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More Hostages Taken By Iraqi Insurgents
Aired April 12, 2004 - 14:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A top commander in Iraq speaks out, and an American civilian now held hostage. We're live from Baghdad and the Pentagon.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Three sisters, also three soldiers. One dies in combat, now the family asks, please send them home.
O'BRIEN: Expect more questions about a controversial security memo. The 9/11 Commission ready to spring into action, again.
PHILLIPS: Sometimes it pays to risk it all, a naughty boy makes the ultimate high-stakes gamble, putting his entire life savings on the line in Vegas.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips.
O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. It is Monday, April 12. CNN's LIVE FROM... starts right now.
PHILLIPS: Up first this hour, casualties and captives, standoffs and deep suspicions. In what looks to be the bloodiest month to date for U.S. forces in the fight for Iraq, an uneasy calm is said to persist in Fallujah, but by no means nationwide.
A breakthrough of sorts in the works in Najaf. And progress is cited on the hostage front. But several civilians are still being held and the two U.S. soldiers haven't been seen or heard from since Friday.
We get the latest now on all this from CNN's Baghdad bureau chief, Jane Arraf -- Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Kyra, an awful lot going on here. One thing, of course, is that continuing standoff in Fallujah where U.S. troops are observing a tenuous cease-fire, tenuous I say because troops keep fighting back at them -- insurgents, rather, keep fighting back at them. Now they are taking a lot of political heat there for the collateral damage, as it's known euphemistically, of civilians being caught in the crossfire. And we are talking about hundreds of civilians dying. But General Ricardo Sanchez, who is head of land forces here, rejects accusations from some Arab media, he says, that they're deliberately targeting civilians.
PHILLIPS: All right, Jane Arraf, live from Baghdad, we'll continue to catch up --or follow up with you, rather, as we get more information out of the region -- Miles. O'BRIEN: Among those taken hostage in Iraq is Mississippian Thomas Hamill. He is a civilian truck driver for a U.S. contractor who apparently was captured outside Baghdad on Good Friday. The deadline his captors set for U.S. forces to leave Fallujah came and went late Saturday Eastern time. No more word on Hamill's status. His tiny hometown of Macon, right near the Alabama border, remembers a struggling dairy farmer who just wanted to make ends meet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT BOYD, MACON BEACON: Tommy tried to stick it out in the dairy business but didn't. He sold his farm and didn't quite earn enough from that sale to satisfy the debt, so he saw an opportunity to go to Iraq for a high-paying job a lot better than the job that he could get over here. So he went over there and obligated himself for a year to try to earn enough money to try to support his family and to satisfy the debts from his farm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: In a video clip from the Arab network Al Jazeera, a narrator who supposedly is quoting Hamill says he's in good shape and being treated well.
PHILLIPS: Devastated by a daughter's death in Iraq and the dangers still loom for their two other daughters, all members of the Wisconsin National Guard posted in Iraq.
We get the family's story from Chris Goodman (ph) of CNN affiliate WITI in Milwaukee.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHELLE WITMER, KILLED IN IRAQ: I've seen some amazing things and I feel like I've lived a lot of life for being only 19.
CHRIS GOODMAN (ph), WITI REPORTER (voice-over): But her short life has ended. Michelle Witmer talked when she and her sisters got to come home before Christmas. Saddam Hussein was captured during the brief visit.
M. WITMER: Rachel came running into my bedroom, jumped on my bed on top of me and started shaking me. And I thought the house was on fire, I had no idea what was going on. They got him! They got him! They go him! They got him! And I'm like, what? What? And she was like, Saddam! And I'm like, no way! She's like, yes! And we both just started screaming.
GOODMAN: Rachel, the oldest, and Michelle's twin sister Charity are scheduled to return to Iraq after Michelle's funeral, but will they?
JOAN ART (ph), FAMILY SPOKESMAN: For the sake of our family we have appealed to the Army National Guard to grant whatever exceptions necessary to make sure Rachel and Charity are not returned to Iraq. GOODMAN: A family friend talked on behalf of the Witmers Sunday afternoon. She says the family is also pleading with Wisconsin elected officials to do what they can to keep Michelle's sisters out of harm's way.
ART: We trust that those in charge of making such a decision will realize that we have already sacrificed enough and that our family must not be asked to bear such an impossible burden.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Michelle's family has kept a Web site online since the sisters were called to active duty. That site includes letters home from Michelle. One of them reveals her thoughts about being ambushed. She wrote to her dad on Father's Day: "We had a briefing telling us to prepare ourselves as best as possible for what lies ahead. I guess every convoy that's gone up north so far has taken fire or been ambushed. The question of whether we will or not is not even really a question, more like a guess as to when."
