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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
President Bush Delivers Prime-Time Address on Iraq; Trial of Polygamist Leader Warren Jeffs Begins
Aired September 13, 2007 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: We're coming to you tonight from Baghdad.
Good evening, everyone.
We will, of course, go in-depth on the president's address to the nation, the troop pullback, and, very near the very end of his speech, his long-term commitment that could lead to an American military presence here in Iraq, not for years, but potentially for decades.
The best political team on television joins me in a moment.
We will also take you inside the courtroom for the start of the trial of polygamist leader and onetime fugitive Warren Jeffs.
And Humberto, the storm that turned into a hurricane faster than any other in history, what it did to the Gulf Coast and what people there are doing tonight.
We begin with President Bush's address to the nation, trumpeting a reduction in violence and emphasizing that some troops will begin to return home. Return on success, that's the new tagline the president was touting tonight. As the president put it, the more successful we are, the more American troops can return home.
Well, we have been here in Iraq all week, checking to see how the statements by the administration and General Petraeus square with the facts. Today, there were two big ones that challenge Mr. Bush's optimism. That Sunni sheik he met with during his visit to Al Anbar Province earlier this month, the one who used to support terror group al Qaeda in Iraq and switched to supporting the U.S., he was blown up today in a car bomb.
The president tonight acknowledged that, while pointing to progress in Al Anbar. He also talked about the provinces sharing oil revenues, in fact, though negotiations to hammer out a deal hit another snag today. We will talk more about those facts and all the angles tonight, including Iran and presidential politics.
First, the president, the speech.
And, for that, we turn to CNN's senior political analyst, Candy Crowley -- Candy.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, no surprises, certainly nothing that will satisfy critics, but still an important moment this evening. After four-and-a-half years of war, the commander in chief said something he has never said before.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, because of the measure of success we are seeing in Iraq, we can begin seeing troops come home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: The president's plan for troop withdrawal is not big enough or soon enough to satisfy critics, but it does move the political debate forward, from whether troops should come home to how many and when. It will not sit well with the president's opponents that he is now talking with Iraqi leaders about an extended U.S. stay.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: They understand that their success will require U.S. political, economic and security engagement that extends beyond my presidency. These Iraqi leaders have asked for an enduring relationship with America. And we are ready to begin building that relationship, in a way that protects our interests in the region and requires many fewer American troops.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Candy, this long-term commitment was not what the American people were told would be needed during the buildup to the war.
CROWLEY: Well, and -- and it's going to be a problem, I think.
You know, when you talk to people on Capitol Hill, even critics of the president, all of them have known that U.S. troops could not come out quickly, that it would take a year or two years.
But, when the president starts talking about troops staying there beyond my administration, a long-term stay there, I think this is something that will be the source of conversation, because it is not what people thought they were buying into.
COOPER: All right.
Along with Candy Crowley, Michael Ware is joining me in Baghdad. Also with us, former presidential adviser David Gergen and the newest member of the best political team on television, CNN senior political analyst Gloria Borger.
Gloria, welcome to 360. Good to have you here at CNN.
Michael, let's start off with you.
What was your overall of the president's speech?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, my first impression is, wow. I mean, it's one thing to return to the status quo, to the situation we had nine months ago, with 130,000 U.S. troops stuck here for the foreseeable future. It's another thing to perpetuate the myth. I mean, I won't go into detail, like the president's characterizations of the Iraqi government as an ally, or that the people of Anbar, who support the Sunni insurgency, asked America for help, or to address this picture of a Baghdad that exists only in the president's mind.
Let me just refer to this, what the president said, that, if America were to be driven out of Iraq, extremists of all strains would be emboldened. They are now. Al Qaeda could gain new recruits and new sanctuaries. They have that now. Iran would benefit from the chaos and be encouraged in its efforts to gain nuclear weapons and dominate the region. It is now.
Iraq would face a humanitarian -- humanitarian crisis. It does now. And that we would leave our children a far more dangerous world. That's happening now.
COOPER: Gloria Borger, who was watching this from Washington, your impressions. You said that, today, you could not find a Republican who wanted President Bush to give this speech. Why?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think Republicans, many of whom are now critics of this war, were very willing to stand with General Petraeus. There was a sense that the general did quite well in his testimony on Capitol Hill.
If you look at public opinion polls, the public trusts the generals to figure out what to do next in the war more than they do the president or even the Congress. And, so, Republicans were saying, it was fine with us to stand with Petraeus. By the president going on television tonight, he is reminding the American public that this is, of course, the policy of George W. Bush that they are supporting.
