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Iraq Reaction to Zarqawi's Death; Oval Office View

Aired June 08, 2006 - 13:59   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips from the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
Will Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death cripple al Qaeda? This hour we'll take you inside the insurgency in Iraq.

And what about Osama bin Laden? Will al-Zarqawi's death bring us one step closer to the terrorist mastermind?

Answer to these questions and more.

The second hour of LIVE FROM starts right now.

Surprise and jubilation in some quarters, sighs of relief in others. And al Qaeda vows to fight on.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's top man in Iraq, is dead. He was killed yesterday by a pair of 500-pound bombs delivered by two U.S. Air Force F-16s.

Our coverage this hour begins with CNN's John Vause in the Iraqi capital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): "Today Zarqawi was eliminated," said the Iraqi prime minister. At a room filled with reporters, mostly Iraqi, broke into cheers and applause.

There were celebrations on the streets of Baghdad as word spread that the man called "The Prince of al Qaeda" was dead.

"The announcement of the death of Zarqawi is good news for all Iraqis," said this man. "God willing, security will prevail."

But with the death of Iraq's most wanted came words of caution.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Zarqawi's death will not by itself end the violence in Iraq. But it is an important step in the right direction.

VAUSE: A bloody reminder of that violence came hours earlier. A roadside bomb left at least a dozen dead at a market in Baghdad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The lead aircraft is going to engage it here momentarily. VAUSE: And the U.S. military said this was the airstrike which killed Zarqawi and five others, two 500-pound precision bombs dropped by F-16s. According to the military, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was meeting at a safe house near these homes north of Baghdad. They, too, appear to have been destroyed by the strike. Iraqi police were the first on the scene.

U.S. intelligence had been tracking Zarqawi's spiritual adviser heading to a meeting of senior leaders.

CALDWELL: We had absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Zarqawi was in the house. There was 100 percent confirmation. We knew exactly who was there. We knew it was Zarqawi. And that was the deliberate target that we went to get.

VAUSE: Vital clues before the strike, according to Iraq's foreign minister, came from this video released by Zarqawi in April, as well as from one of his officials arrested last month by Jordanian authorities. His identity was confirmed by fingerprints, scars, and tattoos. A DNA test is also being done.

"This is a message to all those who are using violence and killing and destruction to stop and to think twice before it's too late," warned the Iraqi prime minister.

The self-proclaimed leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq was responsible for some of the most brutal attacks over the past three years, blowing up Shiite mosques, car bombings, kidnappings, and beheadings. His reach stretched beyond Iraq to his native Jordan, Morocco, and Turkey.

(on camera): And with his death, attention turns to who will take his place. U.S. and Iraqi officials already have a name, Abu al- Masari (ph). Another name, another target.

John Vause, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: President Bush has known for almost a day that U.S. troops likely got al-Zarqawi. He got confirmation last night, but he let Iraq's government announce it. And he tempered his own comments with caution.

CNN's Ed Henry at the White House now.

So how did the president actually find out about the dramatic development?

ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, a pretty dramatic moment in and of itself. A rather remarkable moment yesterday in the Roosevelt Room here at the White House.

The president was meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers who had just come back from various trips to Iraq. And Republican Ray LaHood of Illinois, all of a sudden said to the president, "You know what you guys need to do? You've got to get al-Zarqawi." And the president assured him the Special Forces were trying to do that. And just about that very moment, about 3:30 Eastern Time here at the White House, it turns out Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, kept getting calls on his cell phone from Iraq. So he decided to leave the room.

He called our ambassador in Iraq, who said that the U.S. government believed that they had, in fact, killed al-Zarqawi. It was not until about 4:35 p.m. that the president, vice president and others in the Oval Office were officially informed that they had gotten al-Zarqawi. And then it took a few more hours of the fingerprinting, et cetera.

It was not until about 9:20 p.m. when the president officially knew for sure. But rather remarkable that, in fact -- you know, that this had been raised by a Republican lawmaker to the president.

