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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Progress Report in Iraq: Overview of Life, War and Reconstruction

Aired July 15, 2005 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

AARON BROWN, HOST: Good evening again.
When a story unfolds over months, then years, the daily reports have a tendency to blur, especially when that story is a war.

Most nights, we in television can only show you the latest battles, the block by block victories, grief and terrible images of death. Eighteen children killed in a suicide bombing as they waited for candy, toys from American troops. The pain of those left behind.

Inevitably, the episodic updates by their very nature miss the other stories, the ones that don't make the headlines. So we've asked several of our producers and correspondents to help us catch our collective breath, if you will, and deliver a progress report, thought the word "progress" itself is open to debate, on the state of play in Iraq today.

Before we tackle the thorny issues of policy and politics, we're going to do something we hardly get a chance to do. And that is take a long look at what life is like for Iraqis, ordinary Iraqi civilians.

For various reasons, most of them have to do with staying alive, Western journalists in Iraq don't get out much these days. So, we've asked two of our Arab producers in Baghdad, Kianne Sadeq and Ayman Mohyeldin to spend a week focusing on normal life, as normal as it gets in Iraq, in this time of war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIANNE SADEQ, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): What I really wanted to accomplish in this mission of ours, was to kind of have middle-class, Baghdad families, you know, living their life on a daily basis.

AYMAN MOHYELDIN: When we set out that day, we knew what direction we wanted to go to. But we had no idea of what specific place we were going to go to.

And we never expected that when we were going to get to a coffee shop, we were going to meet a poet and a doctor and people that were such close friends who have known each other for decades.

(on camera) There was no differences. It seemed like there was no class difference. There was no religious differences. There was no ethnic differences. Everybody in there was there because they loved the atmosphere. SADEQ (on camera): People try to find pleasure where they can. But in Baghdad, frustration is more than just a passing, emotional state. It's a permanent state of mind.

(voice-over) We went to one of the capital's gas stations, where fuel lines can last hours, and sometimes even days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): There's no future at all. We've given up. We have depression now. There's no water. No electricity. No kerosene. No propane. No benzene. No security. So, what's going on? What have we gotten from this government?

MOHYELDIN: In the two years since the war, my impression has been that Iraqis are living their lives somewhere between. Between freedom and occupation. Between hope and fear. In between destruction and development. And really, in between life and death.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It's true we are out to have a good time. But we are scared at the same time. When we walk or we sit here, our hand is on our heart, with fear of a car bomb, or a mortar, God forbid.

MOHYELDIN (voice-over): With all the stuff that's happening in Iraq on a daily basis, I was still surprised to see that people can escape that and go to, you know, the horse races. And enjoy life.

INAN AYAD, JOCKEY (through translator): We have gotten used to the situation. It doesn't really matter. Whatever God wills will happen. We had a horse not too long ago that was racing on the track. And all of a sudden, a gun fight broke out with some insurgents nearby. And a stray bullet hit him in the chest in the middle of the race.

MOHYELDIN: The equestrian club is the only one in Baghdad. And in the aftermath of the war, it was ravaged by looters. We had a chance to meet the president of the club, Mr. Luay Saadi. And he was determined to keep the club open at any cost.

LUAY SAADI, PRESIDENT, THE EQUESTRIAN CLUB: You know, in Iraq now, we don't have many places to go. We don't have things to do, as usual, because of the general situation. So, our aim, our goal, what you call in English, is keeping this race. The horses, you cannot replace it.

MOHYELDIN: His family was incredible. When I met them for the first time, we walked into their house. They were very welcoming.

(on camera) This family embraced us, as if we had known them for years. They didn't hide the fact that there was no water, so that they had to have kettles of water outside their house. And you know, they weren't ashamed of that.

They showed us where the generator was. And they showed us, really, how they live.

I was surprised to learn that they were actually a mixed family. You know, the father was Sunni. The mother was Shiite. They had a great sense of pride in being a mixed Iraqi family. They don't see the divisions that we hear about on a regular basis.

