Pentagon Increases Troops in Iraq
LOU DOBBS, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, the United States is sending more soldiers to Iraq. The additional American force is needed to secure Iraq for its first election. We'll have a report from the Pentagon. The Ukraine Parliament today threw out Prime Minister Yanukovych's government. The opposition is cheering. We'll report from the Ukraine on this building political crisis. Rising calls for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to resign in the oil-for-food scandal. Senator Norm Coleman says the evidence is overwhelming.</s>SEN. NORM COLEMAN (R), MINNESOTA: The bottom line is one man was in charge, and when we get to the bottom of this, he's got to step back.</s>DOBBS: Senator Coleman is our guest tonight. Arizona's Proposition 200 supported by a large majority of Arizona voters. A federal judge in Arizona has blocked the initiative from becoming law. We'll have a special report on whether the will of the people is being frustrated in this important border security reform. Americans are crossing the Mexican border in droves to buy cheap prescription drugs with no guarantee they're the real thing. We'll have a special report on our "Overmedicated Nation," and a debate on whether the Food and Drug Administration is even worth reforming.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT for Wednesday December 1. Here now for an hour of news, debate and opinion is Lou Dobbs.</s>DOBBS: Good evening. Tonight, the Pentagon is sending 1,500 new troops to Iraq, extending the tours of thousands more already there. The additional force will bring our troop strength in Iraq to 150,000. That's the highest level since the invasion began more than a year and a half ago. Jamie McIntyre reports from the Pentagon.</s>JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With Iraq's fledgling security forces still a question mark, and thousands of U.S. forces still tied down in Falluja, the Pentagon is moving to boost overall American troop levels in Iraq by roughly 12,000 to beef up security for Iraqi elections now set for January 30. Fifteen hundred fresh soldiers from the Army's 82nd Airborne, known as the 911 division, have gotten the word they'll be in Iraq by mid month. And in addition to the new soldiers, more than 10,000 other troops already in Iraq have been informed they'll be going home in March of next year instead of January. Among the troops extended for two more months on the ground, 4,400 soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division, 3,500 from the 1st Cavalry Division, 2,300 Marines from the 31st MEU, and 160 soldiers from the 116th Transportation Company. Currently, there are 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. With the extensions and new deployments, that number will swell to 150,000 by mid-January, an all-time high, eclipsing the peak of 148,000 American troops in Iraq of May of last year right after the invasion.</s>MCINTYRE: And Lou, despite the obvious strain that this is putting on the U.S. military, the Pentagon continues to argue that its military force is not too small and that it's not suffering from any shortage of new recruits. Nevertheless for some of these troops, this will be the second extension of their tour, first from ten to 12 months, then from 12 to 14 months. The Pentagon insists they won't be extended again and says they'll be given two extra months back home to make up for the extended tour -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: Jamie, just, if you would, to help us understand how can the Pentagon with two extensions of our troops in Iraq, say that they have an adequate number of troops? This is -- this seems on its face mindless.</s>MCINTYRE: Well, you know, there's no question the Pentagon can get the job done, essentially by working harder and longer. What critics say is what clear -- what this clearly shows is by having to extend troops, having to use National Guard troops to the extent they're doing, that they need a larger military force to draw from. Otherwise, they wouldn't be in this position, you know. And that's the ongoing debate. The Pentagon continues to insist this is a short-term problem that they can deal with more effectively by shifting things around. But that short-term problem has been going on now for quite some time.</s>DOBBS: Jamie McIntyre, thank you very much, our senior Pentagon correspondent. President Bush returned from a two-day visit to Canada. President Bush now faces a number of challenges at home, including the battle in Congress over the stalled intelligence reform legislation. John King is in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and has the report -- John.</s>JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, here in Halifax, the president was trying to deal with one of his most urgent challenges on the global stage, trying to repair relationships frayed by the bitter debate over Iraq and other issues in his first term. Mr. Bush sounding quote a conciliatory note here in Halifax, saying this new term offers a new opportunity to reach out and consult with friends. But the president also not backing down at all from his decision to go to war in Iraq, saying that if countries including Canada expect him to enter into more multinational, multilateral diplomacy, then those countries must also bear the burden, the responsibility, if you will, of pushing the United Nations and other multilateral organizations so that when they deal with an issue there is action, not just speeches and meetings.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The success of multilateralism is measured not merely by following a process, but by achieving results. The objective of the U.N. and other institutions must be collective security. Not endless debate.</s>KING: Now back at home, the president, we are told by senior aides, moving urgently to deal with the domestic challenge. That, the debate over that intelligence reform bill that would create a new national director of intelligence. It stalled, of course, last week because of Republican objectives in the House of Representatives. Top Bush aides, including Karl Rove, his top strategist, and legislative advisers meeting today at a Republican congressional retreat with the leadership, trying to work on a compromise. We are told as early as tomorrow, the president himself will send a letter to the Congress outlining what he wants in that bill, and making clear he wants that bill dealt with in the next week or so. And Lou, the president also, we are told, likely to pick up the phone before the week is out, have telephone conversation with the speaker of the house, Dennis Hastert, and the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, again making clear he wants a bill. Many in Congress still questioning that. They say they are getting mixed signals from the Bush administration. Senior Bush aides, though, are telling us tonight the president now views this as a credibility challenge, that he wants to get the Republican leadership, to get this legislation to his desk. Believing that how this debate plays out will also have an effect on the coming debates over spending, tax reform, Social Security reform and other big-ticket items in the second Bush term -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: John, the president, as you have reported and know full well, interceded directly with the Congress and the holdouts and the conference committee the week -- the week before Thanksgiving, and simply failed to push that legislation through. What in the world make us think that there would be any different result this time?