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Lou Dobbs Tonight
U.S. Military Requests Patience on Iraq; Valerie Plame's Civil Lawsuit Dismissed
Aired July 19, 2007 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight: rising anger on Capitol Hill over the employment of illegal aliens by government contractors. Incredibly, contractors to the United States government are not required to verify the citizenship status of their employees, even those employees working in sensitive government facilities.
Also tonight, more evidence of the complete failure of Congress to stand up to powerful lobbyists and special interests on the issue of protecting American consumers. Some lawmakers are even helping those lobbyists block the implementation of a law designed to protect American consumers from dangerous food imports. We will have that special report.
And the nation's wildfire crisis is worsening tonight -- the fire alert level in Western states now the highest possible after a devastating drought across that region. And among my guests here tonight, Rowan Scarborough, author of the book "Sabotage: America's Enemies in the CIA."
We will have all of that, all the day's news, much more, straight ahead here tonight.
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT: news, debate, and opinion for Thursday, July 19.
Live from New York, Lou Dobbs.
DOBBS: Good evening, everybody.
We begin tonight with a new attempt by the Bush administration to reshape the political debate on the conduct of the war in Iraq. The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, today said so-called benchmarks are not an effective way to measure progress in Iraq.
At the same time the number two U.S. commander in Iraq today, General Raymond Odierno, today pleaded for more time for that surge strategy to work.
A report on the progress of the surge is due in September.
Jamie McIntyre has our report tonight from the Pentagon -- Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, two things seem increasingly clear from today's developments. Congress is losing patience with the war, and the U.S. military has no plans to end the surge in September. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE (voice-over): CNN has learned that 2,200 troops from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit have been extended in Iraq 30 days. They will stay in Anbar Province until November, another sign U.S. commanders believe the surge just needs time.
MAJ. GENERAL RAYMOND ODIERNO, 4TH INFANTRY DIVISION COMMANDER: And my hope is that the policymakers and everyone else, the public and within the United States, listen and hear what we're saying. Because there is some progress being made.
MCINTYRE: The growing disconnect between Baghdad and Washington was symbolized during the Senate testimony of U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, when this video link dropped unexpectedly.
SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D-DE), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Baghdad, can you hear the U.S. Senate?
(LAUGHTER)
MCINTYRE: It was a light moment in a deadly serious debate.
And from Ambassador Crocker came the sober admission the Iraqi government faces, in his words, considerable difficulties meeting the benchmark of political reconciliation by September.
RYAN CROCKER, UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: If there is one word that I would use to sum up the -- the atmosphere in Iraq, that word would be fear.
MCINTYRE: The fear of General Odierno, second in command in Iraq, is that the hard-won gains of the past 30 days will fall victim to the growing disillusionment in Congress.
Without giving numbers, Odierno claimed that since the surge began in earnest June 15, the number of attacks, casualties and IEDs have all decreased; 175 high-value individuals, he says, have been captured or killed, including several top al Qaeda leaders, and that 50 percent of Baghdad is now secure.
But, he says, al Qaeda in Iraq is just waiting for the U.S. to give up.
ODIERNO: What I have learned in the last four years here is they are extremely savvy. They understand what's going on in September.
MCINTYRE: But Congress has lost patience. Senator Joe Biden lectured Ambassador Crocker at the close of his testimony.
BIDEN: We ain't staying. We're not staying. We're not staying. Not much time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: According to a senior defense official, Ambassador Crocker was even more forthcoming in a classified briefing for members of Congress here at the Pentagon this morning, conceding that many of the benchmarks will not be met in September. That effectively sets the stage for extending the surge into early next year -- Lou.
DOBBS: Who devised those benchmarks now about which there now seems to be considerable, well, hesitation and qualification?
MCINTYRE: Well, actually, they were written into the law, the funding law by Congress, which divided them into 18 benchmarks. Originally when President Bush made the announcement of the surge, he had his own benchmarks, some of them which were included, such as all Iraqi provinces being under Iraqi control by the end of the year.
So, the administration is now under the benchmarks set by Congress.
DOBBS: Jamie McIntyre from the Pentagon -- thank you, Jamie.
The White House today invited about 200 members of Congress to attend a private briefing by Ambassador Crocker at the Pentagon. Fewer than half showed up, however, 40 senators, 50 congressmen. Those lawmakers were evenly divided, Republican and Democrat.
President Bush today acknowledged that it's going to be a while, as he put it, before the war in Iraq ends, President Bush's remarks coming as the White House is stepping up its P.R. offensive to win more time for its military strategy, the White House trying to limit the rebellion by Republicans over the president's conduct of this war.
Ed Henry has our report from the White House -- Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Lou, the president stepped up that P.R. strategy today in Tennessee, and he got choked up as he introduced to the crowd an Army sergeant who lost both of his legs in Iraq.
