Tonight's 'Dan Rather Reports' Features an In-Depth Interview With General Raymond Odierno

DALLAS, April 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Tonight's "Dan Rather Reports" presents a special one-on-one interview with General Raymond Odierno, the man in charge of the U.S. Forces in Iraq.  Dan Rather recently traveled to Iraq to meet with Odierno to discuss the war, its future implications, and what Odierno anticipates will happen after he's carried out a "draw down" of U.S. troops. 

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Odierno says that while Iraq continues to move toward stability, he thinks it will still be a long, hard journey that will require continued support from the United States.

Currently, there are more than 96,000 troops in Iraq.  That number will be down to approximately 50,000 by September of 2010.  And all U.S. soldiers should be out of Iraq by the end of 2011.  But while combat operations are due to end on September 1st of this year, Odierno believes that our troops will still be involved in shaping Iraq's future.

"There will still be a terrorist element that operates in Iraq after the first of September," Odierno tells Rather.  "So what we will do is help them fight that threat.  And so we will still be involved in it even though they will be the ones conducting the operations." 

Odierno says that acts of terrorism are still conducted by local al-Qa'ida-affiliated groups. But he tells Rather that most Iraqis reject al-Qa'ida and that those committing attacks on behalf of terrorist organizations are often doing so for financial reasons. 

"We know what they do is they say, 'We'll pay you $300 if you plant an I.E.D., take a video of it so we can then put it on a website somewhere and then put it out throughout the Internet,' and then they'll pay them," said Odierno.  "That's how this is done."

But the General says that al-Qa'ida's presence in Iraq is no longer as powerful as it once was. "Today they've been degraded significantly," said Odierno.  "There are not as many as there were before. Their capabilities, in my mind, continue to reduce. But they are still a threat." 

"Dan Rather Reports – The Big O" airs Tuesday, April 6 at 8:00 p.m. ET and will re-air at 11:00 p.m. ET to accommodate West Coast Prime Time. 

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