They live in the intersection of two very dangerous neighborhoods. Neighborhoods that we've known to be notorious for, you know, attacks.

MARWA SAADI, DAUGHTER OF LUAY SAADI: There's no safety here. You are living in a war. You feel like it. All the time, you hear -- you hear sounds of guns. Of Hummers. Just sounds make you feel afraid.

MOHYELDIN: Do you regret not taking any of those decisions to leave?

L. SAADI: Some times for a very short little time or moments, if -- that's all. But really, in my inside me, I am happy with what I've got -- with what I've got.

MOHYELDIN: What was neat about them is that they were actually -- I would say, in between being pessimistic and understanding their responsibility as citizens of this country.

TAYEB LUAY SAADI, SON OF LUAY SAADI: No, I won't leave.

SADEQ: Why?

T. SAADI: Because you have to build this country. We should stop saying "we hope, we hope." Because hoping is not going to change this problem and this situation. So, we must try to do something to change it.

MOHYELDIN: The father seemed adamant about what he saw as America's failure in trying to get it right.

L. SAADI: As Mr. Rumsfeld said, 135 (sic) soldiers are enough. Let him take his soldiers now. He can't. Let him see how long he will stay. He can't. Let him say that it will keep security. He can't.

MOHYELDIN: Every Iraqi that I spoke to, not a single person came out and said, the situation was good, the situation was on the right track, or that the situation in Iraq was getting better.

SADEQ: I don't think the Iraqis want the Americans to pull out. I think the Iraqis want the Americans to be invisible. I think the Iraqis are afraid to be alone right now. But at the same time, they are hurt to see them around because they don't feel like they're in control of their own country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: We'll have more from our two producers later in the hour.

But now, a look at a place that most of you think of as nothing but a blasted and deserted war zone, Falluja, the former insurgent stronghold that was liberated at terrible cost by U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Today, residents are picking up pieces, trying to rebuild shattered lives. CNN's Jane Arraf was there during the worst of it. And she returned to Falluja, to see what is working now, and what isn't.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you were seeing the city for the first time, you'd think it was in terrible shape. The people who lived through the battle for Falluja believe these are some of the city's better days.

This was the city where foreign fighters and insurgents chose to make a stand, where the sight of dead American contractors, dragged through the streets, was a marker on the road to all-out battle.

Several thousand Iraqis are believed to have lost their lives in Falluja. Ten percent of U.S. forces killed in Iraq, more than 170 Marines, soldiers and sailors, have died here.

We were with U.S. forces in November, as they rolled into neighborhoods and raided buildings we'd been warned had been rigged by insurgents to explode. Fighting continued for days, until there seemed to be more dead insurgents than live civilians.

Coming back with the Marines, the most dangerous part is the highway. On what looks like an empty road, insurgents have found increasingly sophisticated ways to rig improvised bombs.

In the city, entire blocks were turned into rubble. With the first compensation from the Iraqi government, people have started rebuilding their homes. Each brick, a sign of optimism.

Some of the worst fighting was in the north of Falluja. I wasn't sure what we'd find when we went back to the Shorada (ph) neighborhood, to an abandoned house we knew well in November.

(on camera) We stayed in this house with U.S. soldiers we were embedded with during the battle. The house was empty. The neighborhood was entirely deserted. But now, this family has moved back to renovate it. And they say most of their neighbors have moved back, as well.

(voice-over) This was the neighborhood of Afah Stawasi's (ph) house. The family received about $1,400 in compensation, enough to renovate the first floor but not enough to replace the furniture.

Senara (ph) has henna on her hands, a traditional form of celebration, because she says she's so happy to be home again. She says her heart weeps when she remembers what it was like to flee the city and live like refugees in the countryside.

