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There was one other story that was assigned to a reporter on each of the three newscasts: the Treasury Department's threat of financial sanctions against businesses that trade with a trio of Teheran-based banks operated by the Revolutionary Guard branch of Iran's military. CBS assigned its White House correspondent Jim Axelrod to the announcement; NBC chose Andrea Mitchell at the State Department; ABC went with Pentagon man Jonathan Karl (subscription required).
CBS' Axelrod called the sanctions "an exclamation point on a recent round of escalating rhetoric about Iran" rerunning George Bush's soundbite from last week's press conference that merely "having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon" needed to be prevented in order to avoid World War III. NBC' Mitchell spelled out Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's pair of specific complaints against the Revolutionary Guard: first, "financing weapons of mass destruction including a secret nuclear program;" second, the Guard's Quds Force is supporting Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Shiite militias in Iraq. ABC's Karl quoted the characterization of Rice by President Vladimir Putin of Russia: "Running around like a madman with a razor blade."
ABC's Karl also noted that the latest request for funds from Congress by the Pentagon included $88m to equip B-2 Stealth Bombers with "a massive new bunkerbusting bomb--the kind of weapons that could destroy Iran's underground nuclear facilities." Former diplomat Richard Haass, now head of the Council on Foreign Relations, was invited by CBS anchor Katie Couric to weigh up the likelihood of war. "I do not think we are talking about invasion. The United States does not have ground troops. There could be a military strike using aircraft and cruise missiles…Over the next two years can I imagine the United States and Iran moving to conflict? The short answer is 'Yes.'" Is it definite? Obviously not. Is it a real possibility? For sure."
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