This comes one day after Defense Secretary Robert Gates literally broke down at a Marine dinner as he talked about the human cost of this war in Iraq. But despite that raw emotion, the president today in his remarks offered up no new strategy in Iraq, just pleading for more patience, saying the war on terror broadly speaking will not have a clear ending like previous conflicts such as World War II.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's not a moment of ending. But there will be a moment in Afghanistan and Iraq where these governments will be more able to support their people, more able to provide basic services, more able to defend their neighborhoods against radical killers. It's going to be a while, though.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: So, time is running out, obviously, for the president. A clear sign of that is that last Friday the president hosted some conservative newspaper and magazine columnists here at the White House who previously broke with him on immigration reform, the White House clearly nervous some of these conservative may also break with him on the war.
White House officials say that in this meeting the president made clear he's not going to change strategy before the September progress report from General Petraeus, not going to be announcing any withdrawals of troops. But in the words of one senior official, after that report in September, everything is on the table -- Lou.
DOBBS: Everything is on the table. The language the president is using seems somewhat distant from that table. It will be a while. This war will not have a discernible ending.
Is there some new set of speechwriters at the White House that are infatuated with ambiguity and equivocation?
HENRY: No, but, Lou, the bottom line is that, while there is this outside pressure even from Republicans on Capitol Hill, the president has, obviously, dug in. He believes strongly in what he's doing, and even though options will be on the table in September, whether or not he will change course is a whole another story -- Lou.
DOBBS: Ed Henry from the White House -- thank you, Ed.
HENRY: Thank you.
DOBBS: Insurgents kill seven more of our troops in Iraq, five soldiers, two sailors; 48 of our troops have been killed so far this month in Iraq; 3,628 of our troops have killed since the war began, 26,806 wounded, 12,020 of them seriously.
Joining me now for more on the direction of this war in Iraq, General David Grange, one of the country's most decorated former military commanders.
General Grange, let me ask you about a war that doesn't end, a war that, as the president puts it, takes a while. General Odierno saying that they have learned much in four years and that progress has been made.
What are the American people to make of this kind of language?
BRIGADIER GENERAL DAVID GRANGE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it probably could have been explained a little bit better.
But here's the deal for warfare in the 21st century. This is irregular warfare. It's not black and white. It's all in a gray area. It's ambiguous. As you said, is this ambiguous? It sure is. It's uncertain.
And welcome to this type of warfare. It's what it is. And it's going to end that way. It's not going to be a clear, decisive victory. (CROSSTALK)
DOBBS: Let me ask you a question which you have unique qualifications and capabilities to answer. Is there anything in U.S. military strategy, in tactics, that suggest that you not fight an enemy's war?
GRANGE: You should not fight an enemy's war. You should fight your war and have the enemy dance to your tune. I totally agree with that.
DOBBS: Yet we have deployed hundreds of thousands of men and women to Iraq. We are spending $600 billion as if this were a regular, symmetrical, conventional war. How wise is that? As a military leader yourself, a strategist, as well as distinguished combat veteran, how wise is that, in your judgment, both in terms of military strategy and as a national strategy?
GRANGE: Well, you want to bring a war of conflict to conclusion as quick as you can, obviously, to keep the cost of lives down, to keep the cost financially down and other commitments of valuable resources.
I think that the shame of the whole thing, Lou, is that two years as we discussed before really were lost. And I just wish this kind of strategy started several years ago. It's a very coherent strategy, and it's starting to work.
And I hope by September they will have an idea, but they won't have a conclusion, just like Ray Odierno said. It will take to November to get process assessment of where they are on these benchmarks. There's no doubt about that.
DOBBS: And, as a military commander, you could perhaps appreciate why some would say that when they hear expressions by the general's staff, the Pentagon, generals in Iraq and the civilian leadership in this administration talking about a long war, a war without end, it begins very quickly to sound like rationalization for a strategy that is poorly considered and hardly at all articulated and in fact a strategy that may well be outright a failure.
GRANGE: It's hard to understand. There ought to be probably several shows dedicated to just this topic to explain and provide the information on what this is all about, Lou.
DOBBS: We will be glad to invite the general's staff and the civilian leadership so that they -- that understanding could be imparted to them.
We appreciate you being...
GRANGE: Set it up.
(LAUGHTER)
GRANGE: It's a good idea. DOBBS: On your orders.
Thank you, General. Appreciate it.
GRANGE: Thank you. Thank you, Lou.
DOBBS: General David Grange.
In Washington today, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by former CIA officer Valerie Plame against Vice President Dick Cheney and other officials, the dismissal coming as Plame had charged the administration destroyed her career by revealing her identity as a covert CIA officer. The judge in the case ruled he had no jurisdiction to even consider the case presented by Plame and her husband. Her attorney said she would appeal.
We will have more on that later. I will be talking with author Rowan Scarborough, who has written the new important book, "Sabotage: America's Enemies in the CIA."
Also tonight, rising outrage over U.S. government contractors hiring illegal aliens working on sensitive government projects and sites -- that special report upcoming.
And new evidence tonight of collusion between powerful lobbyists and weak, spineless lawmakers who have tried to block a law that would protect American consumers.