Then moving forward to this morning, the president had a 25- minute phone conversation with the Iraqi prime minister and then came out to the Rose Garden and had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have tough days ahead of us in Iraq that will require the continued patience of the American people. Yet, the developments of the last 24 hours give us renewed confidence in the final outcome of this struggle, the defeat of terrorism threats, and a more peaceful world for our children and grandchildren.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: So you can see the president walking a fine line there, a balancing act where he also noted that he believes it was a major blow to al Qaeda. But he wanted to temper that a bit, be cautious, not get ahead of himself, and not get people too overly optimistic about the potential for U.S. troops coming home quickly.

He wanted to be clear that we've seen many times before that there have been various achievements, milestones in Iraq, only to see days or weeks later some sort of a fallback. So the president wanted to walk that fine line there -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Now, Ed, I know you pretty well, and I also know how you chase a story. And my guess is you got some type of reaction out of the president.

HENRY: Well, I tried. I was in the Oval Office briefly earlier today, and I asked the president one question about whether or not he fell more optimistic now that he could catch Osama bin Laden. And the first time I asked it, the president was just looking straight ahead, and either he didn't hear it or he pretended he didn't hear it.

I asked it a second time. And the president shot me an interesting half smile, half scowl. And I think it's because he wants to, you know, focus on al-Zarqawi today. But I think a lot of people are jumping ahead and wondering, well, now that we've gotten the lead al Qaeda figure in Iraq, what about the top al Qaeda figure?

That's the person the president said he wanted to get dead or alive. He has since said he regrets some of the ways that he put that and other comments in the war on terror. But I think clearly a lot of people around the world wondering now, will bin Laden be next?

The president didn't want to answer it for today -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Oh, you'll get an answer at some point, I'm sure.

Ed Henry, thanks so much.

HENRY: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, President Bush calls the tracking and killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi a remarkable achievement. Another commander agrees. He had Zarqawi in his sights as well when he commanded Operation Iraqi Freedom's air war.

Admiral Timothy Keating heads the U.S. Northern Command and NORAD at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. He joins us live from D.C. for reflection and reaction.

Good to see you, Admiral.

ADM. TIMOTHY KEATING, NORTH AMERICAN AEROSPACE DEF. COMMAND: Good afternoon, Kyra. How are you?

PHILLIPS: No doubt this is a huge tactical success. I'm assuming that's what you're going to tell me.

KEATING: Oh, it's a big deal for us, Kyra, to be sure. The world's a safer place and the world's a more peaceful place with the departure of Zarqawi. We're much better off.

PHILLIPS: Now, let's just take our viewers back here. You commanded the air war for OIF. I'll never forget your speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, the get ready speech. What did you want to get across that day about al Qaeda, about what happened in Afghanistan, and also what was about to happen Iraq?

KEATING: It was -- it was a powerful moment, Kyra, as you remember. Thousands and thousands of young men and women who were thousands and thousands of miles away from home who were kind of in suspense for a long time there in the Arabian Gulf as we were looking to build up the requisite number of forces for the president to decide it was time to go into Iraq. And we got too look them in the eye that morning, and later on in the afternoon I was able to tell the president on a VTC (ph), just like we're doing now, that his soldiers and Marines were ready.

And the message we wanted to get across to those young men and women was what the work -- how important the work they were doing was, that the world had -- we had been attacked and, as you know, just yesterday we were able to go up to New York City and look Ground Zero at the World Trade Center. PHILLIPS: And I want to talk with you about that in a minute, because I know that made a big impact on you.

KEATING: Yes.

PHILLIPS: But as this war on terror started to go to another level, you knew your targets. When Osama bin Laden appointed Zarqawi to head Al Qaeda in Iraq, you knew that you had to know everything about this guy. And he definitely became a target for you.

What did you learn about him?

KEATING: He's a bad, bad man, Kyra. He was a bad, bad man.

He has the blood of thousands of innocent men, women and children on his hands. That's why I say we're a lot better off as he departs. But we -- our Special Operations Forces and the coalition forces did a magnificent job finding him, just as we're going to do with everybody else who has the same intentions and the same authority as Zarqawi does.

PHILLIPS: And...

KEATING: Did.

PHILLIPS: ... the strike fighter, the weapons system, I mean, once these pilots were briefed on this mission, they were -- they were able to respond within seconds, minutes, right?

