Is Iran Behind Attacks on U.S. Forces?
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: To our viewers, you're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Happening now, is North Korea ready to give up its nuclear weapons program? Is it the real deal? But what will the U.S. have to give in return? And is Iran behind a series of attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq? The military offering some chilling new evidence of high tech bombs and triggers. Why is that triggering doubts among critics here at home? America's newest presidential candidate under attack Down Under. What does Australia's leader have against Barack Obama? And The Dixie Chicks win at the Grammies in spite of or perhaps because of that old attack on President Bush. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Just a few month after it tested a nuclear weapon, has North Korea finally agreed to give up its nuclear weapons program? There's new word of a deal at high level talks underway in China. CNN's Arwa Damon, Barbara Starr, Michael Ware -- they're all standing by on the situation in Iraq. But let's go to China. CNN's John Vause joining us now live in Beijing. So here's the question, John, is there really a deal on nukes with North Korea?</s>JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, there are never any certainties when it comes to dealing with a leader like North Korea's Kim Jung Il. An indication of that, the chief U.S. negotiator, Christopher Hill, said he wouldn't go into the specifics of the agreement because, in his words, he didn't want to jinx it. He did, however, say that this was "an excellent, excellent draft." All six parties are now waiting to hear back from their respective governments before announcing just precisely that was agreed to here in the early hours of Tuesday morning -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: What do we know, if anything, about the specifics of this tentative deal, John?</s>VAUSE: Well, we have heard from a number of diplomats, it appears to be based on a one page document written by the Chinese. Stage one would see the North Koreans freeze plutonium production in return for energy assistance. Stage two, followed in a couple of months, would focus on nuclear disarmament. Now, one of the sticking points in all of this has been a demand by the North Koreans for a massive amount of energy assistance. That almost brought these talks to the edge of collapse. There was a consensus among the Americans, the South Koreans and the Japanese that if there was to be a breakthrough here, the North Koreans would have to scale back their demands -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: We'll stay on top of this story with you, John. John is in Beijing. Meanwhile, in Iraq today, there was a sickening slaughter of yet more innocents. A triple bombing in the Baghdad market causing hundreds of casualties. The blast echoed across Baghdad as Iraqi leaders paused to remember an event that may have triggered the sectarian warfare, at least the latest heavy round of it, last year's bombing of the Golden Dome Mosque in Samarra. CNN's Arwa Damon is in the Iraqi capital -- Arwa.</s>ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, today's tragic attacks another reminder of the countless challenges that lie ahead, coming on a day when the Iraqi government was commemorating another tragic moment in Iraq's history.</s>DAMON (voice-over): Thick, choking smoke; flames raging out of control after three car bombs ripped through the clothing and perfume sections at Baghdad's main wholesale marketplace. Firefighters battled the blaze for hours. Black smoke filling the capital's skyline. The bombings coming shortly after a roadside bomb detonated in another crowded commercial area of the city. The four bombs killed scores of Iraqis and wounded more than 170 in just 20 bloody minutes. The impact devastating. Further paralyzing a society already living in fear. Imagine a trip to the marketplace or heading out to work and then sheer carnage. "I have a shop at Kinai Building (ph), the shop owner says, "a few meters away from the explosions. We felt the shock wave." Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki also heard the blasts. Exactly at the moment he was calling for unity during a speech on the anniversary of the bombing of the Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, one year ago, on the Islamic lunar calendar, a grim event that catapulted Iraq's sectarian violence to new levels. A second explosion heard, this time as Maliki was expressing his optimism about the new Baghdad security plan.</s>DAMON: On the streets of Baghdad, little optimism about this new plan. Its impact, if any, has yet to be felt. Hours after today's bombings, you could still see the thick plume of black smoke from the scene of the attack -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Arwa, thank you. And as Arwa just told us, the sectarian slaughter erupted after a shattering event 16 miles north of Baghdad, last year's bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, one of the holiest sites for Shiite Muslims. The attack came early in the morning on February 22nd. Insurgents dressed as police commandos enter the mosque, seize the guards and planted a pair of powerful bombs. The explosions collapsed the Golden Dome and left the mosque in ruins. The revenge killings began almost immediately, within a day scores -- scores of people were dead. Are high tech weapons from Tehran taking a toll among American troops in Iraq? The U.S. military has laid out what would seem to be some damning evidence of Iranian involvement. Iran strongly denying the allegations, even as critics here in the U.S. worry what the Bush administration might plan to do with that evidence. Let's go live to our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr. what are you picking up -- Barbara?</s>BARBARA STARR, PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the U.S. military laid out all of this intelligence at a briefing for reporters over the weekend.</s>STARR (voice-over): In picture after picture, the U.S. says these seized weapons are evidence Iran is shipping arms into Iraq, including explosively formed penetrators, EFPs, Iranian made bombs that shred the heaviest U.S. armor.</s>ROBERT GATES, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Iran is very much involved in providing either the technology or the weapons themselves for these explosively formed penetrators. Now, they don't represent a big percentage of the IED attacks, but they're extremely lethal.</s>STARR: EFPs have already killing more than 170 coalition forces. There is a chilling new development -- look closely. This fake rock contains one of the armor penetrating Iranian bombs. But it's detonated by a special passive trigger. It simply detects the engine heat from a passing vehicle, or even a person walking by, and explodes. U.S. troops have no easy way to detect the bomb and no defense. Also seized in raids, .81 millimeter mortars with serial numbers indicating they are from Iran, missiles and attack rounds. Five Iranians remain in U.S. custody. There is political skepticism that all of this is just a drumbeat for war with Iran, even from those who readily acknowledge the threat to U.S. troops.