[Velshi:] Breaking news again. I want to bring you an update of the situation in Silver Spring, Maryland. Let's go to an aerial picture now of the Discovery Building. This is a live picture, but we have delayed it for important reasons. The S.W.A.T. teams are on the site. They have a good visual of the man who they are looking for. He does apparently have at least one hostage. Here's what we know. He has one hostage. He also appears to have a suspicious device on his body. One man with at least one hostage and a suspicious device on his body at the Discovery Building in Silver Spring, Maryland. Explosive experts are on the scene or on the way to the scene to get a sense of what's going on. Police say they've got a very clear visual picture of him, according to corporal Dan Fritz of Montgomery County. That is the situation that we know now. The building has been evacuated. The area around it has been evacuated. They do not know of anything other than the one hostage that they appear to see, and they believe they see something on this man, a suspicious device is how they're describing it. So one man, one suspicious device, one hostage. That's what we know. These are the pictures of the Discovery Building in Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. We'll continue to bring you more on this as we find out more about it. All right. Time now for Globe Trekking. To Baghdad, after more than seven years of war, Vice President Biden today presided over ceremonies marking the official end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq. The cost? More than 4,400 American lives, an estimated 100,000 Iraqis killed, and hundreds of billions of dollars. A change of command ceremony played out in Baghdad today with the presentation of colors to the new commander of American forces in Iraq. Army General Lloyd Austin, he just got promoted to general, actually, this morning. Operation Iraqi Freedom comes to an end. A new mission of assistance Operation New Dawn has begun. On the minds of many, was the war worth it? Defense Secretary Robert Gates, also in Baghdad, put it this way, history will judge. He said the problem was the reason we, quote, "justified going to war turned out not to be valid." He was referring to the fact that no weapons of mass destruction have ever been found. But both Gates and Biden had nothing but praise for American servicemen and women.
[Joe Biden, Vice President Of The United States:] This change of mission, to state the obvious, would never have been possible without the resolve and tremendous sacrifice and competence of our military. The finest if of our Iraqi friends will forgive us the finest fighting force in the world, and I would argue, the finest fighting force that ever has existed.
[Velshi:] Also presiding over the change of command ceremonies, the Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen. All three are acutely aware that the roots of this war are deep in history. Here now is a quick look at how we got to this point. What we know now is Iraq used to be called Mesopotamia. It was governed by the Turkish-based Ottoman Empire. But after being defeated in World War I, the Ottoman Empire collapsed and it was carved up by the victorious British and French; Britain got the land of Mesopotamia, which includes present-day Iraq. Forward to the 1920s now, an estimated 9,000 Iraqis were killed in uprisings against the British occupation. Britain set up a government in Mesopotamia and it renamed the country Iraq. In the 1930s, Iraq became an independent nation, Baghdad remained it's capital. In the '40s after the Second World War, Iraq became a founding member of the Arab League and the United Nations. But here's where it gets interesting, in the 1950s, King Faisal is killed in a coup led by Abd al-Karim Qasim. But within months, militants of the Ba'ath Party, including a young Saddam Hussein, try to assassinate Qasim. The assassination attempt fails and most of the attackers are killed, but Saddam Hussein survives and is flees Iraq. In the 1960s, Qasim is finally overthrown and executed. The Ba'ath Party assumes control of the government; Saddam Hussein returns to Iraq. But the new government doesn't last long. It is overthrown, Saddam Hussein is imprisoned, but he escapes and in exile becomes an influential figure in the Ba'ath Party. When the party recaptures power in 1968, Saddam Hussein becomes the vice president. In the 1970s, Saddam Hussein remains vice president, but he's the real power behind the government. When President Ahmed Hassan al- Baker finally steps down in 1979, Saddam Hussein replaces him and deals ruthlessly with his rivals. In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein orders an air attack against Iran, and that began eight years of war against the Islamic republic. On several occasions, Iraq is accused of using mustard gas and other chemical weapons against Iran. The war ends in a stalemate with nearly 2 million people killed, but Saddam's goal of regional supremacy is not dead. The 1990s, August 1990 to be specific, Iraq invades Kuwait. After months of negotiations fail, Operation Desert Storm begins, a multinational coalition led by the United States. Iraqi forces are driven back, Saddam Hussein comes close to being overthrown by revolts in the south and the north of the country. Iraq is forced to allow U.N. inspections of its weapons program. When Saddam Hussein obstructs inspections, Britain and the United States launch air strikes against weapons facilities in Iraq. After the 911 attacks, President George W. Bush declares that Iraq, Iran and North Korea form an "Axis of Evil." Iraq unconditionally agrees to the return of the United Nations inspectors and submits a 12,0000-page declaration of former weapons programs and civilian industries with military applications to the U.N. But the U.N. is not satisfied. So in early 2003, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell makes the case to the U.N. that Saddam Hussein still harbors weapons of mass destruction. President Bush issues an ultimatum to the Iraqi leader and his family, leave Iraq or face military action. Saddam Hussein refuses, and Operation Iraqi Freedom is launched. Coalition forces take Baghdad, a large statue of Saddam Hussein you'll remember this is toppled. Months later, Saddam Hussein is captured in a spider hole in Tikrit; he's arrested. In 2004, the U.S.-backed Iraqi Government Council sign an interim constitution. It lays the groundwork for future elections, a permanent constitution and eventually a return to self-rule. Millions of Iraqis cast ballots in the nation's first free election in half a century in 2005, but the vote is widely boycotted by the minority Sunnis; a parliament is chosen. In 2006, Saddam Hussein is found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. In 2007, as the insurgency led by al Qaeda in Iraq grows, President Bush orders a troop surge, eventually increasing U.S. troop levels to more than 150,000. Along with moves to turn Sunnis against al Qaeda, the surge helps reduce the violence. In 2008, the Iraqi Presidential Council approves a security agreement that paves the way for the U.S. to withdraw completely from Iraq by 2011. President Barack Obama, in 2009, announces an actual date for the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq. He names August 31st, 2010. The last U.S. combat brigade leaves Iraq. Fewer than 50,000 troops now remain in the country. All right, I want to bring you up to speed on the situation at the Discovery Building in Silver Spring, Maryland. I don't know if we've still got a picture of this I can show you. I've just received an e-mail sent to workers in that building at Discovery Channel. There is a that's a picture of the building, it's actually on a delay. We the information we have right now is that the that the police have a visual of a man in there who has a possibly a hostage and may have a suspicious device strapped to his body. They have brought in explosive experts and they are examining the situation. We will bring you up to speed with what we have as soon as we've got it. I'm going to take a quick break. We'll be back on the other side.