Her husband has taught his children to say, "my friend" to the Marines. It's the Iraqi forces he's wary of. This Marine officer asks him to be patient. MAJOR CHRIS PHELPS, U.S. MARINE CORPS: Your government made the decision to come into Falluja and get rid of the terrorists. They've also made the decision for hundreds of millions of dollars to come into Falluja to make it better. It's not perfect. It's not perfect. But it's getting better.

ARRAF: With half the population of Falluja believed to have returned, the military is trying to prevent insurgents from creeping back into the city that's seen so much devastation.

(on camera) The fighting that we saw here was some of the worst for a city since the Vietnam War. There's been so much destruction, so much bloodshed that Falluja has become a symbol of the battle for Iraq. And whether the city recovers is seen as a test for the whole country.

(voice-over) It's a test of whether a fiercely Sunni tribal city can find a place in a country now dominated by Shias and Kurds. A test of whether those in power can finally figure out who to trust.

On Falluja's most-wanted list, there's a picture missing. Isah (ph), previously considered an insurgent leader, who's now a member of the city council.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've actually had one of them come through. But he's determined to now be a good guy, helping us out.

ARRAF: If there is a future here, it seems to be in men like Army General Mahdi Sabiya Kassam (ph), here at this meeting of the new city council, tribal leaders and the Marines. He told the meeting, "Of General Mahdi (ph) is killed, there will be General Salah (ph) to replace him. If Salah (ph) has gone, there's Kareem (ph). And another and another and another."

The future may also rely on men like council member Abbas Ali Hussein (ph), who says Sunnis won't repeat the mistake of boycotting the elections. And on Iraqi Lieutenant Sabbah Ismail (ph), so dedicated to his job as commander, the Marines say, he doesn't go home.

There's progress here, but it's precarious. There are only 90 police in this city. In a few months, there will be 1,200. The people here want policemen from Falluja, not those from the north and south.

There are about 800 Iraqi soldiers, but residents here don't trust them. Almost everyone we meet complains they're too aggressive, that they shoot wildly in the air, that they beat up civilians.

Even the schoolteacher complains about them. "They're occupying schools Falluja needs," she says.

People here take education very seriously. While students in the rest of the country are on summer vacation, here, they're making up for time lost during the fighting. Students are sitting for sixth grade exams in this renovated building. But classes are held in tents, with no electricity, 90 students to one teacher.

Amid (ph) didn't get to go to school. He tells me he had to quit to work. He'd like the soldiers to fix his bike. A broken bike is one thing they can fix. A broken city will take the will of an entire country.

Jane Arraf, CNN, Falluja.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: A lot more to come tonight as we continue our progress report on the war in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAITH KUBBA, IRAQI GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN: Democracy in its initial phases is messy.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: This political process is moving forward.

BROWN (voice-over): That said, how to measure success. And how to decide if and when to leave?

LESLIE GELB, PRESIDENT EMERITUS, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: I think we'll be able to tell when there's victory or when we're on the way to victory, by one simple measure.

BROWN: Later, the first rough draft of history.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The memory of Saddam is a strong incentive to push in the direction they've been going for the last two years.

BROWN: Our conversation with one of the people writing it.

Then, life in Iraq, the good, the bad and the stunning. One award-winning still photo at a time. Because this is NEWSNIGHT.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS: I'm Erica Hill with the headlines, starting with new developments in the London bombing investigation. News being made from Pakistan to Egypt, to Great Britain. Reporting for us tonight, CNN's Nic Robertson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police forensic teams seized computers from the Hamara Islamic Community Center, close to where at least two of the suspected bombers lived.

It is here that CNN has learned of the first reported sighting of suspected bombers, Hasib Hussain, Shahzad Tanweer, and Mohammed Sadique Khan together. A local resident, who didn't want to be identified, told me how the three men repeatedly used the Hamara Community Center over recent months. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They always used to wait for all three guys to meet before they get inside the Hamara youth association point.

ROBERTSON (on camera): They would go in and shut the door and put a sign...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. A sign that they are going for lunch.

ROBERTSON: But really they were inside?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were inside. And that's what they've always been doing.