And -- and this comes from Republican presidential candidates as well. They would just as soon that the president had kept quiet and just leave Petraeus' statements stand for themselves.
COOPER: David Gergen, let's play the -- the sound bite that Michael Ware was referring to about the consequences of failing here in Iraq.
Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: If we were to be driven out of Iraq, extremists of all strains would be emboldened. al Qaeda could gain new recruits and new sanctuaries. Iran would benefit from the chaos and would be encouraged in its efforts to gain nuclear weapons and dominate the region.
Extremists could control a key part of the global energy supply. Iraq could face a humanitarian nightmare. Democracy movements would be violently reversed. We would leave our children to face a far more dangerous world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: David, do you agree with Michael, that that's happening now?
DAVID GERGEN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Much of what he said is already happening, as Michael Ware has reported.
At the same time, Anderson, this has become the most effective argument the president has for keeping a substantial number of troops in Iraq, and it's one that's appealing to Republican moderates. It's one that's made Democrats scared of pulling the plug totally on this.
And I think it's one that's going to give the president enough support to get his plan basically -- to get it through the Congress. I don't think the Congress is going to change his plan.
What I do think emerged tonight was what you started with, in that what was new tonight was about this enduring, long-term commitment to Iraq. What we know is that the president met earlier today with a handful of journalists. And it's been reported out of that, that he talked about signing up an agreement with Iraq that would commit the United States to the security of Iraq, in much the same way we have been committed to Korea.
We have been now in Korea for over half-a-century. That was a major, dramatic commitment by the United States that required the approval of the United States' Congress. If the president is seriously talking about such a commitment -- and he certainly hinted heavily at that tonight -- that would be a major new commitment, going well past his presidency, and will cause a storm on Capitol Hill.
COOPER: No doubt about that.
Candy, the president also spoke about really both parties coming together. Let's listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: The way forward I have described tonight makes it possible, for the first time in years, for people who have been on opposite sides of this difficult debate to come together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Is there room for both sides to come together at this point?
CROWLEY: Look, there is room in the middle, but they're not going to come together the way the president's talking about.
Some moderate Republicans that we have heard publicly on the Senate side and on the House side have said, listen, it's time to get out of there. So, what the Democrats are now trying to do is get enough Republicans on board on Capitol Hill to try to force the president's hand further.
There's a couple of amendments. They're going to get to these votes next week when the defense authorization bill comes up. So, the battle doesn't end tonight. The battle begins tonight. And the president, you know, what -- his real audience tonight, Anderson, was those Republicans who are being wooed by the Democrats.
COOPER: Michael, the president also spoke about the Iraqi government and -- and the need to pressure the Iraqi government. I want to play what -- what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Now, the Iraqi government must bring the same determination to achieving reconciliation. This is an enormous undertaking after more than three decades of tyranny and division. The government has not met its own legislative benchmarks. And, in my meetings with Iraqi leaders, I have made it clear that they must.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Can this government, the Maliki government, be pressured?
WARE: Well, Anderson, it might be surprising, but there are very real limits to the pressure America can apply to this government.
COOPER: Even with all the money we have poured in, even...
(CROSSTALK)
WARE: Oh, absolutely. Look, forget all that. I mean, there's other people willing to provide just the same, if not more. You know, Iran has built far more radio stations, TV stations. It funds far more newspapers and hospitals than America does.
I mean, it's one thing to pressure Maliki. He doesn't exist without America. He is a lame duck. You can really screw him down. But his government is a different thing. Many of its factions are much more ideologically aligned to Tehran than to America. So, there's no carrots.
The best thing is the stick, the Anbar tribes, the Sunni Baath insurgency. Beat them with that. And that's what America's doing.
COOPER: The U.S. -- but the U.S. talks about reconciliation and the need for -- for Shia-led government to -- to reconcile with Sunni, even former Sunni insurgents. Does this government -- do -- so the Sunnis want to reconcile?
WARE: Not the ones that I'm talking to, certainly not the power brokers. I mean, I'm talking about the heads of the largest Shia militias in this country, men who sit in the parliament, men who are the chairmen of the security and defense committees, the parliamentary oversight watchdog committees.
These men are not looking for reconciliation. What they want is America to get out of the way and let us loose.
COOPER: Gloria, Senator Jack Reed gave the Democratic response. I want to play an excerpt from that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JACK REED (D), RHODE ISLAND: A nation eager for change in Iraq heard the President speak about his plans for the future. But, once again, the president failed to provide either a plan to successfully end the war or a convincing rationale to continue it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Gloria, do the Democrats have many options?
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: No, the Democrats really don't have any options, because, Anderson, they just don't have the votes right now.
