Number Two at Justice Department Resigns; Three U.S. Soldiers Missing After Convoy Ambushed in Iraq; More Troops to Diyala to Quell Rising Violence
LOU DOBBS, HOST: And tonight, breaking news. The number two man at the Justice Department, Paul McNulty, has resigned. We'll have the details of that breaking story. A chilling message from insurgents in Iraq about our three missing soldiers. The Pentagon now says al Qaeda abducted our troops after their patrol was attacked south of Baghdad. We'll have the very latest for you. Also tonight, the Senate taking up its so-called comprehensive immigration reform legislation, a plan that would give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. We'll have complete coverage. And Border Patrol chief David Aguilar facing a direct challenge from his own agents. First, they approved a no-confidence vote against Aguilar. Now they filed an unfair labor claim against him. We'll have that report. I'll also be joined here by Reverend Al Sharpton. We'll be talking about race, religion and more. We'll have all of that, all the day's news, much more, straight ahead here tonight.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is LOU DOBBS TONIGHT, news, debate and opinion for Monday, May 14th. Live from New York, Lou Dobbs.</s>DOBBS: Breaking news tonight. Upheaval at the Department of Justice. Just a short time ago, the department announced the resignation of Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty. McNulty becomes the highest- ranking casualty in the controversial firing of U.S. attorneys. Also tonight, a chilling message from insurgents believed to have captured three of our troops in Iraq. An al Qaeda-backed group says they abducted those soldiers after ambushing the patrol south of Baghdad. Four other soldiers killed in that attack. We begin tonight with Kelli Arena -- Kelli.</s>KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Lou, Paul McNulty says that he's leaving for personal reasons; namely, he's got kids to put through college and he's been working for the government for two decades. But Lou, as you know, McNulty was caught up in that U.S. attorney controversy, testifying before Congress that those eight prosecutors were fired for performance, not political reasons. Now, he had to go back and correct that testimony, telling lawmakers that he wasn't given the right information. And Lou, people close to him say that he was raging mad at the time. When asked if McNulty's departure had anything to do with that U.S. attorney mess, the White House, of course, denied that, saying that they would take McNulty at his word, that it was for personal reasons. But Senator Chuck Schumer isn't having any of this. He put out a statement saying that it's ironic that McNulty, who actually tried to level with Congress, is leaving, while Gonzales, who he says stonewalled lawmakers, is still in charge -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: Kelli, thank you very much. And we should point out that Senator Chuck Schumer has, of course, called for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Kelli, thank you very much. Kelli Arena reporting from Washington. Thousands of our troops tonight are searching for those three soldiers kidnapped Saturday in Iraq. Hugh Riminton has the report -- Hugh.</s>HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, nightfall here once again, but the search, this enormous search, continues. Operations under way right at the moment as the U.S. military, with Iraqi army backup, continues to look for these three missing men.</s>RIMINTON (voice over): Even as the search continues, a taunting message from the al Qaeda-backed Islamic State of Iraq. On an insurgent Web site, "Searching for your soldiers will exhaust you and bring you misery... your soldiers are in our hands. If you want their safety, do not search for them." Now in its third day, the search around Mahmoudiyah in an insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad known as the Triangle of Death has brought no apparent breakthrough.</s>MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCE, IRAQ: At this time, we believe they were abducted by terrorists belonging to al Qaeda or an affiliated group. And this assessment is based on highly credible intelligence information.</s>RIMINTON: The capture of U.S. personnel touches the most sensitive nerve in the U.S. military -- the determination to leave no one behind. "We know," says the al Qaeda-based group, "you would rather have your entire army die than have one crusader in captivity."</s>CALDWELL: We are doing everything we can to locate our soldiers, who did nothing but come here to serve our country and to help the Iraqi people.</s>RIMINTON: It plays here on every American mind.</s>MAJ. CHIP DANIELS, U.S. ARMY: It's horrible for me to think about what they are going through right now. And I pray that we can figure out where they are at and get them back.</s>CALDWELL: The three missing men have not been seen since their two-vehicle team was ambushed. Four other U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi were killed at the scene of the predawn attack. Analysts say there is little to no hope of negotiating their release.</s>PETER NEUMANN, KING'S COLLEGE: Al Qaeda, of all the various insurgent groups in Iraq, they are probably the most fanatical. And it is very unlikely that they can be bought off with money or they can be persuaded to compromise on other terms.</s>RIMINTON: The U.S. military says they are getting good cooperation from the Iraqi public. They say they have received tips that have led to operations against what the U.S. military has called targets of interest -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: Hugh Riminton reporting from Baghdad. Fourteen more of our troops have been killed by insurgents in Iraq. Four of those troops, as Hugh Riminton just reported, killed in that attack in which those three soldiers were abducted. Forty-nine of our troops have been killed so far in Iraq this month, 3,400 of our troops have been killed since the beginning of the war. 25,245 of our troops wounded, 11,270 of them seriously. The U.S. commander in northern Iraq is deploying more troops to control the escalating violence in the Diyala province, west -- rather northeast of Baghdad. Major General Benjamin Mixon says those units are already in Iraq and are not a new deployment of troops. Jamie McIntyre has our report -- Jamie.