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Of NBC's pair of Exclusives, the story from Serbia by Today newscaster Ann Curry was the more compelling. NBC decided to lead with Andrea Mitchell, however, and her update on Nada Prouty, the 38-year-old Lebanese-born CIA spy, who yesterday (text link) admitted searching an FBI database for secrets on the Beirut-based militia Hezbollah. Prouty, it turned out, had been recruited from the FBI by the CIA's clandestine service and given "the highest security clearances." She worked in the CIA's Baghdad bureau "assigned to debrief high-value al-Qaeda targets in Iraq." As a consequence of her case, Mitchell mused drily, the CIA now says it will "not rely so heavily on the FBI for background checks."
Curry publicized a report by Mental Disability Rights International into the systematic practice of warehousing in Serbia. She reported that more than 17,000 "children and adults with Down Syndrome and cerebral palsy" are confined in institutions, "left alone and emaciated, their bodies disfigured from years of neglect." Curry showed us the example of one cot. "The staff told us that this little girl, Jasmina, is actually a teenager." She drew back a blanket. "Oh! My gosh! This is a 15-year-old girl?" Curry quizzed Rasim Ljajic, Serbia's Minister of Social Policy, about remedies. "How long is this going to take? Years?" "Sadly yes." Concluded Curry: "Years become lifetimes."
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