</s>KING: Well, No. 1, if the president releases a letter and has more public events, he would be putting his own credibility on the line in a very public way, and he's hoping that some Republican loyalty comes into play. It will be interesting to see the language in that letter. We are told a draft that letter says the president supports the compromise that was agreed to last week. Congressman Sensenbrenner, Congressman Hunter and others refused to support that bill, and the House speaker refused to bring it to the floor, because there was dissension within the Republican caucus. If the president signs off on that language, he will essentially be asking those two chairman in the House, Mr. Sensenbrenner and Mr. Hunter, to back down, and if they don't back down, asking the speaker of the house, Dennis Hastert, to make them. So seeing the letter from the president, Lou, will be the next big step.</s>DOBBS: And with those -- those congressmen in the House, about 100 Republicans, supporting both Congressman Hunter and Congressman Sensenbrenner, this has all of the earmarks of being a political showdown within the Republican ranks themselves. John King, reporting from Halifax. New calls tonight for U.N. Secretary-general Kofi Annan to resign. Senator Norm Coleman, who is leading the Senate investigation into the U.N. oil-for-food scandal, today said Secretary Annan must go. Richard Roth is at the United Nations with the report -- Richard.</s>RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, they're circling the wagons here tonight at the United Nations. Pretty much a full rejection of Senator Coleman's resignation demand. The U.N. has heard others demand the call. However, no countries have stepped forward. CNN asked the secretary-general and later his spokesman about Senator Coleman's demand.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Secretary-general, Senator Norm Coleman said you should resign. Are you considering stepping down?</s>KOFI ANNAN, SECRETARY-GENERAL, UNITED NATIONS: No.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.</s>ROTH: The U.N. spokesman, Fred Eckhard, was later asked about the demand by Senator Coleman to step down.</s>FRED ECKHARD, U.N. SPOKESMAN: A few voices doesn't make a chorus. He has heard no calls for resignation for any member state. If there's some agitation on the issue, on the sidelines, that's fine. That's healthy debate. But he is intent on continuing his substantive work for the remaining two years and one month of his term.</s>ROTH: Some 3,000 U.N. staffers on an internal e-mail, Lou, have pledged support for Annan and said the media reports on all of the oil-for-food stuff are biased and not based on facts. Ambassadors from Chile and Spain said it's all ridiculous. However, some U.N. officials are worried about damage to the U.N. brand in their contacts with the business community, should this deteriorate in any way. Basically, Lou, they're waiting for proof before they really get worried here.</s>DOBBS: Proof of what, Richard?</s>ROTH: Proof of any type of corruption by senior U.N. officials, violations of U.N. laws by diplomats. They're just going to watch and wait. That's the way of the place. They're going to wait for the Volcker panel and some of these other congressional committees to finish their reports. But it may be too late. There might be a lot of damage done to the U.N. as an institution before they really know what to do with the damage done.</s>DOBBS: Absolutely. Richard Roth reporting from the United Nations. And Senator Norm Coleman will be our guest here. We will be talking about why he says Kofi Annan must go and go now. New developments tonight in the election crisis in the Ukraine. Opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko today agreed to end the siege of government buildings by thousands of his supporters. It came after a stunning defeat for his opponent in Ukraine's parliament. Jill Dougherty reports from Kiev.</s>JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Opposition lawmakers exploded in cheers as the Ukrainian parliament voted to fire the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, the candidate initially declared the winner in this disputed Ukrainian presidential election. Surrounding the building, thousands of demonstrators who support the man who claims the election was stolen from him, Viktor Yushchenko. Rows of marchers in orange slickers and hard hats, the color of the Orange Revolution. Inside the fence, police shoulder to shoulder.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yushchenko! Yushchenko!</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yushchenko! Yushchenko!</s>DOUGHERTY: As lawmakers emerged from the building, they were mobbed by ecstatic supporters. But Prime Minister Yanukovych is digging in his heels.</s>VIKTOR YANUKOVYCH, PRIME MINISTER, UKRAINE (through translator): I will never recognize this decision. They approved the decision in political terms, but it is against the law, it is against the Constitution.</s>DOUGHERTY: A few hours later, the two warring candidates were standing almost side by side. Another round of talk brokered by international representatives, but they failed to resolve their political standoff, and they won't meet again until Ukraine's supreme court rules on opposition allegations that the election was filled with vote fraud. The European Union's Javier Solana says new elections are likely.</s>JAVIER SOLANA, E.U. FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF: The better for political reasons, and the sooner the better for economic reasons. A longer process will deteriorate the economy and, therefore, will benefit nobody.</s>DOUGHERTY: Legal experts from both sides are beginning to discuss how Ukraine's election laws should be changed in order to allow new elections. (on camera): Tonight, the opposition says it will stop blockading government buildings, and both sides vowed they will not resort to violence. (voice-over): At Independence Square, the opposition set off fireworks, eager to celebrate anything that looks like a step toward ending this impasse. Jill Dougherty, CNN, Kiev, Ukraine.</s>DOBBS: And still ahead here tonight, in the midst of this election crisis in Ukraine, a great mystery. Poisoned by politics? Ukrainian opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko looks very different today than he did when his campaign for the presidency of Ukraine began. We'll have a report tonight on his mysterious illness. And a federal judge holds the will of voters hostage in Arizona, blocking an important proposal to crack down on providing taxpayer benefits to illegal aliens. We'll have that report coming right up.