President Bush praising U.S. attorney Johnny Sutton, who prosecuted two former Border Patrol agents for doing their jobs. We will tell what you the president had to say. And we will tell you about new support for those betrayed Border Patrol agents.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: New legislation in Congress to stop your tax dollars from being used to pay wages of illegal aliens, at least when they are employed by the federal government. The law would force companies seeking government contracts to verify the citizenship status of their employees.
Lisa Sylvester has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At least 50 illegal aliens were caught working on the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. Illegal workers have also been employed at a shipyard in Mississippi, rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina, even working to build the border fence that is supposed to keep them out.
The inspector general's report found the United States government is actually one of the largest employers of illegal aliens. Seven federal agencies, seven state agencies, and three local governments all had approximately 11,000 illegal workers on their payrolls.
REP. JACK KINGSTON (R), GEORGIA: The federal government should at least set an example and set the bar high to say, look, you know, we are a trillion dollar customer of goods and services, bricks and mortars and everything else. And if you want to sell to us, what we want you to do is comply with the law.
SYLVESTER: Congressman Jack Kingston now wants a new law requiring any company bidding on a federal contract check their employees' legal status. Surprisingly, they are not required to do so, even when they are working on sensitive government and military sites.
Congressman Steve King has introduced a similar amendment that reinforces current law, banning federal dollars from being used to hire illegal aliens.
REP. STEVE KING (R), IOWA: The federal government has just decided that they are not going to police their own forces, that they will hire indiscriminately, without using the basic pilot program which we have been asking employers to use across this country more than 10 years.
SYLVESTER: At stake is not only American jobs, but national security. The inspector general won't reveal which federal agencies were employing illegal aliens, but a separate report concludes, as many as 2,000 could be working for the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: Now, we called the Department of Homeland Security for their reaction. They did not return our call by our deadline. Both the Kingston and King amendments were added to the House Labor Health and Human Services spending bill that was debated on the floor today -- Lou.
DOBBS: Lisa, it's just -- it's incredible. It's good that this legislation is going forward. But there is also something pitifully impotent about it all, the United States Congress asking nicely, if you will, please follow the law of the country. It's remarkable.
Lisa, thank you very much -- Lisa Sylvester reporting from Washington.
Congress has opened an investigation into Google's planned $3.1 deal to buy DoubleClick, the online advertising company. Several lawmakers expressed concern that that deal could threaten your privacy, allowing Google to dominate the business of advertising on the Internet. Google executives will be called to testify before an antitrust committee and a consumer protection committee, all focused on the use of very private individual information that could be in the hands of both Google and DoubleClick as a combination.
Time now for some of your thoughts. Many of you wrote in about the Senate's all-night debate on Iraq on Tuesday night, when the Senate staffers rolled out cots for our elected officials to sleep on. Michael in Pennsylvania wrote in to say: "The Senate rolling in cots is just another dog and pony show. Big deal. I work double shifts just to pay the bills."
Dave in Massachusetts: "Lou, thanks for blasting the Senate theatrics. The stunt was insulting, insincere and ineffective."
Sidney in Illinois: "Lou, please keep in mind that the Democrats do not have enough vote to pass everything they want. They always need many Republican votes to pass anything. Please ease up just a bit on the Democrats."
Well, I'm not going to ease up a lot. But I think I may have misled you on one thing. It isn't what they are passing that concerns me -- not passing, I should say. It's what they want to pass that concerns me. I'm kind of happy right now with gridlock, if not the cots in the Senate.
Janet in Florida: "Hi, Lou. I picked up our change of voters registration at the library. My husband and I filled it out and changed to independent. Thanks for being our voice, Lou."
Thank you.
We will have more of your thoughts later here in the broadcast.
A Texas congressman today changing his views on the gross miscarriage of justice in the case of those imprisoned Border Patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. Ramos and Compean serving harsh sentences when they shot and wounded an illegal alien Mexican drug smuggler, who was given immunity by the Justice Department to testify against those agents.
Democratic Congressman Silvestre Reyes defended initially the prosecution and sentencing of those two agents. But today Congressman Reyes, whose district in which both Ramos and Compean live, he wrote a letter to the president asking him to commute the sentences, joining Senator Dianne Feinstein and Senator John Cornyn.
Earlier today President Bush said he could not promise to pardon or commute their sentences. Instead, President Bush praised U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, the prosecutor who handled the case and who granted the Mexican drug smuggler blanket immunity and wide-open access to our borders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Obviously, I'm interested in facts. I know the prosecutor very well, Johnny Sutton. He's a dear friend of mine from Texas. He's a fair guy. He's an even-handed guy. I know it's an emotional issue. But people need to look at the facts.
These men were convicted by a jury of their peers after listening to the facts, as my friend, Johnny Sutton, presented them. But, anyway, no, I won't make you that promise. (END VIDEO CLIP)
DOBBS: Well, Mr. President, it would be nice to hear that promise. Hopefully, you will become more acquainted with the facts as the days proceed.
Senators held a hearing Tuesday to look into the -- what they considered to be the overreaching prosecutorial abuse by the president's good friend Johnny Sutton. After that hearing, Senator Dianne Feinstein and Senator John Cornyn on this broadcast asked President Bush to commute the prison sentences of those agents. A House subcommittee will be holding its own hearing on the issue at the end of this month.