ROBERTSON: Exactly what brought Hussain, Tanweer and Khan together is still central to the police investigation. Equally important, who financed them? And what motivated them? And how do they connect to the other pieces of this puzzle, both here in Leeds and elsewhere.

(voice-over) In Cairo, Egyptian biochemist Magdy el-Nashar was taken into custody Thursday night at Cairo airport. He is believed to be linked to this residence in Leeds, where police discovered homemade TATP explosives, the same explosive used by Richard Reid, the shoe bomber.

El-Nashar was last seen here two weeks ago, at Leeds University, where he obtained a Ph.D. in biochemistry in May. Police refused to comment on his arrest and how he may be linked to the case.

Significantly, the police are not backing off from their initial suggestion al Qaeda was somehow involved in the attacks.

SIR IAN BLAIR, METROPOLITAN POLICE COMMISSIONER: What we expect to find at some stage, is that there is a clear al Qaeda link, a clear al Qaeda approach.

ROBERTSON: from Pakistan, which is becoming another focal point for investigators, one source tells CNN, Tanweer attended a religious school, with links to radical Islamists, late last year.

It is likely, though, it's here in Leeds that many of the key discoveries, like who knew what, when, where and how, will be made. But it looks like that will take quite some time.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Leeds.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: An especially bloody day in Iraq. Eight car bombs going off in and around Baghdad alone. This as lawmakers trying out to hammer out a constitution. Now, according to American commanders, as many as 30 people died in the attacks. Two Marines were killed elsewhere.

A lawyer close to the investigation says Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser, spoke to Robert Novak just days before the columnist and CNN contributor wrote a column outing Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. They say Novak initiated the call and reportedly identified Ms. Plame, to which Mr. Rove replied, "I heard that, too," apparently confirming the story.

Hurricane Emily weakening a bit today then picked back up and is once again a Category 3 storm. Forecasters say it could approach Texas or northern Mexico by next Tuesday.

And that's a look at the headlines. Back now to NEWSNIGHT's special coverage, Iraq.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In the first part of our look at everyday Baghdad, one of our producers said that, to Iraqis, frustration is a permanent state of mind. Perhaps.

But the human animal being what it is, it is not all that surprising to find that, even there, there are those who have enough faith, enough optimism to celebrate what they have.

We continue our reporting by CNN producers Ayman Mohyeldin and Kianne Sadeq. A look inside everyday life in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SADEQ (voice-over): Just outside this tunnel of blast walls, we reached a Baghdad heaven.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello.

SADEQ: The Alwiyah (ph) club is a recreational club in Baghdad. They just go to this club on a daily basis to just have a good time.

We walked into a wedding and asked them to let us shoot their wedding. Oftentimes, you know, women would be nervous about outsiders filming their wedding. But in this wedding, it was wide-open. People were just being themselves.

And when we spoke to the mother, she said to me, this is something they needed to do, for their children.

SANAA BAHRI, BRIDE'S MOTHER (through translator): We want the coming days to be happiness and joy. Enough war. Enough blood. Enough pain. We're tired. We're really tired. So, we bring pleasure to our children by these joyous events so that they look forward to the future with hope.

SADEQ: The father of the bride was an ex-captain in the Iraqi navy. My first impression was what an optimistic family. Why are they optimistic? How are they so optimistic in this time? It was only when I sat with him, one on one, I got the sense that he was upset.

CAPTAIN ESSAM AL-HUSSAINI, BRIDE'S FATHER: I don't know what's happening. I mean, is it true that the Americans, they didn't plan it well? Or did they misunderstand what the Iraqis behavior?

People are afraid. I'm afraid for my son to go to school. I am afraid for my eldest son, a doctor, to travel to his hospital. I cannot send my daughter to the university.

They had Bush and the administration, and we were very, very happy when he said that Iraq will be -- set an example in the Middle East. It will be one of the best countries in the Middle East. We appreciate his words. But I don't know. I mean, is it true that the great America cannot fulfill their promises?

