Troops in Iraq; Dictators Turn to Family Amidst Brutal Unrest
BLITZER: Startling new revelations about the presence of al Qaeda in Iraq from the man who could be the next secretary of defense. What if the United States isn't able to withdraw all remaining U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of this year as they are supposed to? Let's bring in our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr. She's working this story for us. What's going on here, Barbara?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Wolf, it's been the plan for months between the U.S. and Baghdad that U.S. troops would be out of Iraq by the end of this year, but suddenly maybe not. At his confirmation hearings to become the next secretary of defense, the CIA director, Leon Panetta, started talking about the circumstances under which U.S. troops, if the Iraqis request it, which he thinks they will, the circumstances under which they might stay in Iraq for some period of time. He had quite an interesting exchange about all of this with Senator John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Have a listen.</s>LEON PANETTA, DEFENSE SECRETARY NOMINEE: If Prime Minister Maliki, the Iraqi government requests that we maintain a presence there, that ought to be seriously considered by the president.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Do you think it would be in our interest to do that given the situation?</s>PANETTA: Senator, I have to tell you, there are a thousand al Qaeda that are still in Iraq. We saw the attack that was made just the other day. It, too, continues to be a fragile situation, and I believe that we should take whatever steps are necessary to make sure that we protect whatever progress we've made there.</s>STARR: At least 1,000 al Qaeda operatives still in Iraq. And behind the scenes, the administration has been urging the Maliki government in Baghdad to make that request sooner rather than later, because until they do, the troop withdrawal plan goes forward, even as the U.S. believes Iraq will ask the U.S. to stay there -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: I tweeted earlier today, Barbara, that if the U.S. troops remain on the ground, in the air in Iraq after the end of this year, the oil-rich Iraqi government could start paying for the expenses of maintaining that U.S. troop presence in Iraq. Just a thought. Let me ask you about something else involving Leon Panetta, the outgoing CIA director. We're now hearing he's in Pakistan, that he flew overnight, and he's now in Islamabad. What's going on.</s>STARR: Well, our intelligence community producer, Pam Benson (ph), indeed has learned that Leon Panetta is on the ground at this hour inside Pakistan. This is his first face-to-face meeting with his Pakistani intelligence counterpart, of course, since the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound. He's had telephone communications with them, but he is on the ground for a face-to-face meeting to talk about progress and cooperation in the counterterrorism relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan. It's a bit of interesting timing. He only has about another two or three weeks on the job as CIA director, expected to be confirmed as the Pentagon chief. And once he takes on that job, you'll see him going back to Pakistan again and again, I suspect -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Yes, that story, that issue not going away. Barbara, thank you. Turning now to the violent political turmoil exploding across the Middle East and North Africa, where we're learning more about how some key dictators have managed to maintain such a firm grip on power. Brian Todd is here and he's working the story for us. For a lot of these dictators, it's all about keeping it in the family.</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are all keeping it in the family, Wolf. They are relying on brothers, sons, even nephews. These are people who stay in the shadows, but who wield enormous power and have no reservations over using brute force.</s>TODD (voice-over): After a vicious tribal fight, Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, badly wounded, flies to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment. He cedes temporary power to his vice president, but it's a formality that means little on the streets. (on camera): Who's the real power in Yemen at the moment?</s>EDWARD GNEHM, FMR. DEPUTY, U.S. EMBASSY IN YEMEN: Well, the real power at the moment is with his son and nephews, who control the major military forces, security forces.</s>TODD (voice-over): Edward Gnehm spent three years as the top deputy at the U.S. Embassy in Yemen. Gnehm and other analysts say President Saleh's 42-year-old son, Ali Ahmed Saleh, has signaled this family is not about to give up power. He's moved into the presidential palace, has sent Yemen's special forces and Republican Guard, which he commands, into the streets. His cousins Tariq, Yahya and Amar are also in key positions.</s>GNEHM: They're in the national security apparatus, they're in the national intelligence apparatus, and they're also in other military units that go beyond just the one the son commands.</s>TODD: Saleh's brother, Gnehm says, is a major player in the Yemeni air force. The pattern is clear among at least three intransigent regimes in the Middle East. In Yemen, Libya and Syria, blood runs thicker than reform. Saleh is following a tactic proven effective by Moammar Gadhafi with his sons -- place them in command of key security forces and unleash them when the pressure builds. Perhaps no one is a more effective wielder of the family stick than Maher al-Assad, the younger, nastier brother of Syria's dictator, Bashar al-Assad.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The family has had a traditional division of labor, and Maher al-Assad is the enforcer, he's the knee-capper.</s>TODD: Oklahoma University professor Joshua Landis has written about the Syrian regime for about 30 years. He says Maher al-Assad, who controls Syria's elite military and intelligence services, is simply carrying on a family tradition. The brother's father, Hafez al-Assad, had his own brother in similar positions. Why do these dictators turn to their relatives to do their dirty work? Experts say many of them trust no one else. And --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This allows for a regime change that is fairly stable and doesn't lead to civil war. There's no mystery why monarchy was the preferred form of government for thousands of years.</s>TODD: And some analysts don't expect that philosophy to come to an end anytime soon, even with the unprecedented threats to their power that these regimes are now facing. Edward Gnehm says it's simply too ingrained in their culture to give that kind of thing up -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: But even these close family structures, these alliances, they can rupture from time to time.</s>TODD: They can and they have. There's a fascinating story about the Assad family. Back when Bashar al-Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad, had heart trouble in the early '80s, he was bedridden. His own brother, Rifaat al-Assad, who we showed it in that piece, he was his enforcer. He tried to stage a coup against his brother. It was a tense standoff for a while. Hafez al-Assad outmaneuvered his brother, sent him into exile. And we're told by Joshua Landis that Rifaat al-Assad's children are now supporting the Syrian opposition against their own family.</s>BLITZER: Yes. So that family is -- I remember when Rifaat and Hafez al-Assad, they had that breakup. Surprised he survived it, wasn't killed by Hafez al-Assad.</s>TODD: Right.</s>BLITZER: Thanks very much. New rumors swirling about Hillary Clinton's future. We're going to tell you what she's saying. Stand by. Plus, the embattled New York congressman Anthony Weiner, he will be heading back to work here in Washington next week amidst mounting calls for him to resign. Just ahead, why he's now apologizing to his own neighbors.