Then there is this, written after she escorted one of her commanders to an Iraqi orphanage run by Catholic nuns: "Being a Christian here, denominations and interpretations melt away and it just becomes as simple as, God loves us so we can rejoice. It was when I was holding one of those children when I realized I have so much to be thankful for."
O'BRIEN: The surge in the Iraqi insurgents is putting the brakes on the Pentagon's plan to draw down U.S. troop strength ahead of the scheduled return of Iraqi sovereignty. CNN's Barbara Starr has more on that from the Pentagon.
Lots to talk about there, Hello, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Miles.
General John Abizaid speaking with Pentagon reporters earlier today brought up a number of subjects. Now on the issue of troops. General Abizaid says he has now made a request for two combat mobile brigades. That's something over 10,000 troops that he says he needs to deal with the insurgency.
Now, the most likely way that requirement will be fulfilled is for a number of troops to stay in place in Iraq, most likely from the 1st Armored Division. They were scheduled to come home this spring. Now, it looks like they will stay for a while, while the Pentagon works on a plan to try and get them replacements as quickly as possible.
But General Abizaid also making a number of very candid remarks about the performance of Iraqi security forces during the recent upsurge in violence, the recent insurgency.
Here's a bit of what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, COMBATANT COMMANDER, CENTRAL COMMAND: Some of them did very well and some of them did not. And in the south the number of units both in the police force and also in the ICDC did not stand up to the intimidators of the forces of Sadr's militia, and that was a great disappointment to us.
In other places such as in and around Fallujah, we've had good, strong performances by several units and were satisfied with that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: But, overall, General Abizaid expressing some very candid disappointment in the performance of Iraqi security forces during these recent days, Miles.
Now he says they will go back, take another look, see what additional equipment and training might be needed and, he said, appoint some very strong leaders for those Iraqi security forces. He said one of the failures appears to be lack of chain of command, getting orders down to those Iraqi troops, getting them out into the field -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Barbara, explain that for me a little bit, when they say, lack of chain of command, is that because of just the functional capabilities there or is it simply that these people, the farther you get down the chain, the more intimidated they might be by insurgents?
STARR: Well, it may well be a combination of all of that. That's part of what they're trying to figure out right now. What General Abizaid said is he said, look for us to put, the Central Command, the coalition to put some senior former Iraqi military officials back into that chain of command, people who understand the troops, understand the culture and can exercise some authority and control.
They certainly are going to work very closely to vet those people understand that they are not former regime loyalists, not former Ba'athists. But clearly one of the lessons that they've seen over the last few days is that they simply have a failure, if you will, of strong leadership, issuing orders, getting them out to those troops in the field.
What we know, of course, here, there are two very clear examples. An Iraqi army battalion failed to go out to Fallujah and join the Marines for the fight. They did try and move, by all accounts. They came into some contact with insurgent forces and basically, they just apparently couldn't hold it together. They even had U.S. Special Forces with them as advisers, but it just didn't work.
Now, as far as Iraqi police go, not the army, Iraqi police, General Abizaid said in the south there have been some examples of them actually defecting from the police force and possibly joining the insurgents. They have some tape, some video pictures of that and that causes them some concern.
Are the numbers huge? No. But they can't have the kind of confidence and assurance they want that Iraqi security forces can really take over. General Abizaid said the bottom line is the solution for Iraq is to have those Iraqi security forces in place with some level of confidence in the months ahead.
O'BRIEN: Easier said than done, obviously. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Thanks much -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, frightening tactics in Iraq. Civilians taken hostage. What impact will this have on getting international help to get the war-torn country back on track.
The 9/11 Commission ready to spring into action, this time America's top law enforcers are in the hot seat..
Bullets and bunnies. Kids uncover more than just eggs at an Easter hunt. Well, that one is a LIVE FROM... basket a little later.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Hostages appear to be the newest currency in the war on Iraq. How should the coalition respondent to this tactic and will more troops inevitably be sent to help neutralize the insurgents? And what about General John Abizaid's comments about Iraqi defense forces and the police? From Washington, retired Lieutenant General Dan Christman is here to offer some analysis for us.
General Christman, good to see you again, sir.
LT. GEN. DANIEL CHRISTMAN, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Thank you, Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, first of all, General Abizaid's statements were very blunt, very candid. Basically he is very disappointed in the Iraqi defense forces and the police and their chain of command. Read between the lines in this one and try to give us a sense of what is really going on there.