KEATING: Sure. That's right. And that's the different kind of warfare that these young men and women in our airplanes and squadrons, Navy, Air Force, Marine, we have an entirely different suite of weapons at our disposal. And that's how you can see targets executed with near breathtaking precision as those young -- young folks did just last night. Much different kind of air warfare.

PHILLIPS: All right. And let's talk about that air warfare, because before the war started, especially when it moved into Iraq, you wanted me to know as a journalist, since I was over there, about these weapons systems, how they worked, how you wanted to prevent collateral damage.

I just want to show a little bit of that combat training mission you allowed me to go on to learn about those weapon weapons system and importance of hitting the target. Here's an exchange with my pilot about those systems.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS (voice over): Snow is practicing visual bombing, rolling in upside down on the enemy target and simulating dropping the ordnance perfectly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're well over 135 degrees. Pull down on top of him. Roll out. Probably set our whip (ph) up.

And pop. There would be the trickle right there.

PHILLIPS (on camera): And you got it in your sights, and then you dropped the ordnance?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. The big thing about keeping that finely honed edge of a combat aviator, it will reduce things like civilian casualties and missed hits, thing like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Admiral, tell me how this was carried out with Zarqawi. How was this precision weapons success, and what does this tell us about our capabilities on these strike fighters?

KEATING: As sophisticated and as exotic as it looks and is, Kyra, the fact is the young men and women out there are doing this every day in the skies over Iraq, Afghanistan, and they train to those same missions here in the United States. The equipment that we enjoy in the military today is second to none. It's exceeded only by the young men and women who are actually using the equipment.

This was -- it was a relatively normal mission, I guarantee you, for the kids that dropped the bombs.

PHILLIPS: And now you see the picture of Zarqawi dead. Tell me about the psychological effect that that's going to have on the insurgency.

KEATING: This fellow, Zarqawi, had a vast network, virtual and actual, of folks who were committed to his cause. His demise, his death, will undoubtedly cause serious fractures in that system. It will resonate throughout the world, it will get back to Osama bin Laden, and it tightens the noose around all of those who are coming after us in this global war on terror. It's a significant step for us.

PHILLIPS: I know that you monitor a lot of classified satellites and other types of capabilities. I know Osama bin Laden is someone you would like to see get captured. You think that is more of a reality now?

KEATING: It's a matter of time.

PHILLIPS: Admiral Timothy Keating, absolute pleasure to have you with us. Appreciate your time.

KEATING: Thanks, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, how wide is the actual sphere of influence once controlled by al-Zarqawi? And how big is the void that he leaves behind? I'm going to talk about that with our CNN investigative producer next.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: But I want to first congratulate certainly our American military for a job well done. You know, today our American troops looked evil in its face, and it's dead. This is a major victory for our troops and the Iraqi people, a victory for the war on terror, and certainly American families.

Al-Zarqawi was certainly a murder and a known beheader (ph) of innocent civilians, and while important, we know that this victory does not yet signal the end of our duty. But we must continue to find these victories until the war's won.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN MURTHA (D), PENNSYLVANIA: One thing for sure, this is significant. This is significant -- two aspects. One, is the fact that Zarqawi's killed, but also the fact that they appointed a defense minister and an interior minister.

There's no question we can't win this military. So it's a matter of time.

The Iraqis are getting better. I think the intelligence came from the Iraqis, as I understand it. Now, this is the early reports, and it came to the security forces, the Iraqis, and then passed on to the Americans. So this was a key element. Whether they could have done this themselves in this isolated area, I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Who has been captured? Who has been killed? Who is left in the ranks of al Qaeda?

Here's a CNN "Fact Check."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): March 2003, victory in the war on terror. Al Qaeda operative Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is captured in Pakistan. The purported planner of the 9/11 attacks remains in U.S. custody in an undisclosed location.

Other al Qaeda leaders captured to date include Yemeni national Ramzi bin al Shibh, taken alive in Pakistan in 2002, and Abu Zubaydah, a field commander and a key recruiter. He also was captured in Pakistan in 2002.

