CONTAINING LINKS TO 1280 STORIES FROM THE NETWORKS' NIGHTLY NEWSCASTS
     COMMENTS: FROM A DISTANCE

CBS led with Exclusive videotape of Saddam Hussein's funeral, with "angry, distraught" mourners pulling back his shroud to kiss the dead dictator's face. Randall Pinkston remarked at how "dignified" his US military guards had found Saddam's demeanor as he left for the gallows. He saw Iraq and the US "scramble to distance themselves" from the "unruly execution."

The government "lost control" of the execution, NBC's Richard Engel was told, as "20 or 30 supporters of radical Shiite militias turned the room into a mob scene." Engel's source was Iraq's National Security Advisor Mowaffak al-Rubaie, an eyewitness at the gallows. "This is a new version of events," Engel deadpanned. Hours after the execution, al-Rubaie had told Engel it was done "methodically and with respect."

Back at the Pentagon, CBS touted David Martin's report about plans for a troop build-up as an Exclusive. Just yesterday NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reported that the reinforcement would number 20,000. Martin's Exclusive was that 9,000 would go directly to Baghdad with 11,000 on stand-by in Kuwait and in US bases.

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