Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
FNC
September 11, 2008
Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRIT HUME: Chief White House correspondent Bret Baier is also in Iraq. He is traveling with Gen. David Petraeus as the commander of U.S. forces in the country takes a final look-around before heading home.
BRET BAIER: To watch Gen. David Petraeus work the crowds in Baghdad’s Shoja (ph) market –
GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS [Multi-National Force-Iraq Commander]: Assalam Alaikum.
BAIER: – you might think he was running for elective office here.
PETRAEUS: Iraq will always be in my heart.
BAIER: But he’s actually on his final tour of the country before handing over command in Iraq next week and taking on a new job as the head of Central Command.
[To Petraeus.] Do you have mixed feelings as you get ready to leave this place?
PETRAEUS: Of course, sure, absolutely. There’s a lot left to be done. You’d like to complete everything, but that’s not possible. It’s been very, very hard. There’s been nothing easy about this. You will recall that in the beginning we said it was hard, but not hopeless, and I think now it’s still hard, but it’s hopeful.
BAIER: As we walked with minimal security, no helicopters overhead, no flak jackets and no helmets, Petraeus said a lot has changed since the start of the surge.
PETRAEUS: The first month I returned, there were 42 car-bombs in Baghdad in a single month and they were devastating. They were truly horrific.
BAIER: Two of the deadliest car bombs detonated in this market February 12th, 2007, killing 175 people and injuring 150 more.
PETRAEUS: The new building was blown up, yeah. Yeah, the newish-looking building was the one that was blown up. It was really terrible.
BAIER: Petraeus says al Qaeda in Iraq, the group responsible for the biggest bombings, has been significantly degraded, but the general still calls Iraq the central front in the war on terror.
PETRAEUS: We think right now they’re still clinging to the idea that they could revive al Qaeda in Iraq.
BAIER: But the U.S. military in Baghdad has released details of intercepted communications that commanders said were made between al Qaeda number two man Ayman al-Zawahiri and the leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq in which the Iraq group is said to complain of being unable to raise money, get recruits, or receive support from the locals. No support for al Qaeda is something Petraeus says he hears in conversations every day, and numerous times in the Shoja market.
IRAQI MAN: You gave us freedom and we will give you our friendship. Congratulations.
PETRAEUS: Thank you very much.
IRAQI MAN: Thanks very much.
PETRAEUS: Thank you.
IRAQI MAN: Thank you.
PETRAEUS: Thank you very much.
IRAQI MAN: Peace with you.
PETRAEUS: Thank you.
You’ve heard that. Here it’s been spontaneous. It’s people that obviously I don’t know. We don’t know.
Assalam Alaikum.
BAIER: But is he worried that the progress here could somehow be affected by a wrong step in Washington?
[To Petraeus.] If someone came in and said, this isn’t working, how would you respond to that?
PETRAEUS: Well, that’s a question for – should that ever happen and in truth, I honestly doubt that that would happen.
BAIER: Gen. Petraeus believes results on the ground here will trump any talk in Washington or on the campaign trail. At the end of our tour of the market, we ran into an Iraqi traffic cop who said he wrote three tickets today – one for an expired tag and two for drivers not wearing seatbelts. That is exactly what Petraeus wants to see.
In Baghdad, with the commanding general, Bret Baier, Fox News.
September 11, 2008
Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRIT HUME: Chief White House correspondent Bret Baier is also in Iraq. He is traveling with Gen. David Petraeus as the commander of U.S. forces in the country takes a final look-around before heading home.
BRET BAIER: To watch Gen. David Petraeus work the crowds in Baghdad’s Shoja (ph) market –
GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS [Multi-National Force-Iraq Commander]: Assalam Alaikum.
BAIER: – you might think he was running for elective office here.
PETRAEUS: Iraq will always be in my heart.
BAIER: But he’s actually on his final tour of the country before handing over command in Iraq next week and taking on a new job as the head of Central Command.
[To Petraeus.] Do you have mixed feelings as you get ready to leave this place?
PETRAEUS: Of course, sure, absolutely. There’s a lot left to be done. You’d like to complete everything, but that’s not possible. It’s been very, very hard. There’s been nothing easy about this. You will recall that in the beginning we said it was hard, but not hopeless, and I think now it’s still hard, but it’s hopeful.
BAIER: As we walked with minimal security, no helicopters overhead, no flak jackets and no helmets, Petraeus said a lot has changed since the start of the surge.
PETRAEUS: The first month I returned, there were 42 car-bombs in Baghdad in a single month and they were devastating. They were truly horrific.
BAIER: Two of the deadliest car bombs detonated in this market February 12th, 2007, killing 175 people and injuring 150 more.
PETRAEUS: The new building was blown up, yeah. Yeah, the newish-looking building was the one that was blown up. It was really terrible.
BAIER: Petraeus says al Qaeda in Iraq, the group responsible for the biggest bombings, has been significantly degraded, but the general still calls Iraq the central front in the war on terror.
PETRAEUS: We think right now they’re still clinging to the idea that they could revive al Qaeda in Iraq.
BAIER: But the U.S. military in Baghdad has released details of intercepted communications that commanders said were made between al Qaeda number two man Ayman al-Zawahiri and the leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq in which the Iraq group is said to complain of being unable to raise money, get recruits, or receive support from the locals. No support for al Qaeda is something Petraeus says he hears in conversations every day, and numerous times in the Shoja market.
IRAQI MAN: You gave us freedom and we will give you our friendship. Congratulations.
PETRAEUS: Thank you very much.
IRAQI MAN: Thanks very much.
PETRAEUS: Thank you.
IRAQI MAN: Thank you.
PETRAEUS: Thank you very much.
IRAQI MAN: Peace with you.
PETRAEUS: Thank you.
You’ve heard that. Here it’s been spontaneous. It’s people that obviously I don’t know. We don’t know.
Assalam Alaikum.
BAIER: But is he worried that the progress here could somehow be affected by a wrong step in Washington?
[To Petraeus.] If someone came in and said, this isn’t working, how would you respond to that?
PETRAEUS: Well, that’s a question for – should that ever happen and in truth, I honestly doubt that that would happen.
BAIER: Gen. Petraeus believes results on the ground here will trump any talk in Washington or on the campaign trail. At the end of our tour of the market, we ran into an Iraqi traffic cop who said he wrote three tickets today – one for an expired tag and two for drivers not wearing seatbelts. That is exactly what Petraeus wants to see.
In Baghdad, with the commanding general, Bret Baier, Fox News.