CHRISTMAN: One of the reasons why I think, Miles, General Abizaid has such credibility is that he is so candid. He will tell it like it is. And I think what he emphasized in his presentations, his press conference, was a failure of leadership.
Abizaid is a wonderful military trainer, besides being a great strategist. He was in charge of military training at West Point. So he knows what it takes to make an effective unit. The failure of those units was directly attributable to the failure of small unit leadership.
And what he is trying to do now, he and General Sanchez, is to develop a kind of vetting process to make sure that senior members of the Iraqi military who can be trusted are put into positions of responsibility, and further, Miles, that there is some clarity of mission.
My take on this too is that the military unit that, for example, didn't go into Fallujah was unsure of what its mission was to perhaps defend against external threats and not to be responsible for the internal insurgency. So those kinds of things, in a very large lessons-learned process will be part of this mission going forward.
O'BRIEN: Of course, this is where the boot meets the concrete, where the rubber meets the road, all those cliches you like. And if there is any pressure that is brought to bear on people and their families by the insurgents, it would be at the lowest level, wouldn't it?
CHRISTMAN: No, it would be, Miles. But still, I come back to the point about how important leadership is. Leadership is so essential for the inspiration, for the cohesiveness of units, and notwithstanding some of the concerns about pressure on the subordinates, if you get an inspirational leader who can inspire trust and confidence, that's what General Abizaid and General Sanchez want to achieve, to bring that particular group in the chain of command, from the most junior level up to the top, to the defense ministry, to get a group there that can be inspirational and in which the soldiers have confidence. That's the way ahead.
O'BRIEN: All right, that certainly doesn't happen overnight. Let's talk about a development which seemed to happen overnight, which is suddenly hostage-taking appears to be a tactic which is enjoying some support there. Militarily, it probably doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things, but when you start to talk about politics and economics, why don't you share with us a personal trip that you were involved in and how the hostage-taking development has changed all of that.
CHRISTMAN: It's huge. And you're exactly right, Miles. I think the military significance is quite marginal. For sure, the military has to attend to this and they'll be doing special operations missions, some intelligence aspects to try to recover the hostages. But the real tragedy here, Miles, going forward, is that investment in Iraq almost for sure will be constrained.
I met the Iraqis at the donor conference in Madrid last October, was head of a U.S. investment delegation that was prepared to go into Iraq. You can imagine now the signal, the tone that is sent as a result of hostage-taking here in the international investment community.
Businesses will not go in if they're afraid that their employees will be subjected to the kinds of harassment and capture that we've seen. That's the real tragedy, because the future of Iraq rests upon this triad of military success, a political solution and economic investment. And that's what the hostages are now threatening.
O'BRIEN: It's interesting to see this sort of happen on two fronts. You see Shia discontent and Sunni discontent, kind of concurrently, perhaps coincidentally. The Kurds, interestingly enough, remain quite, relatively speaking, happy with their lot in the situation. I guess what that says is, we know who's happy and unhappy with what might happen on June 30.
CHRISTMAN: Well, that's right. It does provide a prediction here going forward, not only in the Kurdish area, but in the British are in the deep south, as well, around Basra. Those have been reasonably well contained, reasonable stability there.
But I come back to this central point in terms of what happens after 1-July, and that is, all of this military success, Miles, has got to be placed inside of a much larger political context. That's the lesson from Vietnam. There are many statements that are simply over the top on the Vietnam analogy, but the one lesson that is so central is that all of these ethnic groups have got to buy in to a long-term political solution. That's the future for Iraq, and at this point, it's very uncertain.
O'BRIEN: Well, what do you say, when you say uncertain, when you go back and look at the origins of what we know as modern-day Iraq, arbitrary lines drawn on the border by the British after World War I, what do you say to those who say, there is no country to create there, they have three factions that are never going to get along?
CHRISTMAN: Well, certainly, our strategy here is to ensure that each member of this ethnic grouping in Iraq understands that they have a stake in a unified Iraq. Iraq cannot exist as a series of three or four separate entities. The resource mix doesn't work. The entire position in the international community doesn't work. This has to be a country as a whole.
And what is sought here in the constitution, Miles, is some sort of Madisonian checks and balances. In my judgment, that was the real instigator with respect to the Shia unrest. They were uncomfortable at this crucial point in their history that they were going to be able to attain the adequate voice going forward. And there's nothing like a statement by al-Sadr to make certain that the Shia are understood and accommodated.
