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Normally a mere stand-up report with little edited footage and no added soundbites is not worthy of mention. The effort by NBC producer Ali Arouzi from Teheran is an exception. Why was he unable to provide footage of anti-government protestors chanting "Death to Ahmadinejad" as they vandalized filling stations upon the imposition of gasoline rationing? "Some of the agencies were able to feed out stills of the incidents but not videos," he explained. "The police will not allow the media anywhere near a gas station. The government has enforced a complete blanket ban on any footage shot last night." Fair enough.
Both ABC and CBS had their White House correspondents follow up on Iraq. CBS' Jim Axelrod reminded us of the Iraq Study Group headed by James Baker and Lee Hamilton whose policy proposals were overridden by President George Bush and his so-called surge. The ISG's main point was that "the security of Baghdad's neighborhoods should not be the top priority for US forces. Training Iraqi troops should be." Axelrod noted that the House of Representatives has just approved funding for the ISG to reconstitute itself.
As for that training, ABC's Martha Raddatz (no link) reported on a disastrous audit from the House Armed Services Committee on the $19bn in US funds spent on bringing 346,000 security forces up to speed: "They do not know how many really show up for work each day, how many have died, how many have deserted." Furthermore, weapons and uniforms have disappeared and some trainees have joined independent militias. "All very bad news."
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