Shoe bomber Richard Reid and 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui both have been tried and sentenced to life in prison here in the U.S.

Those killed to date include Mohammed Atef, one of Osama bin Laden's most important lieutenants, and leading operative Amjad Farooqi, who died in a shootout in Pakistan in 2004. Among them, Suleiman Abu Ghaith, al Qaeda's chief spokesman, and Saef Al-Adel, al Qaeda's number three and chief military strategist.

The two most wanted, the elusive Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri and al Qaeda's chief ideologist and 9/11 mastermind, Osama bin Laden.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Now inside the insurgency. The death of al-Zarqawi leaves a void, but how big and who is going to fill it?

CNN Senior Producer Henry Schuster has been covering terrorism and terror organizations for more than a decade. He joins us now to talk a little bit more about it.

So, Zarqawi knew there were a lot of people after him. So, would he already have appointed the next person to fill his shoes if killed?

HENRY SCHUSTER, CNN SR. PRODUCER: Well, you know, we're not sure if he appointed someone, but there -- certainly someone signed a note on the Internet today, a man named Abdul al-Raham al-Iraqi (ph), which means that he's an Iraqi, unlike Zarqawi.

And this man made reference that he was the deputy commander of Al Qaeda in Iraq. And he also made reference to this alleged coalition. They call it the Shura, a leader of the Shura of the resistance. And this refers to another man, Abdul al-Rashid al- Baghdadi (ph), again, another -- again, another Iraqi.

So there are names out there, but none of these people have the sort of prominence that we've come to associate or the sort of notoriety that we've come to associate with al-Zarqawi.

PHILLIPS: So it's believed that he was in Iraq working certain Iraqis, picking his -- his top lieutenants. I mean, did he come in and just sort of pick anybody that would listen to him and follow him? Did he pick former Saddam Hussein military heads of certain units?

I mean, was he precise, or was it, OK, whoever believes in me, I'm going to train?

SCHUSTER: I think it was more, whoever believes in me. And Kyra, what has happened was that when Zarqawi first came to Iraq, the people that we heard about were mostly either foreigners or they were Kurds, people from the north, because that's where he had originally, even before Saddam Hussein was toppled from power, that's where he originally set up his camp.

But you'll remember -- I mean, you can remember countless stories. How many times have you stood up -- have you set up here, reported the U.S. has captured a key lawsuit lieu of Abu Musab al- Zarqawi?

PHILLIPS: Well, you always wonder, how key?

SCHUSTER: Right. Right. I mean, because there were so many of them. And I think what we've reached is the point where he went through so many -- especially the foreign fighters -- that he was using Iraqis. But, you know, Zarqawi was smart.

We talked to a tribal chieftain who had been basically displaced in Al Anbar Province by Zarqawi. And Zarqawi -- Zarqawi was from Jordan, and he was one -- in a tribe in Jordan. So he sort of knew how to play the game, he knew how to insinuate himself in there.

And this man said that Zarqawi was very popular amongst younger Iraqis. He had convinced some of them to start doing suicide bombing. He was a man of action. So there was a certain charisma and a certain attraction for young Iraqis, not just foreign fighters, with him.

PHILLIPS: And there's names out there of who would be next. Anybody that we know or that we've heard of? Or is it another one of those key lieutenants that we might not know a lot about?

SCHUSTER: Again, it was these names. And, you know, I'll confess, I've never heard of these guys.

PHILLIPS: OK.

SCHUSTER: So, you know, unfortunately, the proof is in the atrocity. You know, and this is the way Zarqawi himself came to prominence. He just climbed -- you know, he climbed up with all of these horrible, you know, suicide bombings and just these really brutal acts of terror.

PHILLIPS: Henry Schuster, thanks for you insight.

Well, as the U.S. military celebrates a victory in the war on terror, investigations are still under way to find out what happened in Haditha. And new photos could reveal more. Our Pentagon correspondent got to see them. His exclusive report straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, we're seeing a drop in oil prices after the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but unfortunately the losses are not confined to the energy market.

Susan Lisovicz live from the New York Stock Exchange with the latest installment on the stock market sell-off.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

PHILLIPS: More LIVE FROM after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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