So this particular period, the two, three, four months in and around 30-June are so central to provide a cohesive political solution into which all the ethnic groups can buy. That's an enormous challenge.
O'BRIEN: I should say. Dan Christman, good insights, thank you for your time, appreciate it -- Kyra.
CHRISTMAN: Thank you, Miles.
PHILLIPS: Well, the biggest names in law enforcement will sit in front of the 9/11 Commission this week. Exhibit A, the August 6 Presidential Briefing issued just a few weeks before the attacks.
Details from Elaine Quijano in Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Bush maintains the information in the now-declassified August 6, 2001, PDB, or Presidential Daily Briefing wasn't detailed enough for the U.S. to prevent September 11.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There was not a time and place of an attack. And it was -- it said Osama bin Laden had designs on America. Well, I knew that. What I wanted to know was, is there anything specifically going to take place in America that we needed to react to?
QUIJANO: But critics, including a Democratic member of the September 11 Commission, say that PDB contained important pieces of the puzzle that should have been taken into context with the spike in intelligence chatter during the summer of 2001.
RICHARD BEN-VENISTE (D), 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: There was a lot of focus overseas, but the CIA author of this PDB, by stressing the fact that bin Laden was determined to strike in the United States, and was telling the president that we ought to look here, as well.
QUIJANO: This week the commission turns its attention to law enforcement and intelligence officials past and present. Among those scheduled to testify, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, as well as Attorney General John Ashcroft, who, a source tells CNN, is not believed to have received a copy of that August 6 PDB.
Ashcroft and others are expected face tough questions on whether the Justice Department made fighting terrorism a top priority and what specific steps the FBI took to investigate the terror threats that existed in the summer of 2001.
(on camera): The panel is expected to look not only at the FBI, but other agencies, and what one commissioner says were problems getting available information into the hands of those who could make a difference.
Elaine Quijano, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And CNN plans coverage of the commission hearings tomorrow and Wednesday, the first witness is scheduled to be former FBI Director Louis Freeh.
O'BRIEN: All right, a woman born in Saudi Arabia wants to do something no one else from her country has ever done, and that is hold elective office in the United States. She's our guest in just a few moments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSIE BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So when you're walking up to the 18th Green, you're about to take the biggest shot of your life, you had this grin on your face, why?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: The Masters champ reveals why he knew his destiny even before the amazing putt.
And a mind-blowing bet. A man puts his entire life savings on the line in Vegas. We're giving the wheel a spin just ahead on LIVE FROM..., stay with us. Feeling lucky? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Iraq and the crisis in the Middle East are front and center on the Texas prairie this hour. President Bush is hosting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at his Crawford ranch. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux has the latest from there -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, really, the highlight of this press conference is that the president said that he is holding a press conference tomorrow in the East Room, that he wants to answer questions more thoroughly. And that's because there are two areas here where the president, the administration has gotten a lot of tough questions over the past week.
The first thing, whether or not the administration knew about September 11, enough at least to prevent it. That concentrating, focusing on this August 6, 2001, memo that was given to the president one month before the September 11 attacks. As you know, that Presidential Daily Brief was declassified and made public this weekend.
Now, what the president was asked was when you got this memo here that talked about Osama bin Laden's desires, his intentions to attack in the United States, what did you do about it?
He was asked whether or not he contacted FBI Director Bob Mueller. The president answered Mueller was not the director at that time, and that is true. He had not yet been confirmed by the Senate, it was an acting director. But the president also went on to say that he was satisfied that the FBI was conducting investigations about these possible attacks.
One attack, in particular, a May 2001 -- in that memo. It stated that there were al Qaeda in the United States who wanted to carry out an attack using explosives. The president's bottom line here is that he followed up the questions coming to the president here -- what was it that you did after you received that memo?
The second topic of course deals with Iraq, the situation on the ground. And the reason why President Hosni Mubarak is here is that the two of them are talking about how the Middle East peace plan is linked to the situation in Iraq, inextricably linked for many Arab leaders.
The president today saying that if Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wanted to go ahead and withdraw from the area of Gaza, which he has talked about doing, this plan, that he thinks it would be a good idea, that it's not -- that it would be a part of the road map, that would be part of jump-starting the process of creating two independent states, one for Israelis and one for Palestinians.
But, Kyra, the president is going to get a lot of tough questions tomorrow on those two issues.
