Orders to Kill?; Baghdad Bombing; Day After Beirut Clashes
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: You're with CNN. You're informed. Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.</s>BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Betty Nguyen. Heidi Collins is off today.</s>HARRIS: Developments keep coming in to the NEWSROOM for Friday morning, January 26th. Here's what's on the rundown.</s>NGUYEN: Check it out. New anger in New Orleans. No mention of the Katrina disaster in the State of the Union speech. We're going to talk with a New Orleans radio newsman about that.</s>HARRIS: A pet market bombed in Baghdad. Birds used to lure victims to the blast. One of several attacks across Iraq today.</s>NGUYEN: And get this. How to rob a bank with a little unwitting help from the post office, of all places. Previewing this weekend's report from the CNN Investigative Unit. You are in the</s>NEWSROOM. HARRIS: At the top this morning, tough talk from President Bush, just minutes ago defending his new Iraq strategy and a new get-tough policy to kill or capture Iranian agents in Iraq. White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is following these new developments, and she joins us live. Suzanne, good morning to you.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.</s>HARRIS: The president not backing down one iota from this new stance, this new policy toward Iran.</s>MALVEAUX: Absolutely not, Tony. I mean, he's defending it quite strongly here. We heard from national security officials earlier this morning who actually confirmed that this is the case, that the Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to not only capture, but kill Iranian agents inside of Iraq if there's actionable intelligence that shows that they're going after, targeting American forces or Iraqi forces or coalition forces, this is something that the Bush administration has been thinking about for quite some time back in the fall or so. And high-level meetings between the president, the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence. The decision made just within the last few months, we're told, because of the deteriorating conditions on the ground. Now, President Bush was not specifically asked about the capture or kill policy, but he was asked about these stepped up -- these stepped up actions against the Iranians inside of Iraq and whether or not he thought they were going to be provocative.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Does it make sense that if somebody is trying to harm our troops or stop us from achieving our goal or killing innocent citizens in Iraq that we will -- we will stop them? It's an obligation we all have to protect -- is to protect our folks and achieve our goal. Now, some are trying to say that because we're enforcing, helping ourselves in Iraq by stopping outside influence from killing our soldiers or hurting Iraqi people that we want to expand this beyond the borders. That's a presumption that simply is not accurate.</s>MALVEAUX: Tony, there are also a number of important points here. He says that, yes, there is no intention for the United States to cross the Iraqi border into Iran to continue this kind of policy, this capture or kill policy. That being one of the things. But another thing here is that, you know, White House officials are talking about the fact that you have these Iranian agents working with these Iraqi militia, supplying these Iraqi militia, training them, that that is the reason why they're getting tough. But there's another good reason here. That is, the Bush administration wants to weaken the Iranian government to get them to comply, to give up their nuclear program, which the Bush administration thinks is a weapons program. And that is also what they're trying to do, to put pressure on the government. They think that this is another way they can do that -- Tony.</s>HARRIS: Can't wait to hear some of the reaction to this new policy. We'll watch it roll in to the NEWSROOM. Suzanne Malveaux for us. Suzanne, thank you.</s>NGUYEN: Well, Democrats in charge of Congress are sending a stern message to the president: Don't forget about us when it comes to Iraq policy. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has delivered what he called a major address on the war. He talked about what the Democratic-controlled Congress can do about President Bush's Iraq war plans.</s>REP. STENY HOYER (D), MAJORITY LEADER: I believe the administration's Iraq policy is the most incompetent implementation of American foreign policy in my lifetime. And when the history of this war is recounted, I believe one colossal misjudgment will stand out -- the failure of the administration to heed the advice of military experts to put enough troops on the ground at the outset of hostilities to secure and stabilize a nation of 26 million people.