SADEQ (on camera): We walked into this apartment, in one of Baghdad's safer neighborhoods. Not too safe. And there was this small apartment, which this group of filmmakers had made for themselves into their own paradise.

MOHYELDIN: These filmmakers, they welcomed Americans with open arms when they first came. But then, they saw them as occupiers, taking control of their country and their city. But they also realized that they had a chance and the freedom to express themselves in a way that they never had before the Americans came.

AMMAR SAAD, FILMMAKER (through translator): now, I can make any film I want. I can make films about communism, Islam, anything.

SADEQ: So here were all these filmmakers who were able to take Baghdad with all the destruction in it, and make it into this canvas for their artwork that looks so beautiful. Like this film they made about the dangers of being a journalist in Baghdad.

SALMAN ADEL, FILMMAKER: You have so many relatives killed, siblings, relatives, brothers, sisters, whatever, in every single house. You have to understand that life is difficult. And the difficulty of living is the -- is the motivator of ideas.

SAAD (through translator): I say that there is chaos, destruction, devastation, killing, terrorism, and everything. But on the other hand, there is life.

SADEQ: To me, the optimism of these artists captured something essential about Iraqis. People have seen beautiful Baghdad turn into a war zone. They wanted to see Iraq be the beautiful Iraq that they love.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Just ahead on this special edition of NEWSNIGHT, the United States went to war in Iraq because of weapons of mass destruction which did not exist. The country has stayed to ensure democracy. Does that exist? Will it? Will it ever? A break first. Around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Political process and Iraq, words we doubt were often spoken in the same sentence in the years of Saddam Hussein. Yet, long after Saddam's removal from power, the struggle for democracy in Iraq remains just that. A struggle.

CNN's chief national correspondent, John King, reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a powerful moment. Yet also, a sober lesson. No matter how historic, one election does not a democracy make.

The challenges on Iraq's path from dictatorship to democracy, at times, seemed too many to count. The most urgent, all too obvious.

KUBBA: Democracy in its initial phases is messy. It's not an ordinary transition under normal circumstances.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fact that the insurgents can knock out generators, the fact that they can knock out oil pipelines, the fact that there are organized crime rings that disrupt the flow of goods and people along Iraq's roads, it makes it hard to rebuild your lives exactly the way that Iraqis want to.

KING: And hard to build trust in a fledgling new government, all the more so, because of what many Iraqis view as an unwelcome military occupation. Not to mention history.

GELB: It's going to be hard without a democratic experience to be a democracy. Creating democracy in Iraq is going to be far harder than it was for us here in the United States. And it was hard for us. We forget that.

BUSH: Rebuilding a country after three decades of tyranny is hard. But progress is being made.

KING: And yet, from the white house perspective, so far, so good.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: This political process is moving forward. And at the end of the year, you will have elections for a new government in Iraq. And that will create a new set of political circumstances, when they have a permanent government.

KING: But meeting deadlines, like holding an election, and even writing a constitution, doesn't necessarily prove democracy is taking root.

KENNETH POLLACK, BROOKINGS INSTITUTE: I think it's a mistake to keep begging our hopes to these major events. Events like the election are important, psychological milestones. But they're not necessarily major factors in determining whether or not Iraqi democracy can succeed.

KING: Trust is one missing ingredient. In Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Sunnis held sway, despite their minority status in Iraq's population. Now, many Sunnis say the Shia and Kurds are bent on retribution. TARIQ AL-HASHIMI, IRAQI ISLAMIC PARTY: I think from the beginning, the Sunni community has been marginalized. And this -- the current government, unfortunately, in fact, is deep in this marginalization.

Reporter: But government spokesman Lait Kuba (ph) sees proof negotiations to bring Sunnis into the political fold are making progress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The insurgency now is attacking Sunni neighborhoods, in the same way it attacks Shia neighborhoods. They are attacking those who try to lead Sunnis into the political process. That has exposed the insurgency as an insurgency against democracy, against the Iraqi people.