PHILLIPS: All right, Suzanne Malveaux, live from Crawford, Texas, thank you -- Miles. (MARKET UPDATE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired April 12, 2004 - 14:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A top commander in Iraq speaks out, and an American civilian now held hostage. We're live from Baghdad and the Pentagon.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Three sisters, also three soldiers. One dies in combat, now the family asks, please send them home.
O'BRIEN: Expect more questions about a controversial security memo. The 9/11 Commission ready to spring into action, again.
PHILLIPS: Sometimes it pays to risk it all, a naughty boy makes the ultimate high-stakes gamble, putting his entire life savings on the line in Vegas.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips.
O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. It is Monday, April 12. CNN's LIVE FROM... starts right now.
PHILLIPS: Up first this hour, casualties and captives, standoffs and deep suspicions. In what looks to be the bloodiest month to date for U.S. forces in the fight for Iraq, an uneasy calm is said to persist in Fallujah, but by no means nationwide.
A breakthrough of sorts in the works in Najaf. And progress is cited on the hostage front. But several civilians are still being held and the two U.S. soldiers haven't been seen or heard from since Friday.
We get the latest now on all this from CNN's Baghdad bureau chief, Jane Arraf -- Jane.
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Kyra, an awful lot going on here. One thing, of course, is that continuing standoff in Fallujah where U.S. troops are observing a tenuous cease-fire, tenuous I say because troops keep fighting back at them -- insurgents, rather, keep fighting back at them. Now they are taking a lot of political heat there for the collateral damage, as it's known euphemistically, of civilians being caught in the crossfire. And we are talking about hundreds of civilians dying. But General Ricardo Sanchez, who is head of land forces here, rejects accusations from some Arab media, he says, that they're deliberately targeting civilians.
PHILLIPS: All right, Jane Arraf, live from Baghdad, we'll continue to catch up --or follow up with you, rather, as we get more information out of the region -- Miles. O'BRIEN: Among those taken hostage in Iraq is Mississippian Thomas Hamill. He is a civilian truck driver for a U.S. contractor who apparently was captured outside Baghdad on Good Friday. The deadline his captors set for U.S. forces to leave Fallujah came and went late Saturday Eastern time. No more word on Hamill's status. His tiny hometown of Macon, right near the Alabama border, remembers a struggling dairy farmer who just wanted to make ends meet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT BOYD, MACON BEACON: Tommy tried to stick it out in the dairy business but didn't. He sold his farm and didn't quite earn enough from that sale to satisfy the debt, so he saw an opportunity to go to Iraq for a high-paying job a lot better than the job that he could get over here. So he went over there and obligated himself for a year to try to earn enough money to try to support his family and to satisfy the debts from his farm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: In a video clip from the Arab network Al Jazeera, a narrator who supposedly is quoting Hamill says he's in good shape and being treated well.
PHILLIPS: Devastated by a daughter's death in Iraq and the dangers still loom for their two other daughters, all members of the Wisconsin National Guard posted in Iraq.
We get the family's story from Chris Goodman (ph) of CNN affiliate WITI in Milwaukee.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHELLE WITMER, KILLED IN IRAQ: I've seen some amazing things and I feel like I've lived a lot of life for being only 19.
CHRIS GOODMAN (ph), WITI REPORTER (voice-over): But her short life has ended. Michelle Witmer talked when she and her sisters got to come home before Christmas. Saddam Hussein was captured during the brief visit.
M. WITMER: Rachel came running into my bedroom, jumped on my bed on top of me and started shaking me. And I thought the house was on fire, I had no idea what was going on. They got him! They got him! They go him! They got him! And I'm like, what? What? And she was like, Saddam! And I'm like, no way! She's like, yes! And we both just started screaming.
GOODMAN: Rachel, the oldest, and Michelle's twin sister Charity are scheduled to return to Iraq after Michelle's funeral, but will they?
JOAN ART (ph), FAMILY SPOKESMAN: For the sake of our family we have appealed to the Army National Guard to grant whatever exceptions necessary to make sure Rachel and Charity are not returned to Iraq. GOODMAN: A family friend talked on behalf of the Witmers Sunday afternoon. She says the family is also pleading with Wisconsin elected officials to do what they can to keep Michelle's sisters out of harm's way.
ART: We trust that those in charge of making such a decision will realize that we have already sacrificed enough and that our family must not be asked to bear such an impossible burden.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Michelle's family has kept a Web site online since the sisters were called to active duty. That site includes letters home from Michelle. One of them reveals her thoughts about being ambushed. She wrote to her dad on Father's Day: "We had a briefing telling us to prepare ourselves as best as possible for what lies ahead. I guess every convoy that's gone up north so far has taken fire or been ambushed. The question of whether we will or not is not even really a question, more like a guess as to when."