</s>JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, just days after a U.S. commander said he needed more troops to battle insurgents in Diyala province -- that's the area northeast of Baghdad where the violence has spiked since the crackdown has driven militants out of the capital -- well, he's got those troops now. Major General Benjamin Mixon told CNN's Barbara Starr this morning that as of today, he has an additional Stryker brigade. That's roughly 1,500 to 2,000 additional troops, along with their armored Stryker vehicles. Their mission is to cut off escape routes the insurgents have been using to get around.</s>MAJ. GEN. BENJAMIN MIXON, COMMANDER, MULTINATIONAL DIVISION, NORTH: It's important to understand that the battle for Baghdad extends outside of Baghdad. Everybody focuses on Baghdad as a little concentric circle, but it's important to control all the avenues of approach. That is, the roadways that lead into Baghdad and the activity that's in the surrounding provinces, particularly Diyala.</s>MCINTYRE: Those extra troops are already being deployed in Diyala province. And it is tough, dangerous duty, as that incident Saturday night with the U.S. troops west of Mahmoudiya points out. Those troops, of course, were on an observation post looking for insurgents who were planting IEDs when they were ambushed. The search is on for them. But that's exactly the kind of dangerous situation that some of these troops are in, in Diyala, which is a wide open province, unlike Baghdad, which is an urban area. But again, General Mixon believes that as the insurgents are squeezed out of Baghdad, he needs to be cracking down on them in other places like Diyala -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: Thank you very much. Jamie McIntyre from the Pentagon. And just a few hours ago is, Senator Harry Reid introduced two new bills to fund the war in Iraq. President Bush, of course, earlier vetoed a spending bill that would have required our troops to begin leaving Iraq as early as July, and by October at the latest. Now, of the two bills introduced by Senator Reid today, the first Senate bill keeps the same cutoff dates, but does give the president the authority to wave them. The second bill denies all American combat troops any funding after March of next year. Those two measures provide more than $120 billion for the conduct of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as various domestic projects. Vice President Cheney today wrapped up his trip to the Middle East. The vice president lobbying Arab nations to support stability in Iraq. The vice president saying he received positive responses. Ed Henry has our report -- Ed.</s>ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Lou, as part of those efforts to try and stabilize Iraq in what can only be a called a dramatic shift for this White House, President Bush has now authorized U.S. officials to meet with their Iranian counterparts, try to open up a diplomatic initiative, try and help stabilize Iraq. The talks, of course, will occur in Baghdad in the next few weeks between Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and an Iranian official. Those talks will be narrowly focused on trying to get Iran to stop sending bomb components into Iraq. Those components, of course, used for those deadly roadside bombs that have killed so many U.S. soldiers, as well as maimed them. But the vice president trying to tamp down any speculation that this shows the U.S. is going soft on Iran, insisting that the U.S. will also make sure that Iran ends its nuclear ambitions.</s>RICHARD CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll stand with our friends an oppose an extremism and strategic threats. We'll disrupt attacks on our own forces, and we'll stand with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region.</s>HENRY: Now, once seemed unthinkable that the Bush administration would sit down for direct talks with Iran -- they had repeatedly refused to do that -- of course, the president famously labeling Iran as part of the "Axis of Evil," but the U.S. had also said it would not sit down with Syria. It's now done that in the last month. It's a sign clearly that the U.S. realizes it's very much on the defensive in Iraq. It's willing to try all kinds of things it wouldn't do before to try to stabilize the situation -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: Ed Henry, I wonder if it's worth noting that it appears the administration is now following the counsel of the Iraq Study Group, the so-called Baker-Hamilton study group that recommended precisely this action. That is, discussions with both Syria and Iran, and to reach out to the Arab states that neighbor Iraq to reach a some part of a political reconciliation and their investment in Iraq.</s>HENRY: Certainly those were two of the key findings of the Iraq Study Group. That report is now collecting dust. A lot of its recommendations were refused by the administration, but the administration has also been pointing to the fact that that study group said there should not be a precipitous withdrawal of U.S. troops, and so they say we've been following that. But clearly, this diplomatic initiative something that was laid out by that study group -- Lou.</s>DOBBS: Thank you very much. Ed Henry from the White House. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says there is no new Cold War mounting between the United States and Russia. Rice is in Moscow tonight. She is trying to cool the rhetoric in U.S.-Russia relations. Russia's President Putin is increasingly stepping up his criticism of the Bush administration, principally over U.S. plans to install a new missile defense system in central Europe. Russia threatening to suspend its participation in a treaty that would limit military deployments in Europe over that very issue. Up next here, Senate leaders trying to put a fresh face on last year's so-called comprehensive immigration reform bill that would give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. We'll have complete coverage of that and an assessment of the prospects. Democrats turning their backs on the very people who put them in office. They're not keeping promises made to the middle class on the high cost of free trade. We'll have that special report. And more than 200 wildfires continue to rage throughout Florida. High winds now adding to the threat to homes and woodlands. We'll have the very latest for you and a great deal more straight ahead. Stay with us.