</s>SEN. CHRIS DODD (D), CONNECTICUT: I think there is a problem there. I don't doubt that at all. But there are far better ways to address this, in my view, than by invading Iran.</s>STARR: Wolf, no one, especially no one here at the Pentagon, is forgetting the last round of slam dunk intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the war. And there's a lot of skepticism about all of this. So the military is proceeding very cautiously with this information -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: As they should. Barbara, do you have any new developments on those helicopters that have been going down over Iraq over the past few weeks?</s>STARR: Indeed, Wolf. What we can tell everyone tonight is the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. military increasingly now moving to the conclusion that a CH-46 Marine helicopter brought down last week was, in fact, most likely brought down by hostile fire. It is not a conclusion yet, but many sources we are talking to say that inside the Marine Corps, that is now the conclusion they're coming to. That would mean seven helicopters down in the last three weeks -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: That's a huge problem. All right, Barbara, thanks for that. Meanwhile, the U.S. military, as Barbara noted, laid out its evidence against Iran in convincing but careful fashion. And the question is what took so long? And joining us now from Baghdad, our correspondent, Michael Ware -- Michael, why now? Why is the U.S. military briefing reporters about this -- this Iranian connection to the war in Iraq right now, since you yourself have reported it's been going on for at least a year or two?</s>MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you listen to the military, they say it's for two reasons. One, in the last six to eight months of 2006, there was a massive upsurge in the number of attacks and casualties among coalition troops as a result of these explosive devices coming from Iran's Revolutionary Guard core. The other reason, they say, is that it's taken them time to develop the kind of evidence that the public expects, that will persuade the public. It then took even longer to declassify this information, protecting sources and methods. So that's the military's story. But none of this is happening in a vacuum. You see that there's a number of levels of competition between Washington and Tehran. One is in the ether, the environment of the U.N. Security Council, where they're wrangling over Iran's nuclear program. Here on the ground, it's being fought in blood and armor with bullets and bombs. This is very much a real rivalry.</s>BLITZER: And some would suggest, Michael, it sort of sets the stage, potentially, for another war, this one between the United States and Iran. Are there any indications you're seeing that that, potentially, is in the works?</s>WARE: Actually, Wolf, I see quite the opposite. Obviously, I'm reading a lot of speculation about that, that what the intention behind this briefing and the leaks of other information regarding Iran is really softening the ground in preparation for the next war or the last war of President Bush's administration. Quite frankly, Wolf, I know that this is not going to happen. Why? Because -- not just because the American public no longer has the stomach for it. Nor is there political will for it in Washington. Simply, the American war machine cannot cope with it. It's already straining. The men and machines are at breaking point fighting the wars that are currently underway.</s>BLITZER: Michael Ware reporting for us from Baghdad. Michael, thanks.</s>WARE: Thank you, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: And let's go to Jack Cafferty. He's in New York with us for The Cafferty File...</s>JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Comforting words from Michael Ware.</s>BLITZER: Yes.</s>CAFFERTY: I feel better. He says it's not going to happen.</s>BLITZER: He's a straight shooter, though.</s>CAFFERTY: Oh, absolutely.</s>BLITZER: He tells it like he sees it. He's -- he does what a real reporter should do, not just, you know, be a stenographer, but actually give us a sense of what he knows.</s>CAFFERTY: I'd be more inclined to believe anything he said as opposed to almost anyone else in this country, particularly in the administration. I mean he's -- he's -- he has sources in the country, he does his homework, he travels around over there. He knows what he's talking about. "The United States has overstepped its national borders in every way." That's a quote from Russian President Vladimir Putin. He came out with some highly critical comments of the U.S. over the weekend at the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy. Putin accused this country of provoking a nuclear arms race with the development of ballistic missile defenses and undermining international institutions. He called American military actions unilateral and illegitimate. Senator John McCain, who was also at the conference, called Putin's address "the most aggressive speech from a Russian leader since the end of the cold war." And the White House said it was surprised and disappointed with Putin's comments. An editorial in "USA Today" puts it this way: "For a moment this weekend, it might have seemed as though the cold war was back." And it goes on to suggest this: "Russia is resurgent, largely because it's flush with oil and gas money, it's paid off its debts, freed from the constraints of international financial organizations, it's now flexing atrophied muscles." So here's our question -- how much do Russian President Vladimir Putin's comments about America's global role matter? E-mail your thoughts to caffertyfile@cnn.com or go to cnn.com/caffertyfile -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: I saw this weekend in the newspaper supplement "Parade" magazine, he made the top 20 worst dictators of the world, Putin, number 20.</s>CAFFERTY: Yes.</s>BLITZER: He came in at number...</s>CAFFERTY: He's a real choir boy.</s>BLITZER: ... at number 20. All right, Jack, thanks for that.</s>CAFFERTY: OK.</s>BLITZER: Up ahead, he's the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. But is he now breaking with the president on the war in Iraq and possibly this tentative deal with North Korea? Coming up live, I'll speak with former Ambassador John Bolton. He's standing by to join us. Also, a war of words between Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Australia's prime minister over Iraq. We're going to have details of a growing trans-Pacific controversy. Plus, Democrats said they'd make Congress work a five day week. Are they making good on their promise? Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.