Then there is this, written after she escorted one of her commanders to an Iraqi orphanage run by Catholic nuns: "Being a Christian here, denominations and interpretations melt away and it just becomes as simple as, God loves us so we can rejoice. It was when I was holding one of those children when I realized I have so much to be thankful for."
O'BRIEN: The surge in the Iraqi insurgents is putting the brakes on the Pentagon's plan to draw down U.S. troop strength ahead of the scheduled return of Iraqi sovereignty. CNN's Barbara Starr has more on that from the Pentagon.
Lots to talk about there, Hello, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Miles.
General John Abizaid speaking with Pentagon reporters earlier today brought up a number of subjects. Now on the issue of troops. General Abizaid says he has now made a request for two combat mobile brigades. That's something over 10,000 troops that he says he needs to deal with the insurgency.
Now, the most likely way that requirement will be fulfilled is for a number of troops to stay in place in Iraq, most likely from the 1st Armored Division. They were scheduled to come home this spring. Now, it looks like they will stay for a while, while the Pentagon works on a plan to try and get them replacements as quickly as possible.
But General Abizaid also making a number of very candid remarks about the performance of Iraqi security forces during the recent upsurge in violence, the recent insurgency.
Here's a bit of what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, COMBATANT COMMANDER, CENTRAL COMMAND: Some of them did very well and some of them did not. And in the south the number of units both in the police force and also in the ICDC did not stand up to the intimidators of the forces of Sadr's militia, and that was a great disappointment to us.
In other places such as in and around Fallujah, we've had good, strong performances by several units and were satisfied with that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: But, overall, General Abizaid expressing some very candid disappointment in the performance of Iraqi security forces during these recent days, Miles.
Now he says they will go back, take another look, see what additional equipment and training might be needed and, he said, appoint some very strong leaders for those Iraqi security forces. He said one of the failures appears to be lack of chain of command, getting orders down to those Iraqi troops, getting them out into the field -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Barbara, explain that for me a little bit, when they say, lack of chain of command, is that because of just the functional capabilities there or is it simply that these people, the farther you get down the chain, the more intimidated they might be by insurgents?
STARR: Well, it may well be a combination of all of that. That's part of what they're trying to figure out right now. What General Abizaid said is he said, look for us to put, the Central Command, the coalition to put some senior former Iraqi military officials back into that chain of command, people who understand the troops, understand the culture and can exercise some authority and control.
They certainly are going to work very closely to vet those people understand that they are not former regime loyalists, not former Ba'athists. But clearly one of the lessons that they've seen over the last few days is that they simply have a failure, if you will, of strong leadership, issuing orders, getting them out to those troops in the field.
What we know, of course, here, there are two very clear examples. An Iraqi army battalion failed to go out to Fallujah and join the Marines for the fight. They did try and move, by all accounts. They came into some contact with insurgent forces and basically, they just apparently couldn't hold it together. They even had U.S. Special Forces with them as advisers, but it just didn't work.
Now, as far as Iraqi police go, not the army, Iraqi police, General Abizaid said in the south there have been some examples of them actually defecting from the police force and possibly joining the insurgents. They have some tape, some video pictures of that and that causes them some concern.
Are the numbers huge? No. But they can't have the kind of confidence and assurance they want that Iraqi security forces can really take over. General Abizaid said the bottom line is the solution for Iraq is to have those Iraqi security forces in place with some level of confidence in the months ahead.
O'BRIEN: Easier said than done, obviously. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Thanks much -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, frightening tactics in Iraq. Civilians taken hostage. What impact will this have on getting international help to get the war-torn country back on track.
The 9/11 Commission ready to spring into action, this time America's top law enforcers are in the hot seat..
Bullets and bunnies. Kids uncover more than just eggs at an Easter hunt. Well, that one is a LIVE FROM... basket a little later.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Hostages appear to be the newest currency in the war on Iraq. How should the coalition respondent to this tactic and will more troops inevitably be sent to help neutralize the insurgents? And what about General John Abizaid's comments about Iraqi defense forces and the police? From Washington, retired Lieutenant General Dan Christman is here to offer some analysis for us.
General Christman, good to see you again, sir.
LT. GEN. DANIEL CHRISTMAN, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Thank you, Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, first of all, General Abizaid's statements were very blunt, very candid. Basically he is very disappointed in the Iraqi defense forces and the police and their chain of command. Read between the lines in this one and try to give us a sense of what is really going on there.