What you're going to hear the Democrats talking about, which Senator Reed talked about, is the lack of political progress in Iraq. They're going to say Iraq's problems are not military right now, they're political, and that the president hasn't shown a way to get the kind of political progress that you need to have a safe Iraq and to get American troops home.
And, so, you're going to hear a lot more of that. That's what Senator Reed was talking about. And, however, the Democrats also understand that they need at least 60 votes to get anything done in the Senate these days, as Candy was saying, and they don't have those votes. And, so, the president is most likely going to get his way.
COOPER: David, it does present, as you mentioned, obstacles for Republicans coming into this presidential election. You basically are going to have a new presidential election with large numbers of U.S. forces still on the ground here.
GERGEN: Well, that's the -- that's the downside of this for Republicans, because it's almost certain now that we're going to have 100,000 troops or so in Iraq come November of 19 -- in 2008.
And that makes -- that is a perfect setup for Democrats to run not only for the White House, but for the Congress, saying, this party won't -- the Republican Party won't end our war in Iraq. We will.
And that's going to be a powerful argument. So, I think, for a lot of Republicans, as Gloria Borger was saying earlier, this is a very, very two-edged sword. You know, you can grab one side of this, and you think you're supporting troops and supporting patriotism, but you also may be supporting a sword coming through your own belly come -- come November of '08.
COOPER: I have got to ask Michael Ware this question. The president talked about improved quality of life here in Baghdad. I want to play that for our viewers. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Today, most of Baghdad's neighborhoods are being patrolled by coalition and Iraqi forces who live among the people they protect. Many schools and markets are reopening. Citizens are coming forward with vital intelligence. Sectarian killings are down. And ordinary life is beginning to return.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: What he didn't mention is, there are four million Iraqis not in their homes. Neighborhoods here in Baghdad have been ethnically cleansed.
WARE: Absolutely.
And if by the -- if the president means by ordinary life, families essentially living locked up in their homes, in almost perpetual darkness, without refrigeration, or perhaps constantly struggling -- struggling for ever more expensive gas to run generators, if he means waiting in their homes, wondering if government death squads will drag them off and torture and execute them, if he means living in sectarian, cleansed neighborhoods where people who were your friends have had to flee, if he's talking about living in communities that are protected by militias, then, yes, life has returned to ordinary.
COOPER: Michael Ware reporting from Baghdad, David Gergen, Gloria Borger, Candy Crowley, appreciate all your perspectives tonight.
We have a lot of ahead on the program.
We were watching the speech very closely, in terms of the words that were used. Maybe because we're curious, or because we're -- our producers, we like to torment, we wanted to know which words the president said most and which he didn't say at all.
So, we asked our producer, Rain Man, to count words. Here's the "Raw Data."
Mr. Bush said al Qaeda 12 times. General Petraeus got eight mentions. Surge got six, and getting no mention whatsoever, the word victory.
We have touched on it already. We will lay it out in-depth in a moment, the president's morphing message over the years on Iraq, first WMD, then democracy. Well -- now, well, see for yourself.
Also tonight, a lot more news on a lot more fronts.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): The polygamist prophet in shackles in court.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They would lead us into the celestial kingdom or heaven.
COOPER: Hear the case against Warren Jeffs and a chilling account of life inside his cultlike world.
Instant hurricane, lasting damage -- what happened when Humberto came ashore stronger than expected and what happens now?
360 tonight.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: The success of a free Iraq is critical to the security of the United States.
A free Iraq will deny al Qaeda a safe haven.
A free Iraq will counter the destructive ambitions of Iran.
A free Iraq will marginalize extremists, unleash the talent of its people, and be an anchor of stability in the region.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, tonight President Bush gave you an optimistic view of the war in Iraq. That is how he sees it. The president has never publicly wavered in his belief that the U.S. will succeed.
What has changed, however, is his message about the mission and the meaning. It's worth looking at what he said then and what he is saying now.