KING: Mistrust, even hatred in some cases, is both an obstacle to democracy, and a motivating force.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you have groups that are determined to stir up violence, to try to create more breathing space, space for the movement, it becomes critical that the political process continues, otherwise the country will end up in civil war.

KING: Saddam's iron fist and those festering ethnic and tribal tensions, loom large in the new debate of what a new Iraq should look like. Who big of a role Islam should play. And just how strong the central government should be.

GELB: I think in order to keep Iraq together, as one country, the irony is, you're going to have to give virtual autonomy to each of the three major groups, to run its own affairs. That way, they'll have confidence that when the laws are to be made in the future, they'll essentially be making the laws for themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Iraq needs a strong state. The only thing that will defeat the insurgency in this tough neighborhood in Iraq, is to have a strong state.

KING: Progress does not come without a price. Success in writing the new constitution would bring new pressures, including stronger calls for American troops to go home.

AL-HASHIMI: Time comes, in fact, that those who assist us in taking back our liberty, they should leave our country as soon as possible.

KING: But the White House sees the troop commitment stretching well into next year and beyond, because of the security problems and because it knows even a second election in post-Saddam Iraq will not be a final verdict in democracy.

POLLACK: There certainly are Islamists who would like to be voted into office. And like Hitler, have the democracy evaporate with that one vote.

GELB: I think we'll be able to tell when there's victory or when we're on the way to victory, by one, simple measure -- that is, whether, particularly in the center of Iraq, people can come out on the streets, and begin to lead normal lives.

BROWN: Still to come tonight, a soldier's journey from the dusty streets of Falluja, to his return home. And the man who stayed with him all the way. From New York, this is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A number of journalists have died covering the war in Iraq. One of them Michael Kelly, the editor of "The Atlantic Monthly." there's an award given to journalists in Kelly's memory. And tonight's NEWSNIGHT conversation is with one of the year's finalists. The judges had this to say. Twenty years from now, students looking for a definitive account to the troubled aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq will no less turn to George Packer's deep reporting, 20,000-word piece in "The New Yorker." Lucky for us we don't have to wait 20 years. Nice to see you.

GEORGE PACKER, "NEW YORKER": Nice to be here.

BROWN: It seems to me, pretty clear that Americans are less optimistic about the state of play in Iraq, than they were a year ago. Do you think Iraqis are less optimistic about the state of play than they were a year ago?

PACKER: Polls show there's a kind of constant level of optimism about the medium to long-term future among Iraqis. And I think that's because people cannot afford to give up on their own future. The polls about what Americans think show that Americans have less and less confidence that the war in Iraq are going the right direction. I think Iraqis are worried that Americans are going to lose faith in this before they do.

BROWN: Let me come back to that. Is there -- are there reasons why, beyond -- beyond blind faith or you can't afford to think otherwise. Are there substantive reasons why Iraqis looking at the situation today would say, you know what, it ain't perfect. And it's not even good. But it's better.

PACKER: I think the memory of Saddam is a strong incentive to push in the direction they've been going for the last two years. They have not forgotten what it was like to live for 35 years under that tyranny.

BROWN: Sunnis?

PACKER: Sunnis did not love Saddam. Sunnis have begun to embrace, sort of the idea of Saddam as a nationalist figure, against the occupation. And against sort of Shiite surge that's happened in the last two years. But Saddam is not widely loved around Iraq, by more than the sort of hard core who made up his security and intelligence forces.

BROWN: Do you think it's possible to take the disparate groups in Iraq, the Kurds, the Sunnis and the Shias and meld them into a governing body that takes care of each other, not just themselves?

PACEKER: That is the essential question. I was talking to an Iraqi friend today who said, George, there is no Iraqi government to which Iraqis are giving their loyalty. They are giving loyalty to their militia. To their ayatollah. To their party. But not to the country. But one of the legacies of Saddam is he really did destroy the idea of citizenship in Iraq. Barham Sala (pg), the deputy prime minister said to me there is no idea of being an Iraqi in this country. That's something we have to build. And that is really one of the hardest things to create out of the chaos of the last couple of years.