CHRISTMAN: One of the reasons why I think, Miles, General Abizaid has such credibility is that he is so candid. He will tell it like it is. And I think what he emphasized in his presentations, his press conference, was a failure of leadership.
Abizaid is a wonderful military trainer, besides being a great strategist. He was in charge of military training at West Point. So he knows what it takes to make an effective unit. The failure of those units was directly attributable to the failure of small unit leadership.
And what he is trying to do now, he and General Sanchez, is to develop a kind of vetting process to make sure that senior members of the Iraqi military who can be trusted are put into positions of responsibility, and further, Miles, that there is some clarity of mission.
My take on this too is that the military unit that, for example, didn't go into Fallujah was unsure of what its mission was to perhaps defend against external threats and not to be responsible for the internal insurgency. So those kinds of things, in a very large lessons-learned process will be part of this mission going forward.
O'BRIEN: Of course, this is where the boot meets the concrete, where the rubber meets the road, all those cliches you like. And if there is any pressure that is brought to bear on people and their families by the insurgents, it would be at the lowest level, wouldn't it?
CHRISTMAN: No, it would be, Miles. But still, I come back to the point about how important leadership is. Leadership is so essential for the inspiration, for the cohesiveness of units, and notwithstanding some of the concerns about pressure on the subordinates, if you get an inspirational leader who can inspire trust and confidence, that's what General Abizaid and General Sanchez want to achieve, to bring that particular group in the chain of command, from the most junior level up to the top, to the defense ministry, to get a group there that can be inspirational and in which the soldiers have confidence. That's the way ahead.
O'BRIEN: All right, that certainly doesn't happen overnight. Let's talk about a development which seemed to happen overnight, which is suddenly hostage-taking appears to be a tactic which is enjoying some support there. Militarily, it probably doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things, but when you start to talk about politics and economics, why don't you share with us a personal trip that you were involved in and how the hostage-taking development has changed all of that.
CHRISTMAN: It's huge. And you're exactly right, Miles. I think the military significance is quite marginal. For sure, the military has to attend to this and they'll be doing special operations missions, some intelligence aspects to try to recover the hostages. But the real tragedy here, Miles, going forward, is that investment in Iraq almost for sure will be constrained.
I met the Iraqis at the donor conference in Madrid last October, was head of a U.S. investment delegation that was prepared to go into Iraq. You can imagine now the signal, the tone that is sent as a result of hostage-taking here in the international investment community.
Businesses will not go in if they're afraid that their employees will be subjected to the kinds of harassment and capture that we've seen. That's the real tragedy, because the future of Iraq rests upon this triad of military success, a political solution and economic investment. And that's what the hostages are now threatening.
O'BRIEN: It's interesting to see this sort of happen on two fronts. You see Shia discontent and Sunni discontent, kind of concurrently, perhaps coincidentally. The Kurds, interestingly enough, remain quite, relatively speaking, happy with their lot in the situation. I guess what that says is, we know who's happy and unhappy with what might happen on June 30.
CHRISTMAN: Well, that's right. It does provide a prediction here going forward, not only in the Kurdish area, but in the British are in the deep south, as well, around Basra. Those have been reasonably well contained, reasonable stability there.
But I come back to this central point in terms of what happens after 1-July, and that is, all of this military success, Miles, has got to be placed inside of a much larger political context. That's the lesson from Vietnam. There are many statements that are simply over the top on the Vietnam analogy, but the one lesson that is so central is that all of these ethnic groups have got to buy in to a long-term political solution. That's the future for Iraq, and at this point, it's very uncertain.
O'BRIEN: Well, what do you say, when you say uncertain, when you go back and look at the origins of what we know as modern-day Iraq, arbitrary lines drawn on the border by the British after World War I, what do you say to those who say, there is no country to create there, they have three factions that are never going to get along?
CHRISTMAN: Well, certainly, our strategy here is to ensure that each member of this ethnic grouping in Iraq understands that they have a stake in a unified Iraq. Iraq cannot exist as a series of three or four separate entities. The resource mix doesn't work. The entire position in the international community doesn't work. This has to be a country as a whole.
And what is sought here in the constitution, Miles, is some sort of Madisonian checks and balances. In my judgment, that was the real instigator with respect to the Shia unrest. They were uncomfortable at this crucial point in their history that they were going to be able to attain the adequate voice going forward. And there's nothing like a statement by al-Sadr to make certain that the Shia are understood and accommodated.
