Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
CNN
April 30, 2008
Lou Dobbs Tonight (CNN), 7:00 PM
LOU DOBBS: The number of our troops being killed in Iraq has risen to the highest monthly level since the height of the surge last September. U.S. and Iraqi forces have been involved in heavy fighting with anti- American gunmen in both Baghdad and Basra. The United States is blaming Iran for many of our casualties.
Jamie McIntyre has our report from the Pentagon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: As U.S. deaths in Iraq hit a seven-month high the Pentagon is arguing it doesn't mean the success of the surge is fading.
LT. GEN. JOHN SATTLER, JOINT STAFF PLANS DIRECTOR: There is sorrow (ph) and we are concerned, but I would not say that that's an indication that there's any shift on the ground inside of Iraq.
MCINTYRE: One reason for the increase in American casualties is the new Iraqi offensive both in Sadr City and Basra, operations that have to be prompted up with U.S combat power. But another factor, charges the Pentagon, is the continued flow of Iranian arms and expertise to Shia militias battling U.S. and Iraqi government forces, something Iran promised to curtail. With fresh evidence that's not happening, the U.S. is pinning its hopes on Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to confront the Iranians who profess to support him.
LT. GEN. CARTER HAM, JOINT STAFF OPERATIONS DIRECTOR: I think it now is a matter for the government of Iraq.
MCINTYRE (TO HAM): As Defense Secretary Gates put it very pointedly recently, Iran is killing Americans in Iraq and you're saying that the response is to rely on the Iraqi government to pressure Iran?
HAM: The best way is to modify Iran's behavior is not through military means, it is through other means, not through us.
MCINTYRE: The U.S. continues to send mixed signals to Iran on the one hand arranging for two aircraft carriers to be in the Persian Gulf at the same time this week, but on the other hand, pulling the second carrier out after less than 24 hours and then denying there is any stepped-up planning for an attack.
SATTLER: There's been no order, a specific order to plan in any particular area of the world. But I want to make it clear to everyone that we do plan, we challenge those plans, we challenge the assumption of those plans ongoing. (END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: Now General Sattler, who is the top Pentagon planner, did hint there might be covert action underway to get Iraq to back off, but said he couldn't talk about what operations he said are ongoing or might be ongoing -- Lou.
DOBBS: Wow. Jamie, let's -- to be as clear as we can be here. When you asked those generals how they will stop Iran from killing our troops, they couldn't give you a straight answer. Is that correct?
MCINTYRE: Well you know Lou how when I'm on the show with you and I do my report and then you always ask this question, gets right to the heart of the matter, so I actually said to the general, I said look, let me ask you the same question Lou Dobbs asked me the other night, what are you going to do about this? And that's when I got the answer about -- first of all, they kind of looked at each other, and then I got the answer about how it's really an Iraqi problem and not something the U.S. military can do anything about.
And that's when I expressed a little surprise. But again, the reality here is that the U.S. doesn't seem to have any good options to stop Iran and they're putting their hopes in al-Maliki, except for, as I said, that little bit of a hint from General Sattler that maybe there's something else going on that we don't know about, but they're not telling us.
DOBBS: OK. Well, Jamie thank you for what you are telling us, as always from the Pentagon. We appreciate it. Jamie McIntyre.
April 30, 2008
Lou Dobbs Tonight (CNN), 7:00 PM
LOU DOBBS: The number of our troops being killed in Iraq has risen to the highest monthly level since the height of the surge last September. U.S. and Iraqi forces have been involved in heavy fighting with anti- American gunmen in both Baghdad and Basra. The United States is blaming Iran for many of our casualties.
Jamie McIntyre has our report from the Pentagon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: As U.S. deaths in Iraq hit a seven-month high the Pentagon is arguing it doesn't mean the success of the surge is fading.
LT. GEN. JOHN SATTLER, JOINT STAFF PLANS DIRECTOR: There is sorrow (ph) and we are concerned, but I would not say that that's an indication that there's any shift on the ground inside of Iraq.
MCINTYRE: One reason for the increase in American casualties is the new Iraqi offensive both in Sadr City and Basra, operations that have to be prompted up with U.S combat power. But another factor, charges the Pentagon, is the continued flow of Iranian arms and expertise to Shia militias battling U.S. and Iraqi government forces, something Iran promised to curtail. With fresh evidence that's not happening, the U.S. is pinning its hopes on Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to confront the Iranians who profess to support him.
LT. GEN. CARTER HAM, JOINT STAFF OPERATIONS DIRECTOR: I think it now is a matter for the government of Iraq.
MCINTYRE (TO HAM): As Defense Secretary Gates put it very pointedly recently, Iran is killing Americans in Iraq and you're saying that the response is to rely on the Iraqi government to pressure Iran?
HAM: The best way is to modify Iran's behavior is not through military means, it is through other means, not through us.
MCINTYRE: The U.S. continues to send mixed signals to Iran on the one hand arranging for two aircraft carriers to be in the Persian Gulf at the same time this week, but on the other hand, pulling the second carrier out after less than 24 hours and then denying there is any stepped-up planning for an attack.
SATTLER: There's been no order, a specific order to plan in any particular area of the world. But I want to make it clear to everyone that we do plan, we challenge those plans, we challenge the assumption of those plans ongoing. (END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: Now General Sattler, who is the top Pentagon planner, did hint there might be covert action underway to get Iraq to back off, but said he couldn't talk about what operations he said are ongoing or might be ongoing -- Lou.
DOBBS: Wow. Jamie, let's -- to be as clear as we can be here. When you asked those generals how they will stop Iran from killing our troops, they couldn't give you a straight answer. Is that correct?
MCINTYRE: Well you know Lou how when I'm on the show with you and I do my report and then you always ask this question, gets right to the heart of the matter, so I actually said to the general, I said look, let me ask you the same question Lou Dobbs asked me the other night, what are you going to do about this? And that's when I got the answer about -- first of all, they kind of looked at each other, and then I got the answer about how it's really an Iraqi problem and not something the U.S. military can do anything about.
And that's when I expressed a little surprise. But again, the reality here is that the U.S. doesn't seem to have any good options to stop Iran and they're putting their hopes in al-Maliki, except for, as I said, that little bit of a hint from General Sattler that maybe there's something else going on that we don't know about, but they're not telling us.
DOBBS: OK. Well, Jamie thank you for what you are telling us, as always from the Pentagon. We appreciate it. Jamie McIntyre.