Hanging Investigation; More Troops?; What's the Plan?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: ... in Iraq, especially the Sunni dominated Anbar Province. For them, the execution was a slap in the face, something the Shia dominated government now has to deal with. An investigation is underway into who taped the hanging and who leaked it to the media. So too is the spin. With that, here's CNN's Ryan Chilcote.</s>RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iraq's government says it has detained the guard who captured these images of Saddam's last moments, and these sounds of Shiites taunting Saddam. But a prosecutor who was in the execution chamber has pointed the finger at two government officials, saying, "I saw with my own eyes two officials filming the execution. Maybe a guard also filmed it secretly, but I did not see that." Iraq's national security advisor was in the room. He denies allegations that he or any other government official shot the video. And he denies the way Saddam, a Sunni, was treated by the Shiites was unfair.</s>MOWAFFAK AL-RUBAI, IRAQI NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: To be quite honest with you, in normal circumstances, in any execution case, you will -- you call for the family of the victims to come and witness the execution. And they can yell and shout and curse and all sorts of things.</s>CHILCOTE: The U.S. government had urged the Iraqis not to execute Saddam so quickly, fearing doing so as Iraq's Sunni Arabs prepare to celebrate the most important religious holiday of the year would inflame sectarian conflict.</s>TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It was the Iraqi government itself that was responsible for the timing.</s>CHILCOTE: The U.S. military spokesman says the U.S. would have handled it differently; but once they handed Saddam over to the Iraqis, they lost control.</s>MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCE- IRAQ: And we had absolutely nothing to do with any of the procedures or any of the control mechanisms or anything from that point forward.</s>CHILCOTE: Whatever comes out of the Iraqi government investigation may not matter much to Sunnis outraged by the Shiite slogans. There is no word the government plans on investigating that or punishing anyone for it. Even before the cell phone video emerged, many Sunnis distrusted their Shiite-dominated government. Now, many have taken to the streets, blaming the Iraqi government, the U.S. and Britain.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We are denouncing this criminal act of this junior Bush and criminal Blair.</s>CHILCOTE: Here, angry Sunnis march right through one of Iraq's most prominent Shiite mosques in Samara, vowing revenge. That's the same mosque that Sunni extremists bombed last February, sparking the sectarian killing that has brought Iraq to the point of civil war.</s>COOPER: Well, the Saddam's two co-defendants were also sentenced to death, Ryan. How is this going to affect their execution?</s>CHILCOTE (on camera): Well, I think it's going to complicate those executions. As you say, those two co-defendants, including Saddam's half brother, have to be executed according to Iraqi law by the end of January. The Iraqi government -- there were reports -- was suggesting that that execution could take place today. The Iraqi government is now saying that they want to do it soon, but they are not going to do it this week because of the holidays. They are saying that perhaps they will do it as early as next week. But one thing they are making very clear is they are going to handle those executions much more carefully than Saddam's execution was handled -- Anderson.</s>COOPER: Ryan, just looking at that video of the Sunni demonstration at the Shia mosque, we saw what looked like insurgents, guys with RPGs, their faces covered. Can they just freely walk around and show up? I mean, is there any law and order to stop something like that?</s>CHILCOTE: You know, they can walk freely in some places. There was no curfew in place in that city at that particular moment. But I think it speaks to the situation here in Iraq, which is there isn't always an Iraqi police presence, there isn't always an Iraqi army presence, and there is definitely not always a U.S. military presence on the streets, particularly in the Sunni heartland. The most ironic thing, I think, is that those people you see in those pictures are described as moderate Sunni Arabs, the moderate strand of the insurgency that could be won over if the Iraqi government wanted to. That is appearing particularly unlikely now as you see in that video. A lot of them appear to be moving more and more toward militancy, which is really going to complicate things for this government and its ability to reach some kind of national reconciliation and bring Sunni Arabs into the fold -- Anderson.</s>COOPER: And certainly, it seems this video has made it especially difficult for those so-called moderate Sunni Iraqis. Ryan, thanks for the reporting. More now from Dr. Rubaie, the national security adviser. He initially told me about two hours after the execution that it all went entirely by the book. We spoke again earlier today.</s>COOPER: You said that you were honestly proud of the way it was executed. It was done in a proper way in all international standards, Islamic standards and Iraqi standards, and you were proud of it. Again, talking about the execution, are you still proud of the way it was done?</s>DR. MOWAFFAK AL-ISTRABADI:-RUBAIE, IRAQI NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: To the best of my knowledge and belief, and after I left the scene and came back, I was proud of what had happened because we played by the book. When the video was released and the -- or leaked, I saw some untoward and wrongdoings and this has to be addressed and we need to do something about it.</s>COOPER: Why does all this matter? I talked about that with John Burns of the "New York Times."</s>COOPER: Was the Iraqi government intentionally trying to mislead people about what happened? I talked to Dr. Rubaie about two hours after the execution as a witness. He said he was proud of the way it went through, that there was no humiliation, no attempt to -- no disrespect to Saddam Hussein. It was all carried out by the letter of the law -- Islamic, Iraqi law, international law. Even the video that they released, obviously was heavily edited. There was no sound in it. Were they intentionally trying to mislead people?