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Original Source: LOU DOBBS TONIGHT
ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Tuesday, September 14. Here now for an hour of news, debate and opinion is Lou Dobbs.
LOU DOBBS, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening.
Tonight, what is the U.S. strategy in Iraq? Sixty Iraqis killed in two deadly attacks today. Three more American soldiers have been killed in combat. Former Pentagon adviser Michael Rubin says the United States is on the wrong course. He`s our guest.
Can our intelligence agencies tell whether a mushroom cloud over North Korea is a nuclear blast? What is the true state of America`s intelligence capabilities? Senate Intelligence Committee member Senator Dick Durbin is our guest.
In Russia, it may not be communism, but it`s certainly not democracy. Russian President Vladimir Putin is concentrating power in the Kremlin. He blames the war on terror. Tonight, two Russian experts join me to talk about what the future holds for Russia and its relationship with the United States.
Hurricane Ivan is charging towards the U.S. Gulf Coast. More than a million people in New Orleans are set to evacuate. We`ll be going to the National Hurricane Center for the very latest on Hurricane Ivan.
And in Exporting America tonight, the documentary "American Jobs," the broken promises of NAFTA and the assault on working American families.
The violence in Iraq is continuing to escalate. There is carnage throughout the country. The deadliest insurgent attack in Baghdad in weeks, a lethal drive-by shooting in Baquba, and three more American soldiers killed in combat. The attacks in Baghdad and Baquba killed 60 Iraqis. A group linked to the al Qaeda terrorist network claimed responsibility.
Walt Rodgers reports from Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ambulance sirens screamed as if enraged at the sight of a Baghdad car bombing. Here, the death toll grew all day approaching 50. More than 100 were wounded. The apparent target, a police station. Young Iraqi men bringing their photos to apply for a job on the force.
These Baghdad bombs are indiscriminate. Witness the sandals of the dead. Many shop owners spent this day cleaning human flesh from their store fronts. The explosion shredded lives and bodies of a people already made miserable by war. The U.S. Apache helicopter was the only explanation many Iraqis needed.
"This is an American rocket," he says, "holding a piece of pipe."
"Just before the explosion," this man assured us, "I spotted the Apache helicopter. It was a missile, not a car bomb."
An Arab Islamist Web site claimed responsibility, but, even if there were concrete supporting evidence of that, the trend in Iraq is to transfer anger and responsibility.
"It was the Americans and the work of the Jews," he said.
In hospital, however, an injured man who survived the blast said he couldn`t tell if it was a missile or a car bomb.
These young men had dreams of building a new Iraq as policemen. Few other jobs are available. Still, even the most charitable Iraqis still believe the Americans had an obligation to protect them and failed.
The American response?
MAJ. GEN. PETE CHIARELLI, U.S. ARMY: Well, we can`t protect all of Baghdad. We`re working very, very hard to do that.
RODGERS: So there is much breastfeeding in hospitals these days as areas beyond U.S. protection are increasingly targeted.
In Baquba, another 12 policemen were murdered in a drive-by shooting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RODGERS: And if there is now any doubt about the guerrillas having regained the initiative in Iraq, saboteurs today also blew up a major oil pipeline near Tikrit, temporarily at least disrupting electrical power to much of this country -- Lou.
DOBBS: Walt, do these latest attacks and the escalating violence over the past certainly two weeks mean that the U.S. strategy right now, taking the offensive against towns and cities controlled by insurgents -- does it suggest that that strategy is simply failing?
RODGERS: That`s a judgment I`d prefer not to make. I think the American strategy now, such as it is, is to try to stabilize this country and maintain stability, but recall most U.S. forces are enclosed on bases on -- in essentially fortresses in this country.
They`re not going out around the countryside unless there is a specific required need, as in Sadr City last week, that suburb of Baghdad, when Muqtada al Sadr`s army was in a state of rebellion, armed rebellion. Then there was no compunction but to send the U.S. forces in. The same several weeks earlier in Najaf when the Shiite rebel militias were also engaged in an uprising there.
But, basically, I think stabilization is the American strategy here, and there`s no real effort to conquer and particularly certain areas in the Sunni triangle where the policy basically seems containment -- surround the rebels, lock them down and not engage them in anything that would involve major casualties, major American casualties at least, if you don`t have to -- Lou.
DOBBS: Well, Walt, failing that judgment, let me ask you another question more directly, if I may. Is all of this escalating violence evidence of stability in Iraq?
RODGERS: Well, I think the facts speak for themselves. What you see is that the guerrillas have the -- the insurgents have the initiative to strike whenever they want. They can`t drive the Americans out. They can`t defeat the Americans in a pitched battle in the field. They`ve never defeated the Americans in anything larger than a platoon -- or smaller than a platoon engagement.
Having said that, there`s great instability here, and those insurgents can strike wherever they want and strike the at very institutions the United States is trying to build. For example, they can assassinate politicians, and they do. They can assassinate police chiefs, and they do. And, of course, what we see here -- they`re trying to kill off young police recruits.
So, again, the initiative is almost at will in the hands of the insurgents, and there doesn`t seem to be a lot -- as that one general said in the package we just ran, there isn`t a lot that the U.S. Army can do about totally controlling this country. There simply are not enough troops in here to do that. The Bush administration does not want to commit those troops and has not wanted to commit those troops for a year and a half.
DOBBS: Walt Rodgers -- thank you -- reporting live from Baghdad.
An astonishing statement today about the global war on terror by the man who`s been nominated to be the next CIA director. The nominee, Congressman Porter Goss, told the Senate committee that it will take longer than originally thought to rebuild the CIA`s clandestine service.
The previous CIA director, George Tenet, said the clandestine service will not be strong enough to fight the global war against radical Islamic terror for five years. I`ll be joined later by a leading member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Dick Durbin, to discuss the capabilities of American intelligence.
The September 11 commission said much tougher border controls are necessary to help protect this country from radical Islamist terrorism, but critics today said the federal government is failing to introduce reform fast enough, and that delay is putting the lives of Americans at risk.
Lisa Sylvester reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Terrorist suspect Zacarias Moussaoui and Richard Reid entered the United States without...
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