That brings us to the subject of tonight's poll: Do you believe President Bush will have the decency to commute the present sentences of former Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean? We would like to hear from you, yes or no. Cast your vote at LouDobbs.com. We will have the results here later in the broadcast.
Up next, the United States is importing more food than ever. So, why are so many lobbyists and lawmakers trying to block country-of- origin labeling laws? Why aren't they interested in protecting and informing American consumers? We will have that report.
And more local police are now using a federal program to identify criminal illegal aliens in their communities. We will have that special report and a great deal more coming right up.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: We report extensively on this broadcast on the need for country-of-origin labels on our food. For four years, in fact, we have been reporting on why a five-year-old law has not been enforced, the law enacted back in 2002.
But like some other legislation passed by Congress, it's not being enforced by this administration. The laws are needed now more than ever because the United States is increasingly dependent on foreign food. Food imports are four times as large as they were in 1996. They have doubled in value up from nearly $40 billion to almost $80 billion a year over the past decade.
As Kitty Pilgrim now reports, powerful lobbyists are still trying to stop the country from enforcing those country-of-origin laws.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the halls of Congress, a powerful lobby is trying to dismantle country-of-origin labeling laws. Meat, vegetables and fruit were supposed to be labeled with their country of origin, so consumers in this country would know what they were buying and where it was grown. President Bush signed that law five years ago. But those laws were never enforced. A powerful meat packing lobby was able to prevent those rules from being enforced by persuading Congress to block funding for the implementation.
TOM BUIS, NATIONAL FARMERS UNION: They have delayed it for years because they could. Their friends were in power in Congress, and they would stick these delays in these must-pass omnibus appropriations bills.
PILGRIM: Now a powerful meat lobby wants more than just delays. It's pressuring Congress to effectively dismantle country-of-origin labeling laws. A draft proposal being discussed by Congressman Goodlatte of Virginia and possibly introduced by Congressman Scott of Georgia calls for only voluntary labels on fruits and vegetables.
It would also allow cattle raised in Canada and Mexico, but slaughtered in the United States, to be labeled products of the USA.
BILL BULLARD, PRESIDENT, R-CALF USA: It's an attempt to convert the U.S. cattle industry into a North American cattle industry. And the way they want to do that is to allow the beef, again, from Mexican and Canadian cattle to bear the USA label. Thus, consumers believe that the beef is domestic.
PILGRIM: Consumer watchdog groups like Food and Water Watch and Consumers Union are outraged the country-of-origin rules have been delayed for five years and lobbyists are pressuring Congress now to change the country-of-origin laws.
PATTY LOVERA, FOOD & WATER WATCH: This amendment that would weaken COOL is a veiled attempt to kill it outright and make it meaningless. That's why it's so important that Congress does not adopt it.
PILGRIM: And important for the American people to know where their products are coming from.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: Now, the continued delay in implementing the country- of-origin laws is in defiance of the will of the American people. Those country-of-origin laws, passed in 2002, still not in place. In fact they are being negotiated today in the House Agriculture Committee -- Lou.
DOBBS: We want to make it very clear here. These congressmen, Congressman Scott, all of the rest who want to push -- effectively want to kill this legislation protecting the American consumer, informing the American consumer, you have an open invitation to come here and to give us your view and debate the issue with me.
But I have to tell you, the fact that Congress is acting in secret, and this Democratically-led Congress has an opportunity to show what it really has in terms of character and true leadership in the interests of protecting the American people. And this is a doggone good place to start.
PILGRIM: The farm bill 600 pages, this is coming at the end of the consideration of everything in front of it.
DOBBS: Oh, come on.
PILGRIM: At the end.
DOBBS: They need to take those 600 pages, rip them the heck up, and start out. Keep it simple, keep it straight, and tell the truth, and do the right thing.
PILGRIM: They tell me it's in the miscellaneous section at the back.
DOBBS: Yes, miscellaneous.
By the way, did we ask the gentleman I said was full of bull and no beef to come join us from the Cattlemen...
PILGRIM: Yes, the National Battle Cattlemen Beef Association, Jay Truitt. We did.
(CROSSTALK)
DOBBS: Did he jump at the opportunity?
PILGRIM: We did offer him the invitation. He did not jump at it, I have to tell you.
DOBBS: Well, then he may be all hat and no horse, as well, as the saying goes.
Thanks.
We hope he will be kind enough to join us here and explain himself and why his interests are more important than those of the American people.
Thank you, Kitty Pilgrim.
Another toy -- here we go -- another toy made in communist China is being recalled. Hasbro is pulling about a million so-called Easy- Bake Ovens off the store shelves. Hasbro received hundreds of reports of injuries and many, many serious burns.
Coming up next, I will be talking with Rowan Scarborough. He's written an important new book called "Sabotage: America's Enemies in the CIA."
