.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Let's get right back to Nic Robertson, who
joins us live from London, along with CNN's Michael
Ware, who is in Baghdad tonight.
Nic, let's start with you.
We were looking at some of those brand-new pictures
of Prince Harry leaving Afghanistan. Tell me a little
bit more about that.
ROBERTSON: Well, you can see he still hasn't had his
hair cut. When we saw him on the front lines just a
few days ago, he was unshaven, very sunburned. His
hair was a matted mess. He looks like he's given a
wash.
But he doesn't look very happy. He's sitting there at
what appears to be Kandahar Airport in Afghanistan
with all the British troops waiting to catch a flight
home. But when you look closely at his face, he
doesn't look really pleased about being there. He
really wanted to stay longer. It's clearly that this
news coming out has upset him and the decision to
send him home clearly is not one that is going to sit
well with him -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: No. Clearly, he's going to be furious about
that.
Michael, let me ask you a question. There was talk,
we know now, that in fact Prince Harry would be sent
into Iraq. It was deemed to be too risky. Why was
Afghanistan considered much safer? I mean,
Afghanistan is very dangerous now as well.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely,
Soledad.
And I have no insight into the decision-making
process of either the royal family or the British
Ministry of Defense. All I can tell you, having spent
far too much time in both battlefronts, is that,
tragically, it's too easy to be killed or maimed in
either of these theaters, be it Iraq or be it
Afghanistan.
Both are extremely violent places. We're seeing the
attacks against the coalition forces in Afghanistan
on the rise. The Brits have taken very heavy losses
here. They have been very much at the forefront of
the fight.
And, in Basra, that's also been a wretchedly bloody
place for the Brits. So, it's no win either way you
go. However, in Basra, you can say that the Brits
have retreated or pulled back to the airport by and
large. So, their combat power is not moving through
the city. Afghanistan, you can stick someone out in a
remote base that is little noticed.
Nonetheless, like I say, on any given day, in war,
it's all about a matter of inches -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: You know, Nic, that kind of brings you to
the point of, why would he do this? You were
describing the mouse some soldier found in his mouth
and the snakes. It's not -- as a prince, he certainly
didn't have to. So, why?
ROBERTSON: He really didn't have to.
Number one, it appears this was really his passion,
to be a soldier, trained as an officer, wants to
serve with his troops. But one of the fascinating
things about all of this, when you listen to a lot of
his comments on the videotapes, this is, as he's
describing it, his first chance to be a normal
person, where he's away from the media.
He says it's great where he's not reading the
newspapers, great that he's not having people writing
things about him every day. He's in the headlines
here all the time. He's escaped all of that. But it
really does seem to be about his passion for the
military and just being a normal person, talking
about normal things.
Let's face it. He hasn't really had a normal life.
He's been in the spotlight. His mother was killed.
His mother died in that car crash. It was something
-- is something he will escape, the publicity
surrounding that. His father is going to be king. His
brother will one day be king. He will never be
normal.
This is the closest he's ever going to get to it --
Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Well, the closest for 10 weeks, and then
won't be normal again when it's leaked by the media.
Michael, I have got to ask you a question. He has
made it clear that he would like to get back to the
front lines. Do you think in any way that's
realistic?
WARE: Well, I would imagine that would be quite
difficult, particularly the way his cover was
betrayed in this instance.
I mean, the only protection he and the mates beside
him would have had would have been deception, would
have been the fact that their enemies did not know he
was there, because you can bet your life that he
would have been targeted or that base would have been
given an extra special bit of attention.
So, I would imagine it will be extremely difficult
now. They would have no faith in the media. And,
certainly, Britain's enemies would be alert to any
possibility of having a prince on the front line now.
But you have got to take your hat off to Prince
Harry. Anyone who's prepared to stand up and be a
digger, to put on that uniform and to serve in
whatever capacity in these violent wars, then you
have to give them some modicum of respect -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Nic, he spoke pretty bluntly about now being
a target of the Taliban because he was fighting in
Afghanistan. Do you think that that's true, now, when
he returns to England?
ROBERTSON: It does appear to be so.
Security experts here are certainly going to give him
more security, and they will believe and listen
perhaps more carefully to some of those threats that
Prince Harry mentioned. He said the royal family get
a number of threats. So, he is going to probably,
when he goes out, get perhaps a little more security
attention. He will get a lot more attention from the
paparazzi here in London, who will be keen to start
chasing him around and photographing him again.
The reality here is, is, though, some radical
Islamist Web sites have already said that he should
be targeted, targeted for what he was doing in
Afghanistan. That does seem to be the assessment. The
assessment here is, though, that, perhaps while he's
still a relatively junior officer, there's still a
reasonable chance he may get back to the front lines
again in the not-too-distant future -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Nic Robertson and Michael Ware for us
tonight, thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate the
time.