CNN's Joe Johns is "Keeping Them Honest."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what President Bush said just days after the war began.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, MARCH 23, 2003)
BUSH: All I know is we have got a game plan, a strategy to free the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein and rid his country of weapons of mass destruction, and we're on plan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: And we all remember that "Mission Accomplished" moment two months later aboard the aircraft carrier.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, MAY 1, 2003)
BUSH: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: Then, two years later, it was 2005. The war was dragging on, and no weapons of mass destruction had been found. The word for the president was still victory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, NOVEMBER 30, 2005)
BUSH: And we will never accept anything less than complete victory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, DECEMBER 7, 2005)
BUSH: We will complete our mission in Iraq and leave behind a democracy that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: The president remained on message, the same victory message, until last year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, OCTOBER 25, 2006)
BUSH: Our mission is to help the elected government in Iraq defeat common enemies, to bring peace and stability to Iraq, and make our nation more secure. Our goals are unchanging. We are flexible in our methods to achieving those goals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: But, by this year, the message had started to morph, that unchanging goal, victory and democracy, replaced by a reduction of sectarian violence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, MAY 2, 2007)
BUSH: Either we will succeed or we won't succeed. And the definition of success, as I described, is, you know, sectarian violence down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: And, then, less than two months later, that was replaced by yet another way to view what the U.S. is doing in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, JUNE 28, 2007)
BUSH: It's a new mission. And David Petraeus is in Iraq carrying it out. Its goal is to help the Iraqis make progress toward reconciliation, to build a free nation that respects the rights of its people, upholds the rule of law, and is an ally against the extremists in this war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: So, Joe, was it the -- the rhetoric that has been changing or -- or the mission?
JOHNS: Well, there was that talk about the long-term commitment, but you also have this issue, the latest turn, essentially saying that, on the recommendation of General Petraeus, there has been enough progress to start bringing the troops home.
Let's listen to a little bit of a what the president said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Over time, our troops will shift from leading operations, to partnering with Iraqi forces -- and eventually to overwatching those forces. As this transition in our mission takes place, our troops will focus on a more limited set of tasks, including counterterrorism operations and training, equipping and supporting Iraqi forces.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: So, there's always been a lot of optimism in the president's speeches about Iraq. And, if you look at this, in some ways, at least part of that speech was perhaps the president's most optimistic speech of all -- Anderson.
COOPER: All right, Joe Johns, appreciate it tonight.
Call it tough talk or talking points. The candidates for president were sounding off on the president's address even before the speech. In an open letter to the president, Hillary Clinton asked him to not misrepresent the facts and to be candid with the American people.
Clearly, Iraq was the big headline of the day, but people in power found room for other news you should know about.
CNN's Tom Foreman has tonight's "Raw Politics."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Democrats already have a majority, 51 seats in the U.S. Senate, but they would like to have a bigger lead, and now they might have a way to do it.
(voice-over): It's the Warner brothers, sort of. With Republican John Warner of Virginia retiring, the highly popular former governor, Democrat Mark Warner -- no relation -- is going after that Senate chair.
MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: And I'm going to work like heck for the next 14 months to get Virginians to hire me.
FOREMAN: This is big because, last time around, Republican Senator George Allen tanked after his macaca moment and gave up a seat to the Dems. If Mark Warner wins, once reliably red Virginia will go all blue in the Senate.
Rudy Giuliani is making some Republicans see red. He says being in the United States illegally should not be called a crime, made the comment on Glenn Beck's radio show, saying there are just too many undocumented workers to prosecute them all anyway.
Big Joe Biden is getting a big endorsement in corn country from Iowa's House majority leader, Democrat Kevin McCarthy. This matters because Iowa is an early caucus state, and this might produce enough support to keep Biden in the race.
And Democrat Mike Gravel continues the daring, surrealistic to campaigning that has already made him the Salvador Dali of American politics. Listen to his assessment of you.
MIKE GRAVEL (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am prepared to tell you that Americans are getting fatter and dumber. I have no problem saying that.
FOREMAN: Let's hear that again.
GRAVEL: Americans are getting fatter and dumber.
FOREMAN (on camera): Well, I'm no speechwriter, but I'm pretty sure the words "fatter" and "dumber" are not the ones that come right before, "Vote for me."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: Wow. Well, you never know. It might work.
Up next: the fallen prophet, polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, in court, in shackles, and facing the child bride he's accused of forcing to marry her own cousin. You can't make this stuff up.
And the hurricane that took many people by surprise -- Humberto hit land faster and stronger than expected and caused major damage. Severe weather expert Chad Myers tells us where the storm is next.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, back home, we're also keeping a close eye on a major storm that turned deadly. Humberto may no longer be a hurricane, but it is taking a toll in Texas and parts of the Gulf Coast. Several disaster areas have been declared. There are power outages and growing fears of flooding.
CNN severe weather expert Chad Myers is watching the storm, and he joins us an update -- Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We were here right here last night, Anderson, talking about this storm and how it wasn't getting on land. It was staying on the water.
The water was very warm, 87 degrees. And it was growing, and it grew enough to get to that hurricane status yesterday at about 2:00 in the morning.
Sea Rim State Park, Texas, 85-mile-per-hour gusts, Beaumont, 84, Port Arthur, the same. Those are two towns that they took it the hardest, Beaumont and Port Arthur.