Also, new evidence tonight that Mexican drug cartels are successfully and repeatedly exploiting our wide-open borders. And guess what? The Bush administration doesn't seem to care. We will have that report, and more communities across the country trying to do the job the federal government isn't doing, cracking down on illegal immigration. And fire officials declare the highest alert possible in the Western states, wildfires sweeping through the region. We will have that special report, a great deal more, coming right up.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LOU DOBBS, HOST: The nation's wildfire alert now at its highest level, level five, as thousands of fires are raging out West. Dry, windy conditions making it extremely difficult for some 15,000 firefighters battling the fires. Those fires are now burning in 11 Western states.
But as Casey Wian reports now, resources to fight those fires are being stretched.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (voice-over): Since Monday 1,500 new wildfires have started in the Western United States. The threat is so great, officials have raised the nation's fire alert level to five -- the highest possible. Idaho, Nevada and Utah are the hot spots now. But wildfires have hit 17 U.S. states during the past month. Some are manmade.
SHERIFF CLINT SHORT, GEM COUNTY, IDAHO: We believe it was off of a truck that was hauling some scrap iron that had been cut with a -- cut and torched.
WIAN: Others sparked by lightning. Nationwide, officials recorded 200,000 lightning strikes in a single day this week. But all the fires are being fuelled by a devastating drought that has now spread to more than 60 percent of the continental United States.
RANDY EARDLEY, NATIONAL INTERAGENCY FIRE CENTER: Because it's been going on for so long and then we get into this summer and we have been seeing a record high temperatures across much of the West, that long-term drought that we've been seeing just creates a tinderbox situation, conditions out there -- that when an ignition occurs, these fires spread very rapidly and they're very resistant to controls.
WIAN: Resources are stretched thin, as this map of aerial firefighting crews shows.
CHUCK WAMACK, NATIONAL INTERAGENCY COORDINATION: Given all of the fires in the nation, we've just about reached our capacity for what's available to us in the helicopter world and in the -- we definitely have all our air tankers activated. So we get a lot of aircraft moving around. It's a -- it's a big project.
WIAN: So big, some governors are preparing to activate the National Guard to fight fires if necessary. Another possibility is international help, from Canada and even Australia. Last year set a record for wildfires in the United States, with nearly 10 million acres burned. (END VIDEO TAPE)
WIAN: Fire officials say it's too early to tell if that record will be broken this year, but they do notice a trend of longer, more intense fire seasons. So it's clearly a possibility -- Lou.
DOBBS: Longer, more intense, and certainly this year, starting much earlier. Casey, thank you very much.
WIAN: OK.
DOBBS: Casey Wian.
A new surge of violence along our border with Mexico. On the Mexican side of that border, competing criminal drug cartels are fighting one another and innocent civilians for lucrative drug routes into the United States. Fighting, as well, law enforcement and the Mexican Army.
Those armed drug smugglers are then moving billions of dollars worth of illegal drugs across our border into the United States.
Christine Romans has our special report.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (voice-over): This border is the entryway for most of the illegal drugs entering the United States. Ninety percent of the South American cocaine destined for U.S. consumers comes here from Mexico. Marijuana and cocaine are moved add cross the border in vehicles with secret compartments or hidden with legitimate cargo. And the Drug Enforcement Administration says Mexican cartels supply at least 80 percent of the methamphetamines consumed in this country.
GEORGE GRAYSON, COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY: The drug cartels can fly over the border. They can send small, fast boats around it. They can tunnel under it. And they can load their so-called mules with drugs to deliver them personally in the United States.
ROMANS: The State Department's annual Drug Strategy Report concludes legitimate commercial traffic provides "ample opportunities for smugglers."
Away from border crossings, drugs are moved across in a dangerous cat and mouse game with authorities.
T.J. BONNER, NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL:
They are inevitably, almost invariably, armed, perhaps not to shoot it out with the law enforcement officers, but certainly to protect against being ripped off by the competition.
ROMANS: A deadly competition among Mexican drug cartels for the $13.8 billion in revenue they share each year. Killing rivals for control of trading routes into the United States, targeting judges, police officers and journalists in Mexico. The violence has moved north, gripping border towns like Nuevo Laredo.
The government says cartels are even operating huge marijuana plantations inside America's national parks, making the border crossing unnecessary.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
ROMANS: Mexico has extradited more than a dozen accused traffickers to face U.S. justice and deployed 20,000 federal police to the streets. American law enforcement, meanwhile, focusing on the money trail. The DEA, over two years, seizing more than $3.5 billion in drugs and money, disrupting the funding, at least for now, for the next round of drug production and smuggling -- Lou.
DOBBS: And direct distribution in this country continues unabated. At least Felipe Calderon, the president of Mexico, making a strong early effort trying to fight those very powerful and violent drug cartels. Christine, thanks.
Christine Romans.
Pro-illegal alien activists frequently block laws passed by local communities trying to stop illegal immigration. That's why a program run him Immigration & Customs Enforcement to help stem the flood of illegal aliens is enjoying a surge of newfound popularity and the reason that local and state governments are taking up the issue of illegal immigration and border security.