</s>NGUYEN: And we do have some video of House Leader Nancy Pelosi in Baghdad, speaking there with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. She's shaking hands. And this meeting obviously talking about the situation on the ground. She is also there joined by other congressional members. This is a meeting that took place a little bit earlier today. They're going to be in Baghdad for a little while. In fact, they're not even coming back to Washington until Monday. But, again, Nancy Pelosi there on the ground in Iraq, along with three other congressional members in Baghdad. And as news develops out of this, of course we'll bring that to you.</s>HARRIS: Dozens dead and wounded in Iraq, victims of another market bombing. This time, a pet market. Details from CNN's Michael Holmes in Baghdad.</s>MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: An official with the Iraqi Interior Ministry says that at least 15 people were killed and 39 others were wounded when this bomb exploded. It was hidden in a box that's normally used to carry pigeons to the marketplace, the animal market, a very popular place, especially on a Friday. And that's when this bomb went off, in the morning. There are birds, dogs, cats, sheep, goats, and even exotic animals such as snakes and monkeys at this market. A very popular place. It has been hit three times in recent months. And this really is the latest in a series of attacks in the last couple of weeks on very busy commercial areas in the capital. Many believe that this is an attempt by insurgents before the new push by Iraqi and U.S. forces to crack down on the insurgency. A push to paralyze the society even further to show that no one is safe, and to show that the government is ineffective, really destabilization. There were several other bombs around the capital today. One only 500 meters from where I stand now. That targeted a police patrol. A suicide bomber, car bomb, it killed two people, wounded more than a dozen. Michael Holmes, CNN, Baghdad.</s>HARRIS: The general commands unanimous votes on Capitol Hill. The Senate voted 81-0 a short time ago to confirm Lieutenant General David Petraeus as the new commander of coalition forces in Iraq. Petraeus will be in charge of carrying out President Bush's new Iraq strategy. While he won widespread approval in the Senate, the president's policy is under fire from lawmakers. Congress is considering resolutions opposing his plans for a troop buildup.</s>NGUYEN: Tense but calm. So far, that is. The streets of Beirut, Lebanon, one day after deadly student clashes. Four people were killed, more than 150 hurt. CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson has all the details.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The streets are a little quieter than they would be normally, but the curfew does seem to have tamped down that violence that erupted. But it was a day just like this yesterday when the violence was sparked off around the Arab University here in Beirut. (voice over): Armed with rocks and intent on a fight, hundreds of ferocious and angry young men converged on Beirut's Arab University. The violence started late in the afternoon -- clashes inside the campus between students loyal to Lebanon's government and anti-government Hezbollah supporters. As the situation escalated, vehicles were set on fire. Anyone who could scrambled to save them. Dense, black smoke billowed up from the university. Lebanese army soldiers on foot and in armored personnel carriers pushed forward towards the rock-throwers. From the tops of vehicles in the midst of the chaos, appealing for calm. (on camera): Right now the army is holding back here. The violence is there where the students are. There's a lot of gunfire going on. At the moment, the army holding back, measuring what they should do. (voice over): At one point, the crowd of angry, young, pro- government men set fire to a Hezbollah flag, as inflammatory an insult as any here can be. From within the battle zone, both soldiers and civilians stretch it out as the confrontation continued to flair. Volley after volley of gunfire blasted into the air by soldiers in an effort to calm and separate the rock-throwing crowds. In nearby side streets and on highways, the Lebanese army flooded the area with troops to contain the violence close to its epicenter at the university. Not long after, they called a curfew from 8:30 in the evening until 6:00 in the morning. After several hours of clashes, the army was able to bring enough calm to get a fire truck into the university. And the burning vehicles, belching black smoke, signaling chaos across the city, extinguished. (on camera): The concern is, not knowing exactly what triggered and sparked this particular outbreak of violence, is that this is now slipping from a political confrontation to a sectarian confrontation very reminiscent of the civil war here that lasted 50 years in the 1970s and '80s.</s>HARRIS: Making the ultimate sacrifice.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You love your family so much. He said, "Yes, but I love my country. And I love the soldiers."</s>HARRIS: Families grieve. Their loved ones lost in a helicopter crash. That story in the</s>NEWSROOM. NGUYEN: Also, words never spoken. What President Bush did not say sparks outrage in New Orleans. We're going to take a closer look, coming up here in the NEWSROOM.