</s>JOHN BURNS, THE "NEW YORK TIMES": Do you know -- you're asking me to peer into the shadows here of the Iraqi mind. We are confronted with this all the time. Did they believe that in the face of a reality that was so obviously at odds with that? Or did they make it up? I am afraid to say that it's the first of those two things, that somehow or other, they had perceived it like that because they wanted to perceive it like that. We certainly saw a lot of that with Saddam Hussein. I mean, Saddam Hussein really believed that he was the benefactor of his people, really believed that the people loved him. So, you know, one of the victims here in the last 30 years has been a grasp of reality. That's what I would guess. Of course, they had their own expedient reasons in those first hours to present this thing as having been done in a dignified fashion. And now they are trying to reconstruct it in the face of that video, which, you know, is it seems to me is whistling against thunder. We know what that video meant. We know what happened there with an absolute certainty. We're being told today, for example, by Maliki's office that he really wasn't that dignified, that he might have been on tranquilizers. Well, he probably was. The American military, who escorted him to the execution block from the detention camp by helicopter, may well have given him some sort of medication and why not? But who can deny looking at that that there was this kind of astonishing reversal, that this mass murderer at the end stands there with some dignity in the face of those taunts and this abuse. And that the people, the executioners and the overwhelmingly Shiite witness presence, representing the principle victim community -- I mean, people who died in the hundreds of thousands, they come across as being the bullying thugs. It's astonishing.</s>COOPER: And does it have real repercussions on the ground in Iraq? I mean, we've seen Sunnis demonstrating in Jordan and elsewhere. There are those who say, well, look, well Sunnis have plenty of other reasons to be angry and this just adds to it. But does it go beyond that?</s>BURNS: I think really the way we have to see this -- because these protests will probably die down. The mosaics that they are building of Saddam, the 30-foot high mosaics, the Baath party emblems that are being repainted on the walls up in the Sunni</s>COOPER: John Burns, thank you very much for your reporting.</s>BURNS: It's a pleasure. Thank you, Anderson.</s>COOPER: Now the president's new plan for Iraq. He's expected to unveil it in a speech next week. CNN has learned that it will call for anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 more troops. "CBS News" is reporting that military commanders have told the president they're ready for a surge that would put about 7,500 troops into Baghdad, 1,500 into Anbar Province, 11,000 would remain on standby outside the country. More on that from CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Emerging from his first cabinet meeting of the year, President Bush didn't even mention Iraq, but once again framing it as part of the war on terror.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The need to protect ourselves from radicals and terrorists. The needs to win the war on terror.</s>MALVEAUX: Instead, he tried to sell his domestic agenda to the incoming Democratic-controlled Congress.</s>BUSH: And together we have important things to do.</s>MALVEAUX: The president's Rose Garden message and rare op-ed in Wednesday's "Wall Street Journal," calling for bipartisanship reflects Mr. Bush's new political reality, that he needs to change course to get things done. But even within his own party, the question remains, is he willing to change course in Iraq by possibly calling for more U.S. troops?</s>FRED KAGAN, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: I think it's very clear that the administration is very open to this possibility.</s>MALVEAUX: The conservative policy group, the American Enterprise Institute, has been lobbying the White House to order such a surge. Insiders say the debate over the prospect has been fierce, but that the president is likely to send anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 additional men and women.</s>KAGAN: I don't think this is a question simply of stubbornness and refusal to admit defeat. I think this is a question of the administration recognizing that defeat will have terrible consequences.</s>MALVEAUX: But some warn if the president does sign off on more troops, it could be devastating.</s>LAWRENCE KORB, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: We already surged back in the fall. And what happened is more Americans died when we surged. The Iraqis were supposed to send six battalions into Baghdad along with the extra 7,000 American troops. Only two showed up. So when people say, well you got to train them. Well, it's not a question of training, it's motivation.</s>MALVEAUX: But the bottom line White House officials insist is Mr. Bush has not signed off on anything yet.</s>SNOW: It's not done yet. The policy is not done. He is still talking to people.</s>MALVEAUX (on camera): Those familiar with the president's deliberations over Iraq say it is likely he'll wrap up consultations on Friday. Then Monday, White House officials will put out courtesy calls to members of Congress to brief them about the president's plan. And then likely Tuesday or Wednesday, the president will present that plan to the American people in a national address. Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.</s>COOPER: On Capitol Hill, a race against time. Up next, what the Democrats plan to accomplish in their first 100 legislative hours in power. Can they get along? How the new Congress and President Bush say they are going to try to work together. Also, a story for anyone who wants to lose weight in the new year. Why one man is saying that bad food could actually be the answer to your battle with the bulge. We'll explain when 360 continues.