Bill Tucker reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (voice-over): The federal government's failure to enforce immigration law has let between 12 and 20 million illegal aliens into America. Local communities have been left to bear the consequences. Ironically, there is help for those communities -- from Washington. Congress gave local police the authority to enforce immigration law 11 years ago under a section of the immigration law known as 287G. At least one Congressman is so impressed with the program, he's proposing legislation that would require it in every state and local prison.
REP. DAVID PRICE (D), NORTH CAROLINA: What we are saying is we want a systematic liaison established between ICE and prisons -- the state and local prison systems; that we want, at least monthly, there to be a check on the alien population that is in those prisons; and we want those checks run before those people are released; and then we want them deported.
TUCKER: Under Congressman Price's bill, more money would be given to ICE to fund the program, a program that laid dormant for years. It is not dormant now.
Florida was the first state to take advantage of the program in 2001. Now, 11 states, with 416 law enforcement officers, are trained to enforce immigration law. And there are 75 law enforcement agencies with requests pending with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which runs the program, and the list is growing. Davidson County, home to Nashville, Tennessee, began using 287G back in April, after the sheriff suspected he had a problem he couldn't see.
SHERIFF DARON HALL, DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE: The most difficult part of that for me was that most of these people had been in and out of our criminal justice system multiple times. And I felt responsible for that, because we were releasing them back into the community.
TUCKER: Within the next couple of weeks, he expects he will deport his one thousandth illegal a alien rather than re-releasing them back into the community.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
TUCKER: Now, Sheriff Hall said that when he initially began the program, sheriffs departments around the state took a wait and see attitude. Now, he says, not a day goes by that he's not contacted by a sheriff's department asking how they can get involved. And, Lou, the two sheriff's department in neighboring counties have signed up for 287G.
DOBBS: Well, it's a -- it's a shame that this Bush administration has refused to enforce these laws. It's a shame this Congress and the previous Congresses haven't demanded that the laws they passed be enforced.
This is all that is left. It's a good thing we're a -- that we're a republic and that federalism still works, that there are still state and local powers in government, or we would be totally helpless against a crisis of illegal immigration and border security.
TUCKER: That's true.
DOBBS: Bill, thank you very much.
Bill Tucker.
TUCKER: You're welcome.
DOBBS: Coming up next, I'll be talking with some of my very favorite radio talk show hosts. We will hear their views on the unjust imprisonment of Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean, and their views on what seems to be a government that is simply out of control.
Also, the Valerie Plame affair, sabotage on the war against terror. I'll be talking with Rowan Scarborough, author of a sensational new book about enemies within the CIA.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: An explosive new book detailing how the CIA is bungling or even undermining the government in the war against radical Islamic terrorists. Rowan Scarborough lists numerous cases of CIA incompetence and political interference in his new book, "Sabotage, America's Enemies Within The CIA."
Rowan Scarborough joins me here now. Good to have you with us, Rowan.
ROWAN SCARBOROUGH, AUTHOR, "SABOTAGE": Hello, Lou.
DOBBS: This is -- this is remarkable that you're talking about enemies within the CIA.
How -- how large an issue is it?
How many people?
What do you expect to be the result of your exposing this?
SCARBOROUGH: Well, it's a big issue, Lou. When you have the CIA deliberately leaking falsehoods against key administration officials like Dick Cheney and John Bolton, people at the Pentagon trying to make policy, and they're tagged with an allegation of wrongdoing that is never corrected until there is a bipartisan panel two years later, that's a serious, serious charge.
The clandestine service in Langley need to be concentrating on the war on terror, not on the political warfare in this city.
DOBBS: So the CIA is not made up of a bunch of brainless, retiring violets.
Why don't they have strong leadership saying, look, this -- you're out of partisan politics. You've got a job to do, here's the way it's going to be, let's move forward.
SCARBOROUGH: Well, look at the --
DOBBS: Or am I mistaken?
SCARBOROUGH: Look at the directors we've had -- the last three directors. George Tenet wanted to be a life man, a popular man. He would smoke cigars with the staff out in front of the building.
DOBBS: He came out of --
SCARBOROUGH: He knew --
DOBBS: He came out of a Senate staffing job.
SCARBOROUGH: Exactly. He was more a politician than a man that -- he admitted he had never been a CEO and managed something. His successor --
DOBBS: Or a CIA agent.
SCARBOROUGH: Or CIA agent.
Porter Goss, who had been a CIA agent --
DOBBS: Right.
SCARBOROUGH: -- and also had been politician, is then sent over to stop the leaks and depoliticize Langley. And he gets chewed up by the bureaucracy. They begin leaking immediately that he's incompetent and that he's partisan and he only lasts 18 months.
The new director, Michael Hayden, is trying to stop the leaks with happy talk. He has opened up channels of communication, e-mail --
DOBBS: You don't sound impressed.
SCARBOROUGH: No. No, I don't. The CIA -- here we are five years after the attack and you still have a clandestine service that cannot run its station correctly in Baghdad.
DOBBS: Yes. Unfortunately, all of us, as American citizens, we want our CIA to be the smartest, the strongest, the cleverest and most effective. We expect that of our military. This -- the issue of incompetence in this government today is widespread.