Now the storm has maybe moved to a flood-making stage, no longer a wind-maker, but an awful lot of rain across Mississippi, Alabama and even north Georgia, into some mountainous little areas there. And those hills will run off, and that water could come up a little bit here for the rest of the week.
Look at this. Look at the rain here, all the way from almost Louisiana -- this is a live radar -- all the way back into Florida. And the heaviest rain is nowhere near where the center is. But, here, the heaviest stuff now way to the east of there, where all this lightning is, just to the north of Jacksonville, from Brunswick to Waycross, Georgia, and almost up into Atlanta. That's where most of the heavy rain was earlier today, some big-time heavy rain through Atlanta about three or four hours ago.
And, Tampa, you have had your share of lightning and thunder in the overnight hours of tonight. And that rain will continue for most of the night, although the flooding will spread across Mississippi, Alabama and parts of Georgia, right now, doing OK. As long as the storm keeps moving, Anderson, we're OK. If it stops, that is when we are in trouble -- back to you. So far, so good.
COOPER: All right, Chad, thanks for the update.
We have got more from Iraq in just a moment. We will give you inside at how American forces are striking targets by remote control and a view of the war that, frankly, no one wants you to see.
But, first, Joe Johns with a 360 bulletin -- Joe.
JOHNS: (AUDIO GAP) continues in Indonesia. Yet another earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra today, this one with a magnitude of 6.2. It's the same location where a major 8.4-magnitude earthquake struck yesterday, killing nine people. Since then, the region has felt a number of aftershocks, some of which triggered tsunami alerts, but, so far, no major tsunamis.
Near Miami, Florida, police are hunting for a man who shot four officers, killing one of them. The shootings happened this morning in the suburbs of Cutler Bay, after police stopped a man for driving erratically. The suspect has been identified as 25-year-old Shawn Sherwin Labeet. And police say he is armed and dangerous. And the Pentagon today released the transcript of the military tribunal of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, but it's missing much of Mohammed himself. The Pentagon cut out most of his personal statement, fearing it would be used as propaganda to recruit terrorists or encourage future terrorist acts.
During the March hearing, Mohammed admits to planning the September 11 attacks and he likens himself to George Washington.
Anderson, back to you in Iraq.
COOPER: Hard to believe that. Joe, appreciate that reporting.
Right now we have a report on some of the weapons in this war. We all know the weapons of the insurgents: the car bombs, the suicide vests, the IEDs, the mortars and the rockets, relatively low-tech weapons. The U.S. has a far more high-tech arsenal.
As Gary Tuchman reports, the Predator is one of the U.S. military's most effective tools for tracking down and eliminating insurgents. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Take a close look at the truck with the gun. The U.S. Air Force believes it's being operated by insurgents near Baghdad. But not for long. The target is destroyed by a missile.
Similar situation within this red circle. The Air Force says it has evidence insurgents operate on that floor of the building. They decide to call in the missiles. It may look like a video game, but it's very real.
What took the clear video images? What dropped the Hellfire missiles? This small plane that you see landing. It's called the Predator, and there's no human being inside of it.
Major Jon Dagley is a pilot on the ground, controlling the missiles and, yes, flying the Predator from a hangar at the U.S.'s busiest military airport in Balad, Iraq.
MAJOR JON DAGLEY, U.S. AIR FORCE: I am still flying the plane, basically, traditionally like a regular plane.
TUCHMAN (on camera): The Predator utilizes two cameras. One is right here on the nose of the plane. And the other one, the more sophisticated one, is down here under the plane. This aircraft weighs 2,250 pounds, almost like a toy plane. It weighs less than seven big NFL linebackers.
(voice-over) It only flies 75 miles an hour and is very quiet, so it's virtually unnoticeable in the sky. As this guy is about to find out the hard way. The Air Force says this man is an insurgent who is planning to fire mortars into the Balad Air Base. CAPT. ERIC HENDRICKSON, U.S. AIR FORCE: Sure enough, there's somebody with the tube already set up, getting ready to attack the base.
TUCHMAN: Captain Eric Hendrickson was in the pilot's seat when he pointed cameras at this man.
HENDRICKSON: He dropped one round in a mortar tube, and it went off. And then they went to drop a second round in, and it was a dud. And at that time, obviously, I knew we were being attacked, so I started preparing my aircraft to counterattack.
TUCHMAN: But the attacker then got in his car and started driving off with a companion. The camera continued to follow them. With the men having no idea that they only had moments left to live.
Other vehicles were on the street, though.
HENDRICKSON: It's a small enough warhead that we knew that we could take the car out. But if another vehicle was coming by, it shouldn't -- it shouldn't hurt anybody inside.
TUCHMAN (on camera): How accurate is it?
HENDRICKSON: Big picture, I'd say you can hit within a foot.
TUCHMAN: The button was pushed, and the men were never seen again.
The camera then photographed another man throwing the mortar tube into a body of water. That tube is now in the Air Force hangar, the military recovering it to prevent it from being used again.
F-16s are also used for reconnaissance and attack missions. They use laser-guided bombs and are much faster.
LT. COL. TORCH WILLIAMS, F-16 SQUADRON COMMANDER: The plane can go twice the speed of sound.
TUCHMAN: But they can't fly for as long as the Predator, which sometimes hovers over a suspect for as much as a day. The Balad base is a major target.
COL. CHARLIE MOORE, 33RD EXPEDITIONARY COMMANDER: The majority of the time when the base gets attacked, we have man-on-man aircraft over the base.
TUCHMAN: Before we left, we all had to hit the ground because radar picked up an incoming mortar attack that landed close to us but caused no casualties. And it was a fortunate day for the attacker, because the Predators and F-16s were elsewhere.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Gary Tuchman joins us now live from Balad Air Base.
We just heard a couple of large explosions somewhere in the distance here. How often is the base there, Gary, shelled by mortars?
TUCHMAN: Well, over the last seven days, Anderson, we have been hit by mortars or rockets seven times. Now, when it happens, we are told to go into concrete bunkers which are all around this huge base, or lie flat on our stomachs like you saw in my story.
And that's why it's very rare that you have any casualties whatsoever. There have been no casualties this week.
However, something very tragic happened last month. A contractor who works here was killed from a mortar in a rocket.
This is a rough neighborhood, Anderson. There are bugs all over here, too. But this is a rough area. This is the middle of the Sunni Triangle, and there's some Shiite neighborhoods near this base, so there's a lot of antagonism in this area to go around -- Anderson.
COOPER: Gary Tuchman reporting all week. Gary, great job. Thanks, Gary.
When we come back, Warren Jeffs, self-proclaimed prophet, polygamist sect leader, one-time most-wanted fugitive. Now he's an accused felon on trial. The latest from the courtroom is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We'll have more from Iraq in a moment, including a view of the war few Americans have ever seen. But right now we turn our attention to what's happening in America, in a courtroom.
When you're the leader of a polygamist sect and you consider yourself a prophet of God, finding a jury of your peers is not that easy. But today the jury in the Warren Jeffs trial was seated, and opening statements began.
It is a spellbinding case and one that gives us a rare look inside a secret world, a world which still exists, hiding in plain sight in America's heartland.
Mike Watkiss is a reporter from Phoenix affiliate KTVK. He has been covering the Jeffs saga for years and filed this report for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE WATKISS, KTVK CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He arrived by helicopter, shackled and wearing a bulletproof vest. In court Warren Jeffs changed into a suit, briefly smiling and nodding at prospective jurors as he was seated.
Jeffs stands accused as an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year- old girl. We're calling her Jane Doe to protect her identity. She claims she was forced to marry her 19-year-old first cousin. Her testimony at a pretrial hearing offer a glimpse of the case to come.
JANE DOE, WITNESS FOR PROSECUTION: He said I've always wanted to see a woman naked. And I was so embarrassed. I was so embarrassed. WATKISS: We can't show her face, but she is the prosecution's star witness. We also can't show the faces of the seven women and five men on the jury, who will determine Mr. Jeffs' fate.
Warren Jeffs is the self-proclaimed prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints with an estimated 10,000 followers, many of whom live in the nearby twin cities of Hilldale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona.
In opening statements, the prosecution outlined the story of the young woman, confused by her religious duties and personal fears of marriage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She had only found out about one week earlier that she was to be married. And she went to Mr. Jeffs and said, "I really feel like I can't."
WATKISS: Ready or not, much of the defense seems to rely on the fact the Utah state law allows girls as young as 14 to consent to sex, and the defense claims she did just that.
TARA ISAACSON, WARREN JEFFS' ATTORNEY: What does he really say when he says Mr. Jeffs is innocent? We start today, start this trial with the presumption that this man is innocent.
WATKISS: Jane Doe took the witness stand late this afternoon. Initial questioning laid out her childhood in the FLDS Church, including excerpts from sermons by Warren Jeffs.
WARREN JEFFS, LEADER OF FLDS CHURCH: Do you give yourself to him? That means in full obedience, literally taken from your father's home and given to that man. You belong to him.
WATKISS: When asked by the prosecution if a woman in the polygamist culture could refuse sexual relations with her husband, the star witness's response was simple.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I could not.
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COOPER: Mike, what can we expect in court tomorrow?
WATKISS: Well, we should hear the more emotional components of her story. Today's testimony, she was only on the witness stand for about an hour today after the opening arguments, Anderson.
We should hear tomorrow at 9 a.m. the more emotional parts of this story, parts of the story that we heard during an emotionally charged preliminary hearing about the period of her life back in 2001 when she was forced into this marriage with a 19-year-old first cousin, a young man that she said she detested. She called it the darkest time of her life.
We should also hear about the alleged sexual assaults. So that coming tomorrow. The trial is expected to last at least through next week. They're hoping to -- they've got the jury impaneled now, and so we're now under way after a lot of anxious strife trying to find this jury, Anderson.
The drama has begun here. Again, if Mr. Jeffs is found guilty, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
COOPER: Mike Watkiss reporting from us from St. George, Utah. Mike, thanks.
More from here in a moment. When we come back, the saddest part of any war, a view of the war you won't see anywhere else.
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COOPER: We just heard an impact over there, maybe a mortar or a rocket landing somewhere. It's often hard to tell exactly what the explosions are that you hear.
Just about every couple yards in the Green Zone, which is where we're broadcasting from tonight, you find these concrete bunkers. They call them duck and covers. It's where you're supposed to run in the event of incoming mortars. And that happens just about every day here in the Green Zone.
We've stored our Kevlar vests here. In the event there's trouble, we're just going to run in there.
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COOPER: One of the realities of life in the Green Zone.
Well, you heard the president tonight talking about things improving here. General Petraeus said the same to Congress this week, and he had charts to prove it. But even if you accept each and every hopeful statistic, the hard fact is that killing here remains horrific.
More than 1,700 Iraqi civilians gunned down, blown up or otherwise murdered last month, according to the U.S. government. Sometimes their bodies were found horribly tortured, dumped on the street as a warning to others.
Now, these are not statistics, these are people. Some are returned to their families, others are never claimed.
But even here in a land where it is a hard -- it is hard at times to hold on to your humanity, there are people who remember the dead, whether they're Sunni, Shia or Christian, people willing to do the grim work that must be done.
We want to warn you what you're about to see is tough to take. There's no doubt about it, but it is what our troops see. It is what Iraqis see, and we think you should see it, as well.
Here's CNN's Michael Ware.
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MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the bodies of Baghdad's unclaimed dead, collected from the morgues, the streets and even the city sewers. They are the men, the women and the children no one ever came for. Without names, without family to mourn them, these are the lost souls of the war.
Only these men are here to mark their passing, strangers, volunteers compelled by conscience to help.
"When I enter the morgue," says Sheikh Jamal al-Sadani (ph) from Sadr City, "I don't see these human beings as Christian, Shia or Sunni, but I see them in death, embracing each other, naked, hugging, piled one on the other. I look to them as human beings, with it my duty to bury them so their sanctity will not be violated again."
On this morning the men load into cars and the bus the nearly 150-mile journey to Najaf. When they arrive, the volunteers prepare the plastic sheets and cotton shrouds to wrap the dead and do what they can to repel the touch and odor of death.
"I only think about one thing, that one day I will face the same fate as these people have faced, and will there be someone to take care of me and bury me, too?"
The bodies are ceremonially wrapped with earth and wrapped, each one numbered, photographed and listed on a computer database. And in graves dug by hand, the bodies are laid side by side, two to a grave.
"We've been doing this for 20 years under Saddam. But the numbers have increased, as have the difficulties, because now it's as if the streets are flowing about blood. Under Saddam they buried up to 40 people a month. Today the numbers are in the low hundreds.
"Now you see Iraqis' houses meant to be a family's safest place. And they've become like graves for the families because any minute, any second, they're ready to die by explosion, air strikes or car bombs. And no man and no government, American nor Iraqi, can fix it," he laments, "because now that will take a miracle."
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COOPER: The reality of war from Michael Ware.
Why are so many people unclaimed?
WARE: Well, it's a number of things, Anderson. Obviously, there's some people that are so badly disfigured, they cannot simply be identified.
But there's an even sadder class of people. These are the people that you can identify by looking at their bodies. But their families simply can't come and get them, because to do so, they have to cross the sectarian lines. So to reclaim your loved one, you have to risk your life, almost certain death (ph).
COOPER: So if they're a Sunni and have to go into a Shia neighborhood, and they're too scared to do that.
WARE: Absolutely. Like for example, just north of Sadr City, the Mehdi Army Shia stronghold, there's an area that has canals running through it. It's a well-known dumping site.
So if a body is dumped there, that's essentially the Mehdi Army saying, "We did it." And there's no way on this earth that a Sunni can go to that dump site to ever get the body.
COOPER: People are found, I mean, with holes drilled into them with power drills.
WARE: Absolutely. In fact, the sheikh that you see there who buries all these people, he talks about the nightmares that he has. He described one body that he found. He said it was like a porcupine. There was literally nails drilled into it all over.
COOPER: Unbelievable.
WARE: Yes.
COOPER: Michael Ware, appreciate the reporting, as always.
Up next, yet another development on the storm front. A new one to watch. Details from Chad Myers right after the break. And more on the president's speech.
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COOPER: We spoke to Chad Myers earlier about Hurricane Humberto. That was "H". Now some breaking news. It starts with an "I" for Ingrid. So let's go back to Chad.
Chad, what's going on?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We are on the ninth name now, Ingrid. The storm here, out here way out in the Atlantic Ocean. Although they flew a plane way out there to check it out today, and they found winds of 35 knots. That's enough to make it Tropical Storm Ingrid and get another name out of the way.
Now the good news is that this thing is not even going to approach, at least at this point, the Virgin Islands. It's going to make a big right-hand turn and die, completely just die in the middle of the Atlantic.
Right now, winds are about 40 miles per hour, gusting a little bit higher. It's what you'll notice, probably, if you're on a cruise. You may get some big waves.
I do want you to watch out, though, if you're in the Virgin Islands. That's really the only left-most part of this storm. And a lot of models actually turn it harder, right away from the Virgin Islands than even this track does.
But keep an eye on it. We have the ninth named storm.
And Anderson, in a normal year, there's only ten. So we're almost there.
COOPER: That's certainly good news. Chad, thanks for that.
Joe Johns is here again with a "360 News and Business Bulletin" -- Joe.
JOHNS: Hi, Anderson.
Texans are just now cleaning up the mess caused by Hurricane Humberto. The storm, now a tropical depression, came ashore this morning after rapidly picking up speed and force. One man was killed, and about 90,000 homes are still without power. The system is now headed east across Louisiana and Mississippi.
Former Fed chief Alan Greenspan says he didn't even see the current mortgage meltdown coming. In a taped interview on "60 Minutes", Greenspan says he knew mortgage lenders were giving money to people with questionable credit, but he didn't realize the harm it could do.
And late tonight, the NFL punished the New England Patriots for videotaping defensive signals of their opponents last Sunday, the New York Jets. Head coach Bill Belichick got the maximum $500,000 fine.
The team was also fined 250,000 bucks and will lose a first-round draft pick if it makes the playoffs. If it doesn't make the post season, it will lose two lower picks, and that's high-priced shenanigans, Anderson.
COOPER: It sure is.
Tonight's "Shot", Joe, is an update on a story that CNN's Arwa Damon first reported last month. The facts are horrifying. Five- year-old Iraqi boy grabbed by masked gunman, playing outside his home in Baghdad. He was doused in gasoline, set on fire.
Remarkably, the boy -- his name is Youssif -- survived. He's badly disfigured. His family risked their lives to tell his story to Arwa, and now he's getting the help that he definitely needs.
Take a look. Youssif and his family there, arriving this week in Los Angeles where he's going to receive medical care nearby at the Grossman Burn Center in Sherman Oaks.
The Children's Burn Foundation is covering all the family's expenses, including travel and the apartment where they're going to live while Youssif is being treated.
More than 12,000 CNN.com users have contributed to a fund the foundation set up. This was the first time that Youssif and his family have traveled outside Iraq or even on a plane.
He's got a long road ahead. His treatment could take more than nine months. A courageous little boy and a lot of people who care about him.
Up next, the president addresses the nation and defends an unpopular war. His message, reaction and analysis from the best political team on TV. That's next on this special edition of 360.
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COOPER: Good evening, everyone.
We'll, of course, go in-depth on the president's address to the nation, the troop pullback and the very near the very end of his speech, his long-term commitment that could lead to an American military presence here in Iraq, not for years but potentially for decades. The best political team on television joins me in a moment.
We'll also take you inside the courtroom for the start of the trial of polygamist leader and one-time fugitive, Warren Jeffs.
And Humberto, the storm that turned into a hurricane faster than any other in history. What it did to the Gulf Coast and what people there are doing tonight.
We begin with President Bush's address to the nation, trumpeting a reduction in violence and emphasizing that some troops will begin to return home, return on success. That's the new tag line the president was touting tonight.
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