So this particular period, the two, three, four months in and around 30-June are so central to provide a cohesive political solution into which all the ethnic groups can buy. That's an enormous challenge.
O'BRIEN: I should say. Dan Christman, good insights, thank you for your time, appreciate it -- Kyra.
CHRISTMAN: Thank you, Miles.
PHILLIPS: Well, the biggest names in law enforcement will sit in front of the 9/11 Commission this week. Exhibit A, the August 6 Presidential Briefing issued just a few weeks before the attacks.
Details from Elaine Quijano in Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Bush maintains the information in the now-declassified August 6, 2001, PDB, or Presidential Daily Briefing wasn't detailed enough for the U.S. to prevent September 11.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There was not a time and place of an attack. And it was -- it said Osama bin Laden had designs on America. Well, I knew that. What I wanted to know was, is there anything specifically going to take place in America that we needed to react to?
QUIJANO: But critics, including a Democratic member of the September 11 Commission, say that PDB contained important pieces of the puzzle that should have been taken into context with the spike in intelligence chatter during the summer of 2001.
RICHARD BEN-VENISTE (D), 9/11 COMMISSION MEMBER: There was a lot of focus overseas, but the CIA author of this PDB, by stressing the fact that bin Laden was determined to strike in the United States, and was telling the president that we ought to look here, as well.
QUIJANO: This week the commission turns its attention to law enforcement and intelligence officials past and present. Among those scheduled to testify, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, as well as Attorney General John Ashcroft, who, a source tells CNN, is not believed to have received a copy of that August 6 PDB.
Ashcroft and others are expected face tough questions on whether the Justice Department made fighting terrorism a top priority and what specific steps the FBI took to investigate the terror threats that existed in the summer of 2001.
(on camera): The panel is expected to look not only at the FBI, but other agencies, and what one commissioner says were problems getting available information into the hands of those who could make a difference.
Elaine Quijano, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And CNN plans coverage of the commission hearings tomorrow and Wednesday, the first witness is scheduled to be former FBI Director Louis Freeh.
O'BRIEN: All right, a woman born in Saudi Arabia wants to do something no one else from her country has ever done, and that is hold elective office in the United States. She's our guest in just a few moments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSIE BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So when you're walking up to the 18th Green, you're about to take the biggest shot of your life, you had this grin on your face, why?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: The Masters champ reveals why he knew his destiny even before the amazing putt.
And a mind-blowing bet. A man puts his entire life savings on the line in Vegas. We're giving the wheel a spin just ahead on LIVE FROM..., stay with us. Feeling lucky? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Iraq and the crisis in the Middle East are front and center on the Texas prairie this hour. President Bush is hosting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at his Crawford ranch. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux has the latest from there -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, really, the highlight of this press conference is that the president said that he is holding a press conference tomorrow in the East Room, that he wants to answer questions more thoroughly. And that's because there are two areas here where the president, the administration has gotten a lot of tough questions over the past week.
The first thing, whether or not the administration knew about September 11, enough at least to prevent it. That concentrating, focusing on this August 6, 2001, memo that was given to the president one month before the September 11 attacks. As you know, that Presidential Daily Brief was declassified and made public this weekend.
Now, what the president was asked was when you got this memo here that talked about Osama bin Laden's desires, his intentions to attack in the United States, what did you do about it?
He was asked whether or not he contacted FBI Director Bob Mueller. The president answered Mueller was not the director at that time, and that is true. He had not yet been confirmed by the Senate, it was an acting director. But the president also went on to say that he was satisfied that the FBI was conducting investigations about these possible attacks.
One attack, in particular, a May 2001 -- in that memo. It stated that there were al Qaeda in the United States who wanted to carry out an attack using explosives. The president's bottom line here is that he followed up the questions coming to the president here -- what was it that you did after you received that memo?
The second topic of course deals with Iraq, the situation on the ground. And the reason why President Hosni Mubarak is here is that the two of them are talking about how the Middle East peace plan is linked to the situation in Iraq, inextricably linked for many Arab leaders.
The president today saying that if Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wanted to go ahead and withdraw from the area of Gaza, which he has talked about doing, this plan, that he thinks it would be a good idea, that it's not -- that it would be a part of the road map, that would be part of jump-starting the process of creating two independent states, one for Israelis and one for Palestinians.
But, Kyra, the president is going to get a lot of tough questions tomorrow on those two issues.
PHILLIPS: All right, Suzanne Malveaux, live from Crawford, Texas, thank you -- Miles. (MARKET UPDATE)
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