SCARBOROUGH: Yes. Well --
DOBBS: But the idea -- let's turn to something else you said in the book, talking about Iran.
You said -- and if we can share this with everyone on the screen -- "If the CIA is, in fact, working with any agents in Iran, they must not be very good. The agency knows very little about the inner workings of the world of radical mullahs striving for nuclear weapons and Israel's destruction."
Not only are they interfering in partisan politics, you make them sound like incompetent bozos.
SCARBOROUGH: We have not penetrated Tehran. If we wanted to do it, we needed to do it 20 or 30 years ago -- identify young Iranians who were Western-oriented and then groom them to eventually rise in the government.
Why does the military in Iraq say we can't say for sure that the mullahs are directing the Iranian insurgency in Iraq?
Because we don't know. We don't know how they give orders to Ahmadinejad. We don't know how they give orders to Hezbollah. Because we haven't penetrated the regime.
DOBBS: Well, George Tenet said publicly -- he said it to me -- that he need five years to have an efficient, effective -- effective covert service. And it's almost six years since September 11.
Will we have an effective covert service?
And then we look at something like the National Intelligence Estimate, coming out this week. I mean the administration has demonstrated that it deserves strong skepticism in its assessment of intelligence and what it states as an intelligence consensus.
yet we can't even trust the NIE itself or those leaks from the CIA, can we?
SCARBOROUGH: No. Let -- a brief couple sentences about the 1990s. The CIA -- the 1990s were a tragedy for the CIA. The clandestine service was cut by 30 percent. They rolled up bases. They closed the base in Hamburg, Germany, where Mohammed Atta was radicalized.
DOBBS: Right.
SCARBOROUGH: So the CIA that --
DOBBS: Where the plot effectively was --
SCARBOROUGH: Sure.
DOBBS: -- was born for 9/11.
SCARBOROUGH: Now they've reopened it since. So from 2001 on, they've been adding, essentially, a third of the CIA that we're going to have in the next five years.
Peter Hoekstra, Congressman Hoekstra, in 2007, went to the CIA stations in the Middle East and North Africa, the epicenter of Al Qaeda operations. He sends a letter to Steve Hadley at the White House saying we still don't have it right. The bureaus are manned by kids.
DOBBS: We're going to have --
SCARBOROUGH: They don't have any experience.
DOBBS: Right.
The book is "Sabotage: America's Enemies Within The CIA."
You're not making us feel any more assured here, but you're raising important issues that both this government and the American people need to be fully aware of.
Thank you very much, Rowan.
SCARBOROUGH: Thank you, Lou.
DOBBS: Good to have you here.
SCARBOROUGH: Thank you.
DOBBS: Up next, our radio roundtable. We're going to assess the day's political developments, of which there were plenty.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Joining me now, three of the country's best radio talk show hosts, certainly three of my favorites.
Here in New York, Mark Simone. In Washington, D.C. Joe Madison. In Phoenix, Charles Goyette.
Thank you, gentlemen, for being here.
A Reuters/Zogby poll showing -- confirming what the Gallup poll earlier showed -- Congress, well, it stinks just like the -- like Bush administration
What are we to make of this, Charles Goyette?
CHARLES GOYETTE, KFNX IN PHOENIX: Well, Lou, first of all, I want to tell you, I watched your show from Washington the other day. And I want you to know that no matter what anybody else says, you're not entirely beyond redemption.
DOBBS: Well, thanks.
GOYETTE: Just so you know.
Listen, I --
DOBBS: No comment ever made --
GOYETTE: I don't --
DOBBS: -- has upset by 97-year-old mother like that one. She -- she -- she was beside herself.
But, thank you.
She'll appreciate that, Charles.
GOYETTE: Well, as you said, it wasn't a very charitable thing for the guy to say.
Lou, I'm not -- I'm not entirely dissatisfied with people having a confidence crisis with the government. It's time for them to realize that you don't want to put the people in charge of -- the people in charge, for example, of the borders -- in charge of your retirement or making decisions about --
DOBBS: (LAUGHTER).
GOYETTE: -- about your medical care or how your 97-year-old mother can relieve her pain --
DOBBS: Right.
GOYETTE: -- what she can do when she's suffering.
DOBBS: Right.
GOYETTE: So a crisis in confidence isn't entirely a bad thing, in my view, Lou. DOBBS: Joe Madison?
JOE MADISON, WOL IN WASHINGTON, D.C.: Oh, I absolutely agree. And I think what has happened is that you had this tremendous shift of power in November. People expected action -- maybe a little too immediately, but they did expect action. The Democrats really didn't deliver, except for minimum wage. They tend to be playing too much politics with the Republicans; the Republicans with the Democrats.
The immigration issue was a disaster for both parties and you're seeing the results in this poll.
DOBBS: Are you -- are you confident that the American people are sitting here, as we approach 2008, about ready to say of both parties I've had a bellyful of your nonsense?
MADISON: Oh, I think that the majority of the voters are in the middle. I don't think they affiliate with Republican or Democrat. I told you personally, Lou,
I'm even questioning about my affiliation as a registered Democrat.