BROWN: Do you see any signs that the people who need to get that, get that? And I'm not sure how you'd begin that process. But that process is actually happening?

PACKER: Well, here's one slightly-hopeful sign. And I am not by any means sanguine about this. But Sunnis have begun to realize that it was a mistake to sit out the elections of January, whether they did it out of fear or out of boycott, Sunnis voted in very small numbers. And quietly, they began to admit pretty quickly after the elections that it was a mistake. And more and more of them seem to be saying that we need to be sure to be able to participate in the next round of elections. And so, let's start organizing now. To me, that's the idea of being part of a larger body than just the Sunnis.

BROWN: The other side of that is that Shias then have to say that's a good thing.

PACKER: And I don't know whether host the Shia do feel that way. The government has been more sectarian than I would like to have seen. On the other hand, they have opened up the constitutional committee that's preparing the document that will have to be ratified by the country to more and more Sunnis, who didn't actually have a place at the table because they didn't participate in the election. That, too, is a sign that there are Shia that need to recognize they can't do this as a one-sided process.

BROWN: Just a quick, final question -- do you think a year from now, when we sit down to talk about this, things will be better in Iraq for Iraqis than they are today?

PACKER: I think that depends on whether Americans are willing to stick with it. And that's my biggest worry. That both the public and the government in response to the public are going to decide, it's good enough. We can leave, when, in fact, it really isn't good enough. The Iraqis will deserve better.

BROWN: Good to see you again.

PACKER: Thanks for having me.

BROWN: Thank you. Still to come tonight in our progress report on Iraq -- American soldiers in the country, seen through the lens of a photographer who committed the ultimate journalistic sin. He got emotionally involved. We'll take a break. This is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ERICA HILL, CNNHN ANCHOR: Good evening, again, everyone. I'm Erica Hill in New York. We'll go back to NEWSNIGHT in a moment. But first, let's get caught up in the headlines.

Starting with a second day of air strikes in Gaza. Israeli forces targeting Hamas weapons laboratories in Gaza City and Khan Younis. Air strikes, retaliation for Palestinian rocket attacks, left seven militants dead.

On now to San Francisco where the men in the middle of the steroid and sports scandal entered guilty pleas. Victor Conte, founder of BALCO, coughing to conspiracy and money laundering charges while Greg Anderson, personal trainer to Barry Bonds, pleading guilty to the same. And company vice president James Valenti pleading guilty conspiracy to distribute steroids.

Finally, Pottermania is here. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" going on sale tonight in London and around the world. Our prediction -- it will do okay.

Well, fewer than half a dozen people lived through the Washington, DC crash of Air Florida flight 90 in 1982. As part of CNN's anniversary series, then and now, we look back at one survivor. Kelly Duncan Moore and where she is today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): Air Florida flight 90 took off from Washington's National Airport on the 13th of January, 1982, bound for Tampa, Florida. But it only made it as far as the 14th Street Bridge. Kelly Duncan Moore was a 22-year-old flight attendant, plucked from the frigid waters of the Potomac, one of just five survivors of the crash. She doesn't remember much. Only coming to the surface and clinging to the wreckage of the plane.

KELLY DUNCAN MOORE, CRASH SURVIVOR: The most significant memories of the crash I have are the moments before the crash. I remember looking and seeing a man turn around and look at me. And he looked afraid.

BROWN: Moore is now in her 40s. And says the experiences, as you would imagine, changed her life, and her priorities.

MOORE: I started praying. I never prayed. I started asking God, why am I here and what am I supposed to do now.

BROWN: She has since devoted her life to God and to children, working as a teacher and a youth minister at a Baptist church in Miami. She's married with three teenage children.