I happen, however, to live in a district where you can't vote in the primary. And the primary is tantamount to the election. So -- but I'm giving it serious, serious thought as this election nears because I think a message has got to be sent to both political parties.
DOBBS: Yes. That's --
MARK SIMONE, WABC IN NEW YORK: Well, but let's give this Congress some credit. It takes a lot effort to look more bumbling than the Republicans --
DOBBS: (LAUGHTER).
You just lost Joe Madison, Charles Goyette and me, Mark.
But go ahead.
SIMONE: I mean to look more bumbling than this president, to do worse in the polls than this president -- I mean look at Harry Reid now.
MADISON: He just got us back.
SIMONE: All right. Now, look at Harry Reid -- three sons are lobbyists. I'm sure this was just an amazing coincidence. They all decided they wanted to be lobbyists. And he's got a son-in-law who apparently does some lobbying.
DOBBS: Right.
SIMONE: Three is not enough. And the idea of having this slumber party where you bring in these beds -- they should have brought in big huge wallets and filled the room with them and let those corporate clients just fill them up.
DOBBS: Well, we don't know what was transpiring there.
MADISON: Oh, that money was stuffed in the mattresses, you know?
(LAUGHTER).
DOBBS: Charles, we've got a -- we've got a real smack down going on. Elizabeth Edwards defending her man. Senator Clinton's husband defending his woman. I mean we've got it all going on.
What in the world is this thing devolving into?
GOYETTE: Well, Lou, I'd like to see them beat each other up. I'd like to see is -- if we can eliminate all of the pretenders to the throne and have all of the would-be warmongers, Democrat and Republican alike -- look John McCain, here in Arizona, is reduced to flying coach now. John McCain's carrying his on bag. He has no entourage traveling with him.
The more we can -- we can get shift the -- get rid of these warmongers in the presidential primary and get down to a sensible guy like maybe Ron Paul, the sooner we'll get out of this war and we can set our economic house in order.
MADISON: I had -- I had hoped that most of the news story today would have been on the two speeches, the one that Obama gave that I attended yesterday on urban poverty.
DOBBS: Right.
MADISON: And, of course, Edwards did an interesting piece on rural poverty. The reality is that poverty transcends geography and race.
DOBBS: Absolutely.
MADISON: But that's where the attention -- this foolishness between who's man enough, who's woman enough, who's black enough, who's Mormon enough, is -- is -- it's early politics. It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't raise money.
DOBBS: Right.
MADISON: And, quite honestly, our listeners are ignoring it.
GOYETTE: But I think what's really happening here is they realize Bill Clinton is -- is really the secret to Hillary's popularity. He's a better campaigner. So let him campaign.
And in the case of Edwards, he's supposed to be Mr. Poverty, yet we find out he's working for a hedge fund, he's building a mansion. And Elizabeth Edwards is a far more sympathetic and credible figure, so let her speak for him.
DOBBS: Well, I'm sure they're going to take all that advice What I can't figure out, you know, everyone running -- I think this is correct -- most everyone running is a millionaire. It's those $400 haircuts that got former Senator Edwards into trouble.
SIMONE: Well, he spends more at the beauty parlor than she does.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MADISON: Can I also -- you know, and I want to give Tancredo credit for going to the NAACP convention when his other Republican opponents wouldn't. And he got a standing ovation. And they made a big mistake by not going to that convention and at least trying to get their message across to that group of people.
DOBBS: Yes. That's a --
MADISON: And I'm glad he went and I'm glad they treated him with respect.
DOBBS: That's a great point.
Charles Goyette, thank you very much.
Joe Madison, thank you, sir.
MADISON: Thank you.
DOBBS: And Mark Simone, thank you, sir.
SIMONE: Thank you.
DOBBS: We will continue with you all just as soon as we can get you back here.
Thanks for being here tonight.
Still ahead, the results of our poll. We're going to have some more of your thoughts.
Stay with us.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: The results of our poll tonight, 96 percent of you say President Bush will not have the decency, in your opinion, to commute the prison sentences of former Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean.
Let's take a look at some more of your thoughts.
Cecil in Kentucky writing in about the pro-amnesty crowd on the steps of the Supreme Court this week wearing -- protesting me and in Wisconsin wearing those masks to protest me. Cecil said: "Do you know where we can get the Lou Dobbs face masks? Everyone should wear one. Maybe we could get Congress' attention."
Anthony in Georgia says: "Thank you, Lou and continue the best watchdog program on our government I have ever seen."
Thank you.
And Steve in New Jersey: "Kudos to you, Lou Dobbs, for having the courage and conviction to stand up for what is right in America."
Robert in Texas: "Lou, love your show. You're the only one speaking out for the middle class but please take it easy. We don't want you to blow a gasket."
Well, neither do I and I'll tell you what, some nights it takes a lot of discipline and constraint. But thanks for your thought.
Thank you for being with us.
Join us here tomorrow.
For all of us, thanks for watching.
Good night from New York.
"THE SITUATION ROOM" begins now with John King -- John.
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