MOORE: I feel like every day has been a blessing. I have a wonderful life. It sounds crazy to say it. But that accident changed my life for good. God used a bad thing to turn my life around. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: As a rule, news photographers try to remain dispassionate about their subjects. But as we know, sometimes rules get broken. And what photographer Max Becherer learned, that one of the marines he photographed died, he was moved to tell the rest of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX BECHERER, "TIME" PHOTOGRAPHER: In October of 2004, I was in Iraq, with "Time" magazine. And we were embedded in Ramadi. And from Ramadi, the 1st marine division asked us to come to Falluja. From then I spent about two months in Fallula, to do patrols outside Falluja:

There was one squad I hung out with for a bit. The squad leader was Corporal Eric Shelby and he had two team leaders in the squad. Lance Corporal Gregory Rund and Lance Corporal Jeremy Miller.

Gregory Rund is a kind of person you would meet. In the States, he would be like a class clown. Three or four days into the battle of Falluja, he's leading his team.

I guess we fought for about a week. That was the end of November. I thought, well, I might go home for Christmas. A few days later, December 11th. And I was in Times Square. And I'd heard that someone had been killed in Falluja from the unit. And one of the mothers had e-mailed me and told me it was Greg. I was trying to take in that I was not going to see him again.

And there's a news ticker that says, one marine killed Anbar province. And I realized how cold those words are. You could read that and not know anything about that. One person killed. No, that's - Lance Corporal Gregory Rund was killed, in Anbar Province in Falluja. And when I showed up at the funeral, I wasn't sure I was going to see in there - how welcome I would be. And I stepped in and Jane, his mother, saw me. And she just stepped right up to me and gave the most -- just kind of soul-shaking hug. I was the last person at the funeral that had seen him alive. So, that meant that much more to her.

When you're in Iraq, you see a lot of violence. And you can't deal with it all right at that moment. You take it in. When you go home, at some point, you try to deal with it. And so, when I went back to the unit, I asked Jeremy if I could go back home with them, to tell their story. Jeremy Miller had still had a few belongings of Greg's. And they had spoke previously about Falluja that there was a few belongings. And if something happens to me, take these.

Jane (ph) hasd said she was going to meet them at Camp Pendleton when we got home. We got home pretty much the middle of the night. And immediately, Bobby and Debbi (ph), Jeremy's parents came to greet him. And his girlfriend Celeste was there and they were hugging him, holding him. As he was doing this, he was looking in the back of the room, and Mark and Jane, Greg's parents were standing there. A strange, kind of awkward scenario. Because it could be either one's family that was switched in their place in life.

Then, Jane came up, Jeremy greeted them. You could tell he didn't know what to think exactly. You come out of the scenario and just experience it. And maybe you're prepared for this to happen. But I don't think they're prepared to come home and deal with it. I don't think they're prepared to come home and look at the mother of their best friend that, you know, was left behind there.

Jeremy was able to come home. And while he'd been away, Celeste was making intense plans for a wedding. And so, he went back to Deer Park, Texas. They had a very nice wedding ceremony set up outside. Just outside his hometown. On April 30th, marines held a memorial for the fallen. And Greg was one of those.

Members of his unit were on leave. But on Jane Rund's request, they came to attend. It was an opportunity for marines to come and show their compassion for them. And hopefully share some stories.

The marines came early for this event. And they visited Jane and Greg's family. They went together and they visited Greg's gravesite. A lot of marines kicked around and silently looked at the gravesite of their friend. And I think at that point, you just realize that they're trying to grapple with the fact that it would be them. Jeremy talked about, he hates going to these things because it brings it up again and again. And you want to get it out of your mind. You want to continue. And when that ceremony was over, I think it was it for him. He saw the gravesite. And he had a place to put Greg's memory.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: We'll have closing thoughts in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: As we wrap up our special edition of NEWSNIGHT, "A Report on Iraq," Know that the story is continuing. We hope you'll watch the rest on a CNN PRESENTS special report this Sunday, 8:00 Eastern Time. Until